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

The question that Elizabeth posed at the end of lecture today was, "does the play [The Good Person of Szechuan] help tear down the notion that the self is intrinsic? And if so is that useful?" I think that one of the things in my life that has helped in the long involved process of removing myself from an inwardly focused state and into one of general in-touched-ness (although it hadn't occured to me to look at it this way until now) is participating in religious ritual. One of the things that I do in the mornings- I explained this to about half a dozen people today while talking about my winter project- is wrap tefillin. What are two small leather boxes, one that is tied to the head and one that is tied to the arm. One of the blessing that is traditionally recited while wearing them is, "ידאת את יה-ה" which means, "I will know my lord" know meaning in the biblical sense. So wrapping tefillin is a way to know G-d in the flesh. Because the Jewish concept of G-d is not as a corporeal being, but as some universal all encompassing concept that permeates an inhabits all things both living and inanimate, this also means that wrapping tefillin is a way to connect to the universal contentiousness, and hence a way to detach from notions of an inherent individual self.

One of the blessings that is said during the morning prayer is, "מטבו אהלך יעכב משקנותךא ישרל" which means, "how good are your dwellings Jacob, and your tents oh Israel." (not Israel the country, this is from before there was such a thing) the word mishkenotekha meaning your tents is an anagram of Shekhina (I know it's not in English but it is in Hebrew, just trust me on this one) which is the "feminine" aspect of G-d, and it means the presence of G-d. So, this prayer is intended to call to mind the image of the world as a tent we dwell in with the presence of the eternal. This can also be an image of the collective consciousness, and an image in which there is no individual self.

The Good Person of Szechwan reaises an interesting question.  Being generous is one of the things that one might take for granted as something one should "always" do.  But should one draw the line at being taken advantage of? I've posted a like to an article on morality in which the writer says that telling the truth is something that everyone should "always" do, and anyone who even questions that is clearly a bad person.  But- to run the risk of being called a "bad" person- surely a situation can be hypothesized in which lying is permissible,  what about people who his Jews from Nazi's during the holocaust and of course denied hiding them when the gestapo came to search their house? surely that lie is allowed.  

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/36423/jewish/What-is-Morality.htm 

so therre's this rabbi in the Talmud who there are lots of stories about.  in one story he is basically a cop.  When he sees that the people he turns over to the authorities are punished or killed, he feels so bad he decides he needs to repent.  As penance, he tells his wife to put a sheet underneath his body every night for sixty days.  Every morning for the sixty days he wakes up and has bled all over the sheet.  Judith Z. Abrams says that the sheets are a reference to the sheets used to deliver a baby, or this is a reference to menstrual blood.  Somehow embodying femaleness was a way to repent.

There are at least two kinds of racism: the kind where the racist says they hate people of color, and the kind where the racist loves people of color.  But not in a way where they seek alliance and understanding, it often turns into cultural appropriation and/or a new set of oppressive stereotypes.  But it happens to women too, I just found this article that says that women aren't allowed to wear tzitzit because they are too smart and perfect and they don't need them.  Tzitzit are those little white tassels orthodox Jewish men sometimes wear that are tied onto an undershirt. Maybe you noticed me wearing them.  They're suposed to help you remember to say prayers and to not do bad stuff.  Just like a little extra reminder.  Aparently women never do anything wrong, and don't need any help.  And it is hubris for them to wear tzitzit.  I guess I'm in good shape then.  Or maybe I'm just committing hubris.

The article is here: http://www.askmoses.com/article.html?h=150&o=2396 

 

I have a kosher kitchen. That means that I have two sets of dishes, one for meat and one for dairy so that I always make absolutely %100 sure that I never eat meat and dairy products togther. "Meatness" or "Dairyness" can be transfered to objects that are nether meat nor dairy. Example: if I had an apple, and I put that apple on a meat-plate (not a plate made of meat but a plate designated for meat products) then that apple becomes meat as far as its kosher status goes. Then, if I picked up that apple and put it on a dairy plate, the apple becomes unkosher or treif. Not Only that, but the dairy plate is also unkosher, because the apple transfered it's meatness to the dairy plate. The apple can never be kosher again and it has to be thrown away or given to someone who doesn't keep kosher. The plate however, can be made re-kosher by dipping it in boiling water or emersing it in a mikveh or ritual bath. I think this is an interesting exaple of how objects not only fashion bodies or spaces, but other objects.

Elizabeth mentioned in her lecture this (Tuesday) morning about relics preceding churches and how churches are often built around relics. An interesting example of this is the wailing wall or the western wall of what used to be "The Temple" fore the Jews, and is currently a very important mosque. We all know that the huge war that is currently going on there has a little to do with this wall and this mosque. But what not every one know is that having or not having that temple has changed Judaism as a whole dramatically. There's a large number of Jewish rituals that revolve around having that temple, and can only be performed in that temple. For instance animal sacrifices and the pronunciation of one of G-d's 72 names. There are also special rules revolving around the western wall. Women are allowed to wrap tefilin in their own homes or in private, but if they wrap them at the wall they can be arrested. So this place not only fashions religion, but gender as well, and it becomes an excuse for religiously sanctioned sexism.

In Elizabeth's lecture on Tuesday afternoon of this week she mentioned the part of the one-gender concept that a couple hundred years ago, boys wore skirts until the age of 7 when they recieved their first pair of short pants. I just learned that in the Jewish tradition there is a custom called upsherin. There is a Jewish law that states that a boy's hair should not be cut until his third birthday. There's a neat story about this here:

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3068/jewish/Upsherin.htm

In a sense this is meant to mark the end of his babyhood, and the beginning of his growth into adulthood. After a boy's upsherin he will begin his education (learning Hebrew and learning the prayers and stuff) it also marks the point where he will be identified decidedly as a boy. In families where men wear yamukas and tzitzit, this is when the boy will start to wear these things (While it is becoming more common for Jewish women to wear these things, it is still rare). Before a Boy's upsherin when he has long hair, it will likely be common for him to be mistaken for a girl, so this ceremony is not only for age marking, it is also for gender marking.

Some of my fellow class mates and I went to the mall dressed as a person of a gender other than the one we identify as.  I think I was pretty successful.  I used the men's restroom and didn't get a comment or a second look from the man coming in as I was leaving.  When I was deciding what to wear this morning, I just thought about what I would like to wear if I were a boy.  Elizabeth asked me what kind of man I was trying to be, I was just trying to be myself but as a boy.  I think it's easier to pass while not with a group.  I didn't get a look coming out of the men's restroom, but I was by myself.  Theodora, Elizabeth and I did get some strange looks, and a "bye ladies!" from a sales clerk while walking around together.  The best part was that being in drag/androgynous meant not getting accosted by the cell phone sales people!  I think I'll dress this way every time I go to the mall, just to avoid those annoying cell phone sales people.

here it is.

Ronald Reagan started a franchise of drug rehabilitation centers called "The Seed" in  the 1970s.  It employed various brainwashing tactics during as well as solitary confinement in an attempt to rehabilitate drug addicts.  The seed was shut down after many law suits involving sexual and psycological abuse claims were filled against it. Shortly after, a new set of drug rehabilitation centers were opened called "Straight Incorporated" which employed a simnilar set of abusive methods.  Here is a link to a web site built by the victims of this corporation, which was also shut down due to law suits against it. 

http://www.thestraights.com/index.htm

 A friend of mine was housed in a similar facility, although she has never used drugs.  Somehow her parents were convinced to send her to this place to keep her from going down the wrong path.  She said that the women there were not allowed direct contact wit their families other than letters, and letters were carefully monitored.  they were only allowed to eat a certain amount of food each day.  Their schedules were heavily regimented and they were not allowed to leave.  They were allowed  half an hour to an hour outside each day, and were not allowed to look outside of the fence for more than 3 seconds.  She was sent there at the age of 14, and stayed there until she was 17.  Sometimes when people ask her age, she tells them 14, because that's how she feels.  We've known each other since we were 12, and she is the same height as she was when we were 14.  Not only did this facility stunt her emotional and psychological growth, it stunted her physical growth.  She used to refer to this place as rehab, but i knew that she had never used drugs, apparently her parents sent her there because she was too rebellious, they wanted her to go somewhere that would fashion her into a model citizen.  Well, it didn't work out too well.

Foucault said "...one does not confess without the presence (or virtual presence) of a partner..." (pg 61) On Rosh Hashannah the Jewish new year (actually one of four Jewish new years) there is a ritual called tashlikh during which members of the Jewish community take pieces of bread and throw them into a river, lake, ocean, etc. to symbolize casting off the sins of the previous year, to begin fresh for the new year.  Each piece of bread a person throws symbolizes a different sin, but you don't have to tell anybody what the sin is, it can remain a secret.  But this is still a form of confession that fits Foucault's definition, because the virtual presence is G-d in this case.

On Yom Kippur the Jewish day of atonement there is a ritual that is performed three to five times through out the day depending on the congregation, in which everyone confesses to the same sins.  The congregation chants together a list of the sins that we all commit.  The list is something along the lines of: forgive me for the wrongs I have committed through lies, forgive me for the wrongs I have committed through acts of violence... and it goes on for several pages.  I interpertet it as a ritual of admitting humanity.  Since these are things that everyone has to confess to, perhaps it is just in our nature to be imperfect.  However, that doesn't mean we should ignore the things we do wrong, even if we are never perfect, we all have room for improvement.  

So these are two rituals that are both about sin, but comes from a position of getting rid of them, and the other comes from a position of embodying them in order to over come them.