[2Wycked]

Note: This is a work in progress. I am considering doing a writeup for RoK about misogyny and how feminists get it wrong while also talking about real cases of it. Please understand I am not arguing the guy in the movie hates women, but that I am using his bumbling, dishonesty and selfishness as a framing device to understand why feminists hate men. This is a work in progress and I am actively soliciting opinions from ya’ll. Seriously – comment with any idea that pops into your head. I have the feeling this post could blow the fuck up. If you aid my analysis, I will give a hat tip in the final article.



Once again, I am huge horror fan. Shutter technically qualifies as horror, but is more creepy than anything else. It was originally a Thai movie that was remade as an American movie in 2008. It stars a good looking lead in Rachel Taylor who is a pretty good actress. The male lead is decent.

Would you bang? I think she has very sexy eyes.



The movie isn’t anything special but I enjoyed it. It opens with a newly married couple moving to Tokyo from NYC. When traveling in the wilderness of Japan, Rachel Taylor, Jane, runs over a woman. It is dark and snowy so it is sketchy to begin. They pull over and there is no body or any evidence of blood. They leave and go back to Tokyo. Strange things start to happen in their photos – strange lights start to appear from nowhere. An associate suggests it is spirit photography – a spirit is trying to communicate intense emotions and pain. They start notices weird shit around their swanky apartment and the husband, Ben, starts to complain of strong shoulder pain that doctors can’t deal with. They start seeing visages of a ghost woman at night. They go to a psychic who tells what is happens. Understand only Ben knows Japanese. When asked by Jane what he Ben accuses the shrink of being a bust.

An important development happens when Jane figures out the spirit is a yurei and learns that Ben knew this woman, named Megumi. She confronts Ben and he has they dated for a time but she become ultra-possessive and clingy. He said his two friends helped him break it off with her. Shortly after this the spectral soul of Megumi murders Ben’s two friends, raping one that lead to his suicide the next day. Jane steps up her questioning of Ben with a photo of their wedding day with a brooding Megumi starring Ben down. They go to Megumi’s home and find her desiccated corpse. She committed suicide long before the car accident. Megumi has a funeral and that night she comes on strong and brutally attacks the couple. Jane screams at Megumi that Ben left her because he never loved her. She tosses them across room before letting out a bone-chilling laugh.

Smoke a joint and relax to this joint.

They move back to NYC to put it all behind them. Jane notices that Megumi is still showing up in photos. Dissatisfied with Ben’s answers, she goes through his stuff and finds a jump drive. She uploads it and is horrified by what she finds. Ben and his friend had hatched a plan to drive Megumi away. They drugged her and took pictures of her naked surrounded by empty beer bottles, in varying states of undress. In the process, the two friends begin to violently rape her multiple times with her completely unable to react at all. I believe she was conscious just unable to move. They threatened her that if she didn’t leave Ben alone they would send the pictures to her family to shame her.

Jane refuses to live with a man who let his friends rape a woman. She goes to leave, but Megumi locks the door. She begins to torture Ben by sitting on his shoulders – this was the cause of his shoulder pain. Ben vainly tries to electrocute himself with his photography equipment but doesn’t kill himself but render him mentally infirm. The movie closes with him lifelessly existed in a mental hospital, with Megumi’s body sitting on his hunched over shoulders, reflected in the window to the door.
What do you do about this? It is shit like this that fuels feminist’s souls. A man who drugged a female, let her get raped and documented it? Ben clearly is an asshole, but is he a misogynist?

Misogyny is generally defined as hatred of women. Some feminists, like that woman in Australia, want to expand the definition. I won’t be discussing the Orwellian nature of that. Misogyny, as word, did not gain serious popularity until second wave feminism rolled around in the late fifties and sixties. Desperately seeking a way to explain away patriarchy, they did the predictable American thing and pretend that men just hated their fabulous selves and sought to oppress them. Imagine that – a woman barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, looking the mirror and reminded how awesome she is, how she could do what her husband does, etc. A recipe for self-absorption. You see this reflected in modern times, with a common complaint by women that men are just jealous and handle a strong woman..



Like I stepped through with the troll analysis – women are looking for a reaction from men from the changes they made to their life via education and careers. For education, it doesn’t mean much too intelligent people. While respect people who gets solid degrees from a career perspective, it doesn’t do much to affect my perception of their intelligence. Maybe only medical degrees to that for me. Law degrees are worthless as the day is long. The dumbest people are all lawyers. Some the smartest are lawyers, to be sure. However, some the biggest idiots, manginas and dickwads are lawyers. Now, understand some of them are actually intelligent – they just use their intellect to create false realities in their mind – like feminism. However, back on point, women were looking for men to value them like they value men. In a bizarre and amusing twist they didn’t become female mirrors of alpha males, they became female versions of beta providers. Part of this is biological and part is psychological. The biological part is hypergamy and general female mental weakness. Camille Paglia’s are few and far between with the fairer sex.

The psychological part is female delusions in America. Women, by and large, don’t have a good grasp on reality in America. They are coddled in a school system that hands them special privileges. If they are middle class, they usually work in places that mollycoddle them. They draw on more public benefits than men, live longer and healthier lives. The media caters to them and corporations treat them as more important customers. This is part of what breeds narcissism. The Last Psychiatrist has repeatedly pointed out that you create self-absorption but praising kids for immutable traits. For example, telling young girls they are important as women is bad. Praising anybody for immutable traits is generally a bad idea. You need to praise people for what they do. Don’t say, “You are so clever!” say, “The story you wrote for class you worked hard on and shows you are clever.” The distinction is important but subtle. Lets’ say you some friend who wants to hold you down. Any easy way to just start praising you for things you haven’t accomplished yet. A great example would be a friend telling you constantly how much game you have and how you clean up. If you press him why you don’t get quality females, he will reply it is on the women who reject you.

That isn’t healthy as you will develop a mindset of stagnation, blaming others for your lack of game. A healthy perspective would be I need to step my game up and part of that is picking the right targets. I can’t just step to any chick and expect her want my cock. I have to better about picking women to approach and if I don’t the lay or number, I will try harder next, maybe ask players on RVF to break my approach down. It doesn’t say much about my game besides I have room to improve. That is a healthy mental approach.

Stepping back to women and their expectations, it works on two axes. One level, women have long try to convince themselves they love and lust after their beta husbands. I see this with a fellow law grad who married a simpy, thirsty ass beta. Were it not for getting butterface on lock I would consider him borderline omega material. She tries to put up photos of their love and all the shit they do. It is telling because she explicitly that he isn’t like other guys that weren’t man enough to commit. LOL, honey, I know your history. She was an alpha chaser par none. She has a busted face but a solid face. A perfect storm as she got top players to fuck her drunk but kick that shit out the next morning . She developed a serious complex and I think she picked this low beta because she can control him. Unlike the alphas she wanted, she had no ability to get them beyond getting them drunk and sticking her hands down his pants and go full cavewoman on them. I know this is her technique because she did it to me. Cornered me in a unpopulated part of the party and told me she wanted to fuck. I forced her on her needs and she sucked me off – told her I was too drunk to fuck. Funniest part is this happened in undergrad. We just happened to get into the same law school. Makes sense it is fairly close to my hometown.

Let me quote myself from a previous thread to clarify my point here:

Quote:

As usual, the guys would abuse women will do so with impunity – they often have anti-social tendencies so they don’t care about what the social mores are. For guys that wouldn’t beat their girlfriends or wives all it does it create unnecessary fear on their part. It is beyond predictable that women target their psychological equal – the insecure beta male. Unable to control the men they desire – they could be alphas – they double down on asserting supreme control over beta males. It is never satisfying for them.

The axis is projection of female sexual desire onto men. They assume men want the same things as women. While this point has been working many times on this forum understand that women assume men want confident, successful women. They assume men get this from male privilege and patriarchy. They confuse personal psychology with privilege. Very typical because they don’t understand reality at all.

That was much longer than I desired, however, let’s chop up feminist approaches to misogyny. For the uninitiated, feminist assume we live in a deeply misogynistic society. Tellingly, the stronger the feminist, the more damning male privilege becomes. Unable to comprehend the world in a way that conforms to reality, they invent fictions to perpetuate their mindset. They assume men and women are socialized in a patriarchal society that privileges men over women and teaches them to hate women and love men. This is so completely bullshit that it works. Some of the world’s biggest bullshit is in a steaming pile in the middle of the room..



This is one of them. Self-hatred doesn’t develop from misogyny of society, it develops from the narcissism of society and parents. When I took my Critical Race Theory class I advanced a theory of social narcissism. One woman starred me down before explaining narcissism develops from misogyny. When I pressured her to breakdown the teacher rudely cut me off and changed the conversation. When presented with a superior mind, the hamsters got real jittery. Could you imagine me in a small class with some feminists and manginas? Insert sinister laugh here.
Let’s break down narcissism through the lens of the black community to prove two points: one, white feminists have used black people for their own perceived benefit and the legacy of slavery. I developed this point on Obsidian’s blog last month, but my theory was that the limited resources whites afforded blacks lead to me-first approach to life in the black community. Faced with severely constrained resources they had to viciously compete for what was available. This led to narcissism in the black community. While this is a general theme, you see this exposed when black leaders emerge and can’t get other blacks on the board. The ones that won’t get on board to fight for rights? A common rejoinder is they only want to take care of themselves. Take this as you will because I am white, not black. I think this is true because I saw this in the poor community I grew up in.

There are so many thieves, fraudsters and drug pushers in my small hometown. These people don’t care about anybody but themselves. Many non-criminals do the same. When the local pastors and leaders try to bring the community together it always fails - too many drunks, criminals and rank narcissists for it to work. The local county cops always hate coming to my town to deal with drunken bar-fights as it always the same irascible drunks fighting the same people. They make up when sober, then get increasingly angry while drinking which will always result some ass beating – either theirs or somebody elses. I think this could be analogous to the black community – extremely poor and has limited resources and is filled with the “it’s all about me” mentality.
Taking this to feminists, they have used black people as not only a trial run for booting fathers out, but also their wombs. Understand that feminists are not fertile – they need other women to breed for them. I think part of the impetus is to create a class of breeding females to make up for their lack of reproducing. While many white women are used by them, feminists have also targeted blacks as a trial run. I don’t have the link so take this as you will, but I recall some article from Ms. Magazine in which the white feminist boasted of liberating the black female from the clutches of black male domination. I don’t know what the fuck she is talking about as black men, in America, have never had that right. White people were in control of blacks. As slaves, black men couldn’t prevent their master from fucking their wives or daughters. After being freed, what black man had hand to keep whites from fucking their wife? Think about it. She then intoned that feminists need to watch the black community as black women, as single mothers or non-mothers, will transform the black community in a very positive, proving women are the most important investment for society.

I’m going let that one go and refocus this fairly meandering opinion back on misogyny. Feminists are social constructionists and deeply and naively believe are socialized right, they bad stuff like rape will go away. I recall a black feminist going on Hannity and talking about rape culture. While I am not a fan, I remember him gently reminding her that evil will always exist and rape will never go away. It prompted a feminist response to support her, but understand the cracks in the narrative appeared. Some feminists angrily replied he supported rape culture with that comment. No, he said what he did because he recognized the immaturity of her comment. Unable to come to grips with evil committed by men in this world, she creates a false reality where the things she dislikes goes away. You feel the fear in the feminist articles as they toyed with accepting reality, but the hamster is strong and muscular in feminists. You know what they concluded – rape culture exists and rape will go away if it destroyed.

Which is my broader point that feminist are immature children. Let me bring in rape, sexual abuse and violence of fathers. Often times, feminist self-identify as having been raped and beaten by men. Feminists like to think their experiences speak to women as a class, but it doesn’t. It means that women, when confronted with terrible experiences don’t deal with them well. I don’t blame them ,as most people don’t have healthy responses to untoward circumstances – especially as a kid. Any female child subjected to abuse has a increased risk of becoming a feminist. Getting raped and becoming a feminist is an admission that she hasn’t come to terms with her rape. I understand the impetus to start resources for rape victims, sometimes that is the healthy way to deal with that. However, the whole framework of feminism and their response to abuse of women by men is fucked.

Let me draw on personal experience about being robbed. To this day, when under intense stress, I will have a dream about being robbed. I was a just a young kid, delivering pizzas in my hometown. I was just 18. I went the house and some dude asked me if I could break a 20. He told me the woman on the phone she we could. Before I knew it, some big ass black dude got behind me and “If you don’t behind the house right now n*gger I will drop your cracker ass right now.” I left the butt of gun in my backside. I complied and was lead back to two more guys in masks with one having a gun in his hand. He put the gun to my temple and said, “Give me the money n*gger” They started to verbally abuse me and forced me onto my knees and told me to beg for my life. I didn’t respond at first, but the guy cocked the gun and said that will do me right there if I don’t beg for my life like a bitch. I told them to take all my money, take it all. I don’t want to die. They say somebody walked down the street and they panicked and bolted but not before taking my 20 bucks. Class X Felony for 20 bucks. They were never caught. I framed the local story about my robbery and whenever I’m depressed or lazy I look at to remind me that I could be dead and not the have the opportunities I have right now.

My response was quick. I was angry and was yelling about dumbass n*ggers in my car. I checked myself and went to see the local pastor. Understand I didn’t regularly attend but he was a stand-up guy who I supremely respected. I went to the church and we talked for over three hours. He listened to me and I listened to him. He dropped some serious wisdom and gave me a big bear-hug after we talked, giving me his cell and email telling me to contact if I ever need anything. To this day, I will text him and he drops serious wisdom. That is a psychologically healthy response. I mentioned by initial racism because that is exactly what you don’t want to do – extrapolate to an entire group the actions of a few. You need to talk to people you trust and be honest about what you feel and what happened.

While women are never asking to be raped, they put themselves in positions to get raped. Like me, I was in a risky profession that has fatality rates the pace with cops and firefighters. I never asked to be robbed, but I knew there could be consequences. It applies to rape – women never ask for it, but they should know if they put themselves in bad situations. Getting drunk and walking home alone from the bar is a prime example. I spoke once here about a dude the followed my boy’s girl from the bar. When he walked into what he thought was her room, he encountered two dudes who were more than ready to kick is faggot ass. Fuck rapists. Motherfucker tried to tell us he was making sure she got home safe – you stop at her door you assfuck, you don’t follow into her personal bedroom while she is crying. She knew what was going down.
We comforted her, and she admitted she shouldn’t have walked home alone. I told her was right but to not blame herself. Just know you made a mistake and next time text a friend to escort you. Since she was just a couple blocks away at a bar, I would have met her at the bar to walk her back. I don’t care if some keyboard jockeys think that is white-knighting, I want to help my female friends. Which is my final point – degrees of misogyny.

I had a handle that I no longer use in the manosphere in which I relayed
this story. Some initial comments were supportive, but then some fools started to fault me for my white-knighting in wanted to help her from the bar. I said, straight up, if a female is my friend I will take care of her. I am not going to go out of my way, as she has other friends, but if it strikes me as reasonable I will help her. I am sick of these keyboard jockeys thinking ignoring or hating on women is cool. Like in that thread about women getting burned alive in a limo, some of those comments were sad. This isn’t a forum about women-hating – it is about self-improvement. That finishes my commentary on RVF, so take it as you will.

I want to address real misogyny. Some guys do hate women. Many more women hate men than men hate women – but why do a handful of men hate women? I think two approaches are necessary – sexual inadequacy and motherly abuse/neglect. Sexual inadequacy of misogynists might merit its own post. Understand that this a common approach for the unattractive- they hate on the desirable. Notice how ugly fatties hate on men – they become feminists. Fundamentally, if you hate either sex, you hate yourself. Feminists like to pretend that is they had a cock, their problems would go away. Hypergamy plays into that because they aren’t thinking of omegas with that thought – they are thinking of alphas. When men hate on women, they hate their sexuality and being a man. They may double down on current female privilege, using female educational privilege to explain away their intellectual or educational privileges.

Misogyny is generally a personal issue, unlike misandry that is peddled by feminists and some mainstream outlets. The problem is a critical mass of females emerged that had been wronged by men – or latched onto those women – and took a side issue nationwide. I remember one law professor recounting a story about women who would come to her office, crying about how they realize how bad women have it in society. Notice they pick weak women – women they can manipulate. Once in their clutches they can manipulate that woman as they wise. I noticed no hot woman ever came at her - only fatties and uglies. I had a short relationship with a cute Arab woman. She ended up being a bitch, but know she would never go out on weekends with that professor’s right-hand woman in law school. She pulled no punches saying that that law student was no more than a boner killer. She said early on in law school, that bitch would talk to guys about rape culture if they tried talking to their group. She was all about limiting access to the group. She eventually got into a relationship with some serious simp whom she controlled outright. I made a comment to her once about her domination of her relationship. Really bad move – that equalist hamster was supremely offended. My girl calmed her down, but know that she assumed her domination of her boyfriend was equal. Whatever.



Back on point, why do some men hate women? Sexual inadequacies aside, let’s talk about motherly abuse. Feminists often blame all men for their sexual abuse at the hands of fathers. They then blame all men for their issues. Men can do this too; they just don’t have the platform to do it. Men do it because they don’t want to deal with inappropriate female behavior. They want to pray it away by blaming all women for their issues. It is sad, but it is on point.

Misogyny develops not because of society but because of shitty parents. Society does not teach men or women to hate women – if anything; they teach them to hate men. I remember a middle school competition in which I was denied winning because a girl was second and girls need to win. I beat her ass straight-up and they held that participation ceremony at my expense. I remember holding my runner-up trophy while the teacher smiled at me, saying that girls are finally getting their recognition. That sort of shit breeds hatred of women. I focused on society instead of women, but I could have blamed women.

This uneven analysis ends here. I presented different approaches to feminist approaches to male hatred of women. It is not solid and needs to be rewritten. However, I hope some players on this forum can help me develop this piece.

[Roadrunner]

Kudos to you

[vinman]

Excellent post man. Seriously. My biggest problems with women is that they are deluded, and don't deal in reality. Sometimes I come off as angry because I tell them about themselves without pulling any punches. I'm a little too Patrice O'Neal at times.

[Tytalus]

Something about this post made it about 1.5 times the size of my monitor, hard to read having to scroll left and right all the time. Anyway to fix that?

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

(05-26-2013 09:31 AM)Tytalus Wrote:  

Something about this post made it about 1.5 times the size of my monitor, hard to read having to scroll left and right all the time. Anyway to fix that?

That's because one of the pictures in the original post is massive, so it stretches the thread on the left-right axis.
(great sex analogy, eh?)

Barring the OP resizing or removing it, I fear there is no way to get rid of the issue.

[SpiderKing]

Hey 2Wycked,

Glad to read your thorough threads and similar posts from other RVF members. Going over such analyses is improving my logic, which is admittedly deficient. I deselected automatic image loading in Firefox to read your post. Could you disable images until the final draft? It's less legible given how the larger pictures disrupt word wrapping. The rough draft should be easier to read this way.

I look forward to any forthcoming critiques and corrections, and the veracity of thought that will ensue.

Thanks,
SK

***


Good movie. To raise my hipster cred, I confess I've only seen Shutter's original Thai version.

It's interesting to note how some movies, when remade in America, have minute and telling differences. I reason it's to appeal to cultural sensibilities of the Anglo world.

In 2007's Spanish film REC, the impetus was a virus which caused demonic possession. As America is less religious/superstitious than Catholic Spain, the demonic aspect was replaced with rabies.

Another example is Japan's Ringu from 1998 and its counterpart, 2002's The Ring. In the American ending, Naomi Watts makes a copy of the tape to pass onto someone else. End scene. One could make an argument that this denouement is an illustration of American narcissism(in terms of selfishness) combined with NIMBY. Her son will be fine, the person receiving the video & curse won't. Not In My BoY.


The Ring 2002 Ending Scene

The Japanese version ended with Reiko calling her elderly father for a favor to her son--with the expectation that Gramps will watch the copied video, not pass on a copy, die, and end the curse so that no one else will be harmed. This sense of filial piety and social duty is evident in Japanese daily life. It's observable through use of honorific titles for those of the older generation, as well as elders of one's own generation. Larger examples include kamikaze fighters dying for their country and Emperor, as well as the Fukushima 50: older workers and senior citizen volunteers working to ensure their country's safety against nuclear fallout. Viewed through Japan's historical evidence of self-sacrifice, one assumes that the grandfather would die on behalf of his grandson.


Ringu 1998 Ending
(skip to 1:31:24)

Shutter
In both films, the protagonists attempt to be rid of their ghosts via suicide. The Thai aftermath shows Tun sitting on a low-slung hospital bed, hunched forward since the phantom is perched on his shoulders.

Has he been sectioned and sent to an insane asylum? Or is he convalescing in a medical hospital? What of his silence? Is he brooding over the failed escape from Natre? Pondering the rest of his life with this monkey on his back? Or have the head injuries rocketed him to lunacy? I pondered these questions while the unreadable abugida credits rolled.

I've only your summary to draw from, so I assume the American ending directly showed the protagonist in some type of vegetative state. If true, this would be a far cry from the asian ending which is open to interpretation. I'll return to the western ending's importance at the conclusion.


I agree with your interpretation of feminism as projection. When I come across a feminist hurling vitriol, it's fun exercise to think "What if she's referring to herself?"

Quote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pla..._Ho#t=121s
(skip to 2:01)

"You are scum. You are fucking scum"
...Because I will never be desired.

"You know what though why would you pay to support a fucking rape apologist."
...A rape apologist who would never let me sleep with him, even though I'd try my best to rape him.

[police let him past the cordon, guy walks away]
...No, wait, come back! I need someone to be mad at. Why won't these dumb cops let me through? OMG this is the same thing that happens when I go clubbing. Face control is rape!

Assumptions of women, assumptions of men
If one can assume that men select women according to fertility cues, and fertility correlates to youth and beauty, therefore men will select beautiful young women.

If one can assume that women select men according to provisioning cues, and provisioning is the sum of skill and ability, therefore women will select skilled and able men.

I assert that women are locked into a genetic fate. If she gets the short end of the stick--that's you, Rumer Willis--no amount of pedigree, station, or nepotism will make her desirable. And by short end I mean an overhand right to the manjaw.




On the other hand, if she wins the jackpot, she'll be plucked from obscurity as happened with Pam Anderson / Adriana Lima / this era's It girl. Maybe she's born with it? Definitely: good or bad, pretty or pretty ugly. Maybe it's Maybelline? A great sales pitch for desperate women. But there's only so much lipstick you can stick on a pig. It's difficult to be skilled at having youth and beauty.




Since men aren't born with value the way women are, they must earn it by striving. It's a reason I find competitions fascinating. All the bluster and speculation counts for nothing until one's mettle is tested.

It's this competitive nature to which I attribute the US version of Shutter. A contest must have a clear winner and loser. So too with American film endings.

"Everyone's a winner."
Even the ones who lost? Are you sure?
!=!=!=!=!=!=
*malfunction*

"He was the better man today."
Now there's a more dignified way to admit defeat.

Therein lies the rub: if men lose initially, they can get better. They can improve despite having an ugly face, being mute, and unable to walk. Women can't imagine that for themselves, and therefore also cannot conceive of an beta lame becoming an alpha who has game.

Women are capped by their market value. It will be difficult to rise above parameters selected by men (youth, beauty). This is the real glass ceiling that women hate. Even if a man buys before the stock peaks, he knows that when the asset depreciates, it will do so precipitously.

From the window


To the wall




Fortunately men can display provisioning ability in a number of ways, as long as the end result is successful. Boldness, patience, risk aversion, perseverance, and other internal masculine qualities can indicate success. Men have more options.


When feminists whine about patriarchy and privilege, I see those issues as projections for their true grievances.

#1) Genetics, in the sense that it is something outside a woman's control, just like the Patriarchy. They have 50% input for their children sure, but no woman chose the genes she has. Mom and Dad did. It was all Dad's fault btw.

#2) Agency, the ability to act. In this case, also the ability to choose, improve one's station. Male Privilege. Call it penis envy if you want to get Freudian. That's the power of the penis. It was Voltaire's privilege that he could talk away his ugly face. Female uggos don't have that privilegeeeeee. Privilege is rape!


It's because of agency that I see the US ending of Shutter as so significant. In the original, the protagonist leaped to his death to be rid of his geis. The final scene is ambiguous. Can he talk or move? Would he want to? For the remake, it is made clear that Pacey is now an invalid. Both men exercised agency via suicide attempts, but Joshua Jackson's final condition shows the destruction of that agency. No more choice. No more options. No more privilege. She has the penis. Now Megumi can love him and hug him and squeeze him all to bits, forever and ever.



Elmyra

[kbell]

Definitely use smaller pictures in the future. The ones that are massive really aren't relevant to the post. I also think if you do use picture in a format like this have a caption underneath them if possible. This post scrolls out to 3 times the size of my screen. I think you can resize in MS Paint now. There is a program called GIMP that you can definitely resize images in. I would keep images down to about 500 or 600 pixels max length, with the constraint/proportions settings still on. The last girl who I'm not sure who is or how she relates tot he post is about the proper maximum size for a article like this.

Its a good article nonetheless.

[2Wycked]

Fellas - I sincerely apologize about that ridiculous photo - Roosh thankfully deleted it for me.

SpiderKing: Great stuff! I like how you working the Ring into your analysis. Good to point out autonomy issues w/ respects to Megumi. I need to watch that scene again to decide if she was conscious or not when she got raped. If she was, it would be a good angle. You seem to know about this movie, so I may shoot a PM about the contrast between the two when I redraft at some point. Once again, good stuff.

[T and A Man]

2Wycked, you're coming out with a lot of though provoking stuff.

Are you priming an audience for a blog of your own? You'd be a good pairing along with Rollo in respect to pop-vox psychology of inter-gender relations.

[SpiderKing]

This post is long. It's a spoiler of the entire Thai film.

If you want to watch it, Shutter is available in English or Polish.



Shutter 2004 EN/PL subs

I had time to review the original this holiday weekend. A cousin was visiting and took notice, mentioning she saw the American one. We compared notes and I got to thinking.


***

The Immortal Stalker




First some background on the directors, then a primer on Thai customs.

Parkpoom Wongpoom
Rangsit University
Major: Film and Video
Graduated in 2000

Banjong Pisanthanakun
Chulanlongkorn University
Major: Film
Graduated in 1999

Banjong is the key decision maker for the stories they've partnered on. His filmography exhibits a pattern of relationship tales, especially those of star-crossed lovers. His films contain elements of romance, horror, and comedy. The university he attended is one of the best in Thailand and SE Asia, so it's plausible to think he'd have a deep understanding of film history. His work draws on some of Hitchcock's concepts: twist endings, the femme fatale, metamorphosis, and psychoanalysis. The double. Transference of guilt. Batty mother. Focus on images, narrative via images rather than dialogue, falling from high places. Hitchcock's protagonists tend to be detectives or other truth seekers. In Shutter, the protagonist is a photographer who is actively cropping out the truth. The American remake varies the modes of death, erasing the homage to Hitchcock (falling from heights). The hints are subtle, perhaps it was missed by Masayuki Ochiai and his writers. Whether or not Shutter was a tribute, Hitchcock certainly left a stylistic imprint on Wongpoom and Pisanthanakun.

Hitchcock: Themes, motifs, plot devices




Hitchcock's Misogyny

Quoted from the full article:
The Genius of Hitchcock: Celebrating Cinema's Master of Suspense

Quote:

For many, Hitchcock’s cinema represents a catalogue of misogyny, a fetishised and nightmarish distillation of repressed male anxiety. For the film theorist Laura Mulvey in her 1975 essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, Hitchcock’s films perfectly illustrate Sigmund Freud’s analysis of the male unconscious and the symbolic threat of castration primarily evoked by the female sex. Hitchcock’s horror films in particular, such as Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963), neatly convey Mulvey’s claims that the castrating threat of female sexuality must be violently - and sadistically - disavowed for the male subject’s ego to be fully restored.

Since the auteurs are derivative of Hitchcock, Mulvey's piece might lend more insight to the feminist perception of misogyny. 2Wycked, perhaps this will be helpful to your study of misogyny and feminist misinterpretation.

[PDF]Laura Mulvey - Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema




Sticks and Stones

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You can only ask questions about what the guy did. You can never ask about the woman. Why is that?

Bill Burr - No reason to hit a woman
(skip to 2:30)

Verbal shaming doesn't leave bruises. You don't get a black eye from nagging. Names won't break your bones. Women will kill a man psychologically, men will kill a woman dead. This discrepancy of tangible evidence is what feminists latch onto when they prattle about "misogyny."

Louis CK Girls vs. Boys
(2:27 to 3:02)

Thai Culture
Thailand's population is 95% Buddhist. A basic practice of Buddhism is Dāna, or giving. Monks will set out their alms-bowl and lay people give offerings, usually food. Generosity practiced in the form giving is thought to increase spiritual wealth and destroy avarice, which causes suffering. In the spirit of Dāna, Tun offered his friendship to Natre. They connect metaphorically by photographing lab specimens. He takes her photo (exerting agency over her), then take a picture together. The photography metaphor is made literal when their relationship is consummated. Bang Thailand.

It's possible to interpret Natre's gift, an expensive high-tech camera, as golden handcuffs. A bribe to bind Tun's feelings to her. If so, then can her present truly be considered an act of generosity? The metal finish of the camera invokes silver collars that wealthy European slave owners used to place on their slaves.






A specific tenet of Dāna can be summed as “What is promised should be given and what has been donated should not be taken back.” So even though Tun's expression shows that receiving such a fancy camera is too much, Buddhist principles, and therefore Thai culture, dictate that refusing the gift to be out of the question. She's given him a gift of personal significance, he loves photography. Upon accepting, he knows he won't be capable of reciprocating. Their relationship is important to her, but he can't publicly acknowledge it. Nor can this effigy of her obsessive love be returned. When the above photo is taken, Nat is long dead. He must keep this symbol (and therefore her ghost) for life. As with many betas, Tun doesn't know when and how to make a clean exit, so he ends up in a "2 year long one night stand", so to speak.




Thai Folklore
In general folklore, the concept of the succubus exists to explain sleep paralysis. Patients with this condition describe feeling as if someone is sitting on their chest, making it difficult to breathe. In Thailand, their succubus corollary is called "Phi Am," and is a type of riding ghost. The other type is "Chao Kam Nai Wen," which sits on the shoulders of the victim. These riding ghosts are usually female, invisible, cause nightmares, pain, or death. Folk beliefs began in Thailand's countryside, and Natre hails from a rural village.





Exposition

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEpGRYu3a...ge#t=1277s
(0:21:17)

Scene: College classroom

"Everyone is familiar with this place.
Just an ordinary location that we pass and see everyday.
Now look at these pictures taken of the same place.
In these the bridge looks nicer.
That means photography does not reproduce reality.
It depends on how the image is framed.
What is revealed. What is concealed.
Your perspective is critical."

Jane is distracted. She leaves before the lecture finishes.

This is an expository scene buried under the banality of a college lecture. Even Jane doesn't bother hearing its entirety. If she doesn't care about what the prof says, why should you? Cos foreshadowing.





The Double, part 1

Quote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEpGRYu3a...ge#t=1509s
(0:25:09)

Scene: Tun & Jane's meeting with the tabloid editor.

Characters
Boyfriend: Tun
Girlfriend: Jane
Expert: Tabloid Editor
Underling: Tabloid Employee
Ghosts: represented in print.

"Everyone fakes them. (commercial photos/hoaxes)
Our readers want to see scary photos.
They don't want love stories."

"In my opinion these pictures represent more than macabre urban legends. They are signs. Think about it. Why would the dead return to the living, without a message to convey?"


Rose Royce - I wanna get next to you

Normal consumers don't want the raw, personal, ghostly love story photos. Only abnormal vampires want those.




The Double, part 2

Quote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEpGRYu3a...ge#t=1738s
(0:25:58)

Scene: Tun working in his photo studio.

Characters
Tun in the prior scene is replaced with the Groom.
Jane, the Bride.
Editor, becomes Tun the ace photographer.
The subordinate employee is now Aum, Tun's assistant.
Where ghosts were in print, Natre is a poltergeist.

Omarion - In the Dark

In the previous scene, the editor mentioned how everyone fakes the commercial ghost photos. Now Tun is composing wedding portraits. There's nothing more fake than wedding photography. With the corny poses and maudlin displays. I've met guys who are passionate about photography. Some of them got in it for the pussy. But for others, wedding and engagement shoots pay the bills. You know what? Give me an old timey camera, the one that looks like an accordian wearing a cape. People have to stay still for 20 minutes just to get the exposure on film. One...two...three...smile! Just kidding. No smiles back in the 1800s. Half an hour for one shot, I'd look pissed off too. Oh, I blinked. Can we try again?




Metamorphosis, Androgyny, Anima, Animus
Negative film yields positive photographs. The world of the real vs the world which is not real. The girl who was emotionally dead to her man can affect the world. As a ghost, she now has agency regarding the love object.

Carl Jung's theories on Anima and Animus are pertinent to Shutter. Anima is the feminine inner personality of a man. Animus is the masculine inner personality of a woman. As Jung's explanation for men was more detailed than for women, feminists have more information with which to critique men. If you've come across the phrase "You need to get in touch with your feminine side" from some Third-Waver, thank Jung.

"Oh yeah? How's about you get in touch with your masculine side and go fuck yourself."

A better symbol for his theory is the Chinese concept of yin-yang.

I recollected the above youtube songs while re-watching Shutter. Both were sung by men from the male perspective. I believe it's the female antagonist's donning of masculine traits that underlie the feeling of horror when watching films like Shutter. A little salt is seasoning. Too much spoils the dish. Natre overcompensated for her passivity by being excessive in her masculine aggression to the crew. This psychological androgyny is unnatural, extreme and therefore repulsive.

The reticent feminine character, passing through Death's portal, transforms into the physically demonstrative, masculine hunter/pursuer. Beneficial to this metamorphosis is Tun, played by Ananda Everingham. He was described in a film forum discussion: "When did Orlando Bloom learn Thai?" That is to say, he is good looking. Assuming that beauty is feminine, Tun is an excellent androgynous focal point for Natre to pivot on when she moves from living -> dead, immaterial -> corporeal, feminine -> masculine, frail -> potent. Natre in turn, is Tun's alternate. Achita Sikamana is not as attractive facially. Nice body, but her face. The makeup and lighting emphasized more masculine features. Being 2-3 points below Tun, Natre does everything in her power to keep him around. Confessions of love, great sex, expensive gifts, self harm...which escalates to the spirit realm. Further highlighting the topic of androgyny and metamorphosis is the TP scene at the gas station restroom.

Tun mistaking Natre for Jane in his darkroom was merely Natre pumping her wings. A muscle warmup for the show of masculine agency to come. Jane saw a supernatural tabloid magazine and called Tun so they could visit the tabloid office. En route to Faux News, Tun grumbles about shoulder pains. As we discover later, this is because Natre is perched around his neck. Like an albatross.

When speaking with the editor, the pressure is gone, Tun feels no cramping on his upper body. This is because, falcon-like, Natre the Harpy is climbing to prepare for the stoop. She is an "agent of punishment who abducts people and tortures them on their way to Tartarus(Hell)."

At the portrait studio, Tun photographs a wedding couple. His command of poses, lighting, framing, and his assistant taking care of lesser tasks show that Tun is the masculine presence controlling his environment.

The Harpy dives. Here is the transformation. The cameras start going off. Tun doesn't control the shot composition anymore. So too with the lighting, it vacillates from pitch dark to strobing. He isn't the photographer, but the subject.

No longer is Tun "a man who knows where he's going." Disoriented, he panics, stumbles, and falls. The first pass is survived. Natre climbs again.


Femme Fatale
After visiting a specialist about his shoulder stiffness, Tun is seen seated in his apartment. He reviews his botched photos while a nature program flickers on his television. Yadda yadda, mantises mating. Short drag on a cig. "The female's response is surprising. The male becomes her prey. She slowly eats off his head..." BAM! Tun frustratedly scatters the photos from his coffee table. It's the narration serving as an auditory cue for what is happening to him. The tables are slowly turning . He doesn't like feeling powerless. Natre wants to consume him. It's a bit emasculating, would you agree?

Also note the directors' choice of nature programming. For a film, such coincidences don't just happen. Every visual and auditory cue is there for a purpose. Writing and storyboarding is involved for pre-production and then editing in post-production. Films are not so improvised as say, a freestyle rap battle.


The Hitchcockean method of showing rather than telling is clearest in Jane's eureka moments with the photographs. Jane follows a hunch about the streaky pictures and visits the college were the photos were taken. While searching in a science lab, a portrait falls. Natrenapa Chan-ngam, Honor Society 1996. Natre is dropping hints.


Tun's buddy Tonn, shows up unexpectedly in Tun's apartment. He's in quite a state, asking for the photos of "that bitch". Tun grows worried about his friend and later visits him. The door is unlocked. His bro's pad is a wreck. Strewn on the dining table are Tonn's recent wedding photos. Like Tun's pictures, they're also muddled with white streaks. He looks up to see Tonn climb over the balcony. The fall kills him. After the tragedy, Tonn's widow admonishes Tun. "Are you all insane? All of you are committing suicide!" It's here that Tun discovers two other friends have also chosen death by gravity.

Natre is dropping bodies. She's taking them for a spin, but her victims lack wings.


Eagle vs. Eagle
(1:39)

In the car, Jane shows a uni photo of Tun with a girl named Natrenapa and demands answers. Cornered, he confesses.

She was a quiet girl, friendless. Tun was sympathetic and dated her out of pity. The relationship was secret. This neglectful aspect of the clandestine pairing sours their relationship, so after the breakup, Natre turns to wristcutting. Like suicide "attempts", such behavior isn't really a desire for death, but a need for attention or acknowledgment.

A saying goes "Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all." Not so for Natre. Her manipulation of Tun continued with more threats of self-harm. Tun's crew offered a solution. Thereafter, Natre desisted.

The pair take a road trip to see Natre's mother. In the foreground is a Mantis seated on a leaf, poised to strike. Somebody gonna get a head bit off real bad. When they meet her, her hair is disheveled and she's got them crazy eyes. This would fulfill Hitchcock's motif of the batty mother. There's no information regarding Natre's father. I thought it might've been the fellow Tun and Jane chatted with at the funeral, but Jane referred only to Natre's mother. If the older man were Nat's dad, Jane would have addressed he and the mother plurally.

In another silent scene, Jane finds more photographs. First of a ghost clawing at the apartment bookshelf. Behind said shelf Jane finds negatives, develops them. They're the "photos of that bitch" Tonn was asking for. She confronts Tun.

Transference of Guilt
The villain hides a dark secret. Through the film medium, it's shown that the hero also shares this secret or guilt. In Shutter, it's the past events in the upper floor science lab.


Boxing for the belt: wba, wbc, ibf, wbo, BPD
The 1-2 punch is a fundamental boxing combination. Lead hand jab, rear hand cross. To land the punches, one must have mastery over the basics of distance management and timing. The jab is a range finder. If the foe can be reached with that, they can also be reached with the cross.

Now transpose boxing over the psychological components of Shutter. Tun's crew picking on Natre in the elevator? Jab. The crew harassing her at the lab? Jab. Rape? Jab. Tonn's request of Tun to take photos of the assault so Natre doesn't blab? Well, this isn't a jab. It's more like mushing your lead hand into the opponent's face. It blocks their vision. Tun presses the shutter. Turn the hips, torso. Shift weight from rear to lead foot. Extend the rear arm, rotate. The flashbulb goes off. That cross is on target, and lands. Natre cries out in despair. Challenger is down, Joe Cortez is calling off the fight.

All the physical torture from the crew was to be expected. They were bullies and consistent in their poor treatment of Natre. She could catch those strikes. It was her boyfriend's betrayal which broke her. She never saw that punch coming.

There's a rematch of course. It takes place in the air. Float like a harpy, sting like a scythe.

Some fighters take pride in having a granite chin. But, that means the fighter is letting himself get punched. This runs counter to the sum of boxing's rules: "Hit and don't get hit." Tun's chin was his adherence to Buddhist precepts amid a perilous situation. He left himself exposed not to a power puncher, but to a Stage 5 clinger.

Tun was friendly to someone he should have avoided. That generous nature is beneficial in the context of a philosophy like Buddhism. So too with American beta belief that provisioning was and still is attractive to hotties. However, to a Borderline Personality like Natre, Tun's sympathy is a psychic feast. A positive made negative.

His later abuse of trust and its effects were disappointing to watch, but given Natre's manipulation via self-harm, it was an action of last resort. You have to be cruel to be kind. He just wasn't aware of the cruelty his friends had in mind. Regardless, Natre left Bangkok. Negative actions yield a positive result.

A comment was left on youtube:
"Really good movie. the asshole got what he deserves!"

He did get his just desserts, but not for being an asshole. He was naive and then led, unaware, into a dangerous situation. He got what he deserved because "No good deed goes unpunished." "Don't stick your dick in crazy," is also an apt quotation here.

Was Tun a selfish misogynist? Self-centered sure. Aloof? Yup. Morally inept? Mhmm. Dishionest. Yes. Lacking integrity? Also yes. But as far as hating women, there isn't much evidence for it. I mean, if he truly hated women, could he stand to have a girlfriend, let alone have an ex-girlfriend? He never hit either of them. As for violence in general, I submit that situations can quickly escalate to physical extremes when dealing with Cluster B personalities.

What are some solutions to getting rid of a BPD? Either person can:

1) Leave and go no-contact
2) Die

Natre left Bangkok. Then she jumped from a hospital roof and died. Thennn she came back. Now what? Now Tun is a prisoner in his hospital cell. He'll never be rid of her, even if he leaves. Oh right, he has to die too.


Tales and legends have been instructive throughout human history. Wolves are classic story villains because they eat people, usually children. In Thailand, people in the countryside may still cling to superstitious beliefs, or at least regard psychotherapy with incredulity. This is alluded to in Pisanthanakun and Wongpoom's proceeding film where the heroine balks at meeting with a therapist. The directors meld the psychological science of Borderline Personality Disorder to Thai folk tales of the riding ghost "Chao Kam Nai Wen" to explain what type of crazy bitches to avoid. Without the folklore aspect, this wouldn't be a spooky ghost story, but a psychological or erotic thriller. Think Fatal Attraction, Single White Female, or Misery.


Last Comments and questions on BPD
Wiki for Borderline Personality Disorder

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People with BPD are often exceptionally idealistic, joyful, and loving.

The honeymoon period between Tun and Natre.

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People with BPD are especially sensitive to feelings of rejection, isolation, and perceived failure.

Tun dumps her. "Why did you leave me alone? Why didn't you love me?"

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Before learning other coping mechanisms, their efforts to manage or escape from their intense negative emotions can lead to self-injury or suicidal behavior.

Natre gets wristy with some blades hoping she and Tun will reunite.

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A BPD diagnosis is strongly associated with a combination of three specific states:
1) feeling betrayed
2) "feeling like hurting myself"
3) feeling completely out of control.

There is a strong correlation between child abuse, especially child sexual abuse, and development of BPD. Women with BPD who reported a previous history of neglect by a female caregiver and abuse by a male caregiver were consequently at significantly higher risk of reporting sexual abuse by a non-caregiver.

Is the scene in the lab symbolic of childhood sexual abuse which results in BPD? Her mother was living alone, messy hair, with a crazy glint to her eyes. Was she a neglectful mother? There's no mention of a father figure. Was Nat abused by him, or possibly abandoned?


Conclusion
Interview from Strange Kids Club

Quote:

What do you find most intriguing about the horror genre from a creative perspective?

Banjong Pisanthanakun: The challenge in making a horror is how to come up with a new idea that is fresh to the genre, yet it still works and it’s still possible to control the audiences’ feelings. There are a lot of horror films in the market, so coming up with new ideas is the biggest challenge for me.

With Shutter, Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom displayed their technical expertise, knowledge of film history, psychoanalysis, and Thai folklore to synthesize their first feature film. It was a box office smash in Thailand, outearning all other films that year. 7/10 would bang again.





The BPD fortune cookie:
"You'll have so much fun"






...in bed





Only in bed.

[2Wycked]

SpiderKing - I'm bout to take a nap right now - but know I will read your post later today. I really appreciate your hard work & writing. You seem like you know what's up. Once again, I apologize for all the typos in the OP.