Why we need feminism

The picture above is the last panel of a comic about feminism I saw on tumblr. It is made by tumblr user kateordie and you can read the whole comic here. I think it's nice how many comics these days talk about important issues. By making it in comic form, the message can be presented interestingly and reach a wider audience.

I am a feminist and always proud of it. Sometimes, people ask why I am so concerned about feminism. I personally think we all should be feminist. Why? Firstly, because it is important and for a good cause. Feminism is not about women empowering men. It is about equality. Women don't want to rule men, we just want to be treated equally.

Secondly, because the sexism and misogyny towards women these days are very disgusting. Since we were young, little girls were taught to be quiet, obedient, and dainty. When boys hit us, our parents let them be because 'boys will be boys'. This continues until we grow up, where men get higher job positions and better pay. 

Recently, I was chatting with my ex-classmate from Indonesia (one of the very few open-minded Indonesian peers that I knew). He told me that an Indonesian governor in Sumatra proposed for virginity tests in high school entrance exams. 

I was dumbfounded. As far as I know, virginity and academic performance or intelligence is not connected in any way. However, the governor said that they will do this so the non-virgins will not blend and influence the virgins.

What.

My friend continued the story, and it just got worse. He said that only female students will have to go through this virginity test since there is no way to test the male students.

Even idiots can tell how unfair this is. I am also thinking about female students who are victims of rape. So they don't deserve a good education, but rapists do?

In conclusion, I wish people who think that women today are totally emancipated would open their eyes. We live in a world where women are still oppressed.  That's why we need feminism to get rid of the double standards.

Eloy Morales

The first time I saw Eloy Morales' work,  thought of it as a series of HD photographs of people with paint on their faces. I thought they looked cool. Then, I saw this:

And I realized that those are not photographs. This guy painted large scale portraits of people with thickly painted faces on wide canvas with such meticulous detail that they look like digitally printed photographs.

Morales is a Madrid-based artist. He creates hyper-realistic portraits with oil paint as his medium. Many of his works are self portraits. However, his works are more than just recreating pictures. He believes that his painting is a form of individual expression, and his works try to show the psychological aspects of the subjects painted.

I am really amazed by his works. He must have a lot of patience to do all the layering on the canvas. I like the touch of paint on his portraits' faces. They make them look more photorealistic, while adding colors and the illusion of depth or texture at the same time. The peculiar expressions also stole my attention.

Silver Spoon

When someone who never read manga before asked me for a good title, I always suggested Silver Spoon by Arakawa Hiromu. Manga and Anime fans might know Arakawa from her from her previous work Fullmetal Alchemist (which used to be my favorite manga of all time). However, Silver Spoon is a completely different story than Fullmetal Alchemist. 

Falling to the slice of life, drama, and comedy genre, Silver Spoon is a story about a city boy named Hachiken who went to an agricultural high school called Yezo High located in Hokkaido. Growing up with a strict father of high expectations, Hachiken chose school with a dormitory to escape from his father when he failed the entrance test of a good school. He thought that an agricultural school will be easy for someone who studies as much as him, but life in Yezo high proved to have its own challenges for a Sapporo boy like him.

I enjoyed the manga very much. It is a salad of thoughtful moments and pure comedic genius. There are many issues discussed in this manga - with family relations, friendship, and finding one's true dream being the focus. There are many well developed characters that readers can connect. Some have inferiority complex, family issues, money problems, school problems, not being able to reach their dreams, etc. I find Hachiken's struggle with finding what he actually wants very interesting and believable. I think it is a dilemma many highschoolers face. The story also makes the readers realize the things they take for granted, and taught them to believe in second chances.

Other than that, the manga is a very good, stress relieving easy read. It is one of the funniest manga I have ever read (after The Law of Ueki) with hilarious characters. I enjoy the usually unexplored theme for a shounen manga. There are not many manga with an agricultural life as the setting. The distinct clean, beautiful style of Arakawa's pen strokes is also prominent, making the art visually pleasing to look at. In short, it is greatly recommended! 

Elementary and Sherlock

The new season of Elementary premieres in a few days, and I'm so excited. I just finished marathon-ing the first season and it is now my new favorite TV show. The show is a modern adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, set in the US. There are some controversies regarding this series since BBC also has a TV show 'Sherlock' with the same concept. I personally love and enjoy both of them, and I don't understand how many of the fans loved one and hated the other. 

First, I think these two series are actually very different. Sherlock only has three episodes er season. Hence, each of them is very complicated and detailed. The plot development is nail biting with jaw-dropping twists. Elementary has 24 episodes in a season, and all but four are separate cases with no connections whatsoever between them. It is simpler, but makes up for it by not making their fans wait nearly two years for only three episodes. What bores you out of Elementary is actually the overused plot twists. After the first three episodes, you will realize that the first, second, an sometimes third suspect is in fact not the criminal.

For acting, I still think BBC's Sherlock is better. They also have wonderful casting - made of very good, renowned actors. I especially liked the three important characters; Sherlock, Watson, and Moriarty. For Elementary, my favorite is without doubt the Watson played by Lucy Liu. She is a very subtle actor and I love every scene with her in it..

Generally, Sherlock has more fans and viewers than Elementary. It is also considered more successful. However, what hooks me to Elementary is its approach to equality and representation. Elementary took the liberty of changing the sex and gender of John Watson into a cis female. She is also a woman of color. Unlike BBC's Sherlock, which is made up of almost completely white, male characters, Elementary has a diverse (thus realistic) cast. There are Asians and African-Americans playing major roles (not background characters or props). The women on the show do not exist as plot devices for men, but are deep characters with interesting developments. The show also has a trans woman character who is played by a real trans woman.

In conclusion, Sherlock is better in terms of storyline and acting. Elementary is simpler and aces in its modern social representation. I think both of them are great in terms of set and costume design. The set of BBC Sherlock's apartment is very detailed and elaborate - as if you can see the character's personality from it. Elementary's Watson has a neat wardrobe - pretty, practical, and modern. 

Alice in Wonderland's Costumes

While Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010) is not my favorite movie, I still think that it had some of the most beautiful costume designs. Of course, Hollywood movies of fairy tale settings mostly have great costumes, but I like how there are so many details even in costumes with minute screen appearance. I think all the characters have beautiful, statement outfits, but I'd like to talk about Alice's costumes.

Costume designer Colleen Atwood purposely designed new concept dresses for Alice. She didn't want the cliche Alice-in-blue-dress-with-white-apron-and-white-headband look that got feral since the Disney version of the movie came out. She also insisted in not dressing Alice in hoopskirts or corsets, to represent the character's free personality and modern mindset.

The two pictures above are my two favorite Alice costumes. The one on the left is her dress when she grew bigger and had to wear make-shift clothes out of the curtains in the Red Queen's castle. I like the ruffles and the playful look of it. The one on the right is her battle armor - one of the very few women's battle-suits in movies that doesn't sexualize the body, is realistic/believable and still manage to look beautiful. I like the gorgeous details and the fact that the armor actually covers the body. Of course, there is nothing wrong with women who are comfortable in showing skin when they dress up (and vice versa), but I'm sick of seeing super sexy, probably-not-comfortable and surely-not-safe battle outfits for women just so men can see their breasts. The armor in this movie is a nice change indeed.

Inflatable Concert Hall

This is the world's first inflatable concert hall, located in the disaster hit northeastern coast of Matsushima, Miyagi prefecture, Japan. The giant purple structure is called Ark Nova, designed by British sculptor Anish Kapoor and Japanese architect Arata Isozaki. The balloon is coated with polyester material. It measure 18 meters high and 35 meters wide when fully inflated, holding up to 500 people. It can be easily deflated to travel around. The seats are made from fallen cedar trees.

While it may not be possible for grand, large scale concerts, I like the idea of this concert hall because it's very practical for small ones. I think with this innovation, holding charity events will be easier as the hall can be set up on any piece of empty land instead of renting a hall or building. I also like the design of it. It kind of looks like a giant jelly bean :)

Crime Against Nature

Crime Against Nature is a beautifully illustrated children book by Gwenn Semeel, exploring the many different types of sex and gender roles, sexuality, family structure, etc in the animal kingdom. I am in love with the idea of this book. We often diss people who don't fall into the common tropes in society as being crimes against nature - abnormal, wrong, and not supposed to happen. The book shows that there is in fact a very diverse variety of these issues in nature. 

I think it is a great way to explain these kind of stuffs. While this book is intended for children, I think many adults need to read this book as well. 

Another thing that makes this book special is how it explains things the way they are. Sometimes, adults are reluctant to explain things like intercourse, sex change, homosexuality, etc to children and opt to give a lousy answer when they ask. This book is honest and doesn't use sugarcoated, shallow explanations to show that these things are not taboo at all, and it's good for children to be open-minded.

These are some of my favorites:

"Boys can become girls. When a clownfish female is removed from her anemone home, the male turns into a female and one of the couple’s young becomes a mature male. The new pair continues to breed in the same anemone."

"Some boys and girls don’t make babies at all. Gray wolves tend to live in packs with only the dominant male and the dominant female reproducing. Other members of the pack nurture the young along with the parents."

"Among black swans, males sometimes pair-bond with other males. These couples tend to be successful as parents since the combined strength of two males allows the swans to maintain a larger nesting territory. They acquire eggs to raise either by briefly forming a trio with a female or by taking over the nest of a heterosexual couple."