At 9:38 AM +0100 19/4/02, Christopher Walker wrote:
>Here a suggestion about how the male gaze of power ('hard-eyed') creates
>what it sees ("'reality'") is conflated with physical, gender-essential
>imagery: *hardness* versus *weakness* and detumescence ('impotent'). There's
>more than a hint that (some) 'men' regard *femininity* as a negative (of
>masculinity) but no suggestion at all that there might be in 'reality'
>'killer grans' or even those who encourage violence in others.
I was responding to an extremely "gender essentialist" speech. All
the sexual metaphors in my comment are intentional, not, as you seem
to imply, unconscious: is it not a fair appraisal of the kinds of
attitudes evident in Sharon's speaking? And isn't there an irony in
my own comments, or is it invisible?
As for "killer grans": you seem intent on exposing the innate
murderousness of women. I have never denied female violence. But
some of the biggest media icons of our times place violence and evil
unambiguously with the feminine: I'm talking about Hollywood movies,
where the monsters, human or fantastic, are more often than not
female (Fatal Attraction, Godzilla, etc etc). There might be some
space for a counter argument, and an acknowledgement that, generally
speaking, women are less prone to violent actions than men, although
they, too, are capable of violence.
Best
Alison
--
"The only real revolt is the revolt against war."
Albert Camus
Alison Croggon
Home page
http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
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