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

Winter Quarter Project Proposal

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“Representations of the body in film throughout the ages.”

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Project Proposal By:

Garrett

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Fashioning the Body

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Julia Zay’s Seminar

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This week in Julia's seminar, we did an excercise where everyone in the seminar picked quotes from The Good Person Of Szechewan and shared those quotes with the class. Julia put forth the quote that said, "How can I be good when everything is so expensive?" This quote struck quite a familiar chord with me and made me relate to the text very much. In recent times I have lost my job and been more broke than ever before. I have found that the more broke you are, and in turn the more expensive everything seems, it becomes harder and harder to remain "good". I have had a job for a long time and having funds has never been that big of a concern to me because I have always had them. Once that job was taken away from me and there was no money coming in however, my situation changed drastically. I had to spend all of my time in the pursuit of a new job, and when I spent all day getting rejected by businesses it definitely did a number on my psyche. This in turn has affected my desire to do "good" in school, because it seems like getting food in my stomach and paying the bills is a more important matter. It has also affected my personality, and sometimes I havent been the most "good" friend or boyfriend because I have been asleep and not there for those close to me. In turn, the quote " How can I be good when everything is so expensive?" hits very close to home. It has been quite an experience having close to no money, but it has had some serious consequences in my life. Just this week though, I got a job so maybe, just maybe, I can start being "good" again!

    My deoderant led a long, happy life that most deoderants could only dream of living. It did its duty faithfully and effectively and nobody can ever take that away. When it was a young deoderant, its scent was fresh, new, and powerful. This scent even got me some compliments from friends, girlfriend, and family members. My deoderant knew that its job was to make my underarms stay clean-smelling and free of sweat, and it performed these duties admirably. Whenever I was nervous, working out, or doing other perspiration inducing activities, deoderant was always there to do its duty against odor and wetness. Although, towards the end of its life, my deoderant became scratchy and uncomfortable to apply, that does not mean that all its days of hard work have been forgotten. We will all miss you deoderant, and we are positive that you are in a better place now. 

Do you like movies? Do you like bodies? Do you like to pair the two together? I am looking for students interested in how bodies are portrayed in film, and how those portrayals have changed over the decades. I am going to attempt to create a research paper on this topic and try to correlate my findings with historical and current events. Contact Garrett at g-rock@hotmail.com if you are at all interested.

•    Went out and performed observations on the SEM II smoker’s tent.
•    Around 35 smokers appeared
•    Observed social etiquette of the smokers tent-don’t sit next to someone, most people told us that they met most of their friends at the smoker’s tents.  The one by the dorms apparently are the “cool smokers” who are intelligent.  
•    Most people thought we were observing the tent for the school and gave opinions and input about how when they smoke alone, they feel isolated.
•    The body language was observed-arms crossed only enough to be “crossed” and not burn selves.  
•    Tent was NOT tall enough for someone tall to be seen-they look like a giraffe if one were not in the tent and walking towards it.  
•    Being the main social outlet (friend finder, conversation starter, cig stealing), the population observed in our 20 minutes seemed large for the non-smoking school. 

When Courtney and I (Garrett) thought about an everyday object that has a strong relationship with both the mind and body, we asked ourselves; what is something that can be found in just about every modern household.  After some contemplation, we decided that pills or medication would be a fine candidate.

What are pills?  Pills come in a large variety of different shapes, sizes, and colors.  They are typically ingested orally by humans, mostly to prevent or treat illnesses.  Pills are set to treat a wide variety of human afflictions that affect their bodies.  Most treat infections, anxiety, heart/cholesterol problems, and depression.  Most humans today have taken a prescription in their lifetimes.

Pharmacy: Arrived at the big building with big huge clear doors that opened automatically when we approached.  Inside was a big ladder-like thing that had people walking up them to get to what looked like another level of the building.  To the left was area with a bunch of places to rest our legs and sit down with a row of endless windows.  The windows had a person behind each one and would use a black stick to make a loud sound with (calling out numbers) and then a bright sign would appear with 197, 282, etc.  We realized we were supposed to go to this machine, press this marked button and get a slip of paper with these markings on it.  When that marking showed up on the screen, we were to go up to the window.

When our number, 107, was called, we brought up a slip of paper that was allowing the window person to dispense what they called medication or pills.  Once we were finished with the pharmacy, we went to go check out these pills.

Inside the brown paper thing with this cylindrical container was a piece of paper with writing on it.  In the English language, this paper is the medication’s interaction and implication guide.  This guide told us what the pills would do and how to take them.  

Apparently, pills are given to humans by “doctors.”  Doctors go to school for a long time in order to prescribe pills and heal sick people.  Some may debate this being a good thing.