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David Eng says M Butterfly provides an example that illustrates, “...the impossibility of thinking about racism and sexism as separate discourses or distinct spheres of analysis,” (p.2).

I could not agree more.

Race is unfortunately connected to sexuality through sexual stereotypes, and that in turn influences how people view one another based on our gender and race together.

M Butterfly gives a glimpse into this connection. In the film, Rene Gallimard, an accountant at a French embassy in China, falls in love with a Chinese opera star, Song Lilang, who plays Gallimard making him believe that Song was a woman when he is actually a man. Eng goes on saying, “...rather than seeing at the site of the female body a penis that is not there to see, Gallimard refuses to see at the site of the Asian male body a penis that is there to see,” (p.2).

It is made clear throughout the film though that the romanticized western ideal of the submissive oriental woman is very much so present. Believing Song to be a woman though adds another layer to this discourse as it is made apparent how this submissive oriental role is immediately connected to females. Race and sexuality should be analyzed as a connected discourse, but also understood that this connection was created and not in fact 100% true.

#week8 #m butterfly #raceandgender

...sexual and racial difference cannot be understood in isolation.

(Eng 2)

“Introduction: Racial Castration” by David Eng

#week8

#week4 #feminism

Feminism: Emma Watson & the Complexification of the Backlash

An example of the complexification of the backlash is seen in the controversy that arose with Emma Watson’s Vanity Fair photo spread for the April 2017 issue. Watson is known to have proclaimed that she is a feminist from her speech to the United Nations back in 2014. Because she has identified herself as a feminist, a lot of critique and accusations of her not truly being feminist came about when she posed for Vanity Fair without a bra and having her breasts exposed (as seen below).

In an interview (below), Watson addresses how there is a huge misconception about what feminism is because feminism is ultimately about allowing women to have the choice, but instead she is critiqued for making the choice to show her body. Elements of the complexification of the backlash are seen here since despite feminism, ideals of the movement are still misunderstood and even read in a different way than it was intended.

#week5 #feminism #post-feminism #feminist

#feminist #feminism #week5

Double Entanglement with Feminism

As previously mentioned, a double entanglement refers to situations where female empowerment and feminist ideals appear present, but at the same time, these notions are misconstrued from the true core goals of feminism.

The final question from the Miss USA pageant in 2017 is a prime example of this misunderstanding in our society. The question to the top 3 was, “What do you consider feminism to be, and do you consider yourself a feminist?”, and each of their answers sheds light on post-feminism problems.

First, we have District of Colombia, who says that she would rather say she believes in equalism rather than a feminism because she does not want to be connected to hating on men. What she does not seem to realize is that what she proceeds to say after is exactly what feminism stands for. Feminism = equalism, but she has herself attributed feminism to being about putting down men when it is really about bringing up women. She seems to be representing feminist ideals supporting female empowerment when she is really misconstruing those ideals.

Then we have Minnesota and New Jersey who essentially shut down District of Colombia’s misconstrued answer. They equate feminism with equalism which is exactly what it is about. District of Colombia might be a scientist for the government, but even a scientist can misunderstand an idea like we see here. We see it still throughout society with the word feminist still being thought to be extreme in empowering women.

#week5 #feminism #postfeminism #miss USA #double entanglement

Post-Feminism in Popular Culture

Post-feminism is a term used to describe reactions against contradictions and absences in feminism. It is a process by which feminist gains of the 70′s and 80′s are actively and relentlessly undermined.

In popular culture, one of the most evident ways to see post-feminism expressed is through the portrayal and ideas of female sexuality through media. Post-feminism is expressed in popular culture in a way that shows female empowerment from portraying women in a way where they can be on equal grounds with men, but at the same time, gains from feminism are still dismantled from misunderstandings of these ideals.

According to Angela McRobbie in “Post-Feminism and Popular Culture” (2004), there are 2 ways post-feministic views can be articulated:

Double Entanglement

By definition, it is, “the co-existence of neo-conservative values in relation to gender, sexuality and family life, with processes of liberalization in regard to choice and diversity in domestic, sexual and kinship relations,” (p.12).

In other words, a double entanglement refers to situations where female empowerment and feminist ideals appear present, but at the same time, these notions are misconstrued from the true core goals of feminism.

Complexification of the backlash

McRobbie explains this by describing how, “Feminism is cast into the shadows, where at best it can expect to have some afterlife, where it might be regarded ambivalently by those young women who must, in more public venues, stake a distance from it, for the sake of social and sexual recognition,” (p.11).

Whereas a double entanglement is a misunderstanding of feminism while still believing female empowerment is present, complexification of the backlash is a misunderstanding altogether on the ideals of feminism.

Ultimately, both ways of articulating the misunderstandings of feminism just reveal more into how we as people need to open our minds to truly understanding ideas for equality that go against what we find normalized.

#week5 #feminism #postfeminism #mcRobbie #double entanglement #complexification of the backlash

obvichicago

#feminism #week5

What a [Wonder] Woman

Wonder Woman as portrayed by Gal Gadot is the most progressive female superhero of our time. The film itself was not only progressive in the records it set within the film industry being in the top 0 grossing films of 2017, but in the impact it has made during this age of post-feminism by showing on-screen a female superhero saving the world the way she did.

When she was first created in the 1940′s, early feminists were used as inspiration ,such as Margaret Sanger, who was an early activist for birth control. By her creators, she was thought to be psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should rule the world.

Then in 1975, the comic became an American television series with the role of Wonder Woman herself being played by Lynda Carter. This television series made a huge impact on Wonder Woman in the comics inspiring new characteristics, but also in how the public perceived her. She was now seen more for her sexuality as translating her look from the comic book to the screen brought more attention to her outfit and body, but it did not take away what she stood for and inspired.

Gal Gadot may have a Eurocentric appearance and is still wearing a revealing outfit, but that’s not something that should be criticized. She may look Eurocentric, but Gal Gadot is Israeli. Her race honestly should not be a factor since skin color does not reveal true race, but if it is a point to be criticized, it should be clarified. Then yes, she’s wearing something that reveals a lot of her body, but it stays true to Wonder Woman’s original signature look, while still evolving because she is still sexy, but powerful with armor.

It’s not about how much of her boobs get covered up, how short her skirt is, or what her skin color looks like, it’s about what she represents. The film even pokes jokes about how beautiful she is to look at, but what stands out more is how she stands firm to fight for the people despite those who doubt her because she is a woman. She’s beautiful. She’s brave. She’s a true feminist icon.

#feminism #week4

Consequently, narrative both appeases and increases the desire to differentiate the masculine from the feminine and to control the female body through the manipulation of narrative construction.

(Jeffords 89)

“Narrative as Violence, Violence as Patriarchy, Patriarchy as Story-Telling” by Susan Jeffords

if narrative construction can control the female body and femininity, it can do the same for the male body and masculinity.

#week6

ithelpstodream

#week6 #masculinity

Masculinity in Media

If you ask someone sexually attracted to men who their ideal man would be like, the answer usually resembles a kind of masculine character seen in media. Tall, dark, and handsome? A charming womanizer? Toned and tatted? Man in uniform? The association between what our minds idealize to what is projected on screen is strong and influential to how scopophilia is created. Mulvey’s idea of the “male gaze” is a view that is out of date, because with all the media that exists, the idea of masculinity has broadened into a wider range, and furthermore, the way masculinity is portrayed on media has become part of a “female gaze” to the big screen. Masculinity is idealized in a sexual way just as much as femininity ,but the issue now lies in the double standards that exist on how each is interpreted.

#week6 #masculinity

States also try to make people look down on other people’s non-procreative sex and even on their own, estranging them from themselves, by calling that sex evil, sick, barbarous, or feminine.

(Phillips 172)

““One of Those Aliens”: Empire and Homosexuality in Melville’s Billy Budd” by Kathy Phillips

Interesting how “feminine” is somehow made equal to “evil”, but that just makes it more clear how discourses come about due to how the mind has been influenced to view femininity.

#week6

#week6 #patriarchy #feminism

The Unconscious & The Unaware

Surrealism being a movement seeking to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind has also released bits of how the unconscious thrives on sexuality being that a majority of the art from this movement has been inspired by the female figure and women as subjects of desire.

What comes from this is that we as humans have innate sexual desire that is naturally a part of us, but from it comes behavior and beliefs we are not aware is coming from a place of self pleasure. If the desire comes from the unconscious as a natural need, it becomes up to us to be aware of what it is rather than being unaware and allowing it to affect behaviors.

#week5 #surrealism

Billy Budd..... really though, the men! The book, the film....which ever one you really look at, masculinity at its extremes is shown clearly in this tale. Each man seems to stubborn to his own beliefs for any kind of true justice to be achieved. There’s one that is stuck on his innocence and Christianity, another hell bent on destroying another man, and then the other seeking to establish justice, but is too blind by that to listen to his own conscious. If anything, this film shows more about the problems in society views with their being no give and singular point of views.

#week6 #masculinity

...surrealists preached the liberation of desire. but most surrealists were men, and men came first in this liberation... this liberation focused on women, but as sites of desire more than as subjects of desire; woman were asked to represent it more than to inhabit it.

(Foster 203)

“Violation And Veiling in Surrealist Photography: Woman As Fetish, As Shattered Object, As Phallus” by Hal Foster

#week5 #surrealism #femininity #visual culture

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