The bulk of what I read this week is fans’ fading interest in the continuation of the Kingdom Hearts series. I went through a lengthy reddit thread where fans shared frustrations and epithets about losing interest (or angrily questioning why people would lose interest) in a game that’s been in production for far too long. The arguments, besides the length of production, for losing interest in the game range from a disinterest in the increasingly convoluted plot, an annoyance with the seriousness of the plot, anger at the “stupidity” of the writing, and frustration with how the franchise has been spread out throughout the years.

The main titles have always been exclusively available to the PlayStation consoles, and the multiple spinoffs have been respectively exclusive to different handheld devices — the Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, PSP, 3DS. The argument with that, then, is that casual fans have a right to lose interest in the game, given that they won’t understand anything happening in KHIII because the series branched off in devices they did not have.

Now, the counterargument is the … outright false… claim that those spinoff games aren’t important to the overall plot and casual fans can probably pick up where they left off at KHII (11 years ago). The spinoff games are important to understanding the plot, and if you’re one of those people who neeeeeds the plot to make 100% sense at all times, well first you shouldn’t be playing this series in the first place, but second you would have at least had to play the spinoff games released in between 2 and 3.

The other counterargument is that fans can just recap by watching videos! Because every casual fan will no doubt love the idea of sitting in front of multiple videos explaining the plot and lore of the game series they left in their childhood (11 years ago).

With the impending release of KHIII, gamers and journalists alike have been speculating on the success of the installment once it does finally release, pointing to the same arguments I listed in the first paragraph, but mostly to the incredibly long gap between the games.

Some fans also condemn the overanalysis and anger related to the complicated plot. That’s developed game writing! they say. Or, why does it even need to make sense? It’s a game!

The big issue KHIII will face is the lack of hype from casual fans because, despite the mixed feelings from very involved fans, those involved fans will pick it up no matter what. There’s also the rumor that Square, the game’s company, is pushing the release back to make it exclusively available on Nintendo’s new console? That would open up a whole new can of worms, but fans don’t seem to be acknowledging the rumor as of yet.

The articles related to this event are from the local newspaper of my community, both involve a Mosque in a neighboring city only five minutes away. The articles explain that the Islamic Center has been a center of debate within the city due to a member of the mosque committing the Pulse shooting in Orlando a few months ago. After the tragedy members of the Mosque have been assaulted both physically and verbal and most recently a member of a nearby biker chapel has set fire to the place of worship. These escalating occurrences are being evaluated by the Sherriff to observe if these were, in fact, hate crimes and how this comments on the local community.

The articles explain that a member of the Mosque had worshiped at the location the night prior to the Pulse shooting. This causes members of the community to question his motives, whether this was directly instigated to his religion or a hate crime. The man was married with children, and had been noted as being unstable and has allegedly made claims of the plotting of other possible terror attacks. This was never reported to authorities. His family has made statements and had apologized for his actions to the best of their ability –and insist this unforgivable action was purely an excruciating action done by a confused and hateful young man.

Since the tragedy in Orlando, the Islamic Center has been under scrutiny within its community. Members of the community have been actively protesting the mosque’s presence, by gathering during services with signs and chants. There was also a documented report of an assault of a man wearing ceremonial garb.  It had been reported by the place of worship that the building has often been circled by bikers yelling obscenities. Just a week ago, arson had been committed and the man who started the fire has been identified as a member of a neighboring biker chapel.

Throughout these events, the Sheriff had refused to offer security, due to lack of staff and resources. There has also been an investigation to discern if these acts are in fact hate crimes and present a danger to the Muslim community. There has not yet been an official statement about this. However, members of Ft. Pierce and neighboring cities have gathered to support the mosque speaking out against the actions that had been committed and  offering support to the religious leader—who is also a local doctor. There has also been a candle light vigil to show unity and support for the Islamic community.

http://archive.tcpalm.com/news/special/orlando-shooting/

http://search.tcpalm.com/jmg.aspx?k=pulse+mosque

Reading 1: http://www.pacificu.edu/about-us/news-events/four-waves-feminism

So, I found this article very interesting. While I’m very familiar with first wave and second wave feminism, third wave feminism is where the movement starts to lose me. And before I read this, I found the fact that since the fourth wave’s platform wasn’t yet quantified, it weakened the movement.

But I think this might have changed my mind.

I learned that third wave feminism re-adopted high heels, lipstick, and cleavage, among other trends in physical appearance, that their predecessors sought to get rid of. 3rd wavers reasoning was that women should look beautiful for themselves, as the subject, instead of dressing this way to attract attention and belittle themselves into an object. They were also making a statement that no matter how a woman dresses and looks, she can still be intelligent and have a mind of her own, as well as articulated opinions.

Technology and the internet is a large part of the 3rd wave’s identity, and I hope to explore that in more depth.

I also found it interesting that the 3rd wave feminists don’t like the word feminism, because they find it “limiting and exclusionary.” They also find the struggle persisting on an individual level, where women need to grapple with their own position in society because the previous two generations have already given them all the tools they need. 3rd wavers want to be the last wave; they don’t see the need for a wide-scale feminist movement anymore.

I think this is where I have previously seen myself, at the tail end of the third wave. I’m not a fan of the word feminist because I feel it doesn’t address true equality, and I’ve believed that it’s up to women to come to their own terms with their gender and how that may affect their goals and ambitions, as well as how other people treat them (and how they’ll let that affect them also). It’s up to women to shape their own fate, even though antagonists are ever present. They need to rely on themselves, not a movement as a crutch.

Or so I was previously convinced.

But this article kind of puts things in perspective as why we may need a fourth wave. During the third wave, feminism became very academic and resided mostly in universities to be studied and talked about. While women were treated equally for the most part, perennial problems still exist that are crying out for feminism to address it. The fourth wave itself may be the movement from the university back to public discourse, to address problems such as: “sexual abuse, rape, violence against women, unequal pay, slut-shaming, the pressure on women to conform to a single and unrealistic body-type and the realization that gains in female representation in politics and business.” I think it’s super important that this dialogue is absorbed by the public and every day people have conversations about it. One thing that rubs me the wrong way about feminism is that some feminists make remarks that women “aren’t feminist enough” for disagreeing with certain principles or beliefs the majority holds. That kind of behavior has turned me off from a forum type discussion. But I realize those type of close-minded people hold true for any political or social discussion, and you have to push past that to get to the heart of the argument. Hence, me opening up to learn about a subject I’ve avoided for too long.

The author of this article addressed fourth wave feminism as women”coming out of the closet”  and admitting that they are a feminist, despite all the bad rap the word has received from all sides of the argument. Those joining the fourth wave are realizing that the 3rd wave was perhaps too optimistic, and that feminism is still needed by many women. And I relate to her analogy greatly.

She also makes an interesting point that fourth wave feminism is not a re-incarnation of the previous waves, but a completely unique movement spurred by millennials to treat problems that have been modified by a new age in which we live in.

It’s going to be interesting to see what the fourth wave turns into, and if we’ll be successful in recruiting men to our cause, and if we’ll pierce the heart of all classes, races, sexualities, and cultures.

Last week, we were asked to read “Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis”. I read it and it started an idea rolling in my head on how e-mail etiquette has changed. E-mails because, it has become a pet peeve of mine, when I e-mail someone asking them several questions and when they respond, they have only answered one. I wanted to find out what the rules were and if they had somehow changed while I wasn’t looking. Turns out they didn’t but still people don’t follow those rules and there my start at rhetorical analysis on e-mail stopped. It was helpful for me to try out the process on something unrelated to my topic and see how far I could go. When I got to applying the rhetorical analysis on my topic, I found several different angles I could take but one caught my attention the most.

In looking for information on my topic, I stumbled upon another side to my topic that was not easy to see until I found the book “The Korean Wave: Korean Popular Culture in Global Context” by Yasue Kuwahara. My plan was to explain how the South Korean culture was affected by the Hallyu wave of K-Pop and K-drama but that could be relatively explained in a couple of pages. In the book, there is a chapter on Nostalgic Desire and Colonial memory which sparked my memory on an article I read about how South Korean fans felt about international fans. Then I realized that I could expand my topic to include South Korea’s rise as a Tech Giant and how with the Hallyu wave they are perceived on a global scale. In finding out more, I am realizing that while I may know more about K-Pop as it is today, I need to look back into its history and how the three leading entertainment companies (SM, YG and JYP) are on top. That in turns leads to finding out more about the growth of the country and its people. We’ll see what other information goodies I can find, that doesn’t lead to a Youtube binge on Korean variety shows and I’ll share them next week.

This week I have been reading up on the “Free Hugs Project”.  In the most basic definition it is “A friendly embrace will put a smile on your face”. This organization, started by Ken Nwadike, a young black man, purpose is to bring peace to hostile situations, by braking the tension with a hug. As we all know in the recent months, there has been many shootings between police officers and black men and women. However from the articles and videos I have seen affiliated with this project, there have been three sides taken. One, which is the “this doesn’t effect me”. But the other two, for and opposing, these have become two very valid and heard arguments.  The for argument is one who just wants peace, who say that the hugs and peaceful protest will be the answer. However the against is why bridge a gap, that isn’t truly being filled, you are going up and hugging people but tomorrow their will be another incident.  By this I mean, the article I read was taking about people in Charlotte NC, who wanted Ken to leave because they felt like him walking around offering free hugs was him just giving up the “war”, that the police officers didn’t care about black lives , so why should they listen to what they have to say, they are hired to protect, but in their opinion, they are doing more harm then good. However he sees it as him just bridging a gap because all people in this situation are people too.  Relating to my topic of word aversion is because, even though there are messages of peace are coming out, people don’t want peace without action and justice. This aversion either to the word “cop” or the word “black” is what Ken is hugging for. This young man doesn’t care about what people think, and like I’ve been studying, aversion to specific word can be a serious issue,  it’s this idea that one person has more of a right then another, that is what Ken is hugging for, for all people to be seen as equal in this battle. However because of what is happening, there is a strong response when he shows up to events. Can a hug be bad?