"For all the dinners are cooked; the plates and cups washed; the children set to school and gone out into the world. Nothing remains of it all. All has vanished. No biography or history has a word to say about it. And the novels, without meaning to, inevitably lie." -Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" (p. 89)
"Men are afraid. "They ostracized women, so they couldn't unleash their power," Prakriti says." - From Greenhalgh and Doucleff's "A Girl Gets Her Period And Is Banished To The Shed" http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/10/17/449176709/horrible-things-happen-to-nepali-girls-when-they-menstruate-15girls
For all the things men make women do, many of them have negative consequences; how does keeping women out of history encourage sexist practices, such as menstrual taboos? Can certain boundaries remain even following the acquisition of wealth and a private room? How can cultural and religious beliefs be adjusted to promote equality?
“Also, I continued, looking down at the page again, it is becoming evident that women, like men, have other interests besides the perennial interests of domesticity… Suppose, for instance, that men were only represented in literature as the lovers of women, and were never the friends of men, soldiers, thinkers, dreamers; how few parts in the plays of Shakespeare could be allotted to them; how literature would suffer!” (47)
Buzzfeed Video “If Women’s Roles in Movies Were Played By Men” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6UUAE2CXXM
Whether it be in literature or film, it’s surprising to see the results of a role reversal when it comes to gender. Why do you think women are written as side or stereotypical characters? Can you give any examples of literature where the women are the main characters and men play less important characters? Is there any way we can prevent female characters being put on the back burner, or do you think literature and cinema have already made progress on this issue?
“A Room of One’s Own” -Virginia Woolf Chapters 5-6 “And again I am reminded by dipping into newspapers and novels and biographies that when a woman speaks to women she should have something very unpleasant up her sleeve. Women are hard on women. Women dislike women. Women--but are you not sick to death of the word? I can assure you that I am. Let us agree, then, that a paper read by a woman to women should end with something particularly disagreeable.”
“5 ways women can stop tearing each other down at work” -Kelly Wallace “I certainly don't expect all my female colleagues to go out of their way for me and sing "Kumbaya" together in the office, but I'm always stunned when a woman who could have been helpful to me wasn't, when a woman who could have been a mentor chose not to be, when a woman tried to hurt me because of her own fear, anxiety or what have you. I'd love to say more about each of the women I've met along the way who fit those descriptions, but my point is not to single anyone out. My goal is to ask the question, "Why?" Obviously, not all women are like this and there are plenty of men guilty of the same behavior, but why do so many women try to tear each other down instead of lift each other up?” http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/25/living/feat-women-helping-women-sophia-nelson/
Discussion Questions: Why do you think women feel the need to pick one another apart and treat each other as competition? Is this something that is instilled in the minds of women from a young age? How do you think that women can allow themselves to get past the need to compete with one another and instead support each other?
Woolf- "A Room of One's Own" "Intellectual freedom depends upon material things. Poetry depends upon intellectual freedom. And women have always been poor, not for two hundred years merely, but from the beginning of time. Women have had less intellectual freedom than the sons of Athenian slaves. Women, then, have not had a dog's chance of writing poetry. That is why I have laid so much stress on money and a room of one's own." -Woolf, Chapter 6, pages 60-61
Bauer- "Sponsored By My Husband" "He also happens to be heir to a mammoth fortune . . . Yet, when an audience member — young, wide-eyed, clearly not clued in — rose to ask him how he’d managed to spend 10 years writing his current masterpiece — What had he done to sustain himself and his family during that time? — he told her in a serious tone that it had been tough but he’d written a number of magazine articles to get by. I heard a titter pass through the half of the audience that knew the truth." Bauer, page 3
Guiding Questions: Is Woolf's issue of "intellectual freedom in material things" only a women's problem? Does the lack of money in the field of money effect every writer? More so women than men? Why?
“Men were no longer to her 'the opposing faction'; she need not waste her time railing against them; she need not climb on to the roof and ruin her peace of mind longing for travel, experience and a knowledge of the world and character that were denied her. Fear and hatred were almost gone, or traces of them showed only in a slight exaggeration of the joy of freedom, a tendency to the caustic and satirical, rather than to the romantic, in her treatment of the other sex.” (pg 52)
“And I think the truth is–and this is something I’ve thought about recently, and this’ll get me into trouble I’m sure, but I think women write men better than men write women. Cause men tend to write women as their fantasy, and women tend to write men as what they really are. And I also think women tend to understand men better than we understand women. It just means that the character Tess wrote for me in this movie is far more rounded.
… Whereas guys will tend to write the girl they want to date rather than the girl who’s really out there, who is flawed, who is a bit unpredictable. Why not celebrate that part of being a person?” Simon Pegg [http://www.themarysue.com/simon-pegg-women-writers/]
Guiding Questions: In section two (on page 17), Woolf quotes Le Bruyère, who says, “ Les femmes sont extrêmes, elles sont meilleures ou pires que les hommes--- -“ (Women are extreme, they are better or worse than men). What is it that leads men to write women in a way that is either idealistic or critical in the extreme? How is that, considering the brevity of our presence in the literary sphere, women seem to have this freedom to take people for who they are, and to write them as such?
“I find myself saying briefly and prosaically that it is much more important to be oneself than anything else.”
“’Sponsored’ by my husband” – Ann Bauer
“I completed my third novel in eight months flat. I started the book while on a lovely vacation. Then I wrote happily and relatively quickly because I had the time and the funding, as well as help from my husband, my agent and a very talented editor friend. Without all those advantages, I might be on page 52. OK, there’s mine. Now show me yours.”
“Behold, A Tinder-Like App for Female Friendships” – Jenavieve Hatch
“’We hope women everywhere will use the app to find the freedom and confidence that comes from having a strong community of friends supporting you.’”
Guiding Question:
Woolf talks about the importance of writing for oneself, rather than writing to cater to a specific audience. She also says that people who are more privileged will have an easier time doing this, which is the idea that Bauer builds on. Bauer says that writers do not admit their fortunate circumstances often enough, and that it is important to do so in order to maintain an environment of openness and honesty in the literary industry. In an article by Jenavieve Hatch about a new Tinder-esque application for women, the co-creators of the app talk about how important it is for women to foster healthy female friendships.
Accessing such an application requires a certain amount of privilege. Why is it so difficult for people to admit that they are more privileged than others, and why is this unhealthy in the grand scheme of things? When it comes to writing for oneself, how much privilege is required for this to be possible? Is it especially important for women specifically to keep this idea in mind? Also, for women writers who are striving to honestly write for themselves, can significant female friendships enhance or assist with this process?
"Men were no longer to her 'the opposing faction'; she need not waste her time railing against them; she need not climb on to the roof and ruin her peace of mind longing for travel, experience and a knowledge of the world and character that were denied her" (page 52).
Not only would women face adversity against men in situations but they would also face it against one of their own. A perfect example in the latest news is with Kim and Khloe Kardashian and Amber Rose going back and forth degrading each other but both women takes up the helm of being a feminist. http://www.psmag.com/nature-and-technology/why-women-troll-other-women-online
Guiding Question: What do women get out of trolling/ degrading another women? How can the female sex better themselves by banning together in order to fight off the real threat which are males?
“Intellectual freedom depends upon material things. Poetry depends upon intellectual freedom. And women have always been poor, not for two hundred years merely, but from the beginning of time. Women have had less intellectual freedom than the sons of Athenian slaves” From Virginia Woolf
“Women are caught like this, too, by networks of forces and barriers that expose one to penalty, loss or contempt whether one works outside the home or not, is on welfare or not, bears children or not, raises children or not, marries or not, stays married or not, is heterosexual, lesbian, both or neither. Economic necessity; confinement to racial and/or sexual job ghettos; sexual harassment; sex discrimination; pressures of competing expectations and judgements about women, wives and mothers (in the society at large, in racial and ethnic subcultures and in one’s own mind); dependence (full or partial) on husbands, parents or the state; commitment to political ideas; loyalties to racial or ethnic or other "minority" groups; the demands of the self-respect and responsibilities to others. Each of these factors exists in complex tension with every other, penalizing or prohibiting all of the apparently available options” From Marilyn Frye: http://people.terry.uga.edu/dawndba/4500Oppression.html
Is the oppression of women as intersectional as Frye suggest it is? How do we make sure that every woman, regardless of race, color, sexual orientation, etc, is heard? Is feminism always inclusive?
Ann Bauer: ""Sponsored" by my husband" "All that disclosure is crass, I know. I’m sorry. Because in this world where women will sit around discussing the various topiary shapes of their bikini waxes, the conversation about money (or privilege) is the one we never have. Why? I think it’s the Marie Antoinette syndrome: Those with privilege and luck don’t want the riffraff knowing the details. After all, if “those people” understood the differences in our lives, they might revolt. Or, God forbid, not see us as somehow more special, talented and/or deserving than them."
Virginia Woolf: "A Room of One's Own" One has only to think of the Elizabethan tombstones with all those children kneeling with clasped hands; and their early deaths; and to see their houses with their dark, cramped rooms, to realize that no woman could have written poetry then. What one would expect to find would be that rather later perhaps some great lady would take advantage of her comparative freedom and comfort to publish something with her name to it and risk being thought a monster." (32)
"MJ: You've described Hollywood's sexism as a "state of emergency." What advice could you give to female filmmakers and actresses to help fix this?
JS: Along the way, female filmmakers will have the feeling that they're not good enough. And that's really just a result of being "otherized" from the moment they're born. Keep an eye out for all those insecurities, and even expect them. Borrow white male privilege and just move through the world as if it was created for you. You have to kind of talk yourself into an imaginary space where the world is on your side and expects you to speak and wants you to speak. You have to create that space for yourself over and over again. Every hour sometimes." from "The Woman Who Created "Transparent" Wants You to "Borrow White Male Privilege""
Guiding Questions: There is a lot of issues with privilege in society today. There are obvious privileges that, most specifically is the one that we encounter or hear about on a daily basis: white male privilege. But there is a lot more going on in regards to privilege than the obvious. Both authors detail how the privilege that either they had themselves or observed in the world put female writers at an obvious advantage. Besides for the obvious, what are the advantages of these privileges? In this day and time, is it possible for a female author (or any author for that matter) to devote their time solely to writing without having to work another job to support themselves?
"And again I am reminded by dipping into newspapers and novels and biographies that when a woman speaks to women she should have something very unpleasant up her sleeve. Women are hard on women. Women dislike women. Women--but are you not sick to death of the word? I can assure you that I am not. Let us agree, that a paper read by a woman to women should end with something particularly disagreeable" (62).
While in conversation with Gloria Steinem at the MAKERS conference on Monday night, America Ferrera expressed her love and gratitude for other women. "This is something that I had to unlearn in culture," Ferrera said. "When I stopped thinking of other women as competition to me and started thinking about them as my partners in life, when that happened for me as a young woman, my whole experience of life changed." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/america-ferrera-gloria-steinem-makers-2016_us_56af8972e4b0010e80ead794?ir=Women§ion=us_women&utm_hp_ref=women
The woman-to-woman hate that is so relevant in our society divides women instead of joining them together to conquer greater things. Because we are so engrained to judge other each other, it's easy to forget there is an option to work as a team to accomplish more. We take a lot of what we know about the world from pop culture. What strides have you seen in portrayals of women (if any) in television or movies? How do support systems of women make life easier for other women? If we stop tearing each other down we could obtain so much more power to make a difference in the world.
I can testify to that especially with what has been taking shape in the media recently. Two well known females; Kim K and Amber Rose have gone back and forth with verbal jabs and humiliating claims against each other when both could of come together to tackle other issues such as the feminine movement that Amber Rose has been working on. There's a saying that behind a successful man is a strong women but imagine having two strong women coming together instead of coming after each other, a lot of issues could be solved if women put their small issues aside to work on solving major issues.
"Awkward though she was and without the unconscious bearing of long descent which makes the least turn of the pen of a Thackeray or a Lamb delightful to the ear, she had -- I began to think -- mastered the first great lesson; she wrote as a woman, but as a woman who has forgotten that she is a woman, so that her pages were full of that curious sexual quality which comes only when sex is unconscious of itself." (52). -Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own"
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/275001120970512188/ "I brake for birds. I rock a lot of polka dots. I have touched glitter in the last 24 hours! And that doesn't mean I'm not smart and tough and strong!" (New Girl).
Something I've noticed is that women who have "traditionally feminine" qualities are more often thought of as "anti-feminist," or women with these qualities are degraded more than women who exhibit qualities that are "traditionally masculine." Another way of phrasing this would be that women who act more "like men" are respected more than women who exhibit more feminine behaviors, and I think this is a very toxic way of thinking. In order to move towards gender equality, it is crucial to stop evaluating women on their likeness to men, and realize that people with "traditionally feminine" characteristics are just as strong/smart/capable as those with "traditionally masculine" characteristics. Have you ever experienced this in your own life, and if so, how did you respond to it? What examples of this have you seen in the media? How was it portrayed and what responses did it generate?
“Even so, the very first sentence that I would write here, I said, crossing over to the writing-table and taking up the page headed Women and Fiction, is that it is fatal for anyone who writes to think of their sex. It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple; one must be woman-manly or man-womanly. It is fatal for a woman to lay the least stress on any grievance; to plead even with justice any cause; in any way to speak consciously as a woman” Virginia Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own” pg. 58
“I don’t want to write like a man anymore. I don’t want to be praised for being “unflinching.” I want to flinch. I want to be wide open. I am trying to write something urgent, trying to be vulnerable and honest, trying to listen, trying to identify and articulate my innermost feelings, trying to make you feel them too, trying a kind of telepathy, all of which is really fucking hard in the first place and, in a culture wherein women are subject to infantilization and gaslighting, in a culture that says your “telepathic heart” (that’s Moore on July) is dumb and delicate and boring and frippery and for girls, I sometimes wonder if it’s even possible.” Claire Vaye Watkins “On Pandering”
In “Pandering, Watkins advises to abandon writing like a man and write like a women, to stop “pandering” to the patriarchy's prefered writing style. However, in “A Room of One’s Own”, Woolf states that to be a truly great author, one must tap into the “androgynous” self, creating a work that incorporates both sides of the spectrum. Which is the case, especially in our society? Is it better to write as a woman or as a person? Which do contemporary authors seem to side with (either male or female)? Is it even possible to write without gender, since you are supposed to “write what you know”?
"A Room of One's Own" pt. 2 - Woolf "Also, I continued, looking down at the page again, it is becoming evident that women, like men, have other interests besides the perennial interests of domesticity... Now all that, of course, has to be left out, and thus the splendid portrait of the fictitious woman is much too simple and much too monotonous."
"Masochist or Machiavel? Reading Harley Quinn in Canon and Fanon" - Kate Roddy "Leaving aside knowing parody, these fics are both concerned with the pressures that women's advances in the workplace and society (as a result of second-wave feminist activism) generated, and how the drive to be autonomous and career focused can in itself become imprisoning, even alienating. Apheliongirl's Harley recognizes the impossibility of the fabled work/life balance, as her feverish struggle to maintain and advance her professional status means she has no social life. Although Harley's mother is vaguely pleased by her daughter's academic success, she tactlessly pressures Harley to find a man, leaving her with visions of herself as an isolated cat lady and "FREAK." As a safety valve to relieve these maddening pressures, she becomes the shadow self, embracing the feared alternative to normalcy. In this reading, Harley therefore represents rebellion, not submission."
BDSM as a culture is highly misunderstood, and this article highlights the social implications of S/M in a way that is reflective of how we view women characters and also how those views can be misunderstood. So, ultimately, the question is: can we fully reject the idea that submission is, in its own way, a form of power? Masochism is commonly depicted as desire to be hurt, but its roots are deeper than that, even when portrayal of the masochist is as a victim. The reality is that more often than not the masochist is the one to initiate and acts as the "playful" counterpart in the actions to come. Harley Quinn defines that, though her motives do, of course, breach into the insane. Is Harley Quinn a figure to pity? Or, alternatively, should we pity the Joker? In the world of S/M, do gender roles even matter?
"However, the blame for all this, if one is anxious to lay blame, rests no more upon one sex than upon the other. All seducers and reformers are responsible" - Virginia Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own” page 58
"Women have been changing the world for quite some time, whether or not they have been charging into battle with swords raised. They change the world by marriage, by being great mothers, by being poets and scientists and by being the founders of communities. If by your focus on certain characters, you give the impression that there is only one kind of power in the world, you will make your world feel skewed and unbalanced in terms of gender without even realizing it." - Mette Ivie Harrison, "Writing Characters of the Opposite Gender" http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=columns&vol=mette_ivie_harrison&article=044
Guiding Question: When you write characters of the opposite gender do you feel like you have problems with it seeming too stereotypical/one-dimensional, or because we do live in a society where most literature and novels have males as main characters, do you think it's not /too/ difficult to write them since we've read and analysed so many of those novels?
Sometimes I personally do have a hard time trying to not make it one dimensional but than again it's always a good thing to take a step back and see if you have made your point in a way that the other sex can understand without being both stereotypical or one dimensional. The fact that our minds have been 'programmed' to read or write things in a male tone it does make it a little challenge to read or write something in the sense of a female especially for me as a male, but than again despite it being a challenge it is something that is worth the challenge, to be able to know how to speak and write to reach out and connect with more people.
"All these relationships between women, I thought, rapidly recalling the splendid gallery of fictitious women, are too simple. So much has been left out, unattempted. And I tried to remember any case in the course of my reading where two women are represented as friends. . . .They are now and then mothers and daughters. But almost without exception they are shown in their relation to men. It was strange to think that all the great women of fiction were, until Jane Austen's day, not only seen by the other sex, but seen only in relation to the other sex. And how small a part of a woman's life is that; and how little can a man know even of that when he observes it through the black or rosy spectacles which sex puts upon his nose. Hence, perhaps, the peculiar nature of woman in fiction; the astonishing extremes of her beauty and horror; her alternations between heavenly goodness and hellish depravity--for so a lover would see her as his love rose or sank, was prosperous or unhappy." 46
"Suppose, for instance, that men were only represented in literature as the lovers of women, and were never the friends of men, soldiers, thinkers, dreamers; how few parts in the plays of Shakespeare could be allotted to them; how literature would suffer! We might perhaps have most of Othello; and a good deal of Antony; but no Caesar, no Brutus, no Hamlet, no Lear, no Jaques--literature would be incredibly impoverished, as indeed literature is impoverished beyond our counting by the doors that have been shut upon women. Married against their will, kept in one room, and to one occupation, how could a dramatist give a full or interesting or truthful account of them? Love was the only possible interpreter. The poet was forced to be passionate or bitter, unless indeed he chose to 'hate women', which meant more often than not that he was unattractive to them." 47 Virginia Woolf - "A Room of One's Own"
"The Bechdel Test, Bechdel-Wallace Test, or the Mo Movie Measurenote , is a litmus test for female presence in fictional media. . . . In order to pass, the film or show must meet the following criteria: 1. It includes at least two women,note 2. who have at least one conversation,note 3. about something other than a man or men.
If that sounds to you like a pretty easy standard to meet, it is. That's the point! Yet, try applying the test to the media you consume for a while. There's a good chance you'll be surprised; mainstream media that passes is far less common than you might think." http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/TheBechdelTest
Guiding Questions: Isn’t it ridiculous that aspects of women’s lives continue to be misrepresented in the media? How do you thing this affects young people growing up with a presence of social media in their lives? Do you think the presence of women that pass the bechdel test will be increased in the future? How do we get the news about this out?
4. “A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf (Part 5 – End) - Quote from the text: “All these relationships between women, I thought, rapidly recalling the splendid gallery of fictitious women, are too simple. So much has been left out, unattempted. And I tried to remember any case in the course of my reading where two women are represented as friends. . . . They are confidantes . . . now and then mothers and daughters. But almost without exception they are shown in their relation to men. . . . And how small a part of a woman’s life is that.” (46) - Contemporary Text(s): “So fathers, be good to your daughters Daughters will love like you do Girls become lovers who turn into mothers So mothers, be good to your daughters too.” –John Mayer, “Daughters”
- Exs. of Theater Where Women Have Deep / Complicated Relationships with Each Other: o Love of the Nightingale o Bernarda Alba o 4 Down, 1 Across o Next to Normal o The Glass Managerie o A Doll’s House o Noises Off o ALCHEMY OF DESIRE by Caridad Svich Opening Monologue by Simone: “Chicken. Buckets and buckets of fried chicken all over. 12, 16, 24-piece. . . Everybody brought one. One kind or another. Caroline, Selah, Mrs. Hawkins. . . . They all came in with their chicken. They all came in. . . . Came in and flapped their arms. Calling out to God and Jerimiah and all the powers of the universe. They all came in with their chicken . . . came in to push [it] in my face . . . and make me feel better.”
- Exs. of Theater Where They Are Shown in Relation to Men: (“astonishing extremes of beauty and horror”) o Godspell o Chicago o Sweeney Todd o Jekyll and Hyde o Anything Goes (1926)
- Guiding Question: What makes a relationship “complicated”? What is the difference (other than the criteria for the Beckdel test) between an uncomplicated and complicated relation between women? Between men? Is there a difference? (In performance, such as onstage or in movies, or in general)
The online text if anyone wants to read the play "Alchemy..." It's amazing and very powerful! https://books.google.com/books?id=6kPTAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA75&lpg=PA75&dq=alchemy+of+desire+dead+man%27s+blues+opening+monologue&source=bl&ots=9x5mTo8kmq&sig=vvbf0EKcRzOWxcRDAUO19bhW7Tg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjog8H9mtzKAhVDuYMKHcmeAoQQ6AEIKDAD#v=onepage&q=chicken&f=false
Quote: Therefore I would ask you to write all kinds of books, hesitating at no subject however trivial or however vast. By hook or by crook, I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle, to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream. Connection: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/04/we-out-here-inside-the-new-black-travel-movement.html Guiding Question: In a day and age where we are more able than ever to expand our horizons, (and money is still very much an issue for women given that pay is not equal), does the patriarchy inhibit women from travelling? (Stigma about travelling alone, fear of rape, misogyny in different cultures, etc.)
"For all the dinners are cooked; the plates and cups washed; the children set to school and gone out into the world. Nothing remains of it all. All has vanished. No biography or history has a word to say about it. And the novels, without meaning to, inevitably lie." -Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" (p. 89)
ReplyDelete"Men are afraid. "They ostracized women, so they couldn't unleash their power," Prakriti says." - From Greenhalgh and Doucleff's "A Girl Gets Her Period And Is Banished To The Shed"
http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/10/17/449176709/horrible-things-happen-to-nepali-girls-when-they-menstruate-15girls
For all the things men make women do, many of them have negative consequences; how does keeping women out of history encourage sexist practices, such as menstrual taboos? Can certain boundaries remain even following the acquisition of wealth and a private room? How can cultural and religious beliefs be adjusted to promote equality?
Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own”
ReplyDelete“Also, I continued, looking down at the page again, it is becoming evident that women, like men, have other interests besides the perennial interests of domesticity… Suppose, for instance, that men were only represented in literature as the lovers of women, and were never the friends of men, soldiers, thinkers, dreamers; how few parts in the plays of Shakespeare could be allotted to them; how literature would suffer!” (47)
Buzzfeed Video “If Women’s Roles in Movies Were Played By Men”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6UUAE2CXXM
Whether it be in literature or film, it’s surprising to see the results of a role reversal when it comes to gender. Why do you think women are written as side or stereotypical characters? Can you give any examples of literature where the women are the main characters and men play less important characters? Is there any way we can prevent female characters being put on the back burner, or do you think literature and cinema have already made progress on this issue?
“A Room of One’s Own” -Virginia Woolf Chapters 5-6
ReplyDelete“And again I am reminded by dipping into newspapers and novels and
biographies that when a woman speaks to women she should have
something very unpleasant up her sleeve. Women are hard on women.
Women dislike women. Women--but are you not sick to death of the word?
I can assure you that I am. Let us agree, then, that a paper read by a woman
to women should end with something particularly disagreeable.”
“5 ways women can stop tearing each other down at work” -Kelly Wallace
“I certainly don't expect all my female colleagues to go out of their way for me and sing "Kumbaya" together in the office, but I'm always stunned when a woman who could have been helpful to me wasn't, when a woman who could have been a mentor chose not to be, when a woman tried to hurt me because of her own fear, anxiety or what have you.
I'd love to say more about each of the women I've met along the way who fit those descriptions, but my point is not to single anyone out. My goal is to ask the question, "Why?"
Obviously, not all women are like this and there are plenty of men guilty of the same behavior, but why do so many women try to tear each other down instead of lift each other up?”
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/25/living/feat-women-helping-women-sophia-nelson/
Discussion Questions: Why do you think women feel the need to pick one another apart and treat each other as competition? Is this something that is instilled in the minds of women from a young age? How do you think that women can allow themselves to get past the need to compete with one another and instead support each other?
Woolf- "A Room of One's Own"
ReplyDelete"Intellectual freedom depends upon material things. Poetry
depends upon intellectual freedom. And women have always been poor, not for two hundred years merely, but from the beginning of time. Women have had less intellectual freedom than the sons of Athenian slaves. Women, then, have not had a dog's chance of writing poetry. That is why I have laid so much stress on money and a room of one's own." -Woolf, Chapter 6, pages 60-61
Bauer- "Sponsored By My Husband"
"He also happens to be heir to a mammoth fortune . . . Yet, when an audience member — young, wide-eyed, clearly not clued in — rose to ask him how he’d managed to spend 10 years writing his current masterpiece — What had he done to sustain himself and his family during that time? — he told her in a serious tone that it had been tough but he’d written a number of magazine articles to get by. I heard a titter pass through the half of the audience that knew the truth." Bauer, page 3
Guiding Questions: Is Woolf's issue of "intellectual freedom in material things" only a women's problem? Does the lack of money in the field of money effect every writer? More so women than men? Why?
Woolf – “A Room of One’s Own”
ReplyDelete“Men were no longer to her 'the opposing faction'; she need not waste her time railing against them; she need not climb on to the roof and ruin her peace of mind longing for travel, experience and a knowledge of the world and character that were denied her. Fear and hatred were almost gone, or traces of them showed only in a slight exaggeration of the joy of freedom, a tendency to the caustic and satirical, rather than to the romantic, in her treatment of the other sex.” (pg 52)
“And I think the truth is–and this is something I’ve thought about recently, and this’ll get me into trouble I’m sure, but I think women write men better than men write women. Cause men tend to write women as their fantasy, and women tend to write men as what they really are. And I also think women tend to understand men better than we understand women. It just means that the character Tess wrote for me in this movie is far more rounded.
… Whereas guys will tend to write the girl they want to date rather than the girl who’s really out there, who is flawed, who is a bit unpredictable. Why not celebrate that part of being a person?” Simon Pegg [http://www.themarysue.com/simon-pegg-women-writers/]
Guiding Questions: In section two (on page 17), Woolf quotes Le Bruyère, who says, “
Les femmes sont extrêmes, elles sont meilleures ou pires que les hommes--- -“ (Women are extreme, they are better or worse than men). What is it that leads men to write women in a way that is either idealistic or critical in the extreme? How is that, considering the brevity of our presence in the literary sphere, women seem to have this freedom to take people for who they are, and to write them as such?
“A Room of One’s Own” – Virginia Woolf
ReplyDelete“I find myself saying briefly and prosaically that it is much more important to be oneself than anything else.”
“’Sponsored’ by my husband” – Ann Bauer
“I completed my third novel in eight months flat. I started the book while on a lovely vacation. Then I wrote happily and relatively quickly because I had the time and the funding, as well as help from my husband, my agent and a very talented editor friend. Without all those advantages, I might be on page 52. OK, there’s mine. Now show me yours.”
“Behold, A Tinder-Like App for Female Friendships” – Jenavieve Hatch
“’We hope women everywhere will use the app to find the freedom and confidence that comes from having a strong community of friends supporting you.’”
Guiding Question:
Woolf talks about the importance of writing for oneself, rather than writing to cater to a specific audience. She also says that people who are more privileged will have an easier time doing this, which is the idea that Bauer builds on. Bauer says that writers do not admit their fortunate circumstances often enough, and that it is important to do so in order to maintain an environment of openness and honesty in the literary industry. In an article by Jenavieve Hatch about a new Tinder-esque application for women, the co-creators of the app talk about how important it is for women to foster healthy female friendships.
Accessing such an application requires a certain amount of privilege. Why is it so difficult for people to admit that they are more privileged than others, and why is this unhealthy in the grand scheme of things? When it comes to writing for oneself, how much privilege is required for this to be possible? Is it especially important for women specifically to keep this idea in mind? Also, for women writers who are striving to honestly write for themselves, can significant female friendships enhance or assist with this process?
"Men were no longer to her 'the opposing faction'; she need not waste her time railing against them; she need not climb on to the roof and ruin her peace of mind longing for travel, experience and a knowledge of the world and character that were denied her" (page 52).
ReplyDeleteNot only would women face adversity against men in situations but they would also face it against one of their own. A perfect example in the latest news is with Kim and Khloe Kardashian and Amber Rose going back and forth degrading each other but both women takes up the helm of being a feminist. http://www.psmag.com/nature-and-technology/why-women-troll-other-women-online
Guiding Question: What do women get out of trolling/ degrading another women? How can the female sex better themselves by banning together in order to fight off the real threat which are males?
“Intellectual freedom depends upon material things. Poetry depends upon intellectual freedom. And women have always been poor, not for two hundred years merely, but from the beginning of time. Women have had less intellectual freedom than the sons of Athenian slaves” From Virginia Woolf
ReplyDelete“Women are caught like this, too, by networks of forces and barriers that expose one to penalty, loss or contempt whether one works outside the home or not, is on welfare or not, bears children or not, raises children or not, marries or not, stays married or not, is heterosexual, lesbian, both or neither. Economic necessity; confinement to racial and/or sexual job ghettos; sexual harassment; sex discrimination; pressures of competing expectations and judgements about women, wives and mothers (in the society at large, in racial and ethnic subcultures and in one’s own mind); dependence (full or partial) on husbands, parents or the state; commitment to political ideas; loyalties to racial or ethnic or other "minority" groups; the demands of the self-respect and responsibilities to others. Each of these factors exists in complex tension with every other, penalizing or prohibiting all of the apparently available options” From Marilyn Frye: http://people.terry.uga.edu/dawndba/4500Oppression.html
Is the oppression of women as intersectional as Frye suggest it is? How do we make sure that every woman, regardless of race, color, sexual orientation, etc, is heard? Is feminism always inclusive?
Ann Bauer: ""Sponsored" by my husband"
ReplyDelete"All that disclosure is crass, I know. I’m sorry. Because in this world where women will sit around discussing the various topiary shapes of their bikini waxes, the conversation about money (or privilege) is the one we never have. Why? I think it’s the Marie Antoinette syndrome: Those with privilege and luck don’t want the riffraff knowing the details. After all, if “those people” understood the differences in our lives, they might revolt. Or, God forbid, not see us as somehow more special, talented and/or deserving than them."
Virginia Woolf: "A Room of One's Own"
One has only to think of the Elizabethan tombstones with all those children kneeling with clasped hands; and their early deaths; and to see their houses with their dark, cramped rooms, to realize that no woman could have written poetry then. What one would expect to find would be that rather later perhaps some great lady would take advantage of her comparative freedom and comfort to publish something with her name to it and risk being thought a monster." (32)
"MJ: You've described Hollywood's sexism as a "state of emergency." What advice could you give to female filmmakers and actresses to help fix this?
JS: Along the way, female filmmakers will have the feeling that they're not good enough. And that's really just a result of being "otherized" from the moment they're born. Keep an eye out for all those insecurities, and even expect them. Borrow white male privilege and just move through the world as if it was created for you. You have to kind of talk yourself into an imaginary space where the world is on your side and expects you to speak and wants you to speak. You have to create that space for yourself over and over again. Every hour sometimes."
from "The Woman Who Created "Transparent" Wants You to "Borrow White Male Privilege""
Guiding Questions:
There is a lot of issues with privilege in society today. There are obvious privileges that, most specifically is the one that we encounter or hear about on a daily basis: white male privilege. But there is a lot more going on in regards to privilege than the obvious. Both authors detail how the privilege that either they had themselves or observed in the world put female writers at an obvious advantage. Besides for the obvious, what are the advantages of these privileges? In this day and time, is it possible for a female author (or any author for that matter) to devote their time solely to writing without having to work another job to support themselves?
"And again I am reminded by dipping into newspapers and novels and biographies that when a woman speaks to women she should have something very unpleasant up her sleeve. Women are hard on women. Women dislike women. Women--but are you not sick to death of the word? I can assure you that I am not. Let us agree, that a paper read by a woman to women should end with something particularly disagreeable" (62).
ReplyDeleteWhile in conversation with Gloria Steinem at the MAKERS conference on Monday night, America Ferrera expressed her love and gratitude for other women. "This is something that I had to unlearn in culture," Ferrera said. "When I stopped thinking of other women as competition to me and started thinking about them as my partners in life, when that happened for me as a young woman, my whole experience of life changed."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/america-ferrera-gloria-steinem-makers-2016_us_56af8972e4b0010e80ead794?ir=Women§ion=us_women&utm_hp_ref=women
The woman-to-woman hate that is so relevant in our society divides women instead of joining them together to conquer greater things. Because we are so engrained to judge other each other, it's easy to forget there is an option to work as a team to accomplish more. We take a lot of what we know about the world from pop culture. What strides have you seen in portrayals of women (if any) in television or movies? How do support systems of women make life easier for other women? If we stop tearing each other down we could obtain so much more power to make a difference in the world.
I can testify to that especially with what has been taking shape in the media recently. Two well known females; Kim K and Amber Rose have gone back and forth with verbal jabs and humiliating claims against each other when both could of come together to tackle other issues such as the feminine movement that Amber Rose has been working on. There's a saying that behind a successful man is a strong women but imagine having two strong women coming together instead of coming after each other, a lot of issues could be solved if women put their small issues aside to work on solving major issues.
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ReplyDelete"Awkward though she was and without the unconscious bearing of long descent which makes the least turn of the pen of a Thackeray or a Lamb delightful to the ear, she had -- I began to think -- mastered the first great lesson; she wrote as a woman, but as a woman who has forgotten that she is a woman, so that her pages were full of that curious sexual quality which comes only when sex is unconscious of itself." (52).
ReplyDelete-Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own"
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/275001120970512188/
"I brake for birds. I rock a lot of polka dots. I have touched glitter in the last 24 hours! And that doesn't mean I'm not smart and tough and strong!" (New Girl).
Something I've noticed is that women who have "traditionally feminine" qualities are more often thought of as "anti-feminist," or women with these qualities are degraded more than women who exhibit qualities that are "traditionally masculine." Another way of phrasing this would be that women who act more "like men" are respected more than women who exhibit more feminine behaviors, and I think this is a very toxic way of thinking. In order to move towards gender equality, it is crucial to stop evaluating women on their likeness to men, and realize that people with "traditionally feminine" characteristics are just as strong/smart/capable as those with "traditionally masculine" characteristics. Have you ever experienced this in your own life, and if so, how did you respond to it? What examples of this have you seen in the media? How was it portrayed and what responses did it generate?
“Even so, the very first sentence that I would write here, I said, crossing over to the writing-table and taking up the page headed Women and Fiction, is that it is fatal for anyone who writes to think of their sex. It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple; one must be woman-manly or man-womanly. It is fatal for a woman to lay the least stress on any grievance; to plead even with justice any cause; in any way to speak consciously as a woman” Virginia Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own” pg. 58
ReplyDelete“I don’t want to write like a man anymore. I don’t want to be praised for being “unflinching.” I want to flinch. I want to be wide open. I am trying to write something urgent, trying to be vulnerable and honest, trying to listen, trying to identify and articulate my innermost feelings, trying to make you feel them too, trying a kind of telepathy, all of which is really fucking hard in the first place and, in a culture wherein women are subject to infantilization and gaslighting, in a culture that says your “telepathic heart” (that’s Moore on July) is dumb and delicate and boring and frippery and for girls, I sometimes wonder if it’s even possible.” Claire Vaye Watkins “On Pandering”
In “Pandering, Watkins advises to abandon writing like a man and write like a women, to stop “pandering” to the patriarchy's prefered writing style. However, in “A Room of One’s Own”, Woolf states that to be a truly great author, one must tap into the “androgynous” self, creating a work that incorporates both sides of the spectrum. Which is the case, especially in our society? Is it better to write as a woman or as a person? Which do contemporary authors seem to side with (either male or female)? Is it even possible to write without gender, since you are supposed to “write what you know”?
"A Room of One's Own" pt. 2 - Woolf
ReplyDelete"Also, I continued, looking down at the page again, it is becoming evident that women, like men, have other interests besides the perennial interests of domesticity... Now all that, of course, has to be left out, and thus the splendid portrait of the fictitious woman is much too simple and much too monotonous."
"Masochist or Machiavel? Reading Harley Quinn in Canon and Fanon" - Kate Roddy
"Leaving aside knowing parody, these fics are both concerned with the pressures that women's advances in the workplace and society (as a result of second-wave feminist activism) generated, and how the drive to be autonomous and career focused can in itself become imprisoning, even alienating. Apheliongirl's Harley recognizes the impossibility of the fabled work/life balance, as her feverish struggle to maintain and advance her professional status means she has no social life. Although Harley's mother is vaguely pleased by her daughter's academic success, she tactlessly pressures Harley to find a man, leaving her with visions of herself as an isolated cat lady and "FREAK." As a safety valve to relieve these maddening pressures, she becomes the shadow self, embracing the feared alternative to normalcy. In this reading, Harley therefore represents rebellion, not submission."
BDSM as a culture is highly misunderstood, and this article highlights the social implications of S/M in a way that is reflective of how we view women characters and also how those views can be misunderstood. So, ultimately, the question is: can we fully reject the idea that submission is, in its own way, a form of power? Masochism is commonly depicted as desire to be hurt, but its roots are deeper than that, even when portrayal of the masochist is as a victim. The reality is that more often than not the masochist is the one to initiate and acts as the "playful" counterpart in the actions to come. Harley Quinn defines that, though her motives do, of course, breach into the insane. Is Harley Quinn a figure to pity? Or, alternatively, should we pity the Joker? In the world of S/M, do gender roles even matter?
"However, the blame for all this, if one is anxious to lay blame, rests no more upon one sex than upon the other. All seducers and reformers are responsible" - Virginia Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own” page 58
ReplyDelete"Women have been changing the world for quite some time, whether or not they have been charging into battle with swords raised. They change the world by marriage, by being great mothers, by being poets and scientists and by being the founders of communities. If by your focus on certain characters, you give the impression that there is only one kind of power in the world, you will make your world feel skewed and unbalanced in terms of gender without even realizing it." - Mette Ivie Harrison, "Writing Characters of the Opposite Gender"
http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=columns&vol=mette_ivie_harrison&article=044
Guiding Question:
When you write characters of the opposite gender do you feel like you have problems with it seeming too stereotypical/one-dimensional, or because we do live in a society where most literature and novels have males as main characters, do you think it's not /too/ difficult to write them since we've read and analysed so many of those novels?
Sometimes I personally do have a hard time trying to not make it one dimensional but than again it's always a good thing to take a step back and see if you have made your point in a way that the other sex can understand without being both stereotypical or one dimensional. The fact that our minds have been 'programmed' to read or write things in a male tone it does make it a little challenge to read or write something in the sense of a female especially for me as a male, but than again despite it being a challenge it is something that is worth the challenge, to be able to know how to speak and write to reach out and connect with more people.
Delete"All these relationships between women, I thought, rapidly recalling the splendid gallery of fictitious women, are too simple. So much has been left out, unattempted. And I tried to remember any case in the course of my reading where two women are represented as friends. . . .They are now and then mothers and daughters. But almost without exception they are shown in their relation to men. It was strange to think that all the great women of fiction were, until Jane Austen's day, not only seen by the other sex, but seen only in relation to the other sex. And how small a part of a woman's life is that; and how little can a man know even of that when he observes it through the black or rosy spectacles which sex puts upon his nose. Hence, perhaps, the peculiar nature of woman in fiction; the astonishing extremes of her beauty and horror; her alternations between heavenly goodness and hellish depravity--for so a lover would see her as his love rose or sank, was prosperous or unhappy." 46
ReplyDelete"Suppose, for instance, that men were only represented in literature as the lovers of women, and were never the friends of men, soldiers, thinkers, dreamers; how few parts in the plays of Shakespeare could be allotted to them; how literature would suffer! We might perhaps have most of Othello; and a good deal of Antony; but no Caesar, no Brutus, no Hamlet, no Lear, no Jaques--literature would be incredibly impoverished, as indeed literature is impoverished beyond our counting by the doors that have been shut upon women. Married against their will, kept in one room, and to one occupation, how could a dramatist give a full or interesting or truthful account of them? Love was the only possible interpreter. The poet was forced to be passionate or bitter, unless indeed he chose to 'hate women', which meant more often than not that he was unattractive to them." 47
Virginia Woolf - "A Room of One's Own"
"The Bechdel Test, Bechdel-Wallace Test, or the Mo Movie Measurenote , is a litmus test for female presence in fictional media. . . . In order to pass, the film or show must meet the following criteria: 1. It includes at least two women,note 2. who have at least one conversation,note 3. about something other than a man or men.
If that sounds to you like a pretty easy standard to meet, it is. That's the point! Yet, try applying the test to the media you consume for a while. There's a good chance you'll be surprised; mainstream media that passes is far less common than you might think."
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/TheBechdelTest
Guiding Questions: Isn’t it ridiculous that aspects of women’s lives continue to be misrepresented in the media? How do you thing this affects young people growing up with a presence of social media in their lives? Do you think the presence of women that pass the bechdel test will be increased in the future? How do we get the news about this out?
4. “A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf (Part 5 – End)
ReplyDelete- Quote from the text: “All these relationships between women, I thought, rapidly recalling the splendid gallery of fictitious women, are too simple. So much has been left out, unattempted. And I tried to remember any case in the course of my reading where two women are represented as friends. . . . They are confidantes . . . now and then mothers and daughters. But almost without exception they are shown in their relation to men. . . . And how small a part of a woman’s life is that.” (46)
- Contemporary Text(s):
“So fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers, be good to your daughters too.” –John Mayer, “Daughters”
- Exs. of Theater Where Women Have Deep / Complicated Relationships with Each Other:
o Love of the Nightingale
o Bernarda Alba
o 4 Down, 1 Across
o Next to Normal
o The Glass Managerie
o A Doll’s House
o Noises Off
o ALCHEMY OF DESIRE by Caridad Svich
Opening Monologue by Simone: “Chicken. Buckets and buckets of fried chicken all over. 12, 16, 24-piece. . . Everybody brought one. One kind or another. Caroline, Selah, Mrs. Hawkins. . . . They all came in with their chicken. They all came in. . . . Came in and flapped their arms. Calling out to God and Jerimiah and all the powers of the universe. They all came in with their chicken . . . came in to push [it] in my face . . . and make me feel better.”
- Exs. of Theater Where They Are Shown in Relation to Men:
(“astonishing extremes of beauty and horror”)
o Godspell
o Chicago
o Sweeney Todd
o Jekyll and Hyde
o Anything Goes (1926)
- Guiding Question:
What makes a relationship “complicated”? What is the difference (other than the criteria for the Beckdel test) between an uncomplicated and complicated relation between women? Between men? Is there a difference? (In performance, such as onstage or in movies, or in general)
The online text if anyone wants to read the play "Alchemy..." It's amazing and very powerful!
Deletehttps://books.google.com/books?id=6kPTAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA75&lpg=PA75&dq=alchemy+of+desire+dead+man%27s+blues+opening+monologue&source=bl&ots=9x5mTo8kmq&sig=vvbf0EKcRzOWxcRDAUO19bhW7Tg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjog8H9mtzKAhVDuYMKHcmeAoQQ6AEIKDAD#v=onepage&q=chicken&f=false
Quote: Therefore I would ask you to write all kinds of books, hesitating at no subject however trivial or however vast. By hook or by crook, I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle, to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream.
ReplyDeleteConnection: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/04/we-out-here-inside-the-new-black-travel-movement.html
Guiding Question: In a day and age where we are more able than ever to expand our horizons, (and money is still very much an issue for women given that pay is not equal), does the patriarchy inhibit women from travelling? (Stigma about travelling alone, fear of rape, misogyny in different cultures, etc.)