Subject: gender: male & female desire (and everything not neccessarily between...)
sverhoef@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
Date: Thu Nov 04 1999 - 05:14:08 CST
I was watching a TV series (sit com dram) recently, and the women seemed
like such male mouthpieces I was moved to postulate a somewhat playful
and extreme theory that fictional characters portrayed by female
actresses, but created and written by men are actually male characters,
since their informing logic is situated in the male mind. (Red Flag:
THE male mind) This theory (which I'm sure must have been put forward
by others before me) could be contested on the basis that 1) men
understand women well enough through interaction to write female
characters 2) that once the characters leave the page and are
transformed through the performances of real women (R.F.) that space has
been created for female subjectivity and the characters % of femaleness
(initially accomplished through point one) goes up and 3) I had a third
counterpoint, but I forgot it.
Anyhow, I think this also relates to Sarah's visit yesterday and her
conceptualization of the function of the role of the gendered,
sexualized commodity (e.g., an exotic dancer) in preserving marriages.
That the soundness of such a conceptualization depends on the extent of
one's ability to comprehend from without the nature & dynamics of both
male desire and marriage. Of course, through her numerous interactions
with males & marriages in her various social milieus she is
accomplishing point one above.
Comments?
Susan
Ps. Qui est Barbara Epstein?
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