Sexuality and American Culture 2012 https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12 Professor Lee Quinby - Spring 2012 Wed, 23 May 2012 17:56:57 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://files.eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/wp-content/uploads/var/www/webroot/ROOT/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/01/15140022/mhc_logo_NEW-favicon.png Sexuality and American Culture 2012 https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12 32 32 A Girl’s Guide to Happiness (As Seen on TV) https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/05/23/a-girls-guide-to-happiness-as-seen-on-tv/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/05/23/a-girls-guide-to-happiness-as-seen-on-tv/#respond Wed, 23 May 2012 17:56:21 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/?p=698 Hey everyone!

Here’s  my video and write up. I’ll miss our wonderful class!!

 

Originally, I intended to create a visual representation of the deployment of sexuality described in Foucault’s The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1. I wanted to display the ways in which different discourses in the media have represented sexuality and influenced me (whether consciously or not). My initial plan did not have a sharp focus and so when I set out to create the final video project, things were not cohesive and my statement was not clear. I decided to revise my plan in order to incorporate my interest in the deployment of sexuality, but also add in Judith Butler’s theory of performativity as it appeared in my final essay.

It was evident as I began working on the project that, even though I wanted to use a hodge-podge of media sources (TV, film, ads, etc.) I should pick one source and one type of media reference in order to make a video that flows and makes a clear statement. I chose to look at television advertisements from 1991-2012. I wanted to use the creative project as an opportunity to reflect on my own immersion into an understanding of sexuality and gender performance, so I chose to start the time frame in 1991, the year I was born.

The process of finding and cutting down clips was fun and also very frustrating. I was interested to look at the ways that certain commercials so explicitly oversimplified gender roles and sexuality (e.g. the Barbie wedding commercial in the beginning). Also, as I began my search for clips, I realized how challenging it was to think of specific examples of sexuality within media, because it’s everywhere. Ultimately, I decided that the best way to keep things focused and show meaningful clips rather than an onslaught of unrelated images, was to think about my own growth into my idea of what a woman is, and how certain influences in the media may have shaped this notion.

I framed the final video so that the oversimplified ads of childhood led into more complicated notions of gender roles as they are related to appearance and gesture. I found this set up a good reflection of how I understand the deployment of sexuality in the media and the insisted performance of “woman.” I thought it was necessary to set up the same idealized notion of love and marriage that is presented to young girls before showing how those same girls are ultimately exposed to other images that suggest they have to act a particular way in order to reach that ideal. In many cases the images suggested by the media as the best female performance contradict the notion of a fairy tale wedding or lifestyle. At the end of the video I chose to take small parts of the clips I showed in full length to make a quick “review” of what it takes to be a happy girl (according to TV). I chose to show these clips without sound so that the suggestions could really set in without humorous words or outdated phrases, which can distract from what’s really being said.

Though the project could have gone more in depth, I think it was successful in terms of reflecting course themes as well as demonstrating how I’ve come to think about sexuality in different ways after participating in this course. Perhaps more strategic planning would have allowed for a more complex project, but all in all this video was a really interesting and thought provoking project to create. I realized just how immersed within sexuality as a part of many discourses I am and have been since a very young age.

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Universe of Desire https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/05/22/universe-of-desire/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/05/22/universe-of-desire/#respond Wed, 23 May 2012 00:44:44 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/?p=693 My choice to reimagine scenes from The Scarlet Letter, Lolita, and Middlesex in the context of 21st century technology, specifically the internet, came from three factors. One is the “Universe of Desire” exhibit at the Museum of Sex, which showcased the collision of sex and internet and blurring of publicity and anonymous “privacy.” The exhibit showcased Google searches, uploaded images and/ or videos, social networking, new forms of narratives like blogs, and etc. engaging with the topic of sex and sexuality. My second influence is the BBC television show, Sherlock, which is a 21st century adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s turn of the 20th century stories and novels. In the original Holmes stories, the set-up fictional narrator is Dr. John Watson, Holmes’ companion, publishing his adventures with Holmes in magazines and what not. One of my favorite aspects of the 21st century adaptation of Sherlock Holmes is that the stories about Holmes that spur his popularity are presumed to be published through Watson’s blog. The last factor is the similar fictional set-up for the narration of The Scarlet Letter, Lolita, and Middlesex. In The Scarlet Letter, the narrator/ author is presumed to have found a cache of documents and the antiquated scarlet letter while working in the custom-house and formulated the novel the reader is reading despite the characters being long dead. In Lolita, it is set up that the main character, Humbert Humbert, has written a scrambled memoir under a pseudonym while he was in jail awaiting his trial for the murder of Cue Quilty. The novel the reader is reading was presumed to be published after the deaths of Humbert Humbert and Dolores Haze/ Schiller. In Middlesex, the narrator/ author is set up to be character, Calliope/Cal, writing a memoir that spans three generations of her/ his family. The fate of Cal is unknown, but it can be presumed from the novel’s recent relative publishing year that he is still alive in the alternate reality.

For The Scarlet Letter, I chose to reimagine the first private conversation Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmiesdale have together in years in the forest in the form of a Facebook chat. Prior to the conversation, in the chapter, “A Forest Walk,” Hester is surprised at her own decision to meet with Arthur after so many years to finally reveal the secret that Roger Chillingworth was her husband and that she “never thought of meeting him in any narrower privacy than beneath the open sky” (Hawthorne 171). The tug between their private conversation and an incredibly public space greatly reminded me of social media like Facebook, which gives the illusion of privacy, but also can expose you to the whole world.

For Lolita, I chose to reimagine Humbert Humbert’s diary entries he wrote upon first meeting Dolores Haze as blog posts on his personal diary-blog (hence a possible increase in entries of his blog?). A diary-blog is probably well suited for Humbert as there is a level of narcissism needed to create a blog about one’s lives and that a blog presents a filtered and edited reality of a person’s life, which resonates with the solipsism in Lolita. As the narration goes that Humbert allowed the publication of this memoir after his and Dolores’ deaths, an online blog can also reach the same widespread audience with anonymity. Interestingly, in the diary entries, Humbert pays a lot of attention to clothing, including his own, Dolores’, and Charlotte’s, which amusingly reminded me of fashion blogs or “What I Wore Today” type of blog posts.

Obviously a conversation about sex and the internet leads to…porn.

For Middlesex,Cal’s experiences at the Sixty-niners obviously reminded me of porn sites. Cal, Zora, and Carmen are presented as attractions to anonymous gazes in a quite literal pay-per-view fashion, probably similar to websites where pornographic clips or downloads are offered for a price to be viewed in private and anonymous homes. I chose to imagine Sixty-niners as a pornographic website (and the homepage for a gentlemen’s club and sex shop franchise given how Bob Presto is such an entrepreneur).

As final words, I think these three novels would translate well in 21st century adaptations centered around the internet. Both the narratives set up by the authors and the nature of the internet have this similar tug between privacy and publicity. Also the novels are timeless in an immortal sense and as Professor Quinby said to me, you never die on the internet.

*It’s been a great class, you guys. I felt that I learned a lot and was challenged by the course and by you all. Thank you and hope to you soon.

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Creative Project/Bye and Tanks! https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/05/22/creative-projectbye-and-tanks/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/05/22/creative-projectbye-and-tanks/#respond Wed, 23 May 2012 00:07:39 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/?p=690 Hi all!

I want to thank everyone for contributing to possibly the best class I’ve taken so far at Hunter/Macaulay. I was nervous at first that there were only five of us (7 with Lee and John), and that people would be judgmental or intimidating. You are all the best combination of smart, insightful, and respectful, and I’m grateful to have heard all your opinions and thoughts during the semester. This was the class I was always happy to to go because I couldn’t wait to hear what others had to say about what we had read that week.

Enjoy your summer and I hope to see everyone soon!

Thanks for a great class,

Tal

P.S.  Credits for the music in my dance:

Thom Henreich, “Tied Down”

Marilyn Monroe, “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend”

Tchaikovsky, “The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy”

Jun Miyake, “Lilies of the Valley”

 

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Downloading Clips from YouTube https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/05/15/downloading-clips-from-youtube/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/05/15/downloading-clips-from-youtube/#respond Wed, 16 May 2012 00:51:40 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/?p=681 Hi Everyone, Here is the link to download the Firefox plugin that allows you to download clips from YouTube. You can then take these clips and add them to an iMovie project like you would any other clips you shot on your own cam. Please be aware of copyrights and be sure to provide attribution to the original owner of the clip you use!

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/

Look for this icon next to the title of the video you want to use in YouTube, and click the down arrow, choosing what you want to do

It works on YouTube and other sites, as well…

And p.s. Bravi on your presentations today!

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Biopower with a capital B https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/05/07/biopower-with-a-capital-b/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/05/07/biopower-with-a-capital-b/#respond Tue, 08 May 2012 00:33:12 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/?p=678 According to Michel Foucault, “biopower” emerged as the deployment of alliance and its complementary sovereign power over death (to allow or disallow life) shifted to the deployment of sexuality and accompanying power over life on the individual bodily level and on a larger population level (138-139). Foucault continues with that this power over life uses a vehicle for “political operations, economic interventions…and ideological campaigns” and for the purpose of The History of Sexuality, sexuality fits the bill as the means for biopower (146). As mentioned in my last post, I have been reading a number of pieces about beyond the gender binary. In a particular piece, “The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough,” Anne Fausto-Sterling points out that biological sex has become a way to control life or enact biopower since the mid-20th century as more medical and biological knowledge about intersexuality and procedures to “correct” it emerged and became more widespread. After nodding with familiarity in coming upon Foucault in Fausto-Sterling’s piece, I am inclined to agree that biological sex has become a way to enact biopower with Cal’s narrative in Middlesex and the shift in the media’s presentations of Christine Jorgenson in David Harley Serlin’s piece in mind.

Fausto-Sterling defines this specific example of biopower as subjecting hermaphrodites to hormonal treatments and invasive surgeries, thanks to modern science and medicine, to match a particular sex category. These procedures are recommended shortly after their births to minimize “psychological pain” and thus, without any consent from the individual (Fausto-Sterling, 170). This train of thought is evident in Dr. Luce’s “Preliminary Study: Genetic XY (Male) Raised as Female,” hormonal treatment and cosmetic genital surgery were recommended for Calliope/Cal in order to prevent exposure of “all manner of humiliation” and give her/him a “happy life” (Eugenides, 437). It is also important to note that Calliope/Cal is not at any life-threatening risk caused by hermaphroditic development (ex. hormonal imbalance) and is more likely at the risk of losing sexual pleasure in undergoing such surgeries (Eugenides, 437).

As Fausto-Sterling points out, hermaphrodites have existed throughout history and across the globe, but procedures like hormonal treatments and genital constructive surgeries and knowledge about DNA and sex chromosomes are of the 20th century and present. Therefore, the argument that a person growing up without a determined sex (i.e. not having the “correct” parts be aligned with a sex category) is prone to psychological distress is extremely questionable. In short, if hermaphrodites could get on with their lives without any hormonal treatment or invasive surgeries for centuries, why do they have to now? Aside from these procedures being helpful for some life-threatening conditions due to hermaphroditic development (ex. hormonal imbalance, etc.), there is few and contradicting empirical research for hermaphrodites to need such medical care to lead happy sane lives.

Fausto-Sterling argues that the purpose of such biopower is to invest in maintaining cultural distinctions between the two sexes in Western society in a particular historical moment in which intersexuality and sexual ambiguity became medicalized. The media’s handling of Christine Jorgensen provides some historical context ofAmericain the 1950’s.Americahas just come out of the Second World War and women are forced to leave jobs and privileges gained during the war to make way for returning G.I.’s. The American Dream in the form of a breadwinner husband, homemaker wife living in the suburbs and leading lives marked by consumption of new products emerges. Georges’ transformation to Christine was initially met positively since George fit in the American glorified tale of a G.I. returning home and that Christine plays up the hyper feminized version of an American woman: “a beautiful blonde with silken hair” and the “best body of any girl” (Serlin, 387-388). However, Jorgenson is “outed” by the media later when it is discovered that Jorgenson does not have the “correct” or “complete” parts to qualify as a “real” woman since there is no place for ambiguity in a society invested in a gender binary.

*Sorry for the late post, has been feeling under the weather recently…

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Gender-Blenders: Detrimental to the Fantasies of Heterosexuals https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/05/07/gender-blenders-detrimental-to-the-fantasies-of-heterosexuals/ Mon, 07 May 2012 07:25:35 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/?p=675 The Christina Jorgensen case is a tragic example of how the media could either make or break you. It also reiterates the notion that when it comes to touchy subjects in America, there’s no such thing as an acceptable gray area (Abortion, for or against; Politics, red or blue and sometimes green).

As for the issue of sexuality in America, it’s been generally difficult to accept the lifestyle of a homosexual. Many heterosexual Americans, to this day, cannot fathom a man or woman having mannerisms associated with the opposite sex. With hermaphrodites and transvestites, where the gender-line is superficially blurred by the persons themselves, there is the obvious possibility of a heterosexual gaining a sincere, lustful physical attraction. More often than not, when the truth is revealed, the heterosexual with the attraction feels insulted by the deception and a substantial deal of shame, usually facilitated by his or her peers.

The media is partially responsible for this resentful response to persons of genders that don’t completely fit into the male or female categories. Take the case of Christina Jorgensen. Initially viewed as a beautiful woman with the most charming personality, she immediately lost all credibility of her womanhood once the media found out she was castrated. The media, specifically the journalists at The Daily News, definitely felt offended that they were ‘fooled’ into being attracted to such a freak of nature. And in response to the details of her gonads, the media fueled the public rejection of such an anomaly, supporting the stance that it is not human to feel such sexual attraction to someone not born sporting their current

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Directions to the Inside https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/05/06/directions-to-the-inside/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/05/06/directions-to-the-inside/#respond Mon, 07 May 2012 04:06:11 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/?p=670 I think maybe all of the gender theory I have been reading for another class has gotten to me because I found myself increasingly frustrated with Cal’s characterization of gender and sex. I also, however, don’t have a solution for the ways in which society in general is stuck in the binary of male or female, heterosexual or homosexual. It is really fascinating to think about the limitations in language around sexuality and gender because of the social constructions of gender and language that exist in society at large. My frustration is not a criticism of Cal’s character or of the novel, but rather a general frustration with the realization that such a sweeping subject can be, at its roots, so limited.

Rather than get into a lengthy discussion of gender roles and stereotypes (I think that will be better for class discussion) I want to write a little about the power relations at play in Calliope’s middle school years. I found this part of Book Three really interesting and really telling about the ways that power structures form among adolescents. Cal’s discussion of the social hierarchies of the “Charm Bracelets” the “Kilt Pins” and the  “Ethnics,” the group Cal is a part of (299-302).

In class last week I briefly mentioned what a nightmarish place the girls locker room can be, so I was pleased to see that the book (stemming from shame as a major theme in the novel) used this setting to discuss how social strata can be understood in the “wildnerness” of pubescent girlhood. Cal comments on the way that the Charm Bracelets are essentially a group of clones who thrive on their shared materialism and wealth. Even this “superior” group of girls, though, as Cal points out was an illusion, a group who latched on to a created identity: “Yes, that was the secret wish of the Charm Bracelets and their parents, to be not Midwesterners but Eaterners, to affect their dress and lockjaw speech, to summer in Martha’s Vineyard, to say ‘back East’ instead of ‘out East,’ as though their time in Michigan represented only a brief sojourn away from home” (300). This points to a Foucaultian notion of power relations, I think, in the way that the apparent “dominant” group, is sparking the desire for a resistance to becoming like “them” in people like Cal. The larger social group coexists with a subversive group, one that doesn’t represent the “All-American” that has been created, and, as Cal points out, seems to mean something different than the good old “American Dream.”

Cal briefly discusses the larger group of Kilt Pins, mostly composed of girls who are in a sort of in-between place. They are the shyer or less “attractive” girls. I loved, though, Cal’s description of her and her small group of friends, primarily for the fact that he doesn’t have to do much more than provide a list of names to express the common trait. They are all the outsiders, the “foriegners,” even though all of them were born in America, many of them it seems are like Cal, second generation “foreigners.” Here, Cal gets away from the question of gender identity and social construction of those norms, and questions what exactly is accepted as an American. She discusses: “…Ethnic girls we were called, but then who wasn’t, when you got right down to it? Weren’t the Charm Bracelets every bit as ethnic? Weren’t they as full of strange rituals and food? Of tribal speech?…Until we came to Baker & Inglis my friends and I had always felt completely American. But now the Bracelets’ upturned noses suggested there was another America to which we could never gain admittance. ” (302). I love this passage because it speaks to an awareness of the power relations that exist in all spheres of society, even in those social spheres of very young people, but I also love this passage because it points to Cal’s and the Stephanides’ perpetual “otherness.” I’m really interested in the way the theme of being on the outside pervades the novel, because I think it points to a question that is important to consider when talking about such heavily socially influenced ideas such as race, gender, identity, etc.; where is the inside and can one ever really exist within it?

I don’t think that the “inside” or the perfect norm is a place or identity that can be reached. It’s too perfect, or too ideal to become “reality.” It’s important to think about, I think, because it seems that many take for granted the “norm” as a perfectly acceptable, tangible idea, when, if asked to define the norm, I think many would find themselves struggling to come up with an answer.

I’m interested to hear other takes about the way that power relations are established by this pervasive notion of a norm that seems unreachable. It’s such an interesting topic and there are so many instances of it within Middlesex. I’m really excited to discuss the second half of the book!

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Ourselves, looking at others, looking at us https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/05/06/ourselves-looking-at-others-looking-at-us/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/05/06/ourselves-looking-at-others-looking-at-us/#respond Mon, 07 May 2012 01:31:36 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/?p=668 This week, reading Books Three and Four, I found that the story in Middlesex changes once Cal turns the focus on himself. “Up until now it hasn’t been my world,” he says in the beginning of Book Three (217). The story’s style and quality is right to change; it’s harder to talk about oneself than others, and people to tend to discuss themselves differently. Similarly, Cal is not making anything up (using his imagination to recreate Desdemona and Lefty’s experience), but telling us what happened to him. The book therefore loses some of its dreamy quality.

Cal states, “Can you see me? All of me? Probably not. No one ever really has” (218). This line is poignant because everyone has felt this way at some point or another. It takes on a different meaning with Cal because the way he feels has not always been at peace with how others see him. The words that Cal chooses to describe his life are interesting to note. Like his clothes and habits (cigar-smoking), words are a means through which Cal can define himself to the world.

What is the significance of Middlesex as the name of the Stephanides house? Middlesex is an area of England (now absorbed into London). Middlesex then is a place, a base, and a unit unto itself. Cal is very attached to his home. “My body was reacting to the sight of home. Happy sparks were shooting off inside me…Here was my home, Middlesex” (519).

What is the significance of Marius Wyxzewixard Challouehliczilczese Grimes? In one way, he is a symbol of new time to come. Perhaps he is even heralding the time when transgender and intersex fight for their rights.  Though the sentiment is referring to blacks, the following quote applies to the LGBT world today: “We wanted to include them in our society if they would only act normal!” (240).

This leads us to the case of Christine Jorgensen. Media, and then by extension, society, accepted her when it was assumed that she was a pseudo/hermaprodite who became the woman she always felt she was. However, when it was discovered that she was transsexual, all of a sudden her actions were not ‘normal’ enough to be accepted.  In his essay, David Harley Serlin brings up an interesting point. He states, “American postwar culture understood gender” in “binary terms” (389).  This makes sense in the context of Middlesex. Dr. Luce wanted to make Cal/lie into the girl she had always been. For him it was either being a boy or a girl, and no in between or other.

Dr. Luce made me mad for a number of reasons. However, the scene where he and Cal are watching porn put me on edge. First, the situation was a bit raw for a fourteen year-old from the Midwest. Second, what/who turns you on does not necessarily point to who you want to be with sexually. I think we all saw in the Museum of Sex that people have varied fantasies. I found it simplistic that Dr. Luce assumed that a penis, and not breasts, would turn on a straight woman.

Our brain is designed to recognize people, places, and things and to make associations with them in order to save time and energy. A wrapped box means it is a present, which is a good thing. A large furry animal is probably a bear, and one should be afraid. Someone in a suit is a male (Cal), and someone wearing pearls is a woman (Christine Jorgensen). We are used to making broad assumptions and using gender markers. Is this right? On one hand, it can be frustrating not to dress a newborn in certain colors for fear that the baby’s gender will be confused by others. On the other hand, it is helpful to gain information in one glance. What do you all think?

I know this post is a bit all over the place, but I wanted to note down my musings (ha—Calliope is one of the Muses). I look forward to hearing/reading what everyone else has to say about our last book of the class!

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Deconstructing “The Norm” https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/04/30/deconstructing-the-norm/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/04/30/deconstructing-the-norm/#respond Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:19:16 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/?p=659 So sorry for the late post!! Finals time is starting to take over!

I am absolutely loving Middlesex. I think it’s amazing that Eugenides is able to take such a powerful taboo right from the very beginning and make us (well at least me) root for the characters involved. Lefty and Desdemona’s relationship has all the qualities of a traditional romance, except for the fact that they just happen to be brother and sister. In Books 1 and 2, my favorite section of the text is when the two are on board the Giulia and deconstruct their identities internally in order to construct a socially acceptable relationship just in time for their arrival in America.

Eugenides does an excellent job of pulling the reader into how passionate and deeply affectionate the relationship between Lefty and Desdemona is. I think the appearance of the incest taboo was more easily digestible for me because there wasn’t a victim as a result of it. Unlike in Lolita, the taboo is simply an obstacle in the way of a truly remarkable love story. I wouldn’t be such a fan of the brother-sister relationship if, for example, Lefty had manipulated or abused Desdemona into submission. In fact, Eugenides makes it a point to tell us that both individuals struggle immensely with their emotional and physical attractions to one another.

I think it’s important to note that no one can tell Lefty and Desdemona are brother and sister. While their guilt makes them feel as though everyone knows their secret immediately upon looking at them, the reality of the situation is that the outside world perceives them as strangers who fall in love aboard a ship to America. The people aboard the Giulia are so unaware of the siblings’ relationship that they go so far as to criticize Desdemona as too low of birth to marry such a high class man as Lefty (72).

The freedom available in their new identities isn’t as liberating as one might immediately assume. In fact, their awareness of their participation in the performativity that Foucault suggests we all participate in, seems to weigh on each, more heavily it seems on Desdemona, as a betrayal of “true” self. Lefty seems more willing to abandon his past identity in order to stay with Desdemona and, I think, in order to escape some of his internal conflict about his feelings.

I love the way their performance aboard ship is described because it speaks a lot to the notions Foucault has about subjectivity and identity formation. There is no set “self” but rather a moldable and constantly performing notion of self that allows for incredible agency in one’s own life and in terms of fluidity within the power structures of society. A passage that I liked in particular discusses the way that the “truth” really comes to be:

“He wrapped a ratty blanket over his shoulders like an opera cape. Aware that whatever happened now would  become the truth, that whatever her seemed to be would become what he was–already an American, in other words–he waited for Desdemona to come up on deck” (73).

Lefty’s blanket being described as an “opera cape” alludes to the performative nature of identity formation. The fact that the agency in identity formation or in truth formation is something inherently American, speaks to the Western notion of the “self” that is much more in favor of the individual existing independent of all other elements of environment (heritage, tradition, etc.). Eugenides is spot-on with just this breif statement, saying so much about the ways in which we develop identities in order to serve a certain purpose, but then, in some way or another, they become the “truth” of who we are.

It is important to note that Lefty and Desdemona use what seems on the surface as incredible agency and freedom to choose an identity as a way of dissociating from their guilt about their “unnatural” relationship. The purpose of their performance is revealed here: ” They passed the voyage playing out this imaginary flirtation and, little by little, they began to believe it. They fabricated memories, improvised fate. (Why did they do it? Why did they go to all that trouble? Couldn’t they have said they were already engaged? Or that their marriage had been arranged years earlier? Yes, of course they could have. But it wasn’t the other travelers they were trying to fool; it was themselves)” (73).

It is evident that Middlesex is tackling a much larger issue than just portraying the drama of one family. This novel is tackling the ways in which taboos are assumed to be non-normative, which insists that a “true” norm exists. I’m interested to see the ways in which the novel continues to toy with and break down concepts of “the norm” as this beautifully written and intensely gripping story continues.

 

 

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Calliope/Cal: A Trustworthy Narrator, Thanks to Eugenides https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/04/30/calliopecal-a-trustworthy-narrator-thanks-to-eugenides/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/2012/04/30/calliopecal-a-trustworthy-narrator-thanks-to-eugenides/#respond Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:25:04 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/sexuality12/?p=655 I really, really enjoy Calliope/Cal’s tone in Middlesex. Give the credit given to author Jeffrey Eugenides, Calliope/Cal has the ability to help the reader capture the full emotional value of images, actions and sequences without the excessive reliance of adjectives. I was beyond moved reading the passage when Dr. Philobosian was walking through his home on page 60, witnessing that his family has been murdered. I literally felt the monotony of working on an assembly line, like Lefty did (passage starting at the last paragraph of page 95).

Calliope/Cal also uses short sentences like paintbrushes to an oil canvas,
“The heat precedes the fire.” (pp. 58)
“Summer was abandoning the ocean.” (pp. 75)
“Desdemona bolts awake.” (pp. 121)

So far, the narrator has done a fantastic job describing events of her/his past. It’s pretty vivid for someone who was physically hanging out in oblivion for practically ninety-nine percent of the first two books of the novel. This brings up the question of validity, how much should I trust the narrator going into Book Three? Just like Humbert in Lolita, how much truth does a narrative told in retrospect hold? Calliope/Cal sounds very grounded, and pretty trustworthy thus far.

Since I just mentioned Lolita, Calliope/Cal is like a covert version of Humbert in terms of their narration methods. Calliope/Cal and Humbert both describe things very well, and both accurate get their point across. But while Humbert uses words to be very precise in his description, it feels like Calliope/Cal doesn’t need to use words that are absent from her/his vernacular. Her descriptions fly off the page like she/he’s not even trying very hard. Though we don’t know much about Calliope/Cal’s personal life, I still feel like I have a good sense of her/his personality.

One aspect of Eugenides’ writing style that I really love is how, at what feels like a random time, he would have the narrator go off on a tangent about chromosomes and the science of reproduction, then use it as a stepping stone to smoothly proceed with the story Calliope/Cal is narrating. It reminds me of a short story I wrote last year, where I used tangential paragraphs as breaks in the narrative. I’m in no way comparing my writing to a Pulitzer Prize winner. But as a novice writer, I think it works really well if used correctly. It adds a fresh dimension, or two or three, to the story.

Being that half of me is of Greek ancestry, I feel that I should be more inclined to appreciate that I’m reading a book that incorporates Greek culture. Honestly, if we substituted all the Greek with Italian, Brazilian, Mongolian, or anything else, I feel like my enjoyment wouldn’t be any less. Eugenides does something very anti-Greek in his prose. He doesn’t shove Greek culture in your face. He doesn’t abuse the usage of italicized Greek words. He practically abstains from coloring Calliope/Cal’s voice with a Greek tinge. He successfully sculpts the narrator as an American with Greek roots, not an Greek-American living in a Greek-American bubble in America.

I was dying laughing after I read this following quote from the top of page 29. I’m wondering if anyone else understood the humorous implications,

“What do you mean there aren’t any girls? What about Lucille Kafkalis?” … “Lucille smells,” Lefty answered reasonably. “She bathes maybe once a year. On her name day.” 

 

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