Exposure

So, on Thursday after class I went to the panel discussion for the Exposure festival. Unfortunately I couldn't stay for the whole discussion but the part that I was able to hear was very interesting. Brian Frances spoke again and was just as funny and candid as he was in our class. He gave a quick summary of Fruit and then answered a few questions about it but it wasn't as interesting of a discussion as we had in class, in my opinion. Cindy Baker's work was really interesting though. She is working on performance art pieces that deal primarily with the body and societies issues with weight, appearance and taboo. She seems to confront viewers with her size in order to force them to consider the 'otherness' of being overweight in a society that views it as bad. I think that this is fairly interesting however, i do believe that society reacts that way partially because of health issues and a perceived epidemic although it likely comes across as a personal offence. In any case, her work challenges peoples responses and forces them to size her up. whether it is to sew her clothing or by viewing her in a glass cube. The discussion was really interesting and I was sorry I had to leave early!

A Chorus Line

Have you seen "A Chorus Line"???

This is the last paragraph of Paul's monologue:

"We were working the Apollo Theatre on a Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Street. Doing four shows a day with a movie. It was really tacky. The show was going to go to Chicago. My parents wanted to say goodbye and they were going to bring my luggage to the theatre after the show. Well, we were doing this oriental number and I looked like Anna May Wong. I had these two great big chrysanthemums on either side my head and a huge headdress with gold balls hanging all over it. I was going on for the finale and going down the stairs and who should I see standing by the stage door ... my parents. They got there too early. I freaked. I didn't know what to do. I thought to myself : "I know, I'll just walk quickly past them like all the others and they'll never recognize me." So I took a deep breath and started down the stairs and just as I passed my mother I heard her say : "Oh, my God." Well... I died. But what could I do? I had to go on for the finale so I just kept going. After the show I went back to my dressing room and after I'd finished dressing and taking my makeup off, I went back down stairs. And there they were standing in the middle of all these ... And all they said to me was please write, make sure you eat and take care of yourself. And just before my parents left, my father turned to the producer and said : "Take care of my son..."; That was the first time he ever called me that... I... ah... I... ah...."

This is, in my opinion, the most moving section of the musical. The monologue states out with having Paul explain "Once my cousin said to me, "You'll never be an actor" and I knew she was telling me this because I was such a sissy. I mean, I was terribly effeminate. I always knew I was gay, but that didn't bother me. What bothered me was that I didn't know how to be a boy."

Not knowing how to be a boy and then finally having his father call him his son is a moving moment for Paul and the audience alike.

Becoming a hero

Not everyone understands the complex theory of “becoming” or even what it means to identify campiness and satire. Who will teach them? And in a creative way that simplifies theory and presents it so it is received in a nonthreatening way that encourages dialogue? Andro Andy to the rescue.

Maybe societies reservations about transformations are really just a cry for help… a sort of damsel in distress situation. Elaine Wannechko, a fabulous local Edmonton artist, has noticed the problems of gender and has some interesting and creative ideas on how to tackle these issues. She has endeavoured to help teach members general public through a performed character by the name of Andro Andy, an androgynous superhero. The androgynous figure first appeared at Leva café where Andy made androgynous balloon animals for willing participants. Elaine recalls, “So I wanted Andy to look as andro as possible, so a little bit of packing, so if you were to look it would be a small penis or a large clitoris, so I made sure to really bind and Andy had a lot of colours the first time, little running shorts, yellow tights, a red shirt. Everything was pretty tight so I had to make sure everything was concealed in a way.” While the first event went quite well, Elaine attributes at least some of that success to the fact that she was very close to campus and surrounded by largely educated public (some who may even be familiar with “Desubjugated Knowledge!”).

So what is next? Andy is going to have to save more people to be able to hang out with superman and Wonder Woman. Elaine is considering taking Andy to family friendly festivals “and kind of just queer it up a bit.” The idea is to put Andy into a situation where people are encouraged to ask questions about their own constructions of gender. Elaine explained, “I’d like Andy to educate children about gender. I had this idea of doing this fun little film skit. There would be these kids and somebody throwing stones at this one kid and calling him a pansy or something. And then Andro Andy would come to the rescue and say “what makes this boy a pansy” and try to talk a little bit about why is that offensive, In a kid friendly way. And why is it kind of offensive to call a boy girly or feminine in some way and you know, ‘cause, are they saying they hate their mother?! Try and be ridiculous with it. ”

Ridiculous or not, Andy has the potential to make the idea of gender construction accessible to children at a young age. It is commonly understood that learning a language at a young age is much easier than trying to figure out Italian grammar in your third year of university… so maybe Andro Andy will in fact be able to rescue children from learning a language that others a significant portion of the public. Being able to teach children and present the same ideas to parents at the same time could make a difference. Why is it bad for a little boy to be considered a pansy? Andro Andy, a modern day hero, a brave champion of gender discrimination, would suggest that there is in fact, nothing wrong with it at all.

Blue vs. Pink

So the other day at brunch my friends and I were discussing restaurant washrooms. The washrooms in question were the fancy ones at the Cactus Club. For those of you who have not been, they are quite spacious and have tv screens all over the place. I have not personally been in the mens washroom but am under the impression that they are comparable to the women's washrooms but the tv screens play sports channels while the women's play fashion shows. The debate began because one of the women at the table said that she would rather be watching sports. The conversation quickly regressed into the blue/pink debate, wondering if a colour choice or tv channel should be held accountable for peoples responses or, rather, that it is our interpretation of what liking pink means for our gender identities that is the culprit.

Gender Studies

In terms of intersexed individuals I think that even though i am open-minded and sympathetic to difficult decisions made by parents and doctors, I am not honestly able to decisively put myself in either their positions. What do you do? If a baby is born with some sort of genitalia "deformity," which Anne Fausto-Sterling claims occurs quite often, do you 'fix' it according to social 'sexpectations'? If only Laquer were correct, then the surgery would in fact be a sort of fixing. in reality, male and female organs are different and therefore this becomes more that a simple internal or external dichotomy. It can be argued that there is no "correct" way of dealing with an intersexed individual but to remain open minded and understanding of any imposed gender expectations or any ambiguity that can that surrounds them. Would Herculine Barbin's life be better if other choices were made, or just different?

This weeks TIME magazine has a cover page special report called "The State of the American Woman." The tagline reads "A new poll shows why they are more powerfu - but less happy." Interesting... The article is a sort of conversation between stats from 1972 and now; rises in professionals, university students, higher percentages of births to unwed mothers, etc. An interesting comparison for the most part but back to the tag line... The article claims, "amoung the most confounding changes of all the is the evidence tracked by numerous survetys, that as women have gained more freedom, more education and more economic power, they have become less happy." they go on to say that there is no reason for this, maybe its the fact that they are working and maintaining households or that they are just more honest now than they were in the 70's. either way, the tag line and information about happiness is an interesting if not offensive method to gain readership.

Just a few comments about class yesterday...

After reading Sexton, I can't help but wonder why it is that we are still telling stories of damsels in destress. The happily ever after that is seen at the end of Cinderella is not necessarily the ending we want to have anymore. pent up in a castle is not for everyone and I certainly would not want mice and doves as friends. So why is this classic still being read? Sexton addresses the confliction of a beloved classic and modern times by inflicting the fairytale with modernizing similies as well as modern commentaries on the subservient role that women tend to play in the texts. IN my opinion, Sexton doesn't discourage readership of the classic tales, rather, she encourages a critical language with the fairytale that enables one to see the prejudice within the text and use it to tackle broader gender issues.