virginia woolf's a room of one's own

-in a room of one's own, woolf argues that there cannot be a female equivalent to shakespeare in a patriarchal society.  women were not allowed to be actors during shakespeare's time (until english reformation of 1660).  in fact, even writing was deemed indecent for women (putting themselves out in the public eye).  to combat this, much feminist recovery work of old women writers has been inspired by woolf.

-woolf argued for women to write objectively.  women were not allowed in the cambridge library during woolf's time (her books are there though now).  it is now seen as a very symbolic exclusion; there was no real rationale behind it.  but, consequently, being denied entrance into a man's world & called back into your body doesn't help men out at all either.  men have established self-confidence through building each other up and separating themselves from "others" (women, minorities, the poor, etc.).  this ends up deflecting feelings off yourself and onto others.  some literary theorists argue that being self-conscious about your sex makes you limited as a writer (goal is to write as a soul, not a gender).  those who have brought about sex-consciousness are to blame, however, it is very interesting that shakespeare was an androgynous writer.  that perhaps is one reason why his works remain so popular today.

mary wollstonecraft's a vindication of the rights of woman

-mary wollstonecraft was the daughter of a violent, alcoholic father (worthless in terms of making $ and emotional care).  still she was well-educated for a woman at the time (self-educated); founded a school of her own as a governess.  joseph johnson was a radical gay unitarian publisher who helped launch mary's career.

-"vindication" was a response to burke's essay that was anti-french revolution.  the vindication of the rights of MEN came out 1st (1789); published anonymously (men meant all human beings).  for mary, "manly" meant virtuous and rational (+).  she wasn't valuing men over women.  in it, she defended republicanism (democracy) and criticized monarchy.  three years later in 1792 woman was published (woman meaning a class of persons who have been treated the same.

-one of the cons of referring to the human race as "man" is that is makes woman the "other."  therefore, it unconsciously communicates men as superior, and not representative of humankind.  it is worth noting that in her writing, mary is at least as hard on women as she is on men.  to her, sexism was a systematic, structural, societal problem, which was fostered partly through education.  in her day especially, education trained women NOT to be virtuous, rational or manly (this makes them occasionally turn out immoral).

 

-back then and definitely still today, women end up tyrannizing each other through their cunningness (and caddiness).  mary was a proponent NOT of monarchy, but of MERITocracy (you achieve your goals and ideals through your talents, not through your gender, which you can't help).

-in her rights of women, she writes, "every profession, in which great subordination of rank constitutes its power, is highly injurious to morality" (ch. 1 pg. 33).  a modern day example of this is the fact that we have letter grades.  this diminishes and pollutes the quality of our education (i.e. playing the game, taking classes you have no interest in, etc.) ... this causes people to cheat & plagiarize and often stunts creativity.

-business school professors are credited for being hard graders (in the ENG dept, there is a different view that the success of the student depends at least partly on the professor).  basically, people should be thinking, not following orders all the time.  later in rights of women, ch. 2 says that women are degraded for the sake of making them sexually alluring.  on pg. 41, wollstonecraft writes, "they were taught to please, and they only live to please."  she also compares the military to the plight of women ("both acquire manners before morals").  soldiers are educated in the same way as women, if we can agree that women are nurtured to be inferior and dependent (NOT natural, like soldiers to their general).

-mary's response to jean-jacques rousseau — an 18th century philosopher who advocated women's place in the domestic sphere — was, "what nonsense!  when will a great man arise w/ sufficient strength of mind to puff away the fumes which pride and sensuality have thus spread over the subject!" (pg. 43).

-mary also argues in ch. 3 that women aggravate the present negative situation ("women, deluded by these sentiments, sometimes boast of their weakness, cunningly obtaining power by playing on the weakness of men").  these are the kind of girls that use sexual powers to advance in society (mary's words = failure to be chaste).  wollstonecraft goes further by attacking men for instilling this thought in women and attacking women for buying in to it (gives girls more power, but less somehow).  by truly liberating women, it will give them less tyrannic power and more authentic power (not immediately felt).  this is what wollstonecraft called for.  "it is time to effect a revolution in female manners — time to restore to them their lost dignity — and make them, as a part of the human species, labour by reforming themselves to reform the world" (ch. 3 pg. 65)

-today, most people are unaware that mary really called out to women to step their game up.  mary was a feminist AND a supporter of virtue (she wanted nothing to do w/ the corrupt marriage a la mode system at the time) —> she had a child out of wedlock b/c she didn't believe in the marriage system —> and she was betrayed by cheating "husband."  to mary, absolute chastity meant absolute transparency (no wedding required).  william godwin (her widower) published her memoirs after she died in her memory, which unfortunately temporarily discredited her for 30-odd years due to her radical lifestyle.

instances of the "cinderella fairytale" in popular culture

just last week, on jan 18., abc family premiered a relatively new movie titled another cinderella story.  it was originally released directly to dvd in september 2008.  it basically retells the disney version of the cinderella story (nice and fluffy), w/o adding any new or original elements to the tale — unless you count their replacement of the "slipper" w/ the more modern ZUNE mp3 player.

on britney spears' 2001 self-titled album, she sings a song called "cinderella."  it's actually about her LEAVING her man, not running into his arms to save her.  interestingly enough, she also sings her more popular track "i'm a slave for you" on the same CD.  hmm...  lyrics for "cinderella" are below:

I used to be your girlfriend and I know I did it well

Oh yes, you know it's true

You'd call me Cinderella, all you had to do was yell

And I'd be there for you

Here I am, so try to forgive me

I don't believe in fairytales

Here we are with nothing but honesty

I've had enough, I'm not gonna stay

CHORUS

I'm sorry, running away like this

And I'm sorry I've already made my wish

Aah, but Cinderella's got to go

From time to time I tried to tell just what was on my mind

You'd tell me not today

"Come back, do that. Where's Cinderella at?"

Was all you had to say

Here I am, so try to forgive me

I don't believe in fairytales

Here we are with nothing but honesty

I've had enough, I'm not gonna stay

CHORUS

I'm sorry, running away like this

And I'm sorry I've already made my wish

Aah, but Cinderella's got to go

I'm sorry, just trying to live my life

Don't worry, you're gonna be alright

But Cinderella's got to go

I used to say I want you

You cast me in your spell

I did everything you wanted me to

But now I shall break free from all your lies

I won't be blind you see

My love, it can't be sacrificed

I won't return to thee

I'm so sorry

I've already made up my mind

I won't return to thee

I'm sorry to say, I'm running away now

Don't worry, you will be all right

I'm running away, I've made up my mind now

You're gonna have to let me go

She's gotta go...

CHORUS

I'm sorry, running away like this

And I'm sorry I've already made my wish

Aah, but Cinderella's got to go

I'm sorry, just trying to live my life

Don't worry, you're gonna be alright

But Cinderella's got to go

angela carter's the bloody chamber

*the bloody chamber is a collection of short stories (rewritten fairy tales) published in 1979 by angela carter —fascinated by the matriarchal, oral, storytelling tradition

"the courtship of mr. lyon" is loosely based on beauty and the beast.  readers never learn why mr. lyon is so leonine (unlike disney version), but some critics think it can serve as a parable for what it means to be human.

-for example, for each fantastical element in the story, there are real elements (mr. lyon is facing what it means to be a man).  the beauty is fascinated by the beast, but horrified and disgusted by him at the same time 

-(laura) "i'm horrified by masculinity [as a woman]" ... traumatized @ age 11 by male aggression ...  "it's a typical reaction to otherness" (to be grossed out).  "destruction is much easier than creation" (learned from her son).  boys and girls are both gendered, and then tamed.  this is a problem.  as laura puts it, "i find the male potential for violence horrifying" (and men do too) ... the male psyche has to come to terms w/ that potential (what mr. lyon struggles to do).

"the snow child"

-the count created girl out of physical desire (she appears at first naked).  the thorn scene towards the end (where she bleeds and dies) can represent the snow child's 1st menstruation (i.e. she is ready for sex w/ the perverted count)

-the countess's hateful attitude towards the abused snow child represents relationships b/t women solely as rivals (didn't try to help out the snow child).  its significant that the snow child never speaks (only screams, once, when she dies).  thus, she along w/ the countess are both powerless (count vetoes all her wishes, clothes and de-clothes her at will) —> all her possessions are really his.  patriarchy wins again.

1/16 class notes & quiz (the cinderella complex)

"hopefully this sense of passivity that develops in girls from reading fairy tales no longer exists" — laura.

the cinderella complex by colleen dowling

"the collapse of ambition" explains the problematic tradition of women who are trained to need the guidance and companionship of a man — they need to be "saved."  men are trained to be just the opposite, taught to be independent and self-sufficient

-the author dowling for years had carried on a facade of sophisticated independence before realizing she was the same way @ age 35.  after doing the single mom life for a while, she thought she found the "perfect companion."  she had moved out of NYC to upstate NY, got a big house and started doing household duties, gained weight, slept in, lost the drive to write and be "productive."

-this is partly b/c relationships bring "stability" to people's lives.  still, *i'm so much more attracted to a girl that doesn't need a guy, like she's totally fine on her own; most guys who disagree are just intimidated by that type of girl*

-in the 1970's tv shows put on the "dikey-est" woman on to talk about "feminism;" not a wholly accurate portrayal ... anytime you say "oh my god," whether you're an atheist or not, you're subscribing to monotheism ... people unconsciously subscribe to similar notions of male/female relationships ... when laura got her ph d from cornell, she assumed all professors were male (these are learned gender stereotypes) ... vs. secretary, stenographer, etc. these are all passive (i.e. "feminine") professions.  in general, some theorists argue that our culture is always some form of personal amputation (even some men buy in to their traditional roles and become workaholics b/c they are taught too...)

QUIZ

jeannette winterson's weight : the effects of artistic retelling of stories; does art counteract ideology (wounded by wishes)?

yes.

it's kind of like the game telephone.  each time a story is retold, it inevitably changes a little.  "i like to take stories we think we know and record them differently," says winterson.  "in the re-telling comes a new emphasis or bias, and the new arrangement of the key elements demands that fresh material be injected into existing text."

by that, winterson asserts that her newer versions of classical tales throw readers for a loop.  by adding to, and changing pre-existing material, the author is able to change current notions of myths and ideologies from the past.

one of the things i liked best about winterson's essay was something quite simple.  in explaining the process of rewriting an existing story, she writes, "the writer must fire HERself through the text..."  for 21 years i've read him, he, himself, his — so much so, that anytime i come across a her, i do a double take.  it goes even further than saying him/herself.  i like it.  it's progressive.

in a small way, it changes my inherent bias that i fight against on a daily basis.  it's like in some ways, i'm trying to unlearn certain, seemingly harmless, sexist notions that went on for years w/o me noticing.

modern media ("the noisy echoing nightmare of endlessly breaking news and celebrity gossip...") floods our consciousness.  it is our job as consumers (of everything) to sort through the patriarchal piles of b/s and hear the "other voices."

Retelling Cinderella

Before blogging I made sure to read both versions of Cinderella first.  I began with the Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella’s tale, which turned out to be a departure from the Disney animated film. 

 Slightly darker, and slightly less entertaining, it employed repetition (i.e. redundancy to hammer its main points home).  For example, I circled “pious and good” b/c they repeatedly described Cinderella as such.  I was surprised by the mom’s sudden, unemotional death at the story’s beginning.  This made me even more surprised when Cinderella continually “wept,” another word they used more than once.

 Also on the first page, I circled “How decked out she is!”  I was unaware that phrase existed way back when, I thought it was relatively new.  I also circled “worked herself weary” and “dusty and dirty,” noticing the “w” and “d” sounds repeated.

 What I didn’t understand from the Grimm brothers’ version, I easily obtained from Anne Sexton’s poem, “Cinderella.”  For example, I actually underlined the whole sentence from the Grimm’s story: “And because she always looked dusty and dirty, they called her Cinderella.”  That made no sense to me at first, but after reading Sexton’s post-modern (and pessimistic) retelling of the story, it made more sense when Sexton writes “Her stepmother and sisters didn’t recognize her without her cinder face.”  From working in the ashes (i.e. cinder), she would have been dirty and had it all over her, including her face.

 I also discovered just what the Grimm brothers meant when they wrote, “The prince, however, had set a trap.  He had had the entire stairway smeared with pitch.”  At first I was like, “What’s pitch?”  Then, Sexton came through again with an explanation: “However on the third day the prince covered the palace steps with cobbler’s wax.”  So that’s what pitch means.

 Other terms from the Grimm brothers’ story that I circled due to their archaic-ness included “hazel twig,” as well as the birds who “lit around the ashes.”  That just meant they were sitting, or resting.

Where the Grimms departed from Disney’s version were the inclusion of the magic tree, Cinderella’s status as “Birdwoman” (like Aquaman), the pigeon coop (vs. the pumpkin carriage), the non-existence of a fairy godmother, the gore factor surrounding the stepsisters cutting off toes and heels to fit into Cinderella’s shoe, and finally, the creepy “Rook di goo, rook di goo!” song the pigeons and turtle dove sing.  Weird.  I was also shocked to see Cinderella’s dad refer to his daughter as “deformed” when in reality she was now the only daughter that wasn’t (following the do-it-yourself amputations).  The final difference from the Disney version was the pigeons who pecked both of the stepsisters eyes out at Cinderella’s and the Prince’s wedding.  Ouch.

 In Sexton’s poem, she referenced several people / things I was unfamiliar with.  For example, I didn’t know Bonwit Teller was a department store.  I also didn’t know Al Jolson was a famous American singer in the first half of the 20^th century.  I had to look up what to “curry favor” meant: to seek to advance oneself through flattery or fawning.  The final pop culture reference from Sexton I looked up to double check was the Bobbsey twins, two characters from a long running children’s book series like I thought.