Poem: "Say It Loud"
Aug. 1st, 2019 01:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem is posted in response to the heinous content of The Boys, Episode 1. It also fills the "accidental hero" square in my 1-3-18 card for the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
trope_bingo fest. It belongs to the Mercedes thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.
Warning: This poem contains material that may disturb some readers. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes rude language, loud public announcement about a sex crime, sexual assault in a public place including indecent exposure and abuse of a minor, provocation of a supervillain (whose response is fairly moderate in context), an alarmed police officer rushing to intervene before the incident gets any worse, trust issues, misuse of adaptive clothing to facilitate a sex crime, fear and shame, legal issues, arrest, and other angst. If these are touchy topics for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.
"Say It Loud"
[Monday, November 3, 2014]
Peter Rybokov was walking
through the Mercedes bus station
to pick up a friend when he heard:
"PUT YOUR PENIS AWAY!"
The sound was loud enough
to rattle the windows, although
none of them cracked from it,
and everyone stopped to stare.
That was unmistakably Loudmouth,
winding up to the full fury of
an outraged supervillain.
Recalling Rabid City and
the Cold Shoulder incident,
Peter broke into a jog.
The next line, barely quieter,
sliced through the air like a knife.
"You have a TINY PENIS and I don't
want to see it! No wonder the only action
you can get is accosting strangers in public."
Peter lengthened his stride, running
the last few steps to reach Loudmouth
before anything worse could happen.
She had a short, pudgy man pinned
against the wall at arm's length.
"I'm here," he said. "Stand down.
I will handle the situation from here.
Where is Torrin right now?"
Loudmouth stared at Peter,
fuming. Torrin came running
from the concession stand,
flinging himself on her.
"You get one chance,"
Loudmouth said to Peter,
wrapping an arm around Torrin.
The other held onto her captive.
"Please tell me what happened,"
Peter said. "I promise to handle it."
"This man propositioned me, and
when I said no, he exposed himself,"
Loudmouth said, giving him a shake.
"Can you tell me the exact words
of the exchange?" Peter asked.
Loudmouth shook her head.
"Not in mixed company."
Peter looked at Torrin,
who was staring at them
with huge eyes. "Point,"
he said. "We can save
those details for later."
"Once he whipped it out,
I told him to put it away,"
Loudmouth continued.
"You might've heard that."
"Ma'am, the whole station
heard that," Peter said dryly.
"They were meant to,"
Loudmouth said through
her teeth. "I hoped that
it would attract attention."
"It certainly did that," Peter said.
"What happened afterwards?"
"I grabbed him so he couldn't
leg it," Loudmouth said. "I thought
the station staff could come and
see what he's been up to."
"I didn't do anything!"
the short man squeaked.
"Nobody saw any of it."
Peter looked around and sighed.
"We're in a blind spot here," he said.
"The security cameras won't have footage."
"Of course we're in a goddamn blind spot,"
Loudmouth snapped. "Obviously he
knows the territory, this is probably
his favorite hunting ground. He's
a pervert, not a complete idiot."
"Well, he's not exposed now, and
without direct evidence, it will be
challenging to prove," Peter said.
"We can go down to the station and
get started making the case, though."
"Look at his clothes," Torrin said suddenly.
"Okay, what am I looking for?" Peter asked.
"They seem pretty normal at first glance."
"They're designed to," Torrin said. "He's
wearing adaptive pants, though. The fly is
fake. Those pants open and close with vrip,
so that they're quick to get into and out of.
Mom wrote a story about them once."
"I wondered how he moved so fast,"
Loudmouth muttered. "That explains it."
"Circumstantial evidence of premeditation,
if he doesn't have a physical condition
calling for such clothes," Peter agreed.
He looked closer at the rest of the outfit.
The man wore a black zip-front hoodie
over a pale gray fleece turtleneck and
jeans, with a black knit stocking cap.
"Sir, please remove your hat,"
Peter said, playing a hunch.
Slowly the man reached up
to drag the knit hat off his head.
The inside was pale gray, too.
It would be easy to change
his appearance by taking off
the hoodie to show the turtleneck
and turning the hat inside out.
Peter had a bad feeling about this.
The bus station had struggled with
a high rate of complaints for months,
but nobody had managed to pin down
the culprit behind them -- until now.
All he had to do was somehow talk
a cranky supervillain into helping him.
Well, that's what he got paid for.
"Now I know that this sort of thing
isn't your cultural preference, but could I
interest you in filing some complaints?"
Peter said, turning to Loudmouth.
"It would help us make the case."
"You want me to trust the cops
to deliver justice?" Loudmouth said,
her voice crackling in the air like
a speaker turned up too high.
"I want you to trust me,"
Peter said. "You know that
I'll do my job -- and even if he
wriggles loose this time, I've seen
his face in relation to a sex crime."
Loudmouth muttered and grumbled
under her breath, but she was looking
at Torrin instead of at the bad guy, so
Peter hoped that was a hopeful sign.
"She's telling the truth," said a soft voice.
Peter turned to find a teenaged girl.
"Did you see what happened?" he said.
"Just -- just a glimpse today," she whispered.
"But he did it to me last month, and then I saw
the whole -- show. I was too scared to tell
anyone about it then. He's creepy."
"That's all I need to hear for now,"
Peter said, holding up a hand.
"If two of you can describe any ...
identifying features, that will give
proof that you saw something he
shouldn't have shown to you."
"Class action suit," Torrin piped.
"That's when a bunch of people
get mad at the same person for
doing something bad. My mom
writes about those things a lot."
Torrin's mother was a reporter, and
while she wasn't great at parenting,
she was a real bulldog on a storyline.
"That takes more than two people,"
Peter said, "but it may be an option.
We'll post a notice here just in case
other victims want to come forward."
"I bet they will," Loudmouth said.
"I've seen him hanging around here.
He creeps on the younger girls, mostly,
but I've seen him bother single women
and even old ladies. I just didn't know
exactly what he was doing until today."
That reminded Peter of something.
"Miss, I need to know your name
and age," he said to the girl.
"I'm Amita Mullen and I'm 15,
almost 16," she said. "I have
a student bus pass." It was even
the fancy kind that served as picture ID
for people who didn't have a driver's license.
"Thank you. Please call a parent to sit with
you while you talk to an officer about this,"
Peter said as he copied down the details.
"I already know Loudmouth and Torrin,
so I can list them in the paperwork."
Loudmouth didn't look happy about that,
but she didn't protest. Apparently getting
the bad guy was worth dealing with cops.
"Did he touch you at all, before or after
the visual display?" Peter asked her.
"Yeah, he rubbed against me from
behind, and that's why I turned around
to confront him," Loudmouth said.
"All right, let me have him," Peter said.
"You better behave," Loudmouth said
to her captive as she slowly released
her grip on the wrinkled front of his hoodie.
"You're under arrest for sexual assault
including both indecent exposure and
sexual abuse of a minor," Peter said
as he pulled out his handcuffs.
Loudmouth waited politely for him
to finish before she said, "My turn."
At his alarmed look, she added,
"I'll keep it verbal and ... safe-ish."
Peter knew when to settle
for what he could get. "Okay,"
he said, waving her onward.
"YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE,"
Loudmouth said. "When someone
pulls out his privates in public, you tell him
to PUT IT AWAY. Say it loud! Say it proud!
Because the one who should be ashamed is
the one wagging his willy, and people need
to know about it so they can STOP HIM."
A smattering of applause followed her,
along with one, "Hollaback, sistah!"
Hopefully that would boost responses
when the public notice went up later
reaching out to other victims.
Loudmouth nodded to Peter.
"Back to you," she said.
"Okay, I'll put this guy in
the back of a squad car,
but I'll have to request
a citizen transport car
to carry the rest of you
to the police station."
"I can't wait to tell Mom
that we caught a real crook,"
Torrin said, bouncing on his toes.
Loudmouth groaned. "Your mother
is going to kill me," she said. "I'm
supposed to be keeping you safe!"
"I am safe," Torrin said, hugging
her again. "I'm with you."
And that, Peter decided as
he stuffed the pervert into his car,
made it a good day's work.
* * *
Notes:
Peter Rybokov, Loudmouth, and Torrin Kane are all characters created by Dialecticdreamer, used here with permission.
[Character by Dialecticdreamer]
Name: Torrin Kane
Age 7 ½, birthday: 15 March 2011
Appearance: Black hair, very dark brown eyes, tinted skin with no
freckles. His eyes are strongly almond-shaped, with very flat lower
eyelid shaping, rather than tilted.
History: His birth parents were excellent parents, both introverted but
not antisocial, so he got lots of personal time with them, which formed an
extremely strong foundation for later ability to attach to Jessica and
Diane. His birth parents died in a car crash on the way home from a date
night, leaving Torrin with no other family. Instead of being placed in a
foster care situation, he was moved “temporarily” into a Sankofa home
while the social worker searched for relatives. The stable environment,
rich and diverse, helped him recover as well.
A year later, Jessica and
her then-girlfriend Diane Blackwell began the process of first fostering
and then adopting him. Three weeks before the court date to finalize the
adoption, Diane took off during a work day while Torrin was at day care
and Jessica was discussing an article series with the editor of the local
paper. Both were flabbergasted by the unexpected departure, and Diane's
name is not mentioned.
Torrin's kindergarten year (five turning six) was
miserably boring for the boy, so Jessica registered a “private school”
and unschools him.
Torrin's personality: good (+2) independent, good (+2)
self-directed, good (+2) musical talent, poor (-2) fragile trust.
Larry Drumpe -- He has fair skin, brown eyes, and short brown hair with a mustache and beard that are going gray. He is short and pudgy with a small penis. He lives in Mercedes, California where he works as a janitor at a diner. Larry's hobby is exposing himself to strangers. He has some skill at sneaking around to avoid security cameras, and he wears clothes that facilitate his crimes.
Qualities: Good (+2) Janitor, Good (+2) Lies Like a Carpet, Good (+2) Sneaky
Poor (-2) Flasher
Amita Mullen -- She has pale skin, blue eyes, and long straight blonde hair. She is short and slender with a pretty face. She is 15 years old, almost 16. Amita is honest and tends to put other people's needs ahead of her own. She is quite smart, with an analytical approach that tends to lock onto a topic until she finishes figuring it out, and a particular knack for math and logic. This causes friction in a conventional school system that forces students to switch rapidly from one topic to another throughout the day, and she has been falsely diagnosed with ADHD as a result. The problem is exacerbated by PTSD from her mother's death in a car accident when Amita was little. She spent a year in Applied Behavioral Analysis therapy before her father admitted that it was doing more harm than good and switched her to a different therapist, but by then the damage was long since done. Amita now has difficulty defending her boundaries, and has suffered several abusive relationships as a result.
Qualities: Good (+2) Analytical, Good (+2) Pretty, Good (+2) Selfless, Good (+2) Truthful
Poor (-2) Obedience Training Survivor
Applied Behavioral Analysis is a type of obedience training used as therapy, with the intent of breaking the will and personal boundaries of the victim. This serves a similar function as grooming for sexual abuse, and contributes to the high rate of victimization among already vulnerable people subjected to it. The targeted conditions include but are not limited to:
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Autism
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Panic Disorder
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
* * *
The Boys purports to be a show about superheroes and vigilantes, but they're actually supervillains masquerading as superheroes. In the first episode, one of them kills an innocent bystander (the show actually starts with fridging), one sexually assaults his new coworker and another murders a plane full of people including at least one child. This spectacularly fails the qualification of "hero" and instead meets that of "villain." The fact that the vigilantes proceed to beat another of the supervillain team to death using a car and electricity is ... not the most rational response, but certainly in keeping with the tone of the setting. 0_o (EDIT 8/1/19: I forgot to mention that the guy they beat to death was also a sex criminal who liked to wander around naked and invisible so he could spy on people in the bathroom.) What bothers me about this is not just that it's unappealing to watch a show consisting largely of assholes whaling on each other -- I rate it "highly disrecommended" -- but that certain portrayals can do serious damage in the real world. When people see that even having superpowers can't protect you from sexual assault, when women are shown covering it up, that makes viewers more likely to feel hopeless and stay silent, which enables abusers to get away with it. (No, I don't care if something else happens later on; I'm not watching any more of it and I judge the first episode on its own lack of merits.) Well, FUCK THAT NOISE. Somebody needs to stand up to the perverts and say PUT YOUR PENIS AWAY! And what would happen if everybody did this? A lot less sexual assault would occur, because perverts are like cockroaches: they don't like the spotlight. Of course, there are many valid reasons why victims don't speak up, and they don't have an obligation to do so. But I wanted to show an example of instant public censure, so you can see what that world looks like. It's not that sexual assault never happens in Terramagne, it's that the resistance to it is much stronger.
To find out why it's a terrible idea to sexually harass a supervillain, read "Rabid City Gets Cold Shoulder."
Child abuse, especially sexual abuse, tends to create suspicious and insecure people. These are often accurate feelings in the original context, but abuse tends to impair judgement so the survivors can't adapt quickly or easily to new circumstances where those feelings no longer apply. There are ways to check whether your suspicions are valid. Cognitive Behavior Therapy excels at identifying and debugging inaccurate thought patterns through tools such as thought records. It also helps to process triggers in a more analytical way.
Triggers include many things, depending on a person's past experiences. They activate flashbacks, which are traumatic memories that intrude on everyday life. Know how to cope with flashbacks or help someone through them. Among the most useful techniques is anchoring, which allows you to create positive anchors and remove negative anchors. All of this takes work, but if you know what you're doing, you can reprogram your wetware with these techniques -- which is very useful if someone has shoved it full of malware.
Sexual harassment has a variety of unpleasant causes and effects. People can take steps to prevent harassment in public and at work. Know how to deal with someone who is harassing you. Local-America offers little in the way of effective treatment for harassers who want to stop mistreating people, but I managed to find a description of one excellent program. A problem I often see is that the advice is topically relevant but harsh to the point of off-putting, and also socially tone-deaf. What's worse, urging everyone to stop touching each other just feeds into touch starvation, which undermines health and may increase the risk of victimization by making people desperate for any contact, even if it's bad. Better advice teaches how to respect boundaries.
Child sexual abuse includes indecent exposure. Depending on the circumstances, indecent exposure may be counted as sexual harassment (without touching) or sexual assault (with touching). Frotteurism is unwelcome rubbing which therefore constitutes sexual assault. Often committed in a crowded place, indecent exposure and frotteurism are among the crimes most susceptible to loud censure, as the offender relies on the crowd scene to cover his escape.
Hollaback is a movement against street harassment. It capitalizes on social media and other technology to fight crime.
A class action lawsuit bundles together many separate incidents of the same type into a single case. This offers an efficient way of prosecuting sex crimes, where one offender may have dozens or hundreds of victims.
Adaptive clothing has features such as a velcro fly that make it quick and easy to put on and take off. Adaptive pants come in many styles, such as these jeans. The good ones mimic standard clothes quite well, but may still reveal clues such as a loose corner of velcro showing. Regrettably, the same features that make adaptive pants helpful for people with disabilities also make them convenient for committing sex crimes.
trope_bingo fest. It belongs to the Mercedes thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. Warning: This poem contains material that may disturb some readers. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes rude language, loud public announcement about a sex crime, sexual assault in a public place including indecent exposure and abuse of a minor, provocation of a supervillain (whose response is fairly moderate in context), an alarmed police officer rushing to intervene before the incident gets any worse, trust issues, misuse of adaptive clothing to facilitate a sex crime, fear and shame, legal issues, arrest, and other angst. If these are touchy topics for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.
"Say It Loud"
[Monday, November 3, 2014]
Peter Rybokov was walking
through the Mercedes bus station
to pick up a friend when he heard:
"PUT YOUR PENIS AWAY!"
The sound was loud enough
to rattle the windows, although
none of them cracked from it,
and everyone stopped to stare.
That was unmistakably Loudmouth,
winding up to the full fury of
an outraged supervillain.
Recalling Rabid City and
the Cold Shoulder incident,
Peter broke into a jog.
The next line, barely quieter,
sliced through the air like a knife.
"You have a TINY PENIS and I don't
want to see it! No wonder the only action
you can get is accosting strangers in public."
Peter lengthened his stride, running
the last few steps to reach Loudmouth
before anything worse could happen.
She had a short, pudgy man pinned
against the wall at arm's length.
"I'm here," he said. "Stand down.
I will handle the situation from here.
Where is Torrin right now?"
Loudmouth stared at Peter,
fuming. Torrin came running
from the concession stand,
flinging himself on her.
"You get one chance,"
Loudmouth said to Peter,
wrapping an arm around Torrin.
The other held onto her captive.
"Please tell me what happened,"
Peter said. "I promise to handle it."
"This man propositioned me, and
when I said no, he exposed himself,"
Loudmouth said, giving him a shake.
"Can you tell me the exact words
of the exchange?" Peter asked.
Loudmouth shook her head.
"Not in mixed company."
Peter looked at Torrin,
who was staring at them
with huge eyes. "Point,"
he said. "We can save
those details for later."
"Once he whipped it out,
I told him to put it away,"
Loudmouth continued.
"You might've heard that."
"Ma'am, the whole station
heard that," Peter said dryly.
"They were meant to,"
Loudmouth said through
her teeth. "I hoped that
it would attract attention."
"It certainly did that," Peter said.
"What happened afterwards?"
"I grabbed him so he couldn't
leg it," Loudmouth said. "I thought
the station staff could come and
see what he's been up to."
"I didn't do anything!"
the short man squeaked.
"Nobody saw any of it."
Peter looked around and sighed.
"We're in a blind spot here," he said.
"The security cameras won't have footage."
"Of course we're in a goddamn blind spot,"
Loudmouth snapped. "Obviously he
knows the territory, this is probably
his favorite hunting ground. He's
a pervert, not a complete idiot."
"Well, he's not exposed now, and
without direct evidence, it will be
challenging to prove," Peter said.
"We can go down to the station and
get started making the case, though."
"Look at his clothes," Torrin said suddenly.
"Okay, what am I looking for?" Peter asked.
"They seem pretty normal at first glance."
"They're designed to," Torrin said. "He's
wearing adaptive pants, though. The fly is
fake. Those pants open and close with vrip,
so that they're quick to get into and out of.
Mom wrote a story about them once."
"I wondered how he moved so fast,"
Loudmouth muttered. "That explains it."
"Circumstantial evidence of premeditation,
if he doesn't have a physical condition
calling for such clothes," Peter agreed.
He looked closer at the rest of the outfit.
The man wore a black zip-front hoodie
over a pale gray fleece turtleneck and
jeans, with a black knit stocking cap.
"Sir, please remove your hat,"
Peter said, playing a hunch.
Slowly the man reached up
to drag the knit hat off his head.
The inside was pale gray, too.
It would be easy to change
his appearance by taking off
the hoodie to show the turtleneck
and turning the hat inside out.
Peter had a bad feeling about this.
The bus station had struggled with
a high rate of complaints for months,
but nobody had managed to pin down
the culprit behind them -- until now.
All he had to do was somehow talk
a cranky supervillain into helping him.
Well, that's what he got paid for.
"Now I know that this sort of thing
isn't your cultural preference, but could I
interest you in filing some complaints?"
Peter said, turning to Loudmouth.
"It would help us make the case."
"You want me to trust the cops
to deliver justice?" Loudmouth said,
her voice crackling in the air like
a speaker turned up too high.
"I want you to trust me,"
Peter said. "You know that
I'll do my job -- and even if he
wriggles loose this time, I've seen
his face in relation to a sex crime."
Loudmouth muttered and grumbled
under her breath, but she was looking
at Torrin instead of at the bad guy, so
Peter hoped that was a hopeful sign.
"She's telling the truth," said a soft voice.
Peter turned to find a teenaged girl.
"Did you see what happened?" he said.
"Just -- just a glimpse today," she whispered.
"But he did it to me last month, and then I saw
the whole -- show. I was too scared to tell
anyone about it then. He's creepy."
"That's all I need to hear for now,"
Peter said, holding up a hand.
"If two of you can describe any ...
identifying features, that will give
proof that you saw something he
shouldn't have shown to you."
"Class action suit," Torrin piped.
"That's when a bunch of people
get mad at the same person for
doing something bad. My mom
writes about those things a lot."
Torrin's mother was a reporter, and
while she wasn't great at parenting,
she was a real bulldog on a storyline.
"That takes more than two people,"
Peter said, "but it may be an option.
We'll post a notice here just in case
other victims want to come forward."
"I bet they will," Loudmouth said.
"I've seen him hanging around here.
He creeps on the younger girls, mostly,
but I've seen him bother single women
and even old ladies. I just didn't know
exactly what he was doing until today."
That reminded Peter of something.
"Miss, I need to know your name
and age," he said to the girl.
"I'm Amita Mullen and I'm 15,
almost 16," she said. "I have
a student bus pass." It was even
the fancy kind that served as picture ID
for people who didn't have a driver's license.
"Thank you. Please call a parent to sit with
you while you talk to an officer about this,"
Peter said as he copied down the details.
"I already know Loudmouth and Torrin,
so I can list them in the paperwork."
Loudmouth didn't look happy about that,
but she didn't protest. Apparently getting
the bad guy was worth dealing with cops.
"Did he touch you at all, before or after
the visual display?" Peter asked her.
"Yeah, he rubbed against me from
behind, and that's why I turned around
to confront him," Loudmouth said.
"All right, let me have him," Peter said.
"You better behave," Loudmouth said
to her captive as she slowly released
her grip on the wrinkled front of his hoodie.
"You're under arrest for sexual assault
including both indecent exposure and
sexual abuse of a minor," Peter said
as he pulled out his handcuffs.
Loudmouth waited politely for him
to finish before she said, "My turn."
At his alarmed look, she added,
"I'll keep it verbal and ... safe-ish."
Peter knew when to settle
for what he could get. "Okay,"
he said, waving her onward.
"YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE,"
Loudmouth said. "When someone
pulls out his privates in public, you tell him
to PUT IT AWAY. Say it loud! Say it proud!
Because the one who should be ashamed is
the one wagging his willy, and people need
to know about it so they can STOP HIM."
A smattering of applause followed her,
along with one, "Hollaback, sistah!"
Hopefully that would boost responses
when the public notice went up later
reaching out to other victims.
Loudmouth nodded to Peter.
"Back to you," she said.
"Okay, I'll put this guy in
the back of a squad car,
but I'll have to request
a citizen transport car
to carry the rest of you
to the police station."
"I can't wait to tell Mom
that we caught a real crook,"
Torrin said, bouncing on his toes.
Loudmouth groaned. "Your mother
is going to kill me," she said. "I'm
supposed to be keeping you safe!"
"I am safe," Torrin said, hugging
her again. "I'm with you."
And that, Peter decided as
he stuffed the pervert into his car,
made it a good day's work.
* * *
Notes:
Peter Rybokov, Loudmouth, and Torrin Kane are all characters created by Dialecticdreamer, used here with permission.
[Character by Dialecticdreamer]
Name: Torrin Kane
Age 7 ½, birthday: 15 March 2011
Appearance: Black hair, very dark brown eyes, tinted skin with no
freckles. His eyes are strongly almond-shaped, with very flat lower
eyelid shaping, rather than tilted.
History: His birth parents were excellent parents, both introverted but
not antisocial, so he got lots of personal time with them, which formed an
extremely strong foundation for later ability to attach to Jessica and
Diane. His birth parents died in a car crash on the way home from a date
night, leaving Torrin with no other family. Instead of being placed in a
foster care situation, he was moved “temporarily” into a Sankofa home
while the social worker searched for relatives. The stable environment,
rich and diverse, helped him recover as well.
A year later, Jessica and
her then-girlfriend Diane Blackwell began the process of first fostering
and then adopting him. Three weeks before the court date to finalize the
adoption, Diane took off during a work day while Torrin was at day care
and Jessica was discussing an article series with the editor of the local
paper. Both were flabbergasted by the unexpected departure, and Diane's
name is not mentioned.
Torrin's kindergarten year (five turning six) was
miserably boring for the boy, so Jessica registered a “private school”
and unschools him.
Torrin's personality: good (+2) independent, good (+2)
self-directed, good (+2) musical talent, poor (-2) fragile trust.
Larry Drumpe -- He has fair skin, brown eyes, and short brown hair with a mustache and beard that are going gray. He is short and pudgy with a small penis. He lives in Mercedes, California where he works as a janitor at a diner. Larry's hobby is exposing himself to strangers. He has some skill at sneaking around to avoid security cameras, and he wears clothes that facilitate his crimes.
Qualities: Good (+2) Janitor, Good (+2) Lies Like a Carpet, Good (+2) Sneaky
Poor (-2) Flasher
Amita Mullen -- She has pale skin, blue eyes, and long straight blonde hair. She is short and slender with a pretty face. She is 15 years old, almost 16. Amita is honest and tends to put other people's needs ahead of her own. She is quite smart, with an analytical approach that tends to lock onto a topic until she finishes figuring it out, and a particular knack for math and logic. This causes friction in a conventional school system that forces students to switch rapidly from one topic to another throughout the day, and she has been falsely diagnosed with ADHD as a result. The problem is exacerbated by PTSD from her mother's death in a car accident when Amita was little. She spent a year in Applied Behavioral Analysis therapy before her father admitted that it was doing more harm than good and switched her to a different therapist, but by then the damage was long since done. Amita now has difficulty defending her boundaries, and has suffered several abusive relationships as a result.
Qualities: Good (+2) Analytical, Good (+2) Pretty, Good (+2) Selfless, Good (+2) Truthful
Poor (-2) Obedience Training Survivor
Applied Behavioral Analysis is a type of obedience training used as therapy, with the intent of breaking the will and personal boundaries of the victim. This serves a similar function as grooming for sexual abuse, and contributes to the high rate of victimization among already vulnerable people subjected to it. The targeted conditions include but are not limited to:
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Autism
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Panic Disorder
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
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The Boys purports to be a show about superheroes and vigilantes, but they're actually supervillains masquerading as superheroes. In the first episode, one of them kills an innocent bystander (the show actually starts with fridging), one sexually assaults his new coworker and another murders a plane full of people including at least one child. This spectacularly fails the qualification of "hero" and instead meets that of "villain." The fact that the vigilantes proceed to beat another of the supervillain team to death using a car and electricity is ... not the most rational response, but certainly in keeping with the tone of the setting. 0_o (EDIT 8/1/19: I forgot to mention that the guy they beat to death was also a sex criminal who liked to wander around naked and invisible so he could spy on people in the bathroom.) What bothers me about this is not just that it's unappealing to watch a show consisting largely of assholes whaling on each other -- I rate it "highly disrecommended" -- but that certain portrayals can do serious damage in the real world. When people see that even having superpowers can't protect you from sexual assault, when women are shown covering it up, that makes viewers more likely to feel hopeless and stay silent, which enables abusers to get away with it. (No, I don't care if something else happens later on; I'm not watching any more of it and I judge the first episode on its own lack of merits.) Well, FUCK THAT NOISE. Somebody needs to stand up to the perverts and say PUT YOUR PENIS AWAY! And what would happen if everybody did this? A lot less sexual assault would occur, because perverts are like cockroaches: they don't like the spotlight. Of course, there are many valid reasons why victims don't speak up, and they don't have an obligation to do so. But I wanted to show an example of instant public censure, so you can see what that world looks like. It's not that sexual assault never happens in Terramagne, it's that the resistance to it is much stronger.
To find out why it's a terrible idea to sexually harass a supervillain, read "Rabid City Gets Cold Shoulder."
Child abuse, especially sexual abuse, tends to create suspicious and insecure people. These are often accurate feelings in the original context, but abuse tends to impair judgement so the survivors can't adapt quickly or easily to new circumstances where those feelings no longer apply. There are ways to check whether your suspicions are valid. Cognitive Behavior Therapy excels at identifying and debugging inaccurate thought patterns through tools such as thought records. It also helps to process triggers in a more analytical way.
Triggers include many things, depending on a person's past experiences. They activate flashbacks, which are traumatic memories that intrude on everyday life. Know how to cope with flashbacks or help someone through them. Among the most useful techniques is anchoring, which allows you to create positive anchors and remove negative anchors. All of this takes work, but if you know what you're doing, you can reprogram your wetware with these techniques -- which is very useful if someone has shoved it full of malware.
Sexual harassment has a variety of unpleasant causes and effects. People can take steps to prevent harassment in public and at work. Know how to deal with someone who is harassing you. Local-America offers little in the way of effective treatment for harassers who want to stop mistreating people, but I managed to find a description of one excellent program. A problem I often see is that the advice is topically relevant but harsh to the point of off-putting, and also socially tone-deaf. What's worse, urging everyone to stop touching each other just feeds into touch starvation, which undermines health and may increase the risk of victimization by making people desperate for any contact, even if it's bad. Better advice teaches how to respect boundaries.
Child sexual abuse includes indecent exposure. Depending on the circumstances, indecent exposure may be counted as sexual harassment (without touching) or sexual assault (with touching). Frotteurism is unwelcome rubbing which therefore constitutes sexual assault. Often committed in a crowded place, indecent exposure and frotteurism are among the crimes most susceptible to loud censure, as the offender relies on the crowd scene to cover his escape.
Hollaback is a movement against street harassment. It capitalizes on social media and other technology to fight crime.
A class action lawsuit bundles together many separate incidents of the same type into a single case. This offers an efficient way of prosecuting sex crimes, where one offender may have dozens or hundreds of victims.
Adaptive clothing has features such as a velcro fly that make it quick and easy to put on and take off. Adaptive pants come in many styles, such as these jeans. The good ones mimic standard clothes quite well, but may still reveal clues such as a loose corner of velcro showing. Regrettably, the same features that make adaptive pants helpful for people with disabilities also make them convenient for committing sex crimes.
Thoughts
Date: 2019-08-01 07:54 am (UTC)That someone IMMEDIATELY censured the creeper, and proceeded to list exactly how to replicate that (without the super voice), is pure GLEE.
Thanks.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2019-08-01 10:14 am (UTC)Yay! :D
>>That Peter MANAGES to do it shows that he, too is the RIGHT kind of peace officer. <<
He is that. He managed to defuse a very volatile situation such that nobody got more hurt than they already were. He did that without superpowers, while dealing with a justifiably brassed-off supervillain, which puts him in the tippy-top rank. I'm sure he doesn't realize this, but someone should probably pull him aside for a quiet word on the topic.
>> That someone IMMEDIATELY censured the creeper, and proceeded to list exactly how to replicate that (without the super voice), is pure GLEE. <<
Yay! :D I'm glad you enjoyed it.
You don't need superpowers. Any carrying voice will do the trick -- stage voice, mom voice, teacher voice, command voice, etc. You just have to be able to cut through the crowd noise. I can pitch my voice through a wall if I need to, with or without putting my Bardic gift behind it.
The other thing you need, of course, is the brass to stand up and spotlight a pervert. It's not fun, but it does work. This is the hard part for people trained to be good victims. Me, I'm in Shiv's corner on this topic: I am not anybody's meat.
Once one person stands up, though, it becomes easier for other people to do it. Loudmouth just broke trail for more timid women to speak up safely. That's another thing supervillains are for. Sometimes, you need someone who doesn't care about etiquette and just wants to tell the bad guy to STOP IT.
>> Thanks. <<
*bow, flourish* Happy to be of service.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2019-08-01 04:27 pm (UTC)I think perhaps that's another takeaway... sure, some things are gifts, but *anyone* can do *a heck of a lot*, waaaaay more than they think they can, with a little practise.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2019-08-02 12:37 am (UTC)Some things are talents, but others are skills. Someone with talent can do more than someone without. But someone with training can do more than they could before, too. Most people can learn to pitch their voice. It's something I teach covenmates so we can hear them calling Quarters. Any vocal or theatrical club can teach their version. It's worth learning.
>> even a little slip of a mild-mannered college professor. (Torrey Stenmark is in fact a superhera in real life, only her superpowers are costuming (Captain Marvel and the Goblin King are my faves, she's a dead ringer for either) and relating to pretty much anyone, the tall and the small.) <<
Awesome. :D
>> I think perhaps that's another takeaway... sure, some things are gifts, but *anyone* can do *a heck of a lot*, waaaaay more than they think they can, with a little practise.<<
Sooth. It's nice that Loudmouth had both the personality and the superpower to rattle the windows. But you can do the same with ordinary levels of voice control. I've done it. Men just don't expect women to roar at them like that. They're very shocked. If it happened more often, though, sex crimes would happen less.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2019-08-02 02:13 am (UTC)I think so. Men get *upset* when not-men tell them no, but if the shock overwhelms the fury? they'll turn their sombeech tails and go HOME.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-08-01 08:49 pm (UTC)This makes me glad all over again that I went through the court proceedings, even if my pervert got the hell off.
*Tikun, I hope he gets it.)
I think my favoite line was the hola back sista. :d In fact that whole scenewith the minor stepping up and Loudmouth calling the creap out was awesome.
-Trausio~
Thoughts
Date: 2019-08-02 12:21 am (UTC)I'm happy you found it worthwhile.
>> even if my pervert got the hell off.<<
Honestly, that's why I resented the scene so much. Because everything that guy said was true -- who would believe the girl? Nobody. And that is how rapists go get away with it. People look at a court case with 350 plaintiffs and ask how he could hurt so many people without being stopped. Because when girls tell, people attack them instead of helping. They learn that's what will happen, and most decide they don't feel like being abused again. So the guy is free to abuse other people. And if that guy is doing this to a superhera, what's he doing to ordinary girls? Presumably worse. >_<
>> *Tikun, I hope he gets it.) <<
So mote it be.
>> I think my favoite line was the hola back sista. :d <<
I wanted to show that, in an average crowd for T-America, at least one person is likely to be harassment activist armed with suitable apps. You can bet she photographed that perpwalk and posted it to Hollaback. Which means now Fortressa knows what he looks like too.
>> In fact that whole scenewith the minor stepping up and Loudmouth calling the creap out was awesome. <<
I'm glad you liked that. It's important for people to speak up because that helps others do likewise, and makes it harder for crooks to get away with abusing people.
Somebody has to say it. And it's heroic to say it even if nobody listens.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-08-01 10:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-08-01 10:48 pm (UTC)-Trausio~
Well ...
Date: 2019-08-02 12:30 am (UTC)Yes ...
Date: 2019-08-02 12:25 am (UTC)"Go home, Charlie, go home!" \o/
>> I greatly dislike any story that lets said behavior be framed as reward worthy, even if there's a sidelong "but not really, wink wink" theme too. Fuck that noise. <<
I agree. Now if she'd gone in the next day and served legal papers, or even just quit and said, "You might want to check your review page," that'd be different. But agreeing to work with a sex criminal is a horrible message. Two, actually, I forgot to mention about the guy who hangs out naked in the bathroom spying on people. Need to add that to the notes.
These peckers make the Spectrum look good.
Also ...
Date: 2019-08-02 12:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-06-24 03:05 pm (UTC)*In the other story, Torrins bio parents weren't in a relationship, and bio mom put him up for adoption shortly after birth. Also, biodad was abusive with his [biodad's] energy-drainjng superpower. I think Victor from the Strange Family thread got called in to deal with the superpower by making a blood ward?
I figured I'd comment in case an editorial check of the backstory notes was in order. Hope that's alright.