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TBHX and the disposability of man pt 4

Part 1 Nice's arc

Part 2 E-soul's arc

Part 3 Lucky Cyan's arc

(The irony of my title has just begun to dawn on me)

While I do wish the 2 episodes did give us more focus on Queen herself I do find the dynamic between Queen and Bowa to be really interesting and a major part to the 'disposability' theme that the show presents.

Bowa and Queen are two capable heroes who have achieved fantastic goals within their own right. However, society and those around them, such as Micky, keep pairing and diminishing their achievements. Bowa becoming X is seen as something that only happend because of Queen's speech and Queen getting the chance to take the X title is seen as Bowa giving it to her by the public and Micky planning exactly that for Bowa to give up the title to Queen.

Micky has made it clear that he simply views his employees as decorated chess pieces that play the game he tells them to play and this is exactly that. Yes Bowa fought for the spotlight and she earned the title of X fairly but the world isn't fair and she is going to be replaced forcibly by someone whose younger than her (interesting connotations)

While this interpretation may seem somewhat farfetched. There can be something to be said about the hero industry and the similarities it shares with the fashion industry. Heroes have to always keep in shape, be on top, be perfect, be young, and get replaced when they're old or when they lose. This isn't something new that TBHX hints at in Queen's arc but we get mentions of this in Nice's arc through lin ling's of own words " You're not going to be perfect forever as soon as you get old and ugly they'll find a new you."

Bowa and Queen two overachievers. Bowa is the youngest Commission agent, while Queen is the youngest and smartest university graduate. Queen and Bowa both have their own speeches and interviews being deemed as career aspiring and perfect. Both of them actively hold the belief to believe in yourself and to work hard to achieve your goals. Bowa the women that came from nothing. No power, no connections, just strength, stubbornness, and pure determination, getting her through what she deems necessary to achieve her goals. On the other hand, Queen a hero born to a father with connections, a power to make rules and an incredibly naturally talented individual yet she also worked hard to achieve her goals just to be beaten in a blink by a "nobody".

Even with all the similarities that Bowa and Queen share, they are pitted against one another for an absolutely unsignificant reason : the title of X. A title and role that neither get but the public officially views and actively pushes the narrative that Queen has replaced Bowa driving Bowa to insanity for a way for her to get back and reach for the role that was once rightfully hers. In this context, the title they are now fighting for isn't truly the title of X, but it is the title of the female hero. Who can be the female hero, the spot that society wants filled and only wants one person to be THE female hero, the one who can have it all in an industry that lacks diversity.

This ultimately causes a huge conflict between Bowa and Queen. Bowa who wants to cling and hold the title naturally for as along as she can considering the fact that she spent her whole life trying to achieve the perfect mix of perfection by being 50/50 power and beauty. Due to this, Bowa easily consumes the narrative that society and the industry itself have been spewing out and plans to eliminate the next threat even though at this point in time Queen doesn't have the title of X (but a man does) and Queen is only in the top 10. Public perception and view alongside Bowa's own research send her into her own downward spiral, leading her to the only solution she deems viable : kill your 'replacement.'

Bowa and Yang cheng parallels, I see!

Alongside all of this, Bowa's abilities have constantly been undermined by Micky, who literally tells her that the only reason she is a hero is because he chose her and he invested in her and now its time for him to invest into someone else : Queen.

Essentially, the people have been waiting to see someone else ever since Bowa managed to become the number one hero, and when the queen doesn't live up to that expectation, they immediately find a way to continue the cycle by trying to pit cyan and Queen against one another with the only reason a fight like that not occurring is due to Queen actively taking actions for Cyan to clear her name and for her to personally support cyan instead. Even their own public relation cyan and Queen aren't afraid to show that they are close.

While Queen and Bowa's relationship focuses on dispoabaility through the lens of who can be THE female hero, it also focuses on the idea of disposbaility through nepotism.

While the public isn't aware of it, Bowa becomes aware that Queen has connections, and she has abilities that Bowa lacks and that's one of the reasons why she gets all the support to become X while Bowa has to fight and gain connections herself. This is one of the things that drives Bowa to try to kill Queen, to fully eliminate the threat that Queen poses through her connections because at the end of the day, Bowa is a self built chess piece while Queen was given the chess board in the first place.

Within an already such a competitive industry, nepotism is actively looked down upon due to the unfair advantages it gives individuals and the reputation it has for robbing those more competent of the role they deserve and this is an aspect of Queen and Bowa's story.

#to be hero x #tbhx #tbhx meta #tbhx analysis #tbhx queen #to be hero x queen #to be hero x bowa #tbhx bowa #i like how every arc has presented the theme of disposablity in a completely different way #for Nices arc it was in a very capitalist sense #disposable workers #for yang chengs arc it was also in a similar sense but this time it surrounded a hero image #for lucky cyan it was in the disposability of a persons identity to play a role that society wants them to play #to be exploited for monetary gain is what connects them all #and for queen its disposability in the sense of who can claim the title to be the female x the female hero #they all link but are all presented differently enough that they feel unique to see and disect

Vivir en un cibercafé es peor de lo que suena

Los Cibercafés (al igual que en chile) han existido en Japón desde hace más de una década. Pero a mediados del 2000, los mismos clientes comenzaron a utilizarlos como vivienda. (more…)

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#Desempleo #Disposable Workers #Documentales #Internet #Japón

Despite rising awareness to the dangers of overwork, Japanese white-collar workers, also known as salary men, increasingly work longer hours for fear of losing their jobs.

Fukada has been photographing the effects of the economic crisis in Japan, where notions of personal prosperity and lifetime employment have eroded.

Image by Shiho Fukada. Japan, 2012.

Japan's Rootless and Restless Workers on the New York Times Lens blog, from her Pulitzer Center–sponsored project Japan's Disposable Workers: Lost in the Global Unemployment Crisis.

#unemployment #abenomics #disposable workers #labor #economy #salary men #employment #Japan #New York Times #lens blog #Shiho Fukada #Pulitzer Center #photojournalism

Japan's structural economic problems are further alienating its already marginalized populations. Photojournalist Shiho Fukada goes beyond the bright lights of Tokyo to document the country's unemployment crisis: disposable workers who are easily fired and live without a social safety net. They are usually shut out from the rest of the society, living in poverty but rarely acknowledged by their fellow citizens. Fukada's photographs add a human face to widely discussed issues—from day laborers living on the streets to educated women taking banal jobs. She reveals the other side of Japan where alcoholism, hopelessness and suicide are increasingly commonplace.

See Shiho's full project: Japan's Disposable Workers: Lost in the Global Unemployment Crisis and watch her video "Japan's Disposable Workers"

#japan #disposable workers #photojournalism #photography #unemployment #crisis #workers #workers' rights

In this chapter, I shall use Walter Benjamin's notion of a dialectical image to examine the figure of the Mexican woman worker formed within the narrative of her general disposability. The dialectical image is one whose apparent stillness obscures the tensions that actually hold it in suspension. It is a caesura forged by clashing forces. With this dialectical image in mind, I see the Mexican woman depicted in the murder narratives as a life stilled by the discord of value pitted against waste. I focus on the narrative image of her, rather than on the lives of the murder victims, to reveal the intimate connection binding these stilled lives to the reproductions of value in the maquiladoras located in Ciudad Juarez. Through a comparison of a maquiladora narrative of categorical disavowal of responsibility for the violence with another maquila narrative explaining the mundane problem of labor turnover, the Mexican woman freezes as a subject stilled by the tensions linking the two tales.

Melissa Wright, Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global Capitalism

#capital #ciudad juarez #violence #disposable workers

Meet Pulitzer Center grantee and photojournalist Shiho Fukada. In this video, she explains her reporting project "Japan's Disposable Workers." Japan's structural economic problems are further alienating its already marginalized populations. She went beyond the bright lights of Tokyo to document the country's unemployment crisis: disposable workers who are easily fired and live without a social safety net. They are usually shut out from the rest of the society, living in poverty but rarely acknowledged by their fellow citizens.

Fukada's distinctive photographs add a human face to widely discussed issues—from day laborers living on the streets to educated women taking banal jobs. She reveals the other side of Japan where alcoholism, hopelessness and suicide have become increasingly commonplace.

We’re highlighting our female journalists all week for International Women’s Day on March 8th.

#japan #women's day #photojournalism #disposable workers #pcwomensday

In Japan, a hostess is a young woman who entertains men at bars or clubs. Customers pay large sums of money to these women for pleasure of their company, i.e. for flirting but not sex. Once frowned upon, the hostess job has been gaining popularity among young women. Despite the Equal Opportunity Law of 1986, Japanese women’s employment opportunities are often limited to low-paying, dead-end jobs or temp positions. Only 65% of college-educated women are employed and women’s salaries are a third less than men’s. Though women can only work as hostesses when they are young, many young women see this profession as one of the few jobs that provide financial independence. Photojournalist Shiho Fukada is collecting stories about disposable workers. Comment below or on her story http://bit.ly/disposedJPN. Image by Shiho Fukada. Japan, 2012.

#Japan #hostess #girls #disposable workers #women