>> You'd think this would shift as we get more women authors, though I suspect that social convention would lag behind simple demographics. <<
Well, first there is the challenge of getting women authors -- and script writers, and so on -- into positions where they can produce materials rather than change diapers or flip burgers. Then they have to get their material past the gatekeepers, in order to make mainstream media. Those gatekeepers are mostly straight white men. So we also need women in all those positions: acquiring editors, showrunners, producers, directors, etc. Plus the pipeline leaks from beginning to end, which means many women leave professions because they get tired of being mistreated by men. So its hard to get women in and hard to keep them there. That all contributes to low representation.
An exception is where they say, "Fuck that noise," and set up entirely on their own. We have women's presses to thank for the trove of women's literature. That's harder to do in film, which is more expensive than printing books, but some indie folks have done it. More would be better.
>>'Falling sickness' has long been thought to connect to mystical or religious experiences.<<
That's because it does. Any time you mess with the brain, there's a chance of opening up things like creativity, enlightenment, and magic. It's a complex set of electromagnetic and neurochemical processes. Most of the time it functions in a pretty standard way and you get predictable results. But change any part to a nonstandard version, and you get not only the primary alteration but also a higher likelihood of others. It's like trying to pull one feather out of a pillow. Creativity, various flavors of mental illness or injury, migraines, neural conditions like seizure disorders or phantom limb syndrome, spiritual experiences, reality alteration -- they're all part of the same Venn diagram. This aggravates modern people who prefer a medical model of mental illness and resent the connections between madness and art or the "magical cripple" trope. But that doesn't make it any less true. It's not always true, and that's where the stories can cause misconceptions. Denying all of it doesn't make matters any better.
>> Generally, the difference seems to be cultural. While a disability is a lack of a culturally-expected ability which makes life difficult, <<
Or difference that incites assholes to be abusive, creating problems where they didn't previously exist. This is what I suspect happens with the Faceless: they can do many if not all the same things as faced people, but the way they look makes normies uncomfortable and therefore hostile. The same happens to humans with disfiguring injuries or conditions, even if that doesn't produce biological problems. A social disability, it's called.
>> a varience either
a) exists on a cultiurally-acceptable range ass with extroversion-to-introversion, or <<
Possible within the Outcasts.
>> b) establishes it's own subculture, as with Deaf, autistic and DeafBlind communities. These new communities will have their own standard of normal/acceptable ability ranges which will often be different; disallowing certain mainstream behavior while allowing some unacceptable-in-mainstream behavior. (I.e. DeafBlind culture requires physical contact to indicate communication which is iffy to most mainstream folks, and it is not unheard of for some events to forbid verbal speech which is ubiquitous at most mainstream-culture events.) <<
True, and that's likely happening with the Faceless. Probably the other groups of Outcasts have their own subcultures too.
>> It seems to me to be a magical condition that is a sort of a fantasy dissociative disorder with a tendency to make Stockholm-syndrome like imprints on the individual who triggers it.<<
That sounds about right. Aside from the physical transformation, it's not actually far from examples in this world. * Dissociative disorders commonly come from trauma (although there are healthy multiples who do not). * Toxic bonds happen when the human bonding mechanism goes awry or is manipulated by dishonest people. * And lots of mentally ill or injured people are abused by their therapists or others purporting to "help" them.
>> Since 1) Stockholm Syndrome tends to be a placating defense in cases of extreme stress, usually social, 2) finding and attaching to a safe person is a good tactic when unable to function by oneself, and 3) many people with disassociation / dementia / extreme emotional upset are perfectly capable of interacting with a compassionate bystander or trusted loved one in a calm manner, I'd think that a triggered Hyde who managed to imprint on a safe/trusted person wouldn't be a threat at all, barring a direct attack from some idiot bystander.<<
Now there's a story that needs to be written. I think you nailed it -- the Hydes are seen as monsters because the ones with a master who takes advantage of them are both violent and conspicuous. Probably no one would notice a Hyde who manifested with a safe protector. Conversely, those pairs would have every reason to conceal their nature and relationship from a hostile Outcast community. >_<
>> Given the difficulties of cross-cultural therapy (and occasionally, cross-gender or cross-racial therapy) what extra training has Dr. Valarie taken to be qualified to work with Outcasts? Or is this a case of having a therapist who looks good on paper, but is actually missing useful skills to work with their clients? <<
I suspect the latter -- she doesn't have the training or skills to do a good job, but is used anyway because she's available. However, fanwriters could make up all kinds of interesting educational or personal background to make her a better fit if that's what they want.
>>It is common in more rural college towns for the college to be the main employer and for students to be a big part of the customer base; and the students need the town to be able to buy groceries, etc. So the enmeshment is not unrealistic.<<
Yeah, it's common here too.
>>I went to a fairly rural college that did a lot of community volunteering; we had a once-a-year event like Outreach day, but there were also a bunch of programs and events that people could do. The community seemed to like us okay.<<
It's easier when the college and the community are fairly close in culture and appearance. When there's a big gap, though, it can get nasty and that does happen here too.
>> The exception would be if they take the othering-name as a badge of honor; for real-life examples see Quaker and queer, which are now mostly descriptives. Also, see most words with n-word privileges; while they may still be offensive or threatening coming from outsiders, they are a form of solidarity and social bonding among the group.<<
Possible.
>> Also, terminology can help identify allies. If an outsider knows preferred ingroup terminology or etiquette, that can indicate that they are friendly or potentially trustworthy.<<
This is true.
>>It's also interesting that the villainess is immediately put down and insulted...because /of course/ the Pilgrim patriarch from the 1600s is misogynistic.<<
I loved the hell out of that. Never expect gratitude from a villain. Many of them are prejudiced assholes.
I found one example of absolutely awful pranking over in Terramagne. The Taliban bought zetetic street drugs in hopes of souping up some of their child soldiers. But because they are the Taliban, only other nutjobs would deal with them. And those nutjobs thought it was funny to sell them drugs made from pigs instead of the cow version that the Taliban ordered. Because that's what nutjobs are like.
Thoughts
Well, first there is the challenge of getting women authors -- and script writers, and so on -- into positions where they can produce materials rather than change diapers or flip burgers. Then they have to get their material past the gatekeepers, in order to make mainstream media. Those gatekeepers are mostly straight white men. So we also need women in all those positions: acquiring editors, showrunners, producers, directors, etc. Plus the pipeline leaks from beginning to end, which means many women leave professions because they get tired of being mistreated by men. So its hard to get women in and hard to keep them there. That all contributes to low representation.
An exception is where they say, "Fuck that noise," and set up entirely on their own. We have women's presses to thank for the trove of women's literature. That's harder to do in film, which is more expensive than printing books, but some indie folks have done it. More would be better.
>>'Falling sickness' has long been thought to connect to mystical or religious experiences.<<
That's because it does. Any time you mess with the brain, there's a chance of opening up things like creativity, enlightenment, and magic. It's a complex set of electromagnetic and neurochemical processes. Most of the time it functions in a pretty standard way and you get predictable results. But change any part to a nonstandard version, and you get not only the primary alteration but also a higher likelihood of others. It's like trying to pull one feather out of a pillow. Creativity, various flavors of mental illness or injury, migraines, neural conditions like seizure disorders or phantom limb syndrome, spiritual experiences, reality alteration -- they're all part of the same Venn diagram. This aggravates modern people who prefer a medical model of mental illness and resent the connections between madness and art or the "magical cripple" trope. But that doesn't make it any less true. It's not always true, and that's where the stories can cause misconceptions. Denying all of it doesn't make matters any better.
>> Generally, the difference seems to be cultural. While a disability is a lack of a culturally-expected ability which makes life difficult, <<
Or difference that incites assholes to be abusive, creating problems where they didn't previously exist. This is what I suspect happens with the Faceless: they can do many if not all the same things as faced people, but the way they look makes normies uncomfortable and therefore hostile. The same happens to humans with disfiguring injuries or conditions, even if that doesn't produce biological problems. A social disability, it's called.
>> a varience either
a) exists on a cultiurally-acceptable range ass with extroversion-to-introversion, or <<
Possible within the Outcasts.
>> b) establishes it's own subculture, as with Deaf, autistic and DeafBlind communities. These new communities will have their own standard of normal/acceptable ability ranges which will often be different; disallowing certain mainstream behavior while allowing some unacceptable-in-mainstream behavior. (I.e. DeafBlind culture requires physical contact to indicate communication which is iffy to most mainstream folks, and it is not unheard of for some events to forbid verbal speech which is ubiquitous at most mainstream-culture events.) <<
True, and that's likely happening with the Faceless. Probably the other groups of Outcasts have their own subcultures too.
>> It seems to me to be a magical condition that is a sort of a fantasy dissociative disorder with a tendency to make Stockholm-syndrome like imprints on the individual who triggers it.<<
That sounds about right. Aside from the physical transformation, it's not actually far from examples in this world.
* Dissociative disorders commonly come from trauma (although there are healthy multiples who do not).
* Toxic bonds happen when the human bonding mechanism goes awry or is manipulated by dishonest people.
* And lots of mentally ill or injured people are abused by their therapists or others purporting to "help" them.
>> Since 1) Stockholm Syndrome tends to be a placating defense in cases of extreme stress, usually social, 2) finding and attaching to a safe person is a good tactic when unable to function by oneself, and 3) many people with disassociation / dementia / extreme emotional upset are perfectly capable of interacting with a compassionate bystander or trusted loved one in a calm manner, I'd think that a triggered Hyde who managed to imprint on a safe/trusted person wouldn't be a threat at all, barring a direct attack from some idiot bystander.<<
Now there's a story that needs to be written. I think you nailed it -- the Hydes are seen as monsters because the ones with a master who takes advantage of them are both violent and conspicuous. Probably no one would notice a Hyde who manifested with a safe protector. Conversely, those pairs would have every reason to conceal their nature and relationship from a hostile Outcast community. >_<
>> Given the difficulties of cross-cultural therapy (and occasionally, cross-gender or cross-racial therapy) what extra training has Dr. Valarie taken to be qualified to work with Outcasts? Or is this a case of having a therapist who looks good on paper, but is actually missing useful skills to work with their clients? <<
I suspect the latter -- she doesn't have the training or skills to do a good job, but is used anyway because she's available. However, fanwriters could make up all kinds of interesting educational or personal background to make her a better fit if that's what they want.
>>It is common in more rural college towns for the college to be the main employer and for students to be a big part of the customer base; and the students need the town to be able to buy groceries, etc. So the enmeshment is not unrealistic.<<
Yeah, it's common here too.
>>I went to a fairly rural college that did a lot of community volunteering; we had a once-a-year event like Outreach day, but there were also a bunch of programs and events that people could do. The community seemed to like us okay.<<
It's easier when the college and the community are fairly close in culture and appearance. When there's a big gap, though, it can get nasty and that does happen here too.
>> The exception would be if they take the othering-name as a badge of honor; for real-life examples see Quaker and queer, which are now mostly descriptives. Also, see most words with n-word privileges; while they may still be offensive or threatening coming from outsiders, they are a form of solidarity and social bonding among the group.<<
Possible.
>> Also, terminology can help identify allies. If an outsider knows preferred ingroup terminology or etiquette, that can indicate that they are friendly or potentially trustworthy.<<
This is true.
>>It's also interesting that the villainess is immediately put down and insulted...because /of course/ the Pilgrim patriarch from the 1600s is misogynistic.<<
I loved the hell out of that. Never expect gratitude from a villain. Many of them are prejudiced assholes.
I found one example of absolutely awful pranking over in Terramagne. The Taliban bought zetetic street drugs in hopes of souping up some of their child soldiers. But because they are the Taliban, only other nutjobs would deal with them. And those nutjobs thought it was funny to sell them drugs made from pigs instead of the cow version that the Taliban ordered. Because that's what nutjobs are like.