Tag Wall Street

Originally posted: http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/features/Feature-Modern-day-costume-heroes.6513746.jp
Published Date: 07 September 2010
By KATY ROSS
That’s what many 25-year-olds do when confronted with the monotony of the hamster wheel of life, when nothing matters but who you are going to the pub with at the weekend and whether you happen to get lucky. Instead, each night when he gets home from his job at an non-profit organisation in Brooklyn, he goes to his wardrobe and pulls on his superhero costume, then goes about the important business of saving the world, one step at a time.
He is not alone. Lazaros, or ‘Life’, to give him his superhero moniker, is one of a legion who make up the real-life superhero movement, a worldwide community of loosely affiliated individuals committed to a broadly defined ethos of making the world a better place.
These people may look as though they have jumped out of a comic book or Hollywood blockbuster, but they are all ordinary citizens who haven’t got a super power between them. What they share is an all too human ambition to help solve some of society’s most challenging problems by donning masks and costumes and venturing into their respective neighbourhoods to feed the hungry, comfort the sick and protect the innocent.
“We are just people who want to make a difference,” says Lazaros, who co-founded the New York-based website Superheroes Anonymous, to bring superhero groups together through outreach, education and creative community service. “We are not delusional – we know we’re humans with limited abilities. But inside every human is the capacity to do something kind, brave and strong for our fellow humans; some among us simply choose to do so in secret.”
But why the need for costumes? Would these good deeds not be equally welcomed if carried out in jeans and T-shirts? Working from the basic premise that the definition of a real-life superhero is someone who creates their unique persona to do good acts for others, Lazaros believes that “just because you are becoming something greater than yourself when you do these acts of good does not mean you have to be wearing a mask while doing them.
Nevertheless, the costumes do provide a universal symbol of good that people can recognise. When my father went out on the streets dressed as a Rabbi, people recognised him and trusted him. Dressing up in a superhero costume means something similar to me.”
The Real Life Superhero Project is photographer Peter Tangen’s attempt to document the work of the individuals who make up the movement. “They are some of the most amazing people I have ever met,” he says from his home in Los Angeles.
“As I researched the project I was struck by the irreverent and almost insulting tone of some of the reporting into these altruistic people who devote their time and effort into helping others. Their approach is very savvy though. In some ways they are marketing good deeds. They are drawing attention to personal power in an entirely unique way.”
Despite the hurdles the movement faces, its numbers are growing fast and are currently estimated to be in the region of 250 to 300 around the world. The work they do is varied; for example, The Cleanser will actively go out and clean the streets. Direction Man will go out and offer directions.
Other people have less specific personas and just aim to help. With great costumes, though, comes great responsibility, and while the superheroes are united in their aim to make the world a better place, their community has at times been divided on how that should be done.
Some members advocate a high-profile existence, helping the less fortunate through established non-profit organisations. Others want to fight the bad guys, vigilante-style, hiding in the shadows while supporting the work done by those in law enforcement.
Before moving to New Jersey to be with her boyfriend, 20-year-old Nyx, like Peter Parker in Spider-Man, prefered to keep her true identity secret. Living in Kansas, she would secretly take photographs of drug dens and send them to the authorities.
“It was dangerous work and I used to carry weapons. But I’m in New York now and things are different,” she says.
“We need to remain focused about our aims. I ask myself how I can be most productive. I want to help people feel safer and happier, but the best way I can do that is by volunteering. So now I work with my boyfriend at a homeless shelter. Everyone has it in them to make a difference, and I think this is the best way I can help.”
In Atlanta, Crimson Fist, a compact 5ft 6in, admits on his first night patrol it was the shock of seeing a man in a red and white cape and mask that scared off the two men he had confronted in an alley for attacking one another.
With a history of substance abuse, he says his superhero work is an attempt to make up for treating people poorly in the past.
“Generally when I go out on patrols I pack up a backpack with different supplies – in the summer I hand out bottled water, in the colder months, I give them clean shirts and socks and things like that.”
Citizen Prime, real name Jim, works for an unnamed financial institution by day and is one of the most respected members of the superhero community. Recently retired, he is consulted by many of the other super- heroes for advice. Prime distributed literature on drugs and crime and boasted a $4,000 custom-made outfit with breast armour.
On reflection, he likes to think his humour was his key weapon in diffusing awkward situations as he patrolled the streets of Arizona.
It would be easy to assume the actions of these members, and the many others committed to the movement, stem from a sense of disillusionment with society’s limitations, and that the new breed of superheroes are simply looking to find purpose in their lives. This isn’t always the case though.
Many of these people come from extremely successful backgrounds. Some are employed by non-profit organisations but others work on Wall Street or in politics.
As Peter Tangen puts it: “These people come from all walks of life. The organisation is very focused but it isn’t political. There are committed Democrats, Republicans, the whole spectrum of society is included. These are people with relationships, families, successful lives.
“They are not people who are lacking. They are people who are doing what they can to make a difference to the world they live in.”
For Lazaros, the motivation to get into the movement wasn’t through some sense of disillusionment, but more a desire to share his good fortune. Raised in the Jewish tradition of leaving the world a better place than the way he found it, he was imbued at an early age with strong values of charity, courtesy and kindness, modelled for him by his Hassidic parents, who always gave to others, even when it was hard to do so.
This moral code, underscored with a powerful sense of social justice, led him to his work with the homeless and disenfranchised.
Now minimally costumed in a mask, tie and jacket, he sets out every day with a backpack brimming with toothbrushes, lotions, soaps, even sweets, delivering the smaller necessities of life that fill in the gaps left by the NYC Department of Homeless Services.
The challenge, as Lazaros sees it, is to find people who are creative and altruistic and encourage them to express those charitable impulses in ways that may range from the subtle to the extreme. It is also what he sees as the ultimate mission of Superheroes Anonymous. “If I can inspire someone to do even the littlest of things to help others, and they in turn can do the same, think of how many thousands can be helped.”
www.reallifesuperheroes.com
This article was first published in Scotland On Sunday on Sunday, 5 September, 2010

In a city such as New York there are always dangers. Taxi drivers, muggers and icy pavements in the winter, to name a few. Then there’s the night – the clientele of bars, clubs and parties all over the city taking risks, gambling with their lives. And more often than not the innocent victims are women. Women who may have had a little too much tipple, or are being led up the garden path by the ‘alpha’ male in the crowd. And who is there to protect those women from these dangers? Superheroes like Spider-Man or Batman? The Amazon goddess herself, Wonder Woman? No, these are purely characters of comic books and imagination. However, there is a real hero out there, and yes she does wear a cape and sport a mask!
I protect the single girl living in the big city.
That mysterious woman in scarlet costume, red knee-high leather boots and swirling cape? That’s Terrifica! Together with a blonde wig, golden mask and matching Valkyrie¹ bra, she is every part the superhero, providing help where it’s needed (and sometimes not).
Devoid of any real superpowers – no superspeed, superstrength, X-ray vision or amazing mutant abilities, all she has is her ‘utility belt’ – a bumbag² containing pepper spray for emergencies, a mobile phone, lipstick, camera, notebook, Terrifica fortune cards, condoms and ‘energy pills’ (Smarties chocolates). And with no superhuman abilities to protect her from harm, Terrifica does take chances. She has often been abused by both women and men when offering her own style of ‘freedom-fighting’, but mostly she is berated by bartenders trying to ply their wares.
First coming to prominence in 1995, Terrifica took her self-proclaimed mission of protecting single women to the bars and nightclubs of the Brooklyn area of New York, in particular 7th Avenue, seeking out women she felt were being taken advantage of by male ‘predators’. She would speak to potential victims, offering advice over a ‘Shirley Temple’³, and either handing over condoms or her trademark fortune cards, which gave tips on how to deal with unwanted sexual advances or a ‘break up‘ peaceably. One ‘rescuee’, 24-year-old painter Lauren, reported:

She asked if we were going to hook up tonight… offered us a condom and said that if I was going to be tricked into having sex, at least it should be safe.

Terrifica soon became a common and often welcome sight, in some cases purely for the gimmick and ridicule, at many ‘frat’ parties⁴ and Wall Street clubs in Brooklyn during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

I had a couple of run-ins with men that really shocked me, left me feeling confused and really hurt.

Mild-mannered Sarah⁵ works for a computer consulting company in the city. Little is known of her childhood and past, as she ensures her true identity remains a secret, so as she can live a ‘normal’ life. Sarah’s superhero side came into being when, after moving from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to New York City, her then boyfriend broke off their relationship. Upset and alone in the big city, she continued to make the best of things and eventually met another man while out clubbing.
However, the course of true love does not run smooth and in a short space of time her new boyfriend also ended their relationship. It was this event that spurred 30-something Sarah into action, deciding that no other single woman should suffer as she had. ‘Terrifica’ was born – a heroine that would protect other potential ‘Sarahs’ from the possibility of emotional or physical harm caused by ill-advised or drunken decisions.

We have crossed paths from time to time.
– Fantastico

Terrifica’s arch-nemesis, Fantastico, is a partygoer who likes to dress in velvet and considers himself a bit of a ladies’ man. Terrifica has thwarted his attempts of ‘getting to know women a little better’ many a time. An intriguing character – unemployed, but with a penchant for the finer things in life, Fantastico is convinced that Terrifica is not a superhero, but merely a ‘miserable, lonely woman who does not want anyone else to be happy’. It is not just her enemies that have labelled her a ‘crazy broad’ however, with club-owners, partygoers, new-age feminists and even the New York Police Department frowning upon her vigilante actions.

It’s dangerous work that I must do alone.

Despite her critics, many women have benefited from Terrifica’s intervention. The heroine once planned to set up a telephone hotline to help women when they needed relationship advice, but she also concocted an equivalent of the Bat-Signal – the ‘Terrific-Signal’, which would shine a huge ‘T’ over the skyline of New York in order that she could race to where she was needed – but unfortunately, these ideas never came to fruition.
Even though Terrifica wanted to carry on her mission – as long as there were still women getting drunk, going home with men they barely knew and then wondering why the phone would not ring the next day – it appears as if she has hung up her bumbag and folded away her cape – for now…
Terrifica’s lasting message to the young single women of New York?

Don’t get drunk in bars.

---

¹ A Valkyrie is a Norse legend, a female warrior with golden armour.
² Otherwise known as a ‘fannypack’ in the United States.
³ Non-alcoholic drink.
⁴ Parties held by American College Fraternities, in which college boys get drunk with college girls and all sorts of chaos ensues.
⁵ Her full name is kept secret to maintain her anonymity.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A11755145

Photo essay originally published online at Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University
“Yo comparto la idea de que tiene que haber una transformación de la política económica, y si la política económica se está dictando desde Wall Street, desde el Departamento de Tesoro […] el gobierno norteamericano tiene un papel sustancial en diseñar esta política económica … Por eso, lo que yo estoy haciendo es atacar por los dos lados. Con la organización social, con la gente en movimiento, con propuestas de modificar la propiedad económica, y con la candidatura a la presidencia, para modificar de fondo esta política. Y sin dar el beneficio de la duda, en la cosa de la candidatura, podemos perder aquí, pero no podemos perder en el movimiento social.”
The Future is Now
In favor of progressive transnational politics via what can be understood as global gobernance, Superbarrio 1995’s electoral campaign for US president proposed that the citizens of the Americas must have the right of self-governance by having control over the US electoral vote. In other words, Latin Americans, and Latinos/as alike, must be able to participate fully in the US electoral process by having a representative voice. Superbarrio Gomez for US president against the “politics of fear” was the logic consequence.
Nine years later, from September 20, to October 4, the “Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride”, a national march organized by labor and pro-immigrant rights organizations toured the US nation. Their claims, the provision of voting rights to non-US citizens. In the tradition of the 1961 “Freedom Rides”, more than 120,000 immigrants arrived to Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, New York, the largest pro-immigrant march in US history. Predictions attest that by 2080, Mexico’s north and the US southwest will unify. The Mexicanization of California has already taken place long ago, now we are in the North East.
“Voy a estar en Harvard el próximo viernes, y me da miedo encontrarme a los mexicanos ahí, porque son ellos los que están pensando en qué va a hacer nuestro presidente, y hoy están estudiando un material nuevo que se llama: desastres económicos nacionales. La gente tiene una politización muy alta, tiene una conciencia social también muy alta, la gente ha desarrollado sus aspiraciones y sus formas de organización. El gobierno no ha sido recíproco con este sacrificio.”
“The problem of NAFTA is not about workers, it is about corporations because they are the ones benefiting from this situation….the corporations take the industry to México because the conditions are different, that is the problem. When the workers can find and meet each other, when they can talk between them, the problem is clear…it is not our problem it is the corporation and the government’s problem. We want to be a voice that identify these problems and think together about the solution. The workers from Canada, the workers from the U.S., from México should think together what is the solution about the problem of unemployment, social security, and work with unions…”
“…una política económica de carácter CONTINENTAL en donde también se puedan tener medidas para las plantas nacionales.”
While John Kerry, Rudolph Giuliani, and George W. Bush propose an America to reconcile either class division or national security promises, in 1995 Superbarrio’s campaign proposed an America comprised of alternative transnational political cultures. Superbarrio’s unified America, in conversation with Benito Juarez “America for Americans”, incorporated the participation of Latin American and Latino/a civil societies within and beyond the US.
“El concepto americano hasta nostros mismos lo hemos tenido que asumir, ya que nos hemos negado a nosotros mismos nuestra condición de americanos nacidos en el continente.”
Superbarrio has been a fundamental figure in Mexico City’s electoral concientization, the way in which winning for the majoritarian class became a real political imaginary. Superbarrio’s premonitory discourse further promoted the possibilities of global governance as the only consequential logic in a global world economy and its centralized accumulation of capital. Superbarrio’s candidacy for U.S. President promoted a cross-border alliance among workers in the search of what are human rights, decent working and living conditions. Because the U.S./Mexico border has been the location to rehearse and promote the dehumanization of the labor force, and NAFTA its later institutionalized model, Superbarrio’s transnational mobilization becomes the wrestling scenario to conceptualized “new geographies of governamentality” (Appadurai 2002). Superbarrio’s transnational activism became a fight for alternative forms of global citizenship in which to keep the mask on means to own one’s home within and beyond the Nation.