Media Anatomy

  There has been a severe backlash towards Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, or AOC, sharing the story of her sexual assault and how she threatened during the terrorist attack on the Capital Building. Just last night the hashtag "AOC lied" was trending on social media. This toxic ideology can be traced back to two popular creation stories. Think of Adam and Eve and how it is Eve who responsible for the end of Paradise because of her tricking Adam into eating the forbidden fruit. Think of Pandora's box, and how Pandora's inquisitiveness leads to her opening the box and dooming humanity. These creation stories establish two precedents that too often guide our society: women are deceitful and women should be quiet. And what do you know: the accusations against AOC are that she is lying and that she should shut up.  Pandora's dooming of humanity These toxic ideals reverberate throughout our media. Think of how often you have heard authoritative women be called "bitches...

 After really loving the Davies era of Dr. Who, I decided to seek out other works of his. It was then that I found a recent project of his, Years and Years . Like so much of Davies' work, this show captures what media  should do but rarely does. It probes our world and is not afraid in making the viewer uncomfortable while doing so. It also somehow juggles a dark cynical portrait of humanity while never losing faith in our capacity to be better. It is a special show I could not recommend enough.  In this series, Davies casts his net wide as he touches on things like technology, immigration, and the rise of fascism. His treatment of technology is fascinating as in many ways it could be read as a repudiation of the popular Black Mirror. While that show almost always shows technology as a force that will end up destroying our lives, Davies prefers a more nuanced portrait. A character seeks to be transhuman, meaning she wants to merge with a computer, and this character ends ...