one more, then I'll leave the blog to you.

http://webs.wofford.edu/hitchmoughsa/Writing.html

Today's class follow up

I wanted to follow up a bit on Sosi's great question -

why does Butler want to dismantle the notion of "sex" as a fact or truth -why does she want to think of identity, at this very fundamental level, as also constructed rather than innate.

I think that when we consider men and women as stable entities, even if we layer "constructed gender" over them, we maintain an idea of there being a "norm" on top of which there can be deviation or disruption. Butler wants to argue that when we consider people or behaviors that fall outside of the norm as "disruptions" or "deviations" we do so as a way to STABILIZE, rather than truly dismantle, the concept of the norm to begin with. If transgendered or otherly-gendered, or non-normatively gendered (or non-normatively desiring) people are not to be considered as "other," as merely "disruptions," then we must get rid of the whole notion of there being stable norms from which some might deviate.

The very radical notion at the base of her theory is the that any faith we have in a stable immutable identity is false. All aspects of identity are constructed, or better, in the process of being constructed. Thus, we perform selves at all times. This allows for a kind of agency, but it also does not allow for a concrete self who is "doing" the performance. Very destabilizing indeed. And very different from, say, playing a part, or pretending.

Also, I'm going to the experts with the question about the difference b/w Cixous and Irigaray. I will let you know what I find out, if anything, from my colleagues. If you wish to read further on either of these thinkers, you might begin by going to JSTOR where you will find essays that date from the mid 70s to the present. From our reading, Irigaray is more concerned with redefining female sexuality and female subjectivity, in rethinking Lacanian theory from a feminist perspective. Cixous's work includes a this as well, but presses forward into thinking about writing itself, thinks about how feminine writing can work to express feminine subjectivity and in doing so become a site of liberation. We will understand this idea more deeply as we read into Kristeva.

Julie

Wiki Fa'afafine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fa'afafine

Here's what wiki has to say about Fa'afafine.  More later.

The Relevant Medusa

While reading the assigned material for tomorrow's class, I found this small part particularly interesting:

Besides, you’ve written a little, but in secret. And it wasn’t good, because it was in secret, and because you punished yourself for writing, because you didn’t go all the way; or because you wrote, ir- resistibly, as when we would masturbate in secret, not to go further, but to attenuate the tension a bit, just enough to take the edge off. And then as soon as we come, we go and make ourselves feel guilty – so as to be forgiven; or to forget, to bury it until the next time.

A close friend of mind also explained to me how she felt that the purpose of woman is fundamentally to do things for others, rather than to enjoy what it is she is doing. The concept of the masturbation and the idea of guilt and what is acceptable in those realms of our society reminded me(strangely) of the film industry. A perfect example is the recent release of the movie Bridesmaids. Essentially, this movie is the women's version of the movie the Hangover, and a resounding majority of my friends enjoyed the Hangover more than Bridesmaids. Just to be more statistically correct, I checked rotten tomatoes review as well, and while 80% voted they enjoyed Bridesmaids, 87% voted that they enjoyed the Hangover. This concept of dirty humor and what is acceptable for the woman still remains in our society years after these theorists and feminists wrote about it. Women are supposed to feel uncomfortable in the presence of crude humor-it's a guy thing. Even Roger Ebert thinks so:

Yet the movie has a heart. It heals some wounds, restores some hurt feelings, confesses some secrets, and in general, ends happily, which is just as well, because although there are many things audiences will accept from women in a comedy, ending miserably is not one of them. That may be sexist, but there you are.

Supplemental Notley (that won't cause you to think in quotes and a strange cadence for the rest of the day)

Since we're reading Alice Notley this week I wanted to share one of my favorite poems of hers, which can be found in her book Mysteries of Small Houses. It's markedly different from her writing in The Descent of Alette, but I think that it's still relevant to our class. Enjoy!

As Good as Anything

I don't see the point of

remembering you; you're too boring,

Iowa City, Iowa,

much duller topologically than

Needles, California. I'm here

in the Rebel Motel, with

my grape-colored sweater

and maté tea, whose smoky odor's

bound up with first rooms and foods here

sex and snow I

write about Needles

Herman and rocks, the story's called

"As Good as Anything," and in it

daft Herman--true local

of Needles--says

"Rocks is as good as anything."

I figured that out summer after

first love affair in New York:

hung out, home, at a rock shop

inspecting geodes and thunder eggs

Arsenic samples and petrified

dinosaur dung.

What can I say about Iowa City

everyone's an academic poetry

groupie, I haven't yet written a poem,

there's a bar where for 25 cents a

meal of boiled egg and tiny beer

Really I don't know what kind of poetry--

what's the name of the make they

use here--or what kinds of

poetry live people write in the world.

Is there a right and wrong poetry, one might

still ask as I patronize,

retrospectively, the Iowa style,

characterized, as I remember,

by the assumtion of desperation

boredom behind two-story houses

divorce, incomes, fields, pigs

getting into pants, well not really

in poems, well no "well"s and all

in the costive mode

of men who--and the suicidal women--

want to be culpable for something,

settle for being mean to their wives

and writing dour stanzas. God this is bitchy

I modeled for art class

that's rather interesting

the hypocrisy nobody needs

to paint nude women

they just like to. So here I am

naked for art, which is a lot of

dumb fucks I already know,

same with poetry

Written and judged Those befoibled guys

who think--you know--

the poetic moment's a pocket in

pool; where I can publish it; what can

I do to my second or third wife now

Nothing happens in Iowa, so

Can I change myself here? Yes

I can start to become contemptuous

is that good or bad, probably bad.

In New York I'd developed a philosophy

of sympathy and spiritual equality

out the window, easily, upon

my first meeting of real assholes.

"A rock's as good as anything"

there are no rocks in Iowa

shit black soil, a tree or two,

no mountain or tall edifice

University drabs, peeping Tom's, anti-war

riots, visiting poets

treated like royalty, especially if

they fuck the locals or have a record

of fighting colorfully with their wives.

You can go to the movies once a week,

like in Needles. You can fuck

a visiting poet; you can be paraded before

a visiting poet as fuckable but not fuck.

You can write your first poems

thinking you might as well

since the most stupid people in the universe

are writing their five hundredth here.

I'm doing that now What

difference does it make.

I like my poems. They're

as good as rocks.

-Alice Notley

As a precursor to the video posted below: the girl making these videos appears fairly young as sounds pretty rehearsed. However, she raises some interesting points and this one in particular (Tropes vs. Women: #6 The Straw Feminist) ties particularly well to a lot of our earlier conversations from this class.

My best friend from forever ago was home two weekends ago so we met for breakfast one morning to catch up. I started explaining to her about this class and she responded by telling me about these videos. She told me that one of her friends from college is, what she would describe, as a textbook definition of a "feminist". This led to an interesting conversation about what exactly it means to be a "feminist" and societal problems regarding this taboo term (our conversation essentially mirrored a lot of what was said during the first week of school in class). Anyway, she said that her "radically feminist" friend from back home had introduced her to these videos and, while they are nothing particularly impressive academically, the creator of the videos (FeministFrequency) does have some interesting statistics and information regarding the other side of society, the side where women are still struggling with minor (and sometimes major) everyday oppression and where feminism therefore is a necessity.

I skimmed all the videos and they were interesting enough, particularly the one about "The Smurfette". However, when I went back over the weekend to check it out again, she had posted a new one (which is the one I attached below) that I found to be particularly relevant to our class so I thought I would share. Her point about Hollywood's creation of television societies where gender inequality is nonexistent was actually something I had not previously considered. Her best example of this, I think is when she analyzes the 90s television show "The Powerfuff Girls" and highlights the character "Fem-fatal", the villain in this particular episode, who is a radical feminist, with the scientific sign for woman as the primary feature of her costume and with some realistic points about women in society.

Another character she highlights as a "straw feminist" is Phil and Lil's mom from "Rugrats" who also has the scientific woman sign radically displayed on her sweatshirt. This something I completely missed as a child but what does it say about society that we let Hollywood and others who control these major media industries display women in these tainted lights?? If anything, the video shows an interesting clip at the very end where an older woman delicately lectures a younger woman about the real definition of feminism after the younger woman states: "I'm no feminist."

For TOmorrow!!

Hi all

I noticed an error not he syllabus. I want you to read "The Laugh of the Medusa" as well as the Judith Butler in your anthology (pg. 278). The Cixous is here:

http://lavachequilit.typepad.com/files/cixous-read.pdf

The link on your syllabus is for Firestone. We'll tackle that later.

And thanks Kevin for the post and Sosi for the Plath poem. Keep posting everyone!