What "The Walking Dead" Has Taught Me

So there is this show that comes on AMC called "The Walking Dead", maybe you have heard about it. If not than welcome to planet earth and I hope you are enjoying your stay here.

I began to watch the show because it was based in Atlanta. And I thought it would be fun to see what the city that I live pretty close to would look like during the apocalypse. And I wanted to see what it would look like to have one side of I-85 completely void of cars. That scared me more than the zombies, but I digress.

Of course there are obvious things from the show that every woman has learned, such as Norman Reedus is sexy as hell, and don't sleep with your "dead" husband's best friend.

But there are other subtle things I have learned that I feel the need to share.

1) Rednecks will inherit the earth.

The sexy redneck!! 

With reality shows like Hunny-Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty people from the south has experienced some pretty bad press. Not everyone who lives in the south are rednecks. However, many, many people are. Yes they may be entertaining and amusing to the more cosmopolitan and sophisticated citizens of this country, but in case of a zombie outbreak I give those people 2 days tops! They will be dead, and then undead with a quickness.

Case and point- Daryl Dixon! Women all over the country are now drooling and fantasizing about a man who is by very nature, a redneck. Now in real life, a lot of women would look at a man like Daryl and laugh about the idea of going out with him. But when the zombie apocalypse hits, it's these men that are going to have a shit load of guns, some spam cans that just happen to be laying around the house, and can kill, skin, and gut a wild animal to feed him and whoever happens to be hanging out with him. So yeah, they may seem uneducated and backward to you, but when shit hits the fan their going to be just fine.

2) Human nature is still going to be human nature.
First of all, humans are neurologically wired to be social creatures. We will seek out others. In the beginning of the series, people who were once strangers formed together to establish a tribe like culture. In times of panic, we need other people for comfort and we need a sense of belonging to something.

But then the panic subsides, and people begin to distrust other people who are not in their "tribe". That again is human nature. We do not like outsiders. No matter how trusting and tolerant you think you are I promise, in times of crises our basic instinct of survival will kick in and you will stay loyal to your "us", and distrust "them".

And just like the Governor proved, there will be people who will use a crises as a way to gain power and authority. The ability to be manipulative and power hungry doesn't disappear from our nature just because of a catastrophe. Just like in real life, some people see a disaster as a way to help others, and some see it as a way to help themselves. And if the show doesn't illustrate that enough try picking up a history book! 

Look familiar??

 

3) Dead people make for good camouflage.
In the first season Rick and Glenn find themselves trapped in the city of Atlanta surrounded by a lot of zombies. This is when we first see the usefulness that zombies can provide for hiding in a crowd. They cover themselves with the kind of gore that you would expect from a show about zombies and disguise themselves by walking slowly with them, and since they smell dead, the zombies think they are dead. But then the rain kind of ruined that and epic walker killing action ensues.

Then in season two our group finds themselves in another sticky zombie blood situation. They are trapped on  I-85 (I know that feeling!) and soon a walker herd comes their way. Daryl covers an injured T-Dog and himself with a couple of corpses that are laying around and the walkers walk right past them. Not realizing that there are two living people under the dead people. Good thing zombies are not that bright!

And then we have Michonne! She had two arm-less and jaw-less walkers in chains. (I guess everyone needs some kind of pet.) She figured out that she can walk around with them and other walkers don't bother her. Andrea learned this trick from Michonne and used it as a means to get to the prison in season three.

But please don't cross the "having a zombie chained up" line like the Governor did with Penny!

I mean who wasn't creeped out by this??

A Woman's Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, or The New World Order. Whichever Comes First

This is my rendition of a woman's guide to the end of the world. Rather it be by biological  mystic, or government induced. No matter why you are now facing the end of civilization, you are. So you might as well get use to it and buck up and grow a set.

The number one problem with women when it comes to the end of the wold is we still rely too much on men. Think about it: think about every movie you have ever seen. It is always the woman who is left behind washing clothes and "tidying" up camp and the men are the ones who go out to protect the "womens". Well let me be the one to tell you that it does not have to be that way!
So my first rule  for women is:

1) Get a couple of guns, and practice!!! (However, if you are a convicted felon, or suffer from an illness, or have any other reason as to why you cannot and should not buy a gun LEGALLY and register it, skip this.)

The practice point is the most important. What is the use in a gun if you do not know how to use it? No matter if it is a zombie apocalypse or a new world order, it never hurts to know how ta make a head shot at 20 yards! Either way, you will be the stronger because of your knowledge of the weapon. Which leads me to point number two:




2) Learn how to kill silently and up-close.

Whether you are dodging zombies or evil government soldiers, you only want to use a gun when your back is against a brick wall. Gun shots are too loud and draw too much attention to the user. You need to know how to inflict a head wound with a knife so the "enemy" can go down quietly and without much of a fight. This also applies to a sword, and it can prove worthy to you. Learn how to be a surgeon using the ancient weapon. This is also the moment that "stealthiness" comes into play. Part of being able to be a silent death machine is the ability to lurk around corners without drawing attention to yourself. This is where women have the upper hand. Many of us were brought up to be "graceful" and "delicate". And what better way to teach these virtues of women but by enrolling them in ballet? So many women have years of practice of tip-toeing around on our bare toes. Thus, we have learned to be quiet as a mouse when we leap, run, and walk.  Hence, we are quiet death machines!

Speaking of silent weapons that can come in handy; this brings me to the next point:

3) Buy and learn how to use a crossbow.

 This weapon combines the efficiency of the silent kill that is offered through a knife and sword with the long distance kill of a gun. This is the perfect weapon if you want to shoot "something" or "someone" without the attention of a gun blast. This allows for a silent kill without the need to get "up close and personal" while using a knife or sword. Using this weapon also allows for a bonus for the women out there, this is the weapon of such sexy men as Daryl Dixon of "The Walking Dead". Using a weapon such as the crossbow could strike up a conversation with a man such as Daryl, because you already have a weapon in common. Which leads me to my next point:




4) Use protection!

Even if you have never seen a George Romero movie or seen an episode of "The Walking Dead", or been in a combat situation, common sense should tell you that now is not the time to start a family. Even if it is with a sexy Norman Reedus type character you need to remember that no matter what you do, a child will bring attention to you from the very people (or un-people) that you want to avoid. For many of us who have seen the last episodes of M*A*S*H we know what a crying baby can do to refugees of a political struggle and the psyche of a normal person. And for later generations that know not what I am talking about but can relate to the problems that a screaming baby can yield, the simple truth is "baby bad" and "living good". So when looting for supplies during a zombie or political apocalypse  please get some condoms on your next pillaging endeavor.

This is just a few points that I wanted to bring to a "Feminist Guide to the End of The World". This one article is just the tip of the iceberg, so continue to read so all strong women (and men) can survive a New World Order, or a Zombie Apocalypse!

Protests in the Modern Age: Why Anonymous is Making History

When the word “protest” is said many images can be conjured up in your mind, depending on your life and the times you lived in. For many African-Americans they still think of the sit-ins at cafes’ or Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat. Or they may think about the March on Washington lead by Dr. King, or the brutal force the government used such as attack dogs and police batons. For many people my parent’s age they think of the War protests that went on in the 60’s and into the 70’s. They think of men burning their draft cards in protest of a war that was wildly unpopular. For many law student’s they think about the right to petition and protest the government as defined by our First Amendment Right and they may think of subsequent court rulings that have upheld that right.  

But what about our generation? What does our right to protest look like in the 21^st century? To me, when I think of protest my mind goes to a crowd of people in Guy Faux masks Rick Rolling a crowd and holing up signs with catz on it just for the lolz. That is my generation of protestors.

The media has labeled the group Anonymous as many things including terrorists, hacktavists, and bored teenagers with too much time on their hands. I was first introduced to Anonymous in 2008 during the Project Chanology phase when they were protesting the church of Scientology. And I have followed the group’s activities ever since.

With some protests, people would go out bearing their Guy Faux masks and physically show up to places, such is the case with much of Project Chanology and later when many Anons came out in support of Occupy Wall street. But 98% of Anonymous work is done from the inside of a home using nothing but knowledge and skill and a computer with internet access.

Just recently members of Anonymous hacked into the United States Department of Justice after the suicide of Aaron Swartz. More information about that can be found here: http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/anonymous-hijacks-federal-website-threatens-doj-document-dump-174943824--abc-news-politics.html.

Another way Anonymous gets their message across is through the use of Youtube. But Youtube, being owned by a major corporation which Anonymous has had past issues with, quickly tries to remove all videos as soon as they appear. But Anonymous is a lot like the Greek mythological creature Lernaean Hydra. Every time one “head” is cut off, two more appear in its place. Such is the way with Anonymous videos, every time Youtube takes one down, two more are uploaded which is why no Anonymous endorsed video has ever been successfully removed from the site.

They freely ask people to upload and share the information. Because at the root of Anonymous is freedom, mainly, freedom of information. They hacked companies like PayPal and Visa when they would no longer allow their users to donate to the controversial website Wikileaks. During the protests in Egypt when the Egyptian government shut down the internet, Anonymous worked with many people to help them override the government denial of the internet, and many members of Anonymous took to faxing articles off of the internet to private Egyptian businesses and schools in an effort to spread information where information was being denied.

Governments have managed to trace down and prosecute members of Anonymous, but that has not deterred people from continuing in the internet “protests” of hacking and whatnots. Mainly because the group itself is like the space that gave birth to it, the internet. So by definition Anonymous is chaotic and sporadic. There is no leader, there are no followers. If you want to be in Anonymous or take part in an activity that Anonymous is doing, than you simply do it. If some of them are doing things you don’t agree with you simply don’t partake in that action. It is as easy to join and leave Anonymous as it is to poen and close a web browser.

That is precisely where Anonymous gains its strength. Yes there has been some in fighting between different factions, but nothing that has ousted anyone who is or has been affiliated with some or all of Anonymous agenda. No government can actually “take down” the organization because of its chaotic order. There is no leader and no chain of command.

There is not a secret base that the group operates from. These are private citizens working from home. There are no “bosses”, no “lieutenants”, no “foot soldiers”. Everyone is equal. Everyone can go out and do something on their own and have a few other “members” join them or not. There is no way that the government can “infiltrate” the group. Sure, they can take down a few kids by dumping their computer, but it doesn’t topple the whole of Anonymous. It really doesn’t stop any of them; it only makes some of them more careful. It may make a few people boost their computer security a little better.

Just like African-Americans may think of Dr. King or Malcolm X when they think of the word protest, and just like my parents may think of the men burning draft cards and Woodstock when they think of the word protest, many in my generation will think of Anonymous, the faceless crowd that represents the internet, with an ever changing agenda and with people coming and going like traffic to a website. Anonymous is history in the making. A group that was born from the internet, and works within the internet is the group that will embody the idea of protests in this age of information.

And I don’t think they are leaving anytime soon.

They are legion.

They do not forgive.

They do not forget.

Expect them.        

Pro-Ana: Why Silencing It Does More Harm than Good.

When girls who suffer in silence find an outlet to cry out for help, why do we insist on silencing them again? 

Anorexia nervosa is an illness, not a lifestyle choice. But many young women who are suffering from the illness claim they are not sick, that it is a choice they make and it is nobody's business. These people are clearly in denial about the severity of their disease and the damage it can do. They claim they are simply embracing the philosophy of "pro-ana". 

Pro-ana content on the internet is abundant. Pictures of emaciated women are posted to act as motivation to not eat. These pictures, labeled "thinsperation" or "thinspo" act as a goal to strive for. Many also have a section for "tips and tricks" that teach people ways to not eat, exercises for burning the most calories, and how to fool your family and friends to thinking you are eating more than you are. To the young men and women who visit these websites it seems like a God send, while everyone else looks on with disgust. 

The popular social networking sites Tumblr, Instagram, and Pinterest have publicly come out against such pro-ana activities on their servers and have started banning such activities. For instance, if you try and search for "thinsperation" on pinterest's website you will yield no results and instead get this message:

Eating disorders are not lifestyle choices, they are mental disorders that if left untreated can cause serious health problems or could even be life-threatening.

For treatment referrals, information, and support, you can always contact the National Eating Disorders Association Helpline at 1-800-931-2237 or www.nationaleatingdisorders.org. 

Websites are hoping that by banning the images and content they will promote recovery for the individuals who are sick. To many this policy seems to makes sense. Unfortunately, this is not the first time websites have tried this and there is evidence that it only makes matters worse. It has been over ten years since pro-ana websites first caught the attention of mainstream media and in those ten years the only thing that has changed are the web addresses. 

Antonio A. Casilli, an assistant professor of Digital Humanities at Telecom ParisTech, has been serving as the scientific coordinator of the ANAMIA research project. A post found on his blog, Antonio A. Casilli: BodySpaceSocity, states that censorship does not decrease the number of participants in pro-ana communities at all, in fact it ends up multiplying the content on the internet. One single pro-ana blogger may have two or three different accounts on different servers in case one of them decides to start banning. This way she/he ensures that nothing is lost. They are already packed with another settlement waiting, they have been internet nomads since their beginning. 

Pro-ana communities have had to battle censorship since the early 2000s. In August 2001 The Guardian, a newspaper based out of the U.K, published an article on their website about the development of websites that promoted anorexia. The websites were immediately met with opposition. The article stated, "Last week the internet service provider Yahoo! reacted to the explosion in the number of sites by announcing it was about to begin removing them from its web server". A year later an article for The New York Times appeared online and stated that since the removal of pro-ana sites from Yahoo, "...the sites mostly pop up on private Web servers. Since the movement has gone underground, so to speak, Web addresses are traded on the bulletin boards". However, in just a few years a new internet platform appeared that would bring the movement out of hiding: social networking. And Casilli worries that the current trend of banning will force them back underground again. He writes that when that happens, "Those who actually suffer the consequences are healthcare professionals, public decision-makers, families and charities providing information and support for people affected by eating disorders – but not for ana-mia online communities".  

Perhaps the parents and advocacy groups that are pushing for all pro-ana sites to be destroyed should  take a look at the history and rethink the strategy. When the majority of sites were in one central location, outreach and education was easier. If a parent suspected a child of having an eating disorder, chances are they were going to find them on that site. Public health officials had the chance to educate a large number of sufferers by giving them advise on treatment and facts. Once the bans started they formed smaller, closer groups on  different servers and was suspicious of any outsiders. They began to moderate their own communities and entry into the community was very difficult for someone who was not known. If someone was able to get through all of the red tape and begin to try and help and educate about the dangers of eating disorders, they were promptly expelled from the community upon discovery. 

That is until the creation of social networking sites. These sites allowed, once again, a place where a large amount of people who suffer could talk about their feelings, their fears and their hopes. This also meant that people who wanted to help could try, without being turned away by moderators.  

If the current trend of banning these sites continue, the people who suffer from eating disorders are going to be harder to find.  

Anorexia and Bulimia is a "secret shame". Before the the internet, people suffered alone and in complete silence. Because the internet allows for anonymity people can talk about what they do and how they feel openly without fear of being recognized. The shame is becoming not-so-secret anymore. Whether the people who are embracing "pro-ana" realize it or not they are crying out for help. They are standing on a rooftop and screaming to the top of their lungs, "PLEASE SAVE ME!!!" So why are we silencing their cries? 

Banning Pro-Ana: Saving Girls or Inhibiting Free Speech?

How far will websites go to prohibit self harm and what will be banned next?

Popular social networking sites Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram have banned "pro-ana" activities from their websites. This move is just the latest as more and more websites and blogs are attempting to ban content that some describe as "eating disorder propaganda". These social networking sites have put forth a new policy regarding content that is used to promote "self-harm". An official announcement from Tumblr was published in the staff blog (found here) outlining their two step plan to remove and discourage pro-ana content.

While many are praising the efforts of these sites to remove the questionable content, many people still remain skeptical about the decision. They do not like the idea of social networking sites limiting the freedom of speech that has been commonplace since the emergence of the internet phenomenon. Some are questioning how far these social networking sites will take it, and they worry about what might be censored and banned next.

In our society, censorship has become a dirty word that conjures up images of tyrannical governments who deny basic rights to their citizens. Even the websites themselves have continually condemned governments for attempting to censor the internet. Tumblr was at the forefront of the fight against the SOPA Bill last year (remember this?) but they were fighting against government intervention, not their own. So do they have the right to censor their own website? Yes, absolutely! First of all, it is their company they own it. Second of all, you agreed to that when you accepted the terms of service (Maybe some of you will start reading what you are agreeing to from now on.) That question is easy. The harder question is, should they? 

Legally the websites have the right to determine what is acceptable and what is not. However, this may prove to be a challenge. How can someone determine what is "pro-ana" and what is not when there are so many grey areas? Take into consideration the two photographs below: one of them was found after using the search word "thinspiration", and the other was found by using the word "beauty". So which picture is which?   

According to Google, the top picture "pro-ana" and the bottom picture is beautiful. However, both pictures are of the same woman, Natalia Vodianova. So which one should be censored? Which picture of Natalia is acceptable, and which  picture promotes self-harm? Or are they both damaging and should not be used? And do we want someone making that decision for us?

Many men might want to post either or both of those pictures to a website. And many women blog and post pictures relating to fashion and beauty, all of which consists of models who are beautiful and really skinny. So how will the websites determine who is advocating eating disorders, and who is simply sharing photographs of fashion models who are famous because they met that standard of beauty that our society  created which led to the eating disorders to begin with (see irony). 

Eating disorders are an illness of the mind and body and it is tragic. But banning the content from websites have not worked in the past, in fact it has only made it worse. If Tumblr, Pinerest, and all of the social networking sites really care about this problem then stop doing what doesn't work and try something new.