As a follow up to the last bit: a new SSD put everything running again correctly. I had some shenanigans with actually restoring from backups – at one point, all of my web browsers were too new to run on the OS, so I couldn't download the OS upgrade – but afterwards everything is fine.
The last couple of days, I've been hearing about the various sexual misconduct against the long deceased chief of the United Farm Workers, Cesar Chavez. It's caught me really off guard, maybe because I didn't know too much about him personally. But there are lots of streets after him, and of course here in California, Cesar Chavez Day is a state holiday in a couple weeks. But charges of grooming young teenagers for sex were bad, and then I heard that Dolores Huerta had two of his babies in secret, as the product of rape – and this woman is a living legend, too.
It's hard to describe the disappointment. By analogy, it's as if I just discovered that George Washington or Christopher Columbus owned slaves, and still have holidays. Wait, wait, bad example. Or maybe that is the best example? Suffice to say, the red flags were there if you looked hard, but no one wanted to talk about it, because it could put the movement at risk, and the movement was the important part.
I'm posting about it here, rather than in politics, because this is exactly the spot where Touga Kiryuu is. He's the kind of guy who wants to use his looks, personality, charisma, and passion to change the world for the better, and it's an entirely achievable goal for him. And in addition to that, why not have some girls? It's safe to assume that they want him, even if they pretend they don't.
The problem I have is that most writers tend to get hung up on the rapist part of Touga's character, while a few other writers get stuck in the romantic fantasy of his masculinity. When it's really all of the above. The core of his character is passion, and it means all of the good and bad parts of passion. The passion of Christ, the passion of ravishment. Both are inside of him, all of the time. And it's not too late for Touga to choose either path. Or both, as Chavez did.
After a century of feminism, it feels like we're due for a reckoning on masculinity. I don't know what it is, but our culture's sense of masculinity is unhealthy for everyone, and just as much of a unattainable fantasy as traditional femininity.
The last couple of days, I've been hearing about the various sexual misconduct against the long deceased chief of the United Farm Workers, Cesar Chavez. It's caught me really off guard, maybe because I didn't know too much about him personally. But there are lots of streets after him, and of course here in California, Cesar Chavez Day is a state holiday in a couple weeks. But charges of grooming young teenagers for sex were bad, and then I heard that Dolores Huerta had two of his babies in secret, as the product of rape – and this woman is a living legend, too.
It's hard to describe the disappointment. By analogy, it's as if I just discovered that George Washington or Christopher Columbus owned slaves, and still have holidays. Wait, wait, bad example. Or maybe that is the best example? Suffice to say, the red flags were there if you looked hard, but no one wanted to talk about it, because it could put the movement at risk, and the movement was the important part.
I'm posting about it here, rather than in politics, because this is exactly the spot where Touga Kiryuu is. He's the kind of guy who wants to use his looks, personality, charisma, and passion to change the world for the better, and it's an entirely achievable goal for him. And in addition to that, why not have some girls? It's safe to assume that they want him, even if they pretend they don't.
The problem I have is that most writers tend to get hung up on the rapist part of Touga's character, while a few other writers get stuck in the romantic fantasy of his masculinity. When it's really all of the above. The core of his character is passion, and it means all of the good and bad parts of passion. The passion of Christ, the passion of ravishment. Both are inside of him, all of the time. And it's not too late for Touga to choose either path. Or both, as Chavez did.
After a century of feminism, it feels like we're due for a reckoning on masculinity. I don't know what it is, but our culture's sense of masculinity is unhealthy for everyone, and just as much of a unattainable fantasy as traditional femininity.
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto
