Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

http://www.slate.com/id/2174905/

I found this article while surfing. It's a slideshow of the history of the vibrator.

The Form, an artifact from 1970- It has questions and I have answers

But how do I answer them?

Do I check?

Do I circle?

Do I fill in a shape?

Is it a circle? a square?

Where does my form fit into that form?

Name- Well that easy I know my name. I got it tattooed on my back.

Head of Household- I guess that would be me. But it seems like they assume heads of household are male.

Sex- about 3-4 times a week- No, I think they mean what sex I am not how often I'm having it. I would have to say that by their definition I'm female.

Race- It's a race???!!?? I hope I win. Just kidding. That is really such an inaccurate term. I think what they really want to know what ethnicity I am. Another form I have to check White on. Someday it would be nice to have an ethnicity that isn't "White". I would really like to be able to check Norwegian-American someday.

Birthday- Does this mean I get a present? No? Then mind your own business.

Age- Old enough to know better and young enough to get carded.

Maritial Status- Why? If I tell you I'm divorced will you think I'm a failure? Fine, then I'm divorced. If you must know why its because I couldn't get along with my husband's girlfriend.

In 1970, this is what the census bureau wanted to know about people's lives and this is also how I have really wanted to answer these questions.

After reading and re-reading Foucault a few times, I thought of something that wasn't brought up in class. Did Foucault believe in creationism, evolution, some combination of both of these or none of the above. I would appreciate any feedback or opinions.

Over the years, I've been increasingly curious about assumptions. Why do people make assumptions? Who are they making these assumptions about? What are they trying to accomplish by making assumptions? How do they arrive at these assumptions? I suppose one answer is the need or urge to categorize other people based on their appearance or behavior. Another reason could be a need or urge to have an "us" and a "them". When making assumptions based on a person's appearance it is far too easy to judge too harshly and far too quickly.

On the other hand, I believe that there are some assumptions that one can safely make. However, they involve aspects of a person's personality that they are comfortable revealing. For example, if someone is wearing a shirt/button/carrying a bag/some other item of clothing that says I love my (fill in the blank), it can be assumed that they really love their (fill in the blank). The same can be assumed about any other visual representations of popular culture. If someone is wearing a picture of it, it's safe to assume that they like it.

I had some problems loading this as a file because I was having problems converting a Word document to PDF format.Finally was able to do so by a program my SO found online. It's called pdf995. It's freeware but it does come with ads.

When I read my first Corpus over, I realized that I had phrased it in the form of a confession. I took the opportunity to analyze why I had done that. The first thing that came to mind was I wanted people to have a context for what I was talking about. I really didn't want to come off like I was talking about things that I had no idea about. The next thing that ran through my mind was that the beauty parlor and the barber shop weren't just about being able to go somewhere and have someone style your hair or do your nails. They were places to go and find a sense of community. I was told once that if you wanted to find out about somebody in a small town, go talk to either the bartender or the person who does hair. When I remembered that I started to think about the places that people are somehow expected to confess. The first and most obvious place is in church. Another place is a taxi.  It's my opinion that there's a few factors that contribute to this phenomenon. One is that fact that the driver isn't looking at you. Another is how the taxi looks almost like a confessional. You get in the back and start talking to a person. A taxi driver once told me that he could tell what to ask someone by where they were going. If they were going to the airport or some other place where they would be traveling to another destination then they would want to talk more and about more personal issues. He didn't mind because it meant he got to talk to some interesting people. Which makes me wonder about how traveling can make for some strange compaionships. If anyone has ever taken a trip on a Greyhound, you might know what I'm talking about. If you're traveling for any significant distance, you can make some amazing friendships that may or may not last.

Another aspect of confession that I was thinking about was the need that some people have not only to confess but to question people in their life. On one hand I do have an understanding that they might be looking for commonalities or want to express an interest in the other person. On the other hand, if they are asking questions that the other person isn't comfortable answering or they're revealing too much information about themselves for the other person's comfort level.

http://www.california.com/~rathbone/foucau10.htm

Hmm, not sure if I did that right. If you can't link to the webpage directly from this page, just copy & paste into your browser.

            When I think of a beauty parlor, there are a few images that come to mind. I think of the Supercuts, the Hairmasters and the other chain stores that focus on selling bodies services to make their hair look more attractive. However, those images don’t really capture the essence of what a beauty parlor is, in my humble opinion.  These are not places where communities can come together and share information. There is no rich history behind these shiny superficial bastions of consumer culture. When I think of a beauty parlor, I think of Los Angeles County Jail.

            When I was eighteen, I was arrested in Los Angeles County for a warrant from Thurston County and was a guest of that county for about three months. During those months, I experienced and saw some of the cruelest and kindest human behavior that I have ever seen in my life. For most of my stay there, I was locked in a dormitory with about one hundred and eighty other women. I would say that out of that number between one hundred and forty and one hundred and fifty were Black or African-American, between twenty and thirty were Latina or Hispanic and then there were about ten White women. After a short time in jail, I caught the attention of a Black woman who really liked me for some reason. I feel the need to mention that the only reason I knew she was a woman was we were in an all female facility. If I would have seen her on the street; I would have assumed she was a male bodybuilder. She would walk around it front of me, point to me and say, “You fuck with the White girl and I’ll kill you”. Later I found out that this was no idle threat as she was in jail for manslaughter and attempted manslaughter. On the other hand, this gave me some freedom to walk around and interact with the other people that were locked up with me. I quickly found out that this was a dorm that was meant for women who were either expected to be going to prison or were expected to be some kind of security risk. I was considered to be some kind of security risk because of my then husband’s arrest record. The other women that were locked up in there were there for one of a few reasons. Drugs were the most common charge. One reason was violence that might or might not have been gang related. Another reason was prostitution. There were also a few women in there for probation violations. While I was there, an English woman passed through. She had been arrested for drugs and was hoping to get deported because she couldn’t afford to pay for her own way home. Then they were the women that would sit and do each others hair. At first I couldn’t understand why they were spending so much time (I’m estimating at least eight hours per hairstyle) doing hair when it was obvious that they weren’t going anywhere. I sat with them a few times and eventually worked up the nerve to ask them why they spent so much time doing their hair. One of the first answers was obvious and I feel a little foolish for not recognizing it myself. When you’re in jail, you’re issued a uniform. The only outlet that you have to express your individuality is your hair and makeup. They also told me that sometimes it was just good to sit and talk. I also picked up on the fact that there was physical contact with the other people that wouldn’t be considered an infraction of the rules. In fact, touching was against the rules. But most guards didn’t feel like filling out paperwork over a hair do. Over time, I found out that if I didn’t talk, I could sit there long enough that they would start talking to each other as if I wasn’t there. They talked about their families, their men and their children. They talked about drugs and how hard it was to stay clean. They talked about the gangs that they were in. While I was sitting and listening to them talk, I was able to learn about their issues in a way that wouldn’t have been available to me in the normal routine of my day to day life. I also got to watch the interactions that happen when people don’t have any space between them.

An odd space that had various racks, shelves and tables that held several kinds of items. However, most of these items could be construed as written material for reading. These written materials seemed to be sorted into categories of some random sort. There were other items that I can only assume were for use with the printed material.There were yet more items that I'm assuming were for the daily care of the bodies that came into this space. The bodies that came into this space would walk around until they stopped and picked something up. They would then carry it up to the front of the space where they would hand it to another body and give them pieces of paper or a piece of plastic. This body would either give them more pieces of paper and/or pieces of metal back. If they had given that body a piece of plastic; they would get the piece of plastic back and a piece of paper to write something on. However, all of them got a white piece of paper. At that point, they would leave with their item.