Scoptophilia

“It seems, then, that there are two tendencies which always or often determine the goal of the scoptophilic instinct: (a) the impulse to injure the object seen, and (b), the desire to share by means of empthathy in its experience.” (330)

From the paper “The Scoptophilic Instinct and Identification” by Otto Fenichel in Visual Culture: The Reader

Reading this paper, I immediately thought of the idea of Mean Girls and the importance of “the look.” Able to shoot daggers with one look, our stereotypical mean girl is able to convey any range of emotions with just one look. The look is one of the greatest powers that a mean girl has. She is able to assert her power over other girls through this look and in doing so, “injures the object seen.” This one action simultaneously imparts a sense of strength in the viewer/giver of the look and injures the object/receiver by creating a sense of degradation.

Here ‘ empathy’ is a complicated psychological process which cannot immediately be reduced to a short formula. But at any rate it has something to do with the mechanism of identification.

However, there is another look that is not given by the Queen Bee or Meanest of girls. This look often comes from the girl in the crowd that is on the fringe. Barely holding onto her position in the clique, this girl can view the receiver of the dirty look with empathy because she can identity with that girl and understand how easily she could be in that position. Therefore, with that empathy comes a sense of relief.

Whoredom

“But Whoredom is a massive part of our history and power as women. When fully instructe din the art of sacred sexual power, Whores are the people who can teach us all the stuff we grow up not learning about sexuality, our bodies and our innate sexual power. Our cultural ignorance and intolerance of Whores keeps Whores from realizing the full potential of Whoredom. It likewise robs women and men of Teachers who can help us understand women’s sexual power.”

- Inga Muscio in her book cunt: a declaration of independence

Scandalous

One of my friends from high school was sending me youtube videos of our favorite childhood cartoons and a link that particularly peaked my interested was from the show Recess, partially because it was one of my favorite shows but also because of a portrayal of a particular group of girls.  

Created in 1997, Recess told the comic tales of a group of friends as they navigated elementary school.  There is a main group of characters that the show bases itself on, but also plenty of typical auxiliary characters.  What really caught my attention was the group known as The Ashleys.

They are an exclusive group of girls who are known for their penchant for fashion and boys but also for their popularity.  Attracted and seemingly rich and spoiled, The Ashleys follow the typical mold for the popular girls.  With this popularity comes a sense of superiority that they feel that they must protect.  Even though there is homogeneity in the group from dress to mannerisms, there is a clear leader in Ashley A.

The Ashleys of Recess may be an exaggeration of the clique culture of girls, but there is certainly a real life basis for the depiction of this clique.  Growing up in a culture of Girl Power, I have personally seen and watched in the media this depiction of girl-on-girl bullying through the use of cliques and superiority.  Other examples of this in the media include Mean Girls and Heathers, to name a few.  I think it is definitely worth looking into why girls often turn their power against each other and why the media seems so fascinated with it.  

Follow the jump to watch an episode of Recess featuring The Ashleys!

Sunday Throwback

Here’s a throwback post from April 18, 2007!

It’s a response to the movie Whale Rider, which I HIGHLY recommend, if you haven’t already seen it!

I’m not quite sure if I can express how much I enjoyed Whale Rider.  I think it is a movie that is both heart-wrenching and heart-warming at the same time.  It’s a great insight into the Maori culture and really brings to life the struggles of the people. 

What I really want to start with is the grandfather in the movie.  I think the directors do a great job in making the audience still like him even with everything he does to Paikea.  It is undeniable that he loves his granddaughter but we can also understand the struggle that he must go through to fulfill the needs of his people. These needs being needing a “prophet” to bring the Maori tribe out of their current situation and into a better one.  We find him split between the love he has for his granddaughter and the obligations that he has to his people.  It seems clear that often in the movie he puts his people before his granddaughter.

Dealing with this complex relationship with her grandfather, Paikea becomes an incredibly strong character for such a young girl.  Ever since her birth, she has been faced with a sense of inadequacy.  She knows that he brother was the one who would be the prophet and that she will not be able to replace him.  But nevertheless, she perseveres in the face of every obstacle that her grandfather sets.  Even though she is never applauded for her feats, she continues on to the next one without hesitation.  I think that this is a great representation of female power because she never doubts her ability to do it even though she is constantly told not to and that she can’t.

I think that part of her strength comes from her grandmother.  It seems clear that the grandmother is an incredibly strong woman, even though we do not see very obvious expressions of her power.  It is the grandmother that constantly demands that her husband show their granddaughter affection and it is she that enables Paikea to continue her secret “training” for chief.  I think that the Nanny/Paikea relationship is a great example of how female power is very generational and that a great source of power for women is other women.

As a little side note, I just wanted to note how much I loved the uncle in this movie.  He was one of my favorite characters and he provided such incredible supoort for Paikea.

embracing the F-word

Throwback post! from girlpower1.wordpress.com.

Written on May 8, 2007.

Reading last week’s New York, I stumbled upon an article on Jessica Valenti which was interesting, particularly after our class discussions on feminism. As a freelance writer, author, and blogger, Valenti has been working to make young women embrace feminism. Three years ago Valenti founded her blog Feministing.com where her mission states “Young women are rarely given the opportunity to speak on their own behalf on issues that affect their lives and futures. Feministing provides a platform for us to comment, analyze and influence.” After scrolling through the blog, it’s really interesting to note that a lot of her posts are on the same topics that many of the posts in our girlpower blogs.

I think it’s pretty interesting to look at Feministing.com’s take on modern day feminism. These posts don’t seem to be about radical feminist actions taken by womens, and definitely no bra burnings in sight. So what I’m wondering is, is Valenti feeding today’s young women a watered down, more palatable version of feminism? Because from class discussions, it seems like we’ve come to the consensus that today’s young women would hate to be called feminists, so is the answer just changing our view of feminism?

“What if Prince Charming had never showed up? Would Snow White have slept in that glass coffin forever? Or would she have eventually woken up, spit out the apple, gotten a job, a health-care package, and a baby from her local neighborhood sperm bank?”

-Carrie Bradshaw, Sex and the City

City of Women

I’ve been doing tons of reading so that I can eventually start doing some legit writing, so in the meantime, I thought I’d treat you to some old posts that I wrote for a Girl Power blog.   Be sure to check it out because there are tons of really interesting posts from my classmates too.

Here’s a post from April 26, 2007!

So I was flipping through Bust Magazine and I happened upon this article called the “City of Women” about a small ethnic group called the Mosuo who live in the Himalayas near the Southwestern part of the country bordering Tibet. It’s a matriarchal society where women choose their mates, run the famililes, control the distribution of wealth, and work in the fields. The Mosuo culture doesn’t believe in traditional marriage but instead practice a “walking marriage” where a man walks into a woman’s bedroom at night and she decides whether or not he gets to stay and in the morning he must leave before dawn so that he doesn’t make a nuisance of himself. Women have complete control in these relationships and in other types of courting where the man expresses his interest by singing and the woman can choose to sing back or not.

What is particularly great about this article is a quote from a 16 year old who says “I enjoy being a girl. Girls can do everything. Isn’t that great?” I think it’s just so empowering that a community like this can thrive, however small it is.

Sorry i can’t find a link to it, but if you want to read the whole article, it’s in the April/May issue of Bust.