Daily Archives: May 8, 2020

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

The paint-by-numbers approach to schooling doesn't work for everyone. While, in theory, it makes sense that all Year 7s should learn how volcanoes work, it also doesn't at all: forcing each and every child to follow the same syllabus leads to huge gaps in real-world learning. For instance: How to be a good listener, or why intersectionality matters, or how to be mindful and live in the moment.

It's in our twenties once we've been released into the world that we really start to Learn Things. Out in the wild, we fill those educational gaps with lessons learned from hard, nasty reality. Since we released a new episode of the VENT Documentary series, "School's Out, What Now", this week, we asked VICE writers to detail some lessons they learned during their twenties that they could never have learned at school.

It's tempting to spend your school and university years saying yes to as many opportunities offered your way as is reasonably safe and possible. You will never have that much guilt-free leisure time again, so why not indulge in the widest range of fun? That's how I approached uni which meant I didn't spend much time distinguishing between the things I liked and the stuff that wasn't really me. But after I graduated, the fact I had less disposable time meant I could finally learn the joy of leaning into the people and things that I actually really like (mainly karaoke), and the even greater pleasure of saying no when the opportunity just isn't quite right. Dipo Faloyin

LISTEN: "School's Out, What Now" a podcast about UK education from the VENT Documentaries series, produced by VICE UK and the young people of Brent.

Your twenties can be a time of super hard work and massive hedonism, with very little in between. Everything's career driven, and then you get fucked up to decompress. While Im glad I spent some time partying, I wish I'd spent more time doing other cool things. When I was a teenager I played a lot of music, and thought I was going to be a rock star. Obviously that didnt happen, and so I slowly fell out of the habit because why bother if youre not going to end up with a brief stay in the Top 100 and a drug addiction?

"What's the point of playing music just for fun?" is a question that should answer itself, and yet it's one that is implicitly posed by absolutely everything about our mercenary culture. On the other hand, you're constantly bombarded with tiresome marketing about self-improvement, colonising your spare time with the need to consume ever more culture. What this can lead to is forgetting how to put any effort into doing things just for yourself, just for the sake of it. And I do mean effort, because while it's completely legit to spend ages on the Sims every so often, if you can manage it, its good to be a more active participant in your own leisure time. Simon Childs

Throughout my teens and early twenties, I reacted immediately and viscerally to any issue right in front of me. Had a bad day at work? I would walk out. Had a problem in my relationship? I would assume the worst. Had an argument with my family? I would say things I didn't mean in the heat of the moment.

As I've gotten older, it's not that I don't feel the same rage or stress or whatever, but I've learned that it really helps to pause for a moment (a few hours or, ideally, a day or two) before reacting to anything that pisses me off. Waiting to calm down enables you to see things a bit more clearly, and you're also able to communicate in a calmer way, which is more useful for everyone. I know this sounds really obvious, but it honestly took me until at least 25 to learn how and why I should pause instead of immediately freaking out. Daisy Jones

I spent most of my teenage years in tortured, secretive relationships that only left me feeling lonely and confused. It doesn't have to be that way! If being around somebody doesn't make you feel good, you don't have to put up with it. This applies to friendships and romantic relationships alike. If you leave an interaction with someone whether that's sexual, romantic or otherwise and they've somehow made you feel worse than you did before, that person is probably just not for you, and trying to convince yourself otherwise will just lead to pain further down the road.

In most cases, this is nobody's fault it's just a compatibility issue, and you will not become a Better Person by trying to change them or put up with it. There are obviously exceptions to this rule every relationship has its own peaks and troughs, and sometimes those you love can be fucking annoying but you deserve to be around people who don't make you want to stab your own eyes out. Zing Tsjeng

Just because something wasn't your thing at school or wasn't available at school, doesn't mean you will forever suck at it or it will come to define you. My school was terrible for sport it basically disappeared from the curriculum in sixth form. Anyway, in my early twenties I ended up playing football in an office I worked at just to get involved and socialise with some of the hot guys. I was obviously shit, but it was really fun, and when I moved to Peckham I managed to find a woman's team and keep it up. Ultimately, the School of Life taught me that picking up something later in life isn't a terrible idea. Ruby Lott-Lavigna

Like everyone in school with a passing interest in Green Day and two litre bottles of Strongbow, I fucking hated PE and PE fucking hated me back. As I grew up, I thought I was dreadful at all exercise, and then just never did any at all for years. For some reason that I cant remember now, in university I decided to give yoga a go, and realised that exercise alarmingly didnt actually have to make you feel bad. As Ive got older, Ive had the same realisations about exercise methods from spinning to (can't actually believe this one) running. This isnt to say that I am now one of those people who shags exercise, more just one of those people who now goes out running in the park if they have a shit day, and unfortunately tends to feel better for having done it. Lauren O'Neill

Lauren ONeill

In my twenties I learned that pubs were better than anywhere else. I loved them. The best thing about them was that there are loads of them. I spent most of my time in them, almost 24/7 it seemed. I was never at home. I played bass guitar in them and listened to live music in them, played pool and smoked weed outside them. I ate lunch and dinner in them. It's where I hung out with girlfriends, best mates and work colleagues. I kissed, slept and fought in them. I spent all my money in them and scrounged money and drinks in them. I got career breaks from being in them and my liver and brain a bit ruined by them. And I learned so well, I carried on doing it all into my thirties. Max Daly

You should buy some nice bed sheets. I know that sounds like an extravagant indulgence when you still live like a student and cannot imagine the day when you have your own place in which to put nice things; no longer beholden to a faceless landlord who thinks that a surprise 200 rent increase is "fair, given the current market conditions" But I really feel like my life improved slightly when I spent more than I should have on a high thread-count sheet and duvet set in "Blushed Dusk Grey". It didnt help redress the injustices that have fucked the London property market and made renting a box-room in Norwood akin to selling a kidney each month it was just some pillow cases. But it felt good, like something a real adult would do. Phoebe Hurst

Unfortunately, living is a practice. It requires bravery and hard work and the discipline to listen to yourself as you grow. You can read every list you want on how to be a person in the world and still know nothing about how to live. Without making mistakes and learning to suffer and survive, youll be a shell of an individual. Its only when we learn from our own lives that a "lesson" gets into our brains and bodies properly. I dont know why this is the case. It seems unfair that we cant just see our friends ruin their lives and take notes on what to avoid. Still, this is the truth. So strap in, and get ready to fuck up well. Hannah Ewens

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Nine Things You Should Have Realised By the End of Your Twenties - VICE

S

ome forgotten heroes or mistreated victims, if you prefer of the coronavirus outbreak are pubs. People who love pubs always said it was the atmosphere, not the alcohol, and people who didnt love them thought we were just spinning them a line. Now we have proof, because we are drinking as much as we ever did and yet we complain almost constantly.

That debate has ended, anyway, because the people who miss pubs now talk only to each other. We start off complaining about the pub, then segue, almost shyly, into: Are you managing to drink quite a lot? Jesus Christ, you should see the state of my recycling bin. It only got collected two days ago. Today I had to climb into it to compress the cans with my body weight. I actually cant carry as much beer as I want to drink, said one friend. One night, I ended up buying a bottle of gin.

Gin is the go-to spirit when you havent really dabbled in hard liquor since the vodka years, but arent yet ready to go quietly into a whisky soda. It has its own peculiar evocations. Another friend in the young-childcare phase peace be with her said she had banjaxed the classic parenting yardarm walking upstairs at bath time with a nappy in one hand and a corkscrew in the other and started having a really strong gin and tonic at 5pm. She said she stood at her kitchen door, feeling a deep connection to the generations of desperate, gin-soaked women that went before her her mother, her grandmother, all the way back to those hags of Hogarth. It was so poetic that it reminded me of about nine books, all of which end up with someone in prison.

Pubs were a useful corrective in the world of hedonism. You couldnt drink more until all the other people had finished. You didnt want to disappoint the barman. Beyond a certain age, you didnt want to push it all the way to closing time. They were what we had instead of a moral compass. I miss my local, the Canton Arms, so much I cant even walk past it.

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The pubs have gone so why are we drinking as much as ever? - The Guardian

At 1am last night, Xbox began the most critical step on the path to launching a new console they started talking about the games. The latest episode of Inside Xbox was the first stop on the Xbox 20/20 video tour and was all about the kind of third-party developer support fans can expect on the Xbox Series X. Based on what we saw last night, Xbox have a broad range of talent and ideas to pull from.

This Crysis looking shooter features guns, superpowers and what looks a little bit likeSouls combat. Its being developed by FYQD-Studio, which is not actually a huge team of AAA developers as you might have expected from a trailer that looks like the one above. No, FYQD is one man Chinese developer Zeng Xiancheng. Bright Memory has done well in its native China, telling an episodic story across numerous installments. It originally released on Steam in early access in January 2019, but is now being spun into a full AAA release for next-gen hardware.

It wouldnt be a console launch without a racing game in the mix, and in lieu of a new Forza title, DIRT 5 is happy to step in. Particle effects, lighting, weather, vehicle damage and track detail have all been dialed up to 11 to provide the requisite visual feast of a launch window racer. DIRT is always a ton of fun and we look forward to spending more time with this new entry in the series.

We dont even know. H.R. Giger meets our nightmares? Maybe dont eat anything before you watch this one.

Space ships and sci fi badasses whats not to love? Chorvs is a new space flight combat shooter title from developer Fishlabs. The trailer combines the aesthetic of games like Control with the frenetic pace of a Shmup. We are intrigued.

In the same way that it wouldnt be a console launch without a racing game, Xbox 20/20 wouldnt be a video game showcase without a sports title. Madden NFL 21 comes to the Xbox One X looking as crisp and lifelike as ever. We will have to see how it compares to the Xbox One X version later this year.

Trailer courtesy of IGN.

An unsettling trailer, yes, but also one of the most fun trailers of the entire broadcast. The day-to-day experience of being a vampire can easily fall to constant hedonism, and thats exactly whats going on here. This trailer also provides one of our clearest looks at gameplay yet. We are extremely keen to get our hands on this sequel to the 2004 cult classic.

What do you get when you cross Sea of Thieves with Firewatch? Apparently you get Call of the Sea, a narrative adventure title about a woman from the 1930s who is trapped on a deserted island in the south pacific. We are very interested to hear more.

The Ascent

The twin-stick ARPG shooter is alive and well in the next hardware generation. The Ascent is a solo or co-op Action RPG set in a dystopian cyberpunk world. This one looks like its going to be great fun with mates and were excited to start grinding that loot out.

One for the Silent Hill fans. The Medium is a psychological horror adventure game about a split in reality. It looks hella spooky and, if you needed further proof of its horror credentials, it features a dual soundtrack by Arkadiusz Reikowski and Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka.

Xbox @ Japan: PLEASE NOTICE US, VIDEO GAME SENPAI. Xbox has never been able to crack the Japanese video game market. As its fourth major console looks to embrace the kind of JRPG titles that make its competition beloved in Japan, will Xbox finally break through?

This game looks like the kind of deeply dumb sci-fi story a fourteen-year-old boy might write. If youve ever wanted to mow down dinosaurs with a huge machine gun and three of your friends, boy do we have the game for you. We dont want to be mean, but for us, this was easily the least interesting game of the entire Xbox 20/20 broadcast.

If you didnt already know that Yakuza: Like a Dragon was a turn-based JRPG, you would never know from watching this trailer. This is technically Yakuza 7, but has recieved a bit of a title change for its release in the West. It features a brand new leading man and drops the series long-running reliance on arcade beat-em-up fights for more traditional JRPG combat. Another strong attempt from Xbox to finally crack the Japanese market that has eluded them for so long.

This is a terribly short trailer, and oddly packed with in-game cinematics. As first looks go, thisAssassins Creed Valhallatrailer is pretty disappointing doubly so when you consider that Xbox reminded viewers every few minutes of its impending premiere during the broadcast. Were sure well be seeing a lot more of it as we move closer to launch but, for now, we were hoping to see just a little more.

Which brings us to the end! You can watch the entire Xbox 20/20 stream in handy embed below!

Which was your favourite? Which are you looking forward to playing the most? Are you hype for the Xbox Series X? Give us your thoughts on Facebook and Twitter!

More to Explore on the AU:

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Every trailer from last night's Xbox 20/20 broadcast - the AU review

Our First Gay President? Joe Exotic, aka Tiger King, and one of his many pet tigers.

Youre not reading this unless youve been outside to get your magazine at Barnabysor some other equally cool place. Or maybe youre just spending way too much time on the Internet machine.

I hope you are well and dont feel as though youve yeed your last haw, because this will all be over one day. (After all, if Rudy Giuliani is still standing, you can too.)

I know its tough to be locked up in isolation when were stuck with a president who is meandering to a different drummer and is so wired that he can pick up AM radio signals through his makeup. He wants to steal an hour of your day by talking on the teevee in some damn language nobody understands. It sounds a little like English, but . . . no, not English. Definitely not English. Its more like a hurricane blowing through a dictionary.

Then he decided to trademark the name Capn Donald and the Treasury Raiders, and the motto Built on a lifetime supply of tainted corporate ethics.

Now that weve discovered that Republican government is all lime and salt but no tequila, theres nothing left to do but retreat to the solitude of our own homes as it slowly becomes obvious that blind-screaming hedonism has won out.

Things You Do Not Want to Know during a Coronavirus Lockdown

Mike Pence is in charge. Of anything.

Regrettably, it turns out that we can do better than wed like to admit without toilet paper.

Scientists discover that too much soap leads to impotence.

Instead of a face mask, you accidentally ordered a Lone Ranger mask.

You clearly hear a voice say, I have decided on celibacy. And you live alone.

Some gun-toting redneck guy in Oklahomawith two husbands, a meth addiction, and 223 pet tigers is probably going to be the next superstar president.

Cyndi Lauper was named Secretary of Agriculture, and you werent even surprised.

All cruise ships are being rerouted to Buffalo Bayou for the duration.

Charmin Ultra Soft replaces the dollar as the official U.S. currency.

Not only is the Post Office requiring masks tostand in line, but they require you to still wearpants to step out and check your mailbox.

* * * * * *

Does Andrew Cuomo have a nipple ring? Huh? Whoa, wait, stop. Whats this about Andrew Cuomo and nipple rings?

Top Ten Things Andrew Cuomo Has under His Shirt That Are Definitely Not a Nipple Ring, Nope, Definitely Not, No Nipple Ring

10. Dont worry, thats just the top of his corsethell be performing Lucky ChengsDrag Show at 11 p.m.

9. He and Chris Cuomo have tiny transmitters taped to their chests. (Yes, you andyour brother will never be that close.)

8. His 5G tumor.

7. The flash drive with Jareds spunky personality stored on it.

6. Pandemic Sweat Balls.

5. If ya wanna see it in the White House, youshouldve put a ring on it.

4. Allowable quarantine weight gain.

3. His other 5G tumor.

2. Two words: California Exotics.

1. He aint foolin nobodythats a damn nipple ring!

Until next month, when I hope we all can come out for Pride month, stay strong, stay safe, stay semi-sober. Ive started working on my Pride outfit. Bless Michaels for their curbside pickup, because, Honey, the things I can do with feathers, sequins, rhinestones, a glue gun, and a little sassy leather would tease your grannys bitties.

Hugs!

This article appears in the May 2020 edition of OutSmart magazine.

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This and That - outsmartmagazine.com

TFW No GFAlex Lee Moyers new documentary, TFW No GF, finds the sadness and alienation behind the posturing of the Internets right fringe.

NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLEDuring the 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton delivered a speech raising alarm about Donald Trumps association with the alt-right. In Clintons telling, conspiracy theories and rank bigotry from the dark, far reaches of the Internet fueled Trumps rise. But if Clinton correctly identified a new political movement growing on the fringes of the Web, she misidentified Breitbart and Alex Jones as its ringleaders. In the strange world of 4chan and weird Twitter, the anonymous posters who took credit for memeing Trump to the presidency call the shots.

Since 2016, academics and journalists have offered alternatives to Clintons simplistic characterization of these online communities. Its no easy task: Cloaked in layers of irony and self-reference, they elude conventional analysis. The operating principle in the hodgepodge of gamers, anime fans, and reactionary ideologues that makes up the online far right is a love of chaos, as Angela Nagle points out in her book Kill All Normies. Some espouse explicitly racist and misogynistic views, others want to lash out at political correctness and identity politics, and others still do it just to get a rise out of people.

Alex Lee Moyers documentary TFW No GF is the latest attempt to explore the dark, far reaches of the internet. The film, featured in the 2020 SXSW lineup and released on Amazon Prime Video in late April, follows five members of the nebulous, overlapping subcultures labeled at various times incels (involuntary celibates), NEETs (not in employment, education or training), edgelords, Pepes, and the alt-right. Moyer borrows the lo-fi aesthetics of her subjects: The movie is a pastiche of memes, archival material, and heavily edited footage set to the music of John Maus and Ariel Pink. But while Moyers visual sensibilities evince an appreciation for her subjects, her film raises questions as to whether the online world these men inhabit offers them anything constructive or whether it simply reproduces the dynamics that drove them to seek virtual refuge in the first place.

The confessional narratives of TFW No GF translated from Internet slang, it means that feeling when [you have] no girlfriend contrast with the brash and irreverent online personas of its subjects. Against a backdrop of bleak, postindustrial locales its almost like nobodys here, says one subject of his Washington exurb the protagonists discuss their alienation, social maladjustment, and inability to attract women. They grew up in broken homes and see no entry point into conventional life. Instead of the white picket fence, theyve exiled themselves to their childhood bedrooms.

Critics have called TFW No GF a film about incels, but its more a collage of various online subcultures. Sex, the be-all and end-all of the online manosphere, is an afterthought to the films protagonists. These characters seem to harbor little of the incel rage that has fueled mass shootings and online harassment campaigns. Theyre mostly just depressed, and turn to the Internet as a substitute for community.

But there have always been lonely men. If TFW No GF simply documented depression, it wouldnt be especially interesting. Gogol and Dostoevsky explored male disaffection before Moyers, and offered conclusions more incisive than these guys are not happy besides. The film momentarily moves beyond misery-wallowing 30 minutes in, when a man known on Twitter as Kantbot appears on the screen. Contrasting with the industrial debris and cluttered bedrooms that form most of the films backdrop, Kantbots world Riverside Park, a Manhattan rooftop, and a Columbia Universityadjacent bookstore is sophisticated. He intermittently exhales cigarette smoke while expounding on German idealist philosophy. His urbanity and erudition, if an obvious put-on, set him apart from his fellow travelers: One of these edgelords is not like the others.

Kantbot first gained online notoriety from a viral clip in which he claimed that Donald Trump will complete the system of German idealism to a crowd of anti-Trump protesters in Manhattan. Such trolling has gained him a sizable audience and made him something of an online celebrity. And with his appearance, the film begins to explore the intellectual underpinnings of the online far right. Kantbot says his project is to solve the problem of modernity: the devolution of pure reason into nihilism, hedonism, and solipsism. He sees his tweets as aphorisms in the style of the German philosopher Friedrich Schelling. Kantbots relevance to the film stems not only from his fanbase of likeminded young men but also from his ostensible aim to provide an alternative to the disappointments of contemporary life. He is the bard to the rabble of online sh**posters.

Those edgelords who have attempted to fashion an intellectual project out of their alienation seem to have the most to say about the peculiar contours of online discourse. A more thorough sociology of Internet subcultures would have spent more time exploring these contours, through Kantbot and other pseudonymous intellectuals.

But Moyers ambitions are different. Though TFW No GF flirts with a phenomenology of edgelordism, it prioritizes the personal experiences of its subjects. And while it documents the alienation and resentment that has led some self-described incels to glorify or perpetrate murderous acts, most of the characters extricate themselves from edgelordism by the end of the film. One finds a girlfriend online, another takes to weightlifting and reading philosophy. A meme reading, Were all gonna make it marks a break from the fatalism of the films early acts. Perhaps Jordan Petersons brand of self-help has more to offer young men than posting threats against women on Twitter. Or perhaps these men were never so damaged in the first place, but merely engaged in transgressive online discourse as a distraction.

Once again, Kantbot is the exception he remains extremely online, ending the film in much the same position as when it started, except with 40,000 Twitter followers and a popular podcast. Like other self-styled gurus, Kantbot subsists on the attention of his thousands of anonymous fans, who spend more time vying for a retweet than emancipating themselves.

Thus has the attempt to create an unbounded intellectual space devolved into a replica of ordinary social spheres, with different codes and values but with the same competition for attention. The success of the online Rights minor celebrities depends on a substratum of young men languishing. Vying with the ringleaders ideas might be fruitful, but fetishizing them is not. If there is a hopeful lesson from TFW No GF, its that their followers are starting to realize that.

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Inside the Internet Hate Machine - National Review

Im loving the idea of being here for a sustained period of time, says Alan Cumming, speaking over Zoom from his country pile buried deep in New Yorks Catskill mountains. It is purpose-built for isolation. I realised Ive been craving it; its a shame it took a global pandemic to make it happen.

The 55-year-old actor has been rigorous about lockdown. He is asthmatic, so he has been out past his gate only once in five weeks. Cumming spends his days with his husband, the artist Grant Shaffer, and their dogs Lala and Jerry, mostly writing. In the evenings, he has Zoom cocktails last night it was with his old Good Wife co-star Julianna Margulies.

His home is cosy: a crowded bookshelf takes up most of the wood-panelled wall behind him; a blown-up cover image of his first childrens novel, The Adventures of Honey & Leon, illustrated by Shaffer, sits on the floor. He flips the camera to reveal a small outside clearing, empty apart from his trampoline, surrounded by maple trees. A porch swing is rocking; he points to a storm on the horizon coming over the Catskills.

Cumming was in London when the world began shutting down. He was starring in Samuel Becketts Endgame at the Old Vic, alongside Daniel Radcliffe. When the theatre closed on March 15th, Endgame still had two weeks left to run. Cumming may be enjoying this period of isolation, but he is worried about what state the theatre industry will be in when the lockdowns lift. There was talk of bringing Endgame to New York, but he thinks pinning down any dates would be too ambitious.

Until theres a vaccine, I dont think people will really be comfortable sitting in a room with 1,000 people right next to you, coughing, says Cumming. I just dont imagine the theatre or cinema as we know it is going to be able to function.

Even if people are more appreciative of the arts during lockdown, it may not be enough to stave off theatre closures. The UK and US governments have always undervalued the arts, he says a rot thats set in since Margaret Thatcher (he has more than a few criticisms of Thatcher, having just watched the five-part BBC documentary Thatcher: A Very British Revolution).

Many theatres wont survive, because theres so much money going into unemployment and the health service, he says. Not only will these theatres not have produced anything or had any income, but theres going to be a whole range of cuts. Were all f***ed. It is unclear whether he is referring to thespians or, well, everyone.

One person he does include in his assessment is the US president. This could be Trumps downfall. My mother-in-law is a Trump supporter and even shes said: Oh gosh, its terrible what hes doing, using all the Covid press conferences as a rally. Its insane and embarrassing and just disgusting.

He will be supporting Joe Biden for president, but he has his reservations. Hes too old. I think Trumps too old. But we seem to still be in this culture where old white men seem to be allowed to do anything.

Cumming has one of the most eclectic CVs in Hollywood: he is prolific, versatile and prone to reinvention. As well as acting, he writes, directs and produces. He has tried his hand at photography (his latest project includes the self-portrait accompanying this article) and he is a committed activist, particularly for LGBTQ+ rights.

He co-owns a queer cabaret bar, Club Cumming, in the East Village in New York, and even has his own range of fragrances (the parodic advert for Cumming the Fragrance is essential viewing). He still has five bottles sitting on a tray in his bathroom in the Catskills. I actually spray it in the wardrobe upstairs, because were not here very often, so I always just give it a little squirt of Cumming. He describes the scent as earthy.

He has just taken over the pop star Will Youngs role as the co-host, alongside Chris Sweeney, of the Homo Sapiens podcast in which queer people talk about queer life which means he can cross off podcaster, albeit reluctantly.

Everyone has a podcast now! he says. Its like reality TV: I used to say I just wish everyone would go on a reality TV show, so well all have done it and we can get it out of our system and move on.

Yet the lure of exploring one of his biggest passions icons of the LGBTQ+ community was too big. Hannah Gadsby and Stephen Fry are just two of the guests on the new series; it also includes an interview with Cynthia Nixon in which she talks about parenting a trans child.

Cumming has held the title of queer icon since the late 1990s, when he was described by the New York Observer as a frolicky pansexual sex symbol for the new millennium. In November 1999, he posed naked for the cover of the USs largest LGBTQ+ publication, Out magazine. The accompanying interview was his most high-profile announcement to the world that he had sex with men and women.

I still feel everythings kind of grey, he says. Its never felt complicated, my sexuality. Ive never had shame about sex in general or homosexuality. This he attributes to his late father (who died of cancer in 2010), who had an affair with another woman. He wrote about this extensively in his 2014 memoir, Not My Fathers Son.

Growing up, I saw a man who was unable to control his desire. It made me feel like Ive got a sexual appetite and its not a bad thing. Seeing my father struggle with this and realising that he had no control over it made me feel liberated.

Cumming was born in Perthshire, Scotland. His father was the head forester on a large country estate on the Angus coast, which is where he lived with his mother, father and older brother.

His father was volatile and violent. He would mentally torment his sons by setting them ambiguous physical tasks around the estate, hitting them when they failed to match his infeasible standards.

Cumming had a breakdown in his 20s the memories of a childhood dominated by a sadistic abuser resurfacing. Together with his brother, he confronted his father. They didnt speak for 16 years, until his father caught wind of Cummings intention to appear on the TV programme Who Do You Think You Are?.

His father told Cumming (via his brother) that he was not his son; he said he was telling Cumming this to avoid him finding out on national TV. After a meticulous investigation, Cumming exposed his fathers story as untrue (he and his brother took DNA tests to confirm it).

More than five years on, he is still stunned by the feedback from readers of his memoir. Many said it helped them address their own problematic relationships. Has it allowed him to exorcise the trauma of his fathers abuse?

I thought that maybe I would put him to rest, but actually that hasnt happened, he says. Hes much more in my life than he ever was. And so he should be; hes my father. Any parent is a huge part of your life and pretending otherwise is not healthy. I feel in a much healthier place with him.

Cumming laughs dismissively when asked if his globe-trotting career has gone the way he thought it would when he was starting out as a young actor on the Scottish theatre scene in the late 80s.

I was told that things were not available to me because of my Scottishness, he says. America was never a thing. London was maybe a possibility. The idea that I would be doing what Im doing now or have the opportunities that I have now, there was no one I knew whod had that trajectory... those things didnt happen to Scottish people.

And yet his career boomed. He moved to London after a roaring Edinburgh fringe success as half of the comedy double act Victor and Barry with his friend and co-writer Forbes Masson. Their TV series, The High Life, in which they played a pair of outrageously behaved air stewards, aired on the BBC before Cumming moved to London to play Hamlet at the Donmar under Sam Mendes. He scored an Olivier award for his role as the Maniac in Accidental Death of an Anarchist, as well as a nomination for his performance as the Emcee in Cabaret; he won a Tony award when he reprised the role on Broadway in 1998.

More recently, he has found success on the small screen with his scene-stealing performance as the spin doctor Eli Gold in The Good Wife. In 2018, he landed the starring role in Instinct, the first network drama on US television to feature a gay leading character.

As something of a Hollywood veteran (his vast filmography ranges from Goldeneye and Emma to Spice World and Spy Kids), he has expressed solidarity with the victims of Harvey Weinstein. In an Instagram post, underneath an image of Cumming and Weinstein together, he said that he had posed for the photograph despite knowing about Weinsteins hotel room massage meetings, his rage and his bullying nature. Still, he says he was shocked by the scale of the abuse.

It shows you how clever those people are, he says. Theres a difference between: Oh, hes a bit of an old lech, and being a rapist. That was shocking to me.

Cumming was bullied by Weinstein, with the disgraced producer pressuring him to take roles he didnt want. I remember being at the premiere of The Hateful Eight... and Id just said no to Harvey to doing this thing. He was very persistent. I saw him coming, he was on his phone, and I hid in this doorway to avoid them, because I just didnt want to have to deal with them. He was scary and also he was just overwhelming as a personality.

Cumming has witnessed phenomenal social change since he started his career, when homophobia was institutional and potent. I think its great things should move fast, he says. The constant question I used to get was: Do you think that coming out is bad for your career in Hollywood? Its such a ridiculous question. I dont think people in Basingstoke or Idaho are not going to go and see a movie because someone in it is gay. I really dont think they care.

He doesnt miss a beat as he moves on to the latest battleground for LGBTQ+ people: gender identity. When people get all weird about people putting pronouns at the end of their emails, I think: Fuck you. These people are being kind to you and doing you a favour by telling you how they want to be defined.

As well as campaigning for LGBTQ+ equality and HIV charities, Cumming is outspoken against male circumcision.

I never thought anything about my foreskin, he says, and then I came to America and I was having sex and people would just be gasping because theyd never seen a foreskin before. I was made to feel weird and freakish because I had an intact body.

Its genital mutilation. And I think people say: Oh, thats hysterical. But we do it to girls and its called genital mutilation. As for the religious grounds for circumcision, he believes these are ridiculous: We choose to keep doing some things and we just let the weirdest things go.

Cumming is confident that this period of isolation will result in a positive social change. Im an optimist at my very core, he says. Any time when youve got to be away from everybody, to contemplate, meditate and be made to understand how your behaviour affects other people, I just cant help but think that must be a huge positive.

And what about in the immediate aftermath? I think there will probably be a period of rabid shagging, he says. Im sure therell be some sort of swing towards hedonism, where its just crazy. Itll be like New Years Eve. Guardian

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Alan Cumming: I never thought about my foreskin until I came to America - The Irish Times

Lana set the stage for these singles by telling them about the rules and prize money. Soon, their personality traits became much more pronounced.

Each of the cast members underwent very specific changes after the no-sex rule andmoney were introduced on Too Hot to Handle. The singles'initial meeting in paradise was filled with flirty and dirty declarations of fun to come. But onceLana set the stage for them, each of their personality traits became much more pronounced. First of all, the news elicited severalgrimaces and a few audible groans. What happened next was utterlysurprising.

Vixen Francesca did not take the news so well. Viewers were stunned when the brunette bombshell actually burst into tears over the plot twist. Memes were erected (pardon the pun), quoting her disappointment over having to endure celibacy while on the show. "It's like I lost my mom, like, I'm so sad," Francesca said. Even British model Chloe confirmed that Francesca was shaken up about the rules. Chloeadmitted her own dismay, but ultimately, the rules of the show changed herfor the better.

Related: Too Hot To Handle's Celebrity Look-A-Likes: From Khlo Kardashian To Kevin Hart

Chloetold theDaily Mail, "For some of the guys, sex was like a daily exercise for them. It opened my eyes guys actually love sex. I realised, 'This is why they don't text me back.' Once I've kissed someone, they don't want to know.'"Another participant whose true colors came shining through when learning he'd have to remain chaste to pocket a huge prize was Kelz. Prior to joining theshow, Kelzdescribed himself as an "alpha-male who is used to getting what he wants." It became quite evident throughout production that Kelz wanted that money. He carefully and diligently avoided physical contact with Francesca and even Rhonda, whom he's since been linked to after production wrapped.

Sharron amusedviewers during his confessional when he spoke of being apromiscuous churchgoing feminist with a huge package. Too bad none of the ladies got to experience him in all his glory during production. Sharron formeda physicalconnection with single mom Rhonda early into the cast introductions. However, being told they couldn't act on their urges for one another only made this couple lust even harder. As the season progressed, they workedthrough their arousal and various temptations and began building a relationship that eventually led to Rhonda introducing Sharron to her son.

Too Hot to Handle is a raucousglimpse the socioeconomic ramifications of sexand vanitycommingling in a modern society. What makes the show so great is that we see the hedonism of youth culture and all its social media trappings at work. In everydaylife, these singles would give into their baser instincts and hook up with each other before the introductions could even be completed. Adding money and conditional elements into the mix heightens the fun for the THTH viewer. Face it: It seemed to make things even spicier for the singles, too. The rulesmade Sharron and Rhonda convince themselves they were in love, or something close to it. Abstinence even made Francesca and Harry- seemingly two of the most vapid individuals to breathe air - realize that they, too, could be loving and committed. Overall, the change seems to have graduatedmost of the participantsfrom the swinging singles the show promoted, to casting them in amore conscientious light.

Next: Too Hot To Handle: Cast Members Wildest Instagram & Social Media Posts

Source: Bustle, Daily Mail UK

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Ebony March is a contributing writer at Screen Rant. Her career in entertainment journalism began in 2007 as a film and music reviewer. Before joining Screen Rant's Reality TV beat in 2019, Ebony was a contributor at Guitar World and Intent (now Intent Blog). She freelanced as a digital news producer at KABC-TV in Los Angeles and was a freelance producer at the Los Angeles Times.Ebony's interest in social activism, music, and pop culture led to appearances on 60 Minutes, MTV's Subterranean and 12 Angry Viewers, as well as Comedy Central's Beat the Geeks.In her spare time, you'll find Ebony poring over interior design feeds on Pinterest, or obsessively binge-watching episodes of Saturday Night Live. She's also an avid cook and player of classic 8-bit video games like Galaga and Ms. Pacman. Follow Ebony on Twitter.

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Too Hot To Handle: How Cast Members Changed After No-Sex Rule and Money Introduced - Screen Rant