Relating to … Psycho-Pass

One of my most favorite teaching media is Psycho-Pass and one of my favorite concepts from it is Hue.

A Hue is a reflection of a person’s stress level. A clouded hue occurs when stress is CONSISTENTLY present. A constantly clouded hue indicates an eventual psychotic break.

Area Stress Level is a monitoring of hue in an entire area or block.

Stress spreads, stress is contagious, negative energy is infectious etc and one bad hue can infect everyone around it, clouding their hues.

As I get older and I’m dealing with more health issues … I often think about the time between my late 20s and late 30s … where I spent so much time on all the wrong things … wasting my limited time and precious energy in this realm dealing with people with awful energy and fretting over uncontrollable things …

I became a master of learning, evolving, and ascending by the time I was out of my 30s … my mind was sharp and almost hyper-efficient … and between all the hansei and kaizen I did in my teens, I already knew who I wanted to be. I just needed to get rid of all the things hindering me … which was mostly OTHER PEOPLE and their uncontrolled issues and high AF Psycho-Pass scores.

The infectious hues and energy of others, from my parents and beyond, had tainted my core for way too long.

Hues are CONTAGIOUS … they can affect people even strangers in an area. When you take negative and unhealthy energy out of your house, into the world, you are tainting a lot more people than you think … especially HSPs who may encounter you.

During my Psycho-Pass Media Therapy class last night one of my students asked if there was, in literature, a male equivalent to Lavinia or whether, in the history of media, there were only women written by men this way. I’m not well read so I didn’t have any answer except knowledge regarding how women are treated by male artists in the medium of film. I am unsure whether we have any male characters that are the equivalent of Lavinia and that are written by women.

I feel like the rape, torture, mutilation, and murder of women is pretty common by male artists, writers, and filmmakers … I cannot think of a male equivalent to Lavinia or any male characters that have suffered in nearly the same ways as women. I did take the opportunity to talk about the early male responses to Kane’s death in Alien being profound at the time as well as the implications of Lambert being one of the first trans scifi characters and their subsequent “rape” in the film …

The fact that Psycho-Pass is written by a man with a very clear perspective on how Japanese society treats women, the monologue of Oryou Rikako, her mutilation of females, and her own death as Lavinia speaks VOLUMES and Urobutcher has a very pointed message he is trying to make that has actually very little to do with misogyny and more about the valuelessness of women at a societal level. Urobutcher feels strongly about the systems in place designed groom everyone, not just women.

Oryou Rikako’s artwork is “unoriginal” and lacks “meaning or value” but similar artwork featuring mutilated girls in combinations of horrific and sexual imagery done by her father are “deeply profound” and full of “important messages” that speak to elevating those that see it. When a woman creates art with the same imagery but for completely different reasons that speak to female power, repression, and male control it “lacks meaning” because men can’t begin to comprehend it.

Urobutcher gives us two entire monologues explaining Oryou Rikako as a character and her reasons for doing everything she does. He writes these scenes to provide a complete picture for the audience so we can understand her mind and cloud our own hues when we realize that either we agree with her or at least understand what created her anger and desire to create art. It’s a fascinating and deliberate way of transferring responsibility to the audience through empathy.

𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦; 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘖𝘶𝘴𝘰𝘶 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘣𝘰𝘺𝘴, 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘴. 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘶𝘴, 𝘸𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥-𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵, 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥, 𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘢 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘤 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 “𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳” 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘨𝘦. 𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 “𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘥𝘺”.
– Oryou Rikako

Psycho-Pass is NOT an easy piece of media to work with. It is an angry, brutal, evisceration of Japanese culture and standards … a harsh criticism that Urobutcher thrusts upon the viewer without any hesitation of sense of fear. Oryou’s death is brutal … and the Shakespeare references only make it more bloody and more horrifying. My student was shaken even before the education on Titus Andronicus and after simply stunned into silence.

There is something powerful in the conceptualization of a woman’s own recognition of her own valuelessness in society … Oryou Rikako’s artistry was her response to a quiet, yet brutal awakening and a response to the world that drove her father into “death by serenity” – the eustress deficiency that all those under Sybil suffer. It’s a fascinating study of female psychosis. She strives to free others from the prison of the system that denies them value by giving them artistic merit in death.