Coming Out?

A topic that is often very heavy with debate, not just within the United States is when someone finally ‘comes out of the closet’, revealing to people that they are not straight. While this is usually just a personal matter that shouldn’t exactly involve strangers to give some kind of input on the matter, it isn’t a perfect world, so these things become hot button topics and news for us. Depending on what level of popularity you might have changes where this is going to be discussed though. If you are a small town person that is speaking to their parents for the first time about it or if you are a celebrity of some sort, both will most likely draw some kind of reaction.

In the movie Bully, there was a girl that was made out to be some kind of pariah when it became known that she was a lesbian. Everyone in this small town started to treat her like she had some kind of disease that could possibly be caught just by way of getting too close to her. Her parents also had to deal with the bully that came with their daughter coming out. People stopped associating with them, refused to look at them, or talk to them. Ultimately the girl had to move with her family since the school was not a very conducive environment for her.

That is what you might get from a small town knowing that your sexual preference is not similar to the ‘norm’.

On a grander scale there are quite a few public figures that have come out. Some with welcoming responses and some with hushed. One of the more recent figures that caused quite a substantial shock to people that hadn’t been in the loop before was Frank Ocean. He was hip-hop artist that had written many different songs, be it love, and be it anything to his prerogative. Last year thought he wrote a blog post about his first love last year, that first love turned out to be a ‘he’ instead of a ‘her’.  While this was shocking in itself, the people that stepped up to support him after were more shocking. Tyler the Creator, someone that has often been called out for his homophobia slurs, just happened to be one of the first people to congratulate him for it.

The most recent outing happened just yesterday, it was Jason Collins, a veteran for the Washington Wizards. While there has been a former NBA player to come out as gay in the past, this is one of the first to come out while actively playing still. This is usually a sport, along with football, where you won’t find lots of people trying to admit this openly since it makes other people possibly perceive you as feminine or girly in some way. In spite of this though, he has received tons of support since coming out from other basketball players and other sports related men as well. Even if there is still plenty of hate from people that lurk behind the anonymity of the Internet to try and oppress this man from stepping up and coming out.

Personally on the matter, I’m looking forward to the day that it isn’t national coverage news when someone comes out. When that day happens I’ll know that we are finally moving towards a better understanding of the LBGT community as a whole and no longer seeing this as some kind of spectacle to watch and study.

Assigned Entry #5

Zombie Craze in Media

Media has a way of changing the way a people as whole view things. Back in the day when we were living off fictional tales of this and that, we were introduced to the idea that somehow there could be come kind of viral outbreak that would leave only a small number of people to survive. The remaining individuals would have to fend off attack from those that were uncontrollable and violent. This left a very terrorizing image to those that had never really thought about any such thing happening. Fast forward to now though it’s almost an everyday occurrence. Be it video games, books, comics, zombiewalks, and movies.

With this though, it seems that we go through bouts of fads every decade here in the United States, at least when it comes to mythical creatures of sorts. The main part of it typically being some kind of fascination that comes from things that are outside our own physical possibilities and fantasize about all the ways that we could someday either have real issues that deal with them. As most people know I have my own fascination when it comes to movies and video games, but combine that with zombies and I will most definitely have to own it at some point in time.  It’s just something that is interesting and easy enough to fall into without too much of a fandom war here and there. Usually the biggest one might result in ‘zombies shouldn’t run’ or ‘zombies shouldn’t be intelligent’.

Most recently in the zombie film area there was a new title called Warm Bodies, this is a movie that delves into the possibility that when you die and rise back up again that there might very well be some kind of human existence still within you. This is a sharp contrast to those that are usually intent on either exterminating the entirety of the zombie race or some how trying to weaponize it for military use. This change is a sign to show how the effects of a saturated market in regards to zombie love in the media has swayed what might have been considered entirely outside the norm and not for the public audience.

So with the influence of media we have been able to turn the monsters that would creep in the night into something that we can become friends with.  Zombies are no longer something we are entirely terrified anymore, especially if they can be so easily personable. True Blood and The Vampire Diaries were a similar thing for vampires and Teen Wolf was one as well for werewolves. Our admiration for things that are otherworldly has progressed over the years.

Fandom: A Closer Inspection on Kpop Fandom

As I’ve stated in the past I’m a fan of Korean Music and one of the largest pieces of this interest comes with the collective of the fandom. Personally I’m not usually one to be extroverted, but when it comes to things like concerts or fanmeets…well this is one area where I will actually go out so that I can join the masses so I can actually experience something with the crowd. It’s an amazing experience that is hard to really put into words, but being able to see something first hand and getting to share it with thousands of other people at an event is just one of the best feelings in the world to me. Plus I’ve made many friends when going to these events and I’ve been given a chance to meet many people from other states and countries that I met previously via online due to being in similar circles involved in fandom.

That being said though, there is a negative to fandom that can be quite deterring when you’ve been a part of it for so long. When you're in a fandom where a good majority of the girls involved are probably in the 13-18 demographic it is common to find things involving jealousy when a band member either is casted in a movie where he has to kiss a girl or a scandal breaks and he is suddenly in a relationship you knew nothing about. Just recently the news broke about Lee Taemin of Shinee getting a chance to join We Got Married. This is a show where two idols are paired together for a season and go through all the steps as if they have been married and the ups and downs that can come with it. Previously his bandmate Kim Jonghyun had a scandal that involved him dating Shin Sekyung, which ultimately resulted in a large drop out of Blingers (fan name for Kim Jonghyun fans) in the fandom. It was only when the news came out that they had broken up that he really found his footing again with some of his fans. 

The negative though that I am getting sidetracked from is about delusional mindsets. When fans stop realizing or taking into account that the people we enjoy to watch and fanboy or fangirl over are actually 'people'. Not just some supreme being that does everything right and is forever just commercially produced for our enjoyment. They have a job, they are doing their job to entertain us. They are also people that need some sense of joy outside of that job also and they shouldn't have to worry that any little misstep of theirs is going to lead to the fallout of the fandom for them. It's days like this that I feel like the latter person above. I wish to sometimes step back from the fandom so that I only have to support the music group while not partaking in the fandom side of it anymore.

Assigned Entry #4

Capitalism: A Love Story

    Outside of the facts that are covered throughout the majority of the movie though his use of satirical humor at times distracts me from his message entirely to me. So much so that it has caused me to dislike most of the works of his that I’ve seen over the years despite some of the really positive messages that he is trying to deliver to the viewer.

Yes, I know capitalism is bad.
Yes, I know that the government is in bed with the banks and Wall Street.
Yes, I know it is horrible that the way things are cause people to lose their homes.

     I don’t take someone serious though when they are going to the banks with armored trucks to try and get the ‘peoples’ money back from the banks. Sure this causes people to take notice of what he is filming and to maybe ask questions, but it does not actually for those people. It only allows for him to gain a few laughs from the people in the theater when bank owners have him thrown out or flat out ignore him. He is like Howard Stern in some aspects. Trying to go for that bigger shocking reaction that is going to make everyone stare in disbelief about what just happened. He’s found success with this method and I guess the old adage of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ works for him.

    Overall…the movie was a just that, it was a movie. Michael Moore has become a culture icon through his tactics when it comes to his documentary style and he knows what will grab the attention of the common movie watcher and I’m glad he has found a way to express his creativity.