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'The Simpsons' Made a Half-Assed Attempt to Tackle Its Apu Controversy

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It's not hard to understand why The Simpsons’ character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon has been the subject of discussion about racist TV stereotypes for quite some time. Apu's characterization—Hank Azaria's silly accent, cheap gags about many-armed gods, and lazy punchlines about out-of-date convenience store food—has remained consistently crass despite evolving expectations for South Asian characters on screen.

But Sunday night's episode finally saw The Simpsons’ writers make an effort to address the controversy. It arrived, feebly and tangentially, when Marge and Lisa talked about why a book promoting racist stereotypes Marge had once enjoyed as a girl was now considered offensive. Lisa stares directly at viewers and says: "Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?" She then looks at a bedside photo of Apu signed, "Don’t have a cow. Apu."

The segment feels like a dismissive and cowardly shrug, as if to say, "your problem, not ours." It shouldn’t have been beyond the current writing staff to subvert this part of the show’s legacy with a little imagination and wit. Instead, the whole problem is wished away on political correctness.

It certainly didn’t impress comedian Hari Kondabolu, who made a thoughtful documentary addressing the longstanding issue in 2017. On Monday, Kondabolu described the strange and insipid acknowledgement of the Apu issue as "sad." He tweeted, "The Simpsons' response tonight is not a jab at me, but at what many of us consider progress."

As others have pointed out, The Simpsons contains quite a few other stale cultural clichés: Willie the angry Scotsman, Fat Tony the Italian mob boss, and Cookie Kwan the fiercely competitive Asian realtor. Based on the latest episode, the writers do not seem inclined to do anything other than rinse and repeat, blaming the audience for changing on them.

Follow Adam Forrest on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.


Disastrous Calving Season Puts Atlantic’s Right Whales in Serious Jeopardy

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This year is shaping up to be yet another rough year for large mammals on the brink of extinction. In March, the last male northern white rhino died, reducing that species to just two females. And now, for the first time ever, the North Atlantic right whales’ calving season has produced no babies—and this is after nearly 20 of the whales died off the East Coast in recent months.

But while this development pushes these highly-endangered animals closer to the edge, scientists believe they’re not a lost cause—yet.

“We’re not giving up on these whales,” Dr. Moira Brown says of the 450 right whales that still call the North Atlantic home. Brown, a research scientist for Boston’s New England Aquarium and Campobello, New Brunswick’s Canadian Whale Institute (CWI), acknowledged that the whales are facing a dire situation.

“If we keep going the way we’re going...the species could become reproductively extinct in less than 25 years.”

Right whale calves are typically born between December and March, off the coast of Georgia and Florida. This year’s disastrous calving season is just the latest species-threatening development for the whales. As VICE Canada reported last summer, these giant creatures, which run as long as 18 metres, keep turning up dead. Between June 2017 and January 2018, 18 deceased whales were found. To make matter worse, “Last year we lost two known breeding females and two that were on the cusp,” said Brown, who explained that only around 100 potential right whale mothers are currently swimming off the eastern shore of North America.

“This is the real key number for perpetuating the species.”

Normally an average of 17 calves are born a year, while just under four whales die. But the last few years have been anything but normal for the whales.

Dr. Charles Greene, director of the ocean resources and ecosystems program at Cornell University, explained that due to warming ocean waters impacting their favourite food, a zooplankton known as Calanus finmarchicus, the whales have shifted where they dine.

“We think the right whales are abandoning their traditional foraging grounds in the Gulf of Maine and going up into Canada,” he told VICE.

Specifically, they’ve been turning up in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, where Greene says “They don’t have all the protections that they have in the Gulf of Maine,” since right whales haven’t historically lived there in large numbers.

Results from the nine necropsies that scientists were able to perform showed that blunt force trauma, likely due to ship strikes, killed six, while another three died due to entanglement with fishing gear.

While there’s little mystery around what’s killing adult whales, the lack of calves is a different story. “That surprises me,” said Greene.

He suspects that the whales’ food supply is playing a role, something Brown agrees with.

“In wild animals, it’s not uncommon for females to skip a year of reproduction if there’s no good food availability,” he said. Greene explained that while the whales’ new feeding grounds should be full of the zooplankton they love to eat, he’s yet to see any data that can confirm or deny that thesis.

Increased encounters with fishing gear may also be playing a role in the lack of calves, “Females that have been entangled tend to have a lower reproductive output,” said Brown.

While we can’t fatten up potential mom right whales, we can take steps to reduce their interactions with humans. “The mortality that we’re seeing is due to human activity; we need to get ropes and ships out of their way and then they stand a good chance,” said Brown.

The government of Canada agrees. Since last summer, it’s been rolling out measures, mostly focused on the snow crab industry, to help the whales. During a March 28 press conference—where further action including new speed restrictions, opening and closing the snow crab season earlier and increasing whale surveillance were announced—Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, said: “We don’t think it’s too late. We think that if don’t act in a very robust way, we’ll set on course a very tragic outcome.”

Avoiding that outcome won’t be easy but Brown believes it’s possible, especially since Canada’s fishing and shipping industries are largely supportive of the whales. “They are engaged in trying to solve this problem and they are willing to take measures,” she said, adding that so far this year, the CWI has been asked by nine local fishing associations to give presentations to their members on the whales.

While Greene is more reserved about the whales’ future, he is pleased with what the Canadian government has proposed.

“It was much more than I was expecting,” he said, although he also voiced caution. “If feeding conditions are good up in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence and we can reduce these mortality rates, then right whales should be able to recover.”

'Game of Thrones' Reportedly Spent 55 Days Filming One Epic Battle Scene

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The crew on Game of Thrones is going above and beyond to bring fans an epic, spoiler-free final season. The show is reportedly shooting multiple decoy endings and giving actors earpieces instead of scripts for their lines. Now it looks like there’s another reason we won’t get any new episodes until 2019: The show spent a whopping 55 days shooting a single battle scene, Watchers on the Wall reports.

According to the GoT fan site, assistant director Jonathan Quinlan let the info slip in a since-deleted post on Instagram. He shared a photo of a thank you note from "The Producer Types"—presumably David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and company—in which they tipped their hats to the cast and crew "for enduring 55 straight nights" of taping for just one presumably devastating battle scene.

"When tens of millions of people around the world watch this episode a year from now, they won’t know how hard you worked," the note reads. "They won’t care how tired you were or how tough it was to do your job in sub-freezing temperatures. They’ll just understand that they’re watching something that’s never been done before."

According to Indiewire, the only scene that rivals the season eight battle came in season six's bloody "Battle of the Bastards," which was shot over 25 days—nothing compared to the roughly two months the recent shoot reportedly took. And as Quinlan tells it, all that time the crew put in was worth it.

"You'll never again see anything like it," he wrote on Instagram.

It's not clear exactly what (or who) is going down in the colossal brawl, but it's presumably the reason most of the cast cried their eyes out after the final table read. We're just happy no one had to call the fire department this time around.

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Follow Drew Schwartz on Twitter.

Related: Game of Thrones Is Trash

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

How Video Games Cast Actors Just Like Movies Do

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Note: while reading this article you might be like, "hmm was this author flown to this interview by the makers of Far Cry 5?" Well yes, and they fed me beer and I had a very nice time, but also: the blurring of lines between games and film is something I find pretty interesting.

Back in 1983 an Atari game was released featuring the first voice over in a video game. The game was called Sinistar and included the digitised voice of a radio personality named John Doremus booming out phrases like “I am Sinistar! Run coward!” And although this now seems a bit quaint, it came at a time when digital voice compression cost around US$1,000 per word.

Fast-forward to 2018 and video games feature not only voices, but actual performances by actors. This has been a feat achieved via motion capture technology, but it’s also had a lot to do with games companies trying to emulate the conventions of film. Modern games are now immersive worlds populated by nuanced characters motivated by complex backstories. In 2018, a game’s narrative is just as important as it’s playability, so leading actors like Samuel L. Jackson, Ellen Page, and Elijah Wood are cast in video games, officiating the convergence between gaming and cinema.

But these changes have also led to a shift in expectations. Games can no longer get away with hammy acting, and so getting the casting right is serious business—a point made apparent with the release of Ubisoft’s Far Cry 5.

You might be familiar with the franchise. Far Cry puts players in wilderness locations and asks them to fight their way out, which is exactly the set up in the fifth instalment. Far Cry 5 revolves around a failed police mission to arrest the leader of a doomsday cult, a self-professed incarnation of Christ who calls himself the Father. You then have to fight your way out of the group's Montana compound, while hopefully re-arresting the leader.

“And everything hinged on casting the right bad guy,” explains the game’s executive producer, Dan Hay. “In order to build a believable cult, we needed a believable cult leader.”

Another scene from the game

Dan explains the difficulty was the Father isn’t an evil antagonist in the traditional sense, but instead someone who believes his moral transgressions are justified by a higher purpose. And in this way the Father incorporates a medley of personality traits including, as Dan points out, charisma.

“I’ve never been in a cult,” says Dan. “And what I really struggle with is the idea that someone could convince me to join their cult. I just rarely find anyone that charismatic, so finding an actor who felt convincing enough in that way was always going to be hard.”

Dan describes how their team cycled through hundreds of casting applications without luck. Other characters were cast easily, while the Father’s role stayed vacant. “And then people were like, ‘Are we going to get the father? When are you going to get the father?'. And I was like ‘Yeah, he’s coming, don't worry, it's going to be good, it's going to be fine.’ And we were kind of just thinking, 'Are we in trouble?'”

Finally, Dan describes a Canadian actor by the name of Greg Bryk sending in an audition reel who immediately had potential. “Greg’s got a very interesting way of communicating and he doesn't blink a lot, and within 30 seconds I was like, 'I absolutely, unequivocally believe this guy could convince me to be in this cult.’”

So how does an actor’s performance get digitised? As Dan explains the process involved flying Greg to Ubisoft’s Toronto mocap (motion capture) facility, and covering every part of his body with markers, then getting him to act out the game’s sequences while surrounded by cameras. In this way, the markers’ movements were measured, turning Greg’s performance into a set of ones and zeros.

“Greg flared his nostrils a lot and he used to do some really strange things with his mouth, explains Dan. “So we had to record all that data and give it to some really talented animators and say, 'Okay, now turn this into platinum.'”

Later, after meeting with Dan, we’re shown a promotional video. It’s a vignette from the game, featuring the Father baptising his followers in a stream. We watch a young woman wander in up to her knees, and the Father dunking her backyards before going into a kind of trance. By the time he snaps out of the trance, minutes have passed and the Father finds that he’s accidently drowned his follower. Without a pause, the Father lifts his hands up high and the young woman’s body drifts away with the current.

And yes, it’s a video game, but it feels just like a moment in a film.

Far Cry 5 is out now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows

This article originally appeared on VICE AU.

Inside ICE's Biggest, Most Aggressive Raid Under Trump

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Last Thursday morning in rural Tennessee, Esperanza’s husband set off for another day of work at the nearby meatpacking plant, where he’d been stably employed the past eight years. But within hours he called her, alerting her that this day was different—he wouldn't be coming home.

“He told me immigration had arrived,” recalled Esperanza, a mother of two young US citizen children who migrated with her husband to the US more than 15 years ago from Mexico. (She requested I use a pseudonym for her because she and her husband are undocumented.) “I felt the world crumble at my feet.”

Esperanza’s husband is among 97 immigrants now facing deportation after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided the plant in Bean Station, Tennessee, last week, in what immigration experts say is the largest workplace immigration sweep in a decade. Now, as the community reels with shock and families struggle to connect with their detained relatives, new details are arising about ICE’s action, which is unprecedented even for the Trump administration.

During the raid, ICE agents accompanied the IRS Criminal Investigation Division and the Tennessee Highway Patrol to the Bean Station plant, ICE spokeswoman Tamara Spicer said in an email. They were executing a federal search warrant on the grounds they believed the company’s owner was evading taxes and hiring workers without authorization. Spicer said they encountered 97 individuals who are subject to removal from the United States, including 11 facing criminal charges. Sixty-five of the 97 are being held in detention, while the other 32 have been released while they face deportation proceedings.



But as advocates have begun interviewing people picked up in the raids, they’ve found that not only were undocumented workers arrested—so were people with work visas, since ICE did a sweep of everyone inside. Stephanie Teatro, co-executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, who has been providing support for the workers and their families, said the employees reported that police had surrounded the building and even flown a helicopter overhead.

“The workers in all of their accounts talk about how ICE just stormed the building—one woman was cleaning the hallways when ICE said, ‘Put up your hands,’” said Teatro. “ICE rounded up everyone without asking their names or immigration status and put them onto a vehicle… Some people were handcuffed or zip-tied.”

Jessie Hahn, labor and employment policy attorney for the National Immigration Law Center, told me her organization was exploring whether ICE had conducted its enforcement lawfully. “They arrested everyone without asking anyone about anything,” she said. “You have to have a reasonable suspicion that someone is unlawfully here to arrest them, and it can’t just be because someone is Latino and working at a certain worksite.”

Several of the people arrested, Hahn continued, were held in ICE custody for several hours despite having work authorization. “Just because the employer was doing bad things doesn’t mean they can go in and arrest everyone,” she said.

Spicer responded that those who could prove their lawful status “may have been questioned but not arrested” as “determined on a case-by-case basis.” She declined to comment on further details about the arrests.

One other unusual aspect of the Bean Station raid was the use of the military’s National Guard armory building, said Nashville-based immigration attorney Andrew Free. ICE agents planned and staged their enforcement at the armory and then brought immigrants there for questioning, which Free said was concerning since it insinuated that the military supported the raid.

“This is different and new,” said Free of the use of National Guard space, on the same week that Donald Trump announced the deployment of National Guard troops to the border.

Spicer told me that the “National Guard had no involvement in this law enforcement action” and that “the building was used to process the aliens because it was deemed the most appropriate government building to support the law enforcement action.”

While the Trump administration has stepped up workplace enforcement this year, this action is by far the most robust. Previously ICE has targeted employers by inspecting their I-9 forms, which document workers’ eligibility, and has apprehended only those individuals agents came into contact with who lacked work authorization. One of the largest such sweeps was of 98 7-Eleven convenience stores, which led to 21 arrests.

To Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for stricter immigration laws, the meatpacking plant raid is hopefully just the beginning of many workplace crackdowns. “I’m looking for more worksite enforcement,” said Krikorian. “You need to go after both employers and illegal workers not just for policy reasons but for political reasons, so it’s clear this is not just about rounding up dishwashers and throwing them out of the country but that the government is targeting the facilitators… going after places where the owners are clearly lawbreakers.”

He said the administration would have begun such large-scale actions earlier, but that ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit—which conducts investigations ranging from human and drug trafficking to immigration violations—had been slow to focus on this work. Spicer did not respond to my request for comment on this matter.

The families of those picked up in Bean Station, however, are begging immigration hardliners to understand their commitment to the US, even if they’re undocumented.

“We want to ask all the people that they listen to us, that they please don't judge us because we wanted a better life for us and our families,” said Esperanza, who started a group called Todos Somos Uno—“All Are One”—and a hashtag “I’m somebody” to spread awareness of their struggle.

Esperanza said she’s been moved by the incredible local support, which includes an outpouring of donations and volunteers at Morristown’s St. Patrick’s Church, which the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition helped transform to a haven for the families. “There’s a lot of fear in the community but at the same time a lot of strength and unity… people of different colors and backgrounds are helping us,” she said. “But to those who judge us please learn that we’re not the criminals we’re part of the community. We love the community and this country a lot.”

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Follow Meredith Hoffman on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

This Rape-Revenge Horror Film Is Still Being Discussed 40 Years Later

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Before it was repackaged in 1980 as I Spit on Your Grave, Meir Zarchi’s infamous 1978 film was originally titled Day of the Woman. Rife with gore, nudity, and a prolonged depiction of sexual violence that monopolizes some 30 minutes of 108-minute runtime, the rape-revenge horror film was met with unanimous derision upon its re-release: Siskel and Ebert dubbed it the “worst film” of the year; it was censored in the UK, becoming a poster-child for the infamous “Video Nasties” list of banned films; and feminist groups, in the wake of the record-breaking marches for the Equal Rights Amendment and Take Back the Night, protested the film outside of movie theaters.

Over the years, I Spit on Your Grave has been subject to a number of reinterpretations. In 2007, critic Michael Kaminski argued his case in the article, “Is I Spit on Your Grave Really a Misunderstood Feminist Film?” In 2011, British radical feminist Julie Bindel, who picketed the film when it came out, took to the Guardian with her essay, “I was wrong about I Spit on Your Grave.” What’s inarguable is how uniquely pertinent the film is to the present moment: #MeToo has created a massive shift towards hearing victims of rape and sexual intimidation and vilifying the perpetrators, and justice is finally beginning to seem within reach. What’s more, 40 years after Day of the Woman’s debut, this year Zarchi returns to the story of Manhattan-based writer Jennifer Hills (Camille Keaton) and her revenge on the four men who rape her and leave her for dead in the woods outside of a rural cabin. I Spit on Your Grave: Déjà Vu, which is shot but has yet to be picked up for distribution, reunites Keaton with Zarchi—the two were married in 1979, and divorced in 1982—for the first Zarchi-helmed sequel since the original.

At the end of March, David Maguire debuted his deep dive into the making and mythos of I Spit on Your Grave via Columbia University’s Wallflower Press imprint. In the book, the UK-based writer and festival programmer delves deeply into the film’s production, storied past, and the ongoing debates surrounding it. I called Maguire to talk about what makes I Spit on Your Grave a pinnacle of the rape-revenge genre, and why it's still being talked about today.

VICE: Outside of the groundbreakingly negative feedback I Spit on Your Grave (ISOYG) received, what were some of the ways it was a pioneering film?
David Maguire: ISOYG addresses a problem that many rape-revenge films simply fail to grasp, or choose not to; i.e., the inability to truly show the horrific suffering that results from rape and sexual violence. Having us identify with Jennifer while she is raped is crucial to Meir Zarchi’s pro-feminist agenda. While Keaton is an attractive woman, it is difficult to interpret the film as salacious. Zarchi initially distances the viewer from the attacks by using master shots to show the four men pinning her down while she is hidden in the grass.

Subverting the usual cinematic technique of close-ups of the terrified victim staring up at the camera—making the viewer complicit in the attack—Zarchi instead includes close-ups of the rapists, forcing the viewer into Jennifer’s or the victim’s shoes. Zarchi also deliberately rejects the use of non-diegetic music in the film which gives it an almost documentary-realism feel, heightening the intensity of scenes such as Jennifer’s protracted rape.

It can also be argued that the film unambiguously repudiates many common myths surrounding male sexual violence, i.e., that women enjoy rape, that no means yes, that women encourage assault by their provocative clothes or behavior, that most rapes are committed by strangers, and that such attacks are motivated by men’s uncontrollable sexual urges. Rape-revenge films had never really explored such aspects before, and what’s interesting is that Zarchi doesn’t offer his attackers any excuses for their actions; our sympathy throughout lies with Jennifer. And her revenge exposes them for the puny, women-hating, pathetic men that they are.

You mentioned the pro-feminist message Zarchi had in mind while making the film. What can you tell us about his intent?
Although ISOYG was released in 1978, Jennifer Hills effectively first staggered into Meir Zarchi’s life in 1974, when he discovered a naked woman, a rape victim, in Goose Pond Park, Jamaica Hills, New York. He took her to a local police station but has said that he was horrified at the treatment she received there, and felt that she was being raped all over again. If this is true, then it does go some way to explaining why Zarchi films his rape sequence as brutally as he does: to hammer home the appalling brutality of the act.

What about Camille Keaton, the actress who played Jennifer? What was her reaction to the film’s content, and what is her opinion of the film today?
I can’t answer regarding what Camille’s reaction to the content was. I did try to interview her but was unsuccessful, although I did get the chance to briefly chat with her last year when she came to the Festival of Fantastic Films in Manchester, UK. During a Q&A, she did say, “I had some issues,” when quizzed about the content of the film. She also said that she proudly embraces the film, because a rape victim had approached her at a fan convention once and told her what a positive difference the film had made in her life.

Talk to me about the problematic ways in which ISOYG represents sexual violence and its female protagonist.
It is easy to understand why many struggle with ISOYG’s almost perverse split between exploitation cinema and documentary realism. The amount of screen time Zarchi devotes to the degradation of his protagonist is what has divided most critics, and is what still makes the sequence difficult to watch today, despite our sensibilities having been eroded by the likes of contemporary horror films and torture porn.

It is a tenuous notion that a woman who has just been so viciously gang-raped would go to such lengths—nudity, seduction—to get her revenge. In this respect, the female empowerment angle is difficult to justify and it is an issue that has dogged other equally controversial films, e.g., Wes Craven argued that he was condemning screen violence in The Last House on the Left, but the audience still finds itself cheering as the despicable degenerates get their just desserts.

Despite these arguments against it, cases have been made that ISOYG is a feminist film, or that it at least has aspects of a feminist message. For example, British feminist Julie Bindel, who picketed the film when it came out, walked back some of her misgivings about it in the 2011 article “I was wrong about I Spit on Your Grave” (The Guardian). In what ways, if at all, do you think ISOYG is a feminist film?
For me, by adopting the woman’s own viewpoint as she is violated, the film clearly marks Jennifer as a victim who merits our sympathy and compassion; in doing so, Zarchi destroyed the then-established argument that the ‘cinematic look’ was intrinsically male. Similarly, Jennifer—like countless other female protagonists of the rape-revenge genre—is not punished at the film’s end.

Despite being condemned as misogynistic upon its release, the film does clearly reflect the same concerns that second-wave feminism exposed regarding male attitudes towards the opposite sex, and their fear of women’s increasing sexuality and freedom. For instance, the yokels’ low opinion of women is evidenced in comments such as, “One day I’m gonna go to New York and fuck all the broads there,” [comments about] Jennifer’s “damn sexy legs,” and her as lying around in a bikini “like bait.” Once she comes into their lives, she cannot escape their constant catcalls and wolf-whistles, a damning critical representation of male attitudes towards beautiful women.

What place do you feel the film occupies in the #MeToo movement?
Jennifer is effectively harassed for the sole reason that she is a young, beautiful, independent, intelligent career woman—and for this “crime” she is subjected to the most appalling degradation and destruction of her psychical and mental self by men who feel threatened by her. In successfully enacting revenge on those of who have wronged her, it is not entirely surprising that the film has such a strong female following, as it allows a woman, on screen, to redress the balance, albeit using violence. While it is correct that ISOYG and the rape-revenge genre have been responsible for putting images of sexual violence and intimidation towards women up on celluloid, they have also conversely provided an opportunity for identification with a fantasy of strong female empowerment.

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This article originally appeared on VICE US.

How Dating Works When You're Living with Blindness

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Navigating the dating world isn’t easy, even with my guide dog.

To get it out of the way, I’m blind. I’m a 24-year-old YouTuber and motivational speaker living in Los Angeles. Not only am I super-single, I also don’t experience physical attraction the same way most people do.

I lost most of my vision due to retinitis pigmentosa back in 2008, when I was just 14 years old. Like many others my age, that was when I became interested in dating. The same year, I was told by a male classmate that “No man would ever marry a blind girl.” His explanation? “Marrying a blind girl is like buying something you know is already broken, and no man is stupid enough to do that.” You can imagine his surprise when, a few months later, I met my first boyfriend.

When we first met at a music studio, I remember staring in the direction of his voice and straining my eyes. I was willing them to see what he looked like.

Shockingly, I had no luck. But that didn’t matter: I knew he was cute. I could hear it in his voice and feel it in his confidence. I could even smell it… Yup, smell it. Although it didn’t last more than eight months before a drama and tear-filled breakup in his parents basement, I learned a lot from that relationship. He taught me that unconditional love is a very real thing that everyone deserves, that I am whole and good enough as I am, and that we all have flaws—some just aren’t as apparent as others.

Ten years later, after a handful of boyfriends and breakups, a laundry list of second and third dates with no fourths, and another relationship that lasted over two years, I’d like to think I’m a little wiser for my experiences.

[Photo description: A woman is laying down in bed, her head is on the pillow. She is speaking on the phone. She holds the receiver in her right hand. And she is using her left hand to play with her necklace, which has a heart charm. There are abstract, rectangular rays radiating from the phone. The background is black and the image is very colorful.]

So, what’s the biggest misconception about dating with blindness? That blind people can’t be as superficial as the sighted. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say things like, “Since you can’t see who you date, you must only date someone for who they are.” Blind people sure are placed on a pedestal when it comes to not being shallow or judgmental!

I’m like anyone: I have preferences when it comes to the physical aspects of the person I’m dating, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I prefer men who are between 5’6” and 5’11”, slim but muscular builds, with minimal body or facial hair, and a good sense of style. My friends refer to the men I date as fitting the “Hollister model” type. And when it comes to what I don’t like, it’s basically the opposite: man buns and long hair, shaved heads, and super tall or broad builds.

Consciously or unconsciously, we all have certain things we look for in a partner’s appearance, and I do experience physical attraction. It’s just not in the same way as sighted people. The things I am attracted to are all things you can experience with your other senses, too, not just sight. Things like skin or hair color don’t matter to me because I can’t see them, but smell and speech do.

(Of course, I definitely only date people who check all the right boxes in terms of personality, lifestyle, and all those other good things—I made a video on my YouTube channel awhile back to explain more of the things I’m attracted to.)

Before you start to picture that scene from Family Guy where the blind girl feels Rocky from Mask’s face, let me stop you and clarify that generally, most blind people do not feel faces. I myself know a lot of blind people, and not one of them does this! It’s one of the more annoying stereotypes that is perpetuated. For that, we can thank Helen Keller.

...Just kidding. But the whole face-feeling stereotype did start with her. In the case of people who have multiple disabilities, it can make sense to feel a close friend or family member’s face to understand their emotions and to help communicate more effectively. For high-functioning blind people like me, this generally isn’t something we need or even want to do. Feeling individual facial features with zero context to the rest of the face—let alone the person—doesn’t help me put together an “image” of someone’s face. (And I’ve been asked, including by my first boyfriend’s grandmother. Let me assure you, it was far worse than saying no would have been.) Basically what I’m saying is, if we ever meet or go on a date, please don’t ask me to feel your face.

I do just fine learning about someone by spending time with them. Take my last boyfriend, for instance: I learned that he didn’t have any facial hair the first time we kissed, but I knew that he was fit long beforehand. He talked all about his love for sports and his workout routine. When I grabbed his left arm for sighted guide, a.k.a., how you properly guide a blind person, my hypothesis was confirmed: He was pretty well worked-out. Of course, I can also always have my friends or family describe someone’s physical appearance to me, which can be helpful, too.

On the other hand, out of sight, out of mind? It’s a real thing—this blind girl is confirming it. Since I can’t feel an instant physical attraction to someone through their looks, see their face on Skype, or stalk their Instagram feed, I need someone in the flesh or I will lose my attraction to them. Even after being together for more than two years with my last boyfriend, I had to be in his physical presence, talking to him, holding his hand, feeling his energy, before I even felt a desire to kiss him hello. A long-distance relationship would never work for me, which is unfortunate, because I travel a lot for work… Maybe that’s why I’m single?

The guys I date don’t always understand why I don’t like to kiss on the first date, or why they might have to “take it slow.” They won’t all be happy with the fact that they’ll always have to be the designated-driver, or we’ll need to get an Uber, because I can’t drive. They may not be comfortable stepping into the role of "mirror" and telling me honestly when I don’t look good. Basically, being blind is a big filter for jerks.

However, of all the things I’ve learned in my ten years of dating with a disability, the most important is that you have to be careful. Most people don’t think about the fact that women with disabilities are three times more likely to experience sexual or physical assault in their lifetimes. Society tends to desexualize disability, but we’re more at-risk when it comes to sexual violence and being in abusive relationships.

For this reason and others, I try to take things at my own pace. But that’s just me—I face the same challenges of dating as everyone else, plus a few extras. I believe that everyone should have the freedom to do what they want with their time and body, whether it’s waiting for marriage, having casual sex, kissing on the first date, or on the tenth. Do what makes you feel comfortable, but do whatever makes you feel safe first.

I’ve learned to accept the fact that it won’t be easy. There are the right people for right times, and the right people for the wrong ones. We all have strengths and weaknesses. We all give and take. That’s why the the best relationships are partnerships. If you’ll put up with the fact that I can’t drive and take my time when it comes to the intimate things, I’ll accept your stinky feet, and maybe even your snoring.

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This article originally appeared on VICE US.

What Is a 'White Girl'?

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Hilton Als' White Girls is not about white girls. Sure, they feature in the American writer's 2013 book – a collection of 13 essays covering fiction, cultural commentary and memoir – but they aren't the focus. Instead, Als uses the "white girl" as a handy device to discuss race, gender and sexuality.

For instance, in one essay, Als talks of black gay men who jokingly identify as white girls – the exact opposite of who they are – because it gives them a sense of freedom. In others, he turns the lens onto performers whose careers have been tied to race in some way: in "White Noise", Eminem earns the title of "white girl" because of his relationship with his mother; in "Michael", Michael Jackson is given the moniker because of his inability to be at one with his true identity.

It's an enlightening, thoughtful rumination on modern society, and a book you should read now it's had its UK release, via Penguin.

Ahead of that release, I scheduled an interview with Als – who, it turns out, has one of those reassuring voices which convinces you he's an authority on just about everything. So while we discussed writing about famous people, race and self-definition, naturally I needed his opinion on one of the most polarising white women of today: Kylie Jenner.

VICE: What, to you, is a "white girl"?
Hilton Als: It wasn’t defined by gender. A lot of the book really has to do with queerness in one way or another. Like, Truman Capote identifies as a white girl, or wanted to be a girl [which is discussed in the essay "The Women"], and then someone like Eminem – whose mother over-identifies with him – would be considered such by his mother because she has that Münchausen syndrome, where you think someone is ill but you're actually the ill person. I wanted to do a blanket title to describe the many different ways in which race and gender play out with each other under the rubric of "white girl".

Reading the book on the bus got me a few weird looks, and a lot of people online have spoken about the hostility they faced when reading Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race on the Tube. Why is "white" so loaded?
If it's a black person reading this book on the subway or wherever, it’s that you’re reversing the power and taking the power back from them. You’re reversing expectations in some way. You’re saying, as a black person, that you’re allowed. Not only allowed, but you're reading a book called White Girls. It’s a form of power and it’s a form of subversion. If they were able for centuries to have paintings or pubs called "The Black Boy", or whatever, then why can't we have White Girls?

Was it intentionally provocative?
When I used to write and work in fashion, they often referred to the black women backstage as the "black girls", and I never understood why they didn't say "white girls". I was interested in taking these words that were pretty loaded, or not thought about really at all, as monikers for other people.

In my family, if I met Margaret Thatcher she would be a white girl to them: "This white girl, X, came to see us." I wanted to sort of take words that the powerless would use to describe power, and really take the power away from those words – from both sides, black and white.

So you spoke about the idea of the white girl representing the ability to be themselves. Then you’ve got white women, like Kylie Jenner, who are accused of cultural appropriation, of not being themselves – so what’s going on there?
Good question. Because there’s been a history of cultural appropriation, and it involves violence and it involves product, so when blackness is ripped off and then commodified and then made a lot of money on, there is some resentment about that.

Why do they do it?
[Laughs] I guess because they can afford it, right? They can buy it. It goes back to the issue of commodification, and I think it's very annoying for people to see it. It's a kind of minstrelsy. They're taking blackness and making a show of it, as opposed to really understanding anything about the history of anything. If they did understand the history of it, they wouldn’t do it and wouldn’t try to take it away and make it their own thing. You would respect it, observe it, absorb it intellectually and emotionally. If I paid attention to [Kylie Jenner], I would be annoyed too.

Some of the subjects in the book are living – were you worried what they would think? Say, if Eminem got hold of the book and was like, 'What?'
I wasn't. That’s the way you're free, isn't it? You’re writing and that’s where your freedom is. Did you see the Dave Chappelle [Netflix] special? It's really great. He says, pointing to the stage, "Everything up here is about freedom. And everything is funny until it happens to you," which I thought was brilliant. So I feel that one is socialised to be careful in so many ways, but what about living in your work and really feeling free? That’s where it’s supposed to happen.

Let's talk about your "Michael" essay. Do you think there are there any current performers who are blurring race and gender in the same way Michael Jackson did?
I think, if there are, they're doing it way more consciously. Michael was very complex because he’s not saying who he is – he tried to visually represent a different self to the self that we knew. I think there are performers nowadays who are very healthy in terms of telling us or giving us some idea of who they are.

Someone like Rihanna is really interesting in terms of fluidity of representation and songwriting. I think Frank Ocean is sort of giving us more information about himself. Even with Lemonade, Beyoncé was trying to make or remake this idea of a pop star as not one thing. There’s something really amazing about this kind of self-definition.

The subjects in the book are all performers in one way or another – writers and musicians – so they have an outlet to express themselves. What about your average queer person?
Well, I think one of the things that's happening that's so profound is this new era of naming yourself. It's been a very interesting, eye-opening experience to meet students I teach at Columbia who want to be identified as "they" – who don’t want gender-specific names – and I think it’s a new era, really, of self-definition as opposed to empirical definition. So I think the book in some way helps contribute to that argument. They can name themselves – they're not really dependent on me, for instance, to tell the world who they are.

In black culture, sexuality isn't very openly discussed. Did using the guise of the white girl help you write about it more freely?
No. I don't think I was hiding behind that. It’s funny, because I was watching Rosie Perez talk about [black sexuality]. She said: "If you're still fly and your hair looks good and you don’t get fat for those roles, you’re not going to get the part." It’s sad to me that there’s still that weird fetishisation of the mammy in some way. In order to be sexual you have to be benign and overwhelming in some way.

Talking of the "mammy", you start the essay "Gone with the Wind" by talking about black people who exist in majority white spaces "performing the role of a black person". Tell me more about that.
I was talking about that vis a vis other black writers, that I don’t really like it as a performance. People I’d known early on in my career, I had watched them perform blackness and it was very disturbing to me. And I think, also, something that I avoided. I for sure wanted to be not part of that commodification, and you can avoid it by following your own path – you have to. But it’s blackness as fashion, by black people, that I find disturbing.

In "Tristes Tropiques", you talk about your friendship with "SL". How important do you think black friendships, especially black male friendships, are?
The guy that I wrote about was an immensely important person in my life. It's been profound in my life – it's something that I really think fortified me, and I never felt like I was in the minority because of it. I always felt that I was in conversation with someone about myself, so the trauma of being the only black person in a place – there are just certain things you would have had to protect yourself from, right? For me, it was just really natural – I just felt like I was in the majority because of how I grew up and then the people I gravitated towards later.

Five years on from its initial release, how do you think White Girls can influence people today?
It's less of an answer than a hope. I hope the book increases the conversation about these things. And not only increases the conversation but makes it more vital to people personally. I feel there has to be more conversations about this stuff without people feeling ripped off, judged or criticised. I’m happy to criticise the Jenners or whoever they are, because it's almost sort of a weird monster of commodification. So I’m happy to criticise that, but for other people, like the woman – my friend I wrote about in the first story, you know? Who was a better friend to black people than a lot of black people are to each other – when I say in the book that she was a white girl and then I refute it... I say, "No, she was this; no, she was that" – I think it's the labelling that is very difficult for people. They feel the judgment of "white girls", but it's not. It's just another name.

White Girls is available to buy now.

@nanasbaah

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.


I Made a Tinder Profile That Was Brutally Honest About My Mental Health

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Online dating can be tough no matter who you are or what kind of baggage you're carrying. I have bipolar depression, which most of the time feels like regular depression. I treat it with a combination of medications and talk therapy. Usually I’m fine, and when I’m not, I’m typically just depressed.

Being bipolar doesn’t rule my life. But it is a part of my life that’s bound to come up eventually when I’m getting to know someone new, whether it’s mentioning my therapist in conversation or having to explain why I have an unusually thorough knowledge of different psychiatric medications and their side effects.

This isn’t something I try to hide, but it's something most people don't talk about openly. It can be difficult to gauge exactly how honest I can be with someone I’m newly dating. I’m not sure how they’ll respond when I say I can’t stay over because I have to take the meds I forgot at home or that I’m just having a rough time.

Being a woman with bipolar depression can especially conjure up stereotypes that I am an unpredictable, life-ruining sex fiend. In reality, I’m incredibly predictable and my only real kink is making schedules.

The word “crazy” is often leveraged at women to dismiss their feelings and experiences, minimize abuse, or enable gaslighting behaviours. Licensed psychotherapist Dr. Gary Brown said this reinforces stereotypes “that the woman is completely unstable [...] and unable to have a healthy love relationship.” He added, “Even some of my married clients never told their partners until after they were married because of tremendous shame and fear of being abandoned.”

Until recently, I had never felt completely comfortable sharing my mental health struggles with partners. After coming out of a recent episode of hypomania—a period of abnormally elevated mood and hyper-activity that that can end in a depressive comedown—and finally finding a medication that really helps, I realized how much bipolar depression might have been impacting my romantic life. I think it could’ve been helpful to me and my partners if they’d known.

When I re-downloaded Tinder, I made my profile brutally honest about my struggles with mental health. That way I could face any potential stigma head on and weed out anyone who might have a negative reaction later on. I asked a few of my matches how they felt about the information I shared in my profile and how they might feel about dating someone with a mental illness. I date men and women, but the responses I received were overwhelmingly from men.

Men Who Were Chill (For the Most Part)

A few of my matches, starting with Adam*, found my brutal honesty surprisingly refreshing. “So upfront. I like full disclosure.”

Caleb* also seemed to appreciate my approach when he wrote me, “Your profile is so interesting! You’re so upfront with mental health issues!” I asked him if he thought this was unusual. “Yes. People usually hide that because of stigma, so it was interesting. I work in mental health. But breaking the stigma is what we should be doing.”

When I asked how they felt about possibly dating a woman with bipolar depression, some of my matches said they’d be open to it. “I’m not opposed to it. People have issues,” Wyatt* wrote me. “Everyone does.”

Some of my matches even shared some of their own experiences with mental health conditions. “I have in the past suffered from [mental illness] myself,” Shawn* wrote me. “It definitely affects both parties and requires a deep understanding of the conditions and empathy. But hey, everyone’s a bit crazy.”

But others seemed to just want someone to talk to who shared a sense of the challenges of living with mental health issues. Dave* wrote, “I like that you’re ill. I am too. I’m just on here to feel some closeness and feel not so shitty, even if it’s just for a little bit.”

Danny* replied, “I mean, I’m a recovering drug addict, so I’m not super judgemental when it comes to that area.” He added, “I’ve never found it to be a turnoff. Quite the opposite. In my experience, the only thing girls like better than a bad boy is a reformed bad boy.”



Dudes Who Were Turned on by It

As I connected with more matches, I found that some guys seemed to be interested in me specifically because of my mental health conditions. John’s* first message to me was, “I’m game for this beautiful challenge called Sofia.”

A handful of guys, I found, seemed attracted to the idea of dating someone modeled on Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted—a fantasy they’ve created based on negative stereotypes. Scott’s* first message to me was, “Your profile is an interesting read. I bet you’re excellent in bed.” I asked why and he explained, “Most mental girls with father issues are great in the sheets. Passionate, wild, confident. Not prudish. I don’t know. Maybe it’s because that’s the place for them to feel a release from their fucked up lives.”

When John* messaged me on Instagram (after I’d swiped left on him), I asked why he decided to reach out. “Not gonna lie, crazy in head crazy in bed is completely true, as I’m sure you know.”

Andy* echoed the same idea when I asked him why he swiped right on me. “I’m always with someone with anxiety or depression, and they’re always adventurous. Maybe because when you’re depressed, sex is stress relieving.”

Men Who Had No Clue What They Were Talking About

Having bipolar depression doesn’t define my personality or anyone else’s, but according to Dr. Yvonne Thomas, Ph.D, a Los Angeles-based psychologist whose specialties include relationships, “A person with a mental illness can be misread as not caring, being insensitive, or being aloof, which can affect even being able to start a relationship with a new person.”

When I asked Matt* how he felt about potentially dating a woman with bipolar depression, he was skeptical. “It really depends on how it is. I do think it’s part of your identity but I hope you don’t let it define you. If you are really mean, that would make it hard. If you’re a mean person already, I think it adds to it then. So if that’s your situation that would be difficult for me.”

Unfortunately, I ran into quite a few men who had misconceptions about mental illness (and no idea what bipolar depression really is), as I found in my conversation with Ray*. His first message to me was, “Your bio is scary.”

VICE: Do you find mental illness scary?
Ray*: A bit, yeah. How do you manage with that?

Why? [I manage it with] therapy and medication.
That’s good. What kind of consequences does that have on a relationship? I’m asking because I’ve met too many girls with psycho issues. I would for once like a simple, nice relationship. Something easy. Not crazy stuff. I feel happy and in good health. I don’t want and don’t need that.

"Psycho issues"? Well, a lot of people live with some form of mental illness. Do you not think people with mental illness can have healthy dating lives?
I think at the beginning yeah. Everything is gonna be alright.

What changes?
It depends on the person and how strong she is.

Strong? Do you think people with mental illness are weak?
Makes your mind weak.

Do you think people with mental illness shouldn’t try to date?
No, it’s just harder to manage. What illnesses do you have? Bipolarity? Change of mood? Bad and good?

It’s not really a matter of bad and good, bipolar doesn’t work like that.
I don’t know. It looks scary. I’m really sorry. I think my ex was bipolar, too. She was mean sometimes and nice another time... it wasn’t really a respectful situation. I was always lost with her. I mean, I’m a really nice guy, but girls who change their opinion all the time play a game and I don’t want that.

Does depression scare you? I wouldn’t try to diagnose your ex, that’s not really fair.
Yeah depression is scary.

Why did you swipe right on me?
Because you look pretty. I didn’t read the bio.

Conditions like depression and anxiety are so common that it’s possible most people have already dated someone with who struggles with their mental health—only they may have never mentioned it for fear of being judged or stereotyped. Talking openly about mental health can be uncomfortable, but perpetuating false assumptions and fear is way worse. There are tons of online resources I wish men like Ray* would use to educate themselves. Better yet, talking with a therapist of their own could help get to the heart of why mental illness scares them.

People with mental health concerns can, and often do, lead healthy, fulfilling romantic lives. But Dr. Thomas said that forming new relationships requires extra sensitivity and awareness of how to avoid misunderstandings and confusion.

Dr. Brown added, “You want someone who is going to be understanding, compassionate, and who genuinely wants to know more about your condition so that they can be a great partner. You deserve that. Mental conditions or not.”

Despite my disheartening interaction with Ray*, I didn’t lose all hope. When Bobby* messaged me on Tinder, he made no mention of what I wrote in my profile until I mentioned it. His only response was, “Noted and accepted.” Then we went back to our discussion about how much we both hate roller coasters. We’ve been on two dates with plans for a third. My bipolar depression is the least interesting thing we’ve discussed and I hope it stays that way.

*All names have been changed.

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This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Rapper Young M.A Directed an All-Girl Porno

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Brooklyn rapper Young M.A is making porn now. Kinda. The openly gay artist behind the 2016 hit "OOOUUU" took her killer flow to a Pornhub set to create The Gift, an erotic fantasy starring seven women and zero men.

She describes the story in a behind-the-scenes video below, hosted by "anal queen" Asa Akira. "It's about a girl, a virgin," the rapper, born Katorah Marrero, says. "It's her birthday and a friend kinda like sends her off to this place where she's mysteriously walking through different rooms and stuff and finding out, you know, paradise." The birthday girl walks blindfolded through a luxe mansion with a big pool, a hot tub, and an inflatable swan, and "goes off with whatever she feels is best. I think it's the perfect gift, to not know something. Like a surprise within a surprise." Here's the SFW trailer for the film:

Young M.A is the first mainstream artist to direct a film in a new series called The Visionaries Directors’ Club available on Pornhub Premium—a paid service on the site that's free for the good folks of places like Big Bone, Kentucky, and Cumming, Georgia and anyone else who lives in a town with a goofy sex name. The rapper was given complete creative control over casting and production and enlisted actresses Anya Ivy, Yara Skye, Zoey Reyes, Jenna Sativa, Shyla Jennings, Gina Valentina, Honey Gold, Elena Koshka, Milana May, and Ana Foxxx to bring her fantasy to life.

There isn't much information about the finer points of the story, but Young M.A's description of her type is a pretty good indication of the vibe on set. "I don't like no girl who is too calm, too chill, too nice. I like girls that get crazy," she said. "That turns me on for some reason, I don't know! It turns me on. You can't be regular. That regular, it just don't do nothin' for me." There's no real description of the action, either, though Akira does hint at seeing some strap-ons and other toys on set in the bts vid.

The Gift is a one-off, so this doesn't necessarily indicate a career change, but Young M.A takes the role of director seriously. She said the film should be viewed as part of her Herstory album, released around this time last year. "This is part of my story because there's some nice little action going on with some beautiful women."

No word just yet whether or not there's an answer to the question that's plagued many a straight listener of "OOOUUU" (The Breakfast Club's Charlagmagne the God chief among them) confused by the song's lyric "Damn, she make me weak when she deep throat." Then again, as Young M.A has said herself of the line in the past, "If you don’t understand, you don’t gotta understand it."

The Gift premieres as a Free Premium Video on Pornhub Tuesday, April 10. Watch the exclusive behind the scenes video above.

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This article originally appeared on VICE US.

A Former Nxivm Insider Told Us How Celebrities Were Preyed On

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Ever since alleged cult leader and sex trafficker Keith Raniere was arrested last month, the world has been trying to make sense of the seriousness of the charges against him, as well as the confusing involvement of more than one mid-aughts TV crush.

Raniere is accused of conspiring with Smallville actress Allison Mack to recruit a small army of women “slaves”—some of whom were allegedly ordered under threat to have sex with him. This “secret society” (or “organized criminal group” if you ask the FBI) was one of many offshoots from Raniere’s 20-year-old company Nxivm, which mostly traded in expensive self-help “intensives.”

Last week VICE reported on some of the television actresses who at various times have been involved with Nxivm, but the truth is not all Smallville actresses participated equally. There was a time when being connected to the Vancouver community was a chill party/networking thing that had nothing to do with branding or blackmail.

At the same time, it’s impossible to tell the whole story of Nxivm without recounting its obsession with recruiting famous women. In order to understand how people like Kristin Kreuk (Smallville’s Lana Lang) had their seemingly benign career coaching experiences used against them, VICE spoke to a former insider who says she cannot be named due to an ongoing FBI investigation.

Marlena is not this person’s real name, but here’s what she had to say about why someone like Kreuk, who left in 2012, would very much like to be excluded from this latest Nxivm narrative. VICE has reached out to Kreuk’s management for comment but has yet to receive a reply.

VICE: What was Nxivm’s mission as you understood it back in 2006?
Marlena: You know what, it’s so embarrassing to say what we thought, because it's so idealistic and naive in retrospect, but when you take the five-day course, so much of it is about not only bettering yourself, but bettering the world by working through your own issues and becoming a more compassionate humanitarian person. We wanted to get these tools to world leaders and make a difference. We thought if leaders have these tools we could have world peace. That was the underlying mission. It was a really idealistic pie-in-the-sky dream.

Did you feel like Nxivm was also just a community of friends helping friends?
We certainly created, especially in Vancouver, a community of people who were for the most part young actors and artists and entrepreneurs. There was certainly an environment of people who were like-minded trying to help each other achieve goals. We'd have parties and events, and people who were really striving toward bettering themselves in whatever way would see what we were creating and say I want a part of that.

Was there pressure to recruit celebrities?
It wasn’t so much a pressure to recruit celebrities, it was just kind of a whim within the company. Like, Oh, how great we’ve got a VIP. We wouldn't get bonus points per se, but it was something that was acknowledged as a good thing because it would grow the mission and grow the company if we had whoever endorsing. We never put people's names in pamphlets, but they were there, and people would see pictures of Kristin and Allison in group photos on the wall and say, “Is that Kristin from Smallville?” I’d say, “Yeah she’s a coach!” Stuff like that. There were other A-listers in Hollywood that I actually can’t say, but they were bragged about very openly.

Was it rewarding to bring people in?
It was very rewarding to do a five-day course and watch people have a huge transformation. Many people did that for free. The thing I really want to point to is that not many of us were making money. A lot of people did it because it was emotionally rewarding to work with people and help them shift their life.

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How would someone like Kristin Kreuk fit into the coaching role at Nxivm?
I think people like Kristin enjoyed being a coach. I don’t want to speak for her, but she was a very lovely, gentle, compassionate, very caring kind of coach. And that was rewarding for her, it appeared. And she didn’t necessarily want to be paid, she didn’t need that. Going on to be a proctor [the paid coaching level] would have been very difficult for her acting career. At least that’s my interpretation.

Were famous actresses playing a significant role? Were they a marketing tool?
I definitely think they were used as a marketing tool to create validity for what we were doing.

Were they used to counter the cult narrative at all?
When I first enrolled the cult stuff online was pretty minimal. There were a couple articles but they didn’t point to anything particularly bad—other than people were calling Nxivm a cult. The bad thing about Keith at the time was he went for long walks with women in the neighbourhood [in Albany]. I was like, that seems like disgruntled neighbours.

In the first course we even talk about how people use the word “cult” to discredit what you’re doing without actually saying what’s bad. And I understood that. I had done an acting program I didn’t like, and I even said to somebody, “It’s kinda culty.” Which isn’t very specific. A better way of saying it is, well, it was very insular, I found everyone deified the leader, I found they pushed peoples’ boundaries in unsafe ways. I didn’t like it, but some people loved it!

I think at the time I wouldn’t have said we were using actors to cover the cult thing, it’s more like: Hey, we’re not a cult, Kristin and Allison are doing it. Just look at all these happy successful people.

Do you think it was a “breakthrough” for Nxivm when Allison and Kristin joined?
We joked about it but it really changed the dynamic of Nxivm’s culture. Until then it was largely a different vibe. Bringing Hollywood to Nxivm was exciting. The vibe was young women, cool people, artists, people actually doing stuff.

When did you start hearing about allegations against Keith? Did he have a reputation with women?
In the beginning I was told he was a renunciate and a celibate. So he had no material possession. He was like a monk, he didn’t indulge in those types of things because he didn’t need to—he was so evolved. It sounds ridiculous now. I remember asking a couple times—does Keith have a girlfriend? Later polyamory was more deeply formulated as part of our belief system—that it was OK for men to be non-monogamous, but women should stay monogamous. That’s more where he almost stopped making an effort to keep it hidden, and just made it OK. It never occurred to me he was keeping more than one partner. Still I thought it was none of my business. If I asked questions they were shot down. I didn’t figure it out until I left.

What about in 2012, the Albany Times Union reported he had sex with three underage girls. This is around the time Kristin left.
Kristin didn’t leave on bad terms. She left to go to Toronto for work. That was the best way to leave, to not make a scene… I don’t even think I read the Times Union story. It wasn’t local for me, and we all believed it was a smear campaign. We were told not to read the press, it would change our internal representation, we wouldn’t see the company in the same way. I maybe went to a friend and asked about it, and she basically said it’s not true, anyone can accuse anyone of anything. If it was true, he’d be in jail.

How did everyone learn of the more serious allegations? Was it back then or more recently?
I think my own personal questioning started some time before the New York Times story last year. Even then it was outweighed by the good stuff—I was always motivated by my own growth. It wasn’t until I started sharing what I knew with friends that we realized how deep and dark this was. It all happened within months.

Kristin left in 2012 and really distanced herself from everybody. Her ex was in the company, so I assumed that was the point of resistance. As an insider I know there’s no way Kristin would have known about the slavery or branding until it became public. She wasn’t in touch, she completely distanced herself for personal and professional reasons.

Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Killer Mike Tried to Call out Joy-Ann Reid on Instagram and Failed Completely

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After rapper Killer Mike appeared on NRA TV to discuss black gun ownership, MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid was one of many who criticized the choice. In an apparent attempt to fire back, Killer Mike commented on one of Reid's Instagram posts, calling her a hypocrite because of her apparent association with clothing retailer H&M. However, H&M did not stand for what Mike thought it stood for, and Reid responded with a clapback for the ages. On Monday's Desus & Mero, the hosts talked about Killer Mike's misguided comment and Joy-Ann Reid's award-worthy response.

You can watch the latest episode of Desus & Mero for free online now, and be sure to catch new episodes weeknights at 11 PM on VICELAND.

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This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Bendigo's Former Mayor Sure Looks a lot Like Rick From 'Rick and Morty'

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On April Fools Day the US cable channel Adult Swim played an elaborate prank on fans of Rick and Morty. Instead of showing Rick and Morty, they played an 11-minute parody. The short was made by Aussie animator Michael Cusack, and it followed two characters named Reek and Mordi as they visited a town in regional Victorian called Bendigo. And of course, Bendigo was depicted as a kind of bogan hellhole.

So I went to Bendigo to see what it's really like, which included meeting former mayor Rod Fyffe. But the thing is that Rod looked so much like Rick that I started to wonder whether Bendigo's inclusion in the ep was more than just coincidence.

Rod had never heard of Rick and Morty, let alone the spoof episode, but he was happy to watch it with me on his front porch.

VICE: So Rod, what do you think of the episode?
Rod Fyffe: Well, I have this philosophy that any news is good news. And thanks to this episode there will be people who now go online and find out what Bendigo really is. At least people now know that Bendigo exists.

You’ve never seen Rick and Morty, but did you enjoy the parody?
I love cartoons, and satire, and everything like that. What I saw was entertaining. Some people might be offended but when you stop and think about it it’s just a cartoon. Plus, I kind of look like him.

You do. Now tell me, what’s the best part about living in Bendigo?
It’s a compact city and it’s a confident city, even though you look at some of the shops in Bendigo and see they’re closed. That’s true. And then there’s the Chinese component. The Chinese have made a significant contribution to Bendigo and certainly we have the longest imperial dragon in the world, and will have forever and ever.

The spoof ep, Bushworld Adventures

Later, I genuinely wanted to know why the cartoonist, Michael Cusack, creator of the Rick and Morty parody ep had chosen Bendigo. So I called him to ask about the connection between Rod Fyffe and Rick. At first he denied the connected, until I sent him a photo, at which point he said he was “shocked”.

VICE: Don’t act surprised. I know you’re in on this.
Michael Cusack: No there is no—I’m sorry to tell you—but there’s no conspiracy. I just chose Bendigo because it sounded funny. Although wow, what the hell? It really does look like him.

That’s because it is him.
That’s hilarious, has he even seen Rick and Morty?

No he says he’s never seen Rick and Morty, but you know what? I feel like he’s trying to throw me off the trail.
I mean, if you want to believe this, all I can say is Bendigo just felt right. And I’ll leave it there.

So you’ve never seen this man in your life?
Never.

Well what do you think is going on here, is it just a crazy weird coincidence or is there something more?
Maybe it was a coincidence, or maybe there was some sort of Bendigo aura telling me that I should set it there and this guy is behind it all… who knows.

A lot of the themes in Rick and Morty have to do with simulations and things like that. Do you think this could be one of those signs, like a glitch—
Oh yeah I think we’re probably in a simulation, I think this is just evidence for it.

Definitely. Now let’s talk about the episode itself, what inspired you to make it?
It was commissioned by Adult Swim, they’ve seen my other stuff like Damo and Darren. Justin, the co-creator of Rick and Morty, just asked me to do it and I was like yeah sure I’ll do that. It was out of the blue. And the aftermath of it has been pretty much confusion across the board. It's been fun to watch the reactions even if they’re negative—it just makes it funnier. It's been enjoyable.

You’ve really put Bendigo on the map. Google searches for Bendigo skyrocketed after the episode was released, especially in the US.
Yeah it’s so funny, I just like the idea of little Australian town names being known in America. It’s hilarious because it’s just so local.

So you live in Wollongong. Did you take any of the character inspiration from the people that you see around you in Wollongong? And why then set the episode in Bendigo?
I suppose the character inspiration was more of an unconscious thing that seeps into my cartoons. Well, it actually is set in Wollongong at the start, in the episode Rick is like “12 hours 12 hours to Bendigo Morty!” and that’s because I looked it up and that’s how far Bendigo is from Wollongong. And if you look in the background before they start the trip there’s some mountains, and those mountains are in Wollongong.

Interesting. Prove to me that Bendigo Rick is not the real Rick.
Umm… he looks like a Walter to me. He looks like his name would be Walter and not Rick. He looks like he’d be down at the TAB on a Friday betting, thinking about his life and his retired job as a bricklayer.

Thanks Michael.

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This article originally appeared on VICE AU.

How the Hells Angels Weaponized Yelp

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Some members of the Hells Angels feel they are being discriminated against for their association with the criminal organization and they’re not going to take it anymore.

But instead of taking it to the streets on their Harleys and wearing brass knuckles, they’re going to Facebook, Yelp, Tripadvisor, and wherever else they can tank your business—and they’re not half bad at it. As first reported by the CBC, the targeted negative reviews written by bikers and their supporters actually forced one popular Manitoba restaurant off Facebook.

It probably needn’t be said but, even though their strength has been waning in recent years, the Hells Angels are a down and dirty criminal organization involved in drug running, extortion, trafficking, and other illicit activities. The so-called one percenter gang has been responsible for numerous murders around the globe.

However, just because they’re a criminal organization, it doesn’t mean their feelings can’t get hurt. The HA first took to their keyboards over bruised egos when a motorcycle ride set to start from the Headingley Sports Shop in Manitoba this summer said people flying colours couldn’t partake. Dale Kelland, an alleged leader of the Manitoba Nomads—an HA club—asked affiliated members and supporters to give the sports shop negative reviews.

The CBC reports that Kelland, better known as Dale Donovan, is widely believed to be the leader of several Manitoba based chapters of the criminal organization. The CBC also reports that Kelland served eight years for drug trafficking and attempting to recruit new members for a “criminal organization”—he was sentenced in 2009.

Kelland’s message was quickly amplified by others in the organization. Many of the requests state that the discrimination is against “law-abiding clubs” but end with the term “Support 81” which directly references the Hells Angels (H being the eighth letter of the alphabet, and A being the first.) This deluge of hundreds of negative reviews forced the sports shop to withdraw from the ride and release a statement of support and asked them to rescind their negative one-star reviews.

HA supporters and members were joyous in their success and quickly changed most of their reviews to five stars heaping praise on the store for not “discriminating against them.” “Awesome to see a business step up to the plate and knock it outta the park for non-discrimination,” wrote one user who changed his review from one star to five.

Possibly drunk with online power, the CBC reports that after their success with the Headingley Sport Shop the HA and their supporters didn’t stop. From here they turned their eyes to a hotel in Winnipeg (and the restaurant within the hotel) that had turned away members sporting HA patches. Again, at Kelland’s urging, hundreds of supporters and members heaped negative reviews on the page—many writing them from outside of Manitoba and even Canada—the CBC reports that in just 24 hours their rating went from 4.5 to 3. The hotel eventually removed their Facebook page “for the foreseeable future” as a result.

After chasing the business from Facebook. From there they took to Tripadvisor, Yelp and other online rating sites. Speaking to the CBC, Tripadvisor said they removed the negative reviews and a spokesperson said they “refer to this type of fraud as vandalism” and that they “fight it aggressively.” However, the negative reviews remain on Yelp where the Marion hotel has a two-star review.

When you go there the first thing you see are images people posted—the first featured image is of former KKK leader David Duke in full regalia and the second is a photo of an obese man giving a thumbs up with his balls hanging out of his shorts. The photo of the large man with his balls hanging out was posted by someone using the name “Dale K.”

Many of the reviews again claim that the hotel not wanting a criminal organization cavorting inside their business is tantamount to discrimination against “the biker community,” however, a few decided to get a little more creative. “I got crabs from the toilet seat and I got the trotts from the burger and I’m finding it hard to get the smell of the place off my clothes,” reads one review.

I’m not sure if this is a bold new direction for the Hells Angels, but if you have to ask the question, you won’t understand the answer.

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You've Got to Watch This Amazing 'Westworld' Season Two Spoiler Video

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On Monday, Westworld creators-slash-professional mind-fuckers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy did a Reddit AMA in honor of the show's new season coming later this month. It was pretty standard for the most part, with Nolan and Joy answering questions about Anthony Hopkins and episode titles and the looming robot apocalypse. But toward the end, things took a bit of a turn.

In a supposed attempt to combat spoilers and the kind of obsessive theorizing that untangled last season's twist mid way through the season, Nolan and Joy announced that they would be willing to release a video spelling out all the major season two narrative beats ahead of time.

"That way, the members of the community here who want the season spoiled for them can watch ahead," Nolan wrote, "and then protect the rest of the community, and help to distinguish between what's 'theory' and what's spoiler." If his post got 1,000 upvotes, Nolan promised, then he and Joy would go ahead and release the spoiler video.

Well, it only took a few hours for the post to far surpass the 1,000 upvote mark, and—true to their word—Nolan reappeared on the AMA page late Monday evening to post the link for a 25-minute video called "Westworld Season Two - A Primer."

The spoiler video opens with Jeffrey Wright, who plays Bernard, narrating the aftermath of the Delos bloodbath that capped off season one. Bernard wanders around in a daze for a while, wrestling with his programming to remember what happened, and then... Well, just give it a watch.

If you were brave enough to click play then, yes, that's Evan Rachel Wood singing "Never Gonna Give You Up." Yes, this whole thing was an elaborate rickroll. Yes, the video then cuts to about 20 minutes of black and white footage of a cute dog sitting at piano as the Westworld theme plays. Well played, Nolan and Joy. Well played.

But who knows? Maybe this actually is an accurate representation of what's in store next season. In that case, we should expect a lot of trolling and at least a few very good boys in season two, which debuts on HBO on April 22.


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This article originally appeared on VICE US.


Why Mandi Gray Documented Her Sexual Assault Case

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Before the #MeToo movement, Mandi Gray faced her alleged rapist in court.

Gray, a PhD student at York University in Toronto, says she was raped in January 2015 by a fellow student. Gray reported the attack to police and to her school, which she later claimed lacked proper procedures for reporting sexual assault.

If you follow Canadian media, you’ve probably already heard Gray’s name, for it made headlines over and over in 2016 and 2017: She became “a kind of cult hero to sexual assault victims” for defying how our society expects sexual assault victims behave, as one Toronto Star columnist wrote. Gray made the uncommon decision to go public about what she went through, rendering her the target of harassment and vilification.

In a statistically rare event, the man Gray accused of raping her was initially convicted of sexual assault and given a maximum sentence for a summary offence of 18 months. Then, after Gray had spent months being subjected to the brutalities of a trial, her alleged rapist had his conviction overturned after the unorthodox wording in the trial judge’s decision led to an appeal.

Gray, along with director and producer Kelly Showker, sought to document the experience of trying to get justice through the legal system with an upcoming feature-length documentary.

Slut or Nut: Diary of a Rape Trial premieres at Hot Docs in Toronto on May 2.

VICE: Why did you decide to document your experience trying to get justice through the legal system with a film in particular?
Mandi Gray: I’m a sociologist in training, so a large part of what I do is research and documentation, and recognizing the importance of that. Also, my background is in advocacy: the need to take detailed notes, to keep track of everybody you talk to, to keep records. So, it was kind of a blending of those two… I recognized that this was a unique experience, that many people don’t report, even fewer make it to a criminal trial. So, I began to document what was happening to me, all the people I had to talk to, all the hoops I had to jump through. It was more so, I’ll do something with this, but I didn’t know what it would be.

But it was also crucial when I noticed that the university wasn’t supporting me in terms of being able to take legal action against them. So, that was necessary to keep all the very detailed documentation of everything. I’m a writer more so than a filmmaker. I didn’t even own a camera, but one day I decided I’m going to make a film about this. Just by sheer luck, the Canadian filmmaker Min Sook Li introduced me to Kelly Showker, and I pitched her the idea about how important it was. I reported at the time of Jian Ghomeshi, when it was very similar to the #MeToo movement—we were being encouraged to report. We were told that things are different. And that was the exact opposite of my experience. I told Kelly that I think this is a really important thing to document to show people that not to necessarily believe anything at face value. That’s how the film kind of emerged. Kelly also identifies as someone who has experienced sexual violence, who has experienced institutional betrayal. So, we immediately clicked.

Certainly reading about sexual assault through the media reports we are inundated with every day is different from actually seeing it the form of a film.
Absolutely, and I think that ties into not wanting to be Jane Doe, to giving it that human piece of it beyond just facts in a case or words in a news article or a blurred-out face on TV.

Why do you think it’s important for everyone to see this documentary, and particularly for Canadians to see it?
I think that it’s important for everybody really because Kelly and I made the film specifically for people who’ve been sexually assaulted to make an informed decision about what’s best for them. Alternately, the film is also used to demonstrate to people who think that reporting is the best option without really critically thinking about what reporting actually entails and the potential consequences of reporting. Then, on a larger, systemic level, I hope this is a call to action to politicians, to government to really examine the significant barriers that folks face following a sexual assault—whether that’s receiving medical care, returning to campus, returning to work, going through the legal system. There’s so many systemic failures when it comes to sexual assault, which I think we’re starting to talk about. But the real, real ingrained misogyny within the system is going to take a long time to unravel.

Still via 'Slut or Nut: Diary of a Rape Trial'

What was it like to go through your experiences with these systemic failures before the #MeToo movement and during the Ghomeshi era?
I think the time period is so significant… I was sexually assaulted months after Jian Ghomeshi had been charged. I had this naive notion that no institution would want to be the next CBC. I often heard from university officials, from police, constantly in the media, that things weren’t the way they used to be, that we believe people who come forward, we support people who come forward. Then, I felt like I was crazy because when I actually reported to police, they told me I “implied” my consent, that I was drinking. When I went to the university, it was disregarded as a case of domestic violence. It was this extreme contradiction. I think also having Lucy Decoutere so bravely come out and say “This is me!” also provided me so much. I really admired her. Having her in the spotlight really pushed me to remove the publication ban. I since told her that, and she apologized profusely [laughs].

What’s also interesting and is not captured in the film because it was too complicated to include: My trial started the exact same day in the exact same courthouse as Jian Ghomeshi. So it was really interesting to see the parallels in terms of the Ghomeshi case having this celebrity. His trial was on the first floor, and mine was on the third floor of Old City Hall. Just seeing the parallels in terms of media interest… Of course, media interest came later. I called it the “rape circus,” and I would still refer to it in that way.

That’s bizarre—I was also at the courthouse that day. In regards to media attention, how do you keep going with everything that you’re doing while dealing with the burden of that attention and the harassment that comes with it?
Taking long breaks. I know people on social media will kind of notice that I go in and out of having an online presence. That’s been pretty significant. I have an amazing therapist. I have an amazing community and support system. It’s not easy to keep going, especially when you’re constantly seeing so much injustice. What I’ve experienced is horrific, but it pales in comparison to the stories that I hear from folks regularly. That keeps me going as well, and that I have this absolute privilege in that I have the language to talk about these things and that I’m able to be public about these things. Just having a sense of humour and enjoying life too at the same time—I needed that balance, otherwise it would be impossible to keep going. It’s really not easy.

What kind of reform do you feel is necessary in Canada’s legal system given what you’ve experienced? How can we even begin to approach such a huge systemic issue?
Honestly, I don’t even know if reform is even on the table. Canada has the most progressive sexual assault laws in the world. It’s just that misogyny, rape culture is so intertwined with not just the legal community, but society and these assumptions about sexual assault. The laws that we have on paper are great, but there’s a refusal by the legal community particularly in this set of circumstances to acknowledge that they exist. It’s really frustrating, and in terms of an easy answer, I don’t really have one because all the laws are there… Even for something as basic as, there was a bill in terms of getting judges to take a class on sexual assault. There was a lot of opposition to that—that it would make judges biased. There’s a lot of pushback particularly from the legal community that makes me really wary of even how to move forward. Right now, the system works great for their clients, their clients who are men charged with sexual assault. So they have a vested interest in keeping it how it is.

I’ve kind of moved away from this legal reform activism and focused more on the grassroots level, community and supporting folks in whatever capacity that they want because I just don’t have a lot of hope.

Can you talk about your focus on the grassroots level and what you aim to do with that?
It’s not to say that I discourage folks from reporting, but it’s in terms of weighing out what your objectives are. If your objective is to get a conviction and have the person go to jail, unfortunately, it’s unlikely that is going to happen, just statistically speaking. I think that I can say this because he did receive a conviction, I think there’s a common misconception that hearing that this person was convicted will redeem you of any pain. I learned firsthand that that conviction doesn’t unrape you or undo any of the brutalities of the legal system. That was really surprising to me. I thought that I would feel validated, I would feel better—and I didn’t.

I try to communicate that to people, that we need to think about what your objectives are. Maybe your objective is to return to work. Maybe your objective is moving. Maybe it’s outside the legal system, and that’s totally OK. Maybe it’s a human rights complaint against your university for their role in fostering a culture that allows sexual assault to happen and go un-responded to.

That’s kind of what I’ve been working on with people. For one woman, for example, helping her get money for her case to go to trial against the University of British Columbia to create systemic change.

In regards to university campuses, I found that part of the doc and those institutions’ roles in all of this to be extremely disturbing. Can you talk about what’s going on with universities in this country in terms of how they’re dealing with sexual assault?

It should be [disturbing]. I think that there’s this misconception that because these are places of higher learning that they’re employing world-renowned experts, especially at York and U of T, which the film focuses on. But, at the end of the day, universities are corporations. At the end of the day, their concerns are their reputation and their bottom line. So, what they do is a cost-benefit analysis: Who is more likely to sue us? In most cases, it’s the man who’s been accused of sexual assault. They wrap that up in terms of privacy and confidentiality and with the hope that the person who’s been sexually assaulted, there will be so many institutional barriers that they’ll just drop it because they’ll be told it will be hard… They’ll drop the complaint, they’ll drop out of the program, or they’ll graduate. That’s the problem with universities: There’s people coming and going constantly, so there’s no record of repeat offenders, for example.

We find out in the doc about Mustafa Ururyar’s overturned conviction, how he didn’t serve a sentence, and this odd bit about the judge in the case having a “feminist bias.” Seems pretty ironic considering the whole ingrained misogyny in the legal system issue. How did that make you feel after going through all of this only to have these things happen?
Aside from the jail thing, which is really neither here nor there for me, my main objective was being able to return to campus and feel safe. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t serve his sentence. I was more frustrated that the legal system put me through so much in terms of kept me on the stand for four days over a course of six months, read out my phone number in open court, continuously asked me about my sexual preferences—just significant violations of privacy. Then, to go through that, the police didn’t do a good investigation, they didn’t interview any of the witnesses I provided. To have gone through all of that, then find out I would have to go through an appeal and the possibility of another trial, I was really angry. I still am really angry because Justice Zuker made that decision about him, and he could have written that differently so that it could have upheld an appeal. He wanted to make a statement and make a point, but it was on my back. And it was putting me through the legal system longer, and I had already exacerbated all the supports that I had. It was really frustrating, and I was really angry.

Is there anything else you want to say about the film and your advocacy work?
Well, I’m trying to get Justin Trudeau to come to the premiere because I think it’s really important for him to see it… I’ve showed the film at a few law schools already, I’ve shown it to high school students. I’m hoping to utilize the film to have a larger conversation about what it is we’re doing when we encourage people to report. Also, I’m supporting a number of women who are currently in the process of suing their universities. I wasn’t able to get my case to trial in terms of financial restraints and because I found out that I was going to be going through an appeal. I ended up settling before I would have liked to, so I feel really happy I’m able to support others who are able to take their cases to trial. I hope that sends a clear message to universities: We will start suing you to level out the playing field a little bit. I don’t see any other way to get that to happen, because it comes down to money and reputation—so let’s do this.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

'Slut or Nut: Diary of a Rape Trial' premieres at Hot Docs on May 2.

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Two People Died After A Medical Weed Grow-Op Caught On Fire

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Two people were killed after a fire started in a Surrey house with a medical weed grow-up Monday.

According to Global News, firefighters were called to the home early Monday morning where they found a fire and heavy smoke. One person got out safely, and rescuers managed to save another one, but the two people in the basement died.

Investigators told Global the fire is not suspicious but they believe it was caused by electrical equipment used to grow weed.

In 2014, the Fire Chiefs’ Association of BC claimed grow lamps used in grow-ops were the cause of 36 fires over an eight-year period.

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At the time, a government submission attempting to shut down a Federal Court injunction that allowed medical cannabis patients to grow at home stated: “Given that marijuana growing operations require the use of high-powered lights that are not designed for residential home use, and the fact that marijuana plants require 12-18 hours of light a day, it is not surprising that these operations would face an increased risk of fire.”

Both Surrey RCMP and the city’s fire chief Len Garis have been vocal about their concerns around grow-ops in the past, citing things like unsafe set-ups and a lack of inspections as problems.

But Alex Rea, vice-president of Homegrown Hydroponics, a firm that specializes in teaching people how to grow cannabis, told VICE stories like this tend to get sensationalized by those who simply don’t want to see Canadians grow weed at home.

“The claim that home growing leads to an increased risk of fire, mold, and organized crime element was not substantiated in court,” he said.

Although the federal government’s Cannabis Act says Canadians will be allowed to grow four plants at home, Quebec and Manitoba has banned home grows outright.

Rea told VICE most of the electrical equipment sold by hydroponics stores is certified internationally. However, he said any electrical equipment can be dangerous if not used properly.

“It’s easy to turn public opinion with a story like this,” he said.

“This is a terrible tragedy and the timing is unfortunate, as some Senators seek an amendment to #c45 to remove non-medical home growing rights. I guarantee you this will be brought up in committee next week,” tweeted Ottawa-based cannabis lawyer Trina Fraser in response to the Surrey fire story.

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How Not to Be an Ass When Your Friends Start Having Babies

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This article originally appeared on VICE Netherlands.

I've reached the phase in life where it's conceivable that one of my friends might deliberately choose to procreate. Until recently, the idea of being "with child" had been a nightmare to all of us —a baby is a loud, mentally and physically-draining feces factory, out to take away our freedom and everything we hold dear in life. Then, something happens, around the age of 25: One of your married friends announces their pregnancy and, instead of offering to drive to the clinic with them, you have to buy them a celebratory soft blanket and some special rubber things for their nipples. At some point, the prospect of a baby clunks over from "horror" to "hope," and that changes everything.

Out of the blue, one of my friends and her boyfriend tried to get pregnant, succeeded, and had a baby. Honestly, it really shouldn't be that big of a big deal—had I been born a few generations ago, I'd be celebrating my silver wedding anniversary by now, surrounded by my six surviving children and an unfathomable number of grandchildren. But it did feel like a big deal, especially because there seemed to be all these new rules around how to act toward a close friend who has considerably more important things to worry about than you. With help from my friend-turned-new-mother, I've compiled a quick guide to dealing with someone close to you who's having a baby.

Don't make the big reveal about you

When your friend reveals to you face-to-face that she's pregnant, it's fine to be proud and even to shed a tear of joy, but keep it together. No hyperventilating, no ugly crying—that's just awkward, and you're making the whole thing about you. Don't do that. Keep in mind that you're not the one facing morning sickness, leaking boobs, and swirling hormones. You need to stay emotionally sober enough to listen and take in your friend's hopes and fears. Just say, "I've heard [repeat your own name back to them] is a nice name," then move on.

Respect the ultrasound picture

Photo via Flickr user Mike Porcenaluk

In all fairness, ultrasounds aren't that interesting. It's a few blurs in black-and-white, and it's very hard to tell if they're the contours of the beginning of a human, or just a smudgy thumbprint. It's irrelevant, though—your friend is probably pretty hysterical about the whole thing, as it's visible proof that she is creating new life from scratch. If she presents the ultrasound picture to you, don't be annoying about it. Just softly mutter "ahhh" and keep the conversation moving.

Make the absolute most of the baby shower

I'd always associated baby showers with gallons of tea, stale cupcakes, and maternity-wear chats, but that doesn't have to be the case. There is no better reason to get drunk together than the fact that one of your friends is about to pop some fruit out of her loins—her being the only one not able to drink. It's a legitimate celebration and offers one of the few remaining opportunities you will get to spend quality time together without babies getting in the way. And, as a bonus, it gives your friend the chance to practice soberly handling people with no sense of decorum or dignity, which will be useful when the life-changer in her stomach hits the terrible twos.

Things not to say in the last weeks of pregnancy

  • "Wow, you're really dragging this out."
  • "Exactly how many are in there?"
  • "Do you think you'll be alright and get your stomach back when this whole thing is over?"
  • "Are you sure you're ready for this?"
  • *Make the sound of a truck backing up*
  • "I read about how much this thing is going to blow your vagina apart, and boy... boy. I just really hope you're ready to have your vagina blown apart."

Appreciate the priorities of a woman in labour

You may be expecting a personalized text or DM on delivery with a well-lit picture of the newborn, but you’re almost certainly going to hear the news from someone else, on Facebook or, at best, in one of the group chats you share. Again, don't take it personally—it's just that you're not as important as you think you are anymore. Your buddy has just been ripped apart to bring forth someone she instantly loves more than you. Don't take this shift in priorities personally, and absolutely do not send any passive-aggressive messages like, "Yeah I heard. Best x"

Also, you don’t have to ask a huge amount of questions to seem interested. Queries about how long it took and the baby's weight and whether it's true that women actually shit themselves during labour just distracts parents from focusing on keeping their newborn alive.


Watch: Bob and Harriet Get Married


Reacting to the first baby pictures

It's an uncomfortable but universal truth that newborn babies aren't a pretty sight—they're a weird blob of squashed and creased humanity. But your friend has likely not had any sleep for a very long time, and has dedicated her spirit and body to actively contribute something to this wonder we call life, so complete honestly about what the baby looks like might not go down well. Just "ooh" and "wow" and "OMG" your way through the showing.

I've also found that it works to comment on things outside of the looks of the child—mentioning the lovely name, an adorable outfit, or the hilariously surprising wealth of hair on the baby's head will keep the conversation going in a positive direction. It's sort of like talking to someone who loves their cat too much: You should just say "I bet it has a real personality, right?" and let them lie about how it does.

Don't worry about what present to buy, just buy something

Things that babies like include, but are not limited to: colours, fingers, paper, light, faces, animals, cups, sand, air, hair, clothes, sleep, noses, rugs, thread, spoons, stars, ears, darkness, pencils, straws, and eyes. A baby fresh from the womb is literally surprised by anything the world has to offer and has zero discernible tastes. There's a strong chance they'll prefer the wrapping paper to the thing inside, so don't spend too much time thinking about it. Better to get them something of meaning and value when they're old enough to appreciate how great you are for spending a lot of money on an awesome present. For now, just get them a onesie or a teddy bear for them to ruin with their constant, constant runny shit.

When to visit

Pay attention now, please; there's a lot that can go wrong here. Like with everything in life, it's vital to know your place when visiting new parents. Don't come around uninvited on day one with a tub of chocolates and the ambition to not miss a second of this baby's life. Calling ahead to see if you can pop by on Wednesday around 4 PM is also a big no—thinking ahead in time is an impossible concept to people responsible for a creature that needs to feed on a tit seven times a night and keeps shitting without proper warning. So it's important to be flexible.

Also, visiting new parents isn't like visiting your own parents, where you can barge in, crash on the sofa, and ask what's for dinner. There is zero chance your friend will feel like serving you as well, so bring some food for everyone, do something helpful like the dishes, and don't hang around for long —three Insta stories and out.

Photo via Flickr user Charles Street Bakery

Holding the baby for the first time

Firstly, don't ask if you can hold the child. You're putting the mother in an awkward position if she's not ready to lay what was once in her womb in your arms. So wait for the offer, and when it happens, be ready to step up, with clean, prewashed hands. Newborn babies are incredibly fragile beings—the last thing they need is to be ingesting whatever freak bacterium you brought along, you slob.

Regardless of how unfit you may be to hold an infant, saying "I'll pass, thanks" can be perceived as a grave insult, so just go for it. Holding the baby can be the best feeling in the world, but it's also terrifying to realize all that can go wrong in that instant. What if you accidentally drop it? What if you accidentally crush its sweet, soft little skull? What if it throws up on you? This kind of panic is perfectly healthy and normal. The worst thing that can happen in this case is that the child starts to cry once it's in your arms—and, frankly, that is an absolute nightmare. There is nothing more humiliating than when someone who doesn't have any experiences or personality starts wailing, simply because they sense they shouldn't be near you. If this happens, it's best to just smile bravely, return the child to its parents, rush home, close the curtains, and silently reflect on your failures.

Finally, turn this mother back into a friend

After your friend has spent months creating and nourishing new life and you have been busy getting used to this crazy new reality, it's time to go back to being the friends you once were. No rules or weird do's or don'ts for your interactions, but just you, her, and this new kid you've both worked so hard to learn to love. Listen, the kid isn't going anywhere. You might as well pretend to start liking it now to get a head start on liking it in the future when it's an actual human being that can talk and control its turd output.

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This article originally appeared on VICE NL.

Trump Will Hate This Movie About Jason Statham Fighting a Big-Ass Shark

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There is no beast more terrifying than a giant shark. Just ask President Trump. So it's only natural, then, that this summer's goofiest aquatic thriller would find a fitting adversary to pit against the massive fish: Jason "I'll Punch Anything in the Face Once" Statham.

Warner Brothers dropped the first trailer for The Meg on Monday, giving us a look at the sea-dwelling, razor-toothed antagonist in all its glory. Instead of dying out like 2 million years ago, the megalodon—the biggest shark that ever lived—somehow survived and is now going after innocent puppies, aloof beachgoers, and seafaring vessels. It's now up to a team of deep-sea researchers—led by Jonas Taylor (Statham), Jack Morris (Rainn Wilson), and Jaxx Herd (Ruby Rose)—to save humanity from the meg's unquenchable thirst for blood.

The trailer for the film, which has been in production for more than 20 years, features everything you'd expect from a terrifying shark movie. Set to the tune of Bobby Darin's "Beyond the Sea," the beast rams into the underwater research station, glides beneath unsuspecting swimmers, and jumps out of the water, maw open, while the research team enjoys a sunny day at sea.

And of course, because this is a Jason Statham movie, guns, helicopters, and fiery explosions work their way into the trailer, because how else do you take on a 70,000-pound shark? Presumably, we'll get to see the action hero sock that megalodon in the nose, or maybe roundhouse kick it in the eye. Maybe he'll even dive into the belly of the beast itself, and blow the thing up with a few sticks of TNT or something. Who knows!

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Follow Drew Schwartz on Twitter.

Related: Surrounded: Island of the Sharks

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Brit Who Looks Nothing Like Rob Ford to Play Rob Ford in Movie

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Damian Lewis, the lithe redhead Englishman known for playing soldiers and billionaires, is set to play the former Toronto mayor Rob Ford in a “thriller” about his scandal-plagued career.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Run This Town is currently being filmed in Toronto “but the film is understood to follow a reporter (Ben Platt) who attempts to expose a scandal involving a politician who doesn't play by the rules.”

Other confirmed actors in the film include Nina Dobrev and Mena Massoud as Ford’s aides and Toronto’s very own Scott Speedman (forever Ben from Felicity, sorry dude).

According to an interview with Kit Magazine, Lewis is being fitted with a prosthetic in order to play Ford, who died in 2016.

In case you have a short memory, Rob Ford’s chaotic mayoral is definitely worth a movie or two. Already under fire for being very, very bad at being a mayor it was reported (first by Gawker, then by the Toronto Star) that there was a video of him smoking crack cocaine, which he denied, denied, denied until the the city’s police chief was like, yup, there totally is and Ford was forced to admit there was. There was a huge police investigation into the mayor and police documents suggests gang members were involved in a blackmail plot. There was also a connection to a murder and a violent home invasion. Of course, there was milder stuff too, like the time Ford ran over an older woman in council and the time he talked about going down on his wife. Honestly, this paragraph could go on for ages, so I’m moving on before I become a character from Springsteen’s “Glory Days.”

Now, we don’t have much to go on, as the Hollywood Reporter notes there’s not even character names on the IMDB page, but I do have some early questions for the producers of Run This Town.

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First off, Damian Lewis.

Fine, fine actor, with an Englishman’s pedigree for accents and the look of an older Ron Weasley. Band of Brothers, extraordinary work. Homeland, had a good season or two. Billions, it also has Paul Giamatti, who looks like the kind of guy who should play Rob Ford!

Hey, if Lewis can pull this off, more power to him, but by god, that’s a confident bit of casting, no?

Anyway, I have more serious concerns about the second lead, Ben Platt, who is playing the reporter trying to take down Ford.

Platt is a 24-year-old American best known for his work in the Pitch Perfect series. That’s all fine and good...but it turns out he's playing a fictional character who is an "entitled, incapable entry-level reporter," according to a Tweet by Platt.

Locally, it was the Toronto Star’s Kevin Donovan and Robyn Doolittle (now at the Globe) who led the initial reporting on the Ford drug video, with Doolittle covering city hall throughout the Ford's mayoralty.

To be kind, Platt is far, far, far, too young to be playing a character based on Donovan.

Which leaves us with this—they have decided to turn a character based on Doolittle into an incompetent young man, which is oh-so-Hollywood and sure did piss her off. (Disclosure: Doolittle was my boss in my student newspaper days.)

Anyway, can’t wait to see how this turns out.

And for the record, here’s the VICE Canada fantasy casting of the Rob Ford movie.

  • Rob Ford- Michael Chiklis
  • Doug Ford - Christian Bale (still in Dick Cheney mode)
  • Robyn Doolittle - Aubrey Plaza
  • Bill Blair - Michael Keaton
  • Sandro Lisi - Daniel Ings (or Jeremy Davies)
  • Mark Towhey - Ed Harris
  • Amin Massoudi - Kal Penn
  • Kevin Donovan - Matt LeBlanc
  • Renata Ford - Amy Ryan
  • John Cook - John Mulaney
  • Mohamed Siad - Lakeith Stanfield
  • Adrienne Batra - Sakina Jaffrey
  • Jimmy Kimmel - as himself
  • Natalie Alcoba - Rashida Jones

Josh Visser will be played by an extra. Follow him on Twitter.

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