It's Reigning Men
Last week, we learned two facts:
1) Les Moonves went out of his way to sabotage Janet Jackson's career. He did so, for years, after a team of performers, including Ms. Jackson, partook in the tradition of generating Super Bowl buzz by revealing some of her skin.
2) Les Moonves raped women.
Les Moonves presents as a white man. Janet Jackson represents black women. It is by noting the obvious that we speak the truth.
When I was the same age as our oldest son, freshly emigrated from Cuba and living in Spain, I decided to make a costume for myself that included decorations over my nipples. I was gently corrected – don't do that.
I recently learned about the videos of Natalie Wynn, aka, Contrapoints, and many of them are very, very good but the first one I saw is also, in my opinion, the best. It's about INCELS and, also, wrist size.
I have very thin wrists. I can't wear most "men's" watches. One door closes, another opens.
For the last two years or so I've been writing a story called Lágrimas Negras, or "Black Tears". It has come to me in pieces, like a jigsaw puzzle.* (And some of the pieces ended up being for a different story altogether!)
The only thing I have always known is that it would show men crying black tears.
Like many of my hare-brained ideas, this premise comes from my taking something figurative, both literally and seriously. The something in this case is a beautiful song from 1927:
1) Les Moonves went out of his way to sabotage Janet Jackson's career. He did so, for years, after a team of performers, including Ms. Jackson, partook in the tradition of generating Super Bowl buzz by revealing some of her skin.
2) Les Moonves raped women.
Les Moonves presents as a white man. Janet Jackson represents black women. It is by noting the obvious that we speak the truth.
When I was the same age as our oldest son, freshly emigrated from Cuba and living in Spain, I decided to make a costume for myself that included decorations over my nipples. I was gently corrected – don't do that.
I recently learned about the videos of Natalie Wynn, aka, Contrapoints, and many of them are very, very good but the first one I saw is also, in my opinion, the best. It's about INCELS and, also, wrist size.
I have very thin wrists. I can't wear most "men's" watches. One door closes, another opens.
For the last two years or so I've been writing a story called Lágrimas Negras, or "Black Tears". It has come to me in pieces, like a jigsaw puzzle.* (And some of the pieces ended up being for a different story altogether!)
The only thing I have always known is that it would show men crying black tears.
Like many of my hare-brained ideas, this premise comes from my taking something figurative, both literally and seriously. The something in this case is a beautiful song from 1927:
Que tu me quieres dejar, You want to leave me
yo no quiero sufrir I don't want to suffer
contigo me voy mi santa I'm going with you my love
aunque me cueste morir. even if it kills me
In my story, the crying is proof that a powerful medicine is working. Take just enough, and you can be as macho as you want to be. (Torture, rape, pillage, plunder.)
But take too much and the drug has an inverse effect. As happens, this drug soon falls into the "wrong" hands: young adults, mostly queer, who throw "cry club" parties where they take more than the prescribed amount in order to cure their broken hearts.
For those who love too much, it's a way to never change:
But take too much and the drug has an inverse effect. As happens, this drug soon falls into the "wrong" hands: young adults, mostly queer, who throw "cry club" parties where they take more than the prescribed amount in order to cure their broken hearts.
For those who love too much, it's a way to never change:
If loving you is wrong I don't wanna be right
If being right means being without you
I'd rather live a wrong doing life
In the binary world of bad guys vs. good guys, my story is about those who are too afraid to feel empathy vs. those who are courageous enough to feel the pain of the world.
Speaking politically, I would not describe toxic masculinity as a personal failure. Rather, I would argue that toxic masculinity is a symptom of an authoritarian regime in which men are granted privileges at the expense of women.
The greatest tyranny of this regime is not the grossly violent behavior of Les Moonves and Donald "Deny, Deny, Deny" Trump. It's the confirmation hearing of Brett Kavanaugh. For here is a group of mostly men, working dilligently to empower a man who cannot answer this simple question:
“Can you think of any laws that give government the power to make decisions about the male body?”
Speaking personally, as a neophyte dramatist, I believe that toxic masculinity is a tragedy. For the same regime that appears to empower men, actually imprisons them.
Shot, chaser
The jailer lives in the same prison as the inmate. He may eat better food and, for the most part, escape the physical pain of torture, rape and degradation. But he cannot rid himself of the shame of the prison. For truly, deep down inside, we know we are free only when everyone is free. Otherwise, Christianity would have died long ago as would have Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. To name just a few of our greatest hits.
Obligatory skateboarding images! For it points to the way, the truth, and the life.
When you skateboard, it's inevitable that you will be hurt. Sometimes, the board itself will hurt you. Eventually, it will ram into your privates. This is called "creditcarding" and while it hurts everyone who skates, it also hurts some skaters much more than others.
To quote @Pavetheway: "The self-possession, the risk, the slam, the familiarity/comfort with being injured. The lack of panic. The easy lament. The already-looking-forward-to-being-healed-so-I-can-skate-again. Women look this way often enough and it’s rare to see it documented."
Obligatory skateboarding images! For it points to the way, the truth, and the life.
When you skateboard, it's inevitable that you will be hurt. Sometimes, the board itself will hurt you. Eventually, it will ram into your privates. This is called "creditcarding" and while it hurts everyone who skates, it also hurts some skaters much more than others.
To quote @Pavetheway: "The self-possession, the risk, the slam, the familiarity/comfort with being injured. The lack of panic. The easy lament. The already-looking-forward-to-being-healed-so-I-can-skate-again. Women look this way often enough and it’s rare to see it documented."
MISCELLANEOUS
Perhaps, to make this newsletter special – like a velvet red rope around the boarding area to the same overbooked flight with no meal service – I'm keeping previous editions "private". So if you didn't receive the last note about Authenticity and Prejudice (Pride and Prejudice??), or my first one, about visiting my alma mater for the first time in 22 years, please reply and I will gladly send it to you.
NOTA
*The Spanish word for jigsaw puzzle is "rompecabezas" – or head breaker. I recently finished my first such puzzle in decades and I can attest that it did, in fact, break my head. Highly recommended!
Perhaps, to make this newsletter special – like a velvet red rope around the boarding area to the same overbooked flight with no meal service – I'm keeping previous editions "private". So if you didn't receive the last note about Authenticity and Prejudice (Pride and Prejudice??), or my first one, about visiting my alma mater for the first time in 22 years, please reply and I will gladly send it to you.
NOTA
*The Spanish word for jigsaw puzzle is "rompecabezas" – or head breaker. I recently finished my first such puzzle in decades and I can attest that it did, in fact, break my head. Highly recommended!
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