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1dreality · 5 years

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Zayn Malik was never the celebrity you thought he was. If it wasn’t already obvious from his detached, often melancholic interviews in the wake of his 2015 departure from One Direction, it will be from the title of his second solo album. The very elongated 27-track Icarus Falls is comprised of more of the sparse R&B that Malik has perfected since his first release Mind of Mine in 2016, but like its titular myth is also indebted to themes of incredible ascent and crushing decline.

A decline not of Malik’s career, it should be said, but rather of his own mental health, the album serving as both an intimate meditation on Malik’s life so far and a dire warning about the trauma of instant fame. It all leads to one obvious question: Is Zayn OK?

In an age of millennial openness and Instagram confessionals, Malik remains something of an outlier: an enormously famous and highly visible celebrity, but one whose ambiguity allows us to project much onto him. In our collective consciousness, he has been the 1D-fleeing villain, smoking cigarettes, being mean to his bandmates on Twitter and looking miserable as well as the “soft boy” pin-up, a vulnerable figure in desperate need of a hug.

Much of that ambiguity is intentional. Along with declining to tour Mind of Mine, Malik is often press-shy, choosing not to take part in TV sit-downs or play the social media game in an era in which somebody like Ariana Grande spends much of the waking day interacting with her fans on Twitter and Instagram.

And while Malik has been open about some of his past struggles, including his battle with an eating disorder at the height of his One Direction fame and consistent difficulties with anxiety, they’re often revelations that feel accidental in nature. We learn of them during an unexpected moment of truth-telling between him and a journalist, the subject quickly changed soon after, or through lyrics that are just descriptive enough to imply deep truths. Even talking about his anxiety in an essay for Time Magazine felt like a necessary course-correction after a string of cancelled gigs led to unflattering rumours about his health in the press.

Whether Malik’s public persona is intended as a protective mask or not, it is still difficult, particularly in the wake of Icarus Falls, not to feel something for him. After all, his jump from a working-class kid to an international superstar worth a reported $50 million, practically overnight, is the sort of trajectory most of us would struggle with at the age of 40, let alone at 17 when Malik auditioned for The X Factor.

Icarus Falls doesn’t cover any new sonic ground for Malik as an artist. It sees him return to the same well of threadbare, silky R&B that helped Mind of Mine easily trounce his fellow One Direction bandmates in the “best first solo record” stakes. But it does whirr with a noticeable sadness, Malik repeatedly mourns the peace of his pre-X Factor past and beats himself up for mistakes he feels that he’s made since. And when he speaks of emotional pain, it often sounds not like something confined to history, but rather something he’s dealing with every day.

“I’d rather be anywhere but here,” he sings on Good Years. “I close my eyes and see a crowd of a thousand tears / I pray to God I didn’t waste all my good years.” On Insomnia: “I’ve been roaming and strolling all in the streets / Burning my eyes red, not slept for weeks.” On Back to Life: “I been flying so long / Can’t remember what it was like to be sober.” On Satisfaction: “Nobody said this would be easy / Nobody gave me a rule book to follow.”

Even typical love songs are fatalistic in nature, talk of Armageddon running through both Flight of the Stars (“I will follow / Hold you close standing on the edge of no tomorrow”) and Tonight (“Love me like tomorrow’s never gonna come”), while much of the album nods to an unnamed great love in Malik’s life that he needs to overcome incredible odds to be with – nothing new for love songs, but given a greater weight when paired with his statements over the years. Because if we know anything about Zayn Malik, it’s that he often can’t stand being Zayn Malik.

Through much of the little press he has done, Malik has expressed unease with most of the trappings of fame, particularly the assumptions that he ought to be personable and friendly with industry figures or musical collaborators. And when it comes to One Direction, he still appears burnt by the experience. While he told Vogue in November that he has recently been able to see his time with the band as “an amazing experience,” despite the “bulls---” of what he refers to as “the machine,” he also told GQ in June that he didn’t make any actual friends during the peak of his fame: “I definitely have issues trusting people.”

In the numerous articles that pop up every winter recalling how good The X Factor used to be, clips are embedded that showcase many of its most memorable contestants, and every year it becomes that bit more shocking how much One Direction looked like children during their time on the show. The scrawny limbs, those Justin Bieber haircuts, the awkward school-talent-show bopping and shuffling. It somehow worked, enough at least to turn them into a tween phenomenon, but in hindsight it’s indefensible that they were pushed as significantly as they were.

There was always something deer-in-the-headlights about the band in its early days, a sense that at least a few of them had been pulled along for the ride as opposed to having a firm grip on the steering wheel. The hunger so visible in pop bands of similar notoriety, whether manufactured or not, wasn’t always visible – and while all of them have transitioned into stable adults who are, for the most part, comfortable in the spotlight, their jarringly different responses to fame remain clear.

It’s important to remember, for context’s sake, that Malik was always a reluctant star. Only attending his original X Factor audition after being guilted by his mother into waking up early and making the journey there, he was, in his own words to The Fader, “a lazy teen”. And even during the audition stages, he expressed reluctance to properly join in, walking off stage during a choreography rehearsal and having to be coaxed to go back. At the time, Malik’s reaction registered as a petulant strop, but now feels oddly prescient.

Of Malik’s One Direction bandmates, Harry Styles was always the most naturally inclined to superstardom – such an affable schmoozer and networker that it was quickly no longer surprising to see images of him palling around with Mick Jagger or Stevie Nicks. Liam Payne always bore the personality of someone very eager to be seen, lack of self-awareness very much included, while the perpetually chipper Niall Horan has always simply appeared very, very happy to be there. But both Malik and Louis Tomlinson have often visibly struggled, uninspired by the more performative and fraudulent elements of celebrity, or the levels of attention handed to them by Simon Cowell and co.

“What I really can’t ever get used to, or really enjoy, are these super geared-up celebrity parties,” Tomlinson told Noisey last year. “No one actually cares. You see people who are beyond self-absorbed, and that’s why it can be a dangerous place.”

Malik has echoed similar sentiments. “I don’t work well in group situations, with loads of people staring at me,” he told GQ. “And when you say ‘star’… everyone wants you to be this kind of character that owns a room or is overly arrogant or conﬁdent. I’m not that guy, so I don’t want to be a star.”

What’s odd is that, for all his claims, Malik does bear all the superficial trappings of modern stardom. He’s a fashion darling but is permanently magnetised to the covers of cool indie magazines. Furthermore, his on-again/off-again relationship with supermodel Gigi Hadid has, since 2015, become a Generation Z equivalent of Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder in its aesthetic-heavy, era-defining popularity.

But Malik is also simultaneously detached. The GQ profile, his most extensive recent interview, bears all the hallmarks of a journalist struggling to fulfil a word count because of an uncommunicative subject, writer Carrie Battan even expresses Malik’s tendency to reply to her questions in “friendly but anodyne one-liners.” Like the very best of pop idols, from Britney to Beyoncé, Malik is so compelling principally because he’s so hard to read. But this can also be a poisoned chalice: every expression of doubt or self-pity determined to be a cry for help, every revelation shaping an image that may or may not be real.

It means that listening to Icarus Falls isn’t an entirely joyous experience, Malik’s lyrics painting a picture of a young man still working through the discomfort of his sudden fame and the trauma of a moment in the spotlight marred by illness and fractured relationships, many of its scars still visible today. But it’s also a record that you can’t help but admire as a result, especially if it serves as a form of catharsis for him.

In the decade since Britney Spears was forcibly taken to the hospital surrounded by hundreds of paparazzi photographers, our collective relationship with the idea of fame has greatly altered, particularly for a generation who watched Amy Winehouse essentially die before their eyes. The one beneath them are currently coming to terms with a raft of recent pop star crises, from Demi Lovato’s overdose to the deaths of artists like Mac Miller and Lil Peep.

For all the obvious charms in Malik’s life, from his incredible fortune to a kind of artistic freedom that he never had in One Direction, you’d have to be particularly cold not to feel empathy for the sheer strangeness of his adult existence; a world of rampant, maddening attention that has historically led even the strongest of stars into tragedy.

The Zayn Malik of today is a little bruised, a little listless, his magazine profiles never complete without references to the cloud of marijuana smoke that lingers around him, or his need to lock himself away from the world. It doesn’t sound like the most ideal of outcomes for a man who calls himself a pop idol Icarus and sings with whispery detachment that he has “[flown] too close to the sun.” But we can only hope that it at least serves as a parachute.

#zayn malik #zayn's music #icarus falls #icarus falls review #icarus falls promo #z2 #z2's promo #god damn this was long to read #It's like the author is more into analyzing Zayn's life & the contradiction than the actual album #but you know what I kind of like it #it'S true that icarus falls is not a joyous album but it is introspective.#the reviewer seems to have enjoyed the album #i highlighted the parts where he talks about the album but overall I think it's a good read #it feels like a think piece rather than a review

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atruththatyoudeny · 5 years

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MONTHLY READS | November 2018

I’m so sad I’m too late for Fandom Appreciation Day but I still want to thank every author on this list for the hard work and for sharing their stories with us! »Top 5 stories + 13 more I enjoyed under the cut« Half a Million Strong by kiddle | Woodstock | famous/not famous | enemies to friends to lovers | 50k Everybody is really looking for some kind of answer where there isn't one. Why would 300,000, 120,000, 60,000, 70,000 people come to anything, just because it's music, you know? I mean, is music all that important? I don't really think so, but people don't know, you know. They don't know how to live and they don't know what to do and they think that if they can come here they can find out, you know, what it is or how to maintain it. It’s just, like... People are very lost. -Jerry, festival goer August 15th, 1969, New York. Louis Tomlinson is a young writer for a relatively new-on-the-scene rock magazine called Rolling Stone. His assignment is to fly across the country to cover the highly anticipated Woodstock Music and Art Festival. Armed with a notebook, audio recorder, and a camera, Louis just needs one big interview. Harry Styles. A new name in rock music and a future name in rock history. His first album sold tens of thousands and his interviews attract audiences across the country. He has the poetry of Jim Morrison and the stage presence of Mick Jagger. And after seeing him perform at the festival, Louis is willing to jump through hoops to put Harry on the cover of Rolling Stone. When You're With Me by dimpled_halo | terminal illness | minor character death | kid fic | angst | fluff | 33k “Louis, wait.” Harry blurts out. Louis turns his head toward Harry expectantly. Harry’s heart races and he doesn’t know why. He’s never felt this nervous around someone before. He reaches for his wallet in his back pocket and pulls out a business card handing it over to Louis. Louis takes it in his hands and reads it before gazing back at him. “Um. Don’t hesitate to call me if you ever need anything.” Louis nods in acknowledgment, a small smile curving on his lips. “Thank you, Harry.” Harry returns the smile. “Have a good night.” With that, Louis climbs out of the vehicle looking back once on his way to the front door and waving at Harry. He ignores the way his stomach flutters, and pulls out of the kerb to head home. * Harry feels immediately drawn to Louis when they meet for the first time. Unfortunately it's under sad circumstances that leave Louis as a single father. Before Harry can offer his support, Louis is gone just as soon as he'd come, but he leaves a lasting impression on Harry that he knows he'll never forget. It isn't until a year later that they cross paths again and Louis changes Harry's life in ways he didn't expect. The Compulsion to Find Love by Toomanytears | a/b/o | worldbuilding | angst | fluff | slow burn | 140k The most prestigious English third-level institution, Candling University, accepts omega students for the first time and Louis Tomlinson applies with bright eyes and brighter ambitions. There he encounters personal obstacles, traditional mindsets and a beautiful boy who inverts every prejudice Louis has ever known. Save me...... by SavageMonkey | kid fic | emotional hurt/comfort | angst | humor | 59k Harry is struggling with the loss of his partner, raising his daughter Addie all on his own. He is hoping to find solace at a local community center grief meeting. Louis is dealing with his own loss, but has a whole new approach to life that Harry didn't know existed. Harry is a successful personal chef. Louis is a star of the stage. Cameras Flashing by juliusschmidt for HL Famous/Not Famous Fic Exchange | a/b/o | famous/not famous | coming out | practice dating | 81k With his breakout single platinum three times over and his second album still selling out in stores around the world, Louis Tomlinson has made it to the top. However, his position as Pop Heartthrob of the Decade is threatened by the edgier, more artistic Zayn, who happens to be releasing an album a week after Louis’ upcoming third. Louis needs something groundbreaking- scandalous, even- to push past him in the charts. Much to Louis’ dismay, his PR team calls in The Sexpert. Consulting with PR firm Shady, Lane and Associates pays the bills so that Harry Styles can spend his down time doing what he really loves: poring over data. On weekends and late into the evenings, he researches gender, presentation, and sexual orientation, analysing the longitudinal study that is his father’s life’s work. That is, until his newest client, the popstar with the fascinating secret, drags him off his couch and frighteningly close to the spotlight. As the album’s release date approaches, will Tomlinson and Styles be able to pull off the most risky PR scheme of the millennium and beat Zayn in sales or will the heat of their feelings for each other compromise everything?

A Pun-derful Life by AlwaysAqua for Wordplay Fic Challenge | mutual pining | puns | friends to lovers | 9k Falling in love with his best friend was never part of the plan, but it happened. It keeps happening; Over and over again on a daily basis. Sometimes, even that’s too long between falling in love. Or, Harry and Louis use too many puns as a means to make each other laugh. Through the Warning Signs by crimsontheory for The 1D Hiatus Fic Fest | friends with benefits | friends to lovers | pining | 12k Harry and Louis have been best friends for years, but when Louis suggests they become friends with benefits, how will Harry handle that while also being in love with Louis? This time I'm ready to run by Cherrie for The 1D Hiatus Fic Fest | famous/not famous | 15k Six years ago Louis made a choice. This time around he was not about to make the same mistake again. Sounds Like Heaven by howtogetawaywithlouis | angst | exes to lovers | hate to love| fake/ pretend relationship | famous/not famous | homophobia | islamophobia | depression | anxiety | alcoholism | emotional hurt/comfort | kid fic | cheating | pining | 30 k Louis is screaming, and he should consider toning it down cause Sandy is sleeping on the same floor, but tears are starting to gather around his lashes and his voice is slightly quivering, and he doesn’t care about waking her up as much as he should. All he can think about is how he’s been such a fool that a woman is going to steal his girl and his man, and he’s completely helpless cause none of them both were entirely his in the first place. “Louis,” Harry whispers quietly, his hand coming to rest hesitantly on Louis’s shoulders. “You know it’s not going to happen.” Louis shakes him off and takes a few steps away. “No, I don’t.” He grips the bottle of champagne and goes to pick up the glass from the sink. His throat is tight and it hurts to swallow, so when he speaks again, to a Harry who looks sad and frustrated, it’s with a simple murmur. “I’m going to bed. You can show yourself out.” --- Or, a very painful au where singer/actor Harry Styles and songwriter Louis Tomlinson are married and have a daughter, but are not together any more. Except of course, it’s not that simple. Our Sweetest Memorial by messofgorgeouschaos for HLRegencyVictorianFicChallenge | Regency | slow burn | hate to love | mpreg | exes to lovers | 34k Ever since Harry was forced to break off an engagement five years ago, he resolved to never marry for the remainder of his life. Now his family must move out of his beloved Kellynch Hall to recover some of their debts that their father had accumulated. The last thing Harry expected was for the new tenants to be related to his former fiancee. And for that fiancee to come back to Somersetshire a much more wealthy man that still holds resentment for their past. A Persuasion AU. Lend Me Your Hand by QuickedWeen for HLRegencyVictorianFicChallenge | Regency | soulmates | soulmate-identifying marks | light angst | fluff | hate to love | 63k Society has long since decided that the soulmarks everyone is born with are entirely unfashionable. They're just another way for people of a lower class to scam their way into marrying above their station. Lord Louis Tomlinson, Viscount Loring, on the other hand, has always believed that he will find his soulmate one day. Despite preparing for a match his whole life, he is entirely unprepared for the arrival of Gemma Styles' younger brother. Harry Styles has been traveling and away from society for over a year. Coming back, he intends to spend time with his sister, and slowly reacquaint himself with life in town. He doesn't need to wait around for a soulmark to determine how his life will play out. Like Two Softened Shoes by marie24 for HL Fic Fest (2016) | coffee shops | pining | friends to lovers | 13k He sets his laptop on the bed, backing away and running his hands repeatedly through his curls. Okay. This is okay. This is fine. This is not real. Will peeks his head around the door frame. “Uh, everything okay in here?” Harry tries to keep his breathing under control. “Yeah!” he says. “It’s, um, everything’s fine!” He can hear himself talking really loudly. Will looks doubtful. “Are you sure? Because it really seems like -” Harry barks out a laugh, cutting him off. “Okay! So this is going to sound really strange. But.” He looks at Will, with the same shiny fringe, blue, blue eyes, and sharp cheekbones he’d been writing about the whole last week. He worries his lip frantically between his teeth. “Um. I think I… I think I… wrote you?” Or, Harry is a writer who gets through his writer’s block by pouring his feelings for his best friend Louis into a character. A few days later, the character lands in his bed, three dimensional and with no idea how to get back where he came from. He turns out to be very inconvenient for keeping Harry’s feelings to himself. Lemon eyes by turnyourankle | a/b/o | friends with benefits | minor injuries | light angst | 50k It's not proper for omegas to mess around with alphas before finding their bondmate. But Harry doesn't give a damn what's proper and fully intends on getting as much experience as he can before even trying to find one. As far as he's concerned, the right alpha won't care, and he'll have some fun on the way. And who better to start with than Louis Tomlinson, the alpha with the worst reputation on campus? If Ignorance Be Bliss by seemyselfout | friends to lovers | Coming Out | overhearing sex| slow burn | 30k “Uhh” Louis hears first. Then the creaking. The fucking creaking of it all. The bed, which Louis knows is basically a glorified camp bed with its awkward wheels at the bottom and wooden board behind it, begins thudding. The banging is rhythmic, Louis can’t help imagining the poorly stifled moans of them both, Harry’s awkwardly lanky limbs and skinny hips jerking with about as much finesse as an eighteen year old can manage (read: not a lot). There is a moment where Louis is almost certain he hears Harry say “shhh, uhh, my roommate” and... The audacity of that. Louis is simply too outraged now to do anything, including get turned on, and simply waits until Harry’s stupid dick gives up (it sounded like she didn’t come - Ha, Louis thinks bitterly). Uni AU: Harry is too experienced, and Louis just wants to get to experience him. The light is coming by ishiplouis for HL Mpreg Fic Exchange 2018 | a/b/o | mpreg | hurt/comfort | angst | 10k Louis was cold. So fucking cold. He was hungry too. He hadn’t eaten a real meal in a long time. He’d lost count of how many days he hadn’t eaten correctly or, rather, he didn’t want to remember. He wanted to forget. Forget that he was now alone. Well, mostly. He cursed his faith. He wasn’t supposed to end up like this. He was supposed to go to college, find a mate, and graduate with honours. Maybe he would have to apply right after graduation to some job offers but thankfully his father would intervene and would find him a job in no time at one of his friends’ companies. Then he would get married and be finally mated by his Alpha. In this dream of his, Louis would end up with three beautiful pups, a huge house with a white fence and a wonderful mate always caring for him until his last breath. That was how it was supposed to happen. Louis put a hand on his slowly hardening belly, a single tear rolling down his cheek. It wasn’t fair. Or the one where Louis is lost but Harry is there to save him. I Spy Baby by mynameispiaivy for Girl Direction Fic Fest | Girl Direction | love/hate | 7k “Wait, Lou. I have a penlight.” “A what?” “A penlight. You know, a pen with a small flashlight on it.” She could feel heat rising on her wet face. ”I know what a fucking penlight is?” “Well, I just thought it would be safer if we used a penlight instead of your lighter in this place. Something might catch fire, you know.” She says this matter of factly. Louis closes her eyes as she counts from one to five. “Okay, you’re right. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Now, use your damn penlight so we don’t trip on some dead person or animal inside here.” “It would smell if there’s a dead person in here, you know.” “Oh my god, Harry. Can you..just fucking turn on your damn penlight so we can see where we are going?” “Geez, you don’t need to shout. I’m practically beside you.” **** Harry and Louis are lost in the woods. I can't help myself from how my heart is racing by flicker_album | strangers to friends to lovers | Gym AU | mutual pining | 13k Louis is just trying to be a good friend by working out at the gym that Liam owns. He never expected to (quite literally) run into Harry, the hot boxer who sings embarrassing songs in the locker room showers. Baby Honey by delsicle | a/b/o | historical | World War II | established relationship | mpreg | angst | 14k When the next great war strikes, all alphas have to ship out. Alex leaves a little more behind than some of the others.

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teenvogue · 6 years

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A Year After the Weinstein Allegations, the #MeToo Movement Largely Hasn't Reformed Survivor Justice

On October 5, 2017, some people say the world changed — or at least it was supposed to. That day, a year ago, the New York Times published the first sexual misconduct allegations against Harvey Weinstein, claims that quickly grew from a few alleged survivors to a whole army of them. In the months that followed those allegations, many other powerful people were forced to reckon with past sexual abuse, harassment, and assault they had perpetrated. What became known as the #MeToo movement was called a tipping point, and in many ways it was.

Mostly, #MeToo has succeeded in making it acceptable to talk about the sexual misconduct that’s been going on for decades and decades. But while survivors are facing their trauma through calling hotlines, opening up to loved ones, and posting on social media, that public reckoning largely hasn’t translated into actual justice.

In the past year, many survivors of sexual abuse have come forward with their allegations in a world that’s seemingly more open to talking about them. This is evident on social media, where #MeToo spread like wildfire after the hashtag, based on a movement created by Tarana Burke more than a decade ago, was revitalized. But it is also evident in the call volume increase the National Sexual Assault Hotline saw in the months following the initial Weinstein allegations. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, the hotline saw a 21% increase in calls at that time. Beyond talking about it, some major institutions — like the Senate — have changed their sexual harassment policies to better protect people in the work place. And the movement has spread globally, too, with the #MeToo hashtag being used across the world. And, of course, there have been some notable moves by the justice system after #MeToo picked up in the last year. Bill Cosby was sentenced to prison, and Weinstein was indicted on multiple sexual misconduct charges.

But as time has passed, some of those who were knocked down by #MeToo allegations are slowly and quietly creeping back into positions of power and celebrity. We saw Louis C.K. returning to the stage nearly a year after being accused of, and apologizing for, repeatedly masturbating in front of female colleagues. Jian Ghomeshi, who was accused of sexual assault by more than 20 women, will have an article in the October 11 edition of the New York Review of Books that purports to reflect on this exact situation — what happens to men after they are accused of sexual assault. Ghomeshi was acquitted of sexual assault charges and settled an additional sexual assault charge "with a peace bond and public apology" as noted by an editor's letter preceding his piece. And, as the Senate considers a Supreme Court nominee who has been accused of sexual misconduct by three women, many in the national spotlight have argued not over whether the nominee is guilty of assault, but whether it would actually matter if he was. The President of the United States cast doubt on nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers, wondering why Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the first to come forward, took decades to do so. That gave rise to #WhyIDidntReport — yet another social media movement in which survivors were forced to explain the systems of oppression, shame, and fear that kept them from reporting their assaults.

Our society has just come around to the idea that there is something wrong.

With all that, many have wondered what #MeToo has really changed, if anything. Certainly, things are different now, some have said. It would be hard for things to stay the same after a nationwide, even global, conversation about sexual misconduct. But when it comes to justice for survivors, experts say the systems in place are largely the same.

📸: Getty Images

#MeToo #Tarana Burke #whyididntreport #Christine Blasey Ford #harvey weinstein #Teen Vogue #Believe Survivors #Brett Kavanaugh

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downwithabusiveshipping · 6 years

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“Not yet that we’ve seen, at least tangibly. But, we don’t have any data,” Sara McGovern, RAINN spokesperson said, when asked whether her organization had noted any shift in how law enforcement fields sexual assault reports, and whether that translates into convictions. “Anecdotally, we’re seeing more people reach out for help and more people tell their stories. So, many people who might have kept that inward — even if they aren’t reporting to law enforcement — people are more willing to talk about sexual violence.”

Joanne Smith, founder and executive director of Girls for Gender Equality, told Teen Vogue that #MeToo has harnessed the "power of survivors naming and speaking aloud their experiences," and begun to change how survivors are believed. Still, she said there needs to be "institutional change" that comes along with these social shifts.

"Standing alone, these moments of individual accountability are insufficient to create the lasting change we need and deserve," Smith said. "Our challenge now is to meet the courage these survivors have shown in speaking out, again and again, with institutional courage."

Part of this institutional courage, Smith said, is the option of justice.

"Survivors first and foremost need to be believed," she said. "Survivors need real solutions to the violence they experience — strategies to prevent violence from happening in the first place, strategies to respond to incidents of violence when they occur, and strategies to help individuals seek justice and accountability for the harm that has been caused. "

Jess Davidson, the interim executive director of End Rape On Campus, an anti-sexual violence group, told Teen Vogue that the iteration of #MeToo that we’ve seen in the last year has actually highlighted how unfriendly the justice system is for survivors.

“I think what the last year has done in a really remarkable way is shed light on the ways these systems are designed to fail survivors,” she said. “I don’t think we’ve gotten to the level yet of reforming all these systems.” While Davidson said #MeToo has made survivors feel that they’re more likely to be believed if they do report, she said that doesn’t necessarily translate into actual justice when it comes to law enforcement. “Undoing these systems [that] are designed around horrible old laws designed to protect white men … we have not reached that level of action. Our society has just come around to the idea that there is something wrong.”

In New York City, reports of rape increased significantly — in some parts of the city reports increased more than 50% year to date over 2017 — which may indicate some progress, though it's unclear whether the increase is because of more reports or more rapes. But the same didn’t hold true in other major cities. In Washington D.C., reports of sex abuse decreased by 4% in the same period of 2017. In Philadelphia, rape reports decreased by 7%, while they decreased by 12% in Los Angeles. Rape arrests, however, increased by 12% in Los Angeles at the same time. In Chicago, reports of criminal sexual assault did increase by 4%. In Atlanta, reports remained mostly unchanged.

But these patterns are also hard to track. An increase or decrease in rape reports or arrests may not be attributed to a movement, but rather to an increase or decrease in rapes. And, towns and cities record their data independently, and have varying definitions of rape, making it hard to compare city to city. Statistics on conviction rates may be outdated — country-wide in 2015, only 310 out of every 1,000 rapes would be reported to police, and of those 310 that were reported, only 57 would lead to arrest and six would result in the incarceration of the rapist. And while #MeToo caught on in the United Kingdom, too, rape prosecutions there have reportedly plummeted, with authorities charging 23% fewer alleged rapists in 2017-2018 than in 2016-2017. Still, we know that relatively few rape reports turn out to be false.

There are many reasons why survivors may choose not to report their assaults to law enforcement, and McGovern stressed that going to law enforcement doesn’t make an assault more legitimate than someone who chooses not to report. “We always tell people there’s no right way to react after being sexually assaulted,” McGovern said. “The reality is that some people are not going to be comfortable going to law enforcement or reporting. That’s completely their choice.”

The barriers survivors face from law enforcement may be the issue at hand, Davidson said. Many survivors may choose not to report their assaults to law enforcement because of these low conviction rates, or because of the victim blaming that often happens when survivors do come forward. Others may not want to withstand the shaming that may come with a trial, and in places like college campuses, Davidson said some survivors choose not to come forward for fear their friends or social circle won’t believe them. These barriers of entry to the justice system are particularly strong for queer people, people of color, transgender people, undocumented people, and other marginalized people, Davidson said, who may not trust police because of historical violence against their communities.

That's why Smith said we can't just work within our current criminal justice system.

"There are significant gaps in the possibility of our progress without an alternative approach to justice. Our options for justice must be more comprehensive than what our punitive criminal justice model currently offers us," she said. "We look to the incredible contemporary scholarship and activism of our partners and visionaries in the deep work of transformative and restorative approaches to justice, Mariame Kabaand Andrea Ritchie, who have committed their life’s work to rethinking justice for survivors — and accountability for those who cause harm."

If we’re gauging how #MeToo has changed circumstances for survivors, justice can’t be ignored, Davidson said. If people who are assaulted still feel stigmatized by the system that’s supposed to help them, how far can we really presume to have come?

“I think the idea of seeing #MeToo and survivor justice as different is flawed,” Davidson said. “As me too interacts with all of these levels at which rape culture functions, we are going to have to shift toward a more justice oriented conversation, and watching likes on Facebook and Twitter turn into real action. I believe that’s where the movement is going."

Smith said that action should include all people and all institutions. It's not enough to change just one thing — the world does need to change.

"We are calling on an intergenerational movement that includes young cis[gender] and trans[gender] women of color, non-binary and gender nonconforming youth that feel and believe that they are part of a movement to end sexual violence," Smith said. "We are calling for changes in federal and state law, and in culture and policy in companies, schools, and other institutions, to ensure that we are supporting survivors to deliver accountability, justice and healing, but also to change the culture and systems of permission that leave folks vulnerable, allow for an abuse of power, and have made sexual violence a systematic epidemic in the first place."

#MeToo #anti rape culture #anti abuse culture #survivor justice #justice system #teen vogue #info #information #downwithabusiveshipping #not sure what else to tag this

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kentonramsey · 5 years

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Garance Doré Wants To Change How The Fashion Industry Talks About Aging

Success stories can seem just as fantastical as the fairy tales you (may have) loved growing up: Bold career woman finds herself in the right place at the right time, and poof, her fairy godmother mentor snaps her fingers, transforming our hero into an overnight success who brings home a 7-figure salary, jet-sets the world spreading her you-can-have-it-all gospel, all while looking awesome and Instagramming the whole thing. Umm…really? Why do we so rarely hear the other side of the story — the false starts, the waves of doubt, the failures, and the fuck-ups? Those late-night worries and, occasionally, breakthroughs that are so relatable to the rest of us?

Introducing Self-Made, Refinery29’s newest column spotlighting the real stories that fuelled success — the wins, the fails, and the curveballs —proving there’s no one path to getting what you want.

As a photographer, illustrator, entrepreneur, and fashion blogger, Garance Doré epitomises the modern, self-made woman. The French phenom has collaborated on campaigns with some of the most recognisable names in the luxury space, including Chloé, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Kate Spade, Net-a-Porter, and many more. She was a street style pioneer, snapping photos of stylish Parisians all the way back in 2007 — long before Instagram was even a thing. In fact, social media was still in its infancy; the term “influencer” had yet to be coined. In 2010, Interview magazine called her “possibly the fashion world’s most closely followed blogger.”

Looking back now, it’s amazing that she achieved so much and garnered such acclaim in the influencer space nearly a decade ago, way ahead of the zeitgeist shift that inevitably followed. Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that her most recent collaboration is with the beloved skincare line La Mer. The campaign positions La Mer as a pioneer in a different arena: the way we view and discuss ageing. Its goal is to embrace generational aging and encourage women to feel more confident as their skin matures over time.

Refinery29 talked with Garance Doré about how she was able to embark on a self-made journey, what aspects of her career have influenced other aspiring entrepreneurs, and the one lesson she’s continually working to master.

What is the definition of being self-made?

To me, it comes down to not letting society define you. It’s about finding and defining who you want to be. Whether you want to be working like crazy, idle, be married, or not… That’s being self-made.

What quality do you possess that has made you a good candidate for self-making your destiny?

To me, it’s definitely my insatiable need for freedom. It gives me the courage to challenge myself and makes me run away from the too well-traveled roads.

Tell us a lesson you keep trying to learn — that you hope to eventually master, in business or otherwise?

Mindfulness. Staying focused on what matters for me. In this very loud world, we tend to forget that what makes our neighbour happy won’t necessarily fulfil us. To observe and examine, and stay connected to who I truly am.

What aspect of your path has been the most motivational to other young women coming up through the ranks?

It’s different for each and every one of them, and that’s the good part! Some tell me it’s my creativity, others talk about my freedom, some about the innovator part. Being an entrepreneur is very fascinating for a lot of women. But I am always careful to tell them there is not just one road to fulfilment and happiness.

Being self-made means committing to self-care, too — to manage the process as well as all the unexpected pivots that come with it. How do you fuel and refresh yourself when shit really starts to get hard?

Time off. Meditation. Having fun — dancing a lot. Family. Self-care. Massages. Jumping in the ocean. Making sure to feel healthy and in my beauty. Hanging out with my dog. Anything that connects me to what life is really about, in other words.

What’s your Self-Made Mantra, no matter where you might be in the process?

Be yourself. This is the easiest, yet the most challenging thing to do.

What are some unexpected challenges of running your own business?

Running a business is all sorts of difficult. Making success for more than 13 years takes a lot. You need to be able to challenge yourself, deal with the failures, not fall asleep over your successes, stay current but stay authentic. The challenges of longevity are definitely the ones we never think about when we launch — they come very unexpected!

Why did you choose to work with La Mer? How were you first introduced to the brand?

I have known La Mer forever and used it as well. I’ve always wanted the best for my skin, since I was a teenager, I knew it made the most sense to be very proactive with it because my actions would impact its future.

What’s your skincare regimen?

I like simple, achievable rituals. Clean, regenerate, hydrate. I work in fashion and beauty, so obviously I have tried, and still try a lot of new products and lotions — and what I have found is that I always come back to my favourites.

The new Regenerating Serum is special because of the effect it has in terms of rejuvenation – I don’t wear a lot of makeup, so I need my skin to feel really good, plump. With the serum I feel like it’s taken care of.

Tell us about the campaign which celebrates generational ageing. Why is age inclusivity so important to you?

Because I think all women need to relax and I want to help spread the word that with a little bit of intention and care, we can look and feel better as we age! I want to be part of this generation of women who are proud of who they are and who feel free to enjoy and live fully, with no regrets, each chapter of their life.

Answer this: If I didn’t pursue this career path, I would be…

So so so so so many things. But probably a spa critic! Ahah!

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

DVF Has A Genius Trick For Mastering Self Doubt

Is Resale The Future of Sustainable Fashion?

The Internet Loves Margiela Model, Leon Dame

Garance Doré Wants To Change How The Fashion Industry Talks About Aging published first on https://mariakistler.tumblr.com/

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thisdaynews · 5 years

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The Prosecutor’s Race Making Arlington Interesting

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/the-prosecutors-race-making-arlington-interesting/

The Prosecutor’s Race Making Arlington Interesting

One sign that this era of agitated civic life is not merely a reflection of Donald Trump or Twitter is that the agitation has penetrated, of all places, into Arlington County, Virginia.

In normal times, Arlington politics are polite and consensus-driven, almost proudly dull—the perfect opposite of the national capital that it borders just across the Potomac. A Democratic primary election for local prosecutor on Tuesday, however, underlines that these are not normal times. An ill-tempered monthslong battle between incumbent commonwealth’s attorney Theo Stamos and her aggressive challenger from the left, Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, is drawing notice and money from criminal justice advocates nationally.

Story Continued Below

A political action committee funded by billionaire George Soros has pumped in nearly $600,000 on behalf of Dehghani-Tafti, who argues that Stamos is an overly rigid prosecutor who is too zealous in pursing marijuana cases and whose policies are particularly unfair to minority and economically disadvantaged defendants. The overall spending in the race, approaching $1 million, is roughly four times greater than usual.

The choice, and especially the racially and ideologically charged rhetoric around it, has confronted the tight, earnest community of civic players in Arlington with the preeminent question of Trump-era politics:Which side are you on?

Arlington Democrats say they can hardly recall a race that took on such personal dimensions, or offered such a sharp edge on issues. The contest has produced bracing arguments on highly charged national subjects like police brutality and mass incarceration.

In this case, however, there is a curious twist: One has to squint pretty hard to see examples of these in Arlington, certainly in comparison to places that have drawn the spotlight elsewhere. If a place as placid as Arlington is being riled up this way, something notable is going on.

Arlington’s jail population, as Stamos notes, has fallen lately to a five-year low under her tenure as top prosecutor (She was first elected in 2011, after 24 years as a deputy in the same office). There have been no notorious Chicago-style incidents of police violence, no riots protesting racial injustice.

Dehghani-Tafti, 45, who has been a public defender in the neighboring District of Columbia but has no experience as a prosecutor, is an Iranian American with two black children and identifies as a woman of color, and says this perspective helped inspire her campaign. She said she welcomes money from Soros, and says that is because she is at the vanguard of a new approach to law enforcement that makes finer distinctions about which defendants present a true threat to public safety, and is more attuned to systemic prejudice in the criminal justice system. She points out that Arlington reflects some galling national racial disparities: Although less than 10 percent of its residents are black, a majority of its inmates are.

She says the race is “very personal to me,” informed in part by her disgust after Trump’s election in 2016 and in part by watching a friend be falsely convicted before being exonerated after five years.

“I know there are some people who need to be locked up,” she told POLITICO, “but I prefer to go about this in a way that’s informed by evidence and data and bring[s] Arlington into the 21st century, not just in terms of technology but also in terms of what makes us safer but is also more humane.”

Stamos, 61, who is white, has complained that her opponent’s appeals for compassion often overlook compassion for the victims of crime. Bridling at the criticism, Stamos notes that she helped start a “drug court” to provide a better path to adjudicating these nonviolent cases.

“I’m still a prosecutor,” she said. “I’m not going to apologize for being a prosecutor. I think it’s very misguided to back away from the actual work of prosecution because that’s what does keep communities safe, it’s what gives voice to victims of crime.”

Stamos leaves little doubt that the criticism of her supposedly reactionary style is ticking her off. “Arlington County is of the most educated, progressive, engaged and enlightened communities in the country,” she said. “To postulate that unbeknownst to this very active community for the past three decades, all under the watchful eye of Chief Judge William T. Newman, who is an African American pioneer in this community, there has been this malignant and oppressive force at work … is preposterous.”

She was offering a view of her county as Pleasantville that has a familiar ring. Famous for the Pentagon, and the national cemetery, and the Iwo Jima memorial, Arlington beyond those landmarks cuts a low profile even in the Washington area. If you moved to the capital and wanted a place in the suburbs that doesn’t feel very suburban, you might choose Arlington. It has plenty of ethnic diversity, decent schools, bike trails, wooded neighborhoods a short walk from Metrorail stations with smartly planned mixed use developments around them. (As it happens, the POLITICO newsroom looks out on Washington, but is actually across the river in Arlington.) If you are in the mood, there are Asian and Hispanic restaurants galore; if not, you are rarely more than a few minutes from a Starbucks.

On the other hand, if you were an ambitious local reporter covering Arlington you typically would be finagling for a new assignment. Back in the days when theWashington Postcovered local news more seriously than it does now, it still had a hard time paying attention to Arlington. The all-day Saturday board meetings droned on interminably, marathon sessions of process and piety, and the county mostly lacked the inflamed grievances and personal rivalries and power plays that typically make local politics interesting.

In 2019, however, Arlington political veterans say the place has more dry tinder than Stamos probably realized.

The contours of the race—an established and well-known Democrat versus a china-smashing insurgent—at a superficial level invite comparisons to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and her upset last year of longtime incumbent Joe Crowley.

But the Arlington case is more complicated. There is a healthy roster of well-known establishment players in Arlington (and in neighboring Falls Church, also part of this commonwealth’s attorney district) who are backing the challenger.

In part this is because Stamos evidently underappreciated the partisan nature of the moment. In the past, she had supported an independent with a Republican past, John Vihstadt, for the otherwise wholly Democratic County Board. In normal times, this might have produced grumbling and eye rolls. But in the hyperpartisan atmosphere of Trump’s Washington, many Democrats were genuinely offended by the gesture.

A more serious blunder, at least in narrowly political terms, came in 2017, when Stamos joined mostly Republican prosecutors from around the state in opposing then-Governor Terry McAuliffe’s plan to restore voting rights to convicted felons who had served their time. Stamos said she didn’t object to the concept, but to the broad-brush way McAuliffe was trying to implement it en masse instead of assessing individual cases.

The former governor wasn’t interested in this nuance. “I’ll do anything I possibly can do to try and help you,” the unforgiving McAuliffe told Dehghani-Tafti during his endorsement announcement.

Stamos can also be rigid in ways that left critics eager to pounce. A group of 109 defense attorneys endorsing Dehghani-Tafti wrote a letter alleging that the prosecutor pumps up charges against defendants in order to induce them to accept plea bargains, and she refuses to use technology in ways that would make it easier for them to gain access to relevant discovery evidence on behalf of clients without physically going to the courthouse. (Some of those details ended up driving theWashington Post’s endorsement of the challenger.) The picture they offered was not necessarily of an abusive prosecutor, but of an unmistakable hard-ass. In earlier times that is a reputation a Virginia Democrat would covet—a way of countering criticism of being a bleeding heart.

But in a liberal-minded community the old ways may be outdated, just as Joe Biden is learning on the presidential campaign trail, when a one-time talking point—his sponsorship of the 1994 crime bill—is now something that throws him on the defensive.

Lauren-Brooke Eisen, a senior fellow at the liberal Brennan Center’s justice program, said the Arlington primary battle is “reflective of a national trend.“ In recent years, Soros’ PAC has funded a number of progressive challengers in prosecutor’s races across the country. Kim Foxx was elected in Cook County State, Ill., with hundreds of thousands of dollars funneled into her campaign. Similarly funded Aramis Ayala was sworn into office overseeing Orange and Osceola counties in Florida, shortly after which she drew fire for saying she would not ever pursue the death penalty. In Philadelphia, Larry Krasner defeated a Republican candidate with 21 years of experience in prosecution, delivering a hard-hitting campaign with more than $1 million from Soros. In Oakland, incumbent Nancy O’Malley was reelected, but only after facing a challenger supported by Soros.

Progressive challengers not backed by Soros have also unseated incumbents in Durham County, N.C., Kansas City, Kan., and St. Louis County, Mo. Even in open races, candidates with little to no background in politics—but calling for an overhaul of the criminal justice system—have prevailed over candidates with long histories in the prosecutor’s office. In Brooklyn, N.Y., for example, Eric Gonzalez won the title over five Democratic candidates—all former prosecutors.

“We’re seeing bipartisan agreement that our criminal justice system is broken,” Eisen added, “and in need of change … [which] I think fits squarely with what we’re seeing across the country with this wave of new prosecutors wanting to transform the office.”

It has been a while since such a wave—if it ends up knocking down someone like Stamos—has hit the shores of Virginia, where prosecutors often stay put for their entire careers. Fairfax County, which is adjacent to Arlington and is the largest locality in the Washington area and the state, has had only two people serve as the commonwealth’s attorney since 1967. The current occupant, Raymond Morrogh, is also facing a Soros-funded challenger in Tuesday’s primary. In Prince William County, to the west of Fairfax, prosecutor Paul B. Ebert is retiring after 52 years in office.

Beth Arthur, who has been Arlington sheriff for almost 19 years, said she doesn’t welcome elections for the office becoming politicized in the fashion they have this year. She has endorsed Stamos. “It had been my intention not to weigh in on the race publicly, but when her ethics were attacked and the police department’s ethics were attacked, I felt like it was wrong.”

But Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor whose district included Arlington, said the issue is less about personalities than changing standards. “In the ‘90s, when I first started doing mostly criminal cases, I was ‘put them away, throw away the key, hang them high,’” Rossi said. “But then when I entered the new century, I realized this was fool’s gold, that mass incarceration is not the answer.”

“The current commonwealth’s attorney is a good person, she’s a good trial attorney, she’s got integrity, she’s been in that office since they invented fire and the wheel,” Rossi added. “I don’t think she has the mental state of mind to move as fast as I would like in the realm of criminal justice. Virginia is moving, but it’s moving very slowly … I want it to move like a bolt of lightning.”

#ARLINGTON #Foreign #Interesting #Politics

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theconservativebrief · 6 years

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A tear has appeared in the fabric of the fashion world, and it’s unlikely to be mended any time soon. Last Friday, during Paris Fashion Week, designer Hedi Slimane presented his debut collection for the revered French brand Celine. The clothes themselves weren’t particularly shocking — they embodied the same rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic Slimane promoted during his last job as creative director of Saint Laurent. What incensed Celine fans was the ruthlessness with which he disposed of the Celine that came before.

To understand why Slimane’s designs caused such furor, you have to understand his predecessor, Phoebe Philo. During her decade at Celine, she created clothing that was wearable and sophisticated but never boring, a uniform for a certain kind of worldly woman. (In the ultimate branding coup, Philo got Joan Didion, at age 80, to pose for a Celine ad in a black knit shirt and sunglasses.) Fit for club kids, Slimane’s first collection didn’t sit well with many.

This is a significant moment in fashion, throwing a spotlight on the question of who is best equipped to design clothes for women, and what those clothes should look like. It also not only reflects the male-dominated nature of the fashion world, but comes at a time when women are mobilizing against the male-dominated nature of pretty much everything.

Phoebe Philo’s fall 2013 Celine show. Stephane Cardinale/Getty Images

Philo arrived at Celine — then known as Céline, before Slimane struck the accent — in 2008. After a widely-lauded stint as creative director of the French brand Chloé, she had taken a few years off to raise her children and recover from the exhaustion of commuting between Chloé HQ in Paris and her home in London. Her first collection at Celine was a critical winner, balancing tailored tuxedo jackets and overcoats with the loose elegance of a draped silk shirt.

“One look at the designer’s confident, spot-on debut collection for Céline and it’s clear how much we’ve missed her,” wrote Vogue fashion critic Nicole Phelps at the time.

Philo is known as a “woman’s designer.” Truly, it’s hard to find a profile or review of her work that doesn’t mention her knack for intuiting what adult women want to wear and giving them just that. What women wanted during Philo’s reign at Celine — at least what her devotees wanted — were quietly powerful clothes: baggy trousers, luxuriously thick sweaters, and streamlined skirts that kicked out just past the knee.

Like Jenna Lyons at J.Crew, Philo was her own best model. After fashion shows, she often took her bow wearing a simple sweater, loose pants, and sneakers (she basically put Adidas Stan Smiths back on the map). Women everywhere swooned and followed her lead.

“[Philo’s] specialness lies in synthesizing how women want to dress with how they actually live their lives,” wrote Whitney Vargas for T Magazine in 2014. “And how we want to see ourselves: sophisticated, knowledgeable, not victimized by fashion. Increasingly, comfort is the ultimate commodification of luxury.”

The filmmaker Sofia Coppola, interviewed by the New York Times, offered this assessment of Philo’s Celine: “It’s not based on some weird idea of what a woman should be.”

Philo takes a bow after her fall 2011 runway show. Michel Dufour/Getty Images

Philo gets called a “woman’s designer” in part because the powerhouses of women’s luxury fashion are mostly run by men. Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga, Valentino, Saint Laurent, and Gucci all currently have male designers at the helm (many of whom, it should be noted, have legions of adoring female fans). There are certainly female creative directors in the mix — at Givenchy, Alexander McQueen, and Dior, as well as at numerous smaller brands — but it remains one of the truths of modern fashion that men, overwhelmingly, dictate what women wear.

Plenty of male designers could have carried on Philo’s work making subtle, elegant, sometimes weird clothing and accessories. Hedi Slimane is not that guy. His style is so radically different from Philo’s that for Celine fans, the handoff didn’t just mark the departure of a beloved designer; it represented a fundamental shift in the nature of the brand.

A look from Slimane’s Celine. Getty Images

As the creative director of Dior’s menswear line and, from 2012 to 2016, the creative director of Saint Laurent — he changed the name from Yves Saint Laurent to Saint Laurent Paris, to much outcry — Slimane became known for clothes that are super skinny and very rock ‘n’ roll. Designing women’s clothing at Saint Laurent, he favored tiny dresses (silky, sequined, or lace) paired with leather jackets and blazers. His final collection for the brand was filled with exaggerated ’80s shoulders, big belts, and microscopic hemlines.

Slimane also did wonders for Saint Laurent’s bottom line. In four years, he “roughly tripled” the brand’s revenue, pushing its annual sales past the $1 billion mark. Celine’s parent company LVMH no doubt saw Slimane as a potential cash cow. When the conglomerate announced Slimane’s appointment in January 2018, it said that he would launch couture, fragrances, and menswear for Celine. Cha-ching.

Slimane’s debut at Celine confirmed what fashion fans already suspected: Phoebe Philo’s Celine was effectively dead. With its preponderance of leggy, glittery clothing, Slimane’s first Celine collection was a classic Slimane affair — so much so that the Instagram account Diet Prada, a widely-followed knockoff watchdog for the fashion community, posted a roundup of Celine looks that closely replicated Slimane’s work at Saint Laurent. (The men’s line also seems truly antithetical to Philo’s project.)

Slimane’s Celine has plenty of minidresses. Yanshan Zhang/Getty Images

A male model walks the runway at Slimane’s Celine debut. Yanshan Zhang/Getty Images

It’s wrong to say that Slimane doesn’t know what women want. His sales at Saint Laurent clearly disprove that. What’s happening at Celine is the replacement of one vision of womanhood — the comfortable, grown-up kind that often gets called “intellectual” — with one that prizes youth and unkempt cool. Slimane has a completely different interpretation of what women aspire to than Philo does; his Celine is typically provocative, a different kind of power dressing.

During Philo’s tenure, Celine was regarded as prime feminist fashion, a feeling that radiated from the fact that Philo designed from a place of kinship with her customers. There are, of course, many ways to be a feminist, and one can certainly be a feminist in Slimane’s designs. But to the women who followed and bought Philo’s work, Slimane’s Celine debut said, quite plainly: “This is not for you anymore.” There will be no more chin-high turtlenecks or furry shoes to cocoon oneself in, and gone too is the queen of the sisterhood of Celine.

And so, the rage set in.

My last note on Celine because I have more important things to dedicate my rage to – what a day to present such a tone-deaf, ignorant, belligerent, narcissistic show.

— Lou Stoppard (@LouStoppard) September 28, 2018

I really thought this week couldn’t get any worse news wise, and then I saw Hedi Slimane first collection for Céline and was filled with such an intense rage I crushed my soda can with one hand. pic.twitter.com/RXgdKUZRez

— Kara (@thebostonista) September 29, 2018

i wouldnt be mad except he did this to celine, which like….. he turned it from this sort of thoughtful exploration of womanhood into, that

— Mrs. Millie (@Nyathescurial) September 30, 2018

For many Celine fans, Hedi Slimane’s erasure of Phoebe Philo’s work couldn’t have arrived at a worse moment. Coming up on the one-year anniversary of the Harvey Weinstein allegations that kicked the #MeToo movement into high gear — and the two-year anniversary of President Trump’s election — this is a time when women are fighting hard against the forces that would silence them by speaking out against sexual predators and running for office. Only a day before the Celine show, Christine Blasey Ford recounted her memories of an alleged high school sexual assault on national television; only four days later, Trump mocked her testimony at a rally.

Fashion often isn’t intended to be overtly political, but it’s impossible not to see what we wear through the lens of what’s happening around us. Clothes reflect the times. They’re how we armor ourselves to move through the world.

Slimane did what he does best, what he’s been doing for years. But the context has changed; he didn’t read the room.

Responding to criticism of his Celine collection, he argued that women should be able to wear miniskirts if they wish, telling a French television program, “The young women in my show are liberated and carefree.”

Slimane continued: “For some in America, I also have the poor taste of being a man who is succeeding a woman. You could read into that a subtext of latent homophobia that is quite surprising. Is a man drawing women’s collections an issue?”

The finale at Philo’s spring 2017 Celine show. Patrick Kovarik/Getty Images

Business of Fashion’s Lauren Sherman reported that on the day of Slimane’s Celine show, a group of women — high-profile fashion editors and department store buyers among them — gathered in Paris to celebrate Philo’s Celine.

“The dress code? ‘Strictly Céline, not Celine,’ read the invite, laid out in a typeface not unlike the one embossed on the label of the sage-green, broad-shouldered blazer stylists Yana McKillop and Natasha Goldenberg were both wearing,” writes Sherman.

And the mourners are shopping. In the five days following Slimane’s debut, Celine sales on the RealReal rose 51 percent (relative to revenue between September 1 and 27), according to a rep for the luxury resale site. Search traffic for Celine on the RealReal was up 36 percent. Clearly, people were after vintage (read: Philo’s) Celine.

On Wednesday night, I stopped by the Celine store in New York’s Soho neighborhood. The space was serene, all cool concrete, colorful marble, and tall potted plants. While pawing through a rack of dense, pillowy turtlenecks and nubby trousers, I overheard a woman on her cell phone say that she, too, had come to say goodbye.

That store is closing today. Tomorrow, Celine will reopen in a temporary space while the main location is refurbished according to Slimane’s specifications. By the time I made it out for a visit, Philo’s presence in the Celine store was already a ghostly one: Her last collection landed on shelves in June, and the fall 2018 collection, presented after her departure, was designed by her studio, not the woman herself.

Lest we forget, Philo left fashion for a spell after her run at Chloé, only to return in full force at Celine. Fans can only hope she’ll pull the same move twice.

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Original Source -> A man takes over a feminist fashion brand. What happens next?

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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babbleuk · 6 years

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Why can’t we work out a technological solution for music distribution?

In February 1983⁠ Iegor Reznikoff and Michel Dauvois, the Parisian archaeologists surveying the renowned cave pantings of the Pyrenéan Ariège, faced a conundrum. Some of the famous artworks appeared in otherwise insignificant side passages — surely our ancestors would want to decorate the larger, grander spaces?

As they surveyed the site, Reznikoff would hum to himself out of habit and, he later claimed, to ‘feel’ how each chamber sounded. In one cave in particular (Le Portel), his humming echoed noticeably, leading him to propose an experiment. The pair whistled and sang their way through the cave systems, building a ‘resonance map’ as they went. To their amazement most cave paintings were very close — to within a metre — of the most sonorous zones of the caves. Indeed, some ‘paintings’ were little more than markers, red dots indicating resonant areas of the cave system. More profoundly, some spaces only worked with singing, or with higher or deeper instruments.

In other words, our forebears of 14,000 years ago chose particular spaces for particular types of music-led ritual. “For the first time, it has been possible to penetrate into the musical world of Palaeolithic populations,” the pair surmised. Wrote Professor Steven Errede at the University of Illinois, “Perhaps these occasions were the world’s first ‘rock’ concerts – singing and playing musical instruments inside of a gigantic, complex, multiply-connected organ pipe, exciting complex resonances and echoes as they sang and played!” The capability to create music, to sing, to dance is part of what it means to be human — Darwin himself suggested our musical abilities, shared with animals and birds, emerged before our use of language. Like birds, our abilities to create and to perform music are inherent to our very existence. About 500 years ago however, something changed.

At roughly the same time as Gutenberg was designing his printing press, in the late 1600s luthier Antonio Stradivari worked out techniques to apply varnish to wood, enabling it to hold a note better, and Bach experimented with the ‘well-tempered’ clavier, tuned such that a majority of notes were mathematically aligned (meaning most scales could be played without any ‘off’ notes). Coupled with the reproduction of musical notation (thank you Gutenberg), the notion of distribution was introduced into the arts. Suddenly it became possible for one person to write a piece of music, which someone else could then print, and a third could perform without the whole thing needing to be written out by hand.

Not coincidentally, it was only shortly after, in 1709 that the Statute of Anne first enshrined the notion of copyright into law. A hundred years later, in the post-Napoleonic, heady musical times of Chopin, Liszt and Paganini, book and music publishing was already big business (as was illegal copying of scores). Only a matter of decades passed before sound recording devices, the first (from the fantastically named Frenchman Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville) captured a garbled version of Claire De La Lune. Another Frenchman, Louis Le Prince made the world’s first film⁠ in October 1888, sixty-odd years after his compatriot Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took⁠ the world’s first photograph. Quite why the French had such deep involvement in such world-changing technological creations is unclear; but in doing so they spawned a global empire of industries based on the business of making art and then getting paid for it.

The irony was (and remains) that across the ages, only the luckier performers have become rich on their creations. In days of yore, if you had not achieved notoriety for your works you looked for a rich patron who would support you, or for the state to support you. The advent of technology (in the form of pressing discs) did not change things much: according to a study from the National Endowment for the Arts, median earnings in the for US musicians were a paltry $2,958 in 1969, rising to $5,561 in 1979 and $9,900 in 1989. A 1980 artists employment survey found that, “of those with second jobs in 1980… over a fourth of musicians were in sales, clerical or service jobs — jobs with a history of low pay and benefits.”

The desire to break out of this beatnik existence was, and is still, compelling for artists, but also focused the minds of the industry. “The earnings of the highest paid members of the professions, perhaps ‘superstars,’ increased faster than earnings of the profession as a whole,” continues the report, illustrating a mathematical reality: that a very small number of artists earned the lion’s share of the reward. Given the fact that music sales were stagnating (wrote Pekka Gronow in 1983, “Perhaps records, as a mass medium, have now reached the saturation point.”), catalysed by the rise of home taping, each label felt it had little choice than to remove all but the most profitable bands and musicians from the rosters. Not-successful-enough bands such as Pure Reason Revolution, culled by Sony/BMG in 2006, were simply removed from the rosters.

These two factors — that humanity has been compelled since the year dot (and before) to make music, and that its mathematical profitability is highly skewed towards the few — have laid the foundations for what appears, on the surface, to be an industry in crisis. In 2010 for example, total album sales had dropped steadily from 1999’s figure of 940 million to only 360 million; by 2014 US recorded music revenues were down by almost two thirds since their height at the turn of the millennium, to⁠ $21.50 per capita. To continue a decades-old theme, the fault has been squarely placed at the door of technology, first with home taping, then CD ripping (though at least CDs offered a temporary injection of cash into the system), then file sharing and torrenting, and most recently streaming⁠, which remains the bogeyman of the industry.

Add to this, the alleged daylight robbery from streaming services like Youtube, Spotify and Apple Music. YouTube’s journey has not been a bed of roses: in 2006, even as Google paid 1.6 billion for the site, news sites suggested that it was losing 500,000 per month. Two years later Eric Schmidt, then-Google CEO, remarked⁠, “I don’t think we’ve quite figured out the perfect solution of how to make money, and we’re working on that.” Nobody doubts YouTube’s dominance today: billions of videos are watched daily, a third of which are music related. Meanwhile, Spotify now has 50 million paying subscribers and many millions more who use the advertising-supported version of the site, Apple first launched iCloud with its built-in “piracy amnesty⁠” for music, then its fully fledged Apple Music service; and Google⁠ and Amazon have launched their own music offerings. Each is seen as working with, or conspiring against the music industry or individual artists, depending on who you ask.

Thus we have the pervading narrative of today’s music industry: corporations in crisis, streaming services the culprit, musicians carrying the can. Behind the lines though we have a fundamental factor and a cause for optimism, reflected in artist royalties. Despite taking a recession-based hit, royalty payments from US rights organisation Broadcast Music, Inc (BMI, representing 600,000 members) have been increasing year on year since 2000. In 2016, the organisation some distributed over a billion dollars to its rights holders, as did the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP, 460,000 members). UK licensing revenues are also up year on year, and have been for almost a decade.

The ensemble of ‘rights holders’ — people who licence their songs or recordings — have never been as well off as today, so where is the problem? The answer, simply, is that there is a lot more of them than ever before. Remarks acid house DJ and polymath Andrew Weatherall, “Here we are at the apex of the punk-rock dream, the democratisation of art, anyone can do it, and what a double-edged sword that’s turned out to be.” It is difficult to know whether one is listening to a professional musician recording a song in an expensive studio, or some troubled kid making a song in their apartment — if, indeed, it matters. A positive consequence is massive diversification, driving a positive explosion of culture, with artists as diverse Korea’s Psy and Morocco’s Hala Turk from Morocco gaining almost-overnight international attention when their compositions went viral. The downside is a massive increase in supply: the total number of musicians in the US was 189,510, clearly the rate of growth of ‘rights holders’ far surpasses that of ‘professional’ musicians.

What does all of this mean? Within the backs and forths, the amount being spent on music, and the sums arriving at its creators, are increasing. Whether the revenues are distributed fairly is a hot question: the answer is a probable no, itself unchanged since third parties inserted themselves in the pathway of musical distribution. The second, hot question is whether we, the punters are paying enough for the music we consume. While the prevailing answer (largely from the industry, but see question 1) is a resounding no, the reality is more nuanced. Musical purchases come from that economic category of “discretionary spend”, a variable pool of funds allocated according to desire, diligence and, frankly, what can be got away with. A few quid saved on a free listen to a new album via Spotify could equate to a trip to the cinema or a new t-shirt.

This is no glib comparison, as it shines a spotlight on the importance of good marketing for musicians. If marketing is about getting a signal to cut through the noise, in this case “the noise” equates to every other product and service vying for a slice of the discretionary pie. If, as we have already seen, industry players are going to focus on the few to the detriment of the many (and rightly so, mathematically — they’d be out of business otherwise), those outside of the high-street-shop-window inner circle are missing a trick if they are not creating “a signal” of their own.

Of course, many if not most independent artists are already following the lead of pioneers such as Marillion, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and a host of others. Services such as Bandcamp (offering direct sales of music and merchandise) have become a go-to platforms, reflecting an increasingly empowered relationship between ‘content creators’ and ‘content consumers’; and nobody blinks at the idea of crowdfunding today. More importantly, artists with active relationships with their listeners appear more sanguine than industry representatives about the horrors of streaming revenues. Commented musician Zoe Keating in 2015, “The dominant story in the press on artist earnings did not reflect my reality, nor that of musical friends I talked to. None of us were concerned about file sharing/piracy, we seemed to sell plenty of music directly to listeners via pay-what-you-want services while at the same time earn very little from streaming.”

With all this in mind, it’s not hard to see just why sections of the musical community set so much store on technology as a disintermediating force within the industry, as illustrated by ongoing dialogues around Ethereum. Even as the chicken lickins of the music industry scream about the sky falling in, a number of certainties remain: that we will continue to listen to music, and, despite what some may say, we are prepared to pay increasing amounts to do so, even as we default to simpler and cheaper before more complicated and more expensive (through simple human weakness). The trick is to create a platform which is artist-controlled, which costs only as much as the processing required to deliver it and which is accepted as a place to go for the listener: a musical RSS feed with a straightforward front end, artist search and micro-payments built in. A cigarette packet calculation suggests that one could listen to 2,000-5,000 songs a month: if these cost an acceptable ha’penny a time with 20% (say) going to the platform provider, the debate would be in a very different place to now.

While the challenge is clearly more complicated than music revenues (who pays for studio time, or indeed artwork, what about live performances, advertising revenues, and so on and so on), the bottom line is, nothing technological is getting in the way of giving artists a fair deal vis-a-vis the music listener. If this means the problem lies elsewhere, for example in convoluted music licensing, poorly written contracts, business models which continue to put artists last and so on, then we have two directions. One, optimistically, is that producer-consumer axis will find an acceptable technological solution: numerous precedents exist for this in other industries, but we are not there yet despite the best efforts of many — the latest, Choon, is to be applauded. The second option is that musicians and punters will continue to rely on big business to control the flows of musical content, putting themselves in thrall of a small number of organizations whose profitability obligations lie with stockholders.

The choice, ultimately, is ours.

from Gigaom https://gigaom.com/2018/02/28/why-cant-we-work-out-a-technological-solution-for-music-distribution/

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