Summary
Mutated Symbols in Law and Pop Culture interweaves interdisciplinary analyses because mutations exceed defined ranges. For example, symbology and culture evocatively synergize in constitutional law. A symbol becomes legally protected if it is intended to communicate a particularized message that is likely to be understood by observers. This book demonstrates that mutations may not be sufficiently protected as speech. Even though the symbolism of mutations is the subject of study, the meaning of specific symbols may not be understood by the public. Symbols of mutation may identify cultural desires, embrace zeniths, and transform mundane or worn events into fantasies. Perhaps as a means of preserving, defending, and protecting mutations, culture has exhibited and spotlighted them.
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author(s)/editor(s)
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Introduction
- References
- Chapter 1. Wedding
- Tuxedo
- Song
- Bride
- Groom
- References
- Chapter 2. Sleep
- Unconscious
- Dreams
- Nightmare
- Sleep Martians
- References
- Chapter 3. Bionic
- Animals
- Synthetic Pornography
- Special Olympics
- References
- Chapter 4. Psychopath
- Mental
- Physical
- Villains
- References
- Chapter 5. G-Word
- Gay
- Gay
- Gay
- References
- Chapter 6. Redheads
- Mary Jane
- Vivien Leigh
- Lindsay Lohan
- Ron Howard
- References
- Chapter 7. Church of Latter-Day Saints
- Native American Heritage
- Fundamental LDS
- Warren Jeffs
- References
- Chapter 8. Leo
- Jack
- Romeo + Juliet
- The Revenant
- References
- Chapter 9. White Tigers
- King Zulu
- Superhero
- References
Fig. 2.1: Igor, Matthew Waranius. Young Frankenstein Background Depicting a Werewolf, Sea Dragon, and Other Frightening Characters. Slidell, LA.
Fig. 3.1: Man Walks Dog Using a Cane.
Fig. 3.2: Photograph Taken at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. Dallas, Texas.
Fig. 4.1: “Mirror.”
Fig. 4.2: Emanations.
Fig. 5.1: Crackers. White Male. British and Indian Food.
Fig. 6.1: Sphinx Sex Device.
Fig. 9.1: Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club. New Orleans, LA.
Fig. 9.2: Shooting Range and Gun Culture.
Fig. 9.3: Lightning Struck Tree.
Mutated Symbols in Law and Pop Culture plays with iconic representations of fusion, liminality, dispossession, and development. Mutations embody life because they illustrate phases and progression. Mutations and mutants fascinate the public. They are depicted by artists, including James Franco, Cary Elwes, Sara Bareilles, The Smashing Pumpkins, Quvenzhané Wallis, Pablo Picasso, Alicia Keys, Katie Perry, Debbie Reynolds, Maddie Ziegler, the Olsen twins, Mark McGrath, and Paul Simon. This book discusses physiological manifestations of mutations, such as beauty and specialness (e.g., white tigers); aesthetic (e.g., redheads); innovation (e.g., Mormonism); and prowess (e.g., tuxedos). Mutated Symbols in Law and Pop Culture focuses on strata that are popularly contemplated in culture and by the law; for example, primordial states (e.g., sleep); supranatural physicality (e.g., bionic); irresistible impulse (e.g., psychopath); queer semantic shift (e.g., “gay”); and class (e.g., Leo).
Mutated Symbols in Law and Pop Culture interweaves interdisciplinary analyses because mutations exceed defined ranges. For example, symbology and culture evocatively synergize in constitutional law. A symbol becomes legally protected if it is intended to communicate a particularized message that is likely to be understood by observers. This book demonstrates that mutations may not be sufficiently protected as speech. Even though symbolism of ← 1 | 2 → mutations is the subject of study, the meaning of specific symbols may not be understood by the public. Symbols of mutation may identify cultural desires, embrace zeniths, and transform mundane or worn events into fantasies. Perhaps as a means of preserving, defending, and protecting mutations, culture has exhibited and spotlighted them.
Mutated Symbols in Law and Pop Culture focuses on nine discrete topics that serve as bridges between justice, cultural, social, and behavioral studies and other related disciplines. These topics are proximate to contemporary analyses and traditional perspectives. Each chapter identifies hot trends that seem to bend society as they endure. The subjects change and progress; and in their wake, new considerations develop about foundational and ephemeral experiences, including love, sex, marriage, art, language, and human-animal relationships.
Chapter One divulges shrouded sentiments and motives manipulating weddings. Focus on the proprietary significance of nuptials is at an all-time high. What was once taken to be the status quo is now controversial. Weddings were considered to be beautiful zeniths of brides’ lives and fresh beginnings for grooms, who transcended boyhood and assumed rightful manhood. Now, many weddings are ad hoc, performative, and platforms for self-expression. They portray vanity, rebellion, politics, feminism, divorce, bestiality, blended-families, liberality, “wegotism,” finality, irreverence, and other nontraditional tangents and influences. Chapter Ones spurs discussion on a taboo topic, desacralizaiton of marriage. This topic is woven throughout the book, and is particularly important in Chapters Seven and Nine. When brides and grooms nuncupate, they affirm society’s premise—union and establishment. Eroding, revamping, or altering marriage redesigns religion, law, and family, seemingly inextricable pillars of human civilization.
Chapter Two delves into frightening and pacifying splinters of humans’ psyches. At night, self-critiques, pleasure, agendas, and warnings seep through a disabled layer of consciousness to guide, protect, and encourage. People, who do not sleep (e.g., pernoctation), may experience morbid fear of their mothers, sex, and abuse. Sleep symbolically has mutated because traditionally it symbolizes “heavenly peace” (IlonAtzMusic, 2015). Biblical narratives (e.g., Book of Daniel) portray sleep as a state in which revelations from God may reveal His will and where angels may communicate with God’s followers (I Samuel 28:5–7; Matthew 1:18:25). Post-Freudian analyses of dreams and nightmares symbologize objects and spaces, whereas Biblical dreams literalized fantastic imagery when dreamers woke and endured tremendous miracles, ← 2 | 3 → battles, and tribulations (Cusack, 2015a). The unconscious state has been treated as pure and sacrosanct. It is unavoidable, and appears to be a human right (Jayal, 2012). Inmates deprived of sleep may be entitled to protection under the Eighth Amendment (Clarke, 2015; Lochridge, 2017). To enforce this traditional and humanist view, the law has consistently classified burglary as a felony. Burglary is the intent to enter and commit a crime inside a dwelling at night. Now, the law considers sexual contact with a sleeping person to be violative. Although some jurisdictions create a rebuttable presumption, a few have failed to specify that consent, requiring knowing voluntariness, has not been granted when parties are sleeping. Sleepers are protected by some laws; but, the First Amendment protects parents’ rights to raise their children, including imbuing them with fear before bedtime. Parents may communicate horrid tales disrupting sleep; and yet, possibly inciting permanently mutated perceptions. Nightmares continue to be the subject of teen movies, songs, and stories because of teens’ unique position between childhood and adulthood (Perry, 2010; Swift, 2014, 2017).
Bionism is “iconic” (Madonna, 2015). For millennia, humans have fantasized that bionism correlated with overcoming fate and death. Bionism has been symbolized by medical devices (e.g., prostheses), conservation (e.g., DNA banks), and technology (e.g., pornography). Differently abled individuals are the subject of Chapter Three, which analyzes Walt Disney’s descant of bias, specialness, impairments, similitude, and synthesis. Special people and animals are heroes. Although civilization has continuously rejected special creatures, symbolically society has evolved to recognize their power and effects. World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Mike Tyson orates an emboldening verse on Madonna’s song “Iconic” on Rebel Heart (Madonna, 2015; Menash, 2010).
I’m the best the world has ever seen
I’m the best ever
I’m somebody you’ll never forget
‘Cause I work hard and sweated my tears
Can’t be stopped
I’m never falling again, and if I did I’ll come back. (Madonna, 2015)
Tyson’s tenacity is evident in special individuals and society’s present response to alternate and rare forms. Madonna’s lyrics reveal dualistic intentions in honoring “superstars” (Madonna, 2015). Her attitude is somewhat bitter toward normative types. ← 3 | 4 →
If you tried and fail, get up again
Destiny will choose you in the end
If you don’t make the choice
And you don’t use your voice
Someone else will speak for you instead
What you want is just within your reach …
You pay with sweat and tears
And overcome your fears …
‘I can’t,’ ‘icon’
Two letters apart
One step away from being lost in the dark
Just shine your light like a beautiful star
Show the world, who you are. …
Baby, don’t you know you were meant to be
Born to be, meant to be
Iconic … Ironic …
Tell me I’m no good, and I’ll be great
Say I have to fight, and I can’t wait
Standing in the wings
A butterfly that stings
I will rise above ‘cause it’s my fate. (Madonna, 2015)
In a performative irony, she chose Chance The Rapper to rap the following verse:
Firefly change when they catch ya’
Wanna put ya’ in their net for their light glow
Yellow brick highway. …
An idol. …
Just to find how it feel to fall back. …
Put it on your wall
Details
- Pages
- X, 228
- Year
- 2018
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781433151941
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781433151958
- ISBN (MOBI)
- 9781433151965
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9781433151934
- ISBN (Softcover)
- 9781433151972
- DOI
- 10.3726/b14176
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2018 (September)
- Published
- New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Oxford, Wien, 2018. X, 228 pp., 10 ills.
