Ron Burgundy, 12/3

I found our final class to be extremely interesting and also somewhat frustrating. The exercise where only the women were able to talk demonstrating the dominance of masculine qualities of speech, proved to reveal several concerns of our feminist generation. Foremost, the women of the class seemed to be concerned with equality, specifically in the work and academic atmosphere. Several girls in the class felt that women were still often believed to be out of place in a successful business atmosphere, only able to "play with the big boys" but not supersede them. Many girls also thought that independent women were still frowned upon and considered to often be less feminine solely because of their career oriented focus. I found it interesting that as these concerns were brought up none of the men in the class had anything to say about them. Even though it was a bit more difficult for them to "voice" their opinions because they had to write them, I still felt that if they felt compelled at all to speak they would have done so. Therefore, it seems as though these issues that women are raising still may not be getting the attention and recognition that they deserve as represented in this experiment. I'm also concerned though at the effect that these types of exercises are having on women as a whole. I feel that in several of my classes similar types of experiments have taken place where women were the only ones allowed to speak and share their views. This leads to discussion of issues that are concerning them and often reveals alot about what are the leading concerns for females and often can be very helpful and insightful. However, because of the framing of these types of situations I wonder if these exercises are also perpetuating a sort of idea that women are only able to voice these types of concerns in these particular types of environments. Do these exercises discourage women to speak freely all the time? Just a thought.

Nemo, 12/6

I really enjoyed the class discussion on the Cixous article. We started out the class like every other and then we came to this quote: "Organization by hierarchy makes all conceptual organization subject to man”, at that point Dr. Rog made all of the women in the class talk and all of the men in the class be silent. It was interesting to hear what all of the women in the class had to say on the subject. We discussed how in Legally Blonde one of the characters wanted to petition the change of the term "semester" to "ovester" because she believed that it would help to equalize the power that women have with the power men have. Some of the other things we talked about in class were how men reject everything womanly for example: I was having a conversation over the phone with my guy friend about the Twilight Saga. It wasn't in detail because he had only seen part of the movie but when I continued to discuss it he told me that he would have to watch porn in order to "offset the gayness of this conversation". I found that interesting because he was using sex - in a media form where men usually dominate a woman - to become more masculine. I think its interesting how men think that sex, alcohol, and muscles defines masculinity. Where as feelings, and a sense of style are considered gay or homosexual. Guys that I know often use the phrase "no homo" in conversations where they are saying that a guy they know is a really good friend and understand certain things they are going through. The want to emphasize the fact that they are masculine and are not in any way womanly. We also discussed how women who are driven to succeed and who can stand up for themselves are either considered feminists or independent women and how we want to change that perception.
The men in this class had to write their thoughts down and hand it to a female. The girl could then choose to ignore what they wrote or read it out loud. The majority of the class was held this way but towards the end the girls in the class decided to allow the men to talk the majority of the time but if a female member of the class wanted to say something they could without writing it out loud. At the end of the class one of the men asked "What do you think men could do in order to change how women are treated or regarded as in society". It seemed as though when the men weren't allowed to talk they did not really listen to what the women had to say. This exercise, I believe, was to swap roles and have the women at the top of the hierarchy instead of the men but instead I think that because Dr. Rog told us we had to it wasn't actually a successful exercise simply because the man in power told us we had to.

Nemo, Cixous and Butler

In this reading the main focus is on our society's ideologies dealing with hierarchy and the author's views on them. The most interesting concept I came across in this reading was Cixous' idea of Bisexuality. She gives two definitions of Bisexuality: “bisexuality as a fantasy of a complete being,” and “bisexuality as the location within oneself of the presence of both sexes.” In Psych classes we had discussed the idea that a woman who is bisexual could have some male like tendencies and a man who is bisexual as having some female like tendencies that have been pronounced due to a possible imbalance in the brain - IM NOT SAYING I AGREE - but i had never thought of bisexual to mean that a man or woman could have the best of both male and female sexes. I enjoyed the question she posed :“why do men fear being a woman?”. My mother always used to say that men are scared that we have the power to create a human - even though it takes a man to start the process. Cixous has answered this question but I cannot wait to hear what my peers have to say. I really think that this reading will be very interesting to discuss in class and I cannot wait to hear what my peers have to say on the subject.

Penny Lane- Bell Hooks

After reviewing Bell Hook’s piece, I find that her thesis is very relevant to the concept of manifest destiny. During the colonial period, this philosophy justified our imperialism in order to conquer the land. However, this narrative could be expanded and applied to the rape and abuse of native women by European settlers. This form of domination and humiliation of the female served to establish authority over the tribe as a whole. ‘We will conquer your land and your women, and there is nothing you can do to stop us.’ The white male fascination with the exotic female remains in the social consciousness of modern society. Differentiation of race is creates a latent desire to penetrate the unknown. White females are safe, familiar, and innocent in comparison to the ‘other.’ By sleeping with an ethnic woman, a sense of power expands beyond the individual over the race as a whole. Hooks elaborates this thought by stating: “When race and ethnicity become commodified as resources for pleasure, the culture of specific groups, as well as the bodies of individuals, can be seen as constituting an alternative playground where members of dominating races, genders, and sexual practices affirm their power-over in intimate relationships with the Other” This power dynamic was show cased in the point system of the Yale Boys. Fucking the ‘Other’ became more than a game; it is a metaphor of exploitative gender, class, and race relations.

Nemo, Foucault - Make Up

I found this reading to be very different than any we have previously read. He primarily focuses on the concepts of discipline, surveillance and power within a community. He discusses how the people who were sick were secluded and surveyed by others. It is interesting to relate this to our society now because everything we have allows other people to watch us - its almost as if we enjoy it. For example on Facebook you can update your status letting your friends know what is on your mind or what you are doing at the time. Also you can upload pictures so that other people can know what you have been doing. I know people who get upset when their friends don't post pictures up immediately after a night out. It is scary how our society has accepted this as normal. Girls put on make up and dress nice before they go out so people can think they look good. Everything we do can be recorded and watched again. Its a very scary thought that Foucault was able to accurately portray.

October 29th - pre-class Adorno, Serendipity LATE

“Culture today is infecting everything with sameness” 41
The first thing I thought when I read this quote is that it can be related to Habermas. He believes that nothing can actually ever be different because it gets swallowed up by main stream cultured and copied and reproduced (like Benjamins notion) immediately after. The largest section of music for example is “Alternative”. If it is so alternative and unlike anything else then why is it the biggest section and so many people listen to it thinking that they themselves are so different and alternative? Everything is fake. The way that we perceive a product and the aura it has because of the name brand and because of the image it gives you is the reason it makes you feel so special and different. For example, if you see an eyeliner that is by a Walgreens brand you will see it as just eyeliner. But if you buy one at a specialty store with a well known brand name with an ad next to it of a beautiful model you will feel that you are special and therefore different. When in reality, everything is made out of the same batch, and it is “fake” that you feel it is different just because of the name brand and the whole image associated with it, and therefore with you. You may feel like you are an individual but you are just following everyone else, just like there is no avant gardism anymore, and how much of what be we believe to be concrete is not even reality. He also explains that since everything is the same, we have to realize the hidden codes in them and not buy into it. This is why he says that if are entertained by something, you cant be critical of it.

Gwatter06, 12/6

We had a very interesting class discussion this week to finish up our semester in 300. We’ve had a little streak of feminist theorists to cover for our past couple of readings and our “class” discussion followed in very well. Professor Casey decided to relinquish the teaching floor to the class, but not just anyone or everyone in the class, but only our female participants in class. In the sense that the men were not able to speak or had to seek permission somewhat to get a thought or point across highlighted what many would believe is a day-to-day situation with women. I think all three of the recent theorists, Hooks, Butler and Cixous would agree. Feminism is a theory topic that has been around for quite sometime now. Similar to masculinity, feminism to me, and many others I would believe, is quite an ambiguous topic. My question is, although I understand that women seek equality and indifference, how can society seek to change it anymore than it already has? I feel as though women have accomplished a lot over the years, almost as much as they can legally, but what more is there to seek socially that doesn’t dell into biological or physical aspects. I believe that men and women are different for a reason and can never be the same, I also believe that in areas of society such as the workforce, education and politics that women should be treated the same as men if they are capable of their work. Oddly I would relate this notion of striving for total equality to Lyotard’s concept of total metanarratives. I think that the ideologies of feminism are conforming individuals to seek or make sense of a world that cannot exist essentially in equating men to women on all levels and aspects. All in all I have gravely enjoyed our time in 300 and think we ended controversially, but definitely with a an enjoyable bang. This is Gwatter06 signing out of blogger indefinitely and saying thank God I don't have to worry about blogging anymore!!!