Sgt. Pepper, Cixous and Butler

I loved the structure of class last Thursday. I think it emphasized the truths of Butler's theories better than anything else we could've done. By not allowing the men to speak, we were going directly against the hegemonic truth that white males are the dominant, prevailing group in the United States. For those 90 minutes, everything that society teaches us to believe no longer applied. And what became of it? Chaos. I thought it was important that Dr. Rog allowed the men to write down their thoughts, offering them a sense of what it's like to have some voice, but not much. By letting them speak their minds with no one necessarily hearing what they had to say, I think it provided a more accurate mirror of everyday life of women. It's important to note that women do have voices, but that they are practically silenced from the day they are born. In reality, women do also have the right to freedom of speech, but they do not have the power to actually make anything of it.

"Every woman has known the torture of beginning to speak aloud" (163).
I see a lot of truth behind Butler's quote here, having directly experienced it every day. As we women get older and start to realize the way society is really run, it is blatant that there is an obvious trend going on. Wealthy white males have always run the show, and they still do. I liked the idea Dr. Rog pointed out in the word "history," and how it can be broken down to "his-story." Now that our country has undergone a feminist movement, we have thankfully gained many rights we didn't have originally. Unfortunately though, now that we all of the same freedoms as males, people assume all is fixed, and aren't interested in it anymore. The truth is we do have a voice, but it's so small that you can barely hear it. And the boys in class on Thursday felt the torture.