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What are some of your favorite topics to talk about? I feel like one of the best feelings ever is seeing someone light up at a convo and start talking full speed about it, especially if you don't know they like it! It feels like hitting a jackpot by accident- so I was wondering what some topics are that light you up and you feel you can talk about for a while, or just wish others brought up more! or some topics that pass the Bechdel test lol

I've been collecting a list since you asked this! Here's what I could think of:

Prison abolition

Skins (obviously)

Trans rights

Taylor swift’s career, especially the whole Gaylor thing

90 day fiancé

America’s next top model

AI as a replacement for Christianity in tech bro circles

Kingdom Hearts

Video games as art

The implications of video games on meditation and mindfulness (this is what some of my published work is on!)

4d spacetime worms

Oliver Sacks and his works

Installation art

Ethical AI & AI policy

Artificial consciousness

Theme park design

Meet the Robinsons & Big Hero 6 (I ended up being the subject matter expert for these when I worked at Disney)

American girl dolls and their lore

I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of right now, but I would say that's a pretty good summary of what I'm thinking about at any given time.

Edit: lol I realized I forgot to include neurological diseases of aging and their interventions, another thing I have published research on 😭

do you think effy would like lalleshwari? i think it would fit as something she listens to when she needs to vent

I'm assuming you mean the musician and not the 14th-century Kashmiri mystic poet, but if I'm wrong on that let me know...

If that's the case, first of all, thank you for introducing me to this artist because I really like the whole vibe. I would say that I think it's music that I could imagine being played in one of Effy's episodes (it reminds me kind of "Automation" by Desireé Duvringe that shows up in Effy's series 2 episode), and I think it reflects her personality and mental state really well. But based on what we know of her music taste, I don't think this is what Effy as a character would listen to on her own time, if that makes sense. It actually seems to line up better with the kind of thing Cassie likes.

do you think that effy’s hate is mostly deeply rooted in misogyny? it’s just strange to see how a mentally i’ll teenage girl gets turned into a whole demon who destroys everyone’s life by just existing, she gets blamed for the three musketeers’s conflicts so often it makes you feel like they’re just cute puppies that got killed by a big bad manipulative woman who gets happy when she ruins other people’s lives. Of course she has been making bad decisions and fucked up a lot but her kindness, her care about others and genuine aspiration to get better and help her friends to sort things out mostly just forgotten

I think that's a big part of it, for sure. I think the other, somewhat related thing is that people find her to be "annoying" and are therefore less willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. We saw a similar dynamic play out with Franky in series 5 - people vitriolicly hated her, mostly because she committed the cardinal sin of being annoying.

sometimes i think that effy always had a big sweet tooth but controlled herself and always ate sweet food all on her own until panda appeared in her life. perhaps after that it could be their small private ritual when they share a cup of hot chocolate, candies or pop tarts especially considering that they’re doing (planning to do) it few times in the show

I don't think it's true that she was only eating sweets on her own in series 1 (at least, I don't think it's true that she was doing that on purpose). I think it's more just that she didn't really have any friends in series 1 so she didn't have anyone to share things with. Once she has Pandora as a friend, Pandora gets folded into the things that she was already doing. But I think it's less like "Pandora is the only person she trusts to do this around" and more like "Pandora is the only person Effy trusts to be around her" period. Like, she seems like she would have had no problem eating Cook's birthday cake in series 3 - Cook just gets to it before anyone else has the chance.

what’s your opinion on effy’s season 4 style? i think it was a bit messy sometimes (which of course can be explained by her mental state) and was shown very briefly which leaves me with a strange feeling of incompleteness, but i like how you can see her growth through her clothes and how she carries herself.

I think it makes a lot of sense from a narrative perspective, which is the primary purpose of costuming. Effy's style has always reflected her inner world, and at the beginning of series 4, she’s significantly happier, so that’s reflected in her outfits. Costume designer Edward Gibbon said that they, “[tightened] up her look even further this year”, “[stripped it] down to essentials” and said that Effy “needs only her skeleton charms to keep her safe”. In the first few episodes of series 4, her makeup is lighter, her outfits have fewer components, and they’re literally more revealing.

Once she gets out of the hospital, she burns all of her clothes, which again reflects her emotional state as well as giving us an in-universe reason for why her style changed. Edward said, “The institutional life and the brainwashing by Dr Foster has its effect on Effy. When released she’s ready to turn her back on her old ways. This includes rejecting her old wardrobe and creating a new one in the hope that (for once) she can fade into the background. Gone is the glitter and flimsy layers of old, replaced by a kind of tribute to Kurt Cobain and his grunge classics - washed out Levi 501’s and plaid work shirts. Despite all reform, she’s not letting go of her boots and sticks with her trusty brown Doctor Martens.”

So I think you're right that it gets messy and feels incomplete, and I think that's on purpose - Effy is herself messy and incomplete in the back half of series 4, and that's reflected in her look.

i love the specific detail about Effy and Pandora’s friendship: Effy always understands what Panda means when she talks in her own unique manner without struggles while other people around them are very confused. It’s a shame their friendship wasn’t explored and showed more, they could’ve dive deeper into it especially with season 4

Yes! Absolutely. I think it totally makes sense that they would be best friends because Effy is very good at understanding people, even if they're not great at communicating, and Pandora is very good at loving people, even if they're not open to being loved. I've said this before on here but it's a real shame Pandora didn't get a series 4 episode. I think that would have given some room for Pandora and Effy's friendship to grow and for Pandora to have more of a character arc in general.

what do you think effy would post if she had modern social media

I’ve talked about this before, but Effy’s such a fiercely private person that I don’t think it makes sense for her to be on platforms that are about constantly sharing your life. She’d maybe have different apps to keep an eye on when parties are happening and things like that, but I don’t think she’d post herself. But if she did, I think she would post things like this.

how would effy act if she had a younger sibling (as in the house would have tony, effy, and a sibling 2 years younger)

I think she would would treat a younger sister like Tony treated her. I imagine they’d probably be quite close, but only if her sister were the child of both of her parents. I think Effy’d quite resent having a half-sibling. And she’s not easily annoyed, so I think she’d actually do pretty well with children, even ones that other people find annoying. I don’t think she particularly enjoys spending time with kids, though.

i saw your answer on how effy would react in a toxi relationship but how about a physically abusive relationship how would she deal with it would she run?,or stay and try to get by?

I think she'd absolutely run. Effy is someone who drops people the minute they do something she doesn't like or the minute she feels like she's been put in a vulnerable position. In general, she deals with problems through escapism, both literally and figuratively, so I think it makes sense that she would run at the first sign of trouble.

Could you see Cassie as a florist?

Definitely! I think those kinds of aesthetics-focused, customer based jobs would suit her personality really well.

Could you ever see Cassie as someone who age regresses? Like has a binky and collects plushies.

I could see that to a degree. I could see her as someone who collects plushies and wants to be babied or taken care of because her parents were neglectful towards her and she's constantly searching for someone who will love her unconditionally. But I don't think I could see it going as far as binkies except for maybe when on MDMA or something.

Hey! I was wondering if you have any tips on where/how to find parties like the ones in skins? I’m just so tired of boring parties where one is dancing or talking and no one seems to be enjoying themselves.

So I think in some ways, it’s both easier and harder to find those events than it used to be. In the late 2000s, it was really about knowing people who were already in that scene, which made it more difficult. Now this kind of thing has become more commoditized, so you can find those kind of parties on social media. But it also used to be easier to get into venues without an ID or anything, and now I think it’s harder to do that or to find places that won’t card/don’t take carding seriously, so be aware of that ahead of time if you’re underage.

In general though, my advice would be to ask any people you know who are in that scene. If you don’t know anyone, I would just Google “your city + underground raves” and see if you can find some social media accounts that post about events in your city. Some cities even have calendars for that kind of thing (https://19hz.info/Socal is the one if you happen to be in California, I think). Even if the events aren’t great, once you start going to events, you’ll be able to make friends who are deeper into the scene and can give you better recommendations. If you have specific types of music that you like, finding the up and coming local artists in that scene and following them can give you an idea of where those acts play.

Ultimately I think it's a bit of trial and error, but if you go to enough events, eventually you'll figure out what type of events you like and where they're hosted.

If you could change one thing about skins what would it be?

There are actually a bunch! The biggest one is that I think series 4 needed two more episodes, one for Pandora and one for Naomi. I think that would have made the character arcs and the pacing make a lot more sense. I think that Freddie's death was unnecessary and there were better ways to wrap up his story. I think there are a bunch of characters, especially in early seasons, where it seemed like the writers didn't know what to do with them and so they're really not given as much screentime and dimension as they deserve (Maxxie, Jal, Anwar, Posh Kenneth, JJ, Thomas), which is especially disappointing given that a lot of those characters are played by Academy Award nominated actors.

Also, the way Franky's character was treated throughout series 6. Her character gets a huge personality transplant, and it takes away a lot of what was interesting about that character. Her complicated relationship with gender totally disappears, and we get a lot of weird queerbaiting with her and Mini that never gets resolved or even really discussed.

Another thing I would change is Grace's death; it's not a terrible plot in and of itself, but the fact that she's in a coma makes a lot of Rich's plotline very weird, and after Chris and Freddie dying, it felt formulaic.

How different do you think Effys future would've been if Freddie had lived? Do you think she would've ended up in a different job, maybe had a family?

I think that depends on the sort of person Freddie has become as an adult. It could really go either way- I think their relationship could be really long-lived, especially if Freddie continued to be a strong part of Effy’s support system. But I could also see her getting tired with his lack of ambition and direction in life, especially if her mental health began to improve.

What’s your interpretation of the ‘pop’ video diary?

I think “Pop” is about Effy and Tony. I may be wrong, but this was my interpretation of it:

I think as a kid, her parents spend a lot of time on her, worrying about her, trying to get her to talk, and they ignored Tony, which is why he starts doing things to antagonize his father. And through that time where she didn’t talk and her parents were trying to get her to be the person they wanted her to be (a good little girl who talks to them), he would sit by her and let her be who she was. Tony is “starving” for attention, while Effy has too much of it, but not the kind she wants. And so Tony starts “eating grass”, doing things that are destructive to himself because he wants to be noticed, and Effy wants to save him. And at the end of her story, they go away together and leave their parents behind, and after that she never wanted their attention again because they gave her too much of it.

Do you think Effy would have pets

I could see her being very attached to a pet if she grew up with it, or maybe if a stray cat started appearing on her doorstep every day, but I couldn’t see her getting a pet on her own. I think she'd be intimidated by the responsibility of taking care of a living creature.

the hype around brazil on social media makes me wanna go so badly! how about you, have you ever been/would you like to?

Yes! I'm dying to go. I'm hoping it will be one of my next trips. I'd like to do more of South American in general. I've only ever been to Peru but I loved it.

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