Social restrictions with a feminist twist

This weeks two PDF readings were entertaining. Looking at them as a feminist critique can easily be done by examining the social situations in each story. Debbieland reminded me more of a grittier more urban version of Mean girls what I found most interesting about the story was the narrators voice. At first the narrator is a group of girls and later on in the story she seemed be a masculine woman, I say this because she describes an affair she has with another girl she keeps her tears in a vial even after they break up. Also the way she speaks about Debbie earlier in the story and the way she speaks about her ex made me think of the cliché "the asshole always gets the girl" this can be said also in the case of Motherf__ker On one hand we have the woman who wants to be socially accepted and wont be because she can never be like the people she attempts to emulate. On the other hand we have women who are deer’s in headlights caught and charmed out of their pants by the Motherf__ker who at the beginning of his story he admits that he does wrong by women but because he’s so charming he gets away with it.

A feminist reviewer would see him as chauvinist and self serving, though he chases The Starlet throughout a greater portion of the story he is doing it solely for his own sport and entertainment. Whereas with Debbieland the narrator in the story considers women indifferent and mistakes a totally different woman for the Debbie she beat up in high school. This left me to wonder based on the two stories can women be broken up into two categories. "Debbies" and "Starlets" This can be seen as categorizing women which separates them as individuals. This is also linked to Helene Cixous outline concerning the balance of feminine/masculine behavior/ and classification. Classifying men and women is as simple as breaking them down into categories according to the information provided.

She cites this as "dual hierarchized oppositions" which mean paired or coupled preconceived notions that later dictate social standing in an environment or society, these notions usually carry over after they have been set into place. I found it interesting that her chart was among the readings because the concept of reading as a feminist tied in with her article The Laugh of Medusa though I did the reading for another class I thought it would help demonstrate the point as well. According to the article only through sexual repression of the female body, can men control them, in the case of literature women must write for other women in order to override this oppression and help dispel the falsified history they have been given by men. She lists the types of oppositions as dual, irreconcilable; or mitigable, dialectical With this in mind instead of doing a chosen piece of literature for this weeks blog I chose to do a film.

Though extremely unconventional I chose to do How High Specifically citing the roles of women in the film. Firstly there is the Patriarchal reading to be considered. Two of the main women in the movie are Jamie (Essence Atkins) and Lauren (Lark Voorhies) both in different social classes but still defined by the men they are linked to or involved with. Looking at the film from a male perspective, Lauren is simply seen as the brainy semi ignored Black girlfriend of Bart Duceter. On the other hand there is Jamie who's the daughter of a Presidential candidate, shes constantly carted around with her own personal security guards. Using a mans point of view we can go back to Cixous' idea women have been categorized and subjected via their bodies in order to keep them oppressed.

Citing the Halloween party going towards the end of the movie Lauren dresses as Marilyn Monroe only to later be told by Bart that she needs to put her coat back on because he can see her butt and its "sticking out" She is being punished because of what physically makes her a person. The Secondary roles of women in the film are either prostitutes, drug addicts or random women who ultimately end up being used as sexualized objects ie: Hella Back and End table Ass who were both hookers and employed by a pimp named Baby Powder.

Though the pimp himself is portrayed in a non serious satirical way he can still be seen as an anti woman force designed to keep women oppressed through selling themselves, also keeping them in a subordinate role. Reading as a man I man see this as the "natural order of things" that women do infact need to be controlled by men. The focus of the film is Jamal and Silas' efforts widen their horizons concerning weed this completely eclipses the issues of women within the film. In connection to Things Fall Apart I connected the lines "The characterization of Ekwefi, Okonkwo's second wife, almost seems insignificant to one reading from a patriarchal standpoint" In the case of the film the mens issues are still at the forefront while from a male view the issues of women have no baring on what is being discussed.

Now from a feminists point of view all the negative aspects of the female characters in this movie can be highlighted. Starting with the idea that Lauren needs Silas to confirm that she has something going for her as far as her research about Ben Franklin and her physical attractiveness goes. Again the dependency of the earlier diagram comes into play because one set of characteristics cannot exist without the other, from a feminist stand point the women here are not only being suppressed but also down played, their sexuality being used against them would only be seen as a tool of male oppression further perpetuating the idea that women are disposable stepping stones that must remain in the dark about themselves in order to function in a male dominated society. The author quotes women as always being "on the side of passivity" Feminists critiques would agree in this case. Women in the movie are referred to as "bitches" only to brush it off later, this would have otherwise been deemed offensive if viewed by a woman. Tying in with the two PDF stories and the reading I can only end on one note. Regardless of gender the clear theme in the movie and they text was the idea that, as long as there are forms of media or literature used to express the conditions of social classes, whether they are being used to convey how people are treated these things will be used as a catalyst to further the behavior.