A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
Why has there been no woman-Shakespeare? Virginia Woolf asks us this same question and she believes she has the answer. Women were not given the same education as men. Women were prepped for the being mothers and wives, not for being professionals. In the medium of creation, women created the home environment, the children, society, etc, and in that sense, these were the only acceptable genres for women for a time. Only men were allowed on stage until 1660 and the Restoration Theatre. Even then, they were considered whores, who only wanted to be around men. They were not taken seriously. Society made writing so indecent for women that they often would burn their works, some of which was later recovered by feminists recovery projects.
Woolf thinks women shouldn't write like women but men also shouldn't write like men. Both sexes should write like intellectuals. Men, feeling insecure due to the women's movement, often will write bad fiction! Both sexes should write like a soul.
Shakespeare was neither a man or a woman but both, in the way that he wrote. That's why he was such a great writer and no one has been able to compare to him; nobody has left their gender identity behind enough to be an intellectual like he has.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Rape Cyberspace
Did Bungle commit rape?
This question is extremely difficult to answer and indeed, probably has no real answer at all due to the ambiguity of it. What is rape? Who is Bungle? Could he have commited rape? All these must first be answered in order to answer the greater question. Firstly, in a biological sense, rape is the physical sexual violation of one person's body by another person without the other person's consent. However is cyber-rape rape? Technically, no real bodies came into contact with one another, nobody was really forced to do anything. By the same token, Bungle is also not real in that he has no physical being, his heart does not beat, his lungs do not breath, he does not feel. He is merely words on a page, or computer commands.
However if one were to look at this as a kind of story unfolding, not physically happening, it is possible for characters to rape other characters in a story. Bungle could rape other players' representations in the game. It does say, that he commited these acts without the players' consent and therefore without their creations' consent. So, yes Bungle commited rape.
The only problem with this answer is how we see Bungle. I see him as a character in a story, but others might see him as an extension of the person sitting at the computer and in doing so, say that that person commited rape. But that is physically impossible. Yes, the players' emotions, the trust in the MOO was violated, but was that person physically raped, no. In that sense, Bungle did not commit rape and could not commit rape.
So to answer, your question, maybe. In the sense that Bungle is merely words as are his victims, then yes, Bungle commited rape. However, in the other sense that Bungle represented the person who created him, then no, Bungle did not commit rape.
This question is extremely difficult to answer and indeed, probably has no real answer at all due to the ambiguity of it. What is rape? Who is Bungle? Could he have commited rape? All these must first be answered in order to answer the greater question. Firstly, in a biological sense, rape is the physical sexual violation of one person's body by another person without the other person's consent. However is cyber-rape rape? Technically, no real bodies came into contact with one another, nobody was really forced to do anything. By the same token, Bungle is also not real in that he has no physical being, his heart does not beat, his lungs do not breath, he does not feel. He is merely words on a page, or computer commands.
However if one were to look at this as a kind of story unfolding, not physically happening, it is possible for characters to rape other characters in a story. Bungle could rape other players' representations in the game. It does say, that he commited these acts without the players' consent and therefore without their creations' consent. So, yes Bungle commited rape.
The only problem with this answer is how we see Bungle. I see him as a character in a story, but others might see him as an extension of the person sitting at the computer and in doing so, say that that person commited rape. But that is physically impossible. Yes, the players' emotions, the trust in the MOO was violated, but was that person physically raped, no. In that sense, Bungle did not commit rape and could not commit rape.
So to answer, your question, maybe. In the sense that Bungle is merely words as are his victims, then yes, Bungle commited rape. However, in the other sense that Bungle represented the person who created him, then no, Bungle did not commit rape.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Notes 1/26
Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft's homelife growing up was horrible; she had to deal with a drunk and abusive father while taking care of her siblings and mother. She decided to try writing in December of 1789, in response to Edmund Burke's writing on the French Revolution (Nov 1789) called Vindication of the Rights of Men. Many originally thought it was written by a man. Wollstonecraft attacked Burke by attacking his masculinity, calling him effeminate and unmanly. In that day and age, masculinity was synonymous with virtue and rationality. She claimed it was irrational to distinguish between the classes, in turn defending the Republic.
Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), identifies 'woman' as a class of persons treated the same, whereas 'men' means a number of classes or all human beings. In the introduction, Wollstonecraft claims sexism is systematic and structural. Society, through education, trains women to not be virtuous, rational or manly, thus making them immoral and irrational. By trying to exert power in the ways allowed to them, their sexuality, women are undermining themselves and giving into the system.
In the first chapter, she says that professions with subordination induce immorality, such as teaching. Teachers have to give grades to students as an indication of their progress in class, this leads to students cheating because they are desperate to get better grades. Our society views cheating as immoral, thus teaching leads to immorality.
Wollstonecraft discusses the idea of no standing army in the second chapter. In the military, soldiers have to take orders. Both women and soldiers blindly commint to authority; in that way, women are equal to soldiers. They have both been educated into subordination; if we educate men the same way as we do women, they will be like women. Women are nurtured to be inferior, not naturally inferior. This is a social causation.
The third chapter berates woman for their role in their own oppression, claiming they aggrevate the situation. If we were to liberate women, they would have less power, but it would be real power. By playing on the weakness of men, women have more power. When women use their sexual power, they are idealized and fawned over by men, who in turn give them what they want so they will continue to please them. This gives them power and because they have little to begin with, most women aren't keen on relinquishing this imagined power so readily.
Mary Wollstonecraft's homelife growing up was horrible; she had to deal with a drunk and abusive father while taking care of her siblings and mother. She decided to try writing in December of 1789, in response to Edmund Burke's writing on the French Revolution (Nov 1789) called Vindication of the Rights of Men. Many originally thought it was written by a man. Wollstonecraft attacked Burke by attacking his masculinity, calling him effeminate and unmanly. In that day and age, masculinity was synonymous with virtue and rationality. She claimed it was irrational to distinguish between the classes, in turn defending the Republic.
Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), identifies 'woman' as a class of persons treated the same, whereas 'men' means a number of classes or all human beings. In the introduction, Wollstonecraft claims sexism is systematic and structural. Society, through education, trains women to not be virtuous, rational or manly, thus making them immoral and irrational. By trying to exert power in the ways allowed to them, their sexuality, women are undermining themselves and giving into the system.
In the first chapter, she says that professions with subordination induce immorality, such as teaching. Teachers have to give grades to students as an indication of their progress in class, this leads to students cheating because they are desperate to get better grades. Our society views cheating as immoral, thus teaching leads to immorality.
Wollstonecraft discusses the idea of no standing army in the second chapter. In the military, soldiers have to take orders. Both women and soldiers blindly commint to authority; in that way, women are equal to soldiers. They have both been educated into subordination; if we educate men the same way as we do women, they will be like women. Women are nurtured to be inferior, not naturally inferior. This is a social causation.
The third chapter berates woman for their role in their own oppression, claiming they aggrevate the situation. If we were to liberate women, they would have less power, but it would be real power. By playing on the weakness of men, women have more power. When women use their sexual power, they are idealized and fawned over by men, who in turn give them what they want so they will continue to please them. This gives them power and because they have little to begin with, most women aren't keen on relinquishing this imagined power so readily.
"It is time to effect a revolution in female manners." Wollstonecraft is saying that it's time for women to work for their equality. This was the first time a plan was proposed for social reform of both sexes, rather than just women or just men. Virtue equates to honesty and transparency for Wollstonecraft. Her word is gold; she will do as she said she would.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Notes 1/23
Pretty Woman
The Cinderella complex: the idea that women have to be pretty, thin, tall, destitute and in need of being saved while men have to be handsome, rich and capable of giving her the world in order to find true love. This is unrealistic. Men/women are under so much pressure to fit this mold that often women are tempted to fail just to be Cinderella.
Stories of Cinderella pervade our popular culture and propagate the idealized version of who society thinks we need to be. Although we live in a relatively free and open culture, we still cling to the idea of needing to be saved or needing to save, even if that's not who we are.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Cinderella in Art
After googling and searching through numerous websites and images, I finally found one I wanted to write about. We've been inundated with stories, films and pictures about Cinderella that understanding the background isn't hard. But the more I looked at the piece, the more I questioned what it was saying about the fairy tale. The girl is staring at the glass slipper, studying it, her face wistful yet guarded. Unable to see her eyes, the viewer is left to wonder what's she's thinking. Does she want the fairy tale life with the fairy tale man or just the shoes that go with it? In Disney's version of events, the one we're most familiar with, the castle is white with an inner glow. It exudes peace and hopefullness. This castle draws you in on a whole other level. It's mysterious, dark, dangerous unknown, and that's what makes your eye always return to it. The difference between this Cinderella story and the one we all know and love, is that the viewer doesn't know how the story ends. We're left to wonder. And that's the beauty of it, the mystery. In a story that's become cliche, its nice to see a representation that makes a person think rather than tonelessly follow along, until "...and they all lived happily ever after." The Glass Slipper by David Delamare (www.fairiesworld.com/gallery/)
Friday, January 16, 2009
Notes 1/16
The Cinderella Complex
The question was asked whether or not the author of this piece was sick. That's not an easy question to answer, one must take into consideration numerous variables: her love, her self-appreciation, her goals, her ambitions and how much she was willing to give up for those things. It is not for us to decide if one is sick if they believe in fairy tales but if you believe in fairy tales and how they change you.
My parents have always let me do what I wanted, never telling me that I couldn't do something because I was too small, too young, too delicate, so I've been more independent than some of my other friends and yet, I still want someone to take care of me. I think it has to do with being the youngest and only girl in the family, the baby, the one who was always taken care of.
Parents often unconsciously alter the views of their children through speech, sayings, actions, etc while not even realizing it.
In order to be Cinderella, you can't be yourself - you must lose part of yourself; "amputations"
Turning to quiz: In the artistic retelling of fairy tales, does art help counteract ideology (being wounded by wishes)?
I think that art can counteract the ideology of the old fairy tale when it is retold, if they allow it to fit our frame of reference. If the story is retold the same way it has been told for hundreds of years, the message could be outdated, or not needed any longer. So instead of simply retelling the story of Atlas, the author delves deeper into it, questioning Atlas' emotions, his motives for doing what he's doing and in the end, its no longer the same exact story. The ideology has been shifted with the retelling, and subsequent altering, of the story.
Angela Carter's "Ashputtle"
In Ashputtle, the mother sacrificed herself for her daughter in order to help her become independent but did the daughter learn her lesson? As readers, our own experiences shape how we interpret the end of the story, reading differently whether or not she learned what her mother was willing to teach her.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Thoughts on Re-telling a story
When I first read the introduction to Weight, my first thought was that the author was right, it is important to keep these stories alive, to keep them from falling into decay from misuse or misunderstanding. If we don't retell them, then they will be forgotten, their message lost in the frabic of time. But at the same time, we need to ask ourselves, is their message the same? Is it valid anymore? Is it right to keep it alive? I think by altering the story slightly, by digging deeper into the story, by questioning the characters, their motives, their emotions, we can better understand the story and in time a new meaning will appear, one that fits the era. Our world is changing around us, we need to adapt these stories to fit the times, so their message is not completely lost but rather renewed.
The Mother's Ghost does that for the reader; it alters the original story slightly so we gain new insight into the characters and into ourselves. Before reading it, I thought Cinderella was passive, didn't do anything for herself but let these things happen to her, and let other people clean up her messes. But after reading Ghost, I've realized that sometimes people need help, that they can't do it all themselves sometimes. The burned girl drained the cow, the cat and the bird, but maybe next time she won't have to. Or maybe she will. We as readers don't know how the story truly ends, we don't know if she's learned her lesson, that we all have to stand on her own two feet. We can only speculate which allows us to question ourselves: could we stand or would we drain the cow, the cat and the bird?
The Mother's Ghost does that for the reader; it alters the original story slightly so we gain new insight into the characters and into ourselves. Before reading it, I thought Cinderella was passive, didn't do anything for herself but let these things happen to her, and let other people clean up her messes. But after reading Ghost, I've realized that sometimes people need help, that they can't do it all themselves sometimes. The burned girl drained the cow, the cat and the bird, but maybe next time she won't have to. Or maybe she will. We as readers don't know how the story truly ends, we don't know if she's learned her lesson, that we all have to stand on her own two feet. We can only speculate which allows us to question ourselves: could we stand or would we drain the cow, the cat and the bird?
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Cinderella Word Descriptions
Grimms' Ashputtle
pious - can be both genuine and false devotion or spirituality - gains something in return for piety; is Cinderella being truly pious or does she do as she's told in order to get things from the hazel tree?
goose - mostly animal, but also insult for someone who is silly; found "Duck Duck Goose", to be a goose in the game is to be undesirable, to do something silly
smock - used to protect clothing or was used as an undergarment; could the smock reference be that it is protecting her true self, hiding it under ambiguity until time to take it off and underneath she is clean, or is she really that underneath it all?
lentils - seed, rich in protein; black/brown/gray/green on the outside but yellow/orange on the inside - another reference to something appearing different on the outside than the inside
thicket - dense/tangled undergrowth of trees/bushes
whirring - continuous humming or buzzing
swarming - large mass moving either with purpose or disorderly; later apparent that the birds moved with purpose, like bees, however a swarm of bees has a negative connotation so why use it when another word could produce the same description without the connotation?
lit - reveal something, illuminate; what is revealed? the sisters' deed, Cinderella's true nature, the father's absence?
pitch - method of persuasion; tar-thickened, cobbler's wax - used for? once set, remains hard enough to stay put yet malleable enough to manipulate; who's being manipulated, the prince or Cinderella?
rook di goo - couldn't find anywhere else except in references to Grimms' fairy tales, pretty sure it was made up by them, unsure of its meaning
Sexton's Cinderella
Irish Sweepstakes - lottery established in order to finance hospitals - only legal in Ireland but US/UK were where most of the winners came from and where most of the money was raised
homogenized - give milk or cream even consistency; to be homogenous - the milkman was like everyone else before, now he's not; and yet his story is similar to so many others
Bonwit Teller - department store on Fifth Avenue
Al Jolson - American entertainer, enjoyed performing in blackface but also fought discrimination - contradiction? Was Cinderella merely an entertainer playing a part until her prince came only to wipe it off at the end of the night?
gussying up - informal; to dress fancy/decorate elaborately
jiffy - shortest amount of time possible
amputations - to cut off appendages, surgical (precise); the sisters were precise in their actions, surgical strike in order to get what they wanted
curry favor - to seek/gain favor by flattery *from Old French "correier fauvel" - to curry a fallow-colored horse, to be hypicritical (fallow horses were a medieval symbol of deceit)
middle-aged spread - excess fat around the waist during middle age
Bobbsey Twins - two sets of mixed gender fraternal twins in a children's series, always children but the times changed around the stories but they never have problems - no WWI/II, no Depression - nothing; unrealistic, Cinderella's fairy tale life is just that a fairy tale.
pious - can be both genuine and false devotion or spirituality - gains something in return for piety; is Cinderella being truly pious or does she do as she's told in order to get things from the hazel tree?
goose - mostly animal, but also insult for someone who is silly; found "Duck Duck Goose", to be a goose in the game is to be undesirable, to do something silly
smock - used to protect clothing or was used as an undergarment; could the smock reference be that it is protecting her true self, hiding it under ambiguity until time to take it off and underneath she is clean, or is she really that underneath it all?
lentils - seed, rich in protein; black/brown/gray/green on the outside but yellow/orange on the inside - another reference to something appearing different on the outside than the inside
thicket - dense/tangled undergrowth of trees/bushes
whirring - continuous humming or buzzing
swarming - large mass moving either with purpose or disorderly; later apparent that the birds moved with purpose, like bees, however a swarm of bees has a negative connotation so why use it when another word could produce the same description without the connotation?
lit - reveal something, illuminate; what is revealed? the sisters' deed, Cinderella's true nature, the father's absence?
pitch - method of persuasion; tar-thickened, cobbler's wax - used for? once set, remains hard enough to stay put yet malleable enough to manipulate; who's being manipulated, the prince or Cinderella?
rook di goo - couldn't find anywhere else except in references to Grimms' fairy tales, pretty sure it was made up by them, unsure of its meaning
Sexton's Cinderella
Irish Sweepstakes - lottery established in order to finance hospitals - only legal in Ireland but US/UK were where most of the winners came from and where most of the money was raised
homogenized - give milk or cream even consistency; to be homogenous - the milkman was like everyone else before, now he's not; and yet his story is similar to so many others
Bonwit Teller - department store on Fifth Avenue
Al Jolson - American entertainer, enjoyed performing in blackface but also fought discrimination - contradiction? Was Cinderella merely an entertainer playing a part until her prince came only to wipe it off at the end of the night?
gussying up - informal; to dress fancy/decorate elaborately
jiffy - shortest amount of time possible
amputations - to cut off appendages, surgical (precise); the sisters were precise in their actions, surgical strike in order to get what they wanted
curry favor - to seek/gain favor by flattery *from Old French "correier fauvel" - to curry a fallow-colored horse, to be hypicritical (fallow horses were a medieval symbol of deceit)
middle-aged spread - excess fat around the waist during middle age
Bobbsey Twins - two sets of mixed gender fraternal twins in a children's series, always children but the times changed around the stories but they never have problems - no WWI/II, no Depression - nothing; unrealistic, Cinderella's fairy tale life is just that a fairy tale.
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