Xanthe Lee

This is the second time tooo

Happened yesterday while trying to do ish my term paper…

Man…not that I’m enthusiastic about finals…

But dang…I got stuff to do…

I think therefore, I am, and I am a complicated being.

To understand or solve complicated situations inevitably involve complicated processes. It first involves understanding ourselves. 

I can say with confidence that I stepped away from Critical Approaches class realizing something new and different about myself, where I fit in the world, where I can fit in the world, and just how I think about myself in general. 

 It is not that uncommon for one to want to seek an easy solution to world problems like world hunger, or unfair treatment towards women, or even the prejudices against variably embodied people. However, only if we are passionate, willing to roll up our sleeves to do the dirty work and, most importantly, be comfortable learning from our mistakes along the way can we make a difference.  Not only would we be able to understand ourselves better, but improve ourselves as well. When we accomplish this, we can better understand and improve the world around us.

WEEK #10

Just shortly after reading and discussing #NarrativeProsthesis by David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder, Sneak peaks and the first official trailer to the upcoming live action to Ghost In the Shell were released.

This was quite the opportunity for me, seeing as the last blog I posted regarding the franchises and #DisabilityStudies, I was at a bit of a standstill with my critical thinking of the story/ plot and Crip Theory. There was so much I wanted to tease out, figure out, and reanalyze but I was only able to stretch my brain too far before running the risk of melting my own biological CPU; unlike the character of Major, mine cannot be so easily salvaged.

I thought I had hit a wall, not knowing where else or how else I could view the philosophical back bone of Major’s narrative. I had really wanted to engage with this fictional tale further because of its abstract complexities.

Whether it is in the manga, animated series, or the animated films, the story is always told from Majors point of view. There is a constant in every version, Major, is a being who exists in a full body prosthesis. She is in a constant search for some form of truth/affirmation, of her identity and her “humanness”

Now by in large, this fits fairly close to the idea that a narrative cannot function or be successful if there isn’t some sort of ‘disability’ to overcome.

The example used was:

1.    “deviance or marked difference is exposed” àMajor is exist as a "full-body prosthesis" augmented-cybernetic human…I’d say that is a very marked difference.

2.    “A narrative consolidates the need for its own existence by calling for an explanation of the deviations origins…” àthis is almost the entire plot of the upcoming live action of Ghost In the Shell, she is in search of who she was and the truth of how she came to be this way.

3.    Now here is where things complicated because this is where the narrative does quite fit the examples, “the deviance is brought from the periphery of concerns to the center of the story…” à the ‘deviance’ or ‘marked difference’ is almost ALWAYS the main concern, the only thing that changes regarding the emphasis on Major not being fully “biological” is how her concerns and perceptions regarding her own embodiment. However, her contemplation of her embodiment remains a constant.

4.    “the remainder of the story rehabilitates of fixes the deviance in some manner.” à Major continues to exist as is, her ‘ghost’ her ‘essence’ her ‘consciousness’ doesn’t change and her ability to be ‘uploaded’ into any other ‘full-body prosthesis’ always remains the same. The narrative is always left open- ended. The only things that are ever altered, is how she perceives what it means to be human, and even then, she is unsure of her sentiments and feels she may learn or feel something else in the future. The intense ambiguity leaves the narrative almost incomplete without solution or end, just a lot of unanswered questions.

 So one thing is certain, Major’s narrative, to some extent, relies on the marked difference for the narrative to actually progress however, the marked difference is not used as a metaphor for other things. Her variable embodiment is the for front of the narrative as is, not a metaphor for some other deviance. The question through the entirety is what qualifies or measures “humanness.” It also creates a critic on social political issues on how people treat people with variable embodiment.

There are times, where characters, (i.e. Major’s creators) present some ableist hostility disguised as friendliness.  They expect that their perception of kindness will allow the “real person” to emerge from they think is ‘shell of disability’… However, what is actually happening is that they are looking past the already-real person, and seeing the ghost of someone they are imagining or idealizing.

While this narrative, relies heavily on the use of variably embodiment, it is however, done in a way to address critical issues and sentiments regarding being variably embodied.

This makes me even more eager to see the film when it finally premiers.

Week#9

In Screening Stereotypes, Paul K. Longmore wrote,

 “Disability happens around us more often than we generally recognize or care to notice…” 

This is often true, even with variably embodied individuals as well. I have come to realize this, not only with regards to my own embodiment, but with my close variably embodied loved ones as well. This prevalence of overlooking and dismissiveness is very true …unless you have begun taking a form of disability studies course and find yourself thinking more and more critically of, not only your surroundings, but what you watch for leisure with the intention of ‘forgetting about class stuff for a bit’

Ah… an evening of re-watching some blue rays on a Saturday morning to relax and unwind from the hectic busy academic bustle of college life…

I am watching one of my favorite Marvel Entertainment movies, The Wolverine …everything is going well…Hough Jackman is portraying Logan handsomely and without disappointment…I find myself not think about much other than Logan being his usual charming sarcastic brute, until…we reach the climax of the movie’s plot, and I recall reading,

 “Though many of the examples date from the period when this article was written, the same themes and characterizations, the same stereotypes, have persisted up to the present.”

The Critical Approaches to Lit-Cul class I am currently in, recently had this assigned reading that I am quoting from. It was published by the Temple University Press in 2003… We are in 2016…and the stereotypes and characterizations regarding disability we encountered throughout Paul K. Longmore’s essay (as I realize profoundly while watching The Wolverine) are still heavily steeped into today’s films and tv shows.

There is no denying that the story/plot behind this movie, disability was most definitely utilized as a “melodramatic device” by representing an association of disability with EVIL. Longmore explains that this form of characterization reinforces “three common prejudices against handicapped people: disability is a punishment for evil; disabled people are embittered by their “fate”; disabled people resent the nondisabled and would, if they could, destroy them.” All three can be teased out from this movie’s plot.

In The Wolverine, the villainous representation of disability is done through the main antagonist, Yashida. His story begins during WWII in a prison camp near Nagasaki, Japan. He is a young Japanese officer who Logan saves from not only seppuku (ritual suicide), but from the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.  Logan gets Yashida to climb down into a pit, as he grabs a metal door to cover Yashida. Seconds later a wall of fire sweeps into the well, and Logan is horribly burned. Yashida survives the bombing with only a small burn on his cheek, and watches in horror as the third-degree burns on Logan's body heal before his eyes. In these events the movie presents the first mentioned common prejudice in two ways. First by depicting the Japanese army as the ‘bad guys’, already making Yoshida ‘evil’. Second, Yoshida doesn’t go through with the seppuku which would culturally bring dishonor on him and his family, making him again, the ‘bad guy’. What’s his punishment you might ask? Well, sometime later in the movie, years… later in the plot, Yashida’s elderly body is being ravaged by cancer. So the punishment for being the ‘bad guy’ is a debilitating deadly disabling disease.

Fulfilling common prejudice number two, Yashida is characterized as a bitter old man who wants to ‘fight’ his ‘fate’, cheat death, and become more powerful that he has ever been. This embitterment is represented through his treatment of his own son, and his obsession with non-stop advancement with his cutting edge medical technology company.

This obsession brings us into the third reinforced prejudice. Yashida’s amazement with Logan’s unique mutant super embodiment turns in to selfish jealousy as he nears closer to his body’s health and ‘abled’ limit. having been obsessed with Wolverine's adamantium skeleton, Yashida had been stockpiling adamantium for years. Yashida life's goal since meeting Logan was to prolong his own life, at whatever cost, even if than meant killing Logan, his savior.

 Now if realizing these three common prejudices in full effect was not disappointing enough, I realized that the plot end for Yashida is the representation of a stereotype or assumption that “disability makes membership in the community and meaningful life itself impossible…” by giving Yashida’s death the only possible solution. On top of that Yashida’s obsession with Logan’s vitality reinforces what Tobin Siebers calls the ideology of ability, but that would be a whole other worms best kept for another day.

Xanthe Lee Vinson

WEEK #8 

Understanding and embracing what Tobin Siebers is trying to suggest about people’s preference to view the future with an imperative to triumph over death has been a steep and bumpy uphill battle. He writes, 

“Science Fiction fantasizes about aliens who have left behind their mortal sheath; they are superior to us, but we are evolving in their direction. Cybernetics treats human intelligence as software that can be moved from machine to machine.”  

He seems to have lumped this pattern into what he calls the ideology of ability. While I see that the ideology of ability is the compulsive tendency to set exclusive and discriminatory standards of humanness based on measure of ability, or capability, I just do not see how questioning or pushing the boundaries of ‘embodiment’ reinforces ableism.

As I ended my previous blog, (week#7) Another sci-fi theory explored in Ghost in the Shell is the theory that AI will be the next step in human evolution. With Major being an augmented-cybernetic human with "full-body prosthesis" I can see how the character runs the risk of representing and reinforcing Ableism.

An important concept within AI/evolution theory is the process of merging two sets of data AI & DNA , the DNA containing one’s “essences” or internal code for “awareness” in order to create an infinite amount of embodiment possibilities. AI, is in some capacity, self-aware. So it has its own consciousness or “ghost” which as discussed in my prior blog, is what makes one “human” according to the philosophy presented in Ghost in the Shell. This merger of two operating "ghosts" into one mind is specifically different from birth while being simultaneously analogous to it – this does not create a standard for humanness but rather questions what it means to be human. I would argue that these fictitious depictions are meta-representations of the writers’ own philosophical inquiries regarding humanness and/or embodiment.

It is more obvious to me in their creation of the Tachikomas which are artificially intelligent tank-like robots with extremely flexible, adaptable AIs that programed safeguards that enables them to behave unpredictably and flexibly. In the anime, Tachikoma often ask questions that most people who are not concerned with trying to understand our world would not think of. There are Tachikoma short clips that involve them discussing complex philosophical issues and how they relate to existence. The Tachikomas are also used to approach the question of whether or not one's individuality can withstand a parallelization of information from a different perspective, or even have the capability to simultaneously parallel multiple perspectives at once. These short clips are amazing complicated layering of Intersextionality and the variability and infinite possibility of human existence or being.

It is still difficult to fully determine I feel as though this story franchise depicts a person ideology of ability, more or less, then it questions if any limits or standards can realistically be placed on embodiment or existence.  The show tends to blur the lines between all different theoretical lenses I have attempted to apply. Making it harder to answer my initial questions in my Week#7 post. 

would wanting to force a fictional character that can fit into any and all embodiments, or even exist as multiple embodiments at once, into one single race, gender, and cultural representation be a form of imposed ideal? 

would agreeing with the critics make me in some way, an ableist?

My search for answer only led me to more questions....

but perhaps ill revisit this later.

Xanthe Lee Vinson

@jasonsfarr

WEEK #7

There have been recent uproars regarding the scheduled live action filming of the Japanese anime series Ghost in the Shell.  The new adaption of the Japanese anime franchise got off to a heavily controversial start with the casting of Scarlett Johansson as the franchise’s main protagonist Major Motoko Kusanagi. Major was originally written as a naturally born Japanese female human. As a child she was in an accident where survival required a "full-body prosthesis" thus turning her into an augmented-cybernetic human.

I suppose it is to be expected to have some die-hard-fans of anime, or fanatics of anything thing really, can easily be dismissive or seemingly sympathetic to the ‘white washing critics’, but at the same time, fans of the franchise who defended the casting Scarlett Johansson, explained their support and optimism stems from their concerns with the potentiality for debates regarding cultural appropriation becoming as stifling and overbearing as the constant battle over political correctness. This was not what I had expected.

Being a ‘fan-girl’ of the Ghost in the Shell franchise myself I found my self-torn.  Who was right? What side should I chose? If any, what would be my stance?

On one hand, the ‘white wash critics’ make a logical and compelling case: It could be argued that the casting of Scarlett Johansson is the equivalent of cultural misappropriation with elements of a minority culture ( Japanese and Anime culture) being used by a cultural majority (the ‘white washed’ major film industry) stripping Anime/ Ghost in the Shell fans and creators of their group identity and intellectual property rights.  

However, I can’t help but ask myself, “would wanting to force a fictional character that can fit into any and all embodiment, or even exist as multiple embodiment at once, into one single race, gender, and cultural representation be a form of imposed ideal?” would agreeing with the critics make me in some way, an ableist?

I been a fan of the Ghost in the Shell franchise for years. The manga, the anime series, and the animated movies, I even played the adapted video game. What always intrigued me about this seemingly run of the mill SCI-FY anime, was its intense focus on the philosophical. Everything about the franchise was very metaphysical, something I always felt was very HUMAN.

I realize now, after having stretched my brain over and over tackling Tobin Siebers’ proposed theory of complex embodiment, that the philosophical focus, was often on embodiment.

The writers throughout the Ghost in the Shell franchise have create this futuristic society where the miracles of science have redefined what it has meant to be a ghost. In these fictional representations of the future, to be a ghost, no longer means that one has lived, died, then passed to some other world …"ghost" or in Japanese ‘gōsuto’ is colloquial slang for an individual's consciousness.  Instead of it viewed as a different form of being ‘ghost’ becomes the thing that defines what it means to be human, because that “consciousness” differentiates a human being from a biological robot or an AI. They suggest that regardless of how much biological material is replaced with electronic or mechanical substitutes, as long as individuals retain their consciousness, their essences, their mindfulness of self, their ghost – they retain their humanity and individuality. So the titling, Ghost in the Shell, is both a trans lingual and idiomatic play on words that represents one of the major philosophical views the franchise writers had regarding embodiment.  

Another major theme in the metaphysical world of Ghost in the Shell is the theory that AI will be the next step in human evolution. I am almost tempted to view this as potentially representing Ableism, but that will have to be a post for another day.

Xanthe Lee Vinson

Week #6

Watching a sort clip on how much the fashion industry and mainstream media has made efforts to be all inclusive of people of differing body shapes and ethnic backgrounds and all walks of life…paying close attention to public figures such as Amy Schumer, Robyn Lawley, and Winnie Harlow. I thought it was great wonderful to see such a big movement….until I recalled the Paralympics Ad controversy….

These ‘huge’ improvements made by mainstream media and modeling agencies are more like baby steps…

The changes to be more inclusive of aesthetic variability is great and all…but not a single mention or notice has been made of variable-bodied models like Viktoria Modeata…or how able bodied models were photoshoped for ads…

I am a huge fashion lover…I die over Paris’s Fashion week….

However…it makes me sad to realize that the industry and Mainstream Entertainment still enforces what TOBIN SEIBERS would call…Ableism.

Xanthe L Vinson

Not feeling great….

I know parking sucks….but guys….a parking spot is not worth a life…please be careful.

Feel in all sorts of ouchie….