Monument of revolution MANIFESTo.

August 2, 2018September 19, 2019 | Henna Timanttimetsä

1.1 Drawing a picture of a hammer.
1.2 DIY
1.3 Research method, diving in.
1.4. When facing death, it is difficult to dare.
1.5. GET RADICAL!
1.6. Self-evidently.

1.1 Drawing a picture of a hammer.
Picture of a burning car on a video in YouTube, burning flags and puppets are basic imagery of revolt, a riot on the street, people taking over streets. People holding images of arrested, jailed or dead activists and journalists, bankrolls with slogans, tape on someone’s mouth, posters, prints, spraying walls, events, interventions, fights, people throwing stones, destroying shops, banks, coffee houses, public spaces, spray cans on the roads, tear gas in the air, police wearing riot gear opposing rioters, masks, shields of the police, people holding hands in fists in anger shouting. It is thrilling taking up a space without permission becoming suspicious and dangerous to the status quo. Rioting is in a weird way normalised, idolised and expected in certain parts of the world where death is part of rioting and demonstrating. There is the criminality, class, politics, blame, us vs. them, hurt, death, demand and cry, feelings of powerlessness are obvious and needs are not met or will never be unless this unexpected happens and we show that we also have power. Power is there to be taken because it is not given like a birth right, power is to destroy this rule with what one has, the what one cannot have, possessions, statuses and places of ownership, power the show, money and what is the normal and destructive: the cars, shops, ordinary indifference and privileges which belong to the few. Something has caused a problem too big to tolerate and nothing is changing. The same circle of suffering and rot just goes on and on as does the riot and anger and news cameras are there. We are looking at this spectacle. Something must be done to provoke a move, a change, as we like to call it out, the inevitable change, a moving change, something else, something better and there is no alternative as alternatives tend to be scarce or beautiful ideas. There is the absolute of change that something happens all the time, will happen but what, and there is hope as long there is life a perfumed dream and strength to think for oneself, what is that.

Break a window to empower, burn a car, harass someone but who and what are the options for the change? How does one choose the targets, causes and whom to harass and in the name of what? Throwing a shoe can be effective in a way. What rebels we are and our opposition has weapons we don’t. To destroy, make a point, demonstrate, shout, be on a street, show anger, choose a side, make disturbance, create disaster and noise, a personal joyride when everything is possible for a moment or it is just out of necessity and fatigue. You are as powerful as you feel, you just have to think you are. Guidebook for becoming narcissist: you are what you want to be. Where does that lead, where does it come from, power and powerlessness or thinking there are no limits to what we can achieve and be? Revolution is also these personal barriers to be broken and be found in the first place; doing the unthinkable, causing loss and trouble for personal gain. The mayhem and its tools, grabbing them, feeling what you can do with them, thinking what you can do with them and what is a right thing to do. Means and methods that are available, possible, dangerous and forbidden to use wrongly (for right cause), causing stir and turmoil and spark to create new, something new but the same as always maybe. Revolutions tend to fall because of power-hungry hierarchical structuring of the palette. Could we give wisdom and communal togetherness to have a go? It may come afterwards but when and how, how does it work.. What is the smallest violent act, if there is such a thing, as we will be called haters if we disagree or raise our voices, troublemakers, gangsters, a mob, rioters..

Life without violence seems utopian in the light and dark entrepreneurial effort of man. We gain things by doing ill. The easiness is tempting. With killing we have made our civilisation and continue to do so. That is where prosperity lies and comes from. It is also one reason to make war: warring and destruction are lucrative. There is always hurt caused to someone by someone for something to gain and something to lose for someone, because we obviously cannot live without wanting and needing power over someone, without need of winning and feeling good for being powerful in comparison. Someone has to take leadership in hate and tyranny and very many like to be led by those who know what they are doing, at least look like they do know. What is true leadership then? Leading with fear? It is effective. Importance is everything, position and wealth. At the moment human rights issues and environmental problems are the basic, fundamental and colossal problems worldwide. To solve these complex problems lots have been done, but lots is yet to be done. It makes me feel inadequate, enraged and cynical, the image of leadership and what we are facing. Humbleness is not helping nor timidness. Evidence is clear and have been proved many times over people are exploiting this planet, animals and other people for few to live prosperously and leaving the most in poverty. It is intolerable, frustrating and angering. We cannot set long-term timetables to wait and see what happens. It would be a diplomatic way and has been so, to negotiate to solve major issues of ours

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like global warming, pollution, hunger, debt, wars, drug problem and mass misery and hopelessness. Treaties, punishments, raising awareness, diplomacy, settlements, soft measures are not working fast enough. Maybe most people don’t see the wall yet in to which we are driving or the wall is also for the least powerful.

1.2. DIY

I raise my hand and dare to speak my mind without fear of disapproval because I believe in what I have to say. My body doesn’t. It is sweating. Hesitated for a while, afraid to speak up (it is about things you have already heard many times and are probably tired of hearing again and again but I am for equal rights, human rights). Anxious feelings go through me, hands get sweaty, I try to be loud. Waiting to be brutally murdered by looks and counter arguments, disapproving snorts and cynicism or maybe silence. Oh, shut up. Afraid of failure. Yes, one can think but what can one say? As I see us living in democracy, enjoying it, embracing it, being proud of it for a good reason of course but yet again democracy is under serious threat and it was fought over. Democracy or what is left of it now is being molded by corporations. Proof of this is on papers (what is told, what is not, what interests people in mass scale and what not) and in landscapes what is being built for our eyes and amusement and for consuming purposes to serve one cause, making money. Permissions and legislations are made by politicians and public servants, who dictate what is allowed and what is not, what is lucrative and makes money fast is clearly number one option. In this regard we are totally under power of those who produce the world of goods and services and the idea of what we want to be and what we want. Markets are everything, marketing is all we must preserve do to survive and we must brand ourselves. That is what we are told to practice because we must do as the market tells us to: how to make money, how to be a success. But we are the market! We must live the business, know it, be the show and the presentation as we are dictated and shown how. How does powerlessness and unawareness manifest themself in everyday life is exactly this and how does it become to show is how we act or don’t act and why, what we like and like to imitate and consume: we are scared to be left out.

To some extent and in some situations, riots do have their place in making social change in a positive way. They are wake up calls and release of aggression, cause for action for the authorities. How do authorities calm things down and what happens afterwards?. All change should be considered change as we speak of change. When we speak of change it is for the positive. The word change has a positive tone, idealist which is to make the world a better place, as it already is much better than a hundred years ago what comes to poverty and inequality. It wouldn’t be this way without rioting. Turbulent riots make dramatic visual material for the news and for social media but they also test authorities and force change to happen. They are a show as well. For some riots are fun maybe depending where it happens as if they were part of culture, street culture. In Israel it is different from in London, but firstly they are desperate situations where alternatives to act otherwise are few or nonexistent. Cases when obedience is not functioning we must disobey. To understand birth mechanisms of rioting we have to understand situations of individuals, nations, emotions, lack of options and mental states and landscapes of people, different groups of people who trigger anger, action and counter action, setting to a full-scale violence and chaos is a total let-down and betrayal. Question is can revolution/social reform in most dire places come with unrest and by that way make needed positive change and peace? Can peace be achieved without violence? How far do we have to go to defend what is valuable and worth while preserving and achieving? It has been shown that life-threatening situations are effective, Greenpeace has proved it. Media focuses on such events.

Those in power like to keep their position any way possible which is one way to rule and is traditional, an old heavy manner of ruling with fear. What kind of situation it is to not have power at all and when does it boil over? Are we there yet? To be powerless without energy, unable to move, to think for oneself, not being allowed to be oneself, to express one’s ideas and have independence and autonomy over one’s own life? Society can be a monitoring and policing tool where no one is free. To what extent power is an illusion and what leads to having power? What would help people notice strengths they have politically? How do those who are underdogs and servants, those who are marginalized to position of having nothing but their hands, bodies and thoughts could

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make themselves be heard? Intuitive reaction in a situation of testing and proving power could be to bite and attack or humble oneself and take the given place, it is playing chess, a mind-game of manipulation. The one who mistreats you over and over again how does he get his power? Is ultimately thirst for absolute power a weakness?

We consuming citizens of the world led by economics, citizens of Finland and Europe living under economy and politics which fail us are also scared. We are afraid of losing what we have. Democracy probably is working part-time and partly not at all if corporations with more wealth than nations dictate the rules in the end? Isn’t that why economical downfalls affect us crushingly, we place all the bets on one entity in which we have all our faith and devotion, energy and trust. We think we know what is power and we get impressed by owning sizeable shiny things. We follow what corporations do, how they do, we imitate and adore them, how corporations profit and give credit, estimations, jobs, firings, graphs, calculations and let corporal CEOs give political advice, dictate what kind of images we see, how we must live and look like to succeed. We should be like monuments ourselves and if we are not we are losers. Media assists corporations in ruling the world very effectively, medias which are and are owned by large multinational corporations and billionaires. To make the most winnings and biggest numbers impress the most and make the headlines. This image begins to show what power is and where it lies.

To seek social change in the means of art, feminism, environmentalism and pacifism is a demanding task to take up, what does it mean art-wise? What kind of position artists take in the system one is supposed to work in? All those ideologies, feminism, environmentalism and pacifism are terribly hated. They threaten an order. It is a battle against patriarchal conservative biased greedy stagnant thoughts and needs. The opposition are bigoted power of money and circles of buddies. One is persistent to find nonviolent methods and understand meaning, tools and essence of nonviolence, difference between hurt and unhurt, can and should offence be avoided (hardly), what kind of behaviour is hurtful and try to avoid it but is it possible? It takes creativity, faith and character to fight nonviolently and believe it will be effective. To act violently is very direct and simple in comparison but it takes a cause as well. It requires psychological tools to evaluate violent behavior in oneself and others and act otherwise. It requires planning, knowing of the soft places to strike, self-criticism, self-reflection, knowing of the system and ways of thinking and will to change entire belief system of western civilisation, strike the illogical, hypocritical, unjust and relic which is held on to. To change is hard work and it demands one to know what is wrong. Violence verbally, mentally, socially, physically, environmentally, culturally happens like a rule, a pattern, and is very much a learned behaviour pattern and repetitive. Violence is credible. It is an everyday practice and very much approved survival game which we play to not get hurt ourselves. We are afraid of pain and ruled by mental violence and constant threat which guide us. Modern threats are displayed for us daily in media such as unemployment, homelessness, poverty, terrorism, pollution and immigration. Future is made to look like an unknown scary place, as it is, to which we go scared and probably unprepared. With this way of living it will be a scary place, no doubt. How do we confront the other, what is the difficulty in confronting oneself, deeds of ours, effects, consequences and the mighty unknown? What is the social platform where we can interact at, what is the game we must play, make, behave and like to call ours, what is life worth living and giving. What is the violent deed there is the assumption how people should live, image and expectation given by society, media, advertising, movies, cultural heritage and celebrity culture. Nonviolence means prohibiting and rejecting physical and mental hurt, torture and bullying. To make active living revolution is to act against tyranny and dictatorship.

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Write about it explosively, radically making inspirational working and lasting mental riot!

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1.3. Research method, diving in.

To seek information, I follow paths that are already there to learn what kinds of paths there are and what is possible, what is seen as impossible. What do I make of paths and thick bushes? What do I make of possibilities and the opposition? Answer is very clear that I search for a lot of things, originality and the new. I seek to find reasons why revolt happens and why it does not happen in a way that could reach the goals society and people need to find and more importantly what is stopping humanity of finding peace. I question why destitution still exists, which is the basic reason for turmoil, suffering and terror in the world. Poverty is wasting human resources. It is in the news every day. We here in Scandinavia live it through in images, in a different way but still, wars, disasters and miseries of the world continue. World of images shows itself before our eyes and it makes me feel powerless, angry, compassion and sadness come and go, to be indifferent might be the easiest way. Is there an end to all this wasting and what is the meaning of it? War in Syria for example. My current work leans much on information from articles and other sources I have found on the net. Internet is again an important key in making the world democratic and more equal and us hopefully more aware. It brings knowledge democratically and education within reach for millions of people in a way never before. This technological revolution which is ongoing and expanding is important in making people understand each other and understand our differences, similarities and possibilities, at least it is the hope. Why things happen as they do and what can be done differently is the biggest issue at hand.

Learnings about revolution, the idea and the history of revolutions made is a beginning for me to explore the subject as a present acute phenomenon. I am not forgetting the heavy past as it is impossible and too impressive not to learn from. I am grown into the idea of revolution and it being important as news and in this world as advertising. Ads do not let go of the word as it is exiting and always new. I lightly refer to some past revolutionary events in this collection and results of those several different attempts of changing static and unmoving state of things and minds: we are one result. An effort to understand the body of revolution as a whole, as a cultural and social phenomenon in time, I am interested in the individual experiences of making revolution, being part of it, being affected by it near and far, witnessing movements through media and living moments and images every day via cameras, the historical baggage there and what happens in social media and because of social media. Is that the event revolution, the beginning of social reform or just a show where participants are heroes? What happens there, what is the happening, what does it do in the end? Revolution is not something that is distant like it often shows to be, we choose it to be distant. We don’t necessarily want to be part of revolution, we like watching it. Revolution can be a garment to wear, a piece of clothing which makes the visual aspect of revolution owned and within reach. I am interested in revolution as an emotional happening, a sudden but continuous part of life, organic. It is a task and material which I do not want to limit nor border definitely. Revolution is a process as is this writing. What is the most important thing there to understand in change is the question and change within us all. What do we contribute? If I would concentrate on one particular revolution I would miss something which is not in this moment in this time my interest. Civil disobedience, breaking, hitting, hating, making a mess, expressing and finding new ways of looking, thinking and writing, what all that makes visually and what the visual makes of the world. Me

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using text in anarchic (what is the anarchy in it? the poems), experimental and unconventional ways in academic context is at the limits of approval. Is there anything new in revolution, the word and the event now? What does one think when hearing the word? Is it to find something new? Do revolutions all end up in fires, with bloodshed and disappointment? I resent making traditional report of results of having researched and found answers. The further I proceed the messier revolution the puzzle gets. I’m expecting it to expand and explode also in real life. Revolution, the concept and event can be used as a crown, which I personally am not fond of, What else can one do but hope and do the best one can. What is the best one can do? Is that what we are doing? Most importantly to whom is that best for? In order to achieve a profound and lasting change one needs to know what needs to be changed, what are the methods to put into action in everyday life, in one’s own life to improve oneself and life of others? How do I do my study of a change with the means I have got? How do I do revolution? Leaderless without cash, without resources? Measuring what is happening now, how to study the moment of now? Means which we have are many to know what change is all about, is there change at all can be analyzed in detail. We never live in stable world, change is emphasized and celebrated. We are seeking balance and calm, prosperity and security, comfort, ease and success. The failure of revolution is that the goal set remain as dreams and revolution a utopia.

Revolution is ecstasy and thrill, but it is also heavy work and duty. It is idealist and has a load of romanticism. When is revolution asks, when is a total turnover and end of the exploitative living going to be and happen, we talk about it. When is kindness of man going to happen at large-scale, unity of man, utopia of man and what is stopping understanding from happening, we imagine it and hold candles. To make an independent body of work which agitates, questions, demands and hopefully lights up creative forces of many is itself a romantic task. To set a revolution is a bold idea, unrealistic maybe, heroic kind of act, unforgiving, exhausting in its uncertainty. There are always people who say it won’t succeed but it is a sport. We don’t know unless we give it a try. It takes every cell of mine and lots of other people’s cells, brain cells, muscles to make. I do not wish revolution to become set of idols, icons and bold ideas turned into burned pictures, memories, sadness and ashes. Revolution (political) as a subject to study and an object is exactly that, ashes, blood and flesh. Revolutions tend to fall because of their need to place heroes on pedestals, make grand history and people’s need for power. There is the need to find powerful leaders to save honor, image and GDP. People seek to be saved and to be given promises to maintain hope for the future. What hope is in saving honor, setting statues and status? When will people save themselves and start the process of saving the earth? This equation I do not understand and yet it is plain obvious, the narcissism of man, hate of men and women. Why do we feel powerless and is the task of finding cure impossible?

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Feeling powerless? Revolution is monumental and gigantic ongoing desire for change and a burst of outrage and emotion which has been held back far too long. Monument is to honor something that has been lived, monument is to lift up someone heroic for us to worship, look up to. Monuments are static and posing up in the air, pompous and grande. Monument is dead and dark in the park, a hero made it. Revolution should never be carved in stone or cast in bronze, but still they very often are because leaders have to be remembered as something heroic who did good for the nation and its people. Party is over and it was a good party? What people choose to do with this moving political body and its heroes, with possibility of change, how well people see their possibilities and how does future open for them, with possibility of them in front of all the threats. Revolution is hopeful and hopefully sincere. Monuments and statues are for cities to look grander, history to look outstanding. Still I don’t wish monuments to be turned over and destroyed. Now more than ever in this world we need nonviolent radicalism, extremism and activism which are connected instantly to violence and unexpected results, results gained via hurt. It is possible to light up the whole globe with internet. -isms, ideologies which supposedly function for social and cultural change are of many kinds of wishes and needs which are to be stated what they are and whom they serve. Dangerous sounding, describing the dissidents as defiant, addressing forcefully dissenting opposition, promise of fearless action and never-give-up-the-battle-mentality and revolution dies under tribalism.

We need people to understand meanings and results of every action they make and what can be and should be stated, said and done. Biggest polluters and violators are ignorance, hatred, indifference, cruelty and greed, pure vanity, narcissism and selfishness. Best ways to make revolution is everybody to join and actually give a damn for others and this planet. People around the world take action, risk their lives for better future for issues they believe in. They are not criminals, they are our saviours. I demand revolution the event to move forward, us to realize and make revolution of minds and consciousness, on every social level globally. Revolution cannot be tomorrow, it is constant but how is it today since repetition is over? It cannot be just a celebration to remember, a party which happened yesterday and turned sour. It has to be now, everyday and for everybody, in every present moment, it has to be happening in a manner of never stopping and firstly it is about individual understanding of what one can do and must do. We have to breathe clean air of revolution and bright light of equal rights to keep us moving, daring, doing and living. I encourage people to think for themselves, not to be afraid of taking action to change the world of people and save the world of nature. Revolution which the whole world needs is attitude change and patterns of thinking kind of change. It is a learning process of equality and compassion. Could people be equal is an absurd question which humanity-wise should not be asked at all, but it turns out to be the foremost important goal to achieve since poverty is the biggest problem creator. We strive for inequality as we are not the same. My meaning is for the equal opportunities. There are many ways to be poor, some people don’t see their opportunities. Richest people seem to lack compassion, creativity and knowledge of what is possible and goes on in the world. What would rich people give up for revolution of equal opportunities? How rich can one be or should be? Do the wealthy feel themselves threatened by

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the poor wanting their share? Because of poverty people are enslaved, abused, exploited, kept uneducated and killed. Poverty is keeping rich enormously rich and counting their earnings. Poverty is serving those who have the most wealth as poor are desperate. To keep most people needy, unaware and begging can be a profitable situation. Most reasons for poverty to are corruption, poor education, lack of information, lack of possibilities, insufficient health care and welfare, traditions, class system, lack of options and means to rise above being poor.

How to end extreme poverty and why it has not ended already?
How to end poverty of mind and emotions?
How to give compassion room?
When is collective love going to happen? Why is it an illusion? Why is it naive?

What could collective love, caring and sharing be globally and locally? How could compassion be taught and kindness be appreciated?

1.4. When facing death, it is difficult to dare.

Being nothing in the eyes of the establishment, facing constant abuse, contempt, brutality and violence, oppression, hatred which goes on and on. A long list of things that have happened are evil. Civil wars, uprisings, ethnical problematic and conflicts, intolerance, prejudices, ignorance, indifference like a fast train. Tactics of a small individual are many, small and/or great. When will they dare, when will we, when will I? Crimes against that small individual are too many, I see it. To explore imagery especially of protests of today, there are violent clashes with police, fences and barriers built, surroundings in concrete, pressuring environment which is made for mass consumption is our jail. Then there is no protest, there is no mass awakening when there is comfort. There is paralysis, acceptance and indifference for what goes on around as long as it does not touch your door. Suffering and injustices which make news near and far hit my door. How can I think a revolution which would make something drastic happen, a collective lasting awakening? What kind of viewpoints would I take if any other than practicing kindness (but kindness is a weakness and a soft measure). Resulting kindness? Are there better points of views to see this? Stubborn intuitive attempt, going round in circles trying to find answers and words, experimenting and learning what are the things keeping our world from working and functioning as it should, for one as dividing us and for second making our place of paradise something else.

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Why revolution is necessary, what needs to be done individually.

Could billions of individuals work together and when they do, what do they do together? Meaning of information, mass gatherings, intensity of feelings and work which can lead to constructive restructuring results in terms of benefitting human rights and caring for the environment reaching everyone on this earth, to tell that we cannot continue living as we do. It is always what to do? It means everybody gets the same information, has the same goal, know what they are doing, what are the consequences, what happens now and in the future.

I practice creative writing to send message through. My study is unscientific in a hard way because I try to innovate although everything is hanging on to the old and what has been said many times over. I write how I have experienced things happen. My experiences and interpretations are evidence which can be argued as my idealism. I bang the walls of those who are deaf and blind or just ignorant. As an artist I create meaningful imagery. I very much dislike to speak with someone else’s mouth, so it is mostly mine. It can be called artistic research which is what artist does every living moment. I do research to search for meaningfulness, understanding and the unknown, understanding of how, why and what. Research does not stop at some point, it does not necessarily lean on already existing research, results and evidence. I have made conscious decision not to analyze any of those obvious choices, philosophers who have contributed much and have been analyzed over and over. It is not my intention to step over but to find alternative paths. How valid artistic research is, how much lies on imagination and faith and how much of useful knowledge can be found and for what use. We change the world now in a tough way via obvious mistakes, many already done, me asking why this lack of wisdom exists, even though the evidence is there that things are going wrong. Why practices of greed prevail? Are there soft ways to make revolution? It requires sacrifices and dedication and still I think we are going to crash. Attitude changes take an immense amount of learning, energy and time. How much time do we have? Changing thinking patterns which spring out from education, religions, superstitions, traditions, group dynamics, grouping, money-making machinery, social structures and assumptions are biggest challenges of mankind. How do we beat nature of ours? Learning to think differently, appreciate difference; How do we do that? Who is leading us and why?

1.5. GET RADICAL!

Foucault writes in his text What is Enlightenment [1.] about dangers of radicalism. He writes: All projects that claim to be global and radical must be turned away from. This strange sentence caught my eye and I understand it springs out from the deeds of Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Cold War, atom bombs, the time during and after World Wars 1 and 2, Vietnam War, horrors in Kampuchea and Pol Pot et cetera et cetera. It

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is a terrible list of hellish radical terrors within short period of time in human history. I become to exist and think through and out from images of that list. Atrocities that have happened in history anywhere far and close are also history of mine as they are in my mind. Foucault continues thinking about concept of Humanism and usage of the idea of Humanism in many contexts as broadly as Humanism is vast, complicated and wide. National Socialists called themselves Humanists as well as Stalinists. Humanism is a set of themes, ideas, frames, things opposing too diverse to be set to serve one ideology, to serve ideas of one belief system. Humanism should not be thought as a readymade as it has been misused to glorify needs to rule as certain kind of human, specific, superior, to put those who differ in tight leash and place them below or that in the name of humanism bad things do not happen. One question is, is their rejection of Humanism in denying difference. Don’t we end up rejecting ourselves by setting strict frames Humanity-wise? Humanism, which sounds good, is good, embracing and smiling used by political and religious ideologies to make narrow perspectives to Humanity reigning social system is against the idea of peaceful, thoughtful, diverse Humanism, human. Idea of Humanism is an ideal, but what is the right answer. Humanism can be philosophical and empathetic way to do good, pass good, put good on our ways, decent and desirable deeds and thoughts into the world. It is also a utopia of a perfect being and part of Humanism is evidently the ill people do, which must not be denied nor forgotten. Therefore to say someone is a Humanist (Humanitarian) and mean only the good of it like glory, taking only the defined good of being human is to think of human good on level of material possession and in a way something is missing of the human. To have Humanism the concept in use for one’s own good is very common, hypocritical, cruel, selfish and denying the facts of our nature, but yet it is very humane to seek one’s own benefit. Desire of Humanism to serve only one entity has similarities with idea of polishing the silver and gazing at one’s reflection on that bright surface. To deny animal in us, ape that has not got place in us because we are full humans. To understand human is partly to understand the instinct level of an ape.

To get radical, a call for global revolution and movement and Foucault’s puzzling request for abstention from getting globally radical are clashes of times, genders, needs, fears and conceptions. Foucault’s philosophy comes from altogether different time that we live now and yet from continuation of same Western heritage which we share. It is intriguing to think through how radicalism should be executed, it has to be carefully thought even I cherish anarchist action in its vitality,

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impulsiveness and chaotic rioting. I personally think radical is something we must be, invent, live and practice. Radicalism is global already with help of internet and devises which make spreading information and activism happen quickly and efficiently. To be radical does not mean physical and mental violence though it is to provoke and act beyond limits. What could radical mean for any individual is very personal issue and question. In this conformity and weirdness we live and like to have to be radical is easy and yet not. We like to keep our seeming comfort and look radical, edgy. There are plenty of examples of nonviolent radical activism which has made drastic difference during this decade. Feminist action organization Femen is one example, radical feminism and Suffrage movement as well. They inspire me. There is always an absolute necessity for attitude change to happen and it possibly takes generations to happen since our attitudes are rooted into us.

1.6. Self-evidently.

To make a change means putting oneself in service of mankind, there also has to be that personal aspect to make a lasting change and desire for change. To give my all to a cause because the cause is mine. It is a sacrifice and a gift, a dead-end or suicide at least it may feel like so. It is not to lose life but have a new beginning and it is living in a wise and unwise way. To play it safe is what happens now throughout all society. To experiment taking risks is not always wise but it can be necessary. It does not mean there would not be mistakes. There essentially has to be errors, learning, giving up something, stopping, understanding and never giving up. Pain and emotions one cannot endure result rage. Radicalism is fiercely emotional and intellectual effort to comprehend life and bring understanding, it is thinking through options. Radicalism happens after comprehending it is the only way. It is enlightenment. Body and mind of profound understanding and making life, not taking it.

Paul, Rabinow, Foucault Reader, Pantheon Books, New York, 1984

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Random list of revolutionary acts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_revolutions_and_rebellions

Embrace Miss Universe

April 22, 2018March 30, 2018 | Henna Timanttimetsä

Desires of the power elite: Us under the phallocentric order.

August 8, 2017March 13, 2018 | Henna Timanttimetsä

1. Desires of the power elite: Us under the phallocentric order
2. Dominance and seduction, five looks, one accessory
3. What makes a classic, what makes a movie?

Introduction: Nevertheless the impossible mission one must make an effort and tackle the copy-paste culture where there seems to be unbreakable circle of tradition in how gender, talent, abilities and possibilities are seen and dealt with. To see opposing, questioning and anger justified not apologised for, one’s own art and body of work worthwhile, necessary and valuable and because someone has to lead the way and do it what few dare to do. This is an article trying to understand what is the feminine in movies for especially in Hollywood. Role of women in movies, in art and place of ours is to go against, not play along but question. I know you will be called difficult. Be difficult in demolishing and constructive way. To be difficult and demanding is to build something new. Becoming movie critics, producers and directors, active makers in the business ruled by white men is of vital importance. Importance is also there who evaluate the films made and how, what issues are emphasised when talked about making movies and distributing them to the audiences. What is the sellable item? How pushing the envelope even though it is difficult makes a difference no matter how small and powerless you feel. This means women should write and put in action new rules how we are to be viewed, displayed, portrait and talked about. Our roles are to be active not playing according to the old comfortable ones. One problem being lack of finance, demand and support is one women face which is telling women should support each other.

1.Desires of the power elite: Us under the phallocentric order

Movie is a continuation to something experienced in real life. It is an interpretation of how we can experience and see, but it is up to the viewer to grasp what to make of the seen movie. How movie can explain an experience and tell what to look at or for, what there is to see and experience further. Truth of a movie is truth of the movie maker, an illusion, make-believe, coloured tale or fact-based illustration, a portrait and depiction. Whatever movie is to fulfil it is also image of the makers. We like to think reality is fixed, there is normal and the weird, to go weird doesn’t take that much of effort. To break this illusion of normalcy movies function beautifully partly it is why movies get made, to imagine again for us in a new way. Some movies are made to strengthen our fixations and feel powerful via them which patriotic movies tend to accomplish forcefully, they often don’t offer any kind of new perspectives but repeat the same story with some extra boosting and hyper-hyper. The experience needed to break down the normal wire and comprehension of what is and what movies can be marginal plays an important role. Mainstream moviemakers are given the glorified position of telling large-scale fables and larger than life stories. How these stamped ideas can be altered is a matter of art and courage. How much about the reality movie tells is up to the makers and what we think is reality, story worth telling. What have been the stories told for those who make films and what remains untold. What have been discovered before and during the making of a film, and after movie was released, to make a movie is to unearth and research. Interesting is towards what kind of issues moviemakers have their curiosity focused. What can be told via the medium, there probably isn’t much which cannot be depicted via film. Moving pictures are hypnotizing, whether holding a camera or sitting in front of a screen.

What lies hidden but is told via clues, what is not shown but is still there in the expression and how that invisible can be the most interesting part of films, the most realistic and humane part and forces us to imagine beyond the seen. What is the perspective there, decisions made how to tell, whose points of view are we looking at, whose truth or lie, what a movie is telling us, is it about the viewer as we choose what we watch, do we have to know about the makers as in excess we are curious about the stars as they are the heroes, they are those with means and visions, capabilities to make their ideas happen there where it is almost impossible to get. Movie continues in mind as it is at best a full body experience depending where and how movies are watched, how personal the story is, how relatable and what is universal in human experience. What kind of interests the viewers have in seeing films. Why do we watch movies is the easiness of just watching, the forgetting and sinking in to a world, and some of us watch very many movies of all kinds. This easiness is thought often not having much value, just sitting and watching. Movies feed the mind but in what way is the question we should be asking. Is it just less thinking needed, is there blame and guilt be felt for this indulgence.

Interesting is how we experience a movie, even a movie poster is an experience. What is the liking, time span, being influenced by and thinking about a movie, its messages, images, stories, artistic decisions and perspectives. Images and scenes of a movie stay there in our heads. The more curious the more puzzling. Too weird, surrealistic does not make a blockbuster but it can make a classic. We need familiarity which also can be totally unrealistic and adventurous. Films making euphoric and thrilling or otherwise felt sensations, cultural, artistic and political statements need a fruitful and fertile ground to live in. There is candy for thought and candy for the aesthetics which must be taken and somehow had, felt. At best movie has a mystery in realistic way which leaves space for thinking and puzzlement of not knowing. Feeling of learning about important events watched from a safe place as a spectator may be enough for some. Do we know more via films, definitely. Is movie experience comparable to life experiences? What raises our curiosity, is it the personal and something new? What makes a movie brilliant? How to define a movie, how is it defined? Technically it is how many pictures per second flashes before one’s eyes and make a moving scene, the running horse, a dancing woman, bullet from a gun. Films have different durations, different qualities, scales of evaluation, films have position in society which today play a big part. Movies are places of extravaganza and a huge part of entertainment industry, a way of life such as TV, it is everywhere. Definitions and genres for films are maybe already irrelevant. Films that are and have been made are endless in the amount and technic. Tiny piece of what is being made make it to the consciousness of the average consumer or anybody via controlled system. Internet makes watching and making demographic. When life feels like a film we think we have captured something historic and worth filming and sharing.

Film has a position in advertising and often nowadays mainstream films look like ads, function like ads and ads in turn are like movies. Movies are the most powerful tool to impress, catch the eye and attention, make an impact on large amounts of people, to influence and manipulate as something sweet and meaningful, breath of fresh air in a dull moment. Cultural and personal importance of movies is what counts. We like the fun part of films. Moving image is like a car, an object to move with and in which as an object is male dominated vehicle but treated like a lady or named a woman. It has a status to impress, possess, take us from one place to another, seduce. Cinema is above us, a fantasy, untouchable, holding power in size, containing vast amounts of capacity to influence our thinking, vision and appreciations therefore to talk and write about what is shown for us is at critical importance. To write only on surface about the surface is not doing us much good or for film as art.

Films make stars, films are the stars, writing gives at best more depth to what was seen and another perspective than our own. Moving feature is what has a hold on us, energy and lightness of it is felt. Could a movie have any other definitions other than something moving forward and towards us? Is it always the personal taste telling what plays importance in a film or something else, a shock, a strong emotion, a surprise? Society rules much via what is shown, where and how we watch. General opinion, or probably is better to talk about what we are used to seeing, what is convenient, pleasant and interesting to us, is still a guide to what we are having. We reflect our desires in an interesting way through movie culture and the culture is us? Many are attracted to speed and not being bored, to be entertained and to have a feeling of something fantastic being witnessed is to feel alive as we watch living pictures that are more alive than us, size and amount count. To avoid being left out is in focus and one main interest is to give birth to desires and needs. How much of this is not make us think for ourselves, distract us from looking what is behind the glittering luring images and why we must want what is given to us, sold to us? What creates brilliance or circumstances for sensitiveness, a thrive to create beauty and meaning, how this creating is restricted or guided, banned or manipulated? Is it related to what is sexy and desirable in a straightforward manner, where we come from, what we are afraid of, what we know about the world, what we have read and seen already? How does gender dictate what we see as beautiful? I’m interested in which are the ways people get their work on the spotlight, what kind of work is put in the centre of attention, given media focus which focus forcefully is narrow and gendered. What kind of publicity movies and moviemakers get, are there girl movies and boy movies? What kind of voice do moviemakers have, are given, how are they heard, what is asked of them and from what kind of world do they make? What kind of things journalists focus on in interviews and stories about movie scenes? What creates interest in a certain movie nowadays? How brave can and should moviemakers be? Is it still restricted what can be issued and manifested in movies nowadays? Is it limited what kind of people make movies, what kind of people are shown in the movies, act in movies, talk about movies? Is there something to be afraid of other than lack of variety and making an echo chamber for ideological purposes? Are there certain kind of people who seek attention through the movie scene, attention seekers? How all this structure of creating moving pictures dictates and who dictates the structure? Is it basically corporation-based solutions that work in this business? Which are the interests of those corporations, interests of the investors other than winnings and cinematic fame? What kind of role do film festivals play in all this? Or press and media as a whole? I’m asking because they are all linked under a dome and mostly what get mentioned are the galas, trophies, celebrities, faces, bodies, lives of the famed and clothes they carry. Any irregularity is reported and scandalised. Everything moves along the direction of relations, scare of losing and where the money is, how the money is and should it be followed. What does it mean to be an independent movie maker in this picture? Does it mean marginal or original, having voice of one’s own? What is originality in movies, in this context of making, who has a voice? Is there any place or demand for independence, independent thinking and breaking the habit?

It is a question of demand, what is in demand, who has control. What kind of people consume mainstream movies and what revolves around this mainstream ideology of spending and living a habit. It would be interesting to see how strictly audiences are analyzed. Anything that isn’t produced in Hollywood is basically marginal in the west. Hollywood movies or movies imitating Hollywood style get the most public space, attention and funding. Should we be concerned? Yes and concerned of what exactly? Some kind of monotonous Americanized view of the world perhaps, lack of complex views of the world and how things happen, lack of perspectives to difference, lack of imagination, having one-eyed view and one political perspective on good and bad. Consuming being the main focus of films is alarming, consuming being the good, the more as well. The way movies manipulate people to think and act, or not to act and think as the easiness is nice and a relief in complex everyday.

One answer to a couple of my questions come from an internet magazine The Gateway sponsored by Morgan Stanley article written by Matthew Reeves: ”The producer is the money person who buys the scripts, hires the director, actors and crew and organises the making and selling of the film. The producer is usually employed by a production company. Production companies are often referred to as “independent”, but all this really means is that they don’t have a distribution deal with a major studio, that is, Sony, MGM, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Warner and Universal. While studios can buy scripts the usual way, they also have the power and money to decide they need, “a kids’ fantasy movie, with an A-list actor, for release in the summer holidays in 2011”, get a writer to craft it, attach a producer, put up the funds themselves, make the movie (in their own studios), and distribute it themselves.”

”But what if no distributor is interested in your film, which may have been made with nobodies, on a nothing budget and with no room left for marketing. How can you get the word out? The answer is film festivals. Cannes, Venice and Sundance are free marketing Meccas. You can enter Cannes, the most influential film festival in the world, for €50. There’s no guarantee your film will get chosen to feature, but it will get watched. If it does get chosen, thousands will see it, newspapers will review it and many distributors will be circling, looking for a bargain. Paranormal Activity was shown at Slamdance Film Festival, http://www.slamdance.com and a year and a half later it was released across the USA. It’s arguably the best $70 the producer has ever spent.” http://thegatewayonline.com/articles/content/how-does-the-film-industry-work

Continuing with more answers: Structures of Discourse and Structures of Power TEUN A. VAN DIJK University of Amsterdam ”In the news media, this strategic control of knowledge is exercised through restricted topic selection, and more generally by specific reconstructions of social and political realities (Hall et al., 1980; Tuchman, 1978; van Dijk, 1987b, 1987c). This process is itself governed by a system of news values and professional ideologies about news and newsworthiness, which happen to favor attention for and the interests of various elite actors, persons, groups, classes, institutions, nations, or world regions (Galtung & Ruge, 1965). Preferential access and coverage (whether positive or negative) of news actors is one factor in the mass medíated reproduction of social power (Brown, Bybee, Wearden, & Murdock, 1982). The same ís true in education, where the curriculum, textbooks, educational materials, and lessons are also governed by educational objectives, subjects, topics, and learning strategies that mostly happen to be consistent with the values or interests of the various power elite groups (Apple, 1979; Lorimer, 1984; Young, 1971). Therefore, we see that the symbolic elites that control the style and content of media and educational discourse are also those who have partial control of the mode of influence, and hence of ideological reproduction in society. The symbolic elites, we suggested, are not independent of other” https://archive.org/stream/IdeologicalDiscourseAnalysis/Ideological%20discourse%20analysis_djvu.txt

2.Dominance and seduction: five looks, one accessory.

The patriarchal society makes it easier for men to take the lead which is for them compulsory and what manly men are supposed to do: direct, command, lead, have the answers, know. It is compulsive and violent for both sexes, toxic masculinity. It is given and forced on us as natural. Women have to fight for being heard, be taken seriously and a powerful skilled woman is easily a bitch, witch, weirdo, difficult and an outcast. It is a male feature to dominate with physical force and scare, to direct others with threat and it has been easier for men to imagine being a director and to become one, the role falls on them more easily, naturally. To my knowledge women like to dominate and do it maybe in more complex and subtle ways or imitating men, but nonetheless feminine domina play is normal everyday act in patriarchal society, meaning women use their power to destroy as well and to direct, question is why they cannot do it in business and in art. What happens more subtle doesn’t make it less hurtful or less powerful.

A lot did change what comes to equality during 20th century in the Western world but what is the change other than technical and in terms of production? What will the ultimate change and progress within movie industry be in the 21st century? Hopefully more about morals, art and justice of the business than technicalities. It still does not mean things are happening for women to the extent of men or that things change fast. Speed is in the renewing the machinery not human condition or doing away the patriarch. That is why it is very important to show movies from all kinds of makers, sexes, backgrounds etc. in schools, in movie theaters and TV. What comes to equality internet is showing the way, moving images are at the core of our internet experience. At the moment women directors are treated like marginal makers as emphasis is on the gender and it is said out loud male or female. Scripts written by women usually are different from men. Directors are treated like it still is a wonder a woman is a director or a producer, although there are many women in the business and have been for a long time. It is much easier to watch females pose on a red carpet wearing a designer gown asked how they feel expectation being the viewer wants to hear it and see this. Emphasis is on the assumptions what does a photogenic person look like and who can be filmed, who attracts the eye and why.

Movie people seem to live a fabulous life, images give us impressions. Narcissism is questioned in any media strongly but celebrated at the same time. Narcissists are interesting people as they entertain and know what they want, get what they want and make scenes. To want such spotlight life is praised and encouraged, idolised. Photographs of someone entering a gala of something are shown in every magazine that have a gossip column or want to comment the movie world or talk about movies in any manner. Movies nowadays is a very stereotyped world. Everything goes around the money-making machinery and what brings in the dollars. Biggest moneymakers are talked about and again idolised. Imaginary is highly glittered, narrow and thin. Shallowness can be turned interesting when reasons for it are investigated and studied. Such industry is massive and the biggest categorizor of people world-wide, advertising and movies are part of our visuals which we eat and consume. Most people watch movies, see the ads which are creating the world we live in and look at, and films get inspiration from the world we live in. To go outside that box can turn out to be more than just an image.

To make movies requires ability to tell stories, will to succeed in a very male-dominated world and money-oriented atmosphere. Stubborn belief in one’s ideas and abilities is needed and room to make ideas happen, also to make others believe in ideas of yours, to get attention is what we seek, all of us nowadays. What else is there to have? Luck? Moviemakers must be completely passionate about their craft just as any artist, making movies and seeing movies, making that particular film and story which totally extraordinary sounds like a dream. As a woman does one have to be a man to make it in this frame is an interesting question, to make a feature film as a woman but act like a man? Such a woman is easily considered a difficult person. It is much easier to be filmed and look beautiful, do as you are told but be unique. Womanhood posing as a fragile flower, young, polished in ads, in flashlights, photographers calling your name. And why is it important to talk and bring this issue in front, is there a problem?

Needless to say, but I’m saying it, women make different kinds of films than men, they have different points of views and interests. When women play roles that have been played by men there is totally new level to it, something lived by men is lived by women too, story gets vastly layered context and understanding of gendered experience, it is power which resonates within the powerless. Women see the world differently than men, experience it differently, do differently, walk and talk differently, are treated differently. Women should be given equal chance to bring their knowledge on to the screen, be active and create as they create, thinking instead of being looked at and they should understand it themselves too. Do men get their clothes examined on the red carpet? Aki Kaurismäki was drunk and danced at Cannes 2002 which was making appalled headlines in Finland. Men can and must disturb the scene in a moving way as well as business requires certain behaviour. Scene is asking to be cut open and questioned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcs3sottHm4

This is of course my observation and a bothering issue, horrifying actually when you look at the picture at hand. What a world. What are male points of views then? Is it so that men do different kind of movies than women as I claim. I already dislike the topic at hand, I dislike that I even have to mention it, sex and gender and what they mean. What does gender got to do with anything what and how people make professionally? In making movies or making art? Unfortunately quite much. Everything revolves around it. Comes back to our bodies. Why is it so? What is sexy here? What is sex other than a toy? Why is it sold? Because it is the easy way and an obvious want, obvious defined and dominator. An act, the difference, organs, emotions, chemistry, molecules, desires, reproduction, repetition, perspective of the wanted and the ones who want. It is the power-issue ruling our behaviour which is in the visuals. It is regulated by religion, politics, traditions, rules made to give us frame to act upon and know where the limits go. Major topics in film, in anything and the leading couple kiss is the anti-climax in an action film but it has to be there. Image of movie industry, of its people, how it works and what for, it all goes back to sex, human sexuality and how to profit from it, use it, it using us.

Feminist film theory has opened up reasons behind film industry, given a voice and chance for women to analyze film as an art, our point of view and why it should be there on film. How women are on film, used, abused, cut open. ”Feminism is a social movement which has had an enormous impact on film theory and criticism. Cinema is taken by feminists to be a cultural practice representing myths about women and femininity, as well as about men and masculinity. Issues of representation and spectatorship are central to feminist film theory and criticism. Early feminist criticism was directed at stereotypes of women, mostly in Hollywood films (Haskell 1973/1987, Rosen 1973). Such fixed and endlessly repeated images of women were and are considered objectionable distortions which have a negative impact on the female spectator as well as on males.” Claire Johnston (1940-1987) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_Johnston was among the first feminist critics to offer a sustained critique of stereotypes from a semiotic point of view (1973/1991). She puts forward how classical cinema constructs the ideological image of woman. Drawing on Roland Barthes’ notion of ‘myth’, Johnston investigated the myth of ‘Woman’ in classical cinema. The sign ‘woman’ can be analyzed as a structure, a code and convention. It represents the ideological meaning that ‘woman’ has for men. In relation to herself she means no-thing (1991: 25): women are negatively represented as ‘not-man’. The ‘woman-as woman’ is absent from the text of the film (26).”

http://www.film-philosophy.com/vol8-2004/n17sloan Is it problematic for cinema as a whole to talk about women’s cinema? “This concept of minor cinema is quite fruitful for the purpose of concluding the debate on the strong political ground that most interests Butler. Since a ‘minor’ cinema is one that politicizes everything, women’s cinema well qualifies, generally finding struggle in all aspects of life, and value in confronting it. Further, a minor literature is written by marginalized authors, and so focuses on the challenges of belonging to an out-group.”

The important theoretical shift happening was and is that women started taking up as voices and act out from places of power, from an understanding of cinema reflecting realities of variety of women, realities of many instead of one. Having a view to cinema as a constructing method, ideological and politically engaging on individual level. Classical cinema was not to show its means of production, or was it? It should be defined what we mean by classical cinema and why classical cinema is what we think it is. Characterised by veiling over its ideological construction and under restrictions rather than free expression? Thus, classical film as we think the classical presents the constructed images of ‘woman’ as naturally desirables, unrealistic and attractive for the male. This is the illusionism of classical cinema. www.feministezine.com

It feels like a concrete wall, the notion that a woman in film is not the man, not as able as the man and is always in need of assistance. She lacks something. She is there to be looked at, in relation to herself to her being no-thing. To continue the misogynist tale Budd Boetticher (Hollywood film director during 1942-85) has put it: “What counts is what the heroine provokes, or rather what she represents. She is the one, or rather the love or fear she inspires in the hero, or else the concern he feels for her, who makes him act the way he does. In herself the woman has not the slightest importance.”

3.Desire of the power elite; Us under the phallocentric order.

Do women objectify themselves by putting their bodies into a certain light where their body and sexuality is openly under gaze and played with, in a certain repetitious positions to gain profit and be seen as that is the way still to get seen? Of course, and I would say, it is not passive. It is a very active role to play and toy with, the game where women win in one way only and are therefore used for a certain time, as long as their looks grant it. Women are slaves as much as they must put themselves in that position to be looked at, in a way it is slavery, yes. There must be something more to it as it is voluntarily done. Victim is a spectator of her fate. She still must imagine what happens to her when she chooses to act in a certain way and like it. Film industry is an abusive machine which abandons those who are no longer useful which is seen tragic. This must be seen beforehand, calculated and be known, understood and accepted. Industry obeys only capital and how to get it. It gives models of how to be, become, what to be, where to be, what to wear, what is talked about and how etc. Seduction is deliberate, unforgiving and cruel, to seduce the audience, a mass has its psychology and logic. Movie industry is a brainwash operator where meat is power and murder. Movies are made to seduce the consumer. Movies to give goals in life. Movies to give dreams. How audience is seduced? Or are we really that stupid? What is seduction? From Wikipedia: ”In colloquial language and fictional literature, seduction is the process of deliberately enticing a person, to lead astray, as from duty, rectitude, or the like; to corrupt, to persuade or induce to engage in sexual behaviour.” The Internet has lately given rise to more open discussion on seduction and how to master it: The Rules for women and The Game for men.

MUCH ABOUT JENNIFER LOPEZ:
”Actress, entertainer, music artist, film & TV producer, fashion designer, entrepreneur and humanitarian Jennifer Lopez has been called one of the most powerful and celebrated celebrities in entertainment. Forbes Magazine named her the #1 Most Powerful Celebrity in the World of 2012. Known for her beauty and fashion sense Lopez has been the face of many advertising campaigns— L’Oreal, Louis Vuitton, Ford, Fiat, Subaru, Lux, Brahma Beer, Gillette, Kohl’s and Pepsi just to name a few. In 2012, Forbes ranked Lopez number one on their list of “100 Most Powerful and Influential Celebrities in the World” “and she has appeared many times on The Hollywood Report’s list of best paid actresses. Also known as a fashion icon, her appearance at the red carpet events always garners considerable media attention.” www.jenniferlopez.com

”While Hitchcock goes into the investigative side of voyeurism, Sternberg produces the ultimate fetish, taking it to the point where the powerful look of the male protagonist (characteristic of traditional narrative film) is broken in favour of the image in direct erotic rapport with the spectator. The beauty of the woman as object and the screen space coalesce; she is no longer the bearer of guilt but a perfect product, whose body, stylised and fragmented by close-ups, is the content of the film and the direct recipient of the spectator’s look.” www.feministezine.com

Watching her going in to an exiting event wearing Versace smiling and looking happy. The most beautiful woman on Earth, hugely wealthy and desired, influencer on the beauty market. She has her hands leaning her waist. She is a business woman, it is said she is in control of her image, meaning what exactly? She is strong and independent, her own boss and ruler of her art. Poses telling so and the interviews strengthening our perception. But she isn’t saying much concerning entertainment business or how it could be something other than it is and should it be different as it has served her so well? What other could it be and what else is there. Industry serves her as she serves it. I wonder the machinery behind creating the phenomenon like JLo. Is it pure and simple as I think in businesslike? This is awesome. I love you and your arse, your body is part of your art. The publicity is moving around the globe. Beautiful women sell enormously well, so conducting from that there is incredible power in women which remains on image level as it is not completely let go, released. Wildness is ok up to a point. Too much rock and roll is too much the devil.

How it functions building an image for one person around her or his sex symbolism, luxurious life, incredible life story of being discovered and how the story continues, relationships, children, houses, clothes, movies, making music and money, going around the world dancing, having pictures taken, videos being made being followed. The amount and quality of imagery is about style + beauty, body+mind says also her website, a place for worship and to know her a bit better: Lopez’s dedication to assisting children in need and to the empowerment of others is far-reaching. The Girls & Boys Club of America has named her their national spokeswoman. Gucci is featuring Lopez in a national advertising campaign along with her twins Emme and Max launching its children collection. The campaign will benefit UNICEF. Lopez set the branding standard for celebrity fragrance, apparel and accessories. Her latest fragrance, Love and Glamour, marked 17 successful launches, taking in over $2 billion combined. A new fragrance, Glowing, was launch in 2012. In 2006, Lopez was awarded with the prestigious ACE Fashion Icon of the Year for her contribution to accessories and the fashion industry. www.jenniferlopez.com

It’s good publicity to be a humanitarian. Cynically put, but mentioning one’s humanitarian work after all business and entertainment deals and PR is as cynical as business can get and only in couple of sentences her humanism is clear, she is clean and good. I would like to know more about the results of her humanitarianism. What is being made exactly? What is done? What comes to being powerful and influential? She is hypnotizing and playing on many arenas, sure. She attracts men and women that is called power, she makes people wild and dancing, that could be called freeing. The queen bee, a person as a classic beauty to imitate, movie personality with looks to kill, movie star who gathers people to watch her perform, a role model. There are many out there who play this particular part and use their gained position to make a difference as well. She has acted in several Hollywood movies which gives her a platform where she is listened to. Still such story is not the most important issue in a Hollywood feature film, in Hollywood, to be humanitarian it is a side trail, something rich people feel compelled of doing. What kind of sexual vibes arise from the making it. It is a Hollywood cult of icons, stories behind and what actually makes difference in the world. The industry is like a religion with angels and demons, money as the only God. Is philanthropy a distraction, a cleanse? What are movies then? Tools to become rich and famous?

” The paradox of phallocentrism in aIl its manifestations is that it depends on the image of the castrated woman to give order and meaning to its world. An idea of woman stands as lynch pin to the system: it is her lack that produces the phallus as symbolic presence, it is her desire to make good the lack that the phallus signifies.” Laura Mulvey Visual Pleasure NarrativeCinema http://imlportfolio.usc.edu/ctcs505/mulveyVisualPleasureNarrativeCinema.pdf

Hollywood film is a monolith, what I have seen, watched and as I see, it is leaving much out and sticking to the very narrow tones of humanity and sexuality, posing sexual stereotypes, showing a look-a-like magic tricks with a lot of bling and bang. The thing I don’t understand is why is it doing so when it could be doing so much more? With a lot of noise to get so little is strange. Hollywood as a factory would have an enormous potential to do better quality, interesting, experimental, progressive cinema offering the masses variety and actual change. To me their way is more and more commercial humbug offering ecstatic experiences which other art forms also try to achieve, mass appeal and instant ecstasy. Musical sounds are the same, people look the same, has every fucking thing become a clone, an ass and pair of tits? And the world has become an image of the movies. We are coping what is being copied, becoming copies of each other. Copy that.

To break boundaries that are seen as unbreakable.

September 20, 2016March 1, 2018 | Henna Timanttimetsä

Hell breaks loose quite often to make the headlines. Celebrities vs. nobodies and how can celebrity culture help break cultural norms or can it? What kind of people are lifted up the ladder for us to watch is certainly a question to look through and what kind of people the audience is interested in. When people seem like copies of each other in the spot light we can wonder why difference and disturbance/change is not allowed. Is it the sound of a cash register we hear and like to hear, dream about? Is it the clone we wish to be ourselves in a minidress and blond hair repeating what people want to hear over and over again. Tell us what you eat and how you work out, who are you wearing and are you having a clothing line of your own? Thank you so much. To want to crush the ongoing show of nonsense is a scandal which is a scandal itself why something frivolous makes scandals, how the true scandal goes unnoticed. Scandalous is the obsession with a narrow tale of humanity and with womanhood. To want to scratch open the surface of celluloid is pure common sense and should be seen a deed of a sensible normal human being. Getting sick of repetition and abuse is what healthy people do. People’s need to be exploited is something I never understand and defend those who exploit is incomprehensible.

There are plenty of those limitations for women especially which are almost holy that doing against is an abomination and cause of serious punishment, legally or collectively. To think how does it feel like to be imprisoned by a role or a situation is to learn to think other points of views, comprehend feelings of other people who face things you would never face and learn to think actions done in more merciful and non-judgmental way. To think what something feels like is to learn empathy. One can go as far as experimenting, though it never is an authentic situation still, but gives a glimpse of what goes on in someone’s head, what kinds of options there are available to act and invent for oneself. We are very emotional, dictated by emotions more than reason. Our reasoning is often based on feelings and thinking we know, on traditions that guide our ways of living and interacting in quite obsessive way. This concerns women in particular. Policing what women do and how women are is a norm. It is not surprising that most paparazzis are men. Women who are in public eye living their lives, not how they are expected to live but as they see themselves best, seem to get attention that is sexist, misogynist and oppressive. Rule that makes headlines when broken does not allow much. Discipline is a doll and there where celebrity stars are made variety and experimentation is not celebrated. Sometimes people become celebrities when they break the rules (it is a thing and encouraged by the media). Fame is something wanted desperately but what to do with it other than pose? Make money of course.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/25/books/review/trainwreck-sady-doyle.html?_r=0 “In her treatment of Billie Holiday and Whitney Houston — two artists who, after years of struggling with drug addiction, broken hearts and rumors about their sexuality, died tragically — Doyle’s lineage is especially compelling.”

Celebrities operate surgery of souls, brainwash of minds making mindless production of culture and abuse acceptable norm.

July 27, 2014January 30, 2019 | Henna Timanttimetsä

The one thing molding the whole idea of womanhood now, and of course manhood as well, is celebrity culture which is overwhelming. Movies, music, fashion, technological advancements and people who get to be on the spotlight for what ever reason, create the culture we live in right now and in the future. It is incomprehensible mass of images, videos, interviews and texts which do not have any other function than to promote certain people, make them be seen and make them wealthy. This is what we have agreed to do. We enjoy to follow these people who we think we know and want to be like them. Have position and status of theirs, looks and bodies of theirs. Surgery of souls is an acute phrase to use as we are slaves to this media madness and liking it without wanting to get rid of it. How could we even do that. The atmosphere and public opinion seem to note there is nothing we can do to change something that is bigger than us. What is bigger than the public? There is a misconception of influence of one, influence of a consumer. That we are users and abusers, discarding and selecting out of variety of choices choosing what to say and share. We make choices as individuals as much individualistic as we can be, but are we eventually one mind or do we become one mind at any point? It appears as mindlessness of billions of minds, messages multiplying image of ours and of celebrities. We choose to have celebrities as guides, we choose to be interested in their lives and love them. Give them attention and affection. Spend on them.

Pure belief in goodness and kind sharing of a precious moment.

Queens and kings:

Beyoncé has made it by sinking into the world of plastic as something different. Sinking into money maybe in a new way, making it with a bang. She sings about love and making it as a woman. Strength is the word women obviously desire to have and that is what she likes to praise. Female strength. Do we all know what that is?

Strength, is it the same as power, energy, force of life that moves us. Will power with strategy to win. It is a godly thing, religious belief in oneself because you are a star and as Beyoncé says everybody is and she was born to be. Huge or small a bright thing, unreachable and mysterious with something to give and with shine to dazzle. Potential. One just has to find the thing one is good at and can shine in on everybody and most of all over oneself, because empowerment is what being a star is about. Star does not exist because of others, but because itself.

Even though it is clear feminism has never been gone as women have to struggle their way to the top. Women breath feminism whether they like it or not. We are bound to feminism and what it has accomplished in over a hundred years and continues to accomplish. The United States offers a peculiar scene of a dream so many want to reach, but very few do. Yearly listings of financially most successful people in entertainment are part of making that dream a concrete happening. To be part of something admirable, happiness, hard work, luck and talent. Wanting badly.

One in a billion. Is it the girls running? Girls running with all that money. It is Genitalia Marathon.

July 25, 2014January 30, 2019 | Henna Timanttimetsä

What do celebrities who now get the most coverage in media have to say? What is their message? Do you know and is it something worth while thinking about? What is the message of celebrity culture as a whole? Attitude and fierceness to be bold looking good? Is there a one message as it quickly gazed might seem? Influence is massive. Who runs the world? Girls who want their behinds bigger via plastic surgery? Financial winnings made within the culture of entertainment for the artists and their creators can be whopping. Their power is measured in magazines by calculation of how much. Industry flourishing out from movies, sports and music, fashion, magazines and other merchandise do well with right face, with right kind of exposure and bravery.

What is the real power here is an interesting thing to look through. Could the answer be as simple as who does best financially and what kind of message does that person have. What kind of story and continuity person’s career has had and will have. Future prospects and who is listening. The list of the most powerful celebrities by Forbes from this year 2014 introduces Beyoncé as the most powerful celebrity. Grounds for her number one spot lie on her 95 concerts, the released new album called Beyoncé, her fragrances Heat, Pulse and Rise, clothing collection, which all contributions have been financially very successful. Estimated 115 million in earnings during one year is according to Forbes an extremely powerful thing. Of course Forbes is a magazine focusing on finance, business life and entrepreneur insight. Also its specialty are lists of the successful people in different fields of expertise. Information for the world’s business leaders, for the world who to follow. Beyoncé defines herself as a business woman and through that image has a role of a strong independent woman who has had plenty of support to become one since childhood. Which is part of her feminist agenda, be in control and create.

Gender, sexual orientation nor racial issues do not show to be such a large stepping-stones within entertainment anymore. At least what comes to making entertainment for the masses. It has become an advantage to be able to address a group that once was seen as weak. There has been empowerment, they who need to be empowered. Idols do empower and encourage, so maybe they are worth all the money they make. That could be one point Forbes is making by its list. This is how one succeeds now. How does glamour luxury and beauty businesses benefit from all the bling accessory advertising music videos represent. It is a life style presenting with moves.

Majakollektiivi Timanttimetsä

kulttuurintutkimus ja -keräyskeskus/ centre for cultural studies and collecting.

celebrity culture

Monument of revolution MANIFESTo.

Embrace Miss Universe

Desires of the power elite: Us under the phallocentric order.

To break boundaries that are seen as unbreakable.

Celebrities operate surgery of souls, brainwash of minds making mindless production of culture and abuse acceptable norm.

One in a billion. Is it the girls running? Girls running with all that money. It is Genitalia Marathon.

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