Masculinquiries: Defending punctuation
Matthew Yapp is a senior communications major and writes “Masculinquiries” for The Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
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Matthew Yapp is a senior communications major and writes “Masculinquiries” for The Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
by Matthew Yapp
by Matthew Yapp Disclaimer: The following contains conversations of violence, rape, sexism, and racism. The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte’s editorial board. On Oct. 4, Todd Philips’ Joker was released worldwide. The film is an origin story of DC Comic’s infamous Batman villain, the Joker. The film was met with praise and success at several film festivals, including a massive win at the Venice Film Festival. Some critics, however, believe that the film was not only subpar, but even problematic. Certain critics felt that the film was glorifying violence. In an article for Time, critic Stephanie Zacharek stated that the movie portrayed violence as something that made the protagonist feel “more in control, less pathetic. Killing—usually with a gun, though scissors or a good old-fashioned suffocation will do just fine—empowers him.” She also felt that the film made the Joker seem less like a villain, and more like someone the audience was meant to feel bad for. “In America, there’s a mass shooting or attempted act of violence by a guy like Arthur [Joker] practically every other week. And yet we’re supposed to feel some sympathy for Arthur, the troubled lamb; he just hasn’t had enough love. Before long, he becomes a vigilante folk hero.” Fear resulting from this movie wasn’t just based on its content alone. The US Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a joint-intelligence bulletin to the police, later obtained by CNN, stating that there had been a number of violent threats posted online, including calls for mass shooting at showings of the movie. This led to the NYPD increasing police presence at several theaters. The Century Aurora and XD movie theater publicly stated that they will not be showing the film at all. The Century Aurora theatre was the location of the 2012 mass shooting, which occurred during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises. The bulletin notes that the threats make references to the incel community. This may have to do with, as Zacharek stated, the film depicting the Joker as someone who could “easily be adopted as the patron saint of incels.” But what exactly is an incel? The term incel is an abridged version of the term “involuntarily celibate,” meaning someone who would like to be having sex but is unable too. Incels are an online culture centered around the concept that they want and deserve to have sex, but women are withholding it from them. Because of this, they believe themselves to be victims of society. Incels create communities on sites like reddit and 4chan, but are often removed for misogynistic language and attempts to incite violence against women. Below are several posts found on different online incel community forums. While I find them disgusting and disagree with them entirely, I am adding them to get across the severity of many incels' radical beliefs.
Welcome back to Remixed! This week, we discuss the latest album from Angel Olsen. How has her music changed with this recent release? How does this music reflect the artist’s beliefs? Find out all of this and more on this week’s episode of Remixed!
Matthew Yapp is a senior communications major and writes “Masculinquiries” for The Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. Write to Matthew at mpyapp@bsu.edu.
by Matthew Yapp
by Matthew Yapp
by Matthew Yapp Spider-Man has returned to the Marvel cinematic universe, announced a joint statement from Marvel and Sony Pictures. This comes only a month after an ongoing deal between Marvel Studios and Sony was ended due to disagreements on how costs and profits for the Spider-Man films should be split. The character is licensed to Marvel by Sony, who owns the rights to the characters cinematic use. Disney was seeking a large cut of the future Spider-Man films and Sony was seeking to keep the same deal that had been used for Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home. The new deal, as reported by variety, will grant Disney a quarter of future films profits while allowing Disney to maintain their marketing rights for the character. Disney is also expected to pay for a quarter of the films costs. Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, stated in the joint release, “I am thrilled that Spidey’s journey in the MCU will continue, and I and all of us at Marvel Studios are very excited that we get to keep working on it. Spider-Man is a powerful icon and hero whose story crosses all ages and audiences around the globe. He also happens to be the only hero with the superpower to cross cinematic universes, so as Sony continues to develop their own Spidey-verse you never know what surprises the future might hold.” Sony Chief Communications Officer Robert Lawson “We have had a great collaboration over the last four years, and our mutual desire to continue was equal to that of the many fans We are delighted to be moving forward together.” The film, which will feature Tom Holland reprising his role as Spider-Man, will once again be produced by Kevin Feige. It is expected for release in July of 2021.
by Matthew Yapp The original Super Mario Maker hit Wii U's everywhere way back in 2015, and straight away it was a smashing success. The game offered players complete free reign to be as over-the-top and creative as they wanted in level design, as well as an ability to share their courses online with players across the globe. This game was a high point in the Wii U’s library and now, four years later, its successor has hit the Switch. While the core mechanics and ideas of the original game have remained the same, there have certainly been some tweaks that set this sequel apart. That being said, does Super Mario Maker 2 live up the excellence of its predecessor?
Welcome to this week’s episode of How It’s Played! This week, we are discussing Apple’s announcement of the game streaming service. How will this service compete with the already crowded market? Is this another example of Apple creating a monopoly? All of this and more on this week’s episode of How It’s Played.
Welcome to Cryptidbits, the podcast all about finding the truth behind the legends that society hides. On this April Fool’s special, we discuss the legends surrounding Indiana. Was Matt really saved by a mud mermaid? Is there a legendary turtle in the state? Find out all this and more on this episode of Cryptidbits!
The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte’s editorial board.
by Matthew Yapp The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte’s editorial board. This week we got our first glimpse into the 8th generation of Pokémon. Fans have been eagerly awaiting news since the new games were announced to be in development last year. This will be the first mainline Pokémon game on a console and fans are expecting quite a bit. That’s why people were thrilled not just to get a look at the new Galar region, but also to see the official art work for generation eight’s starter Pokémon. That being said, there are already a lot of opinions about the three newest additions to the Pokédex. That is why, at this point, it only makes sense to pit them against the other generations' starter Pokémon. Since we are unsure how these three will fare competitively, the rankings will be based on appearance.
by Matthew Yapp
Welcome to this week’s episode of Input 2! We discuss Fox’s Rent Live and how it compares to its movie and stage predecessors. How did this movie handle the topics of AIDs and LGBT representation? Find out this and more on this week’s episode of Input 2!
Love is in the air as we approach the anniversary of everyone’s favorite massacre. That’s right Valentine’s Day. A day to celebrate love, as if it wasn’t already held to a high enough regard in our society. While today may be many peoples favorite holiday and a prime opportunity to cuddle up with their significant other, for many queer people it’s not quite as enamoring.
by Matthew Yapp Love is in the air as we approach the anniversary of everyone’s favorite massacre. That’s right Valentine’s Day. A day to celebrate love, as if it wasn’t already held to a high enough regard in our society. While today may be many peoples favorite holiday and a prime opportunity to cuddle up with their significant other, for many queer people it’s not quite as enamoring. For a lot of queer youth, they spent their early years in the closet, unable to truly celebrate love on a day centered around it. Even people who are out often find trouble participating seeing as how it’s fairly common for people to run into opposition when being romantic as a queer person. But hey, even if queer people can’t always celebrate in the same way everyone else does at least they can go with a classic Netflix and chill and watch some endearing gay movie, right? Actually, as you’ve probably guessed from my sarcastic set-up, that’s not the case either. Whether it be uncomfortable age gaps or the fact that many of these LGBTQ movies really only focus on white, cisgender, gay men queer love stories can run into quite a few issues. Perhaps the biggest problem they run into though is they get really depressing. I mean, debatably the most popular queer love story of all time is Brokeback Mountain, which will make you weep just thinking about it. “Bury your gays” is a trope that has dominated pop culture for quite some time now. What it means is that movies have started creating queer characters and love plots, but they always end in death. While representation is fantastic, it doesn’t always feel amazing to have the love stories that you relate with end in tragedy over and over again. Now a major reason behind this is many of the current queer writers and filmmakers grew up in a less accepting world and thus writing from their own experience made their stories a bit darker. So yes, while it is very realistic that a lot of queer love of the past and even present can be riddled with tragedy, you don’t always want to see it on the big screen. Sometimes you want to just sit back and watch a cheesy romcom that has characters like you in it. With all these issues in mind, I’ve set out to create the perfect queer Valentine’s movie list all available to stream online right now either on Hulu, Netflix, or Amazon. Hopefully these movies will be perfect for you to cuddle up with everyone you love and won’t make you cry since they don’t end with a depressing long shot of sad Timothée Chalamet that will break your heart (he’s a good boy, he deserved better).
No one asked for it, no one expected it, but here it is anyways. On Jan. 24 at midnight, with no warning, Weezer ambushed listeners with a cover album titled Weezer (The Teal Album). Looking at the cover you can tell the band was going for a throwback vibe seeing as everything about their looks screams 80’s, and the track list is no different.
by Matthew Yapp No one asked for it, no one expected it, but here it is anyways. On Jan. 24 at midnight, with no warning, Weezer ambushed listeners with a cover album titled Weezer (The Teal Album). Looking at the cover you can tell the band was going for a throwback vibe seeing as everything about their looks screams 80’s, and the track list is no different. This all started back in September of 2018 when the band released a cover of Toto’s 1983 hit Africa with the help of “Weird Al” Yankovic. After that cover skyrocketed in popularity, it seems the band wanted to drop a few more reimagining of past hits, likely to build up a bit of hype before they release Weezer (The Black Album) on March 1. However, while social media is abuzz discussing how unexpected it is to hear the band covering 90s rap and 80s pop, the question stands: is the album any good?
Female employees regularly belittled at staff meetings. Women promised pay raises and promotions that were given to male coworkers. Women made fun of and sexually objectified. According to a lawsuit filed in early November, these and other more egregious claims are being brought against Riot Games in a class action suit alleging the company and it’s top management created a workplace environment which fosters a culture of sexism and discrimination toward women.