pro tip for research papers or just finding stuff to read in your field:
If there’s a paper or even a book you want to read and it’s behind a subscription paywall or selling for something crazy like $50 a pop, look on ResearchGate. ResearchGate is basically scientist Facebook. You can find the author’s profiles there most of the time. Sometimes, they have the whole thing posted there for FREE because they want people to read and review their stuff. If it’s not, there is a personal messaging system where (if you make an account, and that’s free) you can respectfully request them to send you a copy.
I have found stuff I previously dismissed as being behind a paywall just laying there and had people send me things.
Go forth and read. Maybe make a connection or two and let someone know you’re interested in their work.
This is your reminder from your local neighborhood physics gay that as we enter the first round of midterms:
Self-care is important. I understand that a full 8 hours of sleep is not always possible but do your best. Your brain needs breaks. Reward yourself for your work with intermittent snack + memes breaks. Try not to over-isolate yourself. Do not make yourself a sacrificial lamb on the alter of academia.
Make sure you're eating as balanced a diet as you can afford. I understand that sometimes you enter test week and all you have in the kitchen is a gallon of peanut butter, some tortillas, and $4 left on your card, but if you can try to make it to the grocery store the week before and stock up on fruits, soups, snacks, and low-effort-but-still-nutritionally-appropriate meals.
Try your best to refrain from tying your academic performance to your personal identity. As a public-school identified, bona fide """Smart Kid"""" [insert heavy eye roll here] I understand that it can be hard to separate yourself from your grades, but trust me, they are (and should be) separate. This is a big problem, especially for you super Type A STEM-gremlins. Allow me to share what my calc 1 TA told me right before my first exam:
"Your worth as a human being cannot and should not be measured by an exam. Please try to relax, and if you can try to enjoy the process of solving hard problems"
This post is brought to you by my ever present concern for the students I tutor.
QUEERBAITING: BAITING A QUEER AUDIENCE WITH THE PROMISE OF REPRESENTATION?
So, I finally got around to translating my term paper on Queerbaiting. I initially intended on translating it all manually, but ended up not having the time for it. Finally I decided on using DeepL for the translation, as it works great for academic writing and can handle german sentence structure.
This paper was written in September 2018 and turned in on September 31st. It was graded with 1.3 on the german academic grading scale (”very good” or ~3.7 in the US).
Introduction
Although the phenomenon of queer baiting made its way into media research a few years ago, the number of publications written on it remains manageable. A keyword search provides 125 academic texts containing the term "Queerbaiting" and almost exclusively from the last 5 years.[1]
Nevertheless, queer baiting does not seem to be a topic unknown to the non-academic general public. A search with common search engines and the keyword "Queerbaiting" yields 150,000-175,000 results [2], including Wikipedia entries, videos and articles in online magazines. In the English-speaking world there are various online articles that deal with this phenomenon - often in relation to television series such as Once Upon A Time (cf. Langfelder 2016) or The 100 (cf. Shakeri 2017). But there are also German-language texts on this topic (cf. Sky 2018). Even in the Lexikon der Filmbegriffe of the University of Kiel there is an entry on this subject (cf. Schlichter 2017). Queerbaiting seems to be a topic that repeatedly sparks discourse.
In social media, users can exchange views on this topic and there are different opinions on what can be considered queer baiting and what not. In preparation for this work, I have asked online for examples of queer baiting in order to extend the selection of the object of investigation by the examples I know personally.[3] The following answers show a dissatisfaction with the current amount of representation of queer [4] relationships in film and television. Among the mentioned examples were the already mentioned television series The 100, the series Supergirl, Riverdale, Pretty Little Liars and 13 Reasons Why, as well as the cross-media Harry Potter franchise.
But queer baiting is not limited to the protracted storylines of television series; this phenomenon can also be observed in games like Life Is Strange or films like the Pitch Perfect trilogy.
The present work deals with the term queer baiting and the related concepts. In this context, the representation of LGBTQ+ identities in American Hollywood film will also be discussed. In addition, two social media posts will be examined as concrete examples, which served as advertising for the film Pitch Perfect 3. The work will answer the question why queer baiting can be so frustrating for LGBTQ+ viewers and which mechanisms make queer baiting possible.
[1] Via Google Scholar, as of 24.09.2018.
[2] Via Google: 153,000 results, via Yahoo: 175,000 results, via Bing: 175,000 results, as of 24.09.2018.
[3] This took place via a post in the anonymous social network Jodel, in a channel (@girlsgirlsgirls) in which primarily LGBTQ+ topics concerning women are discussed. The respective post can be found under the link:
https://share.jodel.com/post?postId=5b210941c3c100000f3bced8&channel=other&_branch_match_id=572700582120145397.
[4] Queer as generic term for identities and sexualities falling into the LGBTQ+ spectrum.
Terminology
Queerbaiting is a term coined by fans, whose meaning has changed over the years (cf. Nordin 2015: 4f.). Also in its established meaning there are different approaches of how the term can be interpreted.
Eve Ng defines queer baiting as a practice originating from producers that exploits the interest of recipients in narratives with LGBTQ+ themes without actually fulfilling these expectations.
I use the term queerbaiting to refer to situations where those officially associated with a media text court viewers interested in LGBT narratives - or become aware of such viewers - and encourage their interest in the media text without the text ever definitively confirming the nonheterosexuality of the relevant characters. (Ng 2017: 1.2)
By this, however, she also understands narratives that contain LGBTQ+ themes, but where there is a discrepancy between the audience's expectations and actual representation in the media text. It is precisely this discrepancy between the expectations built up and the actual text that constitutes queer baiting for her (cf. Ng 2017: 1.2). These expectations of the audience arise through both intratextual references and the "producer paratext", which contains information on the text from the producers (this can be any form of extratextual promotion from the producers) as well as through so-called "queer contextuality" - the summation of the audience's previous experiences with the media representation of queer figures (cf. ibid.: 1.3, 2.5).
While Ng uses her definition very openly, Judith Fathallah is much more precise:
Queerbaiting may be defined as a strategy by which writers and networks attempt to gain the attention of queer viewers via hints, jokes, gestures, and symbolism suggesting a queer relationship between two characters, and then emphatically denying and laughing off the possibility. (Fathallah 2014: 491)
In this definition, the focus is less on the relationship between producer and recipient, instead it defines queer baiting via intratextual cues and codes, and the intratextual rejection and/or mockery of a queer relationship.
The core of the phenomenon remains the same in both definitions: First, references to a non-heterosexual relationship are scattered, be it in the text or in the paratext - a queer reading is promoted - this leads to expectations on the part of the recipients, these expectations are then not fulfilled in the text, the relationship is not realized or possibly even the possibility of a queer relationship is dismissed as absurd. Queerbaiting is therefore a concept to be understood literally: one is baited with a queer relationship.
While queer baiting is a rather recent phenomenon (cf. Nordin 2015: 66), queer readings of media texts go back further. The queer interpretation of the relationship between the characters Spock and Captain Kirk of the Star Trek franchise demonstrably dates to the 1980s and beyond (cf. Jenkins 2006: 90f.). This interpretation of media texts - "queer reading" - stems from the lack of adequate representation:
A queer reading is constructed by a reader who, denied the obvious manifestation of homosexual desire, in a context in which heterosexual desire is normalized, seeks to identify the codes by which authors have indicated passionate relationships between same-sex members of their texts or have created available metaphors through cross-species relationships. (Mendelsohn 2002: 45)
Queer baiting is thus always connected to queer reading, since it would not be possible without this reading by the viewer - only the willingness to regard certain codes as homoerotic subtexts enables the systematic exploitation of these by producers.
The definition of queer baiting used in this work as a deliberate economically motivated tactic is based on the definition of the authors Guerrero-Pico, Establés and Ventura:
[...] 'queerbaiting' [is] a tactic whereby media producers suggest a homoerotic subtext between characters as a means to improve or maintain a show's ratings without actualizing or consummating such a relationship beyond suggestion and innuendo. (Guerrero-Pico/Establés/Ventura 2018: 313)
Although this definition explicitly refers to television productions, it can, in my opinion, also be applied to the example used in this work, which is the last iteration of a film trilogy that takes up subtext established in earlier films.
If one speaks of Queerbaiting, it cannot be avoided to also deal with Bury-Your-Gays, a phenomenon, which often appears in connection with Queerbaiting and represents a similar problem. Bury-Your-Gays is the recurring motif that queer figures in media texts often come to a violent end. In this way, despite the existence of these figures, a heteronormative narrative is promoted by denying queer figures a "happy end" and thus placing queer identities in a negative context (cf. Waggoner 2017: 3). Examples are Chloe in Life Is Strange[5] and Lexa in The 100 [6] . Since queer female characters, mostly lesbian women, often find a violent end in the media, one also speaks in this context of the "Dead Lesbian Syndrome" (cf. Guerrero-Pico/Establés/Ventura 2018: 312). Ng regards this phenomenon (without explicitly naming it) as a form of queer baiting instead of an independent phenomenon (cf. Ng 2017: 1.2).
Guerrero-Pico, Establés and Ventura examine the reactions of fans to the death of the serial character Lexa more closely. Among other things, they were able to observe an online movement called "LGBT Fans Deserve Better", which was primarily concerned with the representation of lesbian and bisexual women on television. This included online attacks on the producers of the series The 100, mainly via Twitter, as well as the wider context of negative fan practices, which for the authors fall under the term "fan-tagonism" [7] (cf. Guerrero-Pico/Establés/Ventura 2018: 312).
[5] If the player has chosen one of the two ends. Also Chloe's ex-girlfriend Rachel, who is already dead at the beginning of the game.
[6] Further examples are Sara Lance in Arrow, Tara Maclay in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hugh Culber in Star Trek: Discovery and all queer characters ever released in The Vampire Diaries. A list can be found on the website Does the dog die? (https://www.doesthedogdie.com/#topicTable ).
[7] A Portmanteau from "fan" and "antagonism".
Representation
One aspect of the debate on queer baiting is the question of the representation of queer persons and relationships in film and television. Why is this representation important? And if representation is important, is queer baiting a problem for them?
The prevailing opinion in literature is that representation is important because it serves identity formation and affirmation. Through (positive) representation, negative feelings concerning one's own identity can be overcome and social isolation can be reduced (cf. Guerrero-Pico/Establés/Ventura 2018: 314). What is regarded as satisfactory representation changes over time, what was still regarded as positive representation in the 1990s would no longer be accepted as produced by many people today (cf. Nordin 2015: 63).
Whether queer baiting causes a representative damage is difficult to answer, Brennan sees no damage caused by queer baiting, instead he sees the creative potential for fans who create transformative works (cf. Brennan 2018: 202). However, the indignation caused by queer baiting cannot be denied, so it should be reconsidered whether subjectively perceived damage is not caused by the absence of representation. Guerrero-Pico, Establés and Ventura summarise the views of participants in the "LGBT Fans Deserve Better" movement as follows:
Queerbaiting is perceived, therefore, as a commercial trivialization of the problems that affect lesbian and bisexual fans, who do not find a normalized and healthy representation of their affective and sexual identities in hegemonic discourses (Guerrero-Pico/Establés/Ventura 2018: 327).
While the evaluation of representation in the viewer is subjective, there are tools to create a comparable basis for discussion. One of these tools is the so-called Vito Russo Test. This test, developed by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and named after its founder, is based on the Bechdel Test. For a film to pass the Vito Russo test, three conditions must be true:
The film must contain at least one character that is recognizably gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and/or queer.
This character must not be primarily defined by sexuality and/or gender identity.
The character must be involved in the plot of the film to the extent that his or her absence would have a significant effect on it - he or she must be of significance. (cf. glaad.org 2018a)
The organisation GLAAD also publishes an annual report entitled "Studio Responsibility Index" which examines and classifies the LGBTQ+ representation in the films of the previous year of the seven largest Hollywood film studios[8].
For the 2017 film year, 12.8% of the films examined contained at least one LGBTQ+ character, of which 64% were gay men. Overall, 71% of the LGBTQ+ characters were men and 29% women (cf. Glaad.org 2018b). Of these films, 64% passed the Vito Russo test (cf. Glaad.org 2018a).
The film Pitch Perfect 3 and the studio Universal Pictures (short: Universal) dealt with in the following section can also be found in this report. Of the 14 films published by Universal, 4 included LGBTQ+ persons, so that Universal published the most LGBTQ+ inclusive films of the studios surveyed, of which only one passed the Vito Russo Test - Get Out. Pitch Perfect 3 did not pass the test, despite the presence of a lesbian character[9] (cf. Glaad.org 2018c).
[8] 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Brothers.
[9] The character Cynthia (Ester Dean) is only a background character.
"Ship": short for "relationship".
Pitch Perfect 3
The Pitch Perfect Trilogy is about a fictional university's A-Capella group The Barden Bellas, which protagonist Beca (Anna Kendrick) joins in the first film of the trilogy. The sequels play about 3 years after their predecessors and show The Barden Bellas during and after their time at the university.
The example I chose coincidentally shares a name with the video game Life is Strange: Chloe (Brittany Snow). This was connected by fans with the name Beca to the Portmanteau "Bechloe". This "ship name"[10] is used by fans to refer to the romantically interpreted relationship between the two characters. This relationship, however, takes place exclusively in the subtext and parate text of the films. The latter will be examined further here.
Already in 2016 Kendrick spoke in an interview with the LGBTQ+ magazine The Advocate about the relationship between the two characters and called it a quasi lesbian relationship[11] (see Advocate.com 2016). In the same interview she indicated that the homoerotic subtext perceptible in the second film was intended by the production side as a reaction to the queer interpretation of the relationship through fans (ibid.)[12].
Online marketing for Pitch Perfect 3 also plays with this interpretation of the relationship between the two characters. A commercial clip distributed in the Snapchat app shows Kendrick and Snow approaching each other, giving the impression they're going to kiss next. Instead, they turn to the camera and Kendrick asks the viewer to move up for more (in the app, linked websites or additional information can be accessed via this function). Due to the way the app works, previous content can no longer be accessed, but the video was saved by a user and published via Twitter[13] (Figure 1).
(Figure 1)
From the user's brief commentary it can be concluded that she felt a certain resentment about this type of marketing. In the reactions of other users to this post, the term "queer baiting" already appears repeatedly, so it can be assumed that at least some of the users regard this video, or the film to which it refers, as such.
The video plays with the expectation of viewers who emerge from a coded body language. Due to the physical closeness and the placement of the two actresses' hands, a pictorial language emerges with which otherwise romantic relationships are represented. The invitation to the viewer insinuates that a kiss is possible and that perhaps there is room in the film being advertised. The viewer who is interested in queer narratives thus gets an incentive to see the film, which, however, does not fulfil this expectation.
Another video[14] published on the Twitter account "Universal PicturesUK" shows scenes from the film Pitch Perfect 3, including a scene in which the seemingly naked characters Beca and Chloe stand behind one another, a scene in which the two characters are again shown over which red hearts have been overlaid digitally this time, and a scene in which Chloe puts her hands on Beca's chest to push her aside and then grabs her further, observed by the character Aubrey (Anna Camp).
(Figure 2)
The video is accompanied by the comment: "One day left ... Will Bechloe ever happen 👯? #PitchPerfect3 in cinemas tomorrow." (Figure 2). Not only is a very clear visual language used here, the term "Bechloe" is also used in a targeted manner, thus revealing an awareness of the possible queer dimension of the relationship. The queer reading is taken up and reinforced by the montage of the film scenes. In the context of the film, however, these are treated more as jokes than as opening up an actual romantic dimension, for which the film was criticized by GLAAD, among others (cf. Glaad.org 2018c).
On the basis of these examples, three observations can be made which answer the question of whether this is queer baiting:
The producers were aware of the queer reading of the material.
The producers used this reading to build up the expectations and hopes of the audience and to give them an incentive to see the film in the cinema - aware that these expectations would not be fulfilled.
The exploitation of this queer reading had no negative effect on the economic performance of the film, Pitch Perfect 3 was more successful than the first part of the trilogy, although not as successful as the second part (cf. Boxofficemojo.com).
These observations confirm that the two videos are queer baiting as defined by Guerrero-Pico, Establés and Ventura. In addition to some reactions to social media platforms and some texts published online, a media outcry seems to have failed to materialize; no "Shitstorm"[15] could be observed in this example, as in the Bury Your Gays trope.
[10] "Ship”: short for relationship.
[11] „I mean, our characters are pretty much in a lesbian relationship. As far as we’re concerned, they’re secretly in love.” (Advocate.com 2016).
[12] „If people didn’t think it was cute, we wouldn’t have pushed that chemistry even further in Pitch Perfect 2.” (ibid.).
[13] The video can be found under the title: "Twitter - megs" in the appendix.
[14] In the appendix under "Twitter - Universal PicturesUK".
[15] Shitstorm: „Unter Shitstorms werden in der Forschung krisenhafte Ereignisse verstanden, die ihren Ausgangspunkt in sozialen Medien haben und im Wesentlichen durch Empörung statt sachlicher Kritik gekennzeichnet sind.“ (Pleil & Bastian 2017: 141). "In research, shitstorms are understood as crisis events that have their starting point in social media and are essentially characterized by indignation instead of objective criticism".
Conclusion
In summary it can be said that queer baiting is an economically motivated tactic, the intention is not to represent queer figures and relationships, but to win as many paying recipients as possible. However, it is precisely this representation that is important in the process of identity formation, especially among young people (cf. Guerrero-Pico/Establés/Ventura 2018: 314).
Queerbaiting works because there is already a lack of and - in parts of the audience - a desire for satisfactory queer representation, which leads to queer readings of media texts. In this subaudience there is also the will to consume and spend money for media products in which LGBTQ+ representation exists. Since in most cases this 'need' is not satisfied, or the representation is not long-lasting (Bury your gays), the discrepancy between expectation and actual media text described by Ng (see above) arises - resulting in frustration and disappointment.
The examples chosen for this work show that the homoerotic subtext and the queer reading of the media text is indeed desired by producers and consciously used. Irrespective of how queer baiting is ethically judged, it can also be argued that in most cases it is a targeted false advertising, since it implicitly advertises content that is not reflected in the media text.
Since most of the recently produced films do not even meet the minimum of queer representation described in the Vito Russo Test, the use of queer baiting is unlikely to change much in the foreseeable future.
Sources
Advocate.com (2016). The A-List Interview: Anna Kendrick. Website. Advocate.com. https://www.advocate.com/current-issue/2016/11/01/list-interview-anna-kendrick (27.09.2018).
Boxofficemojo.com. Pitch Perfect Trilogy Movies at the Box Office - Box Office Mojo. Website. Boxofficemojo.com. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=pitchperfectseries.htm (27.09.2018).
Brennan, Joseph (2018). “Queerbaiting: The ‘playful’ possibilities of homoeroticism”. International Journal of Cultural Studies. 21.2. p. 189-206.
Fathallah, Judith (2015). „Moriarty’s Ghost: Or the Queer Disruption of BBC’ Sherlock”. Television & New Media. 16.5. p. 490-500.
Glaad.org (2018a). The Vito Russo Test (2018). Website. GLAAD. https://www.glaad.org/sri/2018/vitorusso (26.09.2018).
Glaad.org (2018b). Overview of Findings (2018). Website. GLAAD. https://www.glaad.org/sri/2018/overview (26.09.2018).
Guerrero-Pico, Mar / María-José Establés / Rafael Ventura (2018). “Killing off Lexa: ‘Dead Lesbian Syndrome’ and intra-fandom management of toxic fan practices in an online queer community”. Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies. 15.1. p. 311-333.
Jenkins, Henry (2006). “’Out of the Closet and into the Universe’: Queers and Star Trek”. Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. New York: NYU Press. p. 89-112.
Langfelder, Natasia (2016). “Let's End Queerbaiting in 2016”. Website. AfterEllen. https://www.afterellen.com/tv/471593-lets-end-queerbaiting-2016 (24.09.208).
Megs (2017). „I have HAD IT“. Tweet (@badassbeca). 21.11.2017. 21:10. https://twitter.com/badassbeca/status/933200998574804992 (26.09.2018).
Mendelsohn, Farah (2002). „Surpassing the Love of Vampires: Or Why/How a Queer Reading of the Buffy/Willow Relationship Is Denied”. Fighting the Forces. Wilcox, Rhonda V./David Lavery. Oxford: Rowman &Littlefield Publishers. p. 45-60.
Ng, Eve (2017). “Between Text, Paratext, and Context: Queerbaiting and the Contemporary Media Landscape”. Transformative Works and Cultures. Vol. 24. Online. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2017.0917 (24.09.2018).
Nordin, Emma (2015). From Queer Reading to Queerbaiting: the battle over polysemic text and the power of hermeneutics. Master Thesis. University Stockholm. Online: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A839802&dswid=2391 (25.09.2018).
Pleil, Thomas / Matthias Bastian (2017). „Soziale Medien in der externen Organisationskommunikation“. Handbuch Soziale Medien. Schmidt, Jan-Hinrik / Monika Taddicken (Hrsg.). Wiesbaden: Springer VS. p. 129-149.
Shakeri, Sima (2017). “Bury Your Gays,' Queerbaiting, And TV's LGBTQ Problem”. Website. HuffPost Canada. https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/06/30/queerbaiting-bury-your-gays-tv_a_23005000/ (24.09.2018).
Sky (2018). „Queerbaiting – Der trügerische Schein einer Repräsentation | Geekgeflüster“. Website. Geekgeflüster. https://geekgefluester.de/queerbaiting-der-truegerische-schein-einer-repraesentation (24.09.2018)
Universal PicturesUK (2017). „One day left … Will Bechloe ever happen 👯? #PitchPerfect3 in cinemas tomorrow.“. Tweet (@universaluk). 19.12.2017. 10:00. https://twitter.com/universaluk/status/943179139590139905 (26.09.2018).
Waggoner, Erin B. (2017). “Bury Your Gays and Social Media Fan Response: Television, LGBTQ Representation, and Communitarian Ethics”. Journal of Homosexuality. Online. (02.11.2017) https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2017.1391015 (29.09.2018)
Wow… I completely forgot about this blog. I might put up a paper I’m currently writing about queerbaiting in the future, if I get around to translate it.
Update: I received my grade for the paper and it's just below the best possible (german grading works in intervals of 1.0, 1.3, 1.7, 2.0 and so on with 1.0 being the best and 4.0 the lowest passing grade) so I'll try to translate it over christmas break. If I hadn't gotten a good grade I wouldn't feel confident to publish it here
I used to get offended by teachers commenting on my handwriting but looking at my old exam papers I get it. Half the time my ‘s’ looks like an ‘f’ and my ‘g’ like an upside down lamda.
Wow... I completely forgot about this blog. I might put up a paper I’m currently writing about queerbaiting in the future, if I get around to translate it.
we, in a manner akin to that of a man who once was, in Rome, an orator of significant skill, who was then for his elegance of speech renowned and now for his elaborate structure of sentences cursed by generations of scholars of Latin, the language which he spoke and we now study, Cicero, write, rather than by any efficiency, functionality, or ease of legibility have our words, our honors, the breaths of our hearts, be besmirched.
Not many jnſtances of Punctuation - but for many Daſhes – et words Capitaliz’d for emphavſis, but not logicaly - ſpeeling and word Endings varied Gratelie - and the long S - ſ - vſed in at the ſtart and Centre of wordes - & the short “s” vſed only at the end - as with the U and V, and the I and J - but v and j only at the ſtart of wordes (we diſtinguishe not between Vouels and Conſonants, only decoratiue Letteres). Ye letter “y” being in lookes cloſe to an Olde letter “þ” which is vſed as “th” - Y may be vſed in the place of TH - but only ſparingly - and ſtill Pronounc’d the ſame as TH. Long and rambling ſentences - ſeeminglie without end - a paragraph can conſiſt of One whole ſentence, and ſhort ſentences are rare – we ſcribe like hiſtorical Modern English – and other european Languages.
Apparently, asking to be credited on your own fucking work is unreasonable now???
Well I’m not fucking sorry. If you take MY photography, that I spent money, time and energy on creating and post it on social media, without asking, without even acknowledging that it is my work, then you have no fucking right to be defensive when I call you out on it. You fucking apologize and add the credit.
You don’t say “It’s obvious I didn’t take the photo.”
You don’t say “No one else seems to mind.”
You don’t say “I’ll add it because YOU care so much.”
You don’t then word it like you comissioned the picture and I was only the one to execute it.
Instead, you acknowledge that what you did was wrong. Because it is.
I’ve been terribly unproductive the last few days, due to my sister’s birthday and the involvement of quite a bit of alcohol. But I’m back on track, finishing up on notes and then preparing tomorrow’s computer lab.
