The Science of Sex Appeal

Last night, I spent a good chunk of my evening sucked into watch the Discovery Channel’s “The Science of Sex Appeal.”  If you haven’t seen it and have two hours to spare, I highly recommend it.  It is a very scientific look into such a common experience.  They go from determining the most appeal body shape in the eyes of the opposite sex, to the effect of a person’s voice, to what makes us fall in love, and eventually what keeps humans in love.  Essentially, it seemed like everything boiled down to finding someone to mate with.  When asking men about their preferred body type, the researchers found that the ratio of 7 (wasit) to 10 (hips) was the most preferred because it was the healthiest for carrying children.  They had women smell men’s sweat at different periods in their cycle to show that women were most attracted to males when they were ovulating.  They also found that dopamine is the drug released when we are in love that keeps us connected to our significant other.  It was certainly interesting enough to keep me glued to the tv during finals week, but it makes me a little nervous that love and attraction can be boiled down to hormones and such a primative drive as the desire to produce offspring.

Feel free to watch clips of it here to see if you are fascinated by the science of sex appeal or if it makes you a little nervous too

profanity in G.I. Jane

In this next film, the use of profane language is not the only barrier the main character faces.  Jordan O’Neil, played by Demi Moore in 1997’s G.I. Jane is in the position of being one of the first females to undergo the rigorous Navy Seals training.  This unique position causes her femininity to be both highlighted because of the stark difference between her and her fellow lieutenants at the same time that  she is attempting to forgo her own femininity to fit in with her peers and succeed in the program.  It only seems natural that this strange dichotomy would serve as the basis for Lt. O’Neil’s use of masculine centered profanity to emphasize the gendered nature of language and show how its usage by a woman can be particularly effective. 

The effect of profanity in the film is particularly poignant because of the homogenously male nature of the Navy Seals training unit that it portrays. The male only environment allows the use of swears to flourish because of the male-centric nature of the language.  The complete male segregation leads to exaggerates the increased profanity in male-to-male discourse that was previously seen in There’s Something About Mary.   However, more convincing is the link between swearing and aggression or catharsis, which fits in the realm of the military.[1]  The abundance of “fuck” and “hell” in the vocabulary of the trainees and generals show that profanity is intrinsic in their communication. 

 

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[1] Stapleton, ##

unfinished business

I found this article from the New York Times about the horrifying delays in testing rape kits.  Nicholas Kristoff writes that although victims must undergo the long and invasive testing process soon after the incident happens, tests can sit around for months to a year without being tested.  How can this can be the case?  Authorities claim that rape cases can be murky, but the fact is that these are crimes that are going uninvestigated.

I found this portion of the op-ed particuarly interesting:

Some Americans used to argue that it was impossible to rape an unwilling woman. Few people say that today, or say publicly that a woman “asked for it” if she wore a short skirt. But the refusal to test rape kits seems a throwback to the same antediluvian skepticism about rape as a traumatic crime.

I suppose that we can only hope that shedding light and attention onto the situation can prompt authorities to ensure that these cases aren’t looked over.

There’s something about Mary…’s swearing

Another example of forgoing femininity and adopting a habit of profanity can be seen in 1998’s There’s Something About Mary.  The film, which focuses on a man’s attempts to woo the girl of his high school dreams, casts Cameron Diaz as Mary the dream girl for nearly all men.  An article published in the Media Report to Women names the R rated film as one of its “Dirty Dozen” films because it averages one scene containing profanity every four minutes.[1]  However, it is worthwhile to note that the vast majority of the profanity comes from the many men populating the film and that the film’s female namesake is relegated to swearing only twice throughout the movie.      

It is necessary to first explore the acceptability of profanity in male-to-male discourse in order to understand the impact and meaning of Mary’s two instances of swearing.  The discourse between men, called “report talk” by Deborah Tannen, can be used as an opportunity to “prove their independence and maintain status.”  With this in mind, it only makes sense that profanity can be used in male-to-male discourse to maintain status as an aggressive and forceful figure.  The other important component of the general acceptance of profanity use by males is that the use of expletives has a relational function that constitutes oneself as a member of a group and reaffirms group culture.  Therefore, for the men of these movies, the abundant use of “fuck,” “shit,” and “hell” within the company of other men serve to create a community feeling with other men.

 

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[1] Anonymous. “Blue language red hot on movies, television shoes, new study finds.” Media Report to Women; Winter 2000, 28,1; Gender Watcch (GW).

an interesting little fact

from  NYTimes.com’s Magazine Preview: an Interview with President Obama by David Leonhardt

Did Michelle ever make more than you did?

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, sure.

Probably only for a brief time, because I was working three jobs most of the time that I was in the State Senate. I was still practicing law and I was still teaching. So when you kind of put everything together, I think I was still making a little bit more. But when I started campaigning for the U.S. Senate and I had to drop some of those jobs, then she carried us for a couple years.

…we’re trapped?!

“The creation of sexism and ‘male as norm and female as deviant’ was constructed because we recognize these as categories and thought patterns. But in doing so, we’ve trapped ourselves into believing that this is the way it is and cannot image a world where things are otherwise.”

-Dale Spender

vagina!

A friend of mine sent me the link to wordle.net, a website that takes texts and turns the words into fun little pictures.  The more frequently a word is used, the larger it will be in the wordle picture.  Because of that, I thought it’d be fun to put in my paper on Teeth. 

the oppression of female language

For many psychoanalysts, this history of the oppression of female language and the aggrandizement of male language begins with the phallus but has crucial development in the puberty stage.  As with most psychoanalysis, the phallus plays a large part in the formation of language for it “embodies patriarchal law of the culture [and] its basic meanings refer to the recurring process by which sexual difference and subjectivity are acquired.”  Among other things, the lack of penis for a little girl creates a negative access to “language as the embodiment of cultural law” and disrupts her development with language whereas a little boy’s penis allows him full access to language.  After accepting her lack of penis, the female enters into the Oedipal stage where the restriction on her speech and the social sex difference is realized. 

 

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Kaplan, 58

Kaplan, 58.

the silence of women

However, this silence that categorizes women in discourse is not the actual absence of language.  Instead, it is the historical relegation of typically female linguistic activities to things such as gossiping, keeping diaries, and informal correspondence. Because these activities are within the private realm and generally amongst women, the discourse of women is not often seen or discussed.  These are not activities that garner much prestige and are often referred to disparagingly.  In addition to the relegation of typical women’s language to these lower forms of discourse, the absence of women in high culture topics such as “politics, poetry, science, and legal discourse” perpetuates the notion of women being unable to grasp and take control of language and express themselves freely.

 

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Cameron, 4

a history of female language

To fully understand the new movements towards female empowerment through profane language, a history of female language must first be discussed.  Language is perhaps the most important form of human communication and through its acquisition, humans are able to integrate into society and become social beings.  But part of this social nature of language is that it also reinforces gender and class stereotypes and situates each person into their respective categories.Silence has long been used to describe feminine discourse and represent the ways in which women have been denied the opportunity to express themselves freely through language. 

 

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Kaplan, Cora. “Language and Gender.” The Feminist Critique of Language. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 1998. 56.

 

Cameron, 3.