Review: Bohemian Rapsody - influences of fame on health

I recently watched Bohemian Rapsody, a biopic on Queen and Freddie Mercury. Very well done and I can see why it was best picture etc. One of the things that I wanted to point out though is how much the media controls.

There is a scene that they were being interviewed and it became overwhelming and it was more of an attack. The paparazzi want a story. They find some dirt and they fling it as mud in your face if you're famous. This makes me wonder often about the mental state of those who are in power and those that are in the limelight of media. I've heard countless stories as we all have of those who committed suicide, one famous one enough is Robin Williams. We also know of stories of being chased down by the media til death, famous example being Princess Diana of Wales.

Review: A Star is Born - addressing addiction and suicide

The reason why I’m doing this review here is to talk about the heart of the film. It’s not about romance it’s not about music. It’s about influences of media and the toxic way it affects celebrities and about addiction. It’s about defining who you are and what you will allow in regards to people and environment to define you. It’s about suicide and how that affects the people afterwards.

I admit at first I thought it was a love story and that’s kind of what ads and such lead you to believe is this happy ending type of thing but it’s not at all and the way they did it was fantastic. It really pulled at the heartstrings. Basically it’s about these two people, both singers, one famous and one not. She, Ally, is the one that is practical, against the whole fame and against people taking over what and who you are and controlling your art. He, Jack, is famous and has allowed alcohol and his past to define him and blames it on others. This is their story of love and of addiction and the hard truth of what fame and what addiction can do to a person.

About "Purl" by Pixar

So I have to address this particular video making it’s rounds on the internet. It’s called "Purl" by Pixar, a short video in a set of animations meant for adults that is part of an initiative to help artists express themselves. This particular one , the first of many to come, has sparked some controversy and debate.

The reason is because an article has labeled it about toxic masculinity. Now in previous entries recently I addressed what is this toxic masculinity and what the true definition of it is.  The definition as outlined before is essentially anything that is negatively impacting both men and women in the way of expressing aggression, suppressing emotions of a “feminine” or softer nature, encouraging bullying and sexual harassment and rape culture.  In this video it shows a ball of yarn, representative of a women and also note that yarn and knitting and crocheting or even sewing were considered and somewhat still are, “women’s crafts” and are part of the “home” despite men doing it in history long before women did, joining a company full of men. It shows her being pushed aside, doors slammed in her face, her opinion not being able to be accepted,  let alone expressed, being the brunt of sexist jokes and  being set as an outcast. I also note that if you’re careful to notice you’ll see that the graph at first in the board room they’re showing looks a lot like her and they point out that it is the “bad guy” or the “problem” of which this is representative of the negativity that some men or “toxic masculinity” has against women or anything different than them.  After the men leave she looks at a wall of photos of men who’ve done well or succeeded in the company and then goes into the ladies room and recreates herself or “knits herself” into the fabric of masculinity. Becoming more masculine and therefore becoming unrecognizable to the men around her but then becoming accepted as she is then more like them. This is what women have to do or even people who are different try to do, to fit in. They can lose themselves in this process. Then nearing the end, they’re all going to go out to the bar and another ball of yarn, or woman, comes to join them. Purl was going to allow herself to become one of the guys and just go with, but had she, she would have lost who she was and what she was. She didn’t and decided to help the new ball and therefore making way to become a better company and group dynamic of both men and “yarn” or women by the end.

I bring this up in that it does affect our health mentally. We can become stressed, depressed and though eager to fit in, why should we change ourselves to become accepted and become like a generic robot? Why should we as women, need to be more masculine? Why can’t all men and women accept that we have both sides, both ying and yang and that we are equal in that aspect.

I have found comments against this video by women, that state they will not follow Pixar anymore. Why, they didn’t specify however I do ask those that agree with that to come forward as to why they wouldn’t? I feel it’s an acceptable animation and though not something perhaps I’d show younger children it is certainly something I would show to a child of 10 and up as they understand more than you’d like to think and they need to learn that that type of behaviour be it at the workplace or on the school ground or in any group or situation, is not acceptable. That it is ok to be who you are in that way and that encouraging those negative things is not something to be proud of.

I have also found statements that state that it is not an example of toxic masculinity but as I stated before, I feel that it is and though it can be applicable for any minority group it is still the epitome of it.

I welcome further discussion on this topic (please be kind to one another). 

Part 5: Review of the film “The Red Pill”

Earlier on in my entries I defined both Feminism and Toxic Masculinity. Now you may ask what the red pill is and why I’m bringing all this up as related to health. The Red Pill is what Neo was offered in the Matrix. It is the pill to awakening and then the blue pill was offered to go back to sleep and stay unawares of the reality. I bring this topic up because I feel that it greatly affects our mental, societal and physical health. After watching this film, I do not take back anything I said before about either topic. The film addresses both and I am not placing myself solely on either side. MRA’s or Men’s Rights Activists have been put in a negative light as have feminists. 

Part 4: Education and work

As you well know I’m an advocate for mental health, rights for all to be educated and have basic human needs met.  I will now discuss how lack of education and work, reasonable pay and “sick days” will affect our overall health using a call center as an example.  

 

My Ontarian government are not only changing the curriculum for the public education but now also are removing funds for imperative items of health care such as mental health programs and support and are removing educational funds for those that are poor and or disabled.  How does this affect us? It means that those who have mental health issues are not able to be a part of society. Those that are disabled are not able to be either. To be uneducated and poor means that you are nothing more than a work horse and are therefore considered replaceable. This also makes it so that there are less capable people in the workforce and weakens our economy for buying power. This will in turn affect suicide rates and rates of unemployment and homelessness and those that are actually ill will also begin to increase. 

Part 3: How to sustain life in time of war crisis

I was watching Bill Nye Saves the World the other day and one of the episodes addressed the need to cultivate plants without the use of soil and less water.  It was quite interesting that they mostly pointed out that it is being used in areas that have dense population such as Japan where land mass is lacking. What it failed to point out is that it’s not just that we are needing it for the mass of population but for the fact that we are on pending nuclear wars, world war III. It’s not surprising that Japan would be the one to create this and be working on such techniques because 1. Smaller land mass, 2. Nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, 3. The massive earthquakes and other natural disasters that they have every year that wipes out areas of land growth.  The use of such vertical farms could have a lot of use in poorer countries where water is scarce and soil is contaminated. It could also have uses for if say for instance we have to go underground to safety where we could reproduce and grow food in light of both nuclear war and of natural disaster. It was already suggested or brought into the show 100 with the suggestion of algae farms to create new growth and food. Science fiction is not far off. How does this affect our health? Well it is the health of the earth not just the populace. We don’t have a population crisis like we’re led to believe. We do have issues with the ozone, melting ice caps etc. Global warming is real, but is it a human caused issue? Earth was bound to change and evolve and we are just living on it, we are but parasites living off it but we are also like a virus and destroying it or speeding up an already existing process.  I really do believe that the earth is survivable if we work together to find a means to supply ourselves with sustainable water etc. If we didn’t pollute it and destroy then perhaps we wouldn’t have so many health issues and have to find such innovative ways to survive. It’s a man made crisis we now have. 

 

We’d like to believe that this is something that is all made up and we should ignore and I’ve had people say to me that the earth was going to do this anyway and that it’s not humans and that we are not the problem. Show me then where we are not destroying it? Again I turn to science fiction and the amount of pending doom scenarios we have where we destroy it. Sci fi is based on a reality point, that point being that we are the ones doing the damage. 

Evolutionary wise, the earth will evolve, we will continue to evolve and change and perhaps things like transgender is one way of us evolving? We have scenarios where we believe that those who have both parts etc are strange and are “damaged” or “disfigured” but are they? Or is this Mother Nature’s way of saying that we’re starting to change like the oysters in the sea, like the creatures that can change gender at will? We are warm blooded yes, but does it mean that we can’t change? I remember an Outer Limits episode long ago where the children all began to get sick and the elderly were beginning to die and the children suddenly transformed to have skin to be able to reflect solar flares and the high UV rays that were beginning. They all thought it was an illness and that they needed a cure until the day came that they changed fully and survived to find that they needed this as the earth as changing, the sun was changing.  So I ask again, is that really too farfetched that we should evolve and change according to environmental needs?  

I leave that with you to mull over and consider just how far we’ve come.

Part 2 – Feminism, equality of all

In my last entry we talked about toxic masculinity. What is feminism? To me it is to be supporting the equality of a binary system, of the two sexes. Do I agree with feminism? Let’s take a look at the definition as per the dictionary and Wikipedia shall we?

Feminism

noun

fem·​i·​nism | \ ˈfe-mə-ˌni-zəm

\

Definition of feminism

1 : the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes

2 : organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests 

Part 1: Toxic Masculinity

Welcome to 2019 everyone! I’m sorry I haven’t written in a while but I’ve been working a lot and also focusing on some other health related things as of late in my personal life and preparing for business for my crochet this year. 
 

I’d like to take a moment to again point out that this journal is an opinion based journal and that I am by no means a medical practitioner. I am merely voicing my opinion on items that are affecting our health as individuals and as a whole society whereby I will sometimes support my opinion and or claims by providing links or definitions of research I’ve done or providing examples of things I’ve personally experienced. You are welcome to voice your opinion in a polite and respectful manner. I say this because it has come to my attention that there are many out there that simply don’t like my opinion and that is perfectly ok.  What is not ok is to claim that I am , and I quote, “stupid, unable to hold an intelligent conversation “ and am a “pussy” or taking the “pussy way out” because I opt not to have discourse with a person who throws a tantrum and does name calling simply because I hold a different opinion than their own. Nor do I appreciate being told that I am “jealous” because I am hold an opinion based on personal experience. This one particular person’s comments and attitude, the items in the media and government changes to fundamental items such as education and health care here in my province of Ontario Canada, has sparked me to write these coming articles and topics.  I will add that I will be discussing political views held as well as it pertains directly with health overall as this is a “health” related blog.