Bi-Gendered Doppelganger

My absolute favorite Disney film of all time is Mulan; best final ever.  Every time I have watched Mulan since becoming more aware of things that most children are ignorant of, a new discrepancy is discovered. The first was the use of the word “concubine” when Mulan and the accompanying trio in women’s attire were described as “ugly concubines”. The reaction was really, can’t believe they said that? Disney told children that in reality emperor’s cheat on their wife with concubines and that it was okay? Also the fact that the fruit that the men had were to create fake breast was something new I realized watching this time around. With the conclusion of this class looking at gender roles in the film was the target analysis. So let’s discuss gender image.

Mulan is described as “too skinny”, although she is about the exact same size as other widely accepted female protagonist in Disney films. The only way for her to bring honor to her family is to marry a good suitor. She must be “calm, obedient, and work fast pace…speak unless spoken to…” and that “she is a woman, she can never amount to anything.” They speak of her as a curse of the Fa family due to being a girl and being a tomboy at that. Notably the majority of female characters in the film have soft round faces while the faces of the men are sharp and angulated representing the soft, delicateness of women and the strength of men. Before going off to the match maker she proceeds in taking care of the chores, which is normal for any gender, and then ensures that her father drinks his tea, taking care of him as women are often portrayed in the nursing role.

Shan Yu is, according to the video, the stereotypical dominant male figure. In fact, after the avalanche killing his army, five out of seven of the survivors, Shan Yu included were very buff, large muscles and huge because of it. Suggesting that besides for plot purposes they issue the image of strength and that is the only way to survive.

Shang and his father are of strong build. Shang has angulated facial features, very large biceps, large chest, a six-pack and the whole nine-yards of male fantasy hotness. Hence it is quite obvious that he would become Mulan’s love interest due to these features indicating to young boys that in order to be attractive one must look like a body builder.

What of the men that do not have these features? Well look at the trio of Yao, Ling and Chien Po they are secondary characters. They are never considered as potential love interest. Mulan’s father Fa Zhou is of relatively athletic build however he is an older man so when drafted into the army as the sole male of the Fa family he displays strength and valor as he walks with a limp as erectly as possible without his cane in front of army officials.  Although he puts up a front Fa Zhou is still unable to fight hence the plot of the film. If Fa Zhou had a son this would have been a completely different movie. If there was only Ping and never a Mulan it is suspected that the war would have been lost and the Mongolians would have taken over China. Why?

Due to how men and women are portrayed and raised. Based on the aforementioned men are raise to be strong and brave and therefore exhibit these traits in any circumstances. Women are to be soft and delicate and subservient. Therefore Ping would have relied solely on his strength to retrieve the arrow which may or may not have worked. When it came to firing the rocket at Shan Yu, Ping would have done as is instructed following orders and allow Yao to shoot the rocket or maybe physically take him on in which he could have killed him, however he would still have the rest of the army to deal with.

When trying to enter the palace it was shown that brute force would not work and that the alternative for strength that Mulan discovered is what enabled them to rescue the emperor and kill Shan Yu.  Even further supporting evidence that Ping would not have been as good as Mulan is that the General and the all male army exhibiting pure strength, were defeated by the Huns.  Overall it was not the fact that Mulan was a woman that made her succeed it was that she had to find an alternative to compensate for the actions usually done by men. By doing this Mulan illustrated that she is equal to the common stereotype of male superiority in that women may not be as physically strong as men however they can successfully complete the same task.

 Let it not be left out: music. There are about four songs sung throughout the film itself. A fifth appears at the end of the film. These songs are in film order: “Honor to Us All”, “Reflection”, “I’ll Make A Man Out of You”, “A Girl Worth Fighting For”, and “True to You Heart.”  They each show the dominant stages of Mulan’s life and how she is treated and feels. She goes from being equaled to an object that is used for the benefit of her family and associates but not for herself. Then she sings of having to wearing a mask much like the makeup they place on her due to not wanting break family’s heart in dishonoring them by truly being herself. Then Mulan is placed into another role that she must fulfill in which being a girl is not enough, she must be made into a man in order to win. Eventually Mulan in one way or another succeeds at ‘becoming a man’ or maybe not because she sung “A girl whose got a brain, who always speaks her mind…” which all of the ‘real’ men were in opposition to. Finally after saving China then is she accepted for who she is and it is because she refused to follow conventional rules that she was true her heart.

"The buck bounds here and there / Whilst the doe has narrow eyes / But when the two rabbits run side by side / How can you tell the female from the male?" Men and women maybe built, think, act, and many other traits in different ways however that does not mean that they are not nearly the same, particularly when they get the same desired result.

Arrivederci

I am sorry to say that I must tell you all good bye, or hopefully only some. This has been a great semester and through blogging I feel that we have academically grown on each other. But who really wants to write five hundred words every week. At the beginning of the semester I would have said not me however now I say five hundred is easier than writing fifty words. Coincidentally I stopped without a single thought at word fifty so maybe I am not at all a pro at this or a reliable narrator like Jane Eyre at the moment. Or it could be tiredness and fatigue from finals and choosing to blog in the middle of the night. Who really knows? But the point being is that I truly enjoyed this experience. I loved some of the novels that were presented to me. After hearing so much about The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo now that I have an idea of what is actually apart of the content of the novel I feel obligated to read it. It beckons me to its yellow, red and green cover and says, "You know you'll love me, buy me Ashaki, buy meeeeeeeee!!!!!" Okay so I am really tired but anyways. Then there is Kate Chopin's "The Awakening". Kate is a radical in her own right and I just love radicals they are so interesting and fun. Kate wrote a novel and I had no idea. Unfortunately I arrived late to class that morning however from the segments of the presentation that I did see sounds like Kate did not disappoint. The character is a woman of today stuck in the rules of over one hundred years ago. Yet she seemed to not want to fit into the behaviorism of the past but do her own thing. She put her foot down and says, "Honey, take me as I am or leave me be." is the feeling I got from the character via the presentation. So let me attempt to conclude my incoherent banter. Blogging is a great exercise for writers, its is great for creativity. Blogging is allows one to unwind, reform and put the stresses of the day down in the world wide web for everyone to see. Okay so I’m getting really tired and out of it now. Sorry but please stay with me although you might be too busy laugh cause I would be laughing right now. The point with this blogging banter is that I would continue to blog long past this class. In all truth it will most likely not be as often as everyday a week. I the feedback will not be as often because as all of us will most likely be busy with our lives but I will continue blogging. I have enjoyed reading everyone’s blogs, your thoughts, ideas, insights, interpretations and all. Now as we go out into the world we are more aware of things of gender, images and rhetoric. They view of women over the centuries, the view of gender, orientation and the view of men in society. I have to tell you all good night or day but be safe, happy and merry and GOD Bless. Oh and please don’t blog when you’re tired like I’m doing and the funny thing is that I know better right I’m telling you not to do it but here I am anyways. Yep so it’s a case of do as I say and not as I do. Goodnight everybody!

Unisex Restrooms

She has developed breasts and a vagina. He has a chest and a penis. Allegedly they think the same and are equal for all intensive purposes, hence the fight for gender equality and the feminist movement and the works. Although men and women are essentially equal on all accounts physically they are different. Men are usually taller, have more muscle mass, therefore stronger and other physical traits opposite women. Women are smaller, more agile, menstruate, give birth and are weaker than men among other physical traits. Yet for all intensive purposes they are equal.

          As equal as men and women are, yet still we have gender segregated sports; “The Women’s World Cup versus The World Cup, Men 100meter versus Women, etc.” All of this is understandable to a society that strives for equality in regards to gender among other things. However in regards to academia, men and women are categorized into one unit. The Spelling Bee is not ‘Boys’ or ‘Girls’ but unisex. When it comes to scholarships based solely on academia in which ever specified field the division between men and women will be minimal.

 According to the article by Restak this unisex grouping of boys and girls in means of academia is unfair to both genders. According to the very same physical components that separate men and women in physical activities, by these basis boys and girls should be separate intellectually.

It is not the case of boys being smarting than girls or vise versa but a case of learning differently. So would the resolution for this plight be to cause segregation of boys and girls for the sake of academia?

The answer to that is metaphorically a double edged sword. If placing boys and girls in separate schools in order to accommodate their collective learning will increase the number of person we have graduating high school, then this segregation may be just. Unfortunately this may not be enough because although collectively boys are learning style A and girls style B on an individual level there will always be in existence variants from the dominant group. In addition to that learning style factor this will create the issue of further gender inequality by separating boys and girls even further due to lack of continual social interaction.

For eight hours a day, five days a week boys and girls are forced to interact with each other in a unisex academic environment. As with any relationship more the more one is with another person the more understanding prosper from the relationship.

In Germany at approximately twelve years of age students undergo an assessment test that indicates the educational path that a student must go for the next six years and as such which school would be best suited to their intellectual style. This test decides whether the student has the brains for linguists and arts or science, whether or not they should enter into a technical school which would enable them to learn a trade by the time they graduate high school such as carpentry or any other, and then there is the option of an ordinary high school.  

If the current academic regulation is failing our student here then maybe we should adapt something akin to that in Germany. It is understood that children may not know what their career path will be at twelve or even at eighteen however an assessment to indicates which learning style is best suited for the child would be in the overall best interest for everyone. This would not separate children based on gender and what is common for the overall classification but would enable boys and girls with the same educational stimuli to be adequately facilitated, while simultaneously learning how to relate to another gender socially.  

Thin People Have Sex and Fat People Feel Terrible

To the people of Zanthrex 3, what are you really advertising? From the narrative you claim to advertise a weight loss supplement. From your models you stand to support that claim. Or maybe that’s what you should have said during your fifteen second commercial. It might have made you appear more sincere in your plight of selling a weight loss drug. However you job is not to be nice but to sell a product and make money.  So instead of the above statement, you stated, “Rapid weight loss, incredible energy. It’s great to be thin.” What is a better product than sex under the guise of dietary supplements for consumers? However should it come at the cost of insulting consumers while objectifying other persons, the models included?

In fifteen seconds your audience views a series of still shots that illustrates models attempting to eat each other alive in lustful infatuation.  Each is fully clothed in white against a white background. As a marketing strategy the use of white was good in that white is viewed by Western audiences as good and positive on the subconscious making it easier to accept the folly of your advertisement. Although technically fully clothed the woman wears low cut shorts and a top with a neckline plunging near to her navel. By the end of the advertisement the photographed pair is half naked in what is meant to be an intimate embrace.  

The statements that the dietary supplement would result in rapid weight loss, that the consumer would have appealing results, a brand new body or anything of that nature is what one expects from a dietary marketer. Instead you insult your audience.  With your models you tell the nation to look at them, they are so thin that their guaranteed to be able to have sex with anyone, specifically as thin as them. They are guaranteed happiness in that state. With the statement “It’s Great to be thin!”, you suggest to the majority of your audience that their lives are miserable and lonely because they are fat, overweight, obese or not as thin as your models.

Have you forgotten that the majority of this nation averages at an estimated minimum of thirty to forty pounds overweight? As recent studies have shown there is an increase of live births for the past five years which goes on to declare that those that do not look like your models are having sex. If sex makes you happy then there are alot of happy overweight people in the country.  To answer your question of, “This must have been written by a fat chick or dude.”, rest assured that your hopes are wrong because this is written by someone more on the “lower” side of the spectrum, to be more specific on the healthy yet non model waif thin side of the spectrum. What the average weight of a real person is, dissimilar to either of your models and your misrepresentation of feeling great.   

This is not to suggest that being overweight is healthy or everyone should be fat and happy like Santa Claus and the yo-yo dieting Mrs. Claus. It is suggested that your marketing, advertising and promotions department work on alternate commercial content, in other words stop being lazy with the sex sells theory and make a commercial for the people, also known as, your consumers.  That’s kindergarten tactics; the boy insults the girl he likes so she would like him back. Yes, America needs to lose weight when it interferes with their healthy but thin does not equal health if it does not consist of diet and exercise. That is simply making someone addicted to a drug that without, they will return to the sad, sexless life you have suggested in your advertisement. Then we have another epidemic involving anorexia, bulimia, addiction to laxatives, dietary supplements and related disorders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRXHE7t0h08

Stereotypes Plus the Real World

To say that we have changed is not necessarily the accurate term in regards to gender roles and their portrayal in the media. This is due to the fact that many films include the male hero and the one-dimensional female damsel in distress. This is noted prominently in action films such as the Mission Impossible series, and the James Bond series. Yes, in these films female characters have some form of say; they can aide in fighting the bad guys, shoot guns, drive fast cars, etc, but it is never as good as the male protagonist. Throughout the film, even if it is in the last scene before the credits role by there is some moment in which the Hero has sex with his rescued damsel. The damsel is always someone hot, and sexy barely wearing anything.

Likewise this can be given to the recent James Bond stepping out of the lovely blue Bahamian waters in his tight trunks; skin obviously wet and muscles well ripped we could say that he was equally objectified as his Bond Girls. The question I would pose to Mr. Bond is if anyone really remembers that? That was an old Bond movie, and the latest one has already been out for two years and that moment has basically been forgotten.  In 1962 Ursula Andress was the Bond Girl in a Bond movie of whose name many have since forgotten. What the world remembers her for was not for her talented acting, her political activism which resulted in her being expelled from her own native country of Switzerland, or anything really from the last ten years. What we remember is the fact that she stepped out of the Caribbean Sea onto the Jamaican beach in a white bikini. Therefore her name has been carried on through film history for being a sexual object.

But that was almost fifty years ago, do we really expect to see the same thing in cinema. Yes, plus more. We expect women to be hot, and beautiful, sexually objectified and at times dependent upon their male counterparts. However, we also expect women to be all of this and still be able to kick ass in an action film, such Mila Jovovich in the Resident Evil series, and Kate Beckinsale in the Underworld series. Both have proved that they have physical strength equal to and superior to that of their on screen male counter parts, have a sense of certainty and independence, are allowed as much emotional moments as men are allowed to portray as being capable of, in other words completely equally to men on screen. Except, they have to still be a sexually seductive being in some manner or else the film won’t sell and neither will their career.

Men are told to be Top Dog, act macho and show no fear in the face of evil just as James Bond had done throughout the years. Just as the many characters portrayed by Tom Cruise have done throughout his film history, as well as Jason Bourne, willing to run into explosions and jump off skyscrapers, kill anyone that gets in their way without a blink, without becoming emotional and with minimal remorse to simply indicate to the audience that they’re macho men but they’re not evil. What if they cried about who they killed that was just at the wrong place at the wrong time or showed fear in having to jump off a skyscraper and run into a ball of flames. Would they be girly-men or would they be real men? If women were not sexually objectified and men allowed showing emotions would that be the media’s acceptance of real people? Yes, and so the media has already started apologizing in recent cinema by allowing men to be emotional and women to wear more clothes, but it is not enough because when asked for examples of these films the answer is difficult to find.

Lost in Gender Translation

In a world in which Gender is pre-dominantly binary it is difficult for society to accept the possibility of a third gender: the intersexual individual. Gender is used as one of the key features of an individual to assume a definition of the behavior codes, ethics, psychological traits and any other personality attributes that one individual may possess. It is a nature of habit in the most innocent of behaviorisms to attempt to categorize an intersexual individual into male or female. So when presented with the narrator of Written on the Body, the reader automatically searches to identify all associated features of the narrator, therefore gender identification is usually placed near the top of that list. For several reasons, we as readers will, when reading a novel, or as spectators watching a film, attempt to identify with a character, specifically the main character in an effort to obtain a better understanding of the material in front us.

 It is not uncommon for women to identify with other female characters due to the society we live in. Certain prejudices and gender role conformism presented to one woman maybe the experience of another. An example of this is being the less dominant partner in a relationship, or the one that stays home with the kids, or the one that works while solely simultaneously maintaining the home in a wifely manner. Likewise it is not uncommon for men to identify with a male character for several shared seemingly gender oriented behavior.  How well an individual fits to the stereotypical determines societal appreciation levels of a person they don’t even no. A man can either follow the gender code and be a Manly Man or actively disregard it and be called a Girly Man. Women can do either of the same and be labeled Womanly or Tomboyish.

Based on the behaviorism of the text, the Genderless narrator would more likely be male than female based on societal standards for acceptable male behavior against acceptable female behavior.

In his or her relationship with Louise, as many have pointed out, he or she is the dominant partner. Louise is a static character without much say in her own life throughout the novel. She is usually under some form of manipulation by either the Genderless narrator or by Elgin. This is not to say that Louise herself did not have any say when it came to what partner she wanted or how her sex life was to be regard both persons, however everything regarding Louise is placed in the realm of physicality. Historically women were treated as objects, their body not in their possession, although being able to have feelings and infatuations the liberties taken with her body were not usually of her choice but that of some male figure.  Likewise descriptions of Louise usually pertain to her physical form, the red of her hair and the burning scar under lip, the paleness of her skin. Even the issue of her health was an issue trying to be controlled by both Elgin and the Genderless narrator, illustrating dominant roles in a relationship usually that of a man.

Promiscuity and a high sex drive can stereotypically be associated with men. When a man has a high sexual appetite and sleeps with a large amount of girls he is thought of as a ‘Player’ or ‘the Man’ or some positive term. A woman in that role is called a slut or a whore and viewed in negative light. The narrator’s sexuality hasn’t really been marred extensively in the novel by other characters on the grounds of being slutty or whoring.

The fight between Elgin and the Genderless narrator can also be regarded as sexist in the sense of Elgin being so brutal in fighting a man or a woman. Most viewer would find the fight appalling on the grounds of a man beating up a woman as Elgin did to the narrator, however if it were two men fighting the scene is less appalling. In most situations men are less inclined to even enter a fight with women let alone be so brutal unless they are an abuser, something that has not been explored in Elgin’s character. Conclusively if a gender were to be found in the novel based on the previous information the narrator would most like be male, however all of these gender traits maybe applied to either sex hence the ability to write about a Genderless narrator.  

Scar Tissue and Body Images

The imperfections deemed in contrast to societies perception of a perfectly formed human along with the physical scars of the past tells the story of an individual based on outward assumptions and inward reactions. A scar tells of an incident of trauma; this trauma can occur in youth when as children we play indelicately without worry over potential bodily harm and the long term affects of outward appearances. As teenagers these scars can tell the story of young adolescent misbehavior for example, the time when a teen snuck out of the house with the assumed stealth of a ninja jumping out the window and over the fence only to realize they couldn’t climb to save his or her life and were as graceful a bird covered in tar.  Incidents that face persons of every age including an accident such as a car crash, leaves a scar that can tell a story of a drunk driver and an innocent bystander or a family with children driving home after what will become the last time they spend a joyous day at an amusement park or any other event with their family.  A scar on the wrist can tell of the time you tried to end it all at the lowest of your mental state, puncture marks can tell of a previous battle with addiction, as recent as the freshest scar. A scar to the face, or leg, or butt or anywhere else for that matter, can tell of the neighbor’s pitbull that got out and you happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. To the dog you were an intruder or just too juicy to resist a nibble. These scars, if not publicly located, are features that we usually keep to ourselves but what about the so-called physical imperfects that we are born with.

My nose is too big, too small, I wish I had narrow/wider hips, bigger/smaller butt, broader/slimmer chest, bigger/smaller boobs, I wish I were taller/shorter, fairer/darker skinned, straighter/curlier hair, I wish I were skinny/ I wish I could gain even little bit more weight, and we all hear or say the rest. The psychological illustrations of your self perception can vary depending on the comparison of one body to the invisible cardboard cutout of the perfect man or woman.  When someone more closely resembles the cutout are they interpreted to by more confident than others, less often to be single, a good or conceited person?  What if they are against the cutout, even a startling contrast to it, are they not still beautiful? Do they feel beautiful on the inside and radiate with confidence? Or, do they shun themselves from extroverted behavior, assumed to have less dates than the average person or not deserving enough to have a piece of the cardboard cutout? Our body is a never ending feature length film, the never ending story of the biography of our existence, the music of our heart and the painting of our truth.  That is why we are not usually intimate with everyone, in every sense of the word intimate, especially of physical intimacy, we are revealing our true self to someone else by an exploration of our body.