(Red) Carpet Crawlers

[stubbleupdate]

I'm now four posts in to a short series on the Luna Bros book Ultra. The first one was all on the covers, the second was about Ultra's date with a lovely gentleman, the third was on the aftermath of that date and this is the backlash to the backlash. I figure that after this one, I've got another post from Ultra left in me. I do recommend that you buy it one way or another.

As with the rest of the Ultra stuff, it's got a warning for slut-shaming.



And yes, that's a not-even-thinly-veiled Joan Rivers parody on the red carpet.
Jojo looks... unwell.

Captain Steel being Ultra's ex.

She got a haircut because her hair went on fire when she was fighting a man made of fire.
And what sort of dick throws a single shoe at somebody? I imagine that they're going to be hopping home. And surely security should be all over people throwing things. I imagine there will be quite a number of empty seats now.
And the smack in the chops to the guy being a dick. Good.
This is the most obvious case here where the people being dicks are portrayed unambigiously as dicks. There's a lot of other cases that aren't.

Is it just me, or is the message here that validation from other people is the most important thing for your self esteem?

Comments

[bestiasono]

No, I don't think that's the message at all. If you've ever been in a situation where it feels like everyone is against you, it's terrifying. And having someone actually stand up for you (especially if the reason people turned against you was an intentional act by a vengeful person, and the person is standing up for you for something you really did do) is an extremely validating experience.

If anything, I'd say the message here is about the importance of standing up for people when they need to hear a supportive voice.

[stubbleupdate]

I can go for that.

[richardak]

I would just add that like it or not, we are social beings by nature, and we care about others think of us, even when maybe we shouldn't. There are times when we should behave as if the opinion of others does not matter to us, but that doesn't mean we don't still feel it.

[wizardru]

I'm not sure how I feel about this comic, but I don't think this is about validation from other people. That's the message that I got from this. Not that their validation should be what she needs, but that the people in that crowd were being shallow, crass and hypocrites. The guy who stands up is the one who smacks the crowd back in sanity.

[blackruzsa]

I like your message.

Though in my head, the message was that people are stupid, and a crowd of people are something much much worse than stupid that I can't really find words for.

Mob mentality in this case means "Hey, they called her a slut! Let's join in the bashing!" and then "Hey, this guy kind of made us feel ashamed, let's turn the other cheek" five seconds later.

[darkknightjrk]

Wait--so Ultra is forced into this scandal involving her sex life, and the press DON'T hound her? That...makes no sense at all.

[icon_uk]

The scandal sheets would, but those whose job it is to fawn over the red carpet celebs would probably ignore her for fear of bogarting their buzz.

[darkknightjrk]

I don't think there's much of a difference between the two.

[stubbleupdate]

Then you need to discover churnalism.

Many news outlets do not do their own journalism or conduct their own interviews.

It doesn't matter to a newspaper if a star refuses to speak to them - that isn't where their news comes from. Suri Cruise hasn't even given an interview to the Daily Mail, but that's no barrier to the paper publishing lots of stories about her.

If E! pisses off Katie Holmes because of an article that they carried and she blanks them on the red carpet, then they've lost access to a primary source of exclusive information.

[icon_uk]

Oh there is, one is there to exploit celebs at a distance, the other is there to fawn over them up close. As "damaged goods" (from the perception of a scandal-centric media only I hasten to add) she wouldn't be seen as being someone to talk to about who did their hair, whose dress are they wearing and other such rivetting questions.

[cainofdreaming]

Beside the other points, when you've got several hundred people chanting someone's name all around you and the only people between those people and you seem to be hired based on how good they look in tuxes instead of how good they are at stopping a rampaging crowd... yeah, I reckon' treating the person you're interviewing with a modicum of respect is the sane approach.

[whitesycamore]

The delivery of this message is so heavy-handed it's laughable.

[proteus_lives]

+1

[nezchan]

Why does everyone look like they were traced from photos?

[theredhood]

It's the art style for the series, which kinda throw me off, too. It all feels like an episode of "Metalocalypse."

[superfangirl1]

I find it amusing that her defender in the crowd hit the guy with the glasses that was throwing less of a insult at her with saying "Yeah". I mean okay he was agreeing with the guy on the left with the blue jacket opinion of her but still.

Great she got people supporting her through this ordeal.

[icon_uk]

Yeah, the guy with the glasses was being one of the jerks in the crowd so gets little sympathy from me.

I think Ultra's defender could have made more of an impact if he's stood up, declaimed his piece and THEN, if someone talked back, hit them as a sort of last resort.

[jlbarnett]

I think the punch was necessary. If he'd tried talking first he'd have been shouted down and had stuff thrown at him and then any physical violence would have come off as desperation.

This way Ultra's detractors were totally stunned into silence, he siad his piece, which whether or not it convinced anyone let Ultra's supporters previously cowed by mob mentality spoke up with the chant.

Basically he Shamed the Mob and to have the chance to do that he had to throw the punch

[mastiff]

He was the only male speaking in fist distance. The girls were far more vicious in their insults, but punching a girl wouldn't have been acceptable.

I'm not a big fan of anyone getting hit, even if they are acting like a complete twatwaffle, but I also found it interesting that agreeing with the insults resulting in a harsher punishment than making them.

[mastiff]

Mods, if this comment comes across as offensive please delete it. My thought was more about the writer setting up a narrow circumstance where violence is acceptable to make the reader feel vindicated, even though it's not directed towards the root of the problem (the guy who went to the tabloids, and the tabloids themselves).

Mod Note

[salinea]

We do not delete people's comments as a policy - and we also prefer for people not to delete problematic comments after having been pointed out as problematic.

The only problem I see in your comment is the term "twatwaffle", as we generally frown on gendered, potentially misogynistic insults. Just, avoid them in the future, please.

Re: Mod Note

[mastiff]

Thanks for clarifying, I'll keep that in mind for the future.

Cheers!

[jlbarnett]

I think it's that it's hard to feel good about yourself if others are always criticizing you.

[mrstatham]

In the case of this story, definitely. Pearl has sex for the first time in five years, I think it is, and it's with a guy she likes, loves even. He stabs her in the back and all of a sudden, everyone and their dog besides your closest friends and manager is treating you like you're some kind of monster and calling you a whore because of what he's done. And next to no-one save one of her friends has even considered how she feels or wants her perspective.

To get bawled at and called a whore on the red carpet in front of thousands, when you've done nothing wrong? That would make you feel pretty shitty inside.

[mrstatham]

The guy telling Pearl she's got to suffer, as if she does what she does to prove herself to him specifically? I'd be throwing his sorry ass over the railing and seeing who comes to his rescue the quickest, and then we'd see how quickly he shuts the fuck up.

[big_daddy_d]

This was one of my favorite scenes because of that Defender. Albeit.. very hard to keep a straight face when he works in "Tappin her ass."

[bariman]

I would think reversing it with "whose ass she's tapping" would be better. Or anything else.

[kamino_neko]

... Meat of the issue aside, I'm kind of stuck on the fact that there's a hero in this universe called Embryonic Girl.

I'm...almost afraid to ponder what her power is.

[equinox216]

Shouting "NEOTENY RECAPITULATES ONTOGENY!", I hope.