WST Tumblr Blogsâ âGirlâ v. âWomanâ âWhy is it that no matter how accomplished a woman is and no matter what age she is many men still refer to grown women as âgirlsâ. This may seem like a small thing to some people but it illuminates a much deeper assumption about women and how they are perceived by men and society to be less. Calling a woman a âgirlâ is assuming that she is âgirlishâ or young or incapable or inexperienced in some way. Even if a woman has a PHD or is even about to receive her PHD, someone may refer to her as a girl in passing and it has an effect. Subconsciously every person who hears that thinks of her as young. âAssuming someone is a young girl brings with it a whole package of norms and assumptions that go along with that. For example there is a tendency to infantilize women in our culture. Norms about beauty and desirability in main stream media all revolve around the ability for women to look as young as possible even if that means looking childlike. The virgin Whore dichotomy goes into that as well. Women are expected to be both virginal and pure as well as sexually experienced and capable. We see this in adds for things all the time. Things that are completely unrelated to sex or virtue end up being sold or somehow measured back to sexuality. And it is usually exclusively female sexuality. Young female sexuality. Women are shamed or degraded subconsciously or explicitly for existing outside of these norms. -Sarah St.Ores Gender Violence âLast week a young woman in Germany was beaten to death for intervening in the sexual harassment of teenage girls in a McDonalds bathroom. The attackers left for the time being but later came back and beat the woman with a baseball bat in the parking lot. She sustained severe brain damage and was in a coma for two weeks when doctors said she would never recover. At that point her parents decided to take her off life support and her life ended on what would have been her 23 birthday. The attacker was arrested and confessed but was only charged with assault resulting in unintentional manslaughterâŚ. Where is the justice there? A woman is dead a family is mourning, a country is celebrating a hero but what does that change? There will still be hatred and violence against women and virtually no consequences for those that murder people. Some might claim that this is not as gendered as some make it out to be. But heteronormative aggressive masculinity is causing problems all over the world and it needs to be fixed. These men were committing crimes against young teenage women. And were stopped by another young woman who had the guts to stand up to them. And the reaction was so strong that they then decided to independently attack that woman. From the video footage it is clear that the group of men were aggressive and unstable, pushing and being aggressive to many people around the scene. Until culture takes responsibility for changing the norms and sterotypes held, violence will not stop. http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/12/01/3597677/german-vigils-beaten-harassers/ -Sarah St.Ores Gender and Performance Gender is a social construction. Those of us in womenâs studies know this quite well. It is interesting however to see how we subconsciously internalize norms and actins associated with a given identity. The exercise on Theater of the Oppressed that we did in class was very telling for me personally. I always thought that it was relatively easy to act in a gender neutral way but after that exercise I realized that it is much more difficult to do than I previously realized. It was interesting to see even certain activities that we consider to be gender neutral versus those that are gendered in some way and how body language can change those. For example when asked to represent âGender and the workplaceâ many of us saw the positions as neutral or colored by body language. Examples such as different ways of pointing or holding ones arms were what most people noticed first but other things such as body placement in relation to the others was something that was more gendered that I would have expected. When asked to represent âgender in the homeâ most people enacted stereotypes of what that means. Lots of housewives and children. I just did what I would usually do at my own house and that was interpreted as âlittle girlâ to the class. I suppose that to an extent that is accurate since I am indeed a woman so the female aspect was correct but I was trying to be gender neutral. Its just interesting how a visual image or one piece of a visual image can be taken differently by the performer and by the audience. -Sarah St.Ores Changed for Good- Wicked and the female lead characters Wicked is one of my favorite musicals, and after analyzing it in a feminist context I love it even more. The major narrative is about a female relationship that does not revolve around a man but revolved around the interactions and abilities of these two women and how they help each other to grow as individuals. There are men in the story but they are minor character and donât really even make it into the soundtrack album. In opposition to musicals like Guys and Dolls these are much closer to the opposite end of the spectrum. Guys and Dolls the womenâs interactins revolve entirely around the men in their lives and their relationships to them. In Wicked however the women have their own lives, their own powers and abilities, goals and their own relationships with each other that are not related to the men in their lives. The one critique that I could make would be the fact that there is still competition between women for the main man. Elphie and Galinda are both interested in the same man and in the beginning Elphie because of her difference, she is extremely intelligent and has green skin, does not believe that she even has a chance. However it is interesting that in the end she is the one that ends up with the man even if that does mean she has to give up her life in Oz and run away from society. She runs away however for political reasons and because that is her only option in order to make things right. She does not run away solely to be with the man she loves. -Sarah St.Ores Cabaret and Christopher and His Kind Christopher and His Kind is closely related to Cabaret and the origins of the story. Christopher and His Kind follows the story of Christopher Isherwood an English writer who moves to Berlin as a young man during the 1930s before Hitler and Nazism completely took over Germany. He witnesses and participates in the party culture that is Berlin during this time and finds several friends and lovers during his stay. He also witnesses crimes against Jewish people, businesses and other that were targeted by the Nazis. He is forced to confront the existence of Nazism in his own life when the brother of his lover, a young, lower class man named Heinz, becomes a member of the SS and forbids their romance. Christopher and many of his friends, being wealthy foreigners have certain advantages that the Germans in the story do not. With the presence and rise to power of the Nazis in Germany, German citizen are faced with a choice. This theme extends into Cabaret as well. They may choose to show loyalty to the Nazis and join the Nazi party, which Hitler frames as an act of loyalty to their home country, or risk guilt at the least and at the worst facing death if they do not conform and are unable to flee. And for Christopher and âhis kindâ this was a particularly dangerous decision. People that did not conform to the heteronormative ideal that the Nazis paraded were targeted. Many of the clubs and cabarets such as in Cabaret were shut down by the Nazis and the culture was suppressed during that time period. -Sarah St.Ores Huck Finn, Jim and the River The river in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn serves as a kind of no manâs land for Huck and Jim. While they are on the run they are able to develop a real relationship and friend ship that could be interpreted in many different ways but is only made possible by their isolation from the extreme racism of the outside world. Institutionalized slavery is of course a huge part of the infrastructure of the society from which Huck and Jim originate. The dehumanization of slaves in general isolated and ostracized them from society during this time essentially wiping out their existence as humans from the main stream thought of the time. Within the Adventures of Huck Finn however, Jim has power and is respected within his community and because of his elevated status within the slave community and his relationship with Huck he is able to translate some of that power into the wider community. Huck is poor and essentially orphaned and therefore exists in a kind of no manâs land. He has no monetary power and although he has racial status because he is white, he is still at the bottom rungs of society because of his economy class. Because he of his outsider up bringing he is able to escape society and learns to fend for himself. He and Jim are both able to escape from society for a time and create their own world on the river devoid of racial stratification. They operate in a mutually beneficial way and are able to survive by relying on each other. -Sarah St.Ores My Jim As a young woman living in slavery Sadie is a very strong female character, and that strength comes from necessity. She is forced to be strong because she lives in nightmarish fear. Her life is full of instability and she has very little control over what will happen to her and who will be or will not be in her life at any given time. Sadie is raped and assaulted, unable to defend herself. She is isolated and not allowed to leave the plantation. Jim as a man has a certain degree of freedom of movement. He is at least able to leave the plantation and go to market, run errands etc. This mobility is afforded to him because he is a man. The same mobility is not afforded women such as Sadie who are trapped by pregnancy and isolation. When Sadie is older and talking with her granddaughter about her marriage proposal she tries to convince her that she could do worse. Although they are no longer enslaved, Sadie still feels the burden of slavery. Her experience has been forever tainted by what happened to her in slavery, losing children, enduring rapes and beatings. Although she has endured horrors that are recounted with historical accuracy, she is still able to hold onto her love for Jim all those years later talking with her granddaughter. Love the quote âjust cuz you cant see a person donât mean nothinââ. This exemplifies how Sadie was able to hold onto her love for Jim for all those years and how she can encourage her granddaughter to love. -Sarah St.Ores Ahabâs Wife âUna defies the culturally limiting stigma and expectations that come with a woman trying to exist outside of the bounds in which she is given to exist. She is independent, self-sufficient and she has a strong voice. She seems to be free from religion and she makes choices that are outside the norm for women during that time period. Her fierce personality and independence however does not mean that she has no interest in men or the domestic life. In some ways she is completely outside the norm for women. However the things that she does still link her back to her relationships, to her husband and children. She is strong physically and emotionally but she is still very much connected to the domestic sphere and doesnât feel the need to fully part with that. âA questions is if Naslund achieves a critique of Moby Dick or is she reinforcing the ideas that women, that is to say normal everyday unextraordinary women can still go on adventures and have journey stories. Una is an extraordinary woman and therefore is an anomaly. Extraordinary women are often given a pass from patriarchal culture. Because they, unlike other women, are capable of extraordinary things they are more like men and not looked down upon. That brings up another question that are men and women held to the same standards of extraordinariness. I say no. Women are required to do much more than men in order to get the same praise. In this case Una is definitely praise worthy but she does much more than men to be recognized as such. -Sarah St.Ores Moby Dick- American ideas of gender reinforced Throughout the novel Moby Dick there are many different representations of masculinity and what that means. We have Ishmael as a good example in contrast with the aggression and obsession of Ahab for example. Ishmael is a thoughtful and almost a mystic kind of mind. He is mysterious in ways and over explanatory in others. He is open to new ideas which is useful for the journey that he is narrating and the diversity of masculinity which he comes across. Quee-Quay is the outsider, the savage that is still considered man because of his physical power and ability. He has a gentle spirit and is free from many of the cultural constrictions of heteronormative masculinity. For example, when Queequay finds Ishmael in his bed he reacts harshly at first just in surprise of finding another person inhabiting his space. There were not however any homophobic objections to sharing a bed with Ishmael after everything was understood. This is somewhat unique to Queequayâs brand of masculinity but Ishmael is able to adapt to it as well and they become closely bonded friends. Ahab is an example of aggressive, obsessive masculinity that is more like modern heteronormative masculinity on steroids. His pride and drive to catch the white whale combined with a propensity for mental illness drives him to the edge and forces him over it. This is a more extreme case that some of the other examples of masculinity within the book. We know that Ahab had a past life before the White Whale involving his wife and child but that is not the dominant narrative that we now have via Moby Dick. -Sarah St.Ores Romeo and Juliet Reimagined FSUâs production of Romeo and Juliet was not only interesting and well done but each of the characters seemed to be well developed and the actors in the moment. I was able to see the show twice and there were slight differences between the performances but the first showing I saw was undoubtedly the best rendition/version of R&J that I have seen. Ill start with the actors. First of all I could see how difficult and how draining it must be to be so committed to a character on stage night after night. There are some heavy things that happen in the lives of the Montegues and Capullets. Love, betrayal, death, revenge, suicide, hormones and questioning faith in god, just to name a few. These are all pretty heavy things to deal with especially 4 nights in a row. But all the actors, especially on the last Thursday night performance, did exceptionally well. Some of my favorite and possibly underrated characters were Capulet the father, and the Friar. With both of these characters you could really feel the hurt and the struggle they went through. Although I may not completely agree with what they were doing, forcing a daughter into an arranged marriage and faking a death and deceiving everyone, I understood that they were doing what they thought was right. It was interesting to watch the transition from Capulet from doting father who was hesitant to marry off his young daughter to the demanding patriarch who tries forcing her into an unwanted marriage. As pressure mounted on the two families, he felt more and more pressure to control his family and his suddenly headstrong daughter. The Friar was one of the strongest and most consistent performances I think. I liked that he is first introduced putting on his robes and you see his transition from normal man to religious leader. I thought this showed that even under the authority of the church he is actually just a normal human who is flawed and makes mistakes. He grapples with his emotions and judgement concerning the predicaments facing these young lovers. We see his frustration but he also stays optimistic and makes real connections with people. Mercutio and Benvolio were undoubtedly my two favorite characters. Mercutioâs comedic performance and powerful death scenes were some of my favorite elements of the play. I liked that even in his death scene he is able to insert levity to the seriousness, spiraling into a very powerful moment. The choice to make Benvolio a woman was interesting but killing her at the end of act 1 seemed to trivialize her importance. From a feminist perspective it seems that both the death of Benvolio and Lady Montague are trivialized and given only one line of explanation at the end of the play which takes away the importance of these women, especially Benvolio since she had a significant role in act 1. Some of my other favorite characters were the Nurse, Peter and the last biting of the thumb by Balthasar to Peter was like the clip at the end of the credits. Even after all the death and betrayal and destruction between these two families, there is still a current of hatred which runs between them. Overall this was a very real and powerful performance full of talented actors, well placed music and clever staging. I thoroughly enjoyed it! -Sarah St.Ores
germansingergirl
baratheonpilled
romaincrisis
jbbartram-illu
izzy806
snowghoul
dailybridgerton