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

"Forgiveness" by Rebecca Brown
from The Terrible Girls

Apparently, we didn't do enough reading this quarter because I feel the need to offer up some short fiction, "Forgiveness," for everybody to read in delight and terror. Those with a weak stomach might want to avoid this story, but it's incredibly concise and beautiful. All quarter long, I've been thinking about The Terrible Girls because several of the stories are these lovely, grim lenses into the roles of bodies and power.

Included in this very short piece are wonderful sentences like:

"Things I once took for granted became significant. Cutting a steak with a knife and fork, or buttoning my fly, untying a knot around a bag, adding milk while stirring."

This is my portion of the script for the presentation A Case of Britney Spears & Cheetos.

The slideshow is also available upon request.

Emily

Possible Exam questions answered!  (kind of)   quick notes. . .stream of thought

What are some things I think about as I look over these questions?

- By claiming identity,  your identity is claiming you

The form (example forms given in class. . .we got the census form)  what were the questions asked in 1970?  Marital status, # children, occupation . . .talk about claiming what claims you!

Scott Turner Schofield. . .asked him what the point of creating more “updated” vocabulary does to the idea, and if it’s necessary. He agreed, and referenced the fact that terminology does in fact make us what we are or what we consider ourselves to be.

Visibility of the social discourses within the work?  Scott brought to light social aspects revolving around transgender issues . . .how people reacted to him, what he was feeling based on what happened around him. . . .Pauline Pantsdown made fun of and highlighted Pauline Hanson’s political policy of nationalism, and in turn relied heavily on blatant and offensive humor. 

http://thesuperficial.com/2007/11/britney_spears_uses_a_body_double_in_new_video.php

My coworker introduced me to this site this afternoon and it fit too well with what we were discussing in beauty parlor today. Oh the cultural anxiety! 

We'll be attending many of these lectures for this course as part of Fashioning the Body, if you'd like to earn an extra 2 credits by attending all the sessions, you can sign up for the course itself.

See attached flier for details.

For more information, contact David Michael Wolach, dwuaw@yahoo.com

            - “The sex-gender system… is both a socio-cultural construct and a     semiotic apparatus, a SYSTEM OF REPRESENTATION which    assigns meaning (identity, value, prestige, location in kinship,    status in the social hierarchy, etc.) to individuals within society (5).”

How I fell in love with my prosthesis

Camera-

I saw you, as you were given to me, beautiful, perfect and mine. I held you, as you held me, with emotion, strength, and familiarity.  When I looked through you, I saw the world as you only you could let me, as all I desired to see. I’m convinced we grew through each other.  I gave you life, which you gave back to me. In photos of everything we became, of everything I saw by you.  My love and my inspiration, desire; formed into your film.

Obituary

The Levis Boot-cut jeans were born in 1999 in a California factory to then be brought to the state of Oregon, where they were adopted by a permanent owner. They spent their life busy and productive as they were worn often. They spent little of their life in the drawer or closet. The pants traveled often around Oregon, especially the coast, as well as back to their own birth state of California on occasion. Supported by patches in their old age, they were loved and taken care of well for the most part. The jeans tragically died in a misshape involving sever molding after being accidently locked in a truck after a fateful trip to the ocean. They are outlived by their faithful owner and a privet service is planned for Saturday around the household dumpster.

Kathleen Montesano

Concept Rhyming Paper #2

Beau Travail and Judith Butler

The film Beau Travail shows complicated gender roles materializing in a reiterated system that operates from power constructs. The film explores the genders of the characters Sergeant Galoup and his soldier Sentain. Their genders are shown in the context of the military institution they are a part of. Using Butler’s concept of gender performativity we see gender materialize by the reiteration of norms within the military system they live under in the film.  The institution is depicted as regulating the social norms of their genders at the same time as supporting both characters that are shown to have differences in their gender representations.

From the first narration by the lead character in the beginning of the film the viewer is meant to understand that he is a product of an institution he has made his life of dedicating himself to. “Chief Master Sergeant Galoup, that’s me, unfit for life, unfit for civil life (Denis, Beau).” It is important that this quote is placed near the start of the film. It sets up the context for understanding and observing the character.  He is putting his whole being into a title that is made and honored by the military institution. This gives the impression that he abides by a militaristic way of living, thought of as being both physically and mentally demanding and regimented.  Then he goes on to announce he is unfit for life and more specifically unfit for “civil life”. He is showing his investment in his military identity by denying his identity outside of its structures.  I see a “civil life” as being a way of stating a lifestyle in opposition to the military lifestyle he is depicted as living in through most of the film.