I'm going to have to have you go back a
little ways, back when we got to watch a few clips from Orlando
(based on the novel by Virginia Woolf). Since Dr. Hague offered to
let anyone borrow it if they wanted to watch it, I just had to. For
all of you who have yet to see it, you are missing out. The story
alone is a good reason to watch it, but the added cinematics, the
things they do with costumes, scenery, everything is well worth the
94 minutes of your life. Also, random fact that floored me (and could
attest to the differences between men and women if you so please) is
the fact that even though Billy Zane's Character, Shelmerdine, only
has 12 seconds of screen time, not only is he one of the two highest
paid actors, but he also has the spot right underneath our leading
lady for Orlando.
Now, onto what I really wanted to talk
about. This conversation may seem odd, but if you just watch the
movie, I promise a conversation like this may not seem as strange any
more. My boyfriend was not here to watch the movie with me, but I
gave him a run-down of the movie and we got into the hypothetical
conversation of what it would be like if we magically switched
genders. I felt that if I were to magically wake up one morning and
be a guy, my personality and interests wouldn't change. However, when
I see my boyfriend magically waking up as a girl, his personality and
his interests change. My boyfriend didn't see either of us having a
change in interests or personality. He looks at his sister and sees a
girl who hates shopping, loathes dresses, plays video games, and
can't cook to save her life. He sees me, and though I have a handle
on all the domestic things (like cooking, sewing, and taking care of
kids), I love to skateboard, go adventuring, play video games, and
taking me out to see a horror movie on Valentine's day is a
completely appropriate (and fantastic) idea. I asked a guy at work if
he thought his personality would change. His answer was yes, because
he would have, and I quote, 'girly hormones and PMS'.
My focus on this in this class is the
idea that these stereotypes have been around for a very very long
time. We start to find people fighting against these stereotypes,
especially starting in the 18th century. W have popular
female writers, some who love locking horns with prominent male
writers. We have stronger female characters, and we have people
getting more concerned with women's rights and starting to get more
concerned with seeing them as more than property. True, they were no
where near where we are today, but they were starting to see a
different picture than we have.
With this in mind, do you think our
seeing guys doing 'girly' things or girls doing 'guy' things in this
day and age as being acceptable has evolved from social things or
literature? Or do you think that we still have a stigma about what is
appropriate for boys and girls to do? Do you think it is a
generational thing? How do you think that an 18th century
audience would take a gender-neutral utopia? What about x children
(Children who are raised with neutral names, clothes, toys, and
ideals)?
