Alison wrote this
I think he does - does this mean you're not a Christian, Liz?
this was an unexpected question! I have missed something. (Probably a
joke that I havent caught!)
The ans is no - though I am a Quaker and a Roman Catholic (lapsed - with
might explain my attraction to the Magdalen!)
I do feel there is a point where a single focus on the body doubles back on
itself
and becomes its own prison.
Well yes - because a body isnt a single thing.
But I can't help feeling suspicious of the
piece... for one thing, in the quotation the "reader" (observer) is
contructed as exclusively male. What happens if there is a female
onlooker/reader? What happens if the body which is "presented"
(represented?) is not the "night club singer" passively offered up for
consumption, but aging, incontinent, aggressive, articulate,
non-comformable, funny, all manner of things which bodies are?
yes yes - this is exactly what I was reacting to! Looking for a model less
passive - to make, to do, to exceed.
What is the dynamic of repulsion?
I took it to mean something like disgust (Kristeva?) that breaks
boundaries, overwhelms limits and so on. The return of what is repressed
and rejected in its most extreme form. Which happens in the body (but
doesn't everything?)
Is that available to women (say, in the sense
Genet might use it?)
We surely have different senses for't (think of blood - men never shed
blood except by violence - though I am bothered now because this sounds
like biological determinism, which is not what I mean)
Is there any escape from the consuming male gaze
which assumes that the body is offered up for its valuing alone?
we could just ignore it! (I know that's simplistic - but I am kind of
tired of this double-bind, and really what else can we do but get on with
what we want to make?)
How
many of the redefinings he asks for have already been offered, and are
being ignored?
Well that's quite true - the piece itself I think was a good hearted
attempt to think around some of these issues - (it was Andrew Duncan, from
Angel Exhaust and someone posted a long quotation earlier in the week) AD
was saying that these are issues that need to be addressed and his
intention was 'on the side of women' - but I think he was so busy watching
his nightclub singer he didn't watch what he was saying!
Liz
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