Your Life of Privilege

“A primary function of art and thought is to liberate the individual from the tyranny of his culture in the environmental sense and to permit him to stand beyond it in an autonomy of perception and judgment.” Beverly Sills
 
First, thank you everyone who read last weeks post on Art and Criticism. I talked about how awareness was needed and criticism was good for showing both merits and faults, now we’re expanding that idea. The culture and media we consume, along with individuals we engage; are all seeped in an invisible world of privilege.
 
What’s privilege? Betty Brown states, “Privilege is: About how society accommodates you. It’s about advantages you have that you think are normal. It’s about you being normal, and others being the deviation from normal. It’s about fate dealing from the bottom of the deck on your behalf.”
 
With privilege defined, let’s identify our own. Personally, I identify as a white, male, straight, educated, able-bodied, western, healthy, heterosexual. It’s easy to make a larger list, but I wanted to give a small example. These are my privileges, things I benefit from; while existing in society’s institution. Identifying can cause people to become defensive so remember, this alone does not make you an enemy, though it can draw suspicion. This isn’t about guilt, but about building compassion. This isn’t about you, this is about awareness both inside and outside yourself. It’s about changing perception (identifying), educating yourself (reading and critiquing) and finally joining the conversation (applying).
 
“There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says ‘Morning, boys. How’s the water?’ And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes ‘What the hell is water?’ ― David Foster Wallace,This is Water
 
The difficult task of identifying our privileges is done, though with constant observation, listening and engagement, we might identify more. It’s important to remember that privilege is both outer (society) and inner (psychology). Changing our perceptions is inherently difficult. The goal is similiar to Neo from the first Matrix; when he saw and understood the Matrix code.
 
Unfortunately, it’s improbable to get to that zen like state. It’s akin to wearing a friends prescription glasses, your vision is blurred, its painful, and you want to take them off as soon as possible. I’m asking you to leave them on, because the pain will subside, the vision will get clearer; though a blur will always be prevalent. We can never stop questioning our privileges, constantly checking ourselves and absorbing different perspectives. The code will become clearer; the blur giving way to awareness and self-appraisal. So, lets train ourselves using different mediums.
 
The following examples will not include all oppressions. They are tools to begin a discussion and make the invisible world more tangible. This will be difficult, in fact you might reject it, but try and push past the pain of prescription glasses and pierce the illusion of The Matrix. Ok, lets take a look!
 

The Help, a popular movie released this year (that I haven’t seen), has received criticism for how it portrays POC (people of color). The film follows Skeeter (Emma Stone), as she writes about the trials of African-American women in the 1960’s. The issues focus on how the story distorts the history and trials of African Americans in the time period. What other movies fall into the privilege trap?
 

Red Hood and the Outlaws,one of the New DC 52. The issues of this comic have been spoken across the blogosphere, but this picture might help identify the privilege. Look at this picture and see what would inspire strong posts from women and others about Starfire, the woman in the picture. Is it her posture? Is it the positioning that seems to facilitate a male gaze? Read the issue, and identify what the non-privileged discussions are talking about.
 

Marvel vs Capcom 3 is a recent entry into pop culture. Can you identify the institutionalized videogame privilege? Has it gotten better? Count how many characters are in this game. Then ask yourself how many people of color there are? How many women? How many LGBT? Now look at your videogame library and ask yourself the same questions.
 
“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.” ― David Foster Wallace, This is Water.
 

The invisible world is now discovered, testing senses and awareness. Through criticizing (merits and faults) all that we consume and interact with; the invisible world will never slip from our grasp. Our first instinct is empathy, but our privileged psychology often taints well-meaning empathy, and marginalizes.
 
Compassion is our goal, and remembering you’re not evil; rather it’s about awareness and opening ourselves to criticism, suspicion (when we join conversation), and overcoming our innate defensiveness. A language to respect the non-privileged will develop; mistakes will be made by joining the conversation, but overcoming our natural defensiveness is important; as we strive to acknowledge our personal privilege and improve.
 
Diving into non-privileged discussions (made to avoid patronizers) will be difficult; remember this is not about you; discussions, rantings and general lack of trust towards you are the effects of being privileged. We have glimpsed the invisible world and awareness; through criticism, trial and error combined with meaningful dialogue; can improve our respective mediums and culture.
 
 
 

Resources:

Finally, A Feminism 101
Fantastic Outline of Privilege and how to Overcome
XOJane
A Structural Definition of Privilege
Privilege in Action
TransGriot
 
Image Sources:
Thumbnail Black Lava, White Privilege from TransGriot, Matrix The Matrix and Quantum Conciousness, Striving Cruzine, The Help USA Weekend, Starfire Beyond the Bunker, MVC3 Attack of the Fanboy

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 5 November Permalink

Art you not entertained?

“Art is moral passion married to entertainment. Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television.”~Rita Mae Brown
 
During an interesting debate with fellow bloggers, it came to my attention that deep analysis of popular culture and the entertainment through various mediums (comics, film, music etc.) it churns out isn’t needed. The idea was, these things are meant to be just entertainment, not art. I thought the various mediums were pumping out art, not just entertainment. “Its just a comic.” “Its just a game.” Can anything be quantified as “just” anything? In my stubbornness, I wanted to shout out that art and entertainment were separate things, and to illuminate their differences and to show how they could be reconciled so we could do real criticism about what mediums produce.
 
Then the article morphed when I came upon my own realization.
 
I realized I had created a false distinction. Seperating art and entertainment is not sufficient. Its a false division. Regardless if low to high brow, objective and subjective. Entertainment wants to inform, even at a subconcious level, while art wishes to entertain, even if its just the artist themself. The truth, if we can attempt to discuss such an abstract thing, is that we are to be responsible for what we put out in our mediums. We ought to be willing to look at every aspect, inspect it, and critique (find merits and faults) it without fear.

 
“Too often we… enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.” - JOHN F. KENNEDY
 
As a society, it has been ingrained the idea of pass or fail, making money or losing money, to determine success. An idea that is anathema to experimentation. But from the low brow and banal to most experimental and high brow , the subject must be critiqued. Not to disparage the artist or the medium, but to elevate it, to improve it and to show how it has or will impact us. Whether its a toy that has dangerous characterizations, to a game to a comic to a novel to a film. We must criticize, for if we do not, we are irresonsible. Entertainment seeps into our culture, we consume it and digest it and process its contents through our own perceptions. We must be wary of what we are consuming.
 
If a person eats a doughnut, they are aware of the implications, yet can also enjoy it. Same with eating fruits and vegetables. The difference is unlike art, food has a tangible influence and rating. We want to know what our food is made of and how it has or will impact us. We see its effects on our health, and to remain ignorant is to become unhealthy, another thing we can see. To be ignorant of the art we consume, means to be ignorant of its effects on society and ourselves, something that we cannot easily see or understand.
 
Our responsibility; as educators, reviewers, commentators, bloggers and as human beings is to do this. This is, again, not to weaken or take the fun out of our entertainment but to strengthen it, to enlighten, to simply be aware. For without that, we are sitting at the doughnut shop becoming diabetic, becoming overweight, becoming sick, and dying. Because no one told us that we could eat something else, or ought to. We just consumed, and never questioned.
 
“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.”- Socrates, Greek philosopher (469-399 BCE)
 
Resources:
 
A list of places you can go that are rampant with critical thinking of various mediums.
 
Son of Baldwin
DC Women Kicking Ass & SDCC Batgirl (Kyrax2)
Nerdy Bird & The Mary Sue
Too Busy Thinking About Comics & Sequart
Film Critic Hulk & Asking The Wrong Questions
Ars Marginal & Penny Arcade: Extra Credits

 

Just some of the sites I go to. Places I don’t always agree with, but they do help me think. For anyone out there reading, add in your own links to places that help you think. Enjoy, and I hope you enjoyed this article. I will be back to talk about individual stuff next time, but I wanted you all to know where I was coming from. Let everyone know what you think, here, tumblr, twitter, facebook or wherever you can find us :)
 
Images Courtesy of: Creativity Unleashed; Gladiator. Dir. Ridley Scott. Perf. Russel Crowe. Dreamworks Pictures/ Universal Pictures. 2000.; ProBlogger; Taught to Think; Homer Simpson Wikipedia ; Jodi Truscott Blog

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 29 October 2 Permalink

Diversity and Disability

With the relaunch of the DC Universe happening next week, and the various promo and previews we have been subjected to, a lot of opinions of the relaunch has spread across the internet. From generally positive to virulent negativity, we have run the gamut of emotions. Without going into the business end reasons for this relaunch, we do have to talk about a few things. DC, and superhero comics in general, have always had a rather contemptuous relationship with diversity. Whether it be race, gender, sexuality, religion or whatever boat you are in, superhero comics rarely give you much to identify with if you are not a straight, white male. When a character DOES show up that is diverse, readers latch onto them, and identify and really become a part of the readership. But what happens when that changes? The DC relaunch has, according to imagery, given Barbara Gordon the ability to walk, after 20+ years being disabled. How has the readership responded?

I am going to give each and every one of the nerdiest-kids a challenge.Pick up and read Batgirl #1 when it comes out, and also read the various blogs, and podcasts that I am linking. Now ask yourself how you would feel if a character you identified with underwent such a change? Would you feel passionate enough to raise a voice? Our patriarchal privleged culture needs to wake up to these issues. Gail is aware of these, and is addressing them, and the opposing voice is (usually respectively) also voicing their opinion. Now its time for you to voice yours. Follow Gail Simone on twitter, read the comic when it comes out, and read these blogs and listen to these podcasts. Let the Nerdiest Kids know how you feel about diversity in not only comics, but all your entertainment. Its all our problem, no matter how much of a minority is there. No one should feel excluded and everyone should have a hero they want to emulate. Leave your comment below.

Facebook homepage https://www.facebook.com/pages/Barbaras-Not-Broken/216306118404228
Bleeding Cool Article: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/07/17/give-batgirl-the-chair-by-eric-glover/
Reaction to the Above article: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/08/14/confessions-of-a-sadistic-disability-fetishist-a-batgirl-story-by-eric-glover/
A blog about disability and pop culture: http://whereslulu.com/2011/07/20/reclaiming-batgirl/
Kevin Smith talking about it in a podcast: http://www.thefastertimes.com/politicallycorrectpop/2011/07/18/kevin-smith-mentions-tfts-batgirl-article-on-podcast/

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 26 August Permalink

The Fall of the Comic Book Epic Event

Remember when comics were entertaining?  You didn’t need to have 3 or 4 fancy crossovers every stinking year just to increase sales because there was a creative team who created interesting stories.  There was no need to have someone on this team accidentally kill someone on that team, or have an explosion from another universe bring all the heroes together to fight one cause.  Not on a regular basis, anyway.  Though originally started to help sell toys (Secret Wars) or celebrate anniversaries (Crisis on Infinite Earths); “Epic Events” and “Crises” were things that people got excited about because they only occurred once in a while, say once every few years These days the big two comic companies (Marvel and DC) have gotten into the habit of having these ginormous events AT LEAST once a year, and Marvel is worse than DC.





In recent years, Marvel has just thrown money at some of their big name writers and said, “Sure, you can make a shitty epic event title, but just make sure it’s got as many characters in it as possible so we can make as many tie-ins as we can.”  The lack of relevant stories has been multiplied because of this.  When Captain America died a few years ago it was big…no, it was huge!  But it was a good story.  The X-titles’ House of M was both done well and has had an impact that is still felt today throughout the Marvel U.  The superhero Civil War wasn’t even that bad, just a little too drawn out for most peoples’ tastes.  But Chaos War?  Siege (don’t even get me started)?  Even The Thanos Imperative, which I enjoyed, seemed to not really do anything other than kill off a couple cool characters which could have been done without a huge event.  It didn’t carry any epic story that brought a significant change, it just kind of happened and the status quo resumed, unlike the Annihilation War from a few years ago that had a HUGE impact.


Now DC has been better, but far from not having a piece of the blame pie.  DC’s Crisis events just tend to have a more extensive impact on all characters throughout the DCU. The recent epic events like Green Lantern’s Blackest Night which killed off some characters while bringing back others, has had a significant impact.  The return of Aquaman and Hawkman was big enough, but the return of Max Lord gave a profound impact on several different ongoing series’.  Not to mention all the awesome merchandise that has come out of the woodwork as a result.  So, you see?  There can be profound epic events!  It is possible!  But the millions of tie-in issues were not necessary.

Now all these events may be a little more acceptable if they weren’t so…freaking…long.  Secret Invasion went for 8 issues PLUS all of the tie-ins when it could easily have been finished in 4 or 5 issues. I know Bendis is wordy, and a lot of the time it’s worth reading that wordiness, but for 4 whole issues that don’t move the story along and don’t really need to be there? You’re killing me!


A friend brought up a good point to me the other day about the “Dark Reign” era, which though it wasn’t an “event” still had a similar impact in the Marvel U. at the time.  It was a long and drawn out era that, if you look at the Marvel U. now, hasn’t had an impact impact other than bringing back and subsequently killing The Sentry.  We’re back to where we were at the start, as if “Dark Reign” had never happened.  So what was the point!?  Oh, that’s right…the comic industry needs to make money. Batman, the JLA, Captain America, and the X-Men can’t make money by themselves, even if they have exceptional creators who consistently, arc by arc, move the story along and progress the characters.   No, no.  We don’t need good storytelling in comics anymore, we just need someone to make a big stinky pile of poop with every character in it so we can appeal to everyone and make the most money.


This is my plea to both Marvel and DC writers, editors, and senior staff: please bring back the epic event the way it was meant to be, something to look forward to.  I don’t want to cringe every time I hear that there is a new event like Fear Itself or Flashpoint, especially when it seems the publishers don’t even have enough faith in it themselves that they push it in the fans faces hoping people will cave in (hint, hint Marvel).  All we ask is that it’s dialed back a few notches.  We don’t want to always be running at 11, turn the nob down to 6 or 7 so when you crank it back up people get excited and are happy to throw down their hard earned cash to read it instead of regretting the purchase and loathing the day the epic event was first created.

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 9 March Permalink

Watchmen: The Movie Review

In the middle of the eighties, a phenomenon hit the comic book world of superheroes. A number of titles came out that challenged the conventional wisdom of what exactly constitutes a superhero comic, even what a superhero is. It wasn’t simply that the comics had to be deeper or more complex. It wasn’t that the characters were well rounded. We were treated to heroes interacting with a world not all that different from the one of the 1980’s. We were afraid, we were paranoid, and the world looked to be heading to the big nuclear war that we all feared. The thing these comics did was it showed us how the heroes we revered would grow up, and interact with our world. The truth hit us hard, so hard that we have been affected by these stories since then. Now one of those stories has come to the big screen. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s masterpiece Watchmen. Spoilers and a review after the cut.It’s so hard to think after just seeing the movie. I guess the best way to go through it is to explain the basic story. Watchmen is the story of Earth 1985 that has taken a turn for the worse then the one we all have lived or seen in our history classes. The obvious thing is that Richard Nixon is still the President of the United States. Vietnam has been won and declared the 51st state of the union, and superheroes really do exist. The major divergence in both the story and the movie from our world is that the comic books of 1939 inspire real people to don costumes and masks and fight crime with similar dressed people. Then in 1959, Jon Osterman, becomes Dr. Manhattan. The world forever changed as the United States and Russia were still in the cold war, but America had a real life Superman. Compounding things, the police get fed up working due to the costumed adventurers of this world and riots break out. The United States passes the Keene Act that outlaws costumed vigilantes. Some retire, some do not, and some work for the government as sanctioned agents. This brings us to the real story as one of the original costumed adventurers is murdered, and the investigation in why he is killed, along with flashbacks to the past, detail why this world is not only more horrible then our own, but also how far some people will go to save it.

When I saw the movie, it’s best to come out and say that I had read the graphic novel beforehand. I am wondering if perhaps me reading that gave me an edge in terms of understanding what the story I am watching constitutes of. I will say that the director truly tries to let the film breathe and explain what is going on, or for that matter show what is going on. Often he succeeds, but the films only loss that I can see is the lack of supporting characters, and the lack of subtlety. That and the way Richard Nixon is portrayed, that kinda bugged me.

The movie does a good job with getting us to care for the characters, and in this the film shines. All the main cast are given their back stories for the most part, only Nite Owl 2 (Dan Dreiberg played by Patrick Wilson) and Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt played by Matthew Goode) get short- shifted in terms of background. We never quite see why Dan has his compulsive need to adventure, and we never quite see the depth of Ozymandias’s desire to save people. The rest of the characters get depth, but not as much as from the novel, which is to be expected. They are given enough for the audience to truly sympathize with their various plights.

I will have to say that the Comedian (Edward Blake played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan), deserves great credit for portraying a sympathetic bastard to the extreme. We see that he does in fact feel emotions in every thing he does, even when it is brutal. He truly thinks the world is a sick joke, and that he is just playing the part. When the real joke becomes apparent though, we see what happens when the illusions of old, give way to the realities we all have to face.

Rorschach (Walter Kovacs played by Jackie Earle Haley) is a revelation as our narrator. He nails all the little eccentricities of the main character, and yearns to have more of his back story revealed. Perhaps when we see the extended cut of the film we will see more of his excellent take on the character. The film really whets your appetite for more exploration in the uncut DVD. He is brutal, uncompromising, but not unemotional, which Jackie portrays beautifully.

Dr. Manhattan or rather Billy Crudup deserves special mention for mastering emotional resonance with detachment. You never doubt that the man cares about people, while sounding so detached. Every action he does shows what happens when you live an ivory tower existence, and only when he is confronted with a true miracle, does the character truly shine as he gets to act. Again, subtleties and loss of supporting characters and even some lines shortchange the character and actor, and I can only hope we see more of Billy in the uncut DVD.

The real loss is the stories supporting characters. When the event happens, we feel as detached as Dr. Manhattan (Jon Osterman played by Billy Crudup) due to the lack of seeing anyone but the main characters. This is understandable given the limits of the film, but heartbreaking because at the point of the event, we should be bursting with emotion. Fear, paranoia, epiphany should be cascading from us as much as an energy signature, but it all felt somewhat flat. This isn’t due to the changing of the ending, this is due to the lack of people to connect with. Ever little character missing leaves nuances and emotions at the door, to the point where we are shocked, but not awed. Angry at the idea, but not outraged at the consequences.

Subtlety has never been Zach Snyder’s strongest suit. I understand why Zach has such a fondness for slow motion as it gives you the illusion of a panel from a comic, or really feeling the impact of whatever emotion or action you are seeing. I never felt he overused the device, but he did overuse the depiction of violence in the film. It is what I refer to as the ‘Sin City effect’, basically meaning that we don’t feel like these people are human, but truly superhuman in the amount of damage they can inflict and take. Not only that but the wholesale destruction of a human body that martial arts does to people in this movie detract from the realism of a fight that I believe was the original intent of the author. Now I also understand that this was to emphasize the point that these people do enjoy damaging other people, it takes extreme personalities to don a costume and fight crime. But the over the top fight scenes took me out of the film, it shocked me, not immersed me.

The sex is also cranked up in the movie. Which will either serve the film for you, or not. I did not have a problem with the multiple sex scenes, as they all made some sense. The musical selection for a scene with Silk Spectre ( Laurie Juspeczyk played by Malin Akerman) and Nite Owl was very odd as it was meant to be slightly comical, but killed the impact of the fact that Dan and Laurie got off on dressing up and playing hero. Dan needed to do that to feel fulfilled.

There are a ton of little touches in the movie that serve to show that the director clearly had a love for the source material. Zach fills in the background with touches of the novel as wee see the floating airships, the Gunga Diner, the newsstand, and all those wonderful posters and graffiti. Its not a failed labor of love, its probably the closest you can give love to a novel with that much dense material and have it make sense. I credit Zach for bringing this to the screen, and getting talented people to play the seminal roles. Just like in the novel, I leave it in your hands whether you will see this as an action flick, a deeper story, or the greatest story, its all up to personal opinion. Just like the novel, everyone will act differently.

Enjoy the movies!

Jeff “DarkSpirit82” Adams

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 6 March Permalink