something I noticed in The Witcher

So, I don’t know if this is really worth an entire blog. But... here I am writing one.

I watched The Witcher the past few days.

It’s a new series on Netflix, based on a series of books and stories by Polish author Andrej Sapkowski. It was also turned into a series of video games, as well as a Polish TV show and film. This new Netflix version is an American version. I just saw an article this morning about the new series being the highest rated Netflix original series on IMDB.

One general thought I have about the show is that it feels a little inconsistent. This first series is 8 episodes. The first few episodes have some pretty extreme violence: heads being chopped off onscreen – that sort of thing. Then a couple of episodes that seemed a bit less violent, but also a little less interesting. It jumps back and forth between two timelines, which I didn’t realize until half-way through the series, then it all comes together in the last few episodes.

The Witcher is the title, but also one of the main characters. He is a wandering, magical monster-hunter. In each episode he has a sort of self-contained adventure in a different place dealing with a different creature. Which means in each episode, there are new characters introduced, who we mostly never see again. So there are a lot of relationships or stories, perhaps, that aren’t really developed, though it seems like there’s more going on there. Perhaps the books do much better in developing those characters.

Okay, so that’s all general stuff about the show. The main thing that prompted this blog is the nudity. There’s nudity in this show. The amount of nudity is also a little inconsistent. There are a few episodes with what might be called “partial male nudity” – that is, a bare butt. And some bare male chests here and there. There is one main female character who is nude or topless in quite a few scenes throughout the 8 episodes. And there are two group nude scenes – one is an orgy, induced by magic, and the other is, I think, an illusion of a bunch of women and some men sort of... I don’t know, “frolicking” maybe?

There is sometimes a casualness about the nudity in this show, but (this being an American show) it’s always presented in a way that’s sexual or that seems intended to be enticing. There are no clearly visible genitalia in the show. There is some blurry background frontal nudity. But, like most commercial TV/film nudity (again, this being an American show) there’s a clear reluctance/refusal to show genitalia, even in a clearly adult program. It seems to me a weirdly simultaneous prudish and prurient attitude about nudity and sexuality.

I find the fact that those two scenes of group nudity were both prompted by magic to be... interesting. It suggests that people wouldn’t normally be naked in a group. Of course, I think people should be naked in groups more often. I mean generally, not just for an orgy. I think seeing people naked – just normal people – would help tremendously to ease our culture’s discomfort with what human bodies actually look like and help us have a more realistic sense of what’s “normal.”

Well, I’ve written a lot about those things elsewhere. So, moving on...

Here’s the thing I really wanted to write about, the thing which I found surprising. I don’t recall noticing this before in any other commercial TV or film. All of the topless women in the show (in the group nude scenes, as well as that one main character) had similar sized breasts, with similar nipples and areolas.

I’m a photographer, and I do take nude photos (among other things). So, I’ve seen people naked. But even if I weren’t a photographer, I’m sure a quick google search would show me that, like lots of other body parts, breasts and nipples and areolas come in significant range of sizes. There’s a lot of variety out there in size. You’d think that would be reflected in a group nude scene. And I’m not even talking about the extremes on either end of the size range – just normal, average, variation in a population. 

I’m wondering who cast this show and insured that all the breasts looked a certain way? I don’t recall there being another female character with lines who was topless, so mostly these were “extras.” I know at some auditions they “type out” various people who don’t have the right look. But did they do that with breasts? Or was that part of the casting breakdown? Seriously, the more I think about it, the weirder it is. 

Okay. So, that’s my little rant. I don’t know that’s it’s really a rant. Just something weird that I noticed. As always, comments are welcome. 

Wake up, America!

I saw this photo earlier today: 

It got me thinking. And when I start thinking, I sometimes start wanting to rant. So, here we go. 

Maybe it’s time to start asking: who are our police? What is it about this job that attracts some people who seem to want to pull a gun and start shooting the moment they’re uncertain about a situation? 

Obviously there’s more to it than that. We have a very real problem of racism and violence. Comfortable white folk need to wake the fuck up and see what’s really happening here. This is a mixed race country that we live in. And we desperately need to stop hating the “other” part of ourselves. 

But! Maybe we need to NOT give a gun and the protection and “authority” of a badge with the assumption they’ll “do the right thing” to people who appear to have a tendency toward violence, aggression, a lack of self-control. Anybody who wants a job where they take on the responsibility of watching out for, investigating, hunting down, and/or punishing other people really should have ongoing training in de-escalation of potentially violent situations. And they should ABSOLUTELY be required to pass some stringent psychological tests before and during their employment. 

Sure there are plenty of decent cops out there who don’t go around murdering the people they’re supposed to be protecting and serving, but there are clearly way too many who are. These are not isolated incidents when they keep happening all over the country. When you look back at the records of these thugs in blue uniforms who acted in “self-defense” and murdered some person of color, why is it that you’ll often find prior complaints against them of excessive force, etc.? What the fuck is wrong with these people? And all the other assholes who protect and defend them when they murder people? 

Wake up, America! This is not okay.

Celebrate your symbols and “my flag”

So today on the facebook I am seeing lots of American flags with fireworks added – photoshopped, or whatever. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, but here’s an example:

I also saw a few Confederate flags* posted by some guy I used to know 20-something years ago.

* I KNOW – it’s not THE Confederate flag; it’s A flag used by some southern armies during the Civil War, and is occasionally referred to as the “Southern Cross”. (I find the religious connotation in that name interesting in itself, as it’s indicative of the sort of martyr complex its current supporters seem to have.) And it became more widely popular and visible in the South, during the mid-20th Century, as an anti-civil rights/pro-white establishment symbol.

It got me wondering why I haven’t seen – after the past few weeks full of rainbows and battle flags – any Confederate flags with fireworks. So I did a google image search. 

I only found one. It’s a mediocre shutterstock image, with a “shutterstock” watermark.

I do wonder if the pro-Confederate flag people are just not thinking in those terms, not trying to celebrate the flag in that way. I’m sort of glad they’re not, as would it would seem a bit aggressive. After all, it is a flag that was specifically designed to be recognized in battle. And, of course, there’s that whole pesky racism/hate/oppression connotation. Even if you have a knee-jerk feeling that it represents “heritage not hate,” I would ask: is it really possible to separate the symbol from its violent past.

Anyway, there does not seem to be a lot of Confederate firework imagery out there. Which is good. Adding literal explosives to that mix probably isn’t the best idea.

The Confederate flag supporters DO celebrate that flag, but in a different way. They love to display it – on their trucks, their lawns, their mobile homes; or as a fashion accessory – on bandanas, belt buckle, swim suits. Now, you may look at those examples I’ve listed and think I’m just pointing out stereotypes. But honestly, those are places where I have, with my very own eyes, seen Confederate battle flags before the recent ruckus about it.

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Something I’ve been thinking about lately, with the whole flag “debate” is the flag I used to have.

When I was a kid – maybe 10 or 12 years old – I bought a Confederate flag at a flea market. I’d saved up my allowance for a little while, not to specifically buy this flag, but to buy something more interesting than candy or a comic book or whatever I was interested in back then. I was at this flea market with my family and I found a table selling all kinds of flags. This was around the time The Dukes of Hazzardwas on TV, and I liked the show. I saw a Confederate flag there on the table at the flea market, and I thought it looked cool. I was a kid, and to me it represented “the Duke boys” and “Yee-haw!”

Now, I wasn’t a particularly redneck-y kind of kid (though I have cousins who were). As I said, I liked the show. So I bought that flag and hung it on the wall above my bed. It was probably 5 feet by whatever – not quite big enough to hang on a flagpole, but certainly big enough to be obviously noticeable when you walked in the room.

I’m sure I’d seen the flag elsewhere, not just on TV. I lived in the South. My older brother is a bit of a Civil War buff, and it may have already been an interest of his at that point. But I really didn’t understand the history and significance of that flag. So, for several years, I had a big Confederate battle flag on my wall. I thought it was a neat looking thing. It has a strong design. I just liked the look of it.

When I was around 14 years old, my family moved. It was probably around that time that I stopped displaying that flag on my wall. I don’t remember deciding to take it down, but I’m pretty sure by high school that it was not on my wall anymore. Even then, I’m not sure I fully understood the significance of that imagine, but I think it just didn’t fit the person I was becoming as a teenager. I was embracing education and knowledge, starting to question religion (funny how those two things tend to go together), having discussions/arguments with my brother about socio-political topics (women’s rights, inter-racial relationships, etc.). I was becoming a liberal.

I do not recall when, or even IF, I actually got rid of that flag. It’s certainly a possibility; I’ve gotten rid of many things. Though it might be folded up, sitting in some box full of childhood mementos in my parents’ basement. Maybe I’ll have a look the next time I’m there.

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Oh, here’s something else. Something I made, based on another version I found online. A few facebook friends of mine (including a cousin) were sharing “if they can fly theirs, we can fly ours” posts, so this was my idea of compromise.

Civil War

The American Civil War. 

“Everybody” knows that it was about slavery.

Except for the people who argue it was about “States Rights”.

My brother used to say that. He’s a bit of a Civil War “buff”. 

Well, my response to that argument was “Yeah, some states wanted the right to have slaves.”

So, I was reading Bag of Bones (by Stephen King) yesterday.

It brought up the idea that for many of the participants the Civil War wasn’t necessarily about slavery. Racism was rampant in both the north and south. What many of the northerners were fighting for was the idea that you can’t just decide to not be part of the country anymore. At least, that’s the idea in this book.

Well, why can’t you leave the country? The original 13 colonies decided to not be part of England anymore. And the other states had to decide to join the United States. A state can’t change its mind? Sounds like the mafia. Once you’re in, you’re in for life.

In a sense, we went to war just to maintain the status quo. Maybe sometimes that’s what war is about.

America, love it or leave it.

…except you can’t leave it. Well, you can, but that just means go away; if you don’t agree with us we don’t want you here. 

Ah, yes…the land of the free.