(WGST 304 post #9)
This film follows a young French boy, Ludo, who feels he's a girl trapped in a boy's body. My favorite scene shows Ludo imagining his X chromosome being lost and thrown in the trash, explaining why he is a "girl-boy" to Jerome, the boy he wants to marry.
It seems perfectly clear to Ludo what she is. She seems to understand how she feels and what she should be, and has little problem expressing that. The real issues come into play during the film when her parents and the neighbors figure out that this isn't a joke and she isn't growing out of it. This goes back to child innocence and how children rarely get confused until their parents influence their thoughts one way or another. Families are supposed to be support systems, providing a safe haven from the rest of the cruel world when times get hard. For Ludo, and many children in this situation, it is the family that causes the problem and will not accept the child for what they feel they are: they must be what society says they are. The way we define gender must change. People cannot be but in boxes and labeled based on stereotypes and expectations.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
My Son is Gay Blog
(WGST 304 post #8)
This blog we read for class talks about how a 5 year old boy dressed up as Daphne from Scooby-Doo for Halloween and the reactions from certain other mothers at his school.
As a child that rarely ever dressed as the conventional princess or ballerina for Halloween, I feel his pain. I was always Buzz Lightyear, or a dragon, or Prince Charming (to my best friend's Cinderella). I still cannot believe that people, especially mothers, are putting their noses where they don't belong: in a child's innocent imagination. It's not nearly as big of a deal for little girls to be Spider Man, but the minute a little boy puts on a dress and a wig, he's questionable. Stop taking the fun and innocence out of childhood, worry wart parents! Stop trying to define a child's sexuality in places it does not exist! Kids need to be able to express themselves and learn who they are through life experience. They will never grow into stable adults if you force feed them stereotypes about what is right and what is wrong for their gender.
To read more, here's a link to the blog--> My Son Is Gay
This blog we read for class talks about how a 5 year old boy dressed up as Daphne from Scooby-Doo for Halloween and the reactions from certain other mothers at his school.
As a child that rarely ever dressed as the conventional princess or ballerina for Halloween, I feel his pain. I was always Buzz Lightyear, or a dragon, or Prince Charming (to my best friend's Cinderella). I still cannot believe that people, especially mothers, are putting their noses where they don't belong: in a child's innocent imagination. It's not nearly as big of a deal for little girls to be Spider Man, but the minute a little boy puts on a dress and a wig, he's questionable. Stop taking the fun and innocence out of childhood, worry wart parents! Stop trying to define a child's sexuality in places it does not exist! Kids need to be able to express themselves and learn who they are through life experience. They will never grow into stable adults if you force feed them stereotypes about what is right and what is wrong for their gender.
To read more, here's a link to the blog--> My Son Is Gay
The Man Box
Halberstam argues that society has created stereotypical qualities and traits that are equated with masculinity (and femininity). This creates a type of "box", used to put men (and women) in, to label them as what society deems masculine (or feminine). So if a man does not fit in this "man box", or has traits that are outside the box, he is ostracized or just not a man. Being outside the box somehow makes you inadequate, meaning you have to be one or the other: a man or a woman.
The problem is, no one fits in this box 100% of the time. Being what is traditionally thought of as masculine or feminine changes with time and personal experience. By putting people in boxes and labeling them with one or the other, you might be missing out on personality traits that make people, people: uniquely made individuals with individual likes and dislikes. No one fits in the box, so why does it exist?
Comfort Women
(WGST 304 post #6)
We watched a documentary on the women who were taken as sex slaves by the Japanese government during WWII to service the soldiers. According to the Japanese, this would decrease the number of rapes in occupied villages and stop the spread of STDs among the soldiers. Enloe also discusses the use of prostitution in the military as a way to create a form of militarized masculinity and comradery among the male soldiers.
The idea that men are such insatiable, hypersexual animals that cannot control themselves; will rape if they are not provided with a regular outlet for this sexual desire is sickening, and if I were a man, I'd be insulted. The kind of masculinity the military creates in this kind of environment is violent and misogynistic. People in the military are supposed to represent their countries in a way that will make them respectable and heroic, not abusive and terrifying. After reading the article by Enloe and watching the comfort women documentary, I felt that the images of masculinity perpetuated by the military not only lead to oppression of women, but also the oppression of men. This kind of militarized masculinity can be extremely harmful to men, especially if they do not feel they are truly a part of it, if they feel differently than they are told to feel. Imagine being told what you are supposed to do and how you are supposed to feel, but you don't quite measure up to that expectation...your self-worth and image will most likely suffer. Prostitution in the military doesn't just hurt women, it hurts men too.
We watched a documentary on the women who were taken as sex slaves by the Japanese government during WWII to service the soldiers. According to the Japanese, this would decrease the number of rapes in occupied villages and stop the spread of STDs among the soldiers. Enloe also discusses the use of prostitution in the military as a way to create a form of militarized masculinity and comradery among the male soldiers.
The idea that men are such insatiable, hypersexual animals that cannot control themselves; will rape if they are not provided with a regular outlet for this sexual desire is sickening, and if I were a man, I'd be insulted. The kind of masculinity the military creates in this kind of environment is violent and misogynistic. People in the military are supposed to represent their countries in a way that will make them respectable and heroic, not abusive and terrifying. After reading the article by Enloe and watching the comfort women documentary, I felt that the images of masculinity perpetuated by the military not only lead to oppression of women, but also the oppression of men. This kind of militarized masculinity can be extremely harmful to men, especially if they do not feel they are truly a part of it, if they feel differently than they are told to feel. Imagine being told what you are supposed to do and how you are supposed to feel, but you don't quite measure up to that expectation...your self-worth and image will most likely suffer. Prostitution in the military doesn't just hurt women, it hurts men too.
Black Talk
(WGST 304 post # 5)
In the film Crash (2004), there's a scene in which the black TV director, Cameron (Terrence Dashon Howard) is told by his white producer that the script needs to be changed because the lines of a black character in the scene do not sound "black enough". He's supposed to be "stupid" and doesn't "talk ebonics" enough to sound stupid. Cameron thinks the man is joking but it is made clear they have to re-shoot the scene.
We have been talking in class about modes of oppression constructed at the institutional, symbolic, and individual levels of society. This scene in the film is a clear representation of how language can create stereotypes for certain ethnicities and races of people. The way we attach definitions and expectations of what a certain person (with a certain skin color) should act like and speak like is a form of symbolic oppression constructed by society and perpetuated by itself. Why should a black person "sound" black? What does that even mean? Why do we have to separate "black" speech from "white" speech? Isn't it all just talking?
In the film Crash (2004), there's a scene in which the black TV director, Cameron (Terrence Dashon Howard) is told by his white producer that the script needs to be changed because the lines of a black character in the scene do not sound "black enough". He's supposed to be "stupid" and doesn't "talk ebonics" enough to sound stupid. Cameron thinks the man is joking but it is made clear they have to re-shoot the scene.
We have been talking in class about modes of oppression constructed at the institutional, symbolic, and individual levels of society. This scene in the film is a clear representation of how language can create stereotypes for certain ethnicities and races of people. The way we attach definitions and expectations of what a certain person (with a certain skin color) should act like and speak like is a form of symbolic oppression constructed by society and perpetuated by itself. Why should a black person "sound" black? What does that even mean? Why do we have to separate "black" speech from "white" speech? Isn't it all just talking?
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
I'm Just a Waitress
(WGST 304 Blog Post #4)
We've been discussing in class how people can be misrepresented in media. I just read an article online about how when the media wants you to feel sorry for a female character in a movie or TV show, they cast her as a waitress. At first, I couldn't think it was true, but in many of my favorite shows and movies, one of the female characters (who is often down on her luck) IS in fact a waitress!
Why being a waitress is a pity job is beyond me. Maybe I'm bias because I am a waitress, but the people who work in the service industry should be thanked, not pitied.
It is just like every other job, maybe even harder. With odd hours, horrible hourly pay, and having to put up with people who actually believe this stupid stereotype and act like they're better than you: it's no easy task.
So why are these women, who are in such a difficult working environment, shown to be struggling or having a hard time of it? Why aren't they shown as well-put-together individuals that pretty much have it all figured out? The service industry, as I have stated isn't a cake walk. Perhaps if more people worked in a restaurant at least once in their lives (as I believe should be mandatory), they would stop feeling sorry for that waitress who seems stuck in a rut, stop giving her attitude, and thank her for that drink (despite your annoyingly long and specific drink order).
Read More Here--Because I'm Just a Waitress
We've been discussing in class how people can be misrepresented in media. I just read an article online about how when the media wants you to feel sorry for a female character in a movie or TV show, they cast her as a waitress. At first, I couldn't think it was true, but in many of my favorite shows and movies, one of the female characters (who is often down on her luck) IS in fact a waitress!
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| Office Space |
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| Big Bang Theory |
It is just like every other job, maybe even harder. With odd hours, horrible hourly pay, and having to put up with people who actually believe this stupid stereotype and act like they're better than you: it's no easy task.
So why are these women, who are in such a difficult working environment, shown to be struggling or having a hard time of it? Why aren't they shown as well-put-together individuals that pretty much have it all figured out? The service industry, as I have stated isn't a cake walk. Perhaps if more people worked in a restaurant at least once in their lives (as I believe should be mandatory), they would stop feeling sorry for that waitress who seems stuck in a rut, stop giving her attitude, and thank her for that drink (despite your annoyingly long and specific drink order).
Read More Here--Because I'm Just a Waitress
Sunday, October 7, 2012
The Bechdel Test
(WGST 304 Post #3)
"The Bechdel Test" is a criteria for movies based on three rules, as the comic states: 1) must have at least two women, 2) who talk to each other, 3) about something OTHER than a man. So far in 2012, there are only 84 movies that meet these standards, compared to 2011 with 115 movies. It's crazy to think that our movies are so narrowly focused. We read about "The Gaze" as defined by Laura Mulvey and how media is phallocentric. This test furthers that assumption, when hundreds of movies come out in a year and in only 84 of them are women talking about something other than men. It raises concerns about the placement of value in movies; being so heavily man-centric. There are many other things women think about and are concerned with, yet so many movies over simplify that though process into "all women think about are men and how to get them". This isn't a feminist issue. When you limit discussion topics to just men, you're missing out on the other 50% of the topics and experiences in the world. This just generates crappy films, crappy art; just crappy visual representation in general.
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| Dykes to Watch Out For, 1985 |
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