Author Archives: Evan

Holly Brook is Skylar Grey

Posted on July 14, 2011 | 2 comments

At the age of 18 Holly Brook Hafferman, going by her first and middle names, was signed to Machine Shop Recordings, Linkin Park’s vanity label. Two years later she made it big by being featured and singing the chorus on Fort Minor’s fourth single, “Where’d You Go.” Holly Brook’s debut album, Like Blood Like Honey, dropped two months later, on June 6th 2006.

The above video is one of the only music videos I could find of her on YouTube, and it’s a live recording and not a professionally filmed one. While nothing flashy, it manages to sum up pretty well where she came from musically, “heartache and self-discovery over heavy piano chords.”1 Like Blood Like Honey managed to hit number 35 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart, but soon after she faded into obscurity.

This year Holly Brook reentered the music scene under the new stage name Skylar Grey, and went on to do big things. She helped write sections of Eminem and Rihanna’s hit “Love the Way You Lie” and was featured on tracks by both Diddy-Dirty Money and Lupe Fiasco. Her debut live performance as Skylar Grey was at the 53rd Grammy Awards where she performed “I Need A Doctor” alongside Eminem and Dr. Dre.

Already having accomplished so much this year Grey is currently working on her solo studio album, titled Invinsible. Below is the only video currently on her VEVO YouTube channel, a music video for the song “Dance Without You.”

Although it’s never directly stated who it is Skylar Grey would like to “dance without” it seems apparent that the person is Holly Brook, and the video drips with (unsubtle) symbolism. Evidence can be found in her black clad character’s actions bordering on murderous [the neck-snapping action at 1:35] towards her hospital gowned alter-ego and her dismissively stepping over the latter’s prone body at the video’s conclusion. The message is clear: It’s time to change and move on.

It’s impossible for anyone to judge Skylar Grey’s decision to change her image and genre of music, especially taking into account her past with the music industry.2 The chorus of “Wanted,” a song from Like Blood Like Honey, begins with the words “I will be wanted / I will not fall from grace.” Maybe this was just her way of making those words ring true.

1. AllMusic’s review of Like Blood Like Honey. Source: http://www.allmusic.com/album/like-blood-like-honey-r836849/review

2. In reference to her fall out of fame she’s quoted as saying “[s]uddenly I was chewed up and spit out,” admitting a lot of confusion over what had happened in the past. Source: http://www.latimesmagazine.com/2011/06/hooked.html

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Posted in music

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The Autobots Wage Their Battle To…

Posted on July 7, 2011 | 5 comments

There will be spoilers. Please be wary.
                                                                                                                                                                      

Cartoons from the 80s permeated much of my childhood, largely because a lotSource: http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Optimus_Prime_(G1) of older shows were aired in the Philippines, like the Captain America segment of The Marvel Super Heroes.1 Most people who grew up in the 90s have been exposed to Transformers, however, and know exactly what I’m writing about when I say that at one point Megatron didn’t transform into a tank or a jet, but a gun.2

Beginning in 2007, director Michael Bay began creating films based on the franchise, the content of said films fitting more in line with current cultural norms. In other words, the level of violence was ramped up to much higher levels.3 I never saw a transformer go down when watching the cartoon, but in the first two films we are witness to Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots: ramming his Energon Sword through Devastator’s head/neck region4, cutting off Starscream’s arm and clubbing him in the face with it5, and ultimately killing Grindor by pulling his head apart with hooks6.

As the antagonists in these films, the deaths of the Decepticons are seen as victories and not tragedies. Their design, especially when it comes to their sharp teeth and red eyes, helps to depict them as more beast-like than human. The Autobots being seen as people, however, is a point that’s pushed pretty hard in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the third and final instalment in the series. Wheeljack, the elderly inventor of the Autobots, is captured by the Decepticons and, as he begs for mercy, brutally shot twice. Ironhide is betrayed by Sentinel Prime and shot in the back, and as he asks why the Prime “dismisses” him and deals a finishing blow. Sam [Shia LaBeouf] and Bumblebee have a relationship going back to the first film, and whenever the Chevrolet Camaro-transforming robot is endangered the audience feels as Sam does, taking emotional cues from his panicked yells.

Since the first film we’ve seen Optimus Prime lay down the law and watched him and the Autobots wage their righteous war against the Decepticons. In spite of them clearly being in the right [no one wants humans to become slaves to the Decepticons] some of the actions that they perform in the third film seem . . . excessive. One battle is concluded by Ironhide pulling a spear out of his shoulder and impaling it into Crankcase’s (a Decepticon) face, slamming him into a car, and then kicking the wreckage into an auto shop.7 More disturbing by far, though, is what happens when a Decepticon aircraft is brought down. As the pilot struggles to get out he is surrounded by Autobots and dismembered. His head, arms, and legs are all yanked from his body, with his torso being further pulled apart by one of the Wreckers. Optimus Prime ends the carnage (and the film) by finishing off Sentinel Prime in a fashion eerily similar to how Wheeljack and Ironhide were, by executing him with Megatron’s fusion shotgun as he begs for mercy.

As exhaustive as this post seems to be, there are many instances of robot carnage which I have neglected to include. I suppose that the ones mentioned could show us that extreme violence can be justified when it is the forces of good against the forces of evil (and when they are robots). What it doesn’t explain is how, exactly, to understand this. If the Autobots are to be seen as people then why aren’t the Decepticons? Their fight is a civil war, and with this in mind would we be so cavalier to promote the murder of brother by brother? Are there any real-life parallels that these levels of brutality can be placed on?

The well-known Transformers theme song has the line “The Transformers! More than meets the eye!” The lesser known lyrics immediately proceeding that are: “Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons!” Knowing this, I suppose we always knew as children that Optimus and his forces were destined to more than defeat Megatron and his cohorts. A dozen or more years later, what I don’t think we could have known is how brutally this would happen.


1. First syndicated on US television in 1966: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marvel_Super_Heroes]

2. Specifically a Walther P-38, a World War II era handgun. Source: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatron_(Transformers)#Dreamwave_Productions]

3. Levels that  can only really be described as Bay-esque. [citation needed]

4. For your viewing pleasure: [http://tfwiki.net/w2/images2/thumb/5/52/Movie_Bonecrusher_dies.jpg/800px-Movie_Bonecrusher_dies.jpg]

5. Source: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T-ehTYfE-0#t=00m38s]

6. Source: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T-ehTYfE-0#t=00m46s]

7. Which then promptly explodes. Courtesy of Michael Bay.

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Posted in film

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“Rape”

Posted on June 30, 2011 | 13 comments

Three days ago a very close friend of mine and I were watching the StarCraft II podcast The State of the Game, an episode of which was specifically discussing foul language and the professional gaming scene.1 I turned to him and casually asked him what his stance on the subject was, a question which began a debate that lasted the better part of an hour.

This post is very difficult for me to write. I face the challenge of having to fairly represent our respective opinions, and I worry I will portray our separate viewpoints with a bias of some sort. In spite of this, I will try to press on and do my best.

Our discussion was, as you may have guessed from the title of this post, on the usage of the word “rape,” specifically in the context of the gaming community. To those perhaps unfamiliar with the terminology, the second entry on Urban Dictionary reads: “To utterly defeat another person in any form of competitive activies [sic].”2  An example of it being used would be someone saying to his friends, in the aftermath of a victorious Halo match, “We just raped those guys.”

My standpoint being that the word shouldn’t be used in this manner, my first point was one that INcontroL3 (Geoff Robinson) made, that its usage is harmful to e-sports in that it lowers the community in the eyes of others. My friend’s response [hereafter referred to as T] was that the context needs to be taken into account; if the word is being used in a setting where everyone fully understands the meaning behind the word [i.e. a StarCraft II stream] then there shouldn’t be any problem.

Outside of that specific context, T pointed out that language is an ever-changing thing, a sentiment I couldn’t, and can’t, disagree with. We give words both meaning and connotation, therefore it is fully within our power to change the words if we’d like. He went so far as to say that the word “rape” has already changed, fully appropriated by the gaming community. My argument was that although this may be the case, this change certainly didn’t need to occur. I wanted to address this trend in popular culture, the inclination to forever push our boundaries [moral and otherwise], but that would have been off topic and is for another time.

Similar to that point, however, I stressed that the word was chosen for a reason. A counterpoint to what he said about “rape” losing its meaning, I brought up the fact that it has such strength about it. It’s a loaded word, and was chosen for its level of offensiveness. Just because you’re no longer stating that you are going to sexually attack another person doesn’t erase the original sentiment behind the word choice.

Lastly, and what many of you may have been thinking while reading this, is that the word “rape” has such potential to offend. Those who have been or personally know rape victims may be very hurt by hearing the word thrown around so casually. A point against hypersensitivity was then made by T: we use much more violent terms such as “kill” and “murder” in regards to video games, so why is there never any outcry made concerning those who have had friends or family murdered?

Furthermore, there is a case to be made for discernment. T placed a lot of emphasis on the ability of the average person to know what the context behind the word is. If someone involved in a contest of any kind [be it video games or basketball] uses the word “rape” and directs it at their opponent then it is immediately assumed that they don’t mean the actual definition of the word. When I once again brought up those who were offended we were brought full circle to his point about the evolution of language.

T reminded me that language is in a state of continual development, and at the very least we are in a transitional period. I argued back that if this transition is going to offend and hurt others, then it would be better if it didn’t happen.  There is also the matter of those same people being hurt and offended even after the transition has fully taken place.

After all was said and done we agreed on a few points, yet it was apparent that on others we would remain divided. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary4, the Latin word “rapere” simply mean to “seize, carry off by force, abduct”;  it wasn’t until the 15th century that the more sexual aspects of the word began to be used. It may be that a few years down the line the word “rape” is thrown around as casually as “beat.” My stance, however, was never that words can change their meaning, but that sometimes they shouldn’t have to.


1. Source: http://blip.tv/sotg/starcraft-2-state-of-the-game-ep41-5229247 [starts again {was discussed earlier} at around 1:50:50]

2. Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rape

3. If you really want to know who this guy is: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/INcontroL

4. Source: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=rape&searchmode=none

13 Comments

Posted in language, video games

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Attitudes Towards Feminism in the Past Week

Posted on June 23, 2011 | 4 comments

Last week I edited the introduction of a 75,000 word manuscript that I had worked on in May, it being emailed to me long after the original job was complete. It was, by and large, about the feminist movement in the UK, and how it has lessened the nation as a whole. It cited the “ladettes,” which the Concise Oxford Dictionary defines as “Young women who behave in a boisterously assertive or crude manner and engage in heavy drinking sessions,” as a subject of particular disgust.

It grew more and more subjective as it went on, and denounced the “feminazis” as intensely angry women who felt little for the role of motherhood and were destroying chivalry. High subjectivity aside, on the whole he railed against these most extreme cases, acknowledging the need decades had past for gender equality in the workplace. This was by far the most reasonable standpoint I was witness to.

The day before that it was brought to my attention that Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, had once again written another blog post sure to start the internet buzzing. In response to the wave of news discussing men who have been cheating on their wives, tweeting pictures of their genitals, and raping, he explains that men are born “round pegs in a society full of square holes.” In other words, the society we live in today is constraining, keeping males in “a state of continuous unfulfilled urges, more commonly known as unhappiness.”

I’ve heard two of my English professors say that we always hope for our heroes to have risen above the thoughts of their time period. From the front of the classroom they often wore their disappointment clearly when this was not the case, such as Shakespeare’s portrayal of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Dilbert is a tremendously well-written comic strip, and in this case it’s saddening that an artist behind such a hilarious comic would also be the creator of such wildly offensive posts.

Last week, after some 15 years of development, Duke Nukem Forever was finally released. Decried by many as being overtly crude, disturbingly misogynistic, and having boring, repetitive gameplay, the comments sections of any article discussing the game became a place rife with conflict. Many staunch supporters of the game came out with some very strong opinions, the following catching my eye:

Internet Comments: A Cornucopia of Well Thought Out Opinions

This was found here, and I don’t have much else to say about it specifically. Duke Nukem Forever garnered terrible reviews, so much so that their public relations firm announced that they would be “reviewing who gets games [to review] next time and who doesn’t.” Everyone, however, is entitled to their own opinion.

In posts to come I hope to more fully explore the backlash against feminism that I believe to be an emerging trend. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, though in this case it appears to be a more extreme retaliation, to the point where the sensitive male is ousted as being a traitor to his gender.

This has been attitudes towards feminism in the past week.

4 Comments

Posted in comics, feminism, video games

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