The Walking Dead, and the Daryl Dixon Fixation

So, it's no secret that I love The Walking Dead.  Like, I've never felt this way about a t.v. show kind of love.  I watch each episode like it's an event.  I wait with baited breath for every sneak preview, spoiler alert, or next season trailer.  I love the characters, I love the settings, I love the zombies and I even love the soundtrack.  But what I can't stand is this sexual icon Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) is becoming.  It's making the whole thing take on this cheese factor that quite frankly, I am not comfortable with.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not blind, or a lesbian.  I know that Norman Reedus is an attractive guy, and that he makes Daryl Dixon a rather sexy character, all with his crossbow and motorcycle and shit, but seriously.  "Mrs. Daryl Dixon" tank tops?  Seriously?  Yes, those actually exist.  And there are massive amounts of my fellow females who comment that they would want one of these shirts. 

                                I think I would have to put real effort in not punching someone with this shirt on


Sexy magazine covers, and a hard core female following.  It seems that Daryl Dixon is the new main man of The Walking Dead. His popularity has well surpassed the intended front man of this apocalyptic scenario.  Where are the throngs of women lusting after Rick?  Now that Shane's gone and that conflict has passed has Rick lost his bravado?  When he had his mental breakdown, did he suddenly become damaged goods?  I will be interested to see how these two character arcs play out along with the obvious female preference for Daryl Dixon.  I wonder if he will get killed off just so we can all hear the collective "NOOOOO!" when it happens! 

                                                             Hey, baby.  Like my crossbow?

Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman: A Trial That Gripped an Entire Nation

Probably the hottest topic in the news and the media right now is the George Zimmerman trial and subsequent acquittal.  I must admit, I fell head first into this one.  I ignored housework and skipped trips to the store as I sat riveted, on the edge of my seat through almost every day of this trial.  I watched the live feed from the courtroom during the day, and just because it was interesting, when court adjourned for the day I would catch some of the mainstream media coverage to see how they were spinning things.  It was very interesting to say the least.  Based on this dual coverage and what I have seen this is MY opinion.  This is what I think happened.  Agree with it or not, it's just the opinion of this humble blogger.

I think the acquittal was a miscarriage of the stand your ground law.  I believe that the stand your ground law was intended to protect people who have no other option than to use deadly force.  If it is proven that there were multitudes of options that could have been taken besides the act that resulted in the loss of life, that stand your ground should not apply.  This protects the general public from cases like this, where no one truly knows how things went down because the only other true witness is dead.  It protects the general public from the possibility of a over zealous home grown crime fighter going around starting altercations and shooting people over them. It protects anyone who is perceived as a threat when they are merely going about their daily business.

I think George Zimmerman lied.  He got tied into multiple lies during the trial.  The fact that the jurors appeared to ignore this is something I wonder about.  I think that he did start the altercation.  I think that he reached out and grabbed Trayvon Martin's shoulder in an effort to detain him until the police arrived.  I believe that he wanted to be the neighborhood hero and didn't want to let another one of those "fucking punks" as he referred to them, get away.  Trayvon, feeling threatened made just another one of the bad choices that ultimately led to the tragedy of him losing his life.  But this is purely my speculation based on what I have seen.  I think that George Zimmerman should have been held responsible to some degree for the death of an unarmed teenager that he profiled and instigated and then killed.  I think that the fact that those parents, friends and family members of Trayvon Martin had to exit that courtroom for the last time knowing that their son was officially ruled in a court of law as causing his own death is a tragedy.

Now, as many people in our nation struggle to accept the verdict the conversation of race takes the font page.  People are outraged at the way in which Trayvon Martin was profiled by George Zimmerman, and now it's as if every young black man has to be in constant fear for their life.  Perhaps there is something to that. Young black men are one of the most discriminated against groups in our society.  I think that youth in general is discriminated against in our society as the culture of violence becomes reflected in the children who grew up immersed in it.  But I don't think that standing somewhere with a sign in protest is going to do anything about it.  Just like any other social problem, the solution lies within.  The culture of violence needs to change.  The positive needs to outweigh the negative.  And maybe that's not fair, but like my mother always told me "life isn't fair".  Sometimes you just have to deal with it.  If you are a young black male and you are sick of being profiled as a criminal, then do things to help your fellow young black males from ruining your reputation through their behavior.  Do something in your community to help change the opinions of others.  No, it's not right to have to try extra hard just to make people think that you are not a threat to them, but if it's the way it is, how else are things ever going to change? Change comes from within.

I think that the attention and emotion that became devoted to this trial is because somehow, those who were outraged by all this got it in their heads that if George Zimmerman was convicted it would somehow bring Trayvon Martin back.  Maybe not logically.  Most everyone logically knows that there is nothing that can do that.  But some illogical place in so many people's minds started to believe that if there was a conviction it would somehow undo what was done.  I admit that illogical part of my brain wished for the same thing.  Maybe it's because I am a mother.  Maybe it's because my son has brown skin.  But my heart goes out to this family, and I have shed tears for the loss of Trayvon Martin when I viewed the gruesome photos that were displayed in the courtroom.  Those last photos that will ever be taken of him. He was a kid.  He didn't deserve to be profiled.  He didn't deserve to be followed.  And he didn't deserve to lose his life. 

Some say that Trayvon Martin was a thug, but I don't think so.  I think he was a typical adolescent trying on different personas as all adolescents do.  I think the persona he was trying on at the time of his death was directly related to the culture he was living in as a young black male.  It may not have, and seemed that it would not have been the path he ultimately chose in life, but I guess we'll never know that now.

From where we stand right now, what's done is done.  The jury deliberated and decided that no crime was committed.  George Zimmerman walks free and there's nothing that can be done about it.  So we all kind of sit here with a collective "now what?" as the family and friends of George Zimmerman celebrate, and the family and friends of Trayvon Martin continue to grieve, and the rest of us go back to life as usual. 

The Zombie Apocalypse and The Appeal of Broken Taboos

So it's the 4th of July, and I have nothing to do.  Among parades, picnics, and parties I find myself with no car and no plans even if I had one.  What is left to do but to kick back and watch AMC's Walking Dead marathon and Season 4 preview weekend?  Of course, since it's my favorite television show, I have seen ever episode countless times.  But I still watch it anyway because even though it's nothing new to me, it's still better than most of the other pointless shit that's on every other channel.

And I think to myself..."Why do you suppose that the zombie apocalypse is such a popular theme in our media, such to the point that it is the subject of a mainstream basic cable network television series?"  Well, many from psychologists to fellow bloggers have speculated on this.  Explanations posed thus far have spoken of political unrest, global warming, and increasing idea that the end of the world is near.  These theories might explain the recent move of zombie themed movies and television shows from the usual low budget horror flicks, but the theme of the zombie apocalypse has been around long before the current social climate.  So some part of why we are fascinated with an end of the world scenarios where just surviving is not treacherous enough, but there are flash eating undead walking about has to be more primal than that.

I think that the idea of the zombie apocalypse is so fascinating because it breaks one of our society's great taboos.  Death ritual.  In the United States death is much different than in other parts of the world.  We take extra care to separate death from life.  We usher our dead off to strangers who prepare them for their last viewing, for their burial or cremation. We separate our dead in morgues, far away from the living as if death is somehow contagious.  We view those who deal in death for a living as strange.  We separate ourselves from death, even when it happens to our loved ones, as much as possible.  The zombie apocalypse breaks this taboo.

The zombie virus appears in many different ways. But the result is always the same.  Uncontrollable death.  The dead rise again, and turn others into zombies.  The virus spreads and is unstoppable despite medical and even military efforts.  Death overcomes us and becomes part of our every day lives.  Out in the open at all times. Death goes from something that happens to other people, to something that happens to you...repeatedly.  It becomes such commonplace that the death of a loved one no longer stops your world and becomes something that just happens.  Like the sun rising every day.  It becomes impossible to tuck death away in a corner as if it doesn't really exist.  I imagine it must be like Europe during the years of the plague when death was such a part of life that it reflects in much of the popular art of the time.

The zombie apocalypse is to fascinating to us because it breaks one of our most fundamental taboos in such a way that no one can ignore it.  The destruction of our death ritual taboo is both frightening and fascinating because it would change not only our world, but ourselves in irreversible ways.  There would no restoration of life as usual.  Not only the world, but human life would completely cease to exist as we know it permanently and the idea of that is attractive to a lot of people.