Fabulosity

The concept of being fabulous is very popular in pop culture; everybody wants to be fabulous. Kimora Lee Simmons, super model turned business woman, lives her life being fabulous and glamorous every single day. Her reality show was called "Life on the Fab Lane," her online shoe store is called JustFab.com, and her perfume & book are called Fabulosity. Every popstar strives to be fabulous. In her music, Beyonce says "I woke up like this...flawless." Being flawless is another form of being fabulous, that means nothing and no one can touch you (metaphorically speaking), because you're flawless. Lady Gaga has said in her own words, "I feel fabulous." Fabulousness is a state-of-mind more-or-less which is perpetuated by outside (phyisical/material) sources. The super-inner fabulous don't even have to be glammed up to feel fabulous, because of course, it's a state-of-mind (although the rest of the world won't see them as fabulous because of the lack of material fabulousness that goes with being completely fabulous: such as having flawless makeup and/or skin, beautifully done and/or beautiful natural hair, and also clothing.) For clothing to be fabulous it has to be clothes that best fits that particular person's style. A top may look fabulous on one person, but fugly on somebody else. Being fabulous is hard work. I've never heard anyone, not once, say that being fabulous is easy. Yes, you can be on drugs and still be fabulous as we saw in the film "Party Monster," but we also saw the amount of work that they put into their craft (the craft of being fabulous). One thing that makes being fabulous hard has to be childhood. During one's childhood, they have to go through bullying and peer pressure and fitting in. All of this social pressure affects one's psyche, and it does harm to a person's self-esteem and confidence. Only those who finally find themselves while being amongst the lost can fully be fabulous. The formula for fabulous is High Self-Esteem + Confidence + Uniqueness + 0 Fucks, once you have all of that you can be on your way to fabulous. Notice that money was not included in the formula because money is not truly needed (but sure, it definitley does help). A small income and a trip to the thrift store, yard sales and clearance rack can go a looong way. You can wear plastic bags that you got for free at the grocery store and still be fabulous, it all depends on your confidence and how you style it (high self-esteem + confidence + uniqueness + 0 fucks). Just one last thing, never try to rock some fake Louis Vuitton. You either get name brand or no brand, but NEVER imitation!

Apartment 213

Continuing with the trope of queers who kill, lets talk Jeffrey Dahmer. Jeffrey Dahmer was an active serial killer from 1978-1991.He   On Netflix I watched a documentary titled "The Jeffrey Dahmer Files" in which they interview three people. A neighbor Pamela Bass who lived in the apartment in front of Jeffrey Dahmer, the main detective -who was the main contact between Dahmer and the world Patrick Kennedy- and the main coroner Jeffrey Jentzen. Jeffrey Dahmer killed about 19 people, but what really set him apart was his fixation of sexual pleasure that he took away from performing acts of necrophilia and cannibalism.

The headlines called him the "Real Hannibal Lecter".

However one of the major differences between Dahmer and Hannibal is what makes him eligible for study in this class. He was gay. Dahmers victims were all men who he was going to pay to have sex with. Dahmer's father was a chemist who showed Dahmer how to use all the chemicals that he would eventually use to desiccate parts of the body. One of the ways that he collected trophies was to arrange the dead bodies in strange contorted positions and then take pictures. He would also cut off their genitalia and/or their hands and desiccate them. He would sometimes also cut the victims heads off and keep the skull and paint it elaborately. But what really set him apart was his cannibalistic nature. During his "active" years as a serial killer he would have murdered 17-19 people and eaten the same amount.

What baffles me the most about the Jeffrey Dahmer case was how he managed to kill and eat 19 people in his apartment. In most cases killers have their own homes or they have/know of  abandoned spaces to commit the atrocities. Dahmer just had a blue barrel in which he would keep the liquidated bodies. Then there is the confession. He was so honest with Detective Pat Kennedy that its almost like he wanted to get caught.

The Parisian Lannisters

Caution if you have not yet seen Game of Thrones and have no idea what the show is about and you are thinking about starting it DO NOT READ ON. SPOILERS!!!

The Papin sisters were the murderers of the week. They were two sisters who worked as maids in the thirties who worked for a wealthy widow and her young daughter. The story revolves around how because of there insane closeness the sisters world was becoming small, enclosed and it drove them mad.

Christine is the eldest and is working initially on her own. Later Lea comes to join her and the two sisters become reclusive and because of the time and the observance of the chaste system they are also alienated by their mistress. Chirstine is the jealous one. She believes that Lea is secretly forming a bond with the daughter of their mistress, Isabel. She also is jealous and angry at the love their mother has for Lea. She is slightly abusive to Lea and yet Lea always tries to soothe her fears that she will leave her side.

Behold the work of the Papin Sisters

During the entire movie I could only think of one other glorified incestuous pair of sibling murderers. Jamie and Cersei Lannister of the A Song of Fire and Ice  or as it is more popularly known the Game of Thrones television series on the HBO network. Jamie is a knight who is not supposed to have a wife, children and properties. Lets just say his secret wife is his wife, his children have been claimed by the King (he has been so sadly cuckolded) and his father has left him all his property in hopes that he can buy him out Jamie's knighthood. Jamie is like both Lea and Christine. He has Christine's penchant for rage and possessiveness but like Lea he is not in the lead and is constantly one of his family members pawns.

 Cersei, is a real piece of work, she is like Christine in the sense that she leads the relationship, she is the one that reminds Jamie to be cautious and she is also verbally and emotionally abusive, its almost sadistic. However she tends to be slightly impulsive like Lea and despite her nasty talk usually hides behind Jamie and lets him fight her battles. Cersei always obsesses about how they are twins, golden-haired and green eyed, full of the Lion Blood, heirs to the Lannister empire. Jamie and her always envision a world where only they can belong. When they were younger like the Papin sisters they were obsessed with a world that only they could belong to and that only they understood. They cared nothing for the outside world.











This is what most reminded me of the Papin sisters. Christine is jealous of the relationship that Lea has formed with their mother and is also jealous of anyone who even remotely speaks to her. After the first sexual encounter they have at their workplace they become increasingly withdrawn and close the world around them until they are the only two people left. Although Jamie and Cersei and a heterosexual they are like The Papin sisters in that they are hostile to the outside environment that does not consist of one of the other.

The relationship between the sisters also reminded me of another homo-incestous relationship in the very popular anime show: Ouran Host High School Club. The show is about a girl who gets a scholarship into an elite school and encounters a group of  six boys who have a very popular host club. They have devoted themselves to entertaining the girls that go to their school and have made considerable money from it. The twins Hikaru and Karou are very inclusive about who they let into their lives on an emotional level. The closeness reminded me of the Papin sisters who are very selective about who they let into their lives.

You Are All That I Have

         Our classmate Chris did a powerpoint presentation on a short film called "Tracks," and in his presentation he mentioned that a lot of people in the gay community only have each other or their significant other. That's because in this homophobic-hetero-dominated society, people in the LGBTQ community are being shunned by their families and often are kicked out of their home. So at the end of the day, if they find somebody who loves them for who they are, they'll go above and beyond to never lose them. This is what led Christine and Lea to kill their employer in the film "Sister My Sister."
        There was a moment in the movie where Christine tells Lea "You're all that I have!" Lea being, both, Christine's lover and sister.  So this, in a way, falls under the concept of an LGBTQ member trying not to lose the only person who loves her because if Christine doesn't have Lea then she doesn't   have anyone in her life. Christine's mom didn't love her or treated her as well as she did to Lea, so Christine had to learn how to learn how to live with just loving herself.  So when Lea moved in with Christine in her employers house, Christine was going to do everything in her power to not lose her sister, so when their relationship was threatened by their employer, the sisters killed their boss and their boss's daughter.

Homoerotic Friendship

        

                                                                                                                                                       
           A homoerotic friendship was seen in the film "Heavenly Creatures" starring Kate Winslet.  The movie depicts two girls, Pauline and Juliet, that develop a friendship that later becomes intense and passionate. The intense passion behind the friendship causes everything to spiral out of control. They start to become delusional, and in the end, they end up killing somebody. In a way, it's similar to the friendship between Gretchen, Regina, Karen, and Cady from "Mean Girls."

         The friendship in "Mean Girls" starts off as a regular friendship between three girls welcoming a new student into their group. That friendship, too, spirals out of control due to the passion behind the girls' frienship. There are differences between the friendship dynamics in both films. The passion in Pauline and Juliet's friendship made the love for each other grow stronger, and in "Mean Girls," it made the girls go from friends to frenemies.

       At the end of both films, the friends were disbanded and went their separate ways, because together, their relationships were unhealthy and caused mental stress on the girls, and in "Heavenly Creatures," it even caused the girls to kill somebody.

Le Lien Defait: The Defeated Link

This week's movie was a French one called J'ai pas Sommeil. The movie was ok, but what was really good was the soundtrack. Particularly this one song that one of the main characters sang.

This is a link to the scene I'm referring to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMcBEOvxXj4

The song was so heartbreaking:
Here are the French Lyrics and the English Translations

Le lien défait           

comme l'ange blond

noyé dans la Durance

comme un démon

tu déferas le tien

comme l'oiseau borgne

comme Jeanne de France

dans ta démence

tu déferas le tien

on se croit d'amour

on se croit féroce enraciné

mais revient toujours

le temps du lien défait

on se croit d'amour

on se sent épris d'éternité

mais revient toujours

le temps du lien défait

comme la vipère

comme la reine des près

morte terre

tu déferas le tien

comme la femme douce

comme l'homme léger

au moment d'oublier

tu déferas le tien

The defeated link

as blond angel

drowned in the Durance

like a demon

you déferas yours

as blind bird

as Jeanne de France

in your dementia

you déferas yours

one feels love

we seem fierce rooted

but always comes back

time defeated the link

one feels love

one feels enamored of eternity

but always comes back

time defeated the link

as the viper

as meadowsweet

dead land

you déferas yours

such as sweet woman

like light man

the time to forget

you déferas yours

Murderous Duos

            Nathan Freudenthal Leopold and Richard Albert Loeb are known for the murder of a 14 year old boy named Robert "Bobby" Franks. The crime was planned out for 7 months, and it was to be the "perfect crime" and it was suppose to gain the public attention and establish their status as "supermen," (A superman is, on account of certain superior qualities inherent in him, exempted from the ordinary laws which govern men. He is not liable for anything he may do [Simon Baatz, For the Thrill of It. New York: Harper, 2008] ).  Unfortunately, Leopold dropped his glasses near where the two had buried Robert Franks' body, and that led to them getting convicted for their crime. 

          So far the two just seem like typical partners in crime, but really their relationship went much further than that. Leopold and Loeb were lovers and friends. The crime itself was more popular than the criminals, but more recently when looking at the two men, people are putting the focus on the relationship the two had, such as in the film "Swoon."  The film focuses on Nathan and Richard's relationship with one-another and it doesn't necessarily revolve around Bobby Franks. The film shows their somewhat dis-functional relationship. You can see that when things get stressful, they tend to get annoyed with each other and eventually throw each other under the bus (after they've been caught). Though the film came out in 1992, showing that being criminal couples can make you iconic figures in history, Leopold and Loeb are still not as well known in popular culture, as oppose to Bonnie and Clyde who are the legendary infamous crime couple of America. It would have been cooler if the guys were the #1 crime couple because we need more homosexuality in this hetero-dominated society. But compared to what Bonnie and Clyde did, what Leopold and Loeb did seems like small stuff, so it's understandable why they hold the status as the #1 iconic criminal couple in American history.