Elliot Rodger Is The Hidden Normal

by

You’ve heard about Elliot Rodger, the man who essentially went to murder a bunch of women because he felt rejected by women overall and decided to take his revenge.  It’s horrible, and his 140 page manifesto reveals a narcissistic, self-centered, entitled person who literally felt justified in killing people because of their gender because someone wouldn’t date him or sleep with him.  He was a person who had adsorbed toxic faux-masculinity of the MRA and PUA world.  He was in short, a horrible person.

He’s also far, far too common.  There are plenty of could-be Elliot Rodgers out there, plenty of people who are like him but just haven’t picked up a gun yet, too many people who regard women as property they’re entitled to.

Women face this all the time.  There’s plenty of people like him.  You can find the extreme “manosphere” documented at WeHuntedTheMammonth (which does so with humor probably as the only other reaction is horror).  You can read about how women face hatred for their gender and disregard for their gender in the #YesAllWomen hashtag.

Elliot Roger wasn’t as out there as we think.  That’s hard to cope with because we like to think we’re good.

You hear his whining voice in every guy who thinks “women” are to blame for everything.  You see the gleam of hatred in the eye of every overpaid pundit who talks about women as another species.  It’s in Steubenville, it’s whenever the media write off some rape case involving a popular media figure.

You hear it when you talk to your female friends and relatives.  It’s everywhere.  Are you the “person who hears it all” in your group of friends?  Then you know how bad it is with the certainty of a sunrise.

Right now bad treatment of women is far too normal in our society.

It’s just we don’t admit it, even though we know it is.

It’s sick, bizarre, disgusting, and beneath us.  It’s horrible, it’s human, it’s degrading.  It’s wrong in a way that’s hard to express.

But people are trying to express it.  It’s time to solve it.  To fix it.  It’s time to not let this fade into the background and scrubbed-away bloodstains and a bad television movie.

Right now Elliot Roger is out there in a way, his hatred and self-centeredness was a manifestation of the larger problem.  There’s another Elliot Roger in the head of a guy who thinks women should date him as he’s so great, he’s in the voice of someone casually calling women “bitches.”

He might even be in your head or that of your friend or family.  Or you.

So it’s time we exorcize the sick son-of-a-bitch.

Get him out of your head.  Work to overcome any misogyny you picked up in the culture. Don’t accept hateful behavior and call it out. Raise awareness of things. Donate. Make a difference.

Or we’ll do this all again, mourn again, and write it off again the next time there’s a horrible killing.  Just like little bits of hatred-of-women are written off all the time.

– Steven Savage

 

 

 

50 Shades Of Resume #50: Sew, Sew, Sew

by

Resume 50

Melissa Washin is a creative person. She likes to get hands on. She likes to make things.

She made a resume out of cloth.

So you can see what I saved this one for last. It’s rare you find someone who’s resume is a piece of fiber arts – and this comes from a guy who lives a few miles a way from a fabric arts museum. It’s a resume on cloth.

Now beyond the fact that it’s the only cloth resume I’ve seen since . . . ever, there’s also some important lessons here.

  • First, let’s be honest, this makes an impression. It’s a very unusual idea – and really makes me think of how we can use different materials for resumes. Having once seen a metal business card, I can say non-standard materials have an impact.
  • Secondly, what she does with this unusual material is put on a standard resume. That’s actually a smart idea in that, since she has such an unusual material, a tamer design may be in order.
  • She uses patterned cloth. That’s important because if it had been simple white cloth it wouldn’t have made quite an impression.
  • With the resume design, she uses different colors of fonts to make sections stand out. That also works on the cloth design because a straight mono-color resume would seem too dull. Balancing the unusualness with the standard design is probably a bit of a challenge.
  • It shows imagination. Again, when’s the last time you’ve seen a cloth resume? Even if it is never used, it’s a great portfolio addition.

Critiques? Not any really. This is a great intersection of “stunt” resume and regular resume, and well done.

This may not be the kind of resume you can use anywhere, but it’s mere existence shows that its creator has skill and imagination. Some resumes, as noted, are great as projects all their own.

As you may guess, for my cosplay readers, I’m going to suggest that this might be an idea to try out in one form or another.

Steve’s Summary: Sadly I double I’ll ever see a cloth resume in my IT career. But say I did see this somehow and it’d get my attention right away – it makes you want to know more about the creator because how does one come up with something like this?

[“50 Shades of Resume” is an analysis of various interesting resumes to celebrate the launch of the second edition of my book “Fan To Pro” and to give our readers inspiration for their own unique creations.]

– Steven Savage

50 Shades Of Resume #49: The Coordinated

by

Resume 49

Alexander Parker’s resume and business cards are part of a coordinated project – the design of each reflects the other. Alone that’s pretty neat, but the resume design is also pretty impressive.  Together it’s a serious job search combo.

Let’s discuss the coordinated idea first – it’s basically a good strategy (and one I’ve been emphasizing over time in this project). The use of the “Alex icon”, the font, the “funnel” border designs, all unify the look. What I like about that:

  • It shows planning and consideration.
  • It’s a clear, effective design, showing talent.
  • The card functions almost as a mini-resume.
  • The effort is also subtle – it’s not “in-your-face” and I think that makes it effective.

But let’s look at the resume:

  • This is another good example of a two-column resume – employment on the left, skills and education on the right. It works quite well – and using borders to offset the skills/education are adds some additional division.
  • The Work Experience section is a classic piece, with detailed descriptions.
  • I like the “iconic” picture of the creator. It adds personalization while still maintaining the simple ensign. Speaking of . .
  • This is a good, effective, precise design. It’s got some color to jazz it up, smart design, but it’s not aggressive about it. It’s very effective.
  • The chosen color scheme works well – the lime green stands out without overdoing it.

Any suggestions? Only one . . . well, related ones.

  • As usual, I’d put skills higher up. There could probably be more skills as well. I might add more or categorize them.

Steve’s Summary: The kind of resume I like to see – I can share it with anyone, it shows creativity and thought, and innovation as well as tradition.

[“50 Shades of Resume” is an analysis of various interesting resumes to celebrate the launch of the second edition of my book “Fan To Pro” and to give our readers inspiration for their own unique creations.]

– Steven Savage