Posts by OrphanCrow

150

Disfellowshipping Image

by naazira in

jw
friends

this photo can be found in the april 15 , study edition article titled:.

why disfellowshipping is a loving provision.

just by looking at this image we can see how quickly the barrier between the congregation and former member is put up, after the announcement that this sister is no longer one of jehovah's witneses.

OrphanCrow

Millie: Why didnt they make the girl leaving in the colored dress "more"?
As in tighter dress, shorter, cleavage implied.
Actually cleavage is implied even though it is a side shot.

I think that by not altering her too much...it leaves room for the blue lady to be either or - a bad woman or a good JW woman - the image hits both levels. If she was altered much at all - she was given color but maybe not much else was done to her figure.

Besides, I think that your following observation lends more credibility to the theory that the source image was a candid photo taken at a KH somewhere. The people in them are in real, KH poses.

That poor woman on the left in the picture that is part of a couple is a sad sight.
Flat chested with an underbite and an eager look on her face because she is being "recognized" (that would seem to indicate the man addressing the couple is a somebody ie; elder ((gag))
And look! Her husband is noticibly better looking than she - so there you go aging single pioneering girls in your late 20s and 30s. You too can get "tall, dark and handsome" becaise they are looking for women who are "spiritual".

You have just described exactly what you could see in a KH anywhere - I notice how she is standing slightly behind him, her shoulders bent submissively. To tell you the truth, I didn't peg her for being the polished guy in the center's wife - I just dismissed her as a late teen wandering around behind the two guys. But, now, with your description, of course she is the dude's wife.

An image like this deserves to get a lot of attention. It is a powerful image and one that is designed -even if a bit clumsy in execution - to elicit an emotional response, rather than a rational one from the viewer. It is why propaganda images are powerful - they evoke emotion.

Consider if this was presented in what i believe to be its original form - a candid photo. It wasn't presented that way. And remember that if this was a candid photo, this image was chosen - someone said - that's it! that one will say what we want it to.

And then, the image was altered.

And then, the photo was totally placed out of context to associate it with disfellowshipping, an act that distorted why the image was taken in the first place. Not only was the photo manipulated, its placement was manipulated.

By deconstructing this image, the viewer gains power over it. The powerful image becomes an understandable object. It loses its ability to appeal to the irrational - our emotions - and instead we can objectively and rationally place it in submission to formal qualities alone. We gain control of the image by understanding it as much as we are able to.

By the way, I am enjoying everybody's responses to this image. I like image deconstruction. It's fun.

:)

.

150

Disfellowshipping Image

by naazira in

jw
friends

this photo can be found in the april 15 , study edition article titled:.

why disfellowshipping is a loving provision.

just by looking at this image we can see how quickly the barrier between the congregation and former member is put up, after the announcement that this sister is no longer one of jehovah's witneses.

OrphanCrow

Ruby: this pic is doing a lot of work cos the woman in colour is dressed the way sisters who work fulltimes dress dress at our meetings during the summer. Some elders' wives dress like that too. Is there an implicit warning to successful sisters to beware lest they fall?

I absolutely agree with you, Ruby.

it is another reason why this image is so powerful - it operates on several levels and the message adapts itself to whoever it is that is reading it. Of course the young, semi-zealous JW woman, who views this image could identify with the blue lady who is carrying the field service bag. The message to her is an emotional one, she is being told - don't forget being a happy little girl in the KH. Don't look outside that door - look back to being happy. Where? In the KH, of course.

Pete-
An entire case study could be written about this picture.
d4g

The image would make for a great source image to base a lecture, to a senior level university art history class, on "The Representation of Power Politics and How to Deconstruct the Propaganda Image".

21

Top Cult Expert Steven Hassan makes statement about Jehovah's Witnesses

by Watchtower-Free in

thought this had to be made.

OrphanCrow

Oubliette: --as far as I can remember--Hassan did not mention JWs explicitly in that book.

Billybobber: Source for quote?

Me too. Where is the source for the quote? Reference please.

150

Disfellowshipping Image

by naazira in

jw
friends

this photo can be found in the april 15 , study edition article titled:.

why disfellowshipping is a loving provision.

just by looking at this image we can see how quickly the barrier between the congregation and former member is put up, after the announcement that this sister is no longer one of jehovah's witneses.

OrphanCrow

Okay, okay...I promise...I will sit down after this post.

A poster had made the comment on another thread that if the WTS photoshopped images, that we would jump all over them. Well, I believe that the image that is the subject of this thread is a digitally manipulated photograph.

Some posters have drawn attention to the dress and shoes of the blue woman in this photo. The WTS illustrators have given the woman some extra attention. The dress has likely been shortened by the computer technician because the hem is too straight - it doesn't fall naturally. I think the shoes have been changed - the size and placement are just a bit 'off'. A tiny bit - not quite right.

Does the WTS manipulate and 'photoshop' images? Yes, indeed they do.

150

Disfellowshipping Image

by naazira in

jw
friends

this photo can be found in the april 15 , study edition article titled:.

why disfellowshipping is a loving provision.

just by looking at this image we can see how quickly the barrier between the congregation and former member is put up, after the announcement that this sister is no longer one of jehovah's witneses.

OrphanCrow

Sorry for talking so much...but I downloaded this image and have spent some time studying it these past couple days and now that I took another look at it, I have a few more things to say about it.

I had mentioned the elders in my last post. In re-examining the image, it is possible that the one man in the center of the image has a 'elder' position. Notice how he is placed exactly center in the image. Even though he isn't the main subject, he takes center stage. Regardless, most of the men, including young boys (up and coming authority figures) are outside the frame.

I also want to address the demon and the funny clown guy in center left of the image. I know that other people besides me will see the demon so I must as well talk about it now.

I have given some thought as to the artistic processes involved in the making of this image and I believe that the source image is a photograph. Probably a candid photo that someone owned from years ago. Which would explain why the blue woman has a book bag - she did in the original photograph. It wasn't a staged photograph. Manipulated but not staged.

I don't think that it was drawn by a human hand, unless you consider that the computer's choices are directed by a human. I think it is a digitally manipulated photograph and that it is the intervention of the computer that may be responsible for translating the tonal values in such a way that inadvertent 'subliminal' images appear.

The 'demon head' appears right beside the little girl on the chair - to her left and on the chair back. I noticed the demon face right away - the contrast of the tonal values on the edge of the chair drew my eye to that area. I looked and there was the demon.

I think the demon may have been a shadow from the arm rests, and how the computer has translated those tonal regions, through the process of scanning, and then through the transition into a 'drawn' image, has left those shadows in the shape of a demon face.

I am not sure about the clown guy, but, digital manipulation of photographs often will distort certain ares of the photo. Maybe that is what it is.

However, what I don't understand is this: why were those 'errors in translation' not corrected before the image was printed? Why would an artist, who could not help but see the same things I did, not say, "Oh my jehovah! There is a demon on the chair! I better get THAT out of the image." And "Oh my! Look at how that extra contrast draws an eye to that area...surely someone will see it...better change that quick!"

There are only two explanations. One - the artists are incompetent. They lack the ability to know what it is that they are doing. Or two: they saw it and left it.

150

Disfellowshipping Image

by naazira in

jw
friends

this photo can be found in the april 15 , study edition article titled:.

why disfellowshipping is a loving provision.

just by looking at this image we can see how quickly the barrier between the congregation and former member is put up, after the announcement that this sister is no longer one of jehovah's witneses.

OrphanCrow

Sparrow: The patriarchal culture of the kingdom hall seems the perfect environment to perpetuate the idea that women are either temptress or saint.

And the idea that women are weak and emotional.

A layer of meaning that often gets missed when looking at images, is not what is in the image, but what is left out of the frame. By depicting women as vulnerable or threatening, by extension, the message is that the Men are not those things. Men, by their absence, are portrayed as strong and good.

Where are the men positioned in the "disfellowshipping image"? Well, they are somewhat removed from that emotionally charged space - a couple of them chatting casually in the background, on the periphery, and an older gentlemen minding his own business, not getting involved. Rank and file men, just a couple of guys and an old fellow. And the elders, the ones with the authority and power? They are exactly where they should be - outside of the frame, taking the dominant position of 'capturing' the subject matter. They are the ones who 'took' this picture, the ones with the control.

By the way, those two guys in the back smiling and chatting? What is with the fellow on the right? His smile looks so weird. His mouth goes right up to his eyes. Every one of the other people in this image have relatively realistic features. His features make him look like some sick cartoon guy.

150

Disfellowshipping Image

by naazira in

jw
friends

this photo can be found in the april 15 , study edition article titled:.

why disfellowshipping is a loving provision.

just by looking at this image we can see how quickly the barrier between the congregation and former member is put up, after the announcement that this sister is no longer one of jehovah's witneses.

OrphanCrow

Sparrowdown: Sorry if someone else has already commented on this but are the disfellowshipped more often than not depicted as young women?

Good observation, Sparrow.

If the intention of the WTS image is to provoke sadness and pity, the woman is the ideal figure to use. Who more pitiful than a fallen JW woman? Who more sinful in nature than the woman?

And what a great loss for the men left behind...a woman. So sad for those JW men have been deprived of property - such loss for the men. A young attractive one, too. Marriageable age and good for breeding.

Sad, isn't it?

150

Disfellowshipping Image

by naazira in

jw
friends

this photo can be found in the april 15 , study edition article titled:.

why disfellowshipping is a loving provision.

just by looking at this image we can see how quickly the barrier between the congregation and former member is put up, after the announcement that this sister is no longer one of jehovah's witneses.

OrphanCrow

A couple more ways that reveal that the neutral part of the image is meant to be a memory.

Some posters have mentioned the dowdiness of the female dresses in the KH. That is a visual clue that it is 'old-fashioned', in the past.

The little girl has the same outfit as the woman seated beside her. I remember years ago when it was common to dress the generations alike. What that visual device does, though, is evoke an emotional response based upon that similarity of pattern - it bonds the little girl to the other woman.

And that is what this image is meant to do. It has be designed and carefully planned in such a way that almost each and every viewer can find themselves in that image. And each of us will react in a personal, emotional way. We will all react differently, but for the JWs still in, I think the WTS wants them to feel sad.

The WTS doesn't want the JWs to think of the life that the ones they have rejected are leading now, they want them to feel sad and pitying for the 'good' life they left behind.

It is misplaced pity.

150

Disfellowshipping Image

by naazira in

jw
friends

this photo can be found in the april 15 , study edition article titled:.

why disfellowshipping is a loving provision.

just by looking at this image we can see how quickly the barrier between the congregation and former member is put up, after the announcement that this sister is no longer one of jehovah's witneses.

OrphanCrow

I think the use of color, and the lack of color, in this image is meant to provoke the idea that the ones who leave have a sense of nostalgia about that wonderful place they left behind.

The woman is in color - which places her in the present. And the rest of the image is in neutral grey tone, which evokes the sense of it being in the past. The KH image, in its muted grey tones, not even any black, is meant to represent the blue lady's memory, her past she left behind.

The little girl on the chair is her - the blue lady as a child. Surrounded by loving family members...inside a Kingdom Hall.

The WT wants the JWs who are still in to believe that those who have left, like the blue lady, look back and miss that idyllic memory.

This is a strong image. The WT uses visual language in a very calculated way.

*pssst...Lol! I am surprised nobody has noticed the demon yet! ;)

23

Governing Body Mandating That Parents Shun DF'd Preteens Baptized Children Will Hurt Them Big Time In The Courts

by Brokeback Watchtower in

as the bad conduct of the governing body becomes widely known to both judge and jury i expect that will make lawsuits more profitable against them and easier wins against them and more plentiful.. i think probably one of the most damming videos out there on the net is the one where the parents show their loyalty to the wt corporation and shun their own flesh and blood in obedience to it cruel directives.

this video truely shows that the governing body don't give a shit about the children who symbolize their dedication to the corporation or their parents.. such a self serving corporation that uses it members for profits only and offer nothing in return no matter how much how much they claim otherwise.

they can't hide this it is plain as day so no matter how much they claim they are concerned about the youth in the organization their action thunder loudly and can not be hiden under a basket.

OrphanCrow

This video is so twisted I don't even know where to start.

Seriously twisted thinking - to portray themselves as "loving", and stand up there so fucking self-righteous, so self-sacrificing...when in reality, they just sacrificed their child. And called it "love".

That isn't love. That is brutal self-preservation.

The insanity and brutality of what she is saying astounds me.

She says she would die for her children...but, if the child breaks the WTS' rules, she would not be there. Instead - she "kills" the child rather than dying herself. Because that is what disfellowshipping is - it is a symbolic "stoning to death".

Talk about a fucked way of viewing the world. Those parents are sacrificing their children for their own survival. And calling it "love".

"...and they so loved themselves that they gave up their own son so that the WTS could live..." I bet you won't find that in the Bible. But they believe that their god did that - sacrificed his own son.

Well...I said it before and I will say it again:

You can call it a tuna fish sandwich if you like, but if it is black and has four legs, walks low to the ground with a white stripe down its back...it's a skunk.