The memetic molester: Creating and characterising the child sex abuser through digital humour and transgressive media through a close reading analysis of Pedobear

First Monday ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethany Rose Lamont

The paper consists of an interdisciplinary close reading analysis of the 4chan character of Pedobear as an example of transgressive humour surrounding traumatic subjects in interactive online media. The character and its various applications, from simple knock-knock style jokes, pranks against an ignorant outsider public, countercultural consumption and even as an accusation of real-world abuse, are examined here. The close reading study locates the subject within a broader context of the insider currency of the shocking and taboo subject for white, masculinist, North American youth culture communities both online and off.

2021 ◽  
pp. 173-194
Author(s):  
William Dunkel ◽  
Aaron Trammell

This chapter considers how South Korean identity is represented in the online video game Overwatch through a close reading of the character D.Va. The term “double-ventriloquism” is proposed to explain the simultaneous representation of South Korean youth culture and an assumed North American player within D.Va’s vocal utterances. Through the combination of the audio generated by the game engine and the actions of the player, D.Va communicates messages of instruction, cheer, and defeat. Speaking through action and flavor dialogue, D.Va becomes recognizable as a sexy, cute, young, and techno-forward character whose character and persona the player audience connects with. However, they remain ignorant of the combined corporate and political interests of the creators. This chapter argues that, through “double ventriloquism,” D.Va manifests both North American game company Blizzard Entertainment’s (which owns Overwatch) financial interest and the South Korean state’s interest in exporting Korean cool to an American audience.”


2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl S. McWatters ◽  
Yannick Lemarchand

The Guide du commerce occupies a distinctive place in the French-language literature on accounting. Passed over by most specialists in the history of maritime trade and the slave trade, the manual has never been the subject of a documented historical study. The apparent realism of the examples, the luxury of details and their precision, all bear witness to a deep concern to go beyond a simple apprenticeship in bookkeeping. Promoting itself essentially as “un guide du commerce,” the volume offers strategic examples for small local businesses, as well as for those engaged in international trade. Yet, the realism also demonstrated the expertise of the author in the eyes of potential purchasers. Inspired by the work of Bottin [2001], we investigate the extent to which the manual reflects real-world practices and provides a faithful glimpse into the socio-economic context of the period. Two additional questions are discussed briefly in our conclusion. First, can the work of Gaignat constitute a source document for the history of la traite négrière? The second entails our early deliberations about the place of this volume in the history of the slave trade itself.


2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-129
Author(s):  
Vera B. Tsarcova ◽  

The article is devoted to one of the problems of foreign language education – the definition of the role of interpretation in preparing students of special (language) directions to participate in the dialogue of cultures. Interpretation is considered as a phenomenon and as a way of comprehending reality, which allows the subjects of the dialogue of cultures to reach mutual understanding. The main characteristic of interpretation, which is necessary for the purposes of foreign language education, is its psychological character. It is determined by the psychology of the author, the psychology of the work, as well as the psychology of the reader-interpreter. It is proved that the interpretation of a work of art, which has universal, historical and personal plans, has huge epistemological and axiological possibilities. They activate the entire educational potential of interperetation (educational, developmental, cognitive, and educational). Russian Russian poet A. A. Fet (1820–1892) uses the poem “Wir saßen am Fischerhaus” by the famous German poet and publicist Heinrich Hein (1797–1856) and the translation of this poem into Russian to illustrate the interpretation technology. The poem is considered as a space of personal meanings of the author. They are the ones that are subject to interpretation and bring the reader-interpreter back from the poet's world to the modern real world. And the real world is full of unexpected cultural facts, closely related to the content of the work of G. Heine, with distant Lapland and the life of modern lapps. Thus, interpretation is presented as an educational strategy. Together with the strategies of contextualization, philologization and argumentation, it ensures the achievement of the main goal of foreign language education – the creation of an individual who can act as a genuine subject of the dialogue of cultures. The article also emphasizes the importance of the teacher as the organizer of the educational process and the subject of the dialogue of cultures.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 74-112
Author(s):  
Molly Todd

In the 1970s and 1980s the Guatemalan government's counterinsurgency tactics prompted nearly 2 million people to abandon their homes. Drawing on heretofore unexamined documentation produced by North American solidarity groups, this article examines how Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. grassroots organizations represented the approximately 200,000 Guatemalans who crossed the border into Mexico. It traces the gendered and racialized victim portrayals that celebrated refugee men's voices and agency while reducing refugee women to silent symbols of trauma. A close reading of new sources reveals a paradox of solidarity work in the 1980s: North American activists promoted a new social order of justice and equality, but they did so from positions both privileged and hindered by Cold War geopolitics. As a result, even as “northern” solidarists provided very real succor to “southern” people, their actions continued to be based on uneven (colonial/imperial) power relations and assumptions about an exotic Other.


2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-203
Author(s):  
Sotiris Mitralexis

Maximus the Confessor?s Ambiguum 41 contains some rather atypical observations concerning the distinction of sexes in the human person. There is a certain ambiguity as to whether the distinction of the sexes was intended by God and is ?by nature? (as found in Genesis and asserted by most Church Fathers) or a product of the Fall. Namely, Christ is described three times as ?shaking out of nature the distinctive characteristics of male and female?, ?driving out of nature the difference and division of male and female? and ?removing the difference between male and female?. Different readings of those passages engender important implications that can be drawn out from the Confessor?s thought, both eschatological implications and otherwise. The subject has been picked up by Cameron Partridge, Doru Costache and Karolina Kochanczyk-Boninska, among others, but is by no means settled, as they draw quite different conclusions. The noteworthy and far-reaching implications of Maximus? theological stance and problems are not the object of this paper. In a 2017 paper I attempted to demonstrate what Maximus exactly says in these peculiar and oft-commented passages through a close reading, in order to avoid a two-edged Maximian misunderstanding: to either draw overly radical implications from those passages, projecting decidedly non-Maximian visions on the historical Maximus, or none at all, as if those passages represented standard Patristic positions. Here, I am revisiting this argument, given that the interest in what the Confessor has to say on the subject seems to be increasing.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Equihua Zamora ◽  
Mariana Espinosa ◽  
Carlos Gershenson ◽  
Oliver López-Corona ◽  
Mariana Munguia ◽  
...  

We review the concept of ecosystem resilience in its relation to ecosystem integrity from an information theory approach. We summarize the literature on the subject identifying three main narratives: ecosystem properties that enable them to be more resilient; ecosystem response to perturbations; and complexity. We also include original ideas with theoretical and quantitative developments with application examples. The main contribution is a new way to rethink resilience, that is mathematically formal and easy to evaluate heuristically in real-world applications: ecosystem antifragility. An ecosystem is antifragile if it benefits from environmental variability. Antifragility therefore goes beyond robustness or resilience because while resilient/robust systems are merely perturbation-resistant, antifragile structures not only withstand stress but also benefit from it.


2021 ◽  
Vol 120 ◽  
pp. 02008
Author(s):  
Plamen Milev

The article examines issues on the topic of digital administrative services in Bulgaria. In this sense, the paper presents the opportunities for application of data analytics, which are suitable for research of this type of services. In this case, the article uses data from online media content on the researched topic. The main purpose of the article is to apply opportunities for data analytics and to present the relevant analysis on the topic of digital administrative services in Bulgaria. To achieve its goal, the article uses various scientific methods, including study, analysis, research, modeling and experimentation. The results support the main hypothesis of the study, namely defining the benefits of applying data analytics to research the media positioning of digital administrative services in Bulgaria. In conclusion, the paper points out the opportunities for improvement of the research in the subject area with the application of the respective data analysis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 475
Author(s):  
María Diez Ojeda ◽  
Miguel Ángel Queiruga-Dios ◽  
Noelia Velasco-Pérez ◽  
Emilia López-Iñesta ◽  
José Benito Vázquez-Dorrío

At a key moment when education systems are moving towards the development of 21st-century skills at school, we propose to develop them with a series of enquiry activities connected to the real world on the subject of Chemistry in Compulsory Secondary Education. The four selected topics have practical aspects, as they are related to industrial chemistry, and are proposed in educational practice using the 5E model. The results obtained in a pilot test with 22 students show that the context created facilitates the development of 21st century competences. It is understood that this novel proposal can be successfully employed in other contexts.


2009 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip Rothwell

Moutinho’s work combines such an original approach to the subject with such rigorous and thoughtful referencing of secondary criticism that I cannot envision teaching or writing about any of these works again without drawing heavily on her contribution. Indeed, the book is structured perfectly so that readers can focus on only the particular close reading in which they are interested on any occasion, while following a logical, narrative flow that entices them to begin at the beginning and read right through to the end. Its usefulness, particularly in the anglophone university setting, is both as the first monograph in English to tackle the subject, and also because of the meticulous way in which Moutinho explains cultural references and intertextual allusions, revealing an immense erudition in Comparative Literature.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dylan Martin

If sensationalized media reports are any indication, the men’s fashion industry has entered into an exciting phase of expansion and evolution. As the market diversifies to become increasingly vibrant and varied, prominent ready-to-wear labels continue to showcase evermore divergent and gender-blurring designs in what is celebrated as an anything-goes period in menswear. To examine whether these clothing trends and industry transitions have lasting real world implications, this research seeks to give voice to fashion-conscious male consumers - the subject of scarce qualitative scholarship. Insights gleaned from 20 in-depth interviews with young Canadian men point to contemporary shifts not only in shopping habits and tastes, but also in hegemonic masculinity. Responding to romantic assertions that there are “no rules” in twenty-first century fashion, findings examine the extent to which long withstanding Western menswear conventions prevail. Through illuminating the lived experiences of sartorially savvy males aged 19 to 29, this study uncovers how Generation Y men navigate gender norms and expectations while crafting an idiosyncratic sense of style. Ultimately, this research enriches existing industry and theoretical understandings of how young men approach fashion.


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