on my mind
well, i am back in suburbia. home of the tree lined street, the s.u.v., and the standard two-story brick house. driving through my neighborhood (or is it now my parents' neighborhood?) i couldn't stop thinking of the multiple conversations i have been having with richard about the television show desperate housewives. we even went so far as to compare the show to kate chopin's the awakening. but really, my frustration isn't necessarily with the show (okay, maybe it is), but my frustration is with our society who produces shows like this under the umbrella of showing us "the real life" we lead, and instead of tearing down gender roles, they reinforce them. yes, these women are screwed up. characters have to be in order to have conflict, but women are still portrayed as conniving and subordinate to the men in their lives. and people see this show as empowering to women! they see it as women claiming their own sexuality! sleeping with your underage gardener so that you don't have the urge to kill yourself, but staying with your husband who makes a lot of money is not empowering. it is sick. this woman is presented as trapped as edna is in the early 1900s novel. we are supposed to have progressed.
another topic on my mind, sean, who i have mentioned before, is not as cool as i thought. i thought originally his short story we read in class was creative and imaginative and he used the style of bret easten ellis to present this make-believe world. well, it turns out his sex-with-a-stranger-to-get-back-at-his-girlfriend-cocaine-induced-stupor-and-objectifying-women-and-egotistical-pretentious-main-character is a true story. and he couldn't wait to tell the class. in fact, he told us a few times. such a disappointment. so not only was the style of his story unoriginal but the story wasn't even imagined. and not only that, the main character, also named sean (!), kept saying, "fuck bret easten ellis for glorifying sex and drugs in the rules of attraction." well sean, he wasn't. ellis wasn't glorifying anything. it is a satire. he is pointing out the pathetic and disgusting habits of the eighties college culture. someone cannot describe characters and events as ellis does and expect the reader to glorify this horrific images. i thought sean was smart enough to realize that. wrong again. i need to stop building people up in my mind that i don't even know. and for this reason, i never want to have a long conversation with tim kasher.
posted @ 11:11 AM
3 Comments:
Amen, Sistah Friend!
-Sarah
It's a sick sad world. As I've thought about comparing Awakening to Housewives, I've realized a fundamental difference between the two. Chopin wrote a criticism that flew in the face of the status quo. Housewives is giving viewers the status quo of a world that still struggles between Chopin and re-affirmed patriarchy. Empowerment is cool but how to do this is still the subject of much controversy as these women are "stickin' it to the man" while retaining the familiar patriarchal framework. I think some of the show's appeal comes from this tension. Everyone deals with wanting to change but not wanting to be uncomfortable, or not wanting to sacrifice. To me, this show may be meeting people where they are at. We have to remember that while the world has come a significant way for the rights of women, a lot of people are not nearly as liberated as us or at a point in which they say the struggle for rights is worth all pain. Of course this all comes from a guy who refuses to watch this show. Richard
jaimie, please don't cry. i'm sorry you didn't know i was going home. maybe you can come up to fort worth with the parents to help me move out of my house. that would be fun--you here, not moving. hang in there--not too much longer before the semester is over. love you.
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