Patricia Gulzar's Blog

In my search to find a protagonist that is what Myers Briggs calls the “INTP,” I kept running into the same movies: The Matrix, Good Will Hunting, and A Beautiful Mind. It became frustrating not being able to find many INTP stories. Any stories featuring an INTP protagonist that I ran into usually were about them being a genius. INTP female protagonists were even harder to find with Alice in Wonderland, A Wrinkle in Time, and Daria being the main ones. A Wrinkle in Time is a 50 year old story and Alice and Wonderland story is over 150 years old. You may think I'm missing out on the countless other INTP characters present in our media. The key word you have to focus on is the protagonist, the Hero, the main character. If I'm wrong about not finding a good INTP story, especially a female protagonist, I would love to see some suggestions in the comment section.

It bothered me that I couldn’t find many INTP stories until I realized that A.) INTPs only account for about 3 % of the population and B.) They are a very private group of people. INTPs are kind of hard to find if you don't already know them. Yet INTJs, ENTJs, and INFJs are even less in population, but they have no problem inspiring writers placing them as the protagonist. Why do I care? I'm a writer and an INTP, and even I am not inspired to write an INTP protagonist. Because their private nature and their spark take place in the mind, it is difficult to really tell their story without it being too abstract, boring, or confusing.

The INTP trope is very easy to spot. It's your weirdo, nerdy character, or the awkward smart ass. For any character to become more dynamic, you want to put them in a situation where it’s difficult for them to thrive. Taking a character and putting them in a place where they aren’t comfortable makes for a good story. Since INTPs mostly thrive in their introverted thinking, a story surrounding their strength can work, as long as the character is developing in some way.

It's interesting that in the Matrix, Neo only thrives when he is solving the problem of the Matrix. Outside of that, he is miserable and alone.

Stories like the Matrix explore the INTP through an abstract world centering on an obsession that they want answers to, where we can truly see them at work. Without the fantasy world it's kind of hard to understand whatever they are fooling around with in their head. The Matrix is an example of how to create a world where the INTPs thinking makes sense. But what is more entertaining is getting them in a romantic situation - when the nerd gets the girl. That’s something you don't see often in entertainment other than in Anime, but that is for a different discussion.

It would be pretty simple to create a dynamic INTP character just by making them the protagonist since it's not something we see often, but how do we make it a good story?

Using Myers Briggs we can make our nerdy invisible character more seen and interesting. Keep in mind that the bookworm nerd is just a stereotype of the INTP or the logician. Taking a look at the INTP’s strengths and weaknesses will help us see what kind of person we are dealing with. We are going to use 16personalities.com to make this nerd come alive.

Their strengths are analytical, original, open-minded, curious, and objective. Weaknesses are disconnected, insensitive, dissatisfied, impatient, and perfectionistic. Focusing on one main strength and one main weakness for the character arc will keep your story from being all over the place. It's best to use the other strengths and weaknesses in the story when it's relevant.

For this example we’ll choose original for the strength, and disconnected as the weakness. In the case of the INTP, their imaginations give them the ability to be original in their thinking; looking at things in a way that most people miss or never really consider. Yet because of how differently they think, they can be disconnected from the world around them, making it difficult to really connect with other people who can’t go deep within themselves.

When someone is coming to our protagonists for help they can be good at finding the best course of action; using logic to deal with a situation leaving the least amount of damage. Because of this, people feel drawn to them, developing a connection, seeing them as someone who truly cares and sees them. But for the INTP it could be nothing more than helping someone find the correct way of doing something and nothing more. INTPs may not realize that what they say holds a lot of weight to others. They can at times not see how someone they don’t consider a friend cares for them. Their ability to disconnect from others could be a way they cope from the disappointments of past relationships. Unless someone can deep dive into the place where the INTP loves to be, they may be able to connect with them. Throwing someone like this into a love story will for sure create a rounded character.

So let’s say the story is about an INTP who meets someone new. This new person shares a common interest and is more of an expert on the topic than the INTP is. Because of this, the INTP forms a new connection and emotions. They are so used to dismissing their own feelings easily, that they can’t quite understand what they are feeling about this new person. Everyone around the INTP notices they are acting differently. The INTP analyzes why they want to be around this new person, and recognizes the inspiration they get when they are challenged by them. Why can't they get this new person out of their mind?

Everyone around them can see what is going on, but it's the INTP who is lost. Until one day it becomes clear to them. They are in love. And they’re sick to their stomach. They realize their controlled calculated methods of self protection were somehow bypassed. And yet, they struggle with the fact that it feels good also. They have to decide to either tell that person how they feel; where they risk rejection and disappointment, or create new barriers that help them avoid their feelings all together, guaranteeing no pain.

What is life if we refuse to live? Pleasure and pain are unavoidable if you want something. And without pain, we can’t truly appreciate the pleasures we already have or could have. Why are we as humans so afraid of pain? Maybe this is the revelation the INTP has to have in order to make a move.

“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something, but I can't accept not trying.”

-Micheal Jordan. Whether that be in love, career, or any dream.

These aren't things only INTPs struggle with, but the wisdom they naturally carry can at times hold them back from a chance of a great reward. In this case fear is masquerading as wisdom. How will you know if something is good if you never try? This is something everyone has to overcome, taking a chance on the unknown.

Good examples of INTP romances are The Female Brain, and My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected. In The Female Brain, it follows an INTP who has been hurt in the past by people. She makes it her mission to never fall in love again by using her understanding of brain chemistry to never bond with man and become weak again. My Youth Romantic Comedy follows an INTP who never allows himself to connect with anyone to protect himself from rejections because of being humiliated in the past . INTP characters may be a little difficult to write just because we aren’t used to seeing them as the protagonist, but telling a story we don't get to see too often, introduces us to new worlds and redefines who is worthy of being a main character!

Would it be better if God made you do exactly what he wanted? Loved him the way he wanted, served him the way he wanted to be served, or is it better that people have free will? It’s a question that has been asked across every culture since the beginning of time. Do we have free will, or are we predestined to do the things we do? But I digress, because the real topic of this discussion is about what an amazing anime Fruit Baskets is! A story that follows a young girl whose empathy and true love for her friends breaks an ancient curse. The series sheds light on the psychological effects of abuse in its many forms on the victims and perpetrators. It exposes trauma and the human condition brilliantly, making it one of the most relatable anime out there, revealing our deepest most basic need to be loved and how we are bound to the ones that we love, whether it’s healthy or not.

Tohru Honda, the main character, finds herself living with members of the Soma family after she is discovered outside in a tent. She learns certain members of the Soma family are cursed by turning into 1 of the 13 animals of the Chinese zodiac when they physically embrace the opposite sex. Yes, there are only 12 zodiac animals, but in this universe there are 13, adding the cat. As Tohru gets to know them, she learns the dark secret of their abuse from Akito, the head of the Soma family, who is bound to them as their god. Regardless of the complications that the curse causes each zodiac member, Tohru embraces them, listening to their stories, beginning the healing process as each person slowly becomes free.

Akito’s invisible bond with the animals gives her control of them, forcing their devotion, restricting their free will and keeping them from ever finding love and happiness with anyone else. This got me thinking about my opening question, what does it really look like to be controlled by God vs being free to choose? Imagine being forced to love someone you never chose. You find yourself being drawn to them even if they treat you horribly, compelled to come back again and again knowing it will only hurt you in the end.

Now Imagine being that God, like Akito, knowing that no matter how badly you treat others, they have to choose you forever because they were made to love you, with no choice of their own. They will always be there for you, like a dog to its master. It sounds bad, but isn't that what we all want? Unconditional love? Whether you are good, or bad. That is why we get dogs, because dogs seem to always choose us. However for the person on the other side of that relationship, it might mean being trapped in an abusive relationship.

If you had the power to force someone’s love, would you take advantage of that? Or would you prefer to be loved by someone who actually chooses you of their free will - someone who could leave you? That was Akitos' fear. The fear that without a curse forcing them to stay, no one would actually choose her. The bonds were her way to secure love, or at least the illusion of it, in her life. A soul tie. Akito’s fear of being alone created an even more abusive element to the situation in addition to the trauma they already experienced from their other family members.

The zodiac members were a burden to the rest of the family who had to deal with the challenges of raising them and keeping their curse a secret in society. Their families often rejected, mistreated and abused them - leaving them with broken identities, disordered behavior and in constant rivalry. For instance, Kyo and Yuki were at each other’s throats in competition. We find throughout the series that all they really want is to be accepted. Often a reaction to abuse is to live in extremes. Some become too trusting because they are so desperate for love, while others push people away; convinced they will never find it.

Young Kisa immediately clung to Tohru as one would to a mother the moment she felt understood, and Kyo sabotaged his own chance at love, lashing out and rejecting Toru’s effort to form a true friendship. Kyo is right to be guarded. Trust takes time. A person who trusts too quickly can easily fall prey to someone looking to take advantage of them. But never allowing anyone in because of fear will leave you broken, lonely and regretful. Thankfully, Tohru was a safe place for Kisa and very patient with Kyo. Over time, this formed healthy bonds that made up for what they should have naturally had with family.

We all naturally have invisible bonds with the ones we love. Without the right boundaries they could feel like a curse. We first bond with our parents when coming to the world, then with friends. We fall in love, forming a new bond, making a new family, creating new life, forming a bond with our child that stays with us until death. We were made to bond with each other. However, bonding is always risky, and can be dangerous when the person on the other side of that bond holds it like a leash through manipulation. This is what it's like to have a soul tie with an abuser. But some soul ties are our own doing

For instance, Kureno, the rooster’s situation is unique, because unlike the others who are bound by a curse, he is bound by his own guilt. His curse broke early on, yet he remained loyal to Akito, sacrificing his own freedom, forfeiting his one chance at happiness. He saw loving Akito as a noble deed. This is called martyr syndrome; subjecting oneself to pain and difficulty in the name of showing someone they care. The more painful the relationship, the more valid the love in their minds. But the reality is, not requiring the other person to treat us better, enables and encourages further abuse which will ultimately destroy both people involved. This is what happened to Kureno when he insisted on being there for Akito without setting healthy boundaries. It led to her stabbing him, and later violently attacking Toru, whose authentic connection with the other zodiac members threatened Akito’s power over them. Kureno encouraged Akito to become a monster by not requiring her to love him back.

When you really love someone, you will refuse to let them abuse you. Shigure is a good example of how to set healthy boundaries. Shigure is the dog, but ironically, he is the only one who refused to let Akito treat him like one. He cleverly navigated every situation, always seeming 10 steps ahead of everyone else with his own agenda. The curse was not a setback for him, but an obstacle to her heart. He wanted everyone to be free of their bond to Akito, so he could have all to himself. Unlike Kureno who was officially free and yet lived as he was bound, Shigure, still technically bound by the curse like the others, lived as if he was free. He set a standard for himself and refused to stick around and be abused. And although he had compassion on her and empathized with her pain, he did not make excuses for her behavior and set a strong boundary that kept her from treating him the way she treated others. He stood in his own self-worth so powerfully, that it disarmed her of the dominant masculine facade, exposing her as a vulnerable woman with emotional and physical needs.

Shigure demonstrated his own power over Akito in a way that made her question her power over him. He kept his distance whenever she wasn’t healthy to be around, refusing to go along with the narrative that the others so fearfully followed. His true love for her helped him have grace for her, but his love for himself protected him from letting her abuse him. Eventually, as the curse began to break and she lost her hold on the others one by one, she became desperate to hold on to the one person she knew loved her for real. Scared to be alone, she had to make a change. Akito is the image of a god who controls people, and by the end of the series it's revealed how crazy it made her. She became a god of slaves, who could only love without a choice. We see through this narrative, a world with counterfeit love would prove to be unfulfilling, empty, and truly lonely. Can forced love ever be desirable? Even in this world, a god who can only be loved by force is miserable. So what would a god that allows people to choose look like?

When Tohru entered the Soma family space, she wasn’t accepted by everyone. In fact, many perceived her as a threat. But with the purest intentions, she pursued them all in the face of rejection. She loved unconditionally, consistently and sacrificially. Her acceptance of them in spite of their curse is something none of them had ever experienced, and is what eventually led to breaking the curse. Even though in this story, Akito is supposed to be the god, it’s Tohru who gains the most influence among the Soma’s as a faithful friend and humble servant , making her a reasonable rival for the god role. She is the opposite of Akito. She invites people to love her by initiating and demonstrating love first.

Tohru didn’t actually do anything directly to force change. But she loved people into realizing that they wanted more than the bondage they were born into. She proved her love by suffering along with them and sharing their burdens. In this story Tohru is a direct opposite of Akito - reflecting a love that normal ppl can’t provide. She is an ideal that we expect people to live up to, but in reality, no person can operate like this without burning out. This is why this example of Toru’s love can only be classified as godlike. So don’t necessarily look to Tohru for how to navigate relationships. A better example is Shigure who knew his worth enough to love Akito from a distance. Each of the Zodiac members eventually found identity and self-worth through Toru’s consistent demonstration of love for them, which caused the curse to unravel itself. For the first time they got to decide their own destiny and use their free will.

So would it be better if God made us do exactly what he wanted? If a good God took our free will, the world would be better, right? No war, no murder. We would always choose God’s way because we were made to love him. But we see in this story that real love is born from free will, so this version of God would mean loveless existence. It’s been said that God is love. If this is true, then free will and consequence must be allowed - with the possibility of redemption.And even with everything that happened in the Soma family, one example of love redeemed everything.

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Why do we hate them? Why do we love them? How can we take these flat characters and make them more rounded in storytelling? With the help of Myers briggs personality typing we can make this happen. You probably already know what a Manic Pixie Dream Girl is. If you don’t know, let me elaborate.

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is a trope defined as a free spirited girl who is quirky in her dressing and mannerisms. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl was coined by film critic Nathan Rabin in an attempt to classify Kirsten Dunst’s character in Elizabethtown.

You know them when you see them. They are the kind of character that is child-like, and adventurous. She doesn’t take life so seriously, but chooses to live in the moment. Nathan criticizes that the character “Exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.”

Since then, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl is a term that’s used to discredit movies with a magical, adventurous female who only comes to bring happiness to a depressed man; the perfect woman. Maybe in movies someone who is free spirited is considered the perfect person, but people like this are usually shunned for their personality. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope has been controversial because it depicts this unrealistic standard of how some men envision the perfect woman.

But is it really unrealistic for a girl to dance in the middle of a crowd, spinning around and loving life?

I am aware that the Manic Pixie is a flat character, but is writing a flat character a bad thing? What is a flat character but someone in your life you never truly gotten to know. All acquaintances in our life are flat. The Manic Pixie is just part of an individual's personality who is waiting to be fully understood. Some of us see a character like Star from Star girl, or Sam from Garden State and feel like you met a person like that before. An individual who makes you want to dream again. Maybe that is all you know about them, yet that one dimensional experience is only half their story.

For those who write these Manic Pixie love stories, it kind of speaks volumes about the writer, and how much they actually don't know about the individual who inspired them to create their Manic Pixie love story. So it's unfair to say the Manic Pixie Dream girl isn’t realistic. To those who only see the surface of people like this, this is who they are to them, and Myers Briggs calls it the ENFP.

They are the girls and guys who seem to live by their own rules and are quite happy living a non-conventional life. They are the types that enjoy getting to know Individuals' stories, and dreams, to the point of rooting for that person's dreams more than their own. In reality the Manic Pixie is just a stereotype of the ENFP or the campaigner personality type.

Now that we know that Manic Pixies are real, how can we make this ENFP character more real in a story? A good start is looking at strengths and weaknesses for the ENFP.

The strengths and weaknesses aren't the say all, be all for this type of person. Using Myers Briggs, or any other personality typing system is just a guide to help develop a character for your story. We are going to use 16 personalities.com to help conduct an interesting Manic Pixie.

The list of strengths for ENFP’s are; curiosity, perception, enthusiasm, excellent communication skills, festiveness, and being of good nature.

Their weaknesses are ;people pleasing, unfocused, disorganized, overly accommodating, overly optimistic, and restless. When developing a character it's better to focus on one main strength and weakness to build your story around. Looking at all of the strengths and weaknesses gives you an idea of what kind of person this is. The other personality traits that aren’t the main focus should be used if it becomes relevant.

So as an example, focusing on perception as a strength, and restlessness as a weakness for developing a character. Someone who is strong in being able to shift their perception for all kinds of individuals in the quest to truly understand them, but is restless from the high standards they have set for themselves. They are able to see the value in other people, and can easily encourage them back into hoping again, yet their pursuit of doing fantastical things they have seek out in their own life creates a high standard that prevents them from giving that same grace to themselves. Someone like this uses empathy naturally to tap into how others are feeling, making them excellent at connecting with anyone in a way that searches for deep, valuable truths in a person.

That same strong awareness works even more deeply in themselves, but instead creates a nagging feeling of not being good enough. Their internal world is consistently being measured for perfection by their own personal idealism. Their Manic Pixie persona is their strength and their weakness.

This would probably be a story of a girl, or a guy who is the ideal Manic Pixie; free, and finds purpose in people, advocating against the lies, fears and hopelessness others feel, yet struggles to advocate for themselves against their own demons. Although they come off as always in a good mood, being positive, and always wanting to help others with their own internal world, they are the ones struggling with depression. Because it seems like they have all the answers, no one sees them, and when they speak about their pain no one hears them.

They are the symbol of hope to the outside world, and seeing them down in the dumps makes people uncomfortable. So they hide their struggles. Maybe part of the reason they even focus so much on others, comes from the fact that they are trying to avoid solving the problem in themselves they can’t seem to find a solution for. If the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope had these kinds of layers more people are able to relate to them. Not only that, it's a great opportunity as a writer to help people find answers to life's problems.

These kinds of stories are important because when someone like Robin Williams took his own life, it shocked the world. He brought smiles, laughter, and joy, but it seems like no one could see that he wasn’t happy and that he was really struggling. He was an ENFP. The one who helps everyone find their way, but is left alone to figure things out by themselves. All the bright places, and Lily and Dash are really good movies about ENFP Characters who are very manic pixies, but are either struggling with depression or struggling to be their true self. Writing means so much more when there is purpose behind the words. Revealing the truth of the world we live in . Not only to entertain, but to transport us into someone else's shoes.

The best people to write these kinds of stories are other ENFP’s. Our experience is how stories and characters become more realistic. We tend to want to develop characters that are opposite from ourselves because we believe that is what makes a good writer. But who better than you to tell the story of a character that is similar to you, then yourself. It’s a good place to start if you don't know where to begin.

Something strange has happened in the last 10 years. It’s as if we are living on the other side of a mirror looking at our old selves. Things look familiar but not exactly. That mole on your left cheek is now on the right-side. Everything behind you is now on the other side of the room. What was once deemed strange, immoral and wrong is now normal, righteous, and correct. It makes you wonder if the world really did end back in 2012.

When the world started to change, some didn’t even notice the shift. It was as if they had awakened to a new world, only wondering what had happened.

Some embraced the change because this was the world they had always dreamed of. But for others, this change felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, not because she was searching but because she was pushed. Its 2021 now almost the 10-year Anniversary of the so-called the end of the world. Back then people were freaking out that the end was nigh and this time it wasn’t coming from the Christians.

Back then the big debate was over intelligent design vs evolution, and YouTube was becoming something people called their full-time job. The economy was screwed up which resulted in the occupy wall street movement. That was ten years ago and that was when I noticed the turning of a new world. Feminism, race theory, gender theory, and body positivity began to flood online conversations on places like Tumbler.

It called itself critical theory, a philosophical approach to culture, history, and science teaching people to challenge the old social norms. Re-examining American history, and culture through the lens of the oppressed wasn’t mainstream. The way Americans learned history in the past created a people who didn’t understand anything outside its own boarders. In other words, the American Idiot. But as critical theory became more common, it found itself being challenged online by the skeptic community mostly comprised of atheists.

Those on YouTube at the time who had platforms centering around critical theory focusing on feminism (let’s call them the woke community) found themselves consistently under attack by the skeptic community through video responses. Before, the biggest threat in the world for the skeptics was creationism being taught in schools. Sigh. Those where the days. Many of them considered it child abuse.

But with a new threat to science on the horizon coming from their own side, the community split. One side remained the skeptic community while the other side called themselves Atheism +, meaning atheist, plus feminist, plus anyone else who was an atheist but didn’t feel like they belonged. The woke side wanted to bring critical theory to the forefront of the American identity.

I don’t think anyone had a problem with this. The issue was that it was tampering with science and logic. Terms like social justice warrior and feminazi were thrown around. For me this is where the culture war began. Before Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, and Blair White dominated the conversation online against critical “fill in the blank” theory on YouTube, there was people like Sargon of Akkad, Thunderfoot, and Karen Straughn and so many other Youtubers whom consistently Challenged channels like Feminist Frequency, Laci Green, and Steve Shives on their different faction of wokeness.

But just when the chatter about microaggressions and safe spaces was dying down, this woke ideology moved from an internet discussion to mainstream media fact.

New terms like cis gender and BIPOC were used as if these terminologies were always a normal part of the English language, leaving many people confused of what those words even meant. The turning for those who had been fighting for a voice at the table was not something that happened over night, but for most people it did. Yet as this new world emerged, something about it all felt familiar.

People were pointing out how the woke movement seemed to be a bit cultist. The discussion of the Ideology went from feeling like you could disagree and maybe lose a friend to losing your entire life if you didn’t line up perfectly to the world’s new view. Any evidence of doubt in the ideology caused people to self-censor in order to not lose their job.

Ironically the same people who rejected religion for its dogma had accepted a new religion. The religion of social justice with legalism but no God. The push for ideological purity, seeking out heresy in what we now call cancel culture. It sounds stupid but when that means you can’t feed your family because you don’t think there are 72 genders, you start to wonder if this is the beginning of a new dystopian world.

I know you’re wondering “But how can an ideology with no god be religious.” Ryan Long’s video called The Church Of Woke uses comedy as a way to point out how modern activist are no different than religious people who seek to outcaste those who fall out of line. And in Ayishat Akanbi video call The Problem With Wokeness, she points out how "Wokeness has robbed people of compassion and replace it with moral superiority.” And compares progressivism to a religion.

“Progress has become less of a movement, and more of a religion. Sins are problematic opinions, which there is often no redemption, confessions are the public apology, and the high priest is whoever has the most followers.” (Ayishat Akanbi)

I don’t think re-examining, or re-constructing history and culture is a bad thing. History is told by the victors and hearing the other sides of history gives us a better understanding of the world. Yet wokeness Ironically has only recreated a new culture that pushes an ideology that platforms American issues as the world’s issues, making Americans appear even more self-absorbed and disconnected from the world than before.

Wokeness champions itself as the leaders in decolonization as it colonizes the world with its own ideology. Forgetting that one of the sins of wokeness is to push your culture on to others. Being part of a Christian community, I know a religious person when I see them. We called it the “Religious Spirit.” It’s when someone uses their self-righteousness as a way to hold themself as spiritually superior over others by putting others down who appear to be less spiritual. That’s why you hear Christians say it’s not about religion, but a relationship.

But as I have become older, I now see in this new era, that spirit also operates in ideology as well. Where there is a performance of righteousness, virtue signaling, and the pointing out of others’ un-woke sins, that is the religious spirit. People are ready to show off their holiness via screen shot of tweets of sinners, and videos/ photo shoots of themselves being a part of the good fight. I mean how else would you know how good a person was if they didn’t show you?

An artist friend of mine, Gabrielle Solange defines religion as: a formula people create in an attempt to mass produce something that can only be born of an individual’s vulnerability and authenticity. Famous ideologies, and religions start from individuals seeking truth; using their teachings or media as a way of expression in order to help inspire others. Instead of letting those teachings inspire us, influential people create a dogma from it, taking advantage knowing others look to them for direction, becoming what Jesus would call a generation of vipers.

The religious spirit is in the human heart and anyone can fall prey to it. We thought that if there was no religion, wars would stop. But as the last bloodiest century in human history has taught us, religion was never the problem, it was always us. With no religion we just exchanged old beliefs for new ones. Communism, Fascism, Feminism, Anarchism, Atheism, Conservatism, now Wokeism. Blaming religion is a scapegoat so that we as a human society didn’t have to see our true selves in the mirror.

Religion no longer plays the role in controlling the narrative of what makes a good person in a society. The moral high ground moved from the old religious elite to the new religious elite; social media influencers whose only qualification is having a lot of followers.

The religious spirit was a term Christians created from Jesus’ teachings as a way to stay accountable from falling into being inauthentic so that those who focus on Jesus’ actual message have to reform their heart daily.

Christianity started reforming itself, first breaking away from the religious control of Catholicism in the middle ages and going through the spiritual awakening movements through the last 300 years. The battle of not becoming a religious fanatic isn’t hard, but it takes humility. A religious fanatic isn’t the same as a Jesus freak. A Jesus freak although maybe annoying and believes in things you disagree with, still has love for those who aren’t believers because they see others just like they see themselves vs a religious fanatic seeks to rid the world of evil by any means necessary.

That’s really the cure to the craziness to the self-righteous religious spirit found throughout world history. The cure is humility. Not humility for show and tell. As long as we have a mind, there will always be those seeking for truth; discovering better ways to be a good person, just don’t find yourself becoming the new woke religious fanatics.

Sucker Punch is an extremely underrated movie. At first glance this movie comes off as trashy, and sexist. It just looked like some nerdy male fantasy that I didn’t want to contribute to. But somehow the film got in my hands, and I was shocked that I actually liked it. The story was good, the plot was interesting, and it even had a theme. The film taught me that women’s sexuality gives them power. And all the men Said "Well DUH". Now as someone who spends way too much time in her head and not in the real world.

Sexiness is something I have never really cared about. Women’s sexuality being seen as a strength may be old news to other people, but recently I found it fascinating how powerful femininity actually is, and how our culture really wants to eradicate it because it's seen as a weakness, or a social construct. To an extent I do see it as a social construct especially for women like me who are at the far end of the feminine spectrum, which doesn't change my gender by the way. Just because I don’t wear fake lashes and nails on my doesn’t make me less of a woman. Putting acrylic on my fingers for me is like putting shoes on a cat. I’m very low maintenance. I am only just discovering the power my femininity holds, and I’m liking it. I have learned that it’s only a weakness if you don’t know how to use it. A woman who doesn’t know how to be sexy, can be equal to a man who doesn’t know how to fight. Let me explain.

A sexy man is very tempting, but their looks aren't at the top of what makes them desirable, at least for women. This is why you don't find women at a strip club by themselves. It is seen as a group activity, not a guilty pleasure you do alone. We know that most men's weakness is a woman. Her display of sexiness can render a man powerless. The fact that sucker punch has the main character go into a fantasy world where she fights off monsters, when in reality she is actually just doing a sexy dance makes the theme of this story very clear. That a Woman’s sexuality is a weapon.

The protagonist nicknamed Baby doll is put in a situation where all of her freedom is stripped away. She is taken to a mental health asylum to be lobotomized by her abuser to cover up his abuse. To better cope, Baby doll imagines that the asylum is a gentlemen's club where she and her fellow patients are dancers and the male staff are clients paying to be enticed. Sexuality for Baby Doll is at first intimidating because it’s only been a place of violation; however, she quickly learns that it is the only thing she has giving her any chance of survival. So, without any dance experience, Baby doll taps into her sexuality out of survival instinct as a way to overthrow her oppressor. It wows everyone, making it hard for the club owner, and any other men to look away. We never see the actual dance. Instead, we see a battlefield riddled with fantastical monsters and foreign enemies. If dancing sexy is equal to physical combat for Baby doll, what kind of damage can that really do? Well, it captures the attention and awe of her oppressors, taking control of them.

In most cultures surrounding sex work, dancing is used as an advertisement for sex. From geishas, to belly dancers, from India to the USA. Dance has been used as a way to lure men in to spending money on their sexual desires.To survive in different circumstances, a woman has her body to offer up sexually, like a man who would offer his body in violence. A poor girl may turn to strip clubs, or be an escort, while a poor guy, may turn to gang violence or in war. Your body is all you really have at birth, no one gives it to you as an inheritance. Yes, men can be prostitutes and women can be soldiers. Yet there isn’t the same demand for male sex workers as there are for women, and all countries at war demand men to die on the battlefield.

Our bodies are one of the oldest tools we have used as a means of survival. You can invest in making yourself more attractive or strong to be more valuable. You could probably say being sexy is a primitive skill to have, because everyone has access to it, and just like fighting, some are naturally better at being sexy than others. Being sexy isn’t necessarily about being pretty, it’s more of a mindset. I’ve heard plenty of stories of men leaving a beautiful woman for a less attractive woman. So, it’s not necessarily about being pretty, although it plays a big role in being sexy.

Now this is going to sound offensive for the men and women of this generation. But hear me out because I’m going to get very real. Here is your warning. Living by this principle of sexuality being your weapon outside of survival is very foolish. It’s a disservice to other women, and yourself in the long road. Now do whatever you want, you have the choice to live your life how you please, but a life without boundaries for yourself makes for more of a destructive life. Sexuality holds less value as time progresses because beauty fades.

Sexuality is best used in satisfying yourself and the person you actually love. I know for some that came from an abusive past, this may be all you know of how to survive. You may not know life outside of manipulating people to just get by or being used just to feel wanted. After experiencing trauma, I can understand how difficult it is to see your sexuality the way it was intended and experience it in a healthy environment. If that’s the case, It’s important to seek help and pursue healing in order to move forward and experience sex the way it was created to be experienced. Because you’re worth it. The truth is although our sexuality is powerful, it should be revered. Think of a literal weapon, like a gun. You might carry it on you and let others see your ability to defend yourself. But you hopefully wouldn’t actually use it unless it meant life or death.

Just like a man who lives their life through “Violence” as a way to have power over others when they don’t have to, will lead to destruction, death, emptiness and loneliness. It’s the same for a woman who uses their sexuality unwisely. The consequences are not gender specific. They don’t change just because the woman is violent, and a man is promiscuous. You live by the sword; you die by the sword. The false Idea that women are truly free when they have sex like a stereotypical man may be true for some, but it is not true for most. You have more power in your sexuality when you withhold it from a man, allowing you to have the things you want from that relationship. It’s your God given power. But it only works when most women in a society practice the same values. Sex would no longer be easy to get, because a man has to prove that he is valuable to you since you have something valuable to him.

I know I will get a lot of flak for this, but it’s true. You can’t get mad if that is how nature made us. This is what makes humans different from animals. It’s our animal instinct to mate, but it's our human instinct to have a relationship. Friends with benefits sounds like a trick some man made up so he wouldn’t have to be committed to anyone. As long as a man uses his God given power of strength to take away your power of choice, there is no need to turn your femininity and sexuality into a weapon.

Kelly, a prostitute from California became easy to love. On Christmas eve of 2019, Soft Underbelly made a video interviewing Kelly. We found out she was abused by her mother as a baby, raped at 5 by her foster parent, and a prostitute by 11. We heard her story, we know her past, we learned that she planned on killing herself that Christmas because she had no one and nothing. Kelly’s story went viral and money started pouring in to help the young girl get on her feet. Suddenly Kelly is easy to love. But tomorrow was a different story. Kelly was accused of lying about her story by people who didn’t even know her. YouTubers made videos questioning if she told that story to get money from people. Kelly’s own mother had to come to her defense, revealing to the world that she had to call children services on herself because she was abusing Kelly. Why the change of heart about Kelly and sudden loss of trust?

With money in her pocket from the fundraiser, Kelly’s Instagram showed a girl with long fingernails, flashy clothes, and ghetto jewelry with an attitude that would have you running for the hills. Can we love her now? Without her story, you couldn’t really start to love her. As much as we would like to think of ourselves as loving people, no one really has the capacity to give her the love she really needs. Kelly is one of millions of people in this world who has been dealing with trauma from the womb. Trauma can result in creating a person that no one can really love.

Everyone wants to shout from the roof tops about how love is love, and all you need is love, as if their version of love will fix everything. But our view of love is just as empty as the people in Kelly’s past. How can we as a society claim we can love someone like Kelly because of her traumatic past when divorce stats reveal that we can’t even love the spouse we chose to marry. I’m sure your spouse would be 100% easier to deal with compared to Kelly who probably deals with a ton of mental health issues. So, all this talk in our society about love is a bunch of fluff, rainbows and unicorns. It’s not real. With all of the romance we have in our entertainment, we continue fooling ourselves and the next generation with our skewed understanding of love.

I used to work for an organization that rescues teenagers from forced sexual slavery here in Ohio. Ohio used to be number one for human trafficking in the US. Since learning about human trafficking back in 2005, it pained me to know that this was happening in our country, but it has always been here. While working for the human trafficking organization, I learned that advocates are trying to change the definition of a prostitute from a loose lazy woman, to someone who is a kidnapped victim of carefully crafted manipulation. Yes, there are people who choose to be sex workers, but girls don’t just wake up one morning and want to be a prostitute. When I started my job as a Residential Assistant for trafficked girls, I worked with teens ranging from 12 to 17 years old. I came in, wanting to save them and give them the love I had as I heard their stories, but I got a rude awakening.

Although these girls were rescued and now in safe hands, they needed to be rescued from the damage done psychologically by their families, foster families, and the pimps. The idea that these girls just needed a safe place and home with love and understanding was an understatement. It was like I was in an episode of the Bad Girls’ Club minus the alcohol. Before these girls were victims of sex trafficking, most of them had been neglected and abused by their parents. A lot of times their parents where abusing drugs and were the pimp themselves, selling their children in order to support their drug habits. The life these girls knew just made them perfect targets for a trafficker to come in and fulfill the role of a “Loving Person” that these girls desired so much. Traffickers take this already broken person, twisting them even more. So, you can imagine what it’s like to walk in a house of 6 rescued teenage girls all having PTSD and other mental health issues would be like. It was like all the difficulties you would have with a normal teenager, but on steroids.

They all cared about being liked, being cool, being tough, not looking weak, back talking like normal teens, but would explode if something small didn’t go as planned. Dishes would be broken; furniture would be destroyed - girls beating each other and even threatening to beat me up too. All this could happen if a snack was taken away for not doing schoolwork. It can be very easy to get caught up in fear and just give them what they want, rather than standing your ground and not being afraid. But you have to remember their story, how all of the things they’ve been through made them who they are today. Things you can’t even imagine or wish over your enemies. Building a relationship with these girls requires seeing past the trauma to who they truly are. It helps you to give them mercy, but love is a totally different thing.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” ,1 Corinthians 13:4-8

It’s hard to love someone who treats you bad and doesn’t respect you. It’s easier for us to “love” someone who doesn’t cause us pain. The truth is, organizations like the place I use to work at always start off with good intentions, but without Love the way the Bible defines it, that passion will dwindle away. You will get caught up even acting like the people you're trying to help. You are the one trying to change them, but their Influence can become stronger, and you become the one who is being changed.

So how do you love a prostitute? Kelly’s life story became an opportunity for people to feel good about themselves by giving money and opportunities to her, yet when Kelly failed to meet people’s expectation for immediate change, we lost hope in her, and accused her of lying. People searched the internet for clues that would confirm their suspicions about her. People collected screen shots of her with her family as evidence. Kelly tried to explain that those pictures were visitations she received from being in the system. That love for Kelly came with conditions. If Kelly took that money to only do good and improve her life, she would continue receiving help from those who followed her story. The problem with that is Kelly is human, and because of all of the abuse she lived through, she may not make choices that will meet our expectations. If you actually want to practice love, it has to be unconditional.

Love like that either comes from the natural bond a parent has for their child, or is supernatural. The unconditional love that is supernatural only comes from God. It comes from a relationship with God, spending time with God, and understanding the human condition. It comes from waking up in the morning, knowing you have a higher calling in your life - bigger than what you can do on your own. It comes from knowing that you aren’t good enough to help someone who has been traumatized their whole life. Renewing your mind daily in connection with God is the best way to connect with them. Knowing you are only human, and are not morally superior than anyone. God knows the ins and outs of all of us, and He is the one who puts mercy and forgiveness in our hearts for a difficult person in our life. God gives that because people desperately need it.

Outside of the group home I worked at, it got me thinking about the other people who are unlovable in this world, whose stories we don’t know. It could be someone you sit next to at work, a family member, or a classmate. You may know people who are very toxic, but it may not be their fault if that is all they know. If you know who God is, and His Spirit resides in you, don’t be afraid to love unconditionally because that ability to love comes from God. He will give you wisdom to know how far you can go with someone. If you don’t know God, but you want to be able to love the unlovable, you can just ask Him to help you. And if your heart is open, you will have the ability to actually love people fully, the way He does.

The Washington Post. (Feb 27,2020) A woman’s hard-luck story on YouTube led to thousands in donations. Some smelled a scam.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/02/27/kelly-mark-laita-videos/

Youtube. Soft White underbelly (Jan 28,2020) Prostitute interview-Kelly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEWO2iWGmX4&t=47s

Have you ever agreed with something that seemed logical, but you got this feeling in your stomach telling you it’s not true? As someone who is logical by nature, I can easily push feelings aside for truth. Yet for some reason when I considered the concept of people being proud to be White, my brain agreed, but I felt my gut turn. Why? Don’t we teach black people to be proud of their heritage? Isn’t that hypocritical?

Growing up, I attended Afrocentric, a school that gave precedence to Black history and African studies. One of the things that was pushed in our education was self worth and being proud to be black. I know what you are thinking, what’s wrong with White people being proud of themselves too? I’m glad you asked.

Nothing is wrong with being proud to be who you are. With children, it's very important to teach them to like themselves. For black kids, liking themselves can be a problem in their early years especially when it comes to the way they look. It’s hard seeing yourself in the mirror when your skin and hair resemble your African heritage, but everything around you subliminally reflects European beauty as the standard. It’s so important that a black child is taught that they are beautiful, smart and important, or they will default to believing otherwise. This is why it is so necessary to teach them to love the skin they are in. Things are changing. As positive black representation arises and black kids see themselves in the media and in leadership, their importance is becoming more and more obvious to them naturally.

Back to that weird feeling I got from saying “White people should be proud to be white.” I know that the phrase isn’t intended to mean harm, but something was up with the word “White”. Identifying as one’s skin color I think only exists here in the US, and probably South Africa. British people don’t refer to themselves as white, or any other Europeans. They don’t even say they are a White British, they just call themselves British. People from Jamaica with citizenship in Britain may say they’re black, but they know and will identify themselves as Jamaican, or just British, or whatever the word is for both. Even in the US, Jamaicans call themselves Jamaican. Why don’t Jamaicans just say they are black? Because they don’t have to. They know they are Jamaican.

Although they are descendants of Africa like us, they find their identity in Jamaica. For the US, things are more complex because of the tragic history surrounding race in this country, which resulted in black people not having full citizenship until the 60’s, causing us to never fully assimilate. We unconsciously don’t feel American because of how long it took for us to be legal citizens. Jesse Jackson tried to get black people to identify as African American, but most of us prefer to be called black, and why? We don’t identify with Africa because most of us have never been there, and America has never felt like home.

Black is what we have been called since we arrived in the US, and unfortunately, its where our history begins. For whites, they knew their history before arriving in the US, so their history doesn’t start here. As many as there are white families in the US, that is how many origin stories white people have. They didn’t come to this country identifying as “white”. They came here as Irish, British, Russian, German, French, Spanish, Italian, the list goes on and on. It wasn’t until the 1st or 2nd generation that they could finally assimilate and see themselves as American.

When I hear a white person say I am proud to be Italian, Russian or British, it doesn't feel like anything is weird or wrong. That’s because these identities are tied to more than just their skin color. White people know where they come from, and to be proud of that is good. Black American’s identity only ties us to our skin color, because that’s how our story in the US begins. Our skin marked us as unworthy of freedom, and it still marks us today.

In Africa we were not black people, we were Fula, Akan, Yoruba, Bambera, Mandinka ect, but slavery in the US, Europe, and yes the Middle East, tied African’s identities to their skin color. Black people can’t point to a specific people and place that they come from. When Black people say that they are proud to be Black, it makes sense because of our shared history of overcoming slavery and racism.

White people don’t all share the same history. The history of “White” is the oppression of Black people. White people only need to identify as White because they identified us as Black. It’s now part of our culture to say White people and Black people with no intent to be negative or feel superior, but I believe this history is why I got that feeling from the phrase “Proud to be White.” There is a reason why only the Alt Right uses that phrase, and no one else.

To be proud of being white is to be proud of the struggles blacks have gone through. I know most white people don’t feel that way, and some don’t have a family history of those atrocities. So I wanted to explore where that feeling came from and why it felt so wrong. Being proud to be an American or any other nationality just doesn’t feel wrong, even with the bad parts of their history. A nation isn’t tied merely to the color of one’s skin, but to culture, government, history, tribes, and language.

Europeans labeled themselves White to separate themselves from Africans as superior, so celebrating the term will always feel wrong. African descendants adapted to the label of “Black,” originally meant to dehumanize them, and created a new culture we now embrace. Regardless of our history, there is one thing we should all be proud of. It was Americans who fought to end slavery, White and Black. While other nations had a history of slavery for hundreds of thousands of years - some continuing to this day. I’m glad our country could be a part of ending slavery some 91 years after it declared its own self free.

A lot of us become inspired before we create. We use our creativity as an outlet to release that something inside of us to share with others. With some creative outlets like music and art, the piece can be considered good even if there’s no point to it. If the beat is good, or the art is pleasant to the eye, people will like it. With storytelling, it’s difficult to write something that is considered good, with no point to it. When a story is outstanding, it stays with you, sometimes for the rest of your life.

We may want to write about this fantastical world we have envisioned. Maybe we want to tell a love story, or we want to write a thriller. Regardless of what route we take when writing a story, there is one thing that should be sorted out first. Why?

What’s the point of this story? It must be more than just this amazing world you built, or these cool characters with these relatable personalities. In this world you created, there is a vast of possibilities in characters and different perspectives you can explore in your world, just like amount of people and perspectives in the world you already live in. You take that perspective or experience from our world and then stick that in the world you created.

One of the best examples I can think of is from Hook, directed by Steven Spielberg.

How would you describe this movie? It’s about Peter Pan as an adult who starts a family in the real world after he completely loses his memory of Neverland. Captain Hook finds him in the real world, and then kidnaps his children.

So, what is the purpose of this story, other than entertainment? Well, you can say that this story reveals that this adult Peter Pan’s real problem is he no longer had his child like essence anymore, and was now a workaholic, Peter needs to tap back into who he used to be to save his kids, and be the father his children deserve. That is something everyone can relate to and hits home for a lot of people. You could take that story of a father needing to be there for his kids and put it in any genre. You can replace Captain Hook with someone else, and change the world, but you still have a story. Without this there is no story. It’s just an adult Peter Pan returning to neverland for shits and giggles.

What about Hunger Games? You can say that Hunger Games is about a girl who is put in a reality show where she must kill other young people to survive. She stands up against the system and starts a revolution. Now most of us haven’t been on reality tv or been a part of a revolution… well not yet.

So, what’s the point, why is this happening to her? You can say Hunger Games is about a girl who sacrifices her life to possibly dying on a reality show in exchange to save her younger sister’s life. Everyone can relate to the love we have for someone in trouble in which their wellbeing puts us in jeopardy, maybe not like in the Hunger Games, but it’s easy to connect to that story.You can take the sacrifice one sibling will make for the other and build a story and world around it. It may not be as great as the Hunger Games, but you have a story.

So, what is a bad example? I would say The 2018 movie A wrinkle in time. You can say the movie is about a girl name Meg whose scientist father learns how to travel through space quickly to planets light years away, but he gets lost, So Meg has to search the universe for him with the help of three women.’

So, what’s the purpose of this story? Well, according to the movie, Meg has to get rid of her negative ideas so she can tesser properly, and not be overtaken by the IT. The movie kept making a big deal over the fact that meg wasn’t tessering properly, but they never mention why, just hoping we got it. It was hard to see what the point of this story was. Based on its new age theme, and Oprah being in it, I guess it’s about ….um. getting rid of evil with love. It seemed like they relied more on the world building and not the story. And that is why it did so badly with critics, and audiences.

The book’s purpose was to show that things aren’t always what they seemed. Just because something is different doesn’t mean it’s bad, and just because something is familiar doesn’t mean it’s good. This is something we can all relate to. I’m sure there where times in your life when something was familiar, but it ended up holding you back. Then there are times when things where unfamiliar, but it made you to be a better person, setting you free.

These little parts in a story that gives a story purpose is somewhat the spirit of a story. You never want to read something or watch a movie to get to the end wondering what the point was. Some stories maybe boring, but you don’t feel like you wasted time when you got something out of it. You never want to leave people feeling like they wasted their time.

If a story was a body, the purpose or the point of the story would be its soul. Because its deep in our soul where we desire a purpose

So, don’t forget the purpose of your story.

I came across a Netflix movie called Step Sisters, about a black girl named Jamilah who is the head of her sorority. To get the Dean of her University to write a letter of recommendation for Harvard, Jamilah must teach a white sorority the art of Stepping to help fix their tarnished reputation. Jamilah knows how it would look to her step team, and the rest of the black campus community but she agrees.

Watching this movie in the time we are in as protests for social issues are happening all the time, with new buzz words like microaggressions, and cultural appropriation seeming to come out of nowhere, I originally figured that this Netflix movie would be about how white people steal black culture, aka “Cultural Appropriation”. But as I continued watching, I realized this movie Step Sister had a different message than I thought. A message that we don’t hear told in the media.

You don’t really hear this issue addressed much. When I was young in school, I used to hear my black peers telling another black kid that they were acting too white. From my white peers, they would brag about how they felt more black because of knowing a rap song some black kid didn’t know.We have this notion that our skin color means we are supposed to act a certain way, like certain things, and only care about certain topics. When your personality doesn’t fit into people’s color box, people may point out that you are acting white, not realizing they are suppressing who you are.

In Step Sisters you see this in two characters. Jamilah is our main character, and Sandra who is the only black girl in the white Sorority. While Jamilah teaches the girls stepping, she notices Sandra is having a hard time. Jamilah lets Sandra know that this is a good opportunity to connect to her black roots. It was obvious Sandra grew up around a lot of white people, because she was “Acting White.” But the truth was, Sandra wasn’t acting. Sandra was just being Sandra. A girl who grew up in an upper-middle-class environment with mostly white people. Sandra mentions later that she tried to be a part of the black sorority but was denied for acting too white, therefore she was with the white girls.

It’s no different for white people who are told they are acting black, so what is the truth?

The truth is someone like Bhad Bhabie aka, The Catch Me Outside Girl isn’t acting black. She is from the ghetto. If you ever lived in the ghetto, then you know that there are white people there too. And if you met a white person from the ghetto, you know they aren’t acting, and why? It’s the environment they came from. This isn’t something that just exists in the US. The area or class one came from reflects how one talks. Language changes as time pass, so there really isn’t a right way to talk. It’s not a matter of race, it’s a matter of geography and class.

Later Jamilah gets confronted by a friend about using the black sorority to prove how black she was, which Jamilah admitted was true. The truth was that although she wasn’t like Sandra, they both grew up very similarly. They grew up around mostly white people in an upper-middle-class environment. Except Jamilah was a closeted nerd, and Sandra was a prep. Things you typically associate with being white, at least in the black community.

This wasn’t really a major theme, but I think it’s important. Jamilah dates a white guy named Dane who is an African American and Political Science Major. Throughout the movie, he shows how knowledgeable he is about black culture. It gets so bad that he ridicules Jamilah for showing the white sorority how to step. He even corrects Jamilah after calling the MC racist for saying the white sorority was “White as shit”. Dane Immediately tells Jamilah that blacks can’t be racist.

It’s common conversation to talk down about white people because of the struggles black people in US history faced. It is seen as punching up, not punching down at white people. It’s still doesn’t make it ok because we are not groups of people but individuals. Believing you are superior to someone else because of your ethnic group regardless of why, makes you racist whether you are conscious of it, or not.

If your definition of racism is based on what you learned in college, not the actual definition of racism which is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior, well then you should get your money back from that college course. I know it’s taught that one must be in power over another in order to be a racist. Obama was the most powerful person in the world, so did that make the KKK suddenly not racist anymore? Jamilah hid the fact that she was teaching stepping to white girls because she knew what people would say.

Towards the end of the movie we learned that the white sorority got second place, but really came in first. The judges gave them second place because they wanted to continue to keep stepping black, demonstrating that black people can be racist. You may come from an ethnicity that has been oppressed, or maybe even were taught you that you are better than everyone because of your ethnicity. That is still a racist mentality. It seems like the definition of the word racist has changed to mean one who is born white.

If there is a need for a new word in our language to prove a point, then fine, but instead of creating a new word, the word racist is used to mean a white person. Because of how much power the word “Racist” holds in our hearts, it directly triggers an emotion in us, causing us to see someone in a certain way even though the meaning of the word has changed. Now suddenly black people can be prejudiced, but never racist.

Jamilah gets caught teaching stepping to the white sorority by her step team and her mother. She is accused of betraying all black Greek culture, the black Greek community, and those who created the space for black people in a time when they were not accepted. Cultural appropriation is something I have a love/hate relationship with. On one hand when someone rocks something as if they made it up, and then gives it a new name as if it's brand new, that’s kind of messed up. On the other hand, saying someone can't do something because their race doesn’t match a culture is dumb. It’s easy to fix the first issue. When someone is trying to give a new name to something that’s not new at all, call them out. In the age of the internet, it’s even easier to call someone out.

A people group doing something cultural doesn’t mean another people group must ask for permission before using it. Yes, there are cultural things that are sacred, but culture changes, coming and going. For the most part, although there are a lot of cultural differences between people, there are some similarities amongst us all. If we supposedly come from one people, then all culture really belongs to everyone. Culture can be a beautiful thing, but I honestly believe culture can be very overrated. People would put culture above an individual because something has been done for X amount of years. Because something is an ancient practice, it doesn't mean it’s good. It’s pretty obvious when someone is appreciating a culture, and we know when someone is trying to be disrespectful.

It sounds really dumb to ask permission to do something from another culture. One person from the culture might get upset, another person could care less, and there are those who get really excited when they see someone appreciating their culture.

One man may say it's fine to do a rain dance, while the next guy will say NO, but I say do you. If you want to do something because you like it, do it. If you want to disrespect another culture, do it. Don't expect anyone to respect you though.

Steps Sister is a really good movie. You probably think it is too political based on the things I pointed out, but it isn’t. Step Sisters is pure entertainment and very funny. I was happy to see that someone in Hollywood could see what I saw in the world. It's kind of a surprise and not a surprise that this movie has a black writer and director. Which just proves black people are more than what we make ourselves out to be.