Article

I'm sure a lot of you have seen this, as it's been popping up on Facebook for the last week or so. For those who haven't, this is a horrific article about the positive reasons to date girls who suffer from eating disorders. The article concludes with the sentence, "Say what you will, a girl with a mild-to-moderate eating disorder- that hasn't excessively marred her appearance- is today's best-busy in the West's rapidly plummeting dating market." There are a million things to be said about that sentence alone, let alone the article in its entirety and the incredibly backwards state our society is clearly in.

Here is the article:
http://www.returnofkings.com/21313/5-reasons-to-date-a-girl-with-an-eating-disorder

And here is the petition to get it removed from the internet:
http://www.change.org/petitions/www-returnofkings-com-remove-the-article-5-reasons-to-date-a-girl-with-an-eating-disorder?share_id=kykkqxGjxS&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition

The Eternal Feminine in "Blue is the Warmest Color"

While doing research for my group presentation on The Mad Women of TV, I have been reading Denise Russell's book, Women, Madness, and Medicine. In her chapter "Feminist Philosophies of Women and Madness," she talks about Luce Irigaray's theory on women's sexuality and madness. Russell paraphrases Irigaray saying that "identity is tied up with sexuality and that under patriarchy women's sexuality has been conceptualized under male terms" and is therefore repressed and silenced through the linguistic and logical process that structure thought (117). The idea of women's inability to express sexual pleasure and desire because of a patriarchal linguistic structure made me think about Blue is the Warmest Color, a movie I have yet to see but have read a handful of critical articles about. Namely, Manhola Dargis' article The Trouble with 'Blue is the Warmest Color', which articulates her issues about the film's so-called "progressive" sex scenes.

I started to think about the patriarchal system that the film industry has become and similar to Irigaray's thoughts on the inability for women to express sexuality in language, Blue is the Warmest Color is connected to the lack of filmic female sexual expression from a female point of view. Dargis' argument against Abdellatif Kechiche's European art film specifically discusses his male point of view and its influences on expressing female sexuality. She mentions Julie Maroh's (who wrote the graphic novel the movie is based) critique of there being no lesbians on set and elaborates this farther saying the movie lacks "women of any kind." She describes the protagonist's, Adele, sexual appetite as "contained, prettified, and aestheticized."

She goes on to say that "women's silence is deafening and, like the movie's sex scenes, punctures the movie's realism" describing a scene where a man basically mansplains (lol) that "'art by women never tackles female pleasure'" to a group of women who have nothing to say back to him (such as female artists were historically not allowed to work with nude models Dargis aptly points out). Her discussion of the film relates to the idea of a patriarchal system that has contained female expression through male-conceptualized language structures such as film. Kechiche's directorial expression of female sexuality is not invalid; it is an artist's statement. However, his gender and position should be taken into consideration regarding the aesthetic and narrative decisions made in depicting the characters and their lives. Irigaray's idea that sexuality has historically been conceptualized in male terms seems to stand true in cinema as well. The depiction of female sexuality in Blue is the Warmest Color must be considered for what it is: a European film director aching to explore the mystique of female sexuality, which, let's face it, isn't as mystical as they think it is.

Outline

Project question: Do gay characters in television serve any purpose other than being gay?

In my paper, I plan to explore how gay characters in television are portrayed as being virtually identity-less and serve the sole purpose of being a homosexual character. The character’s main struggle always has something to do with the fact that he or she is gay, no matter what the show’s storyline entails. I intend to draw examples from shows such as Glee, Ellen, and The Office. I also intend to argue that although shows may think they are being pro-gay by including these characters, producers are actually taking a major step back in the fight for gay rights by mentioning either directly or indirectly that the character is indeed gay. Straight characters in television face complex problems that can revolve around their financial status, issues in the workplace or with family, etc. It seems, however, that gay characters are only faced with issues that have something to do with them being gay. I want to explore why this is.

If You Are Looking To Become An Ideal Wife, This Is A MUST READ

Thestepfordwife.com

“Stepford Wives Organization is a website that supports the idea of the homemaking wife who is not only the cheery domestic goddess, but a fantastic dresser, neat as a pin, a lady with good manners, and a gracious, well-behaved, obedient wife who always puts her man first.”

I am choosing to blog about this website as it is applicable to my group project, and is also incredibly fascinating! Similar to shows like “breaking amish” and “sister wives” that give us an insight into the lives of serious minorities, this website is a peephole into the lives of the group of inidivduals who, in a 21^st century fairly equal society, work tirelessly to regress to anti-feminist roots. This site interestingly takes screenshots for the movie “The Stepford Wives” as visual models for how women should act and dress. “The Stepford Wives” was so obviously a social commentary about exactly why we should not conform to historical ideals, so I find it genuinely  funny that the creators of this website have so obviously missed the point. It is also very contradictory at times; it states “Stepfordwives.org recommends you to switch between lingerie styles, always remembering to keep it tasteful and never stray into gaudiness. Whatever you decide on, just make sure that allure always take priority over comfort. Pleasing our men should be our first concern, and there's no better place to do it than in the bedroom.” Written next to images of sexy lingerie that are similar to items that could be bought at Victoria’s Secret, I find it hugely comical that this website can actually say that they promote classiness and modesty. If you have time I highly recommend looking at this site, as the content (especially if you have seen “The Stepford Wives”) gives a really insightful experience into the psyche of a group of incredibly regressive women. 

Representation of the Homosexual "Sidekick"

For my CTCS 412 teaching projects, my group will be focusing on queer representation in the media and I will be discussing the relationship of the gay male best friend character that is seen in modern day prime-time television series. I will predominantly be looking at shows with a white, cisgendered, heterosexual protagonist that happens to have a gay-identified best friend. My work will focus mainly around these ideas:

-       Gender identity (Ex. If the character is a homosexual male, does he posses a more effeminate or masculine personality?)

-       Sexual relationship thought the show (Ex. Is the character monogamous, polyamorous, or viewed as asexual?)

-       Humor (Ex. Is the character’s sexuality being targeted –i.e. is the character being laughed at or with?)

-       Coming out (Ex. At any point during the duration of the show does the character come out and how does the protagonist and other supporting characters react?)

My shows of focus will consist of (but will not be limited to): Kurt Hummel from Glee, Jack McFarland from Will & Grace, and Max Blum from Happy Endings. By coming these ideas to modern queer television character, the reader can then deduct if the image of the homosexual created by the media reflects the same ideals of the LGBT community and what effect this may have on how non-LGBT identifying viewers may possibly view homosexuality.

Failing Boys Discourse and Post-Feminism

            Post-feminism and the complications in educational achievement was the premise of Jessica Ringrose’s article “Successful girls? Complicating post-feminist, neoliberal discourses of educational achievement and gender equality.” The “failing boys” discourse she describes in her article stems from a discourse that grew in popularity in the mid 1990s. This discourse is based upon the idea of girls superiority in educational achievements compared to boy’s achievements. As Betty Francis argues “Girls’ success is continuously framed through an oppositional dynamic of boys’ failure, and the enormous complexity of educational issues involved in struggling for ‘equality’ greatly muddied.”

            What is most interesting and equally frustrating to me about this article is that there is this contradiction between this proliferation of post-feminist stories and representations in which girls are seen as successful (academically speaking that is) and the idea that this success that is continuously framed around the academic failure of boys. As Ringrose states, “…the debate on gender and achievement is framed through a narrow binary conception of gender so that the unitary category of ‘girl ‘is simplistically pitted against the unitary category of boy.’” While reading, I couldn’t help but think of how post-feminist this situation is. There is this idea that gender equality is simply gone. The success of girls however has initiated this gender crisis in which society must save boys from the power and intelligence of girls. The academic success of boys or lack there of is, in this argument, the fault of women. This fails to bring to light that their academic performance might not be so much a gendered issue but could be the result of other factors that lead to their lower rankings. Overall, what I would like to see is this situation switched. Would there be a sudden “failing girls” discourse if girls academically performed worse than boys?

Response to page 476 of the Ringrose article

            Jessica Ringrose’s article is really mind-blowing. I say this particularly in response to the quote on page 476, which explains that the downfall of boys’ learning abilities and success in school is due to “feminization of the education system.” It is so incredibly backwards that someone could believe the male youth was having a difficult time learning because “teachers were forbidden to use ‘sexist’ language” in the classroom and because male teachers could no longer bond through humor or football in the presence of female students. Is it a good thing that boys require sexist language to do well in school? I would say that it is not. In this situation, girls are blamed for the overall underachievement of the opposite sex. Even when females are displaying an impressive ability of learning, growing and succeeding, it is seen in a negative light. It seems that women are constantly denied the applause they deserve, as they are either perceived as too weak or too strong with no accepted middle-ground. On the flip side, in this case, the weakness of the male is the fault of the female, which eliminates the need to consider that there may be a limitation in the male gender. And it seems that in society there is no such thing as a “too strong” man. So men get to be seen as the all-powerful, and if there is any indication of females having an advantage, it is turned into a fault. Thus, women, in this case, are stuck in a lose-lose situation where there seems to be no hope for resolve.