Masculinity/Femininity: Re-Framing a Fragmented Debate 9781848880948

Table of contents :
Table of Contents
Introduction • Ambrogia Cereda and Jon Ross
Part 1: Men(hood)
The Emergence of the ‘Slim Macho’ Trend in Japan as an Example of Adjusting Local Masculinity Standards in the Age of Westernisation • Agnieszka Pochyla
The New Masculinity and its Ramifications for Policymaking in the Public and Private Sectors • Jon Ross
The Influence of Gender in the Family Law System in Ireland • Anne Egan
Made Men and Constructed Masculinities: Viewing the Father-Son Relationship in The Sopranos • Katarina Gregersdotter and Nicklas Hållén
Performative Masculinity: A New Theory on Masculinity • Susan L. Pitt and Christopher A. Fox
Part 2: Representing Masculinity and Femininity
Human/Non-Human: Gender Dynamics and the Female/Animal Condition in Medieval Culture • María Beatriz Hernandez Perez
Their Proper Spheres: Engendering Difference in English Essay Periodicals of the Eighteenth Century • Caroline Lafitte
Tracing Identities. Body Modifications as Inscriptions of Gender • Ambrogia Cereda
‘Doing a Lynndie’: Artist Responses to Representation of Gender in Abu Ghraib Torture Photographs • Uros Cvoro
Part 3: Blurring the Boundaries of Genders
Introducing Gender Equality in the Early Childhood Classroom • Denise M. Maynard
Barbie: Is She a Postfeminine Icon Now? • Dikmen Yakalı-Çamoğlu
Between Inverting and Perverting Gender Affiliation? Doing Research on Men in Contrasting Occupational Settings • Isabelle V. Zinn
A Feminist/Femininity Perspective on Esther Tusquets’ Self-Representation in Confesiones de una Vieja Dama Indigna • Nicole Dobianer
Part 4: Femininity/Masculinity: De-Normalising a Continuum
The United States of Tara: Gender Trouble in Popular Culture • Sarah Lécossais
Who’s Afraid of Grace Marks? A Perspective of Feminist Disability Studies on Female Insanity in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace • Barbara Braid
Non-Phallic Masculinity as Homophobia in Fight Club • Tamas Nagypal
Renaming the Self, Recreating the Past in Erna Brodber’s Louisiana • Sonia Gertzou
Conclusions • Ambrogia Cereda and Jon Ross

Citation preview

Masculinity/Femininity: Re-Framing a Fragmented Debate

Critical Issues Issues Critical Series Editors Dr Robert Fisher Dr Daniel Riha Advisory Board Dr Alejandro Cervantes-Carson Dr Peter Mario Kreuter Professor Margaret Chatterjee Martin McGoldrick Dr Wayne Cristaudo Revd Stephen Morris Mira Crouch Professor John Parry Dr Phil Fitzsimmons Paul Reynolds Professor Asa Kasher Professor Peter Twohig Owen Kelly Professor S Ram Vemuri Revd Dr Kenneth Wilson, O.B.E

A Critical Issues research and publications project. http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/ The Gender and Sexuality Hub ‘Femininities and Masculinities’

2012

Masculinity/Femininity: Re-Framing a Fragmented Debate

Edited by

Ambrogia Cereda and Jon Ross

Inter-Disciplinary Press Oxford, United Kingdom

© Inter-Disciplinary Press 2012 http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing/id-press/

The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network for research and publishing. The Inter-Disciplinary Press aims to promote and encourage the kind of work which is collaborative, innovative, imaginative, and which provides an exemplar for inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary publishing.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of Inter-Disciplinary Press.

Inter-Disciplinary Press, Priory House, 149B Wroslyn Road, Freeland, Oxfordshire. OX29 8HR, United Kingdom. +44 (0)1993 882087

ISBN: 978-1-84888-094-8 First published in the United Kingdom in eBook format in 2012. First Edition.

Table of Contents Introduction Ambrogia Cereda and Jon Ross

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PART 1 Men(hood) The Emergence of the ‘Slim Macho’ Trend in Japan as an Example of Adjusting Local Masculinity Standards in the Age of Westernisation Agnieszka Pochyla

3

The New Masculinity and its Ramifications for Policymaking in the Public and Private Sectors Jon Ross

11

The Influence of Gender in the Family Law System in Ireland Anne Egan

21

Made Men and Constructed Masculinities: Viewing the Father-Son Relationship in The Sopranos Katarina Gregersdotter and Nicklas Hållén

29

Performative Masculinity: A New Theory on Masculinity Susan L. Pitt and Christopher A. Fox

37

PART 2 Representing Masculinity and Femininity Human/Non-Human: Gender Dynamics and the Female/Animal Condition in Medieval Culture María Beatriz Hernandez Perez

49

Their Proper Spheres: Engendering Difference in English Essay Periodicals of the Eighteenth Century Caroline Lafitte

59

Tracing Identities. Body Modifications as Inscriptions of Gender Ambrogia Cereda

69

‘Doing a Lynndie’: Artist Responses to Representation of Gender in Abu Ghraib Torture Photographs Uros Cvoro

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PART 3 Blurring the Boundaries of Genders Introducing Gender Equality in the Early Childhood Classroom Denise M. Maynard

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Barbie: Is She a Postfeminine Icon Now? Dikmen Yakalı-Çamoğlu

97

Between Inverting and Perverting Gender Affiliation? Doing Research on Men in Contrasting Occupational Settings Isabelle V. Zinn

109

A Feminist/Femininity Perspective on Esther Tusquets’ Self-Representation in Confesiones de una Vieja Dama Indigna Nicole Dobianer

121

PART 4 Femininity/Masculinity: De-Normalising a Continuum The United States of Tara: Gender Trouble in Popular Culture Sarah Lécossais

133

Who’s Afraid of Grace Marks? A Perspective of Feminist Disability Studies on Female Insanity in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace Barbara Braid

141

Non-Phallic Masculinity as Homophobia in Fight Club Tamas Nagypal

151

Renaming the Self, Recreating the Past in Erna Brodber’s Louisiana Sonia Gertzou

159

Conclusions Ambrogia Cereda and Jon Ross

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Introduction: Femininity and Masculinity at the Crossroads: Reframing a Fragmented Debate Ambrogia Cereda and Jon Ross This book includes provocative essays which have been presented at the First Global Conference: Femininity and Masculinity, held in Warsaw on 16th - 18th May 2011. There many people gathered from academic and non-academic fields and backgrounds to discuss and reconsider a traditional and controversial topic from an interdisciplinary perspective. Femininity and Masculinity, among many interpretations, might be understood as the typical ways in which we give a meaning to the some aspects of the world, since we need to give a shape and a precise order to what happens around us and within ourselves. One of the most ancient examples of this effort might be found in Plato’s Symposium, 1 written around the 4th century B.C., where the protagonist of the dialogue, Aristophanes, relates a myth about the creation involving three original sexes: female, male and androgynous. Due to the jealousy of the father of gods, Zeus, who could not stand their happiness, they were split into two parts and condemned to look for the lost ‘other half’ for the rest of their lives. In this account, even the heterosexual couples - made up of man and woman - descend from ambiguity, the original androgynous sex. Therefore, the myth of Hermaphrodites is revealed as the source of the heterosexual relationship (of love) and provides an explanation for the dichotomical division of genders. Far from being a polished reference, this issue lies at the very roots of the reflections displayed in this book, through which the debate about two fundamental branches of the articulation of gender are re-considered using new lenses. The two categories have been separated for a long time, signifying two oppositional ways of entering society and expressing one’s individuality. The assignment of gender and, moreover, the feminine or masculine traits of an individual, only recently have been questioned as to their ambiguity and fluidity, and this questioning has revealed a much more complex reality than that portrayed in the mutual exclusion male vs. female. The existence of a third gender, or a fourth or more - deposited beside male and female - has challenged the dichotomical and Western ethnocentric way of organising the world. Ethnographic examples coming from varied communities (i.e., Thailand, Polynesia, Melanesia, Native America, Asia, Borneo, and Sulawesi) made their contribution to invalidate the effort of normalisation by the ‘official discourse’ around femininity and masculinity. Nevertheless, in the reference to normality and to heteronormativity much more is at stake than the interpretation of masculinity or femininity, the opportunity to understand what the margins of the discourse are. In essence, the question is deeper than one of ‘femininity’ and ‘masculinity,’ or femininity vs. masculinity; it appears more as one of ‘femininities’ and

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__________________________________________________________________ ‘masculinities,’ with a distinct emphasis on the plural of each. There is no one femininity or masculinity, identifiable and tangible like mass-produced items from a catalogue or supermarket; one version of the ‘artifact’ of ‘female’ or ‘male’ is not like the next, or the rest, or any other. Perhaps the African-American novelist and playwright, James Baldwin, put it best, when he said that we are all androgynous, not only because we are all born of a woman impregnated by the seed of a man but because each of us, helplessly and forever, contains the other - male in female, female in male, white in black and black in white, therefore, we are a part of each other. 2 Western society and its mass culture have constructed ‘gender’ to signify one set of ‘values,’ behaviours, and expectations (which several of the contributors to this volume would call ‘performance’). Michael Kimmel, for example, has spoken to this overarching construct and the media-driven ‘performance’ expected of men: ‘The media portray a wide variety of masculine images, informing us about the positive characteristics toward which we should aspire and warning against the negative facets of personality that we must avoid. Media representations tell us who we are, who we should be, and who[m] we should avoid.’ 3 Though mediated culture and social, religious, and family institutions often attempt to dictate (in many cases, harshly) otherwise, the primal need to be an individual - one’s own woman or man (or even something in-between, a ‘third gender,’ perhaps) - is powerful. Who defines what ‘appropriate’ behaviour is for an individual woman or man, or for all women or men? What is ‘womanly’ or ‘manly,’ ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’? To anyone who has fallen outside these invisible yet real boundaries, consequences - often to the extreme - can result. This volume and its contributors take a stand against these societally mandated, arbitrary constructs and constraints, considering how they and the subjects they address are transforming the old ways and outdated definitions of who they are or should be, and further that they take control of these definitions. To some extent, they are consciously subverting and overturning the long-dominant norms. For example, at the end of the 1990s, finding evidences in the transformations occurring in the social scenario of that period (i.e., the appearance on the scene of queer subjects, drag queens and drag kings) Judith Butler suggested two different notions, ‘performativity’ and ‘performance,’ where the former can be referred to the process of discursive production and the latter to a specific type of selfpresentation. 4 ‘Performing’ masculinity or femininity, in this framework, is only subversive because it is ‘the kind of effect that resists calculation, which is to say that signification is multiplicitous, that the subject is unable to control it, and so subversion is always occurring and always unpredictable.’ 5 Even these two terms appear today too reductive to say something about the changing reality we can experience, or if we want to describe (in literary style or scientific language) the psychological and cultural landscape of an individual.

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__________________________________________________________________ In the first section of the book, ‘Men(hood): Evolving “masculinities,”’ the question of ‘performance’ becomes quite clear - in how men are expected to live in and are often limited by - their bodies, their families, as fathers, and, in fact, in virtually every social setting. A long-standing culture clash of East vs. West plays out in Agnieszka Pochyla’s paper that explores a new trend of ‘Slim Macho’ in Japan - thin, slightly-muscled men who represent more traditional Japanese male builds than the ‘gorilla macho’ men and their Westernised image. She argues that the conflict - represented in her study of popular television commercials that depict a humorous ‘clash’ between the two masculinised types - speaks to Japan’s resistance to major elements of Western cultural and media images. To Pochyla, the trend, at least among Japanese male youth, appears to be moving in the direction of the Japanese image; to some degree, ‘Slim Macho’ is winning the battle of conflicting, contested masculinities. What impact does the global economic shock have on men, their identity, and families? Jon Ross addresses this question on a many levels, exploring how American men now lag behind women in many aspects, particularly in the managerial workforce. The strain on these men - economically to be sure but on their identity as traditional breadwinners to an even greater degree - presents numerous challenges of a societal, cultural, and political nature. Ross argues that public policies must be responsive to help the millions of men dislocated by the global recession, and that the emphasis of these policies must be as much to encourage them to take more active roles as caretaking, even co-parenting fathers as it is to provide them new job and career opportunities. Men have traditionally written most laws, as they have long held the predominant share of legislative and legal positions in Western society. Anne Egan’s probing evaluation of Ireland’s family law court system demonstrates the downside of the patriarchal tradition for some men. Egan discusses how the Irish court system - an offshoot of the 1937 Church-influenced Constitution - defines legal and societal roles that reinforce traditional mores and attitudes. As a result, Egan argues, unmarried fathers are treated legally as something less than a full and equal parent in many instances. The bias against unmarried fathers is inherent in the system, she asserts, leaving the burden of proof on them to prove their worth as parents. The system’s defined slant against unmarried fathers reinforces archaic constructions of marriage and family, arguably at the expense of many of the children it claims to hold so dear. The father-son relationship and the often-contested concepts of masculinity within it are the subjects of Katarina Gregersdotter and Nicklas Hållén’s discussion of the popular American television series The Sopranos. The strained dynamics and divergent sense of ‘values’ between Mafioso Tony and son A.J. present themselves through confrontation on many fronts, based on what the authors characterise as a ‘strict gender regime,’ leading to a dramatic tension over, among other factors, how each man defines and ‘performs’ masculinity. The father’s

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__________________________________________________________________ struggle to manage his various roles as patriarch of his family and ‘The Family’ speaks to perceptions and expectations of manhood and masculinities in conflict, a case study that most assuredly depicts struggles faced by many men. In their presentation of ‘performative masculinity,’ Susan L. Pitt and Christopher A. Fox dig deeply into the ‘constructions’ of masculinity/ies by updating Connell’s well-heeled theory into a three-part framework of orthodoxy, heterodoxy, and cacodoxy to attempt to explain in a new light how men perform various roles and aspects of masculinity. Here the concept raised earlier of many ‘masculinities’ comes into some focus, as Pitt and Fox affirm that the various aspects of masculinity are not fixed, but rather exist on a continuum (aligned with Bourdieu’s concept of ‘habitus’). How men represent and ‘perform’ these masculinities, according to their framework, involves a great many challenges and may have significant social consequences on many levels. Section two, ‘Representing Femininity and Masculinity’, features perspectives on how the arts and literature speak to and interpret non-traditional expressions of expected ‘performance’ and behaviour. María Beatriz Hernandez Perez provides a fascinating look at how medieval art and culture drew close connections between the female and animal natures, signifying the marginalisation of both women and animals. Her discussion of this melding of woman and beast as existing at the roots of the gender system - supported by Christian theology and orthodoxy - speaks to the ‘fleshly and the spiritual’ and what she calls ‘the dissolution of the frontiers between the human and non-human animal realms.’ Today’s media - including women’s magazines - have a great deal to say (much of it superficial and misleading) about who and what a woman should be, not to mention how she is expected to perform and conduct herself. In their own way, women-oriented periodicals of the 18th century did much the same. Caroline Lafitte’s paper examines how women’s roles and identity were constructed in the pages of the Female Tatler, the first English-language periodical published for and targeted at women. Lafitte notes that the tone of the publication, especially its construction of gender, altered at the midpoint of its 111 issues (with the change of editor after the 51st). The shift in editorial stance and, more critically, the presentation of women’s needs - moving from a traditionalist approach to one advocating for gender equality - suggest that long ago women were using media to subvert traditionalism and societally-enforced constructions of femininity. In examining body modifications such as tattoos and piercings, Ambrogia Cereda addresses how in today’s society the right look and appearance - whether derived from natural, surgical, or otherwise modified sources - carry significant social and cultural weight. Her interest in shedding light on how body modifications embody gender expression and performance is reflected through her study of various practices and its users. Suggesting typologies for the interpretation of bodily performances, she also accounts for an understanding of gender

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__________________________________________________________________ performance which still impinges on social, economic, and (sub)cultural competence. In addressing artists’ interpretations of the horrific acts against prisoners committed at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Uros Cvoro denotes works that both include and exclude women. The most infamous images of Abu Ghraib are of Lynndie England, a young female soldier who was seen in visual media as a dominatrix-like figure standing over her nude, tortured Iraqi captives. The three sets of images Cvoro studies treat their women-as-subjects both as torture advocates and torture victims, in addition to tools of a war propaganda machine. His analysis of these works reframes gender politics in general, as well as specifically in response to England’s portrayal, and creates room for feminists to respond to this portrayal. In the third section of this book, ‘Blurring the boundaries of gender,’ the authors portray a precise fragment of the continuum masculinity/femininity and focus on a way or on an effect of gender enactment. Denise Maynard describes her experience as an educator who tries to create a context in which children can freely move along this continuum. In such privileged dimension individuals are no longer organised into groups of boys and girls and can overcome any preconceived notion of gender, finding thus unprecedented expressions for their perceptions of their selves. The happiness, the active collaboration, and the creativity of the children in these classes are the outstanding evidences of an educational model according to which limiting and binary/oppositional definitions of gender appear as the remains of an eclipsing paradigm. How can an icon of patriarchal culture like Barbie find a place in this new educational context? She can re-invent herself as a post-feminine icon. This interpretation, suggested by Dikmen Yakalı-Çamoğlu, accounts for an operation of marketing strategists and strategies, revealing a peculiarly strong sociological imagination and pointing out a deep and unstoppable change in Western culture. Femininity is no longer to be understood as competing with feminist theories; Barbie has started conveying this to young girls, so that they learn how the two dimensions can live side by side, because even though Barbie materialises the feminine stereotypes propagated by a misogynist patriarchal culture, she also refers to the feminist consciousness and critique of these images. The new stories Barbie tells embody a postmodern post-structural awareness of gender construction, intertwined with a neo-liberal belief in the autonomous individual. In this new narrative pattern, girls and boys are told that they can make any choice and become the kind of individual they prefer. We might wonder whether these are only hopes or cunning predictions, until we encounter Isabelle Zinn’s chapter, ‘Between Inverting and Perverting Gender Affiliation? Doing Research on Men in Contrasting Occupational Settings.’ Here we find more evidence of the need to mobilise the concept of gender, to subvert or reverse an unfruitful splitting of the categories feminine vs. masculine. The chapter

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__________________________________________________________________ analyses the ways in which gender becomes a collective accomplishment inside different professional settings and provides us with explanations about how ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’ are displayed through situational actions and ordinary discourse in given contexts, thus challenging the taken-for-granted relevance of sex categories. All these issues are summarised in the last chapter of the section, ‘A Feminist/Femininity Perspective on Esther Tusquets’ Self-Representation in Confesiones de una Vieja Dama Indigna,’ in which Nicole Dobianer offers the analysis of a self-portrait of a lady from her childhood to her old age. Professional, familial and emotional experiences are revised through the lenses of Spanish feminism (or femininity) and explained as traces of the freedom of expression Esther Tusquets has achieved in her old age. A process of female identity formation can be recognised as paralleled by the transformations the feminist movement has undergone - and concurred to provoke - in the last forty years. Nevertheless, this portrait might be regarded as the literary example of a space for a new feminine identity which is not simply embedded in the feminist cause but has passed through an evolution and can embody gender values in many different ways severed from a unique militant model. The last section of this book, ‘Femininity/Masculinity: De-normalising a continuum,’ reconfigures the debate by providing femininity and masculinity with contemporary examples which challenge the concept of postmodern gender identity. Sarah Lécossais discusses the polymorphism of the feminine identity through the metaphor of The United States of Tara, an American TV programme broadcast on Showtime in 2009, in which the protagonist, Tara, embodies different typologies of self in her everyday life, practically becoming another character. Such a fragmentation, or multiplication, of the original unique self seems to both deconstruct the idea of femininity and the concept of gender performance as well as to expand them at the same time. Among her different selves, Tara indeed presents to her audience a masculine and a pre-sexual - or asexual - embodiment as authentic expressions of herself included and normally accepted by her family and friends. This example really challenges the boundaries between feminine and masculine identity, and even the material limits of the gendered body, so that feminine and masculine gender performances may represent examples of bodies haunted by their multiple ‘selves.’ This leads us to reconsider the dimension of abnormality and deviance as concepts which undermine subjectivity. This issue is explored by Barbara Braid and Tamas Nagypal in two different and extreme literary themes. In the chapter ‘Who’s Afraid of Grace Marks? A Perspective of Feminist Disability Studies on Female Insanity in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace,’ the focus on the issue of mental disability helps reconstruct the idea of feminine identity as a double-haunting. This condition results as arrangement of a trauma perpetrated by a patriarchal culture of abuse, but it is not merely understood as a culturally constructed deviance, it is instead reviewed as the outcome of an

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__________________________________________________________________ attempt of marginalisation which nevertheless does not succeed in eradicating the creative and rebellious power of the feminine. The following chapter, ‘Non-Phallic Masculinity as Homophobia in Fight Club,’ investigates the metaphorical figure of a subjectivity developed through a homosocial and terrorist setting as resisting to hegemonic phallic masculinity. From a psychoanalytical perspective the interpretation of masochism as an inherent part of male homosexuality is supported but at the same time it is recognised as a tool for the purposes of queer politics. In this perspective, the quest of the protagonist for a real manhood is revised in the light of unavoidable traces of unmanliness concurring in the construction of an all-male identity. This nonnormative model is thoroughly reviewed as a collector of homophobic and heteronormative features that enable a new form of hegemonic masculinity. Lastly, an occasion to reconsider the issue of resistance to hegemonic gender identity through disobedient narratives is given by Sonia Gertzou, in ‘Renaming the Self, Recreating the Past in Erna Brodber’s Louisiana.’ The black female body stands here as a metaphor to deconstruct colonisation and patriarchy. The colonised woman of colour is indeed re-connected to her cultural heritage as well as to her body by means of the power of naming (e.g. Ella re-names herself Louisiana). Moreover, the monolithic creation of black female subjects and colonised landscapes is questioned to provoke anti-narratives of identity and counterhistories of places by a contingent community of women, who renegotiate their relation to power discourses, mocking and breaking the masculinist, colonialist framework. To conclude, this collection points to some of the ways in which it is important and appropriate to broaden the perspective upon the issue of gender. This does not mean only to analyse the ways in which femininity and masculinity are reconfigured by social actors - may they be writers, educators, TV series protagonists, artists, or scholars - but also to acknowledge that the last word about femininity and masculinity cannot be uttered at this time. The evolution and continuous transformation of the ways in which individuals embody their interpretations of the meaning of femininity and masculinity and make them visible are continually challenging the effort to give a shape to and trace the boundaries between categories. Nevertheless, normativity, hegemony, cacodoxy, and identity, even if lacking and unsatisfying, are still unavoidable tools for the revelation of the hidden rules of the word game that any subjectivity encounters in his/her/its process of construction and in which he/she/it is called to participate. The authors in this book have selected precise fragments of this ‘word game’ 6 and have exploited the possibility to see the prevalence of logic above the others. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of this volume, the issue of femininity/masculinity is revealed in its multifaceted and everlasting pre-eminence in everyday life, and especially in its omnipervasiveness in every kind of discourse. Besides, the binary distinction, useless and faking, remains to remind a limit of the

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__________________________________________________________________ language, from which neither the scholar nor the ordinary woman (or man) can escape, not even if we want to regard it as the heritage of a mythological metaphor for a unique reality.

Notes 1

Plato, Symposium, trans. Reginald E. Allen (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993). 2 James Baldwin, The Price of the Ticket (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985). 3 Michael Kimmel, in Men, Masculinity, and the Media, ed. Steve Craig (New York: SAGE Publications, 1992), xii. 4 Judith Butler, Gender Troubles. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, 2nd Edition (New York: Routledge, 1999). 5 Judith Butler, ‘Critically Queer’, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 1, No. 1 (1993): 21. 6 Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, trans. Gertrude E. M. Anscombe e Rush Rhees, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1953).

Bibliography Baldwin, James. The Price of the Ticket. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985. Butler, Judith. ‘Critically Queer’. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. Vol. 1, No. 1 (1993): 17–32. —––. Gender Troubles. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, 2nd Edition. New York: Routledge, 1999. Fausto-Sterling, Anne. ‘The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female are Not Enough’. The Sciences (May/April 1993): 20–25. Kimmel, Michael. In Men, Masculinity, and the Media, edited by Steve Craig. New York: SAGE Publications, 1992. Plato. Symposium. Translated by Reginald E. Allen. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993. Roscoe, Will. Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000.

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__________________________________________________________________ Trumbach, Randolph. ‘London’s Sapphists: From Three Sexes to Four Genders in the Making of Modern Culture’. In Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History, edited by Gilbert Herdt, 111–136. New York: Zone (MIT), 1994. Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations. Translated by. Gertrude E. M. Anscombe e Rush Rhees. Oxford: Blackwell, 1953.

PART 1 Men(hood)

The Emergence of the ‘Slim Macho’ Trend in Japan as an Example of Adjusting Local Masculinity Standards in the Age of Westernisation Agnieszka Pochyla Abstract This study examines the influence and implications of media westernisation on non-Western male body images. The Japanese male body image - ‘slim macho’ was used as a representative example, to examine the process of local masculinity standards responding to their foreign counterparts. The term ‘slim macho’ refers to the slim but slightly muscled male body image. This new masculine representation has gained popularity among Japanese youth and is usually presented in opposition to the ‘gorilla macho’ - the term being synonymous with the stereotypical Western body-builder posture. In Japan, the ‘Japanese slim’ body trend and ‘Western macho’ body trend have both existed for a long time, but it is the first time that they officially meet. Thus, key questions emerge: what enabled this coexistence of supposedly contradictive images within one masculinity representation? How do media and gender westernisation affect Japanese local masculinity standards? To answer these questions, a thorough case study of the ‘slim macho’ image in Japan was conducted. The content analysis of information extracted from articles published in a popular Japanese men’s magazine for health conscious was performed. Following this, a series of three soft drink commercials were examined to clarify how the ‘slim macho’ image is represented in mass media. It can be stated that, while partial resistance to the Western hegemonic masculinity exists in form of the ‘gorilla macho’ image, Japan was unable to resist westernisation completely, being a highly urbanised country with strong mass media culture. As a result, some changes were made to adjust Western beauty standards to Japanese physique and culture, which caused the emergence of the ‘slim macho’ image - a mixture of Japanese and Western standards. The Japanese ‘slim macho’ image enables us to forecast how local gender standards are adjusted when we consider the impact of highly visual mass media on globalising societies. Key Words: Macho, masculinities, body image, visual culture, Japan, westernisation, mass media, magazines, TV commercials. ***** 1. Introduction In Japan, like in many other countries, the images of the perfect male have been transforming throughout history, affected by political, social or cultural factors.1 Times of wars have produced the image of muscular warriors, but during peaceful eras it is delicate and fashion-conscious males that are more appealing to women

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The Emergence of the ‘Slim Macho’ Trend in Japan

__________________________________________________________________ and perceived as close to the ideal. 2 In spite of the constant changing of the masculinity ideals, however, one type of masculine beauty - bishōnen - has been always present in Japan’s history for over a thousand years. Where the body image is concerned, bishōnen (Jap. beautiful boy) characterises the type of male beauty similar to the female one, e.g. delicate skin, feminine features and, beyond all else, having an extremely non-muscular, delicate and thin body. Thinness has been traditionally favoured over bulking muscles and body builder-like male’s silhouette in Japan, and bishōnen still occupies a high position inside visual mass media such as magazines, TV programs, manga and anime or on the Internet. 3 With globalisation, however, the strength and persistence of local gender standards are being tested. Since the middle of the 20th century, Euro-American standards have been imported into Japan, mostly through the mass media. 4 In contemporary society, young Japanese are bombarded with pictures of Western celebrities on television; they admire Hollywood actors and actresses and buy products advertised by Caucasian models. Seeing how quickly Japanese are accepting and adjusting themselves to the Western world’s ways of living, one could assume here, that Japan, is being globalised, and to use even more accurate word - westernised. Here, the following question needs to be asked: when they are confronted with Western ideals, what happens to traditional masculinity standards in Japan? This study examines the influence and implications of media westernisation on non-Western male body images. The Japanese male body image, ‘slim macho,’ is used as a representative example to examine the process of adjusting local masculinity standards in response to exposure to their foreign counterparts. 2. Lost in Translation: The ‘Macho’ Problem The term ‘slim macho’ (Jap. 細マッ チョ , hoso maccho) refers to the slim but slightly muscled male body image in Japan. This new masculinity representation has gained popularity among Japanese youth and is usually presented in opposition to the ‘gorilla macho’ (Jap. ゴリ マッ チョ , gori maccho) - the term which is synonymous with the stereotypical Western body-builder posture. The very first problem that arises in the case of the ‘slim macho’ term is the fact that the interpretation of the macho image in Japan differs remarkably from that in most Western countries. To explain this important difference, the meaning of the word ‘macho’ itself needs to be first examined. The word ‘macho’ originated in the 1920s from Mexican Spanish and can be translated as ‘male, masculine.’ According to The Oxford English Dictionary, the meaning of the word ‘macho’ is as follows: 1. Adjective: ‘A notably or ostentatiously masculine, tough, or vigorous man; one who is aggressively proud of his masculinity.’ 2. Noun: ‘Ostentatiously or notably manly or virile; assertively masculine or tough; producing an impression of manliness or toughness. A man who is aggressively proud of his masculinity.’ 5 Similarly, Longman Dictionary of

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__________________________________________________________________ Contemporary English defines ‘macho’ as: ‘Behaving in a way that is traditionally typical of men, for example being strong or brave, or not showing your feelings.’ 6 On the other hand, the most authoritative dictionary in Japan - Kōjien - defines the word ‘macho’ as ‘Masculine, especially in terms of physique and muscularity.’ 7 The definition from another Japanese dictionary is almost the same: ‘Masculine. Or the male who is proud of his muscularity.’ 8 This simple comparison of definitions in English and Japanese dictionaries shows that in Japan the word ‘macho’ is being used in a completely different way. The adoption of the foreign word ‘macho’ has been widely accepted by Japanese youth who regard such loanwords as being more modern and fashionable than their Japanese language counterparts. However, such an adoption has been without its original connotations. Instead of describing behaviour, the word ‘macho’ in Japan has become strictly and almost solely related to male’s body image. 3. The Emergence of the ‘Slim Macho’ The difference in interpretation of the word ‘macho’ between Western countries and Japan discussed in the previous section leads to the main issue of this paper which is the emergence of the ‘slim macho’. In Japan, the non-muscular ‘Japanese slim’ body trend and muscular ‘Western macho’ body trend have both existed for a long time, but it is the first time that they have officially been used in one collocation - ‘slim macho.’ Thus, key questions have emerged: What enabled this coexistence of supposedly contradictive images within one masculinity representation? How do media and gender westernisation affect Japanese local masculinity standards? To answer these questions, a detailed case study of the ‘slim macho’ image in Japan has been conducted. To achieve this, the content analysis of information extracted from covers and articles of a popular Japanese men’s magazine for health conscious was performed. Following this, a series of three soft drink commercials were examined to clarify how the ‘slim macho’ image is represented in mass media. 4. ‘Slim Macho’ Image in Magazines The ‘slim macho’ is a brand new trend in Japan. The boom for it started in 2009 after a Tarzan magazine released its ‘slim macho’ special issue in August of that same year. A year after, in September, another similar issue was published. Tarzan magazine has been published by Magazine House Limited since 1986. It has a circulation of 183,390 (data from 2010) 9 and consists of articles about sport, fitness, health, lifestyle, hobbies, grooming, etc. Its target is mostly (but not entirely, as we will see) at males and can be called a Japanese version of Men’s Health magazine, which is very popular in the USA and Europe. Recently, Tarzan has been actively promoting the ‘slim macho’ image.

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The Emergence of the ‘Slim Macho’ Trend in Japan

__________________________________________________________________ If we look at the covers, the first thing that would probably catch our eyes are the big black characters in Japanese which reads ‘Slim macho - starting from this summer!’ (2009) and ‘Ladies and gentlemen, become slim macho!’ [sic] (2010) in loose translation. While the text style is consistent for both issues, the pictures differ. On the first cover, on a neutrally white background, only a partially clad and smooth male chest can be seen. Slight muscles are barely visible. It is the second cover that actually presents to us what is exactly meant by the ‘slim macho’. On the cover, an Asian young male wearing short pants only shows his slim silhouette with visible, but not bulking muscles. The only question a Westerner may ask is: What is this masculine representation doing against such an unmanly pink background? Two reasons can be thought of. Firstly, the pink background may be more appealing to women, and this issue is also aimed at women. The second reason may be the fact that it is not unusual for men to wear pink clothes as pink is not a taboo colour for Japanese males. Proceeding to the content, both issues of Tarzan consist of very detailed training and dieting programs presented in photos. Training routines with dumbbells are rare as training bare handed or practicing some outdoor sports is supposed to help to build a balanced but not overly muscled body. Too much muscle is not optimal in this case. This is the main point of becoming a ‘slim macho’: to train and diet in order to create a balanced silhouette, a rectangular or slightly trapezoid body shape. The inverted triangle body shape popularised in the 1980s and 1990s by movie stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone, in which the focus was mostly on muscular chests, arms and backs, is already the past. Most males in Japan are of a more delicate physique than their Western counterparts and muscle building (even hardcore) in their case can be less effective. That is why the ‘slim macho’ body shape is gaining popularity: it is deeply submerged in Japanese reality. We can assume that it also helps young Japanese prevent developing an inferiority complex because of lack of muscularity. By only slightly enhancing their muscles and simply living healthily it is possible for them to be ‘trendy,’ ‘cool’ and, at the same time appealing to women in spite of their anthropological thinness. The ‘slim macho’ image can be called a mixture of East and West in a Japanese body. In Tarzan magazine, photos of both Japanese and Western males are being used. Significantly, the Westerners shown possess a similarly slim body frame to that of the Japanese. Tarzan is one of the few (if not only) magazines that show male nudity. Human beings tend to be more sensitive when it comes to their bodies themselves rather than what they are wearing. While it is a common move to hire foreign models of Caucasian descent to present fashion or cosmetics in magazines, Tarzan may affect its Japanese readers more than ‘clad’ magazines simply by presenting slim foreigners and, by doing this, causing many young Japanese to destroy the false image of a bulky Westerner displayed in action movies.

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__________________________________________________________________ 5. ‘Slim Macho’ Image on TV While Tarzan is a widely known magazine in Japan, its influence is limited to the people who are interested in its content. The magazine is too specialised to reach the masses. The medium that is the most influential in promoting the ‘slim macho’ image is television, in particular, a series of TV commercials. In 2009, a powerful Japanese brewing and distilling group - Suntory Holdings Limited launched a promotion campaign for their newest product: Suntory Protein Water. To date, the company has released three commercials that have gained popularity among the Japanese younger generation. 10 ‘For you, slim macho’ (細マッ チョ なあなたに) is the official slogan of the campaign, which is advertising a soft protein drink to help every male become slim, healthy, fit and ‘cool’ - to become a ‘slim macho.’ The cover of the song The Hustle by Van McCoy from 1975 was used in the first two commercials. However, instead of the original ‘Do the hustle’ lyrics, in the commercial we can hear Japanese ‘Hoso maccho, gori maccho’ (‘slim macho’, ‘gorilla macho’) being sung while two groups of men perform a type of a ‘dancefight.’ The first ‘slim macho’ group with Suntory soft drink bottles in their hands, is being lead by two extremely popular actors and celebrities: Matsuda Shōta and Nakamura Shidō. The second ‘gorilla macho’ group consists of masked body builders/wrestlers holding dumbbells. Both groups are performing a line dance (a hustle) alternately retreating when the ‘opponent’ is advancing and then proceeding while the ‘enemy’ is backing away. Applying a comical ‘slim macho’ vs. ‘gorilla macho’ match pattern and hiring two popular actors are two of the main causes for the commercials’ great success. This is because, Japanese youth are easily influenced by popular culture (Matsuda and Nakamura) while, on the other hand, being very fond of comedians (grotesque ‘gorilla machos’). The match between ‘hoso maccho’ and ‘gori maccho’ could be easily interpreted as the animosity between Japanese and Western masculinity standards. However, a more accurate interpretation is to identify the commercial as representing a relation between the mixture of East and West (‘slim macho’) and the West (‘gorilla macho’). In the commercial, the group led by the two actors implies a fight for the ‘coolness’ of Japanese ‘slim macho’ image, an image which is obviously westernised, but in a way that enable the protection of traditional masculinity standards. On the other hand, ‘gorilla machos’ from the commercials are shown in a comical rather than appalling way and they are the embodiments of the image of Western grotesque ‘macho’ male existing in Japan. 6. Summary This study’s aim was to examine the influence and implications of media westernisation on non-Western male body images using as an example the Japanese original ‘slim macho’ image.

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The Emergence of the ‘Slim Macho’ Trend in Japan

__________________________________________________________________ It can be stated, that, while partial resistance to the Western hegemonic masculinity still exists in the form of the ‘gorilla macho’ parody, Japan has been unable to resist westernisation completely. This is mainly due to it being a highly urbanised country with a strong mass media culture. As a result, some changes have been made to adjust Western beauty standards to the Japanese physique and culture, which caused the emergence of the ‘slim macho’ image - a mixture of Japanese and Western standards. Recently, the original meaning of the word ‘macho’ in Japan was so drastically changed, that ‘slim macho’ not only started to be related solely to the body image but also it has almost lost its correlation to masculinity, enabling, as it was mentioned, to invite women to become ‘slim macho’ as well. Is this process also connected to the media westernisation? Or maybe it illustrates the mixing of the genders themselves? It is difficult to predict if the ‘slim macho’ image is going to last long in Japan, where trends are ever changing. More probable is that the ‘slim macho’ is just one step in a constant and rapid process of mixing gender standards in the globalised world. In this case, the Japanese ‘slim macho’ image enables us to forecast how local gender standards are adjusted when the impact of highly visual mass media on globalising societies is considered.

Notes 1

Hilaria Gössmann, Ilse Lenz, Kerstin Katharina Vogel, and Ulrike Wöhr, ‘Gender’, in Modern Japanese Society, eds. Josef Kreiner, Ulrich Möhwald and Hans Dieter Ölschleger (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2004), 181-188. 2 Laura Miller, Beauty Up. Exploring Contemporary Japanese Body Aesthetics (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2006), 127. 3 Miller, Beauty Up, 152-153. 4 Wolfram Manzenreiter and Eyal Ben-Ali, ‘Leisure and Consumer Culture’, in Modern Japanese Society, eds. Josef Kreiner, Ulrich Möhwald and Hans Dieter Ölschleger (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2004), 496-519. 5 Oxford English Dictionary Online, s.v. ‘Macho’, Accessed 20 March 2001, http://www.oed.com. 6 Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online, s.v. ‘Macho’, Accessed 20 March 2011, http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/macho. 7 Iwaba Shoten, Kōjien, 5th Edition, s.v. ‘マッ チョ (maccho)’, Sharp Electronic Dictionary. 8 Goo Jiten, s.v. ‘マッ チョ (maccho)’, Accessed 20 March 2011, http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp. 9 Japan Magazine Publishers Association, JMPA Magazine Data 2011, Accessed 16 June 2011, http://www.j-magazine.or.jp/data_001/main_a.html.

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__________________________________________________________________ 10

Commercials are accessible on the Internet. Search for ‘hoso macho cm’ or ‘Suntory Protein Water cm.’

Bibliography Goo Jiten. Accessed March 20, 2011. http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp. Gössmann, Hilaria. ‘Gender’. In Modern Japanese Society, edited by Josef Kreiner, Ulrich Möhwald and Hans Dieter Ölschleger, 181–218. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2004. Iwaba Shoten. Kōjien, 5th Edition. Sharp Electronic Dictionary. Japan Magazine Publishers Association. JMPA Magazine Data 2011. Accessed June 16, 2011. http://www.j-magazine.or.jp/data_001/main_a.html. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online. Accessed March 20, 2011. http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/macho. Manzenreiter, Wolfram, and Eyal Ben-Ali. ‘Leisure and Consumer Culture’. In Modern Japanese Society, edited by Josef Kreiner, Ulrich Möhwald and Hans Dieter Ölschleger, 489–523. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2004. Miller, Laura. Beauty up. Exploring Contemporary Japanese Body Aesthetics. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2006. Oxford English Dictionary http://www.oed.com.

Online.

Accessed

March

20,

2001.

Suntory Holdings Limited. Suntory Protein Water Commercials. Accessed March 20, 2011. http://www.youtube.com. Tarzan. Tokyo: Magazine House, August 2009. Tarzan. Tokyo: Magazine House, September 2010. Agnieszka Pochyla received her MA degree in Japanese Studies from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, and, at present, she is enrolled in the PhD program at Graduate School of International Media, Communication and Tourism Studies at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan. Her main research area

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The Emergence of the ‘Slim Macho’ Trend in Japan

__________________________________________________________________ is masculinity images in media, in particular the relationship between physical appearance, visual culture, media globalization and the creation of stereotypes.

The New Masculinity and its Ramifications for Policymaking in the Public and Private Sectors Jon Ross Abstract A ‘new masculinity’ is emerging - driven both by economic strain on men (who suffered nearly 80 percent of job losses in the recent recession) and the recognition that traditional gender roles place arbitrary limitations on both sexes. This evolution requires public- and private-sector policies to accommodate and encourage changing roles and identities, and to better align social policy with the realities of today’s economy and family needs, such as parental leave and flexible working arrangements. This paper discusses economic, cultural, social, and political forces affecting men’s identity and roles, and argues for expanded, wellconceived policies to adjust to these factors, with an eye on families in particular. Key Words: Parental leave, identity, masculinity, gender, social policy, family policy. ***** 1. Introduction: The Changing World In post-industrial America, many men are hurting. Millions have lost jobs; men suffered more than three-quarters of recent job losses. Though some jobs are returning, men have been unemployed at a rate up to 2.7 points higher than women at the height of the economic downturn in 2009; 1 as of June 2011, they were unemployed at a rate a full percentage point higher than women. 2 Also, mobility in the mass of the workforce is moving in women’s favour, even among working mothers. Today, nearly two-thirds of married women with children under six are in the paid workforce, 3 and about 40 percent of mothers today are primary breadwinners. 4 And for the first time, women comprise a slight majority of the workforce, and of managers. 5 For those 19 million families in which women bring home most or a significant share of the income, 6 many men are struggling. Never having been primary caregivers for their children, now seeking an elusive job or extension of unemployment benefits, their identity is at risk. Males traditionally are reared with the notion that their identity is built around supporting a family, leaving details of home and family life to women. But for many traditional males - both fathers in career crisis and those unmarried and childless - that vision is fading. Regaining their economic standing and thus their identity may require education and retraining (and, in some cases, a wholesale career change, including a college degree). For them, economic/family sustainability could dictate that their contribution will be forever changed from primary breadwinner to coparent.

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The New Masculinity and its Ramifications for Policymaking

__________________________________________________________________ As the notion of the ‘traditional male’ evolves, so does the definition of a ‘good father.’ Even for men seeking co-parenting/primary childrearing roles, social/workplace factors present a quandary comparable in effect to a glass ceiling: can I be a Dad first (even briefly, for a newborn)? Or must career come first? Fathers actively involved in childrearing - especially in early childhood contribute heavily to children’s security, identity, and healthy development. Yet economic, social, and cultural factors (including traditional views of bringing up boys) discourage many men from being fully engaged fathers. The costs to society and families are significant, including, for many, an identity out of touch with economic/family realities of 21st century life. For men, a ‘new masculinity’ infused with values reflecting Gilligan’s sense of a ‘marriage of the old male and the newly articulated female insights’7 - is needed, and new policies/practices must be developed to retool social, cultural, and economic factors to support changing male identities. With these policies in place, these more responsible mates, caring/caretaking fathers, and balanced role models can better respond to 21st century demands, and meet the needs of their partners/spouses and families. This paper provides an overview of social and economic factors contributing to the radical changes facing many American men, and speaks to two related issues that in practice operate at odds: male parenting and parental leave. Though men have largely defined traditional gender roles, creating a sexism that limits both sexes, these roles can still be better aligned to today’s environment. A major part of this solution is a range of family-oriented policies to provide more choices for men and women, with concomitant benefits to families. And because fathers’ contributions to children’s development lead to families’ security - especially boys (given the disproportion of destructive behaviour exhibited by males) - greater availability, flexibility, and use of parental leave and related programs are needed to support secure families and well-functioning children. 2. Background: Men and Economic/Culture Shock Throughout most of the 20th century, men focused on work and career, while women took care of the home and children. For most men, identity was gauged by how well they lived up to these measures. But by the latter part of the century, economics, social progress, and women’s rights revealed this myth to be unsustainable across much of American society. With globalisation came shifts in the job market and a decrease in one-earner families. With women’s liberation came higher rates of divorce and more women who wanted or needed independence. And with a greater societal openness came - slowly - an evolution of fathers’ capabilities (and expectations). While not entirely at a position of equal or co-parenting (in ‘traditional’ families, at least), fathers’ choices have evolved. A man can now identify himself to some extent as more than a breadwinner largely disconnected from his children’s development; if he can afford to or so chooses, he can be an ‘active dad,’ even a co-parent or primary caregiver. 8

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__________________________________________________________________ Still, the effects of the hard times that have hit millions of American men ripple across society. Today, men are unemployed, idle, losing hope, their identity in jeopardy, at a greater level seen since perhaps the Great Depression. Those in ‘manly’ industries tend not to have college educations or broad-based skills, and face greater job challenges than those with more education, which women in today’s workplace tend to have in larger numbers. While pay equity continues to be a disturbing reality, educated women in today’s economy have more upward mobility in a market that demands brains over brawn. They are better educated, earning roughly 60 percent of undergraduate and graduate degrees, and earn advanced degrees at equal or higher rates than men, including doctorates. 9 At the end of World War II, men comprised 70 percent of the workforce; today, they hold a little under half of all jobs. 10 Women now hold the majority of managerial jobs, and dominate most of the fastest-growing professions, where steady, well-paying jobs (in nursing, physical therapy, and the services sector in general) will be in the future. 11 In the corporate sector, women are moving up the ladder at impressive rates, many because they have transferred qualities generally associated with (or apportioned to) women into a service-based economy. These include a focus on relationships, interdependence, and cultivated listening and communication skills, increasingly seen as vital in today’s economy. Sensitivity, social intelligence, creativity, and collaboration - hardly conducive to the Alpha Male - are in high demand. 12 In a knowledge economy, for unemployed men who have relied on ‘manly’ jobs to support families, the challenge is daunting. Without these opportunities, they will need education/retraining and re-evaluation of their traditional identities. For those who must embrace new roles, the concept of ‘fatherhood’ may also need to evolve, especially when women bring home most of the income. 3. Men and Parenting - A ‘Glass Ceiling’? To address the parenting contributions of American men, it is important to address where American society and culture have been. Most adult men were reared by their mothers, especially in their early years. Throughout the 20th century, most parenting, particularly of boys, was guided by clear cultural norms: boys, reared by their mothers from birth, had to break free from them so as to develop a ‘masculine’ identity. 13 Because identity/personality formation overwhelmingly occurs by age three, boys’ differentiation is gender-related. As Doucet notes, ‘being mothered by a woman generates in men conflicts over masculinity, a psychology of male dominance, and a need to be superior to women.’14 So, to become ‘masculine,’ a boy therefore must be defemininised from his mother; otherwise he risks becoming weak, ‘a momma’s boy.’ But what if a father is more involved in a boy’s early development? What happens to his development and identity if he’s torn not from his mother, but from a narrow, antifeminine concept of masculinity, his development guided by an active father?

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The New Masculinity and its Ramifications for Policymaking

__________________________________________________________________ To Doucet, many ‘active parenting’ men identify with the practical nature of ‘mothering,’ defined by identification with ‘a ‘language of care’ or ‘ethic of care’ that embraces qualities of relationship connections, interdependence, responsiveness, and responsibility.’ 15 She identifies many fathers who provide daily ‘active caring,’16 and asserts that ‘men can and do mother’17 along these lines. To these men, breaking from traditional norms to become active caregivers helps them and their children (especially sons) bring about ‘less violence in life and a maturity realised by interdependence and taking care.’18 By choosing to care in this fashion, these ‘mothering’ men forcefully address Baier’s critical question: How will men ever develop an understanding of the ‘ethics of care’ if they continue to be shielded or kept from that experience of caring for a dependent child, which complements the experience we have all had of being cared for as dependent children? 19 In this context, in a politically/socially polarised America, the choice by some men to take on traditionally female roles may amount to a political statement. But the notion of equality can be truly realised (as many modern families understand) through co-parenting, which accepts gender-neutral caretaking roles. Doucet’s argument that men as active parents contribute greatly to ‘their own path of adult development … their wives and partners in co-parenting relationships, and … their children in terms of social, emotional, and cognitive development’20 further constitutes an expression of a ‘new masculinity.’ 4. The Meaning of Fathers’ Active Parenting Not all fathers can afford or choose to be ‘active’ parents. But even those who assume a traditional role monitor their children’s behaviour and activities. 21 The absence of a father or sound fatherly relationship, especially for boys, is associated with poor outcomes, including lower school achievement, early childbearing, risky behaviour (including criminal activity), struggles with role/gender identity, and poorer school performance. 22 By the same token, men who had more active fathers are more active with their children, generally warmer, and more involved with their children’s day-to-day affairs. Hardship experienced by men whose breadwinner status is threatened by economic strain also endangers some father-child relationships. In 2000, during better economic times, Cabrera et al., foresaw how a deep recession could affect out-of-work men, who might believe see their providers’ roles undermined and would experience marital conflict as a result, not to mention ‘dire consequences’ to their children’s development. 23 They saw more flexible work schedules and enhanced paternity leave as critical to helping these men adjust to the new realities of breadwinning vs. caregiving. 24

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__________________________________________________________________ 5. Paternal Leave = Enhanced Parenting For some, the topic of paternal leave opens a Pandora’s Box, riling some feminists who rightfully complain about the absence of paid maternity leave, placing the US as one of only four countries in the developed world without such benefits. 25 To traditionalists, it reeks of ‘creeping socialism’ and a ‘mommy state.’ These arguments were used against the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, which guarantees unpaid leave of up to 12 weeks for the birth or adoption of a child, and for other family emergencies. 26 About half of all Americans (typically those in large organisations) qualify, and a small fraction of them participate, leaving US policy far behind today’s realities for many families. But the case for paternal leave for men at all levels of society is strong. First, even though most American men who take paternal leave do so only for a few days, the time they spend benefits children and partners/spouses. Fathers’ presence in a newborn’s first days facilitates bonding, engenders longer-term commitment to caretaking, and contributes to children’s cognitive and socioemotional development, 27 by encouraging basic caretaking that lasts beyond a newborn’s first days. The more time a father takes off at birth and dedicates to caretaking, the more likely he will stay actively involved and the smoother the return to work for his spouse. 28 The benefits apply to businesses as well; companies that provide parental leave generally enjoy higher levels of employee retention, reduced turnover, and better competitive standing. 29 Typically, men who take leave, particularly beyond a few days, are better educated, better off, and enjoy higher status at work, while those who do not are concerned about their career or cannot afford unpaid leave, a factor generally tied to lower-educated non-whites. 30 Given the variables associated with men who do and do not take leave, a solid case exists for universal paternal leave, especially for lower-income men whose lack of caretaking early in a child’s life translates to less involvement or outright absenteeism later on. 31 Recent polls show most Americans (including 62 percent of Republicans) supporting paid paternity leave, in apparent defiance of the ‘mommy state’ argument. 32 6. European Models Sweden, through its parental leave policies, has established public policies that provide comprehensive benefits and cultivate new definitions of masculinity. Its policy, in effect since the 1970s, is quite popular, with about 85 percent of eligible fathers taking advantage. 33 Couples receive up to 13 months of leave, with two now dedicated to men. In about 80 percent of Swedish couples, the man takes at least three months off, and when a man in a couple takes no leave, the couple loses one month of leave. Leave is part of an infrastructure of family-oriented policies including subsidised preschools and almost a full year’s salary for leave-taking parents. The policy has helped produce highly stable families (with declining divorce/separation rates, and increases in shared child custody when couples do

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The New Masculinity and its Ramifications for Policymaking

__________________________________________________________________ divorce, a factor that generally produces less strain on children) and boost Swedish birth rates to among the highest in the West. 34 The Swedish policy (growing in popularity as it is replicated across Europe) also produces economic benefits, facilitating women’s return to work on their terms, which translates to household income security: the typical woman sees a seven percent monthly increase in earnings for every month of leave her spouse uses. Similarly, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development found that the greater women’s political/economic empowerment, the greater the national economic benefit. 35 Paternal leave certainly supports this finding, especially in families where women outearn men. While more exploration of these policies is needed, most factors indicate that parental leave in Sweden is a success, and contributes to males’ identity in constructive, socially valuable ways. 7. A Final Word The political and social culture in the US is a far cry from Sweden’s, and it is difficult to imagine paid leave becoming mainstream policy in the current political climate. But if the US is to remain true to its ‘family values’ posture, especially given ongoing shifts in economy and society, family-oriented policies, including expanded parental leave (for men and women), are needed. Bringing these policies into practice will require solid, eminently supportable arguments that articulate to government/corporate decision-makers why such policies are beneficial. These arguments must go beyond the benefits to the individual (such as the personal satisfaction of bonding with a newborn child), to their greater economic and societal benefits. These include how fathers’ deeper involvement at the earliest possible stage leads to better-adjusted children - especially boys. Given the overwhelming evidence around crime, gang activity, dropouts, and other societal costs of misguided boys, policies encouraging fathers’ greater involvement in children’s childrearing (starting at birth) can be shown to have significant ramifications across the domestic policy continuum. Another benefit of parental leave that must be leveraged is economic. Family-oriented policies that enhance balance between spouses/partners, including coparenting, provide for economic growth and security by helping women integrate fully in and return to the workplace on terms that meet the needs of their families. Demonstrating to decisionmakers polarised by partisanship how the range of policies touched on here can benefit families, the economy, schools, the justice system, social welfare programs, and other sectors of society will be difficult. But it is necessary given the complex challenges of today’s economy and society, and it will be an interdisciplinary approach, if any, that will make the difference. The New Masculinity is not feel-good policy; it is a societal imperative incorporating policies and benefits across many areas of American life.

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__________________________________________________________________

Notes 1

Sudeep Reddy, ‘Explaining the Unemployment Gender Gap’, Wall Street Journal, 2 March 2010, Par. 2, Accessed 13 September 2011, http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/03/02/explaining-the-unemployment-gendergap/. 2 US Bureau of Labour Statistics, ‘Employment Status of the Civilian Population by Race, Sex, and Age’, Accessed 13 September 2011, http://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea03.pdf. 3 Human Rights Watch, ‘Failing its Families: Lack of Paid Leave and WorkFamily Supports in the US’ 2011, 1, Accessed 13 September 2011, http://www.hrw.org/en/node/96430/section/1. 4 Ibid., 1. 5 Hanna Rosin, ‘The End of Men’, The Atlantic, July-August 2010, Par. 13, Accessed 13 September 2011, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-end-of-men/8135/. 6 Human Rights Watch, ‘Failing Its Families’, 1. 7 Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982), 174. 8 Natasha J. Cabrera, Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda, Robert H. Bradley, Sandra Hofferth and Michael E. Lamb, ‘Fatherhood in the Twenty-First Century’, Child Development 71, No. 1 (2000): 127. 9 Council of Graduate Schools, ‘Graduate Enrolment Continues Strong Trend’ 2010, Accessed 13 September 2011, http://www.cgsnet.org/portals/0/pdf/N_pr_ED2009.pdf. 10 Andrew Romano and Tony Dokoupil, ‘Men’s Lib’, Newsweek, 27 September 2010, Par. 2, Accessed 13 September 2011 http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/20/why-we-need-to-reimaginemasculinity.html. 11 Rosin, ‘The End of Men’, Par. 13 12 Ibid., Par. 14. 13 Gilligan, In a Different Voice, 7-8. 14 Andrea Doucet, Do Men Mother? (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982), 7. 15 Ibid., 4. 16 Ibid., 24. 17 Ibid., 23. 18 Annette Baier, ‘The Need for More than Justice’, in Justice and Care, Essential Readings in Feminist Ethics, eds. Virginia Held and Carol Oberbrunner (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995), 50. 19 Ibid., 54.

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__________________________________________________________________ 20

Doucet, Do Men Mother?, 8. Cabrera, et al., ‘Fatherhood in the Twenty-First Century’, 133. 22 Ibid., 131. 23 Ibid., 133. 24 Ibid., 132. 25 Sarah Fass, ‘Paid Leave in the State’, National Center for Children in Poverty, 2009, Par. 2. Accessed 13 September 2011, http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_864.html. 26 Ibid., Par. 9-10. 27 Lenna Nepomnyaschy and Jane Waldfogel, ‘Paternity Leave and Fathers’ Involvement with Their Young Children: Evidence from the American Ecls-B’, Community, Work and Family 10, No. 3 (2007): 428. 28 Ibid., 428-429. 29 Fass, ‘Paid Leave in the States’, Par. 8. 30 Nepomnyaschy and Waldfogel, ‘Paternity Leave and Fathers’ Involvement with Their Young Children’, 437. 31 Ibid., 448. 32 Romano and Dokoupil, ‘Men’s Lib’, Para. 15. 33 Katrin Bennhold, ‘In Sweden, Men Can Have It All’, New York Times, 9 June 2010, Par. 2, Accessed 13 September 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/world/europe/10ihtsweden.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all. 34 Ibid., Par. 15. 35 Rosin, Par. 9. 21

Bibliography Baier, Annette. ‘The Need for More than Justice’. In Justice and Care, Essential Readings in Feminist Ethics, edited by Virginia Held and Carol Oberbrunner, 47– 58. Boulder: Westview Press, 1995. Bennhold, Katrin. ‘In Sweden, Men Can Have it All.’ New York Times, 9 June Accessed September 13, 2011. 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/world/europe/10iht-sweden.html. Bureau of Labour Statistics (US). ‘Monthly Unemployment Data’. Accessed September 13, 2011. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t06.htm. Cabrera, Natasha, Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda, Robert H. Bradley, Sandra Hofferth and Michael E. Lamb. ‘Fatherhood in the Twenty-First Century’. Child Development 71, No. 1 (2000): 127–136.

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__________________________________________________________________ Council of Graduate Schools. ‘Graduate Enrolment Continues Strong Trend’. Last modified 14 September 2010. Accessed September 13, 2011. http://www.cgsnet.org/portals/0/pdf/N_pr_ED2009.pdf. Doucet, Andrea. Do Men Mother? Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006. Fass, Sarah. ‘Paid Leave in the States’. National Center for Children in Poverty. Last modified March 2009. Accessed September 13, 2011. http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_864.html. Gilligan, Carol. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982. Katz, Jackson (prod.). ‘Tough Guise - Violence, Media, and the Crisis in Masculinity’. Media Education Foundation, 1999. Nepomnyaschy, Lenna and Jane Waldfogel, ‘Paternity Leave and Fathers’ Involvement with Their Young Children: Evidence from the American Ecls-B’. Community, Work and Family 10, No. 3 (2007): 427–453. Reddy, Sudeep. ‘Explaining the Unemployment Gender Gap.’ Wall Street Journal 2 March 2010. Accessed September 13, 2011. http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/03/02/explaining-the-unemployment-gendergap/. Romano, Andrew and Tony Dokoupil. ‘Men’s Lib.’ Newsweek, 27 September 2010. Accessed September, 13 2011. http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/20/whywe-need-to-reimagine-masculinity.html. Rosin, Hanna. ‘The End of Men.’ The Atlantic, July-August 2010. Accessed September 13, 2011. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/theend-of-men/8135/. Sahin, Aysegul, Joseph Song and Bart Hobijn. ‘The Unemployment Gender Gap during the Current Recession’. Federal Reserve Bank of New York (2009). Accessed September 13, 2011. http://www.ny.frb.org/research/economists/sahin/GenderGap.pdf. Salam, Reihan. ‘The Death of Macho’. Foreign Affairs, 22 June 2009. Accessed September 13, 2011.

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The New Masculinity and its Ramifications for Policymaking

__________________________________________________________________ http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/18/the_death_of_macho. Tronto, Joan. ‘The Need for More than Justice’. In Justice and Care, Essential Readings in Feminist Ethics, edited by Virginia Held and Carol Oberbrunner, 101– 115. Boulder, CO., Westview Press, 1995. Jon Ross lives in Chicago and is a doctoral student in Interdisciplinary Studies (Public Policy Concentration) at Union Institute & University in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. With 25 years of experience in public policy, legislative/public affairs, communication, and related areas, he teaches Communication, Interdisciplinary Studies, and American Government at two Chicago-area institutions of higher learning.

The Influence of Gender in the Family Law System in Ireland Anne Egan Abstract Fathers’ rights groups have been vocal over the past decade about what they perceive as a bias against them in the family law court system. In an Irish context the influence of Article 41 of the Constitution of Ireland 1937, which gives supremacy to married families, has been seen by these groups as a stumbling block to equality for fathers. Unmarried mothers are also protected as they are seen as having personal rights to the care and control of their child under Article 40.3 of the Constitution. Unmarried fathers are the only parents who are not protected in this way. Further, the Guardianship of Infants Act 1964 provides that only married parents and unmarried mothers are automatic guardians of their children. This therefore excludes unmarried fathers from making decisions in relation to their children’s future, in particular in relation to education, religious upbringing and medical treatments received. This paper will explore the rights of fathers in Irish family law and examine if fathers in Ireland are being prejudiced against in the court system. It will discuss how other countries, for example New Zealand and Scotland, have adapted their legislation in an effort to make the system of applying for guardianship for unmarried fathers easier and more equitable. The paper will also examine the reason why, unless exceptional circumstances exist, a mother remains the primary carer of her child following separation or divorce. To coincide with these discussions, the author will discuss some results from an interview based study conducted and observations made while attending the family law courts in Ireland. Key Words: Constitutional rights, guardianship, custody, access. ***** 1. Introduction Fathers’ rights groups for many years have argued that the law and courts are gender biased. 1 In this paper, I will focus on the Irish Constitution of 1937 and how it has been perceived as marginalising certain sectors of Irish society. I will also examine how women are protected in the Constitution. Over the last four decades legislation has been enacted which differentiates between the marital status of couples and their gender and this will be examined in detail. I will then discuss some of the results of an interview-based study undertaken by me, particularly in relation to issues of guardianship, custody and access and comment on observations made in the family law courts in Ireland. Finally, I will conclude by examining how other countries address equality of gender in the context of

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__________________________________________________________________ family law issues and will discuss recent recommendations that endeavour to provide parity between Irish men and women in the future. 2. The Irish Constitution In 1937 the Constitution of Ireland was passed into law and remains a foundation stone of law and policy in what is now the Republic of Ireland to this day. In particular the Constitution gives protection to family units based on marriage, to unmarried mothers and recognises the role of mothers within the family home. While the word ‘family’ is not defined in the Constitution, 2 case law since the enactment of the Constitution has recognised that the constitutional family is one based on marriage only. In fact, Article 41.3.1 of the Constitution provides that: ‘The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded, and to protect it against attack.’ 3 Unmarried mothers, whilst obviously not protected under this section of the Constitution, have been recognised in case law as having a right to the care and custody of their children under Article 40.3, which recognises personal rights. 4 Unmarried fathers, however, are not recognised as having any constitutional rights. For example, in 1966 in The State (Nicolaou) v An Bord Uchtála 5 the Supreme Court emphasised that an unmarried father did not have constitutional rights to object to the adoption of his child, as the consent of an unmarried father was not required under the principal adoption legislation at that time, which was the Adoption Act 1952, 6 but noted that the rights of an unmarried mother are protected under Article 40.3. Interestingly, Judge Walsh in this case stated that the differential treatment afforded to men and women in adoption was not unreasonable, as generally ‘it is rare for a natural father to take any interest in their [sic] offspring.’ 7 While men are not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, women as mothers are recognised in Article 41.2.2 in that this section provides that: ‘The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.’ During the drafting of the Constitution the then Taoiseach (that is, Prime Minister), Mr De Valera, stated that he did not ‘understand why there should be any antagonism of any kind to that section,’ 8 as for him this article provided ‘some remedy for a great modern evil’ 9 that is that women, due to economic necessity would have to work outside the home. Sociologists Tovey and Share point out that Article 41.2 ‘closely reflected Catholic Church teaching at the time it was written but continues to exert an influence over policy and law.’ 10 It is clear from the Constitution that the only parent who is not constitutionally protected is an unmarried father. He is, however, protected under legislation, as issues of guardianship, custody, and access are governed by the Guardianship of Infants Act 1964.

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__________________________________________________________________ 3. Guardianship A guardian is a person who has a right to make major decisions in relation to children particularly in relation to health, education, religion or consents to medical treatment. Where couples are or have been married, both parents are guardians automatically. 11 Legislation has also provided that unmarried mothers are automatic guardians, 12 therefore the only parent who is not a guardian automatically is an unmarried father. In Ireland he can become a guardian by marrying the mother, by applying to court 13 or by agreement with the mother. 14 If a father is not appointed a guardian he will be excluded from being involved in making major decisions in relation to his child’s life. The lack of rights for unmarried fathers was evident in the Nicolaou case mentioned above but a more influential case was Keegan v Ireland. 15 In the Irish courts, Keegan, an unmarried father who had been engaged to the mother of his child prior to the birth, was seen not to have either any automatic legal or constitutional rights to his child and, therefore, could not veto the adoption of his child. Keegan successfully brought his case to the European Court of Human Rights. The result was that legislation now places a duty on the adoption authorities to consult an unmarried father prior to the finalisation of the adoption order, and he must be given 21 days within which to apply for guardianship. 16 An unmarried father in these circumstances does have an opportunity to be proactive as he can inform the Adoption Authority in writing of his wish to be consulted prior to the adoption proceeding. 17 4. Custody and Access Even if a father is not appointed a guardian, he is still seen as having a right to custody of his child. The parent who cares for the child on a day-to-day basis is called the child’s custodian. Law in Ireland as in all countries is gender-neutral in that in theory women can be the parent seeking access while the father has day-today care of the child; however, in reality fathers are more likely to be the noncustodial parent and may apply to the court to have access rights to the child, that is, the right to see his child at specific dates and times; such times will either be determined by the mother or by the court. 18 In those circumstances, a father will have to accept that it is likely that in the future he sees his children on a more limited basis. Generally speaking, children are still more likely to live with their mother on a daily basis while the father has access rights. Alan Shatter, a former family law academic who was recently appointed the Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence in our new government, has suggested that: All things being equal, judicial bias has tended to the view that it is in the interests of the welfare of all children under twelve years and of girls under the age of eighteen years, that mothers have custody. 19

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__________________________________________________________________ Even in modern Ireland, where in many instances both parents work similar hours, the vast majority of custody orders are still in favour of the mother. If however, the non-custodial parent has been suspected of neglecting or hurting the child in any way, the court can limit the amount of access given, or direct that the access be supervised by a family member or a qualified person. 5. Interview-Based Study Results I conducted an interview-based study of 40 people working in or affected by family law in Ireland comprising solicitors, barristers, mediators and both separated and unmarried mothers and fathers. The majority of solicitors (82%) agreed that if an unmarried father showed an interest in his child, by contributing financially or wanting to play a part in his or her life, then judges usually grant them guardianship rights. This was affirmed in the interviews with the unmarried fathers as all but one had been appointed a guardian. In relation to custody, for couples who had been married, a judge was more likely to appoint them as joint custodians, but mothers were still the parents who were in day-to-day care of their children. 20 While in theory joint custody should mean that the residence of the child is divided equally between the parents, the reality is that unless parents live close to each other, this is not realistic in practice. Many parents, as Kilkelly points out, agree that custody should be shared ‘but responsibility for the primary care is vested in one parent, frequently the mother.’ 21 In the interview-based study, two solicitors pointed out that that while initially some fathers may seek more involvement in their children’s lives, the practicalities of work and other commitments mean that it is not feasible for them to have more than generous access rights. This was reinforced in the interviews with the parents; while the majority of separated fathers (83%) and one-third of unmarried fathers had been appointed as joint custodians, the children lived with the mother. It was encouraging, therefore, that in the study a significant majority (73%) of mothers acknowledged that the children’s fathers had obtained access to their children. Further, the majority of fathers who were interviewed in this study also stated that they had access to their children. Two of the fathers in the study were custodial parents in that the children were living with them on a full-time basis. In both of these cases, the mother had alcohol or drug dependency issues. The former partners of the two custodial fathers, however, being the mothers of their children, also had access rights which they had secured in court. This led me to the conclusion that where parents applied for access, for the most part the courts were willing to give some form of access, but fathers were less likely to have their child living with them on a full-time basis. To coincide with the interview-based study I applied to attend family law court as a bona fide researcher. While family law cases in court are generally private, in 2005 the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004 permitted specific persons to apply to attend court and observe cases in these courts. 22 I attended both the District and

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__________________________________________________________________ Circuit Family Courts over a period of nine days. In the Circuit Court the most common applications were for divorce and separation. In all cases observed women were more likely to be the applicants and men the respondents. 23 On the other hand, in the District Court six cases related to guardianship and all but one was granted. In the refused case, the father had a serious alcohol problem but the judge observed that if he showed a commitment to tackling this problem he could be granted guardianship in the future. Access was the second most common application observed in the District Court, 24 but access was not denied to any person who had applied for it. If a judge was worried about the safety of the children, due to the ill-health of the parent seeking access, then the judge ordered supervised access or requested that a psychologist report be drawn up in relation the child involved before the judge would determine if this parent should have access to the child. 6. Other Jurisdictions One of the difficulties in Ireland at present is that fathers are not automatic guardians of their children. The reluctance to appoint fathers automatically is because if that were to be the case men who become fathers as a result of an incident of rape, incest or violence could have automatic rights to their child. In New Zealand, since the enactment of the Care of Children Act 2004, an unmarried father is an automatic guardian of his child if he was either married or living with the mother of the child at any time beginning with the conception of the child and ending with the birth of the child. 25 If a father falls outside this category he still has the opportunity to apply to court to be appointed a guardian. Meanwhile in Scotland, the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 allowed for the automatic granting of the equivalent of guardianship, what in Scottish terms is called ‘parental rights and responsibilities’ to all fathers who register the birth of their child jointly with the mother. 26 Although the consent of the mother is required under the 2006 Act, the Act still affords a father an opportunity to be proactive in ensuring that his name is on the birth certificate from the time of the child’s birth. This also ensures that in the event of an acrimonious breakdown of the relationship, he will be entitled to make decisions in relation to his child into the future. In 2010, the Law Reform Commission in Ireland 27 recommended that legislation should be brought forward to allow for automatic guardianship rights for all fathers by linking guardianship with the registering of the child’s birth similar to the system in Scotland at present. 28 An unmarried father could also be more proactive in that he could register his name on the birth certificate. The mother however would be given 28 days within which to object and if she were to do so the District Court would then be under a duty to decide on the matter. The mother would also have a right to enter the father’s name without his consent but again the father would then be given 28 days to declare that he is not the father of

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__________________________________________________________________ the child. At present, an unmarried father’s name on a birth certificate only establishes paternity - that is, that he is the father. 7. Conclusion It could be argued that the marital status of the parent is more influential in the Irish Constitution than the gender of a parent, in particular for unmarried parents. The courts are still more likely to allow children to reside with their mother, although the views of the children depending on their age and understanding are increasingly being taken into account. While the protection of women in the home has been, according to Forde, ‘characterised as an unfair stereotyping of sex roles;’ 29 it could be viewed as indicative of a patriarchal society where men earn and women stay at home chained to the kitchen sink. However, contrarily it could be argued that this bias has recognised the valuable input by mothers in the home and in the rearing of future generations. A gender bias is more obvious in legislation as unmarried fathers are dependent on either the court or the consent of the mother in order to be appointed a guardian. Other countries have changed their laws in order to ensure that this system is more equitable. There are proposals by the Law Reform Commission to bring a similar system into Irish law, but unless the government is willing to implement these proposals unmarried fathers will be at the mercy of other parties for some time to come. May I perhaps leave the last word to a female solicitor in the interview-based study who while commenting on fathers’ rights, stated, ‘there is a far higher burden on them to prove their ability to parent well and generally a mother can commit more sins than a father in the eyes of the court.’

Notes 1

Bob Geldof, ‘The Real Love that Dare Not Speak its Name’, in Children and Their Families, ed. Andrew Bainham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 181. 2 In the Irish language text of the Constitution, ‘family’ is referred to as ‘an teaghlach’ meaning ‘household or family.’ 3 Further, Article 41.1.1 provides that ‘The State recognises the Family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society... .’ 4 See G v An Bord Uchtála [1980] I.R. 32 where the Supreme Court found that the unmarried mother’s rights included: ‘the right to protect and care for and have the custody of her infant child.’ G v An Bord Uchtála [1980] I.R. 32, 35. 5 [1966] I.R. 567. 6 This Act only required that the consent of the mother and any guardians to the child must be sought prior to the adoption order being made.

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__________________________________________________________________ 7

At 641. 67 Dail Debates Col. 1848. 9 67 Dail Debates Col. 1850. 10 Hilary Tovey and Perry Share, A Sociology of Ireland (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 2000), 200. 11 Section 6(1) of the Guardianship of Infants Act 1964. 12 Section 6(4) of the Guardianship of Infants Act 1964 states: ‘The mother of an illegitimate child shall be guardian of the infant.’ 13 Section 12 of the Status of Children Act 1987. 14 Section 4 of the Children Act 1997. 15 (1994) 18 EHRR 342. 16 Section 4 of the Adoption Act 1998. Section 17(3) Adoption Act 2010 provides that an unmarried father has 21 days to apply for guardianship if he has not already been appointed. 17 Section 16 of the Adoption Act 2010. 18 Section 9 Children Act 1997 and Article 9(3) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child both promote contact between parents and child, but only if it is in the child’s best interests. 19 Alan Shatter, Family Law (Dublin: Butterworths, 1997), 655. 20 Section 11A, Guardianship of Infants Act 1964 (as inserted by s.9 of the Children Act 1997). 21 Ursula Kilkelly, Children’s Rights in Ireland: Law, Policy and Practice (Dublin: Tottel Publishing, 2008), 127. 22 Section 40(3) Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004 permits family mediators, persons engaged in family law research ... or persons engaged by the Court Service to prepare court reports of proceedings. 23 In the Circuit Court, 62% of applicants were female. 24 21 cases (19%) related to access out of the 108 cases observed in this court. The most common application in this court related to maintenance. 25 Section 17(b) of the Care of Children Act 2004. 26 Section 23 of the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006. 27 The Law Reform Commission is an independent body which reviews and makes recommendations for law reform in Ireland. 28 Law Reform Commission, Report on Legal Aspects of Family Relationships (LRC 101-2010) at paragraph 2.12 29 Michael Forde, Constitutional Law (Dublin: First Law, 2004), 701. 8

Bibliography

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__________________________________________________________________ Geldof, Bob. ‘The Real Love that Dare Not Speak its Name’. In Children and Their Families, edited by Andrew Bainham, Bridget Lindley, Martin Richards, and Liz Trinder, 171–200. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Forde, Michael. Constitutional Law. Dublin: First Law, 2004. Kilkelly, Ursula. Children’s Rights in Ireland: Law, Policy and Practice. Dublin: Tottel Publishing, 2008. Ó Cearúil, Micheál. Bunreacht na hÉireann - A Study of the Irish Text. Dublin: Stationery Office: Government Publications Office, 1999. Tovey, Hilary, and Perry Share. A Sociology of Ireland. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 2000. Shatter, Alan J. Family Law. 4th Edition. Dublin: Butterworths, 1997. Anne Egan is a University Fellow in Teaching and Research in the School of Law, National University of Ireland Galway. Her research interests are in the area of fathers’ rights.

Made Men and Constructed Masculinities: Viewing the FatherSon Relationship in The Sopranos Katarina Gregersdotter and Nicklas Hållén Abstract In this paper we will investigate the father-son relationship in the TV-series The Sopranos, from a gender and class perspective. Aspects of masculinity and class as seen represented in the characters of Anthony Soprano and Anthony ‘A.J.’ Soprano will be discussed. The father - Anthony/Tony - and his son A.J. - can be seen as critical investigations of the emotional and often violent limitations of two separate, conflicting masculinities. The father, born into the Italian-American working class, grows up to become a ‘made man’ (a mafioso) like his own father. As such, he makes more money than his father did. His son thus grows up in a different class - with different views on and ideas about what a man should be. The show depicts constant clashes and negotiations between the two men in their mutual efforts to understand and get closer to each other. The negotiations involve what Sara Ahmed would call a push-and-pull relationship: they push against each other and pull away for various, contradictory reasons that include, for example, issues that involve the concept of masculinity and various forms of capital. This paper looks closer at some of the instances where the series depicts contemporary masculine ideals that are, at the very least, ambiguous and problematic. We argue that the series show the difficulties with adapting to a strict gender regime and the aggression, self-loathing, and anxiety it often entails. Key Words: The Sopranos, masculinity, cultural capital, social capital, economic capital, violence, social mobility, TV. ***** 1. Introduction In this paper we will discuss the father-son relationship in the TV-series The Sopranos, from a gender and class perspective. Aspects of masculinity and class as seen represented in the characters of Anthony ‘Tony’ Soprano and his son Anthony ‘A.J.’ Soprano will be discussed. The relationship between father and son is riddled with periods of confrontations and antagonism throughout the series, and already in the first episode of the first season, when the father starts therapy, Tony has his first panic attack on his son’s thirteenth birthday. We argue that the series show the difficulties with adapting to a strict gender regime and that, in the case of Tony and Anthony Junior, leads to depression, anxiety, excessive aggression, and self-loathing. The two characters, because of this, are portrayed as being situated in a dialectic opposition where the son, Anthony Jr., A.J., can be seen as a means for the father to define his own masculinity.

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__________________________________________________________________ Tony and his son Anthony embody masculinities that are different in aspects that partly derive from different class identities, as these masculinities entail different emotional registers. The series revolves around and has its major focus on Tony Soprano, husband and father, as well as the boss of the New Jersey DiMeo mafia family. Born into the Italian-American working class, Tony grows up to become a ‘made man’ like his father. Developments within the economy at large, as well as in organised crime, make him more economically successful than his father. His children therefore grow up in a different socio-economic environment and a more prosperous economic situation than he did himself. Tony Soprano receives psychological counselling for his recurring panic attacks. During the progression of the series, the viewer learns about several reasons for these panic attacks but is not presented with one definite answer. One of the sources of distress is, however, Soprano’s inability to combine his two different patriarchal roles. During the first seasons of the series, Tony rises from the position of capo to the de facto head of the organisation. He becomes the symbolic father figure of a hierarchical organisation in which traditional values are cherished, where violence is a means for subsistence and where social status has to be continually asserted and defended. However, Tony is also the patriarch of the Soprano family. He lives together with his wife Carmella and his two children Meadow and Anthony Jr. In the Soprano household, Catholic family values are negotiated against a postmodern, middle-class outlook, which is often represented by his children. As an example, Tony once says to his children: ‘Out there it’s the 1990s, but in here it's 1954!’ 1 His struggle to combine his livelihood and the culture that it entails with his family life is one of the causes of the psychological distress for which he seeks professional counselling. Because, despite his dual paternal power positions, Tony Soprano is depicted as a conflicted man whose masculinity is unstable and constantly negotiated. Tony Soprano idealises the kind of masculinity epitomised by actors such as Gary Cooper, who he refers to as ‘the strong silent type’ and who he believes ‘wasn’t in touch with his feelings,’ but ‘just did what he had to do’ (‘Pilot’). His memories of his own father are, at least in the beginning of the series, romanticised. He says that his father ‘had his people, their standards, and their pride’ (‘Pilot’). When he idealises his father, who like himself was the head of a mafia crew, he endorses the kind of hegemonic masculinity that Michael Kimmel describes in ‘Masculinity as Homophobia.’ Kimmel writes that ‘the hegemonic definition of manhood is a man in power, a man with power, and a man of power.’ 2 On the surface, Tony Soprano too seems to embody this type of man. A further sign of Tony Soprano’s traditional ideals is that he frequently is shown watching The History Channel, and programs about military commanders, longing back to a past of which he has no first-hand experience. 2. Social Mobility and Different Forms of Capital

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__________________________________________________________________ In the beginning of each episode, the viewer is reminded of the double patriarchal roles of the protagonist. The intro shows Tony Soprano driving down the New Jersey Turnpike, through an industrial landscape, past Satriale’s Pork Shop and along streets that eventually take him to the family house. This sequence may be interpreted as representing his oscillation between his two roles. 3 The drive takes him from an environment most readily associated with his role as mobster boss to one in which he plays the role of family father. 4 The intro also reminds the viewer of Tony Soprano’s move up the social and economic ladder, or a version of The American Dream, as one critic asserts. 5 The New Jersey backstreets that are shown in the intro may be seen as representing the working class environment from which Tony Soprano hails, as the viewer learns from scenes in which Tony describes different episodes from his childhood to his psychiatrist, Dr Melfi. These Italian-American working class neighbourhoods contrast with the wealthy neighbourhood to which his career in the mafia takes him and to which he is headed in his car in the intro sequence. The family is well-to-do and resides in a spacious house in an upper middleclass area of New Jersey. The real location of the house used as the Soprano house in the series, as well as the location of A.J.’s school, is in the borough of North Caldwell, which is one of the wealthiest areas in the state. 6 Their place of residence may be seen as a metonymical symbol for the Soprano family’s economic status. It may also be seen as a symbol for one of the two patriarchal roles Tony plays. Here, he is the head off his family, just like he is the head of the mafia family when at the Bada Bing! strip club and the Satriale’s Pork Store located in considerably less prosperous parts of the city. This social mobility may be described in terms of Bourdieu’s differentiation of different kinds of capital. Here, we have used movement in space, from one neighbourhood to another, as a symbol for a movement from one class to another. This movement, then, is made possible by the joint effects of Tony’s rise in rank within the crime syndicate and the economic benefits it entails. His acquisition of economic capital does, however, not mean that he automatically acquires what Bourdieu refers to as cultural capital. Bourdieu writes that cultural capital takes three different forms. 7 One is the embodied state, in which cultural capital takes the form of cultivation or Bildung, which Tony essentially lacks. 8 One is the objectified form of cultural capital - paintings, books and other cultural artifacts 9 which Tony to some extent does not lack, as he has a beautiful house, which his wife Carmella decorates with Lladró figurines (‘Everybody Hurts’). 10 However, Bourdieu points out that while this kind of capital can easily be transmitted, say through inheritance, what is transmitted is the ownership of the artefacts and not the means to consume them, which can only be procured by acquiring cultural capital in its embodied state. 11 The third and last kind is cultural capital in its institutionalised state. This kind of capital takes the form of educational qualifications and academic merits, 12 which Tony, as he tells his daughter Meadow

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__________________________________________________________________ (‘College’), all but lacks completely. Though he is well-to-do in an economic sense, Tony’s lack of cultural capital shows that his background is in the ItalianAmerican working class, rather than in the educated middle class. Tony Soprano shares this situation with his son Anthony, Jr. A.J. is, like his father, a mediocre student. Throughout the first seasons of the series, as Anthony grows up, he displays an increasing inability to conform to school regulations. This behaviour is partly portrayed as immature disobedience and partly as a reaction to becoming increasingly aware that all is not well in the family and that his family is different from his friends’ families. The behaviour is furthermore a sign of some of the personality traits he in fact shares with his father. One of A.J.’s teachers says in a meeting with Carmela and Tony that Anthony Jr. occasionally has problems following the rules, weighing consequences, and that he sometimes does not think before he acts (‘Down Neck’). This is simultaneously an accurate description of Tony, who works outside the boundaries of the law, and habitually and instinctively uses violence and/or a violent language before considering the options. 13 While low on cultural capital, as the de facto boss of the mafia family Tony Soprano has considerable amounts of what Bourdieu calls social capital. Bourdieu writes that: social capital is the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutional relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition - or in other words, of membership in a group which provides each of its members with the backing of collectively-owned capital, a 'credential' that entitles him [sic] to credit ... . 14 The description of the ‘durable network,’ which according to Bourdieu is the basis for social capital, has an almost uncanny comparability to the crime syndicate that Tony Soprano heads. 15 He draws considerable power from this homosocial hierarchical structure and exerts his power within it. As the head of the family, Tony Soprano enjoys the group’s collected social capital, but also acts as what Bourdieu calls the ‘paterfamilias,’ who ‘is recognized as the only member entitled to speak for the whole family group’ and who is tacitly called upon to ‘defend the collective honour when the honour of the weakest members is threatened.’ 16 Moreover, because of the fact that he holds social capital within this specific network, it affects the potential social capital outside it. In his attempts to also be a better father and husband, he looks for a type of normalcy which would be accepted outside the crime syndicate. Yet, because he holds considerable social capital within this particular network he will not gain any outside it. In a scene that takes place on a golf course (‘A Hit Is a Hit’), his efforts to have a dialogue with

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__________________________________________________________________ his male neighbours come to a halt when it turns out they are only interested in his role as a macho mobster. Tony returns to his ‘durable network,’ his crew, after this incident, never to attempt to socialise with his wealthy neighbours again. Ultimately, he is not accepted by his neighbours, precisely because of the fact that he holds social capital within his specific network and because he lacks the kind of cultural capital valued by upper middle-class people around him. While Tony’s masculinity is based on what Michael Kimmel calls marketplace masculinity 17 - in other words, Tony’s accumulation of economic capital through his acquisition of social capital - Anthony Jr. lacks direct personal access to all forms of capital. While the reason for this is of course that Anthony is not yet independent from his family, his inability to pursue social capital and to apply himself academically, socially and economically is repeatedly interpreted by his father as a sign of weakness. References to how Anthony has been affected by having been brought up in an upper middle-class environment are repeated throughout the series. Tony often makes comments on how he is too spoiled and ‘weak.’ However, the view of his son is double-sided and often contradictory. At the same time as Tony wants him to ‘toughen up,’ as for example by wanting to send him to military school (‘Mr Ruggerio’s Neighbourhood’), he constantly ridicules and diminishes A.J., as if to draw a clear line between himself his son. When Anthony Junior says that ‘when I get confirmed, I’m gonna be a man,’ Tony reminds him of the fact that he used to wet his bed at summer camp (‘Down Neck’). Masculinity is always a homosocial enactment, 18 as Kimmel maintains, and is seen here in that despite the fact that Tony has considerable power and authority, in a situation like this one, he needs to affirm his masculinity. By trying to make his son loathe himself, Tony minimises his own self-loathing. An essential scene that illustrates the father-son relationship, at least from Tony’s perspective, is when he walks by Anthony’s room and sees his son chatting on the computer (‘Cold Stones’). He stops for a moment and watches, disgusted, how his son laughs at something on the computer screen. Later in the same episode, he talks to his therapist Dr Melfi about his emotional reaction upon watching his son. Towards the end of the session, Dr Melfi asks Tony if there is something he wants to talk about, and Tony says ‘How about the fact that I hate my son?’ He says that he wants to ‘fucking smash his fucking face in’ because Anthony Junior is wasting his time, sitting in his underwear and ‘giggling like a school girl,’ thus clearly linking his emotions to a judgment. A.J.’s behaviour is ‘bad.’ 19 Tony also states that he is glad that his own father is dead so he cannot see what type of son Tony has produced. He says that he believes that, if he could give his son a sound beating as his father did to him, Anthony would perhaps ‘grow some balls.’ The problem, according to Tony, is based on the fact that Anthony does not conform to the idea of what a man should be like, according to his own, his father’s or anybody else’s norms (‘Cold Stones’). What becomes highly ironic

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__________________________________________________________________ in this scene is that Tony fails to see the negative impact his father and his father’s lifestyle has had on his own self and life, which Dr Melfi, however, points out. It is not only Tony, in his role as the patriarch of the Soprano family, who can be condescending or show disgust. Anthony Junior displays these emotions as well. But their relationship is complex and their mutual need and efforts to understand each other is obvious. These efforts are often interrupted by open hostility and disgust, as was mentioned earlier regarding the scene where Tony watches his son chatting on the computer. According to Sara Ahmed, disgust, as other emotions, should be seen as social and cultural practices, and not as psychological states. 20 In other words, they are learnt behaviour, and not automatic emotional responses to a situation or a person. They can also to a great extent be linked to power relations. By showing disgust, for example, a certain distribution of power is maintained. 21 Anthony Junior achieves certain amounts of power when he rejects his father, as for instance when Tony tries to joke with him and ends up kissing him. Anthony Junior stiffens, and eventually breaks loose from his arms. The moment is depicted as very awkward, and Tony momentarily loses his power position (‘Whoever Did This’). 3. Concluding Remarks Anthony Junior also tries to reach his father at times. One way for Anthony Junior to try to reach his father is shown in his attempts to become more violent. 22 These efforts do not work out, however, and in a scene where he could have used violence or threats, he chooses to instead give away his expensive bicycle in order to solve a problem (‘Kaisha’). Like his father, he also starts having panic attacks, once attempts to take his own life, and ends up in therapy, where he desperately exclaims: ‘Why can’t we all just get along?’ (‘Kennedy and Heidi’). One reason for the fact that Tony and Anthony Junior cannot get along, is, as we have tried to show, because they embody two different, conflicting masculinities. There are several scenes that show their many attempts to get closer to each other, and here we have talked only about a few, but throughout the series most of them show that the gap between their different upbringings is too wide and their different social, cultural, and economic capitals differ too much. Thus, Anthony Junior’s question - why can’t everybody just get along? - can be answered at least partly.

Notes 1

‘Nobody Knows Anything.’ References to the series will hereafter be given within parenthesis, using the name of the episode. 2 Michael S. Kimmel, ‘Masculinity as Homophobia’, in Privilege: A Reader, eds. Michael S. Kimmel and Abby L. Ferber (Boulder: Westview Press, 2010), 114.

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__________________________________________________________________ 3

The two patriarchal roles is of course a theme that is not hard to detect in the series. The first episode of season five is even called ‘The Two Tonys.’ 4 These two worlds are as the intro also implies not distinctly separate in Tony’s life but are rather two points on a continuum. 5 Neil A. Wynn, ‘Counselling the Mafia: The Sopranos’, Journal of American Studies 38, No. 1 (2004): 130. 6 See Bill Carter, ‘The Last Aria of Tony Soprano’, The New York Times, 26 February 2006, http://www.nytimes.com. 7 Pierre Bourdieu, ‘The Forms of Capital’, in Handbook of the Theory of Research in the Sociology of Education, ed. J. E. Richardson, trans. Richard Nice (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1986), 47. 8 Ibid., 48. 9 Ibid., 50. 10 In the episode ‘Chasing it’ Carmella breaks a Lladró figurine by throwing it at Tony during a heated run-in. 11 Bourdieu, ‘The Forms of Capital’, 50. 12 Ibid., 49. 13 In one episode Tony destroys the telephone in his house in an outburst of rage. A.J. seems both scared and worried, and Tony fails to explain his behavior to him. (‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’). 14 Bourdieu, ‘The Forms of Capital’, 51. 15 Bourdieu even adds that these networks may ‘be social constituted by the application of a common name.’ Bourdieu, ‘The Forms of Capital’, 51. 16 Ibid., 53. 17 See Kimmel for a discussion of how ‘cultural definitions of gender are played out in a contested terrain and are themselves power relations’. Kimmel, ‘Masculinity as Homophobia’, 133. 18 Ibid., 118. 19 See Sara Ahmed’s discussion about emotions as judgments in The Cultural Politics of Emotions. 20 Ibid., 9. 21 Ibid., 88. 22 He tries to avenge his father on a few occasions, for example: he brings weapons to try and kill Uncle Junior.

Bibliography Ahmed, Sara. The Cultural Politics of Emotions. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004.

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__________________________________________________________________ Bourdieu, Pierre. ‘The Forms of Capital’. In Handbook of the Theory of Research in the Sociology of Education, edited by J. E. Richardson, translated by Richard Nice, 241–258. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1986. Carter, Bill. ‘The Last Aria of Tony Soprano.’ The New York Times, 26 February 2006. Accessed 1 February 2011. http://www.nytimes.com. Johnson, Merri Lisa. ‘Gangster Feminism: The Feminist Cultural Work of HBO’s The Sopranos’. Feminist Studies 33, No. 2 (2007): 269–296. Kimmel, Michael S. ‘Masculinity as Homophobia’. In Privilege: A Reader, edited by Michael S. Kimmel, and Abby L. Ferber, 107–131. Boulder: Westview Press, 2010. Nochinson, Martha P. ‘Waddaya Lookin’ at? Re-Reading the Gangster Genre through The Sopranos’. Film Quarterly 56, No. 2 (2002-2003): 2–13. Richardson, J.E, ed. Handbook of the Theory of Research in the Sociology of Education. Translated by Richard Nice. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1986. Santo, Avi. ‘“Fat Fuck! Why don’t you take a look in the mirror?”: Weight, Body Image, and Masculinity in The Sopranos’. In This Thing of Ours This Thing of Ours Investigating the Sopranos, edited by David Lavery. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. Wynn, Neil A. ‘Counselling the Mafia: The Sopranos’. Journal of American Studies 38, No. 1 (2004): 127–132. Katarina Gregersdotter is senior lecturer in English and is currently working on an anthology on rape in Scandinavian and Anglophone crime fiction. Nicklas Hållén is currently working on material objects and modernity in British colonial travel literature about Africa.

Performative Masculinity: A New Theory on Masculinity Susan L. Pitt and Christopher A. Fox Abstract Connell’s theory on masculinity has dominated this field since 1987. Hegemonic masculinity and its dynamic relationship with femininity and other masculinities has passed from a conceptual model to a widely used framework for research and debate about men and masculinities. Connell proposed that masculinities and the relationships between them are necessary to interpret and furnish meaning to the behaviours of men. Connell’s formative work on multiple masculinities and the power/dominance relationship between masculinities is challenged in a new framework. Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, which marries the relevance of social structures and interaction in the development of the masculine habitus, is applied to masculinity. West and Zimmerman’s ‘doing’ gender thesis and Butler’s concept of performative gender are presented to shift the focus away from social structures, in order to demonstrate that gender is also constructed through social interactions rather than being an inherent trait of individuals. Connell’s theory can no longer be applied to the ways men ‘perform’ masculinities in the post-modern world. This paper posits a new way of examining masculinities with a framework of orthodoxy, heterodoxy, and cacodoxy to understand the ways men construct their masculinity. Orthodox masculinity can be constructed as the traditional notions of what it is, and what it means to be a man and to be masculine. Heterodox masculinity can be framed as strategically taking up an orthodox masculinity, but with a conscious act of (re)making it. Heterodox masculinity is still masculine; yet, at the same time, less a process of tradition, and more a process of conscious, reflexive performance. Cacodoxy when applied to masculinities alludes to that which it is not: the feminine. Yet cacodoxy is not established in opposition to orthodox masculinity, but like heterodoxy, is part of a continuum. However, when gender performance by males crosses into cacodoxy, punitive consequences can follow. Key Words: Hegemonic masculinity, masculinity, masculinities, gender, performativity, masculine habitus, orthodox masculinity, heterodox masculinity, cacodoxy. ***** 1. An Overview In order to understand the ways in which masculinity plays a role in men’s lives, and shapes their behaviours, this chapter outlines the development of a new theory of masculinities - performative masculinity. Performative masculinity has evolved from theories, of Connell, Bourdieu, West and Zimmerman, and Butler to

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__________________________________________________________________ focus on the importance of social structures and social interactions in gender development. 1 Performative masculinity is originally contextualised by an examination of Connell’s formative work on multiple masculinities which uses theories and approaches from both sides of the constructionistinteractionist/structuralist divide. Connell’s work which investigates the relationships of power and dominance that exist between masculinities is then contextualised by Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, which marries the relevance of social structures and interactions in development of the masculine habitus. 2 The masculine habitus acts as a bridge to West and Zimmerman’s ‘doing’ gender thesis, and Butler’s concept of performative gender, to shift the focus away from social structures, in order to demonstrate that gender is also constructed through social interactions and negotiation with structures, or social norms, rather than being an inherent trait of individuals. 3 Performative masculinity is then presented to demonstrate that masculinities are positioned and exist on a continuum, and rather than being a fixed notion are performed according to the demands of the social situation. 2. Connell’s Masculinities Theory Connell’s formative work on masculinities informs most contemporary investigations into the role of gender for men. 4 Connell’s theory of masculinities evolved for frameworks of gender dynamics and social construction, which holds that people construct or create their own identities and position themselves in the world according to their understandings of particular discourses. 5 In this way it is possible that masculinities are contradictory and dynamic. Constructions of masculinities occur every day through to macro structures of containment (such as economic and institutional structures) together with interactions (such as workplace relations). Further, Connell asserts that multiple masculinities exist, and, as with relations of alliance, dominance and subordination, these multiple masculinities act to demarcate the inside from the outside or the empowered from the powerless. 6 In Western culture, there are four broad dynamics of masculinities; hegemonic, subordinated, marginalised and complicit. 7 The relations of dominance that hegemonic masculinity has over the other masculinities is not achieved by force alone, which implies the complicity of the dominated on some level. 8 Connell draws on Gramsci’s analysis of class relations, in her construction of hegemonic masculinity. 9 In particular, she refers to a cultural dynamic where one group of people claims and sustains social life’s leading position, which is established and maintained when there is some correspondence between the cultural ideal of the hegemony and institutional power. Hegemony is therefore successful when it embodies and wields power and authority. It can be intergenerational and as such implies the requirement of social structures and interactions for the production of dominance yet remains challengeable from other groups of men and women. 10 At any given time, hegemonic masculinity is elevated

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__________________________________________________________________ over femininities and all other masculinities, legitimising patriarchy, and giving these men the dominant position. 11 While hegemony relates to cultural dominance in society as a whole, two misunderstanding commonly occur with this concept. Firstly, though hegemony does not refer to ascendancy based on force, Connell’s hegemonic masculinity can be compatible with this, as physical or economic force support cultural patterns whether it is enacted or not. 12 Secondly, hegemony does not necessarily translate to cultural dominance and the alienation of alternatives, as it is achieved within a balance of forces, requiring the existence of others to be compared with and ascended over. As a cultural ideal, hegemonic masculinity does not need to correspond to the actual personalities of the majority of men, as its power lies in its idealised status rather than numerical dominance. 13 Whilst hegemony relates to cultural dominance in society as a whole within the overall gender order framework there are specific relations of dominance and subordination between groups of men. The exalted position that heterosexual (straight) men have over gay men in Australia is an example of this dominant/subordinated masculinity dichotomy. 14 Gay men are subordinated to straight men by an array of practices and these practices position gay men’s masculinities at the bottom of the male gender hierarchy among men. 15 Generally, within subordinated masculinities there is a symbolic blurring of the boundaries with femininity. 16 Patriarchal cultures have simple interpretations of gay men, they lack masculinity and from this view gay masculinity is easily assimilated to femininity. 17 Opposites attract and if someone is attracted to the masculine, then by this argument they must somehow be feminine, if not in body then in mind. 18 Gayness in patriarchal ideology is the dumping ground of whatever is expelled from hegemonic masculinity and therefore the heteronormative, such as receptive anal pleasure. While subordination refers to relations internal to the gender order, marginalised masculinities are constructed through the intersection of external social structures such as ethnicity and class, and these structures become an integral part of the dynamics the between masculinities. 19 Marginalisation is always relative to the authority of the hegemonic masculinity of the dominant group. So in Australia, marginalisation occurs in reference to an Anglo/Australian hegemonic masculinity, and those of the middle classes. However, while men outside these structures can be exemplars of hegemonic masculinity this does not equate to social power for all men outside these boundaries. Complicit masculinity, like subordinated masculinity, also relates to the internal gender order. Normative and idealised definitions of masculinity face the problem that not many men actually meet these standards. While the actual number of men that are practicing or able to fulfil hegemonic masculinity is quite small, the majority of men gain from its existence in the overall subordination of women (patriarchy). The relationship of the complicit masculinity to hegemonic

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__________________________________________________________________ masculinity is a way of showing how a large number of men have a connection with the hegemonic concept without embodiment of it. It allows these men to benefit from the fruits of patriarchy, without the risks associated with it. 20 Men have extensive interactions with women throughout the lifespan that involve compromise rather than domination and authority. Men are nurtured by their mothers from birth; are involved in marriage and parenthood with women; and work alongside or are managed by them. Nevertheless, they still benefit from the patriarchal dividend; where women are paid less than men and men receive the benefits of women’s unpaid labour, hold authority in the state and enjoy sexual freedoms seemingly inappropriate for females. 21 Although Connell’s work is about cultural masculinities; there is an embodiment of these cultural ideals with men acting them out. This gives rise to a performativity and the need for re-examination of Connell’s masculinities. 3. Bourdieu - A Masculine Habitus Bourdieu’s concept of habitus captures the set of dispositions of masculinity, created and reformulated through the union of objective structures and personal histories. An individual’s habitus is transposable and conveys the ways in which people become themselves by developing attitudes and dispositions. 22 As a person’s own knowledge and understanding of their world contributes to their reality, social interactions contribute to the habitus together with social structures. A masculine habitus conveys the ways in which individual men become more masculine through intergenerational structures, socialisation and their personal histories, developing masculine perspectives and propensities, which then apply to their conscious and unconscious behaviours. However, unlike Bourdieu’s classed habitus, the gendered habitus is not fixed through time for individuals or from one generation to the next. The masculine habitus can be challenged and changed for society as a whole, through ‘historical accidents,’ such as the feminist movement, or, for example, gay men, through the personal challenges involved with issues around sexual desire, ‘coming out,’ and the battle with heteronormativity. 23 4. West and Zimmerman together with Butler West and Zimmerman and Butler’s gender theories shift from the need to incorporate social structures and social interactions, to focus primarily on interactions and constructions. 24 This focus demonstrates that gender, and hence masculinities, are enacted by individuals rather than being possessed by them. West and Zimmerman suggest that gender is a verb and that ‘doing’ gender successfully consists of managing circumstances so that behaviours are finely tuned to the demands of an occasion. 25 This involves doing whatever is necessary so the outcome is seen by others, either virtual or real, to be contextually gender appropriate. 26 Individuals ‘do’ gender, and it is conceived ‘as an emergent feature of social situations: as both an outcome and a rationale for various social

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__________________________________________________________________ arrangements and as a means of legitimising one of the most fundamental divisions in society;’ the subordinate position women hold in relationship to men. 27 West and Zimmerman argue that while gender is omnipresent, in its ‘doing,’ there is the opportunity to reform and adapt its meaning. 28 Butler conceptualised gender with in a post-structuralist framework, focusing only on the social interactions that contribute to gender’s construction. 29 This perspective contrasts with those of West and Zimmerman and Connell, which contend that gender is tied to the corresponding sexed body (masculinities to the male body, and femininities to the female body). 30 However, Butler finds the link between sex and gender problematic, and argues instead that gender can represent multiple interpretations of sex. She proposes: [w]hen the constructed status of gender is theorised as radically independent of sex, gender itself becomes a free floating artifice, with the consequence that man and masculine might just as easily signify a female body as a male one, and a woman and feminine a male bode as easily as a female one. 31 Butler’s conceptualisation of gender construction enables research to unravel the dynamics in which genders are constructed and upheld. 32 In this sense, a man can perform either masculinity or femininity at his choosing. However, if a man performs femininity (or a woman, masculinity), it can have punitive consequences, as in contemporary society we frequently punish those who fail to ‘do’ their gender in the ‘right’ manner. 33 Butler’s theory challenges the traditional gender binaries underpinning Connell and in turn challenges the power in heteronormative practices. 5. Performative Masculinity: A Framework of Orthodox Masculinity, Heterodox Masculinity and Cacodoxy To bring these ideas together we have developed a framework of performative masculinity on a continuum of orthodoxy, heterodoxy, and cacodoxy. We explore this framework next to demonstrate that masculinities are positioned and exist on a continuum - the masculine habitus - rather than being a fixed notion. This framework has not been developed from preconceived ideas of masculinity, but rather created from a ‘wardrobe’ of masculinities that men use to construct their own masculinity and perform it within their daily lives. A. Orthodox Masculinity Regarding masculinity, traditional notions of what it is, and what it means to be a man and to be masculine is considered orthodox. Orthodox is described as ‘of or in accordance with views, attitudes, beliefs, or practices prevalent or established in a particular society.’ 34 Related to Saltzman Chafetz’s research, traits of masculinity

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__________________________________________________________________ include: braveness, stoicism, independence and confidence, and demonstrate orthodox masculinity. 35 For example, an orthodox physical masculinity would be constructed around Saltzman Chafetz’s traits of virility, strength and athleticism. 36 B. Heterodox Masculinity Strictly speaking, heterodox is the antithesis of orthodox, and it is articulated as ‘not in accordance with established doctrines or opinions, or those generally recognised as right of orthodox.’ 37 However, non-traditional - that is heterodox masculinities are not constructed as the opposite to traditional orthodox masculinities. Heterodox masculinity still strategically takes up the traits and behaviours associated with an orthodox masculinity, but this is a conscious act of (re)making masculinity. In this way, heterodox masculinity is still masculine; yet at the same time, less a process of tradition, and more a process of conscious, reflexive performance. For example, emotional masculinity when constructed as a heterodox masculinity breaks from traditional, and is constructed around the traits of emotional strength and self-confidence (both orthodox traits), but the presentation of these traits alters under heterodox masculinity. In the heterodox, strength and confidence in emotionality does not mean stoicism, as it would in the orthodox. Instead, masculinity is constructed as having and expressing emotions, and seeking assistance to remedy any perceived problem. As such, in being emotionally heterodox, men strategically shift between orthodox and heterodox masculinity. The masculine habitus, therefore, must contain both orthodox and heterodox masculinities. As a consequence this larger ‘wardrobe’ of masculinity may enable the men to employ adaptive strategies to improve their lives. C. Cacodoxy Despite this wider array of acceptable masculinities there is still a gender border - a gendered habitus - that is only visible after its transgression. Once gender performance by men cross the gender border, it enters cacodoxy. Cacodoxy is described as the ‘wrong opinion or doctrine’ and when applied to masculinities allude to that which it is not: the feminine. 38 Yet, cacodoxy is not established in opposition to the orthodox masculinity, but like heterodoxy, is part of a continuum. In essence, cacodoxy is a ‘no man’s’ land and ‘no woman’s’ land, neither masculine nor feminine (nor androgynous). When gender performance by males, crosses into cacodoxy, alarm bells usually sound and punitive consequences can follow. A male’s sexuality may be brought into question or he may be denied sexual or romantic partners of his choice. For example, a man who dresses in women’s clothes for a fancy-dress party is still performing orthodox masculinity, yet if a man chooses to dress in women’s clothing for sexual gratification - society labels him a ‘pervert.’ 39

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__________________________________________________________________ 6. Conclusion The thesis of this chapter was to challenge Connell’s concepts of masculinities (and femininities) and to provide an evolved theory of gender in a post-modern world. We have proposed a new framework utilising Connell’s multiple masculinities and Bordieu’s notion of the habitus, with West and Zimmerman’s ‘doing gender’ alongside Butler’s performative gender. The framework proposes a continuum of performance for gender, in this case masculinities. Men who perform their gender in line with social norms and expectations are said to be orthodox in their expression, while men who re-formulate this within the bounds of the masculine habitus are expressing a heterodox masculinity. When a man transgresses the social norms beyond the acceptable limits we argue he enters cacodoxy, with punitive consequences generally following. This idea of gender performance on a continuum is as applicable to women and femininities, as it is to men. The continuum provides a new approach with which to analyse gender, gender roles and gendered behaviour within different cultures.

Notes 1

Raewyn Connell, Masculinities, 2nd Edition (Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2005). Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984). Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman, ‘Doing Gender’, Gender and Society 1 (1987): 125-151. Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, 2nd Edition (New York: Routledge, 1999). 2 Connell, Masculinities, 2nd Edition. Bourdieu, Distinction. 3 West and Zimmerman, ‘Doing Gender.’ Butler, Gender Trouble. 4 Connell, Masculinities, 2nd Edition. 5 Ibid. Also Louise Du Chesne and Ben Bradley, ‘The Subjective Experiences of the Lesbian (M)other: An Exploration of the Construction of Lesbian Maternal Identity’, Gay & Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review 3, No. 3 (2007): 5-33. 6 Connell, Masculinities, 2nd Edition. 7 Ibid. 8 Connell, Masculinities, 2nd Edition. Raewyn Connell, Gender and Power (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987). 9 Connell, Masculinities, 2nd Edition. Connell, Gender and Power. 10 Connell, Masculinities, 2nd Edition. 11 Ibid. 12 Connell, Masculinities, 2nd Edition. Connell, Gender and Power. 13 Ibid. 14 ‘Straight’ is used as it encapsulates the heteronormative practices that contribute to the subordination of gay men and to the continuation of hegemony.

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__________________________________________________________________ 15

Raewyn Connell, Masculinities (St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1995). Ibid. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid. 19 Connell, Masculinities, 2nd Edition. Demetrakis Z. Demetriou ‘Connell’s Concept of Hegemonic Masculinity: A Critique’, Theory and Society 30 (2001): 337-361. 20 Connell, Masculinities. 21 Ibid. 22 Jen Webb, Tony Schirato, and Geoff Danaher, Understanding Bourdieu (Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2002). 23 Pierre Bourdieu, Masculine Domination (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001). 24 West and Zimmerman, Doing Gender. Butler, Gender Trouble. 25 West and Zimmerman, Doing Gender. 26 Ibid. 27 Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman, ‘Doing Gender’, in The Social Construction of Gender, ed. Jennifer Lorber and Susan A. Farrell (Newbury Park: Sage, 1991), 13-37. 28 Kristen Natalier, ‘“I’m Not His Wife:” Doing Gender and Doing Housework in the Absence of Women’, Journal of Sociology 39, No. 3 (2003): 253-269. 29 Butler, Gender Trouble. 30 Butler, Gender Trouble. Connell, Masculinities, 2nd Edition. 31 Butler, Gender Trouble. 32 Ibid. 33 Ibid. 34 ‘Orthodox’, Oxford English Dictionary Online, last modified 2000, Accessed 27 August 2007, http://dictionary.oed.com.ezproxy.utas.edu.au/cgi/entry/00334152?single=1&query _type=word&queryword=orthodox&first=1&max_to_show=10. 35 Janet Saltzman Chafetz, Masculine Feminine or Human?: An Overview of the Sociology of the Gender Roles, 2nd Edition (Itasca: F.E. Peacock Publishers Inc., 1978). 36 Ibid. 37 ‘Heterodox’, Oxford English Dictionary Online, last modified 2000, Accessed 27 August 2007, http://dictionary.oed.com.ezproxy.utas.edu.au/cgi/entry/50105477?single=1&query _type=word&queryword=heterodox&first=1&max_to_show=10. 38 ‘Cacodoxy’, Oxford English Dictionary Online, last modified 2000, Accessed 27 August 2007, 16

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__________________________________________________________________ http://dictionary.oed.com.ezproxy.utas.edu.au/cgi/entry/50030912?single=1&query _type=word&queryword=cacodoxy&first=1&max_to_show=10. 39 We are not referring to transexuliasm/transgenderism or drag. We are referring to men who dress in women’s clothing for sexual gratification.

Bibliography Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984. Bourdieu, Pierre. Masculine Domination. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001. Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, 2nd Edition. New York: Routledge, 1999. Connell, Raewyn. Gender and Power. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987. —––. Masculinities. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1995. —––. Masculinities, 2nd Edition. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2005. Demetriou, Demetrakis Z. ‘Connell’s Concept of Hegemonic Masculinity: A Critique’. Theory and Society 30 (2001): 337–361. Du Chesne, Louise and Ben Bradley. ‘The Subjective Experiences of the Lesbian (M)other: An Exploration of the Construction of Lesbian Maternal Identity’. Gay & Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review 3, No. 3 (2007): 25–33. Natalier, Kristen. ‘“I’m Not His Wife:” Doing Gender and Doing Housework in the Absence of Women’. Journal of Sociology 39, No. 3 (2003): 253–269. Webb Jen, Tony Schirato, and Geoff Danaher. Understanding Bourdieu. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2002. West Candace and Don H. Zimmerman. ‘Doing Gender’. Gender and Society 1 (1987): 125–151. West Candace, and Don H. Zimmerman. ‘Doing Gender’. In The Social Construction of Gender, edited by Jennifer Lorber and Susan A. Farrell, 13–37. Newbury Park: Sage, 1991.

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__________________________________________________________________ Oxford English Dictionary Online. ‘Cacodoxy’. Last modified 2000. Accessed 27 August, 2007. http://dictionary.oed.com.ezproxy.utas.edu.au/cgi/entry/50030912?single=1&query _type=word&queryword=cacodoxy&first=1&max_to_show=10. —––. ‘Heterodox’. Last modified 2000. Accessed August 27, 2007. http://dictionary.oed.com.ezproxy.utas.edu.au/cgi/entry/50105477?single=1&query _type=word&queryword=heterodox&first=1&max_to_show=10. —––. ‘Orthodox’. Last modified 2000. Accessed August 27, 2007. http://dictionary.oed.com.ezproxy.utas.edu.au/cgi/entry/00334152?single=1&query _type=word&queryword=orthodox&first=1&max_to_show=10. Saltzman Chafetz, Janet. Masculine Feminine or Human?: An Overview of the Sociology of the Gender Roles, 2nd Edition. Itasca: F.E. Peacock Publishers Inc., 1978. Susan L. Pitt graduated from the University of Tasmania with upper first class honours in Sociology and is currently completing her Masters of Social Research at the Australian National University. She is employed in gendered health. Her work allows her to combine her research interest in males, masculinities and the social determinants of health with her employment. Christopher A. Fox is a former Senior Lecturer with the La Trobe Rural Health School teaching public health. Christopher’s work focuses on gender, masculinity, men, men’s health, body image and sexuality.

PART 2 Representing Masculinity and Femininity

Human/Non-Human: Gender Dynamics and the Female/Animal Condition in Medieval Culture María Beatriz Hernández Pérez Abstract The dissolution of the frontiers between the human and non-human animal realms was a common motif in ancient cultures, where primeval bonds between animals and humans were taken for granted. Legatee to quite diverse and even contradictory perspectives and aspects of such connections, the Middle Ages produced a concomitant complex net of categories from which these dynamics were to be surveyed. The ubiquitous presence of the animal element is shown clearly in medieval literary and artistic representations as evidence of its crucial role in the shaping of perceptions of sexuality, food, natural sustainability, property or governance. The cultural construction of gender allowed a short distance between the animal and the female conditions, given the essential material and reproductive values with which they were equally endowed. Processes such as hybridation and metamorphoses reveal the ambiguous space occupied by women’s bodies as intermediaries between culture and nature, and thus, as marginal destabilising elements in the configuration of the boundaries between the human and animal spheres. This paper will analyse some of the medieval representations of the female element in its proximity to the animal nature in order to reflect on the relationship between the social construction of women and the oppression of animals. Key Words: Women, animals, Middle Ages, body, nature. ***** ‘The question of the animal’ has recently challenged the anthropocentrism of the Western philosophical tradition, by regarding humans and animals as basically non-distinct species. This interest results from the more general concern about nature, which has fostered debates and revealed some of the discontinuities among diverse contemporary theories and activist positions. The feminist movement has been called upon and encouraged to get involved in the fight for the welfare of nature and the planet, following the premise that some of the issues pertaining to the current consideration of nature have been previously met and shared by women. However, the relationship between women and nature had, in fact, been one of the crucial targets of the early feminist movement. One of Simone de Beauvoir’s tenets was precisely the disavowal of the tradition that regarded women as natural beings and nature, reversely, with a motherly profile. The tandem of nature/women, as opposed to that of culture/men, stands as one more piece in the basic binary set of structures upon which the whole Western

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__________________________________________________________________ linguistic and cultural edifice is erected. Whereas many feminist currents which follow an anthropocentric line have taken a deep interest in taking women away from nature, the critical integrationists consider such a bond an inalienable one, difficult to reject and unwise to deny. Determined to make virtue of necessity, these authors have defended the essentialist relationship between nature and female bodily expressions and maintained the classical dualities by simply reversing the weight of the pros and cons in the balance. 1 Where some authors underline the lifegiving quality of animals in the form of food as a primary source of our relation with the rest of the species, others, in sharp contrast, stress the human fear of being devoured by beasts as a triggering factor in that relation. Some ecofeminists would link the latter to a cultural drive reflecting the male need to organise social structures on the bases of violence. 2 Thus, where some authors underline the lifegiving quality of animals in the form of food as a primary source of our relation with the rest of the species, others, in sharp contrast, others stress the human fear of being devoured by beasts as a triggering factor in that relation. Some ecofeminists would link the latter to a cultural drive reflecting the male need to organise social structures on the bases of violence. My concern in this paper is to present a survey of the historical construction of the bond of women and nature during these centuries. As for the relationship of the Middle Ages with the environment, the image which has prevailed is that of a basically autarchic, underdeveloped agrarian model which would result in regular intervals of hunger and disease and in general scarcity. However, it was in the 11th century when a clearly exploitive attitude appeared in the Western agrarian world. Developments like that of the heavy - eight-oxen-drawn - plough lead into the picture of a much better organised society, willing to undertake deforestation and intense cultivation of the soil. In like manner, and following the precept of Genesis, animals, as part of nature, were conceived of as suitable to be fully used beyond any further consideration. The age-old process of producing new animal breeds and domesticating them went on and intensified; of course, the hunting and fishing activities were crucial to the economic reality of these countries, but it was the domestication and breeding of animals that allowed the spread of this civilisation (selective horse breeding with the Franks, bovine selection, domestication of the wild boar; and after the 11th c, sheep raising, which turns Flanders and England into centres of the cloth industry). It is the biblical commandment: ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth’ 3 that reveals the bond between women and animals. Humankind is urged there to reproduce in order to control nature through the dominion over animals. One would assume that women would participate equally in the superior position of the human over the animal realm. However, human reproduction and sovereignty over animals are based on exactly the same operation - the domestication process; and this places women as

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__________________________________________________________________ an intermediary between the two realms. Whatever the historical circumstances and discourses accounting for the rise of the Western gender system, we cannot deny the affinity between the domestication of animals and that of women. If animals require a spatial definition to fall under human control, women equally occupy the domestic sphere in the gender organisation ruled by the family unit; reciprocally, animals are not only to be controlled as providers of labour force, food or clothes, but simultaneously through the administration of their reproductive capacity. The kinship systems kept women sharing with animals their domesticity and reproductive nature, that is, their chattel quality. Historical and literary evidence confirms that early medieval societies would organise themselves on the basic marriage contract, through which families, clans, tribes would make peace and enlarge their economic and cultural patrimonies. Women would never travel alone when sent to their husbands’ households: their worth was declared and reinforced by the chattel nature of the animals they brought to the new families, as part of their dowries. Thus, animals and women were to be perceived again as close in nature and roles. As is well known, philosophical, religious and scientific discourses in antiquity contributed to the rise of a gender system which responded and organised itself on the duality between the bodily and the spiritual. Whereas in the axis male/female the bodily aspects were associated attributed to the female, in the more general distinction between human and animal species, the bodily as a quality was associated with the animal. Thus, the bond between the female and the animal was taken for granted and could only receive further explanation by medieval exegetes. It is quite revealing, on the one hand, that these authors needed animal skin to produce their writings; that bodily aspect - the writing on the surface of calfskin hides properly handled for parchment - was undeniable and thus had to be transcended through the abstract quality allowed by the written code. This way, the message was safely conveyed beyond its base animal skin level. 4 Even within this code, the letter itself, the littera, was perceived as too close to the animal material, too easy to read and touch; thus the literal had to be transcended, be brought into the abstract through the diverse levels of reading described by the exegetes. In sharing the animal nearness to nature through their bodily condition, 5 women were also molded by these early authors as the base matter on which the spiritual male principle was to be stamped, incised, written down, dictated, and from which it would transcend. Thus, women at large were symbolically portrayed as the skin, parchment, the paper, or the covering of the hidden spiritual principle which was contained in and departed from it. 6 Theirs was the realm of the superficial, of the cosmetic. However discouraging this picture was, Christianity offered some degree of flexibility in its description of the gender system, by adding the divide not between the bodily and the spiritual but between the fleshly and the spiritual. Thus, it was the principle of the flesh that had to be avoided or transcended; the body itself

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__________________________________________________________________ could now become the site for virtues and divine power, as confirmed by the cult of relics. Women could, thus, be endowed with the capacity to overcome the principle of the flesh without having to renounce their bodily qualities. Could animals do the same? If women could transcend base animal instincts in order to reach the divine, could animals surpass as well their mere chattel nature and be considered somehow as human? It is my contention that the process through which women and animals were allowed unexpected degrees of resourcefulness and responsibility responds to the emergence of a new appreciation of nature that took place in the 12th century. One of the issues pointed out by philosophers who have dealt with the question of the animal is the fact that the concept itself (under a single homogenous heading) actually refers to a huge variety of creatures; due to the tremendous differential scope in their relationship with human beings, animals have been perceived according to those distances as symbolically standing for human diversity itself. This is what fables have reflected traditionally. 7 To this basic attitude, one that suggests the possibility of some degree of intimacy between the species, a more scientific and detached approach to animals was carried out by the authors who followed the allegorical 2nd century treatises known as ‘The Physiologus,’ turned into handbooks for the knowledge of animal behaviour. 8 By the 12th and 13th centuries, collections of descriptions of animals or bestiaries were popularised, together with those of fables, and became educational tools in the learning of rhetoric. Thus, through literature and language, both in the religious and the secular spheres, ranging from the popular to the allegorical and scientific levels, animals had access to the human world not only as providers of basic raw materiality but as carriers of abstract meanings. The fact that a woman, Marie de France, wrote fables along with love lais (the lyrical, narrative romantic poems), or that Franciscan preachers used as many as 311 fables in their sermons, makes evident and underscores a new willingness to listen to and speak for nature and its creatures. Precisely, it is by the 12th century when the celebration of Christ’s most female side - his capacity to endure bodily pain through love of his creatures - is echoed in secular literary circles by the rise of the courtly love model. If love and sentiment so far ignored - are being taken into account as part of a human and divine nature, in philosophical debates and legal procedures the notion of individual intention will be equally significant. Thus, this 12th century humanism does bring into the forefront feeling and intention, and, at the same time, proves incapable of avoiding the effects of this revolution on animals. This tendency had a wide repercussion in scholastic circles, which started to interpret the Aristotelian legacy on the types of souls along with the Pauline dictums. Questions about the meaning of the animal presence to Christ’s birth, for instance, led to concerns such as whether they could resurrect and go to heaven, or whether they should be allowed to rest on Sunday, and this attitude developed into an interest in their moral condition. By the 13th

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__________________________________________________________________ century, for instance, animals were being held responsible for their actions before the law. 9 As said before, the common fabric from which animals and female humans had been formulated was no other than the basic material condition which, among others, served to account for the biological need for food or sex. The connections between the eating habits and the sexual practices of these societies is quite revealing of the deep bond between animals and women. It is in eating and in sexual intercourse where the frontiers between the bodies are eroded and become invisible, where the dangers to bring the too different or too similar natures together bring about impurity and pollution. Women’s sinful or impure condition would be confirmed by their avowed lust, dealt with through the vocabulary of hunger, the best example being the topic of the vagina dentata. 10 But if women could be regarded as ferocious insatiable devourers, through pregnancy, however, their body would turn into a life-giving organism which in return offered itself as food and clothing to the unborn one, in a basic analogy to the animal uses. 11 This enigmatic quality of motherhood was privileged in the portrayal of Christ having received his fleshly nature exclusively from a woman; Christ’s humanity was inextricably bound to the female character at large, and his capacity for feminization caused a mirror refraction whereby on the whole femininity came to symbolize humankind in its relationship with the divine. 12 When humanity sees itself as female and fragile, animals are equally restored to grace. Thus, in the eyes of such visionaries as St Francis, animals and humans and all the elements in nature formed an all-embracing brotherhood/sisterhood. Notwithstanding these promising intersections, from the 13th century onwards just as animals start to receive further attributes, they start being thrown beyond the limits of the natural towards the unnatural regions. With the rise of an increasingly individualistic and persecuting attitude in late-medieval society, the lack of tolerance reached animals and women alike. Once more, their reciprocity was reinforced, now in the shape of the monstrous liaison they might provoke. Building on ancient and biblical legacies, these authors developed further the notion of the monstrous races that inhabited the uncivilised parts of the planet; excessive, defective or mixed hybrid misconception would be the basis of the perception of the other, the fruit of the human fantasy of a realm where all the species, human and non-human animals, could belong together, and where the female body would be the means through which the monster would come into existence. 13 Along with the proliferation of fantastic animals, some of the regular, almost familiar beasts were also marked as signs of a possible oddness. It is the case of goats or cats, natural preys of the devil’s embodiment and the most popular incarnations of the bond between beasts and women, now turned into witches. In the survey just offered we have been able to guess the difficulty in deciding the degree of anthropocentrism found in the Middle Ages. The centuries that followed would disallow any expression of closeness between human and animal

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__________________________________________________________________ natures. Since dealing with the wide range of standpoints from which the issue has been presented would be impossible here, let me just point out that some of the most insightful modern contributions try to delve into the logics of the principle of opposition in order to perceive and probe the nuances and permeability that it implies. Despite the temporal gap, these authors’ models do partly coincide with the late medieval mystical depictions of an open world, with the ethics of the vulnerable, or with the visions of becomingness, some of which are vindicated by ecofeminist movements. 14

Notes 1

Alicia Puleo, ‘Género y Naturaleza’, in I Congreso de Humanidades. Naturaleza, Filosofía y Sociedad, ed. by Vicente Hernández Pedrero, Luz López Ramírez and Ana Hardisson Rumeu (La Laguna: Ateneo, 2000), 135. 2 See Donna Haraway, Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science (New York: Routledge, 1989), 5. 3 Genesis, 1:28. 4 Having been created after men (according to the Priestly version of the Creation), women’s secondary duplicitous behavior, as well as their intellectual incapacity became givens. 5 Theirs was considered a failed cold and humid physiological nature, characterised by the superfluity of blood and lacking in heat. 6 Monica Potkay Brzezinski and Regula Meyer Evitt, eds., Minding the Body. Women and Literature in the Middle Ages, 800-1500 (London: Twayne, 1997), 25. 7 The particularity of each animal in a precise situation, leading us to learn from the moral but also to measure the difference between ourselves and those who would behave like the animal. 8 Debra Hassig, ed., The Mark of the Beast (New York and London: Routledge, 2000), xii. 9 Michel Pastoreau, Una Historia Simbólica de la Edad Media Occidental (Buenos Aires: Katz, 2006), 27-50. 10 David Williams, Deformed Discourse. The Function of the Monster in Mediaeval Thought and Literature (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1999), 165. 11 The same reason accounts for images in which female animals swallow human beings, as happens with whales or sea creatures in general, symbolically associated to the female liquid nature. 12 Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast. The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 265. 13 The capacity to gestate was the key to monstrosity, pregnancy being the icon of a body containing an-other, a monstrous sight. See Margrit Shildrick, Embodying the Monster. Encounters with the Vulnerable Self (London: Sage, 2002), 29.

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__________________________________________________________________ 14

Barbara T. Gates, ‘Una Raíz del Ecofeminismo: Écofeminisme’, in Ecocríticas. Literatura y Medio Ambiente, ed. by Carmen Flys Junquera, José M. Marrero Henríquez and Julia Barella Vigal (Madrid: Iberoamericana, 2010).

Bibliography Adams, Carol, and Josephine Donovan, eds. Animals and Women. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1995. Brzezinski Potkay, Monica, and Regula Meyer Evitt, eds. Minding the Body. Women and Literature in the Middle Ages, 800-1500. London: Twayne, 1997. DeGrazia, David. Animal Rights. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Economou, George D., The Goddess Natura in Medieval Literature. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002. Flores, Nona C., ed. Animals in the Middle Ages. New York and London: Routledge, 1996. Flys Junquera, Carmen, José M. Marrero Henríquez, and Julia Barella Vigal, eds. Ecocríticas. Literatura y Medio Ambiente. Madrid: Iberoamericana, 2010. Gaard, Greta, ed. Ecofeminism. Women, Animals, Nature. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993. Gates, Barbara T. ‘Una Raíz del Ecofeminismo: Écofeminisme’. In Ecocríticas. Literatura y Medio Ambiente, edited by Carmen Flys Junquera, José M. Marrero Henríquez and Julia Barella Vigal, translated by Margarita Carretero, 165–176. Madrid: Iberoamericana, 2010. Glotfelty, Cheryll, and Harold Fromm, eds. The Ecocriticism Reader. Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Athens & London: University of Georgia Press, 1996. Gruen, Lori. ‘Dismantling Oppression: An Analysis of the Connection between Women and Animals’. In Ecofeminism. Women, Animals, Nature, edited by Greta Gaard, 60–90. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993.

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__________________________________________________________________ Haraway, Donna. Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science. New York: Routledge, 1989. —––. When Species Meet. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2008. Hassig, Debra, ed. The Mark of the Beast. New York and London: Routledge, 2000. Hernández Pedrero, Vicente, Luz López Ramírez, and Ana Hardisson Rumeu, eds. I Congreso de Humanidades. Naturaleza, Filosofía y Sociedad. La Laguna: Ateneo, 2000. Horner, Shari. The Discourse of Enclosure. Representing Women in Old English Literature. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. Manes, Christopher. ‘Nature and Silence’. In The Ecocriticism Reader. Landmarks in Literary Ecology, edited by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm, 15–28. Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 1996. Mann, Jill. From Aesop to Reynard. Beast Literature in Medieval Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Osborne, Catherine. Dumb Beasts and Dead Philosophers. Humanity & the Humane in Ancient Philosophy & Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2007. Pastoureau, Michel. Una Historia Simbólica de la Edad Media Occidental. Buenos Aires: Katz, 2006. Puleo, Alicia. ‘Género y Naturaleza’. In I Congreso de Humanidades. Naturaleza, Filosofía y Sociedad, edited by Vicente Hernández Pedrero, Luz López Ramírez and Ana Hardisson Rumeu, 125–139. La Laguna: Ateneo, 2000. Rowland, Beryl. Animals with Human Faces. A Guide to Animal Symbolism. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1974. Salisbury, Joyce E. The Beast Within. Animals in the Middle Ages. New York and London: Routledge, 1994.

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__________________________________________________________________ Salter, David. Holy and Noble Beasts. Encounters with Animals in Medieval Literature. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2001. Shildrick, Margrit. Embodying the Monster.Encounters with the Vulnerable Self. London: Sage, 2002. Walker Bynum, Caroline. Holy Feast and Holy Fast. The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. Williams, David. Deformed Discourse. The Function of the Monster in Mediaeval Thought and Literature. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1999. María Beatriz Hernández Pérez teaches at the Universidad de La Laguna (Canary Islands, Spain) and is a member of the CEMyR Institute of Medieval Studies and of the Institute of Women’s Studies of this university (IUEM). She is interested in medieval culture and literature, in Art History as well as in Gender Studies. Her research deals broadly with medieval literature.

Their Proper Spheres: Engendering Difference in English Essay Periodicals of the Eighteenth Century Caroline Lafitte Abstract The growing popularity of essay periodicals in the Eighteenth Century, along with the emergence of literary venues like coffee-houses, tea tables and circulating libraries, helped to establish a new readership that was urban, middle-class, and increasingly female. Women became part of the reading public for the first time and they began to contribute in increasingly larger numbers to a rapidly expanding print culture. Moreover, the rise of literary journalism initiated the proliferation of a new gender ideology that promoted separate spheres for men and women. Periodicals introduced the private sphere of the home to the public sphere of the media by negotiating, analysing and constructing Eighteenth Century gender roles. The periodical’s combination of amusement and instruction helped to establish new social norms and promulgated the new genre’s great success. In this paper, I would like to discuss the ways in which the first periodical that exclusively addressed a female readership articulated the new allocation of gender roles in post-revolutionary and preindustrial England. My aim is to show how masculinity and femininity were interdependently constructed as a mode of social consciousness and defined against one another in the newly emerged genderspecific periodical. The unprecedented social knowledge that resulted out of the lapse of the Licensing Act in 1695 was coordinated in essay periodicals and expressed the struggle for a new bourgeois identity in Eighteenth Century England. As a consequence, the roles allocated to men and women in the respective essays were highly controversial and subject to constant change. The findings of my research suggest that the inconsistencies, contradictions and controversies concerning the periodical’s construction of gender result from the change in editors in mid-run. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to highlight this turning point and explain the changing argumentative structure of the essays. Key Words: Essay periodicals, female editorship, allocation of gender roles, public and private spheres. ***** 1. The Publication of the First Gender-Specific Periodical Little attention was paid to the media’s construction of gender roles before the feminist research of the 1970’s. According to Dawn H. Currie, this lack of attention ‘reflects the pervasive naturalisation of gender, which was not challenged until the emergence of feminist scholarship.’ 1 This raises the question as to what researchers expect from studying periodicals and why these media products should

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__________________________________________________________________ be consulted as textual evidence for the construction of gender. As Currie puts it, ‘social texts influence, but do not determine our experiences of being women,’ yet ‘they mediate practices of femininity as a social discourse.’ 2 Periodicals are especially interesting in this context because they both mirror and generate contemporary gender discourses. Increasing interest in the historical construction of gender has heightened the need for studies on essay periodicals and their function as public organs. For scholars interested in the history of femininity and masculinity, the analysis of essay periodicals is a promising venture because they reflect the very beginnings of the construction of gender in Western societies. According to Harriet Guest, gender is a fundamental category of Eighteenth Century forms of thought, ‘shaping and shaped by the complex network of discursive differentiations and convergences that make up the cultural texture of the period.’ 3 The possibility of female author-, editor- and readership in this particular epoch has generated wide interest in the formation of new gender images. Even though women were active as writers and readers in earlier periods, it was during the Eighteenth Century that they became producers of politically engaged discourse in the literary public sphere. Many scholars have recently turned to periodicals in order to assess Eighteenth Century constructions of gender, but research has tended to focus on conventional essay periodicals, rather than genderspecific ones. This paper focuses on women’s roles and the construction of female identity in the first periodical that was exclusively published for a female readership, the Female Tatler. For this purpose, I will extend the previous research done on this periodical, especially by Shawn Lisa Maurer and Gillian Teiman. More precisely, I will show how the change of editors in the midst of the periodical’s run affected its construction of gender. My hypothesis, therefore, links the change of editors to a shift in the periodical’s gender ideology after issue fiftyone. This insight correlates with Anthony Pollock’s concept of the public sphere, emphasising that ‘there is never simply a unified public there to be addressed, but always a heterogeneous and internally fractured configuration of plural publics, multiple audiences that are to a certain extent produced and set in relation to one another by being addressed.’ 4 The Female Tatler was published three times a week between July 1709 and March 1710 and was the first periodical to focus on an exclusively female readership. The periodical ran for one hundred-eleven issues and appeared under two different sobriquets. Issues number one to fifty-one were edited by ‘Mrs Crackenthorpe, a lady that knows everything,’ issues number fifty-two to one hundred-eleven by ‘A Society of Ladies.’ The actual identity of the contributors hidden behind these pseudonyms remains uncertain and highly speculative. Fidelis Morgan provides convincing evidence to sustain her claim that Delarivière Manley was the author of the first fifty-one issues of the Female Tatler edited by Mrs Crackenthorpe. It was in the beginning of the Eighteenth Century that female writers like Manley entered the field of literary journalism. However, it has to be

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__________________________________________________________________ acknowledged that men necessarily defined, monitored and controlled the venture, as stated by Shawn Lisa Maurer. 5 The Female Tatler was not an innovation in itself, but an adaptation of its predecessor, the Tatler, which was published from April 1709 to January 1711 by Richard Steele and was one of the most famous representatives of the periodical genre. The Tatler’s main persona, Mr. Bickerstaff, was replaced by a female editor in the Female Tatler. Although considerable research has been devoted to the Tatler and its successor the Spectator, much less attention has been paid to their gender-specific offsets. Therefore, the aim of this study is to show that gender dynamics developed in different directions in Eighteenth Century England, as gender-specific periodicals emerged and contributed to a controversial debate on new bourgeois gender roles. Furthermore, my study of periodicals as a media product aims to analyse the cultural processes through which concepts of femininity and masculinity were conditioned. To begin with, I will analyse how gender is constructed in the issues published under the sobriquet ‘Mrs Crackenthorpe.’ Secondly, I will analyse the contrasting depictions of femininity in the editions by ‘A Society of Ladies’ and compare the two. 2. The Female Tatler Edited by Mrs Crackenthorpe In Female Tatler number forty-seven, Mrs Crackenthorpe states that with all her ‘scribbling,’ she abominated ‘the vulgar character of wearing the breeches,’ so she would ‘choose a man that is fit to support the weakness and correct the frailties of my sex, superior in sense, and equal in disposition.’ 6 This quote clearly illustrates the tone of the first half of the Female Tatler editions, which breathes the spirit of social control and preaches patriarchal-conduct book virtues. The Crackenthorpe editions reflect changes in the contemporary mindset such as the ‘invention’ of the two sexes as a new foundation for gender ideology in the Eighteenth Century. 7 The essays in the Crackenthorpe issues represent a patriarchal concept of femininity. Through various embedded narratives, the role allocation and the strict division between public spheres for men and private spheres for women are reinforced. Masculinity is explicitly linked to highly physical, outdoor activities, whereas femininity is defined against this background and hence linked to domesticity and passivity, as an embedded narrative in Female Tatler number five clearly illustrates. 8 In this narrative, masculinity is linked to intellectual activities and femininity to needlework, suitable male and female leisure-time activities are defined. Role allocations promoted by essay periodicals had become normative, as described by Shawn Lisa Maurer: ‘As homosocial roles exacerbate heterosexual difference, individuals who fail to conform to an ideology of separate spheres become targets of virulent attack.’ 9 The essays by Mrs Crackenthorpe, even though claiming to be written by a woman for women, and thus testifying female literary skill and intellectual capability, sustain the conjugal ideology which was advocated

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__________________________________________________________________ in conventional periodicals like the Tatler. A narrative embedded in Female Tatler number thirty-nine illustrates how strongly cultural cross-dressers, i.e., domestic men, were condemned: Poor Flatbottom, as the neighbours have nicknamed him, is so henpecked, because madam maintains him, that he’s forced to ask pardon on his knees for light offences, and the gentleman that tips him half a crown to support his spirits with a glass of Burton, must be truly noble, who not only generously relieves him, but employs his wife, an industrious woman that makes night gowns for gentlemen, as well as roppers for ladies. About a month past, madam turns away her maid, and honest Flatbottom has cleaned her house, washed her dishes, and been her mancook ever since, while she, sewing on her furbelows, sings ‘I was born of a royal race.’ 10 As the household became the nation’s moral touchstone, the relation between the sexes became a central issue of power politics. In the Eighteenth Century, gender and power relations were intensively negotiated in the new forum of the public sphere, the periodicals. Mrs Crackenthorpe’s satirical way of dealing with the transformation of social roles emphasises the importance of adhering to the models of a public, productive man and a private, passive woman, while deviances are unacceptable. This narrative of inversed gender roles depicts how satirical penportraits regulate public gender discourse in the century’s new literary culture. However, this concept of femininity is challenged by the subsequent editors, the Society of Ladies, who claim women’s participation in the public sphere and deviate from Mrs Crackenthorpe’s retention, as I will outline in the following section. 3. The Female Tatler Edited by a Society of Ladies In Female Tatler number fifty-one, Mrs Crackenthorpe announces that she will stop editing the periodical and leave the work to a ‘Society of modest Ladies, who in their turns will oblige the public with whatever they shall meet with that will be diverting, innocent or instructive.’ 11 The identity of the author or authors hidden behind the sobriquet ‘Society of Ladies’ remains unknown. 12 The change in editors is to be regarded as a transition from Mrs Crackenthorpe’s ideal of femininity, which recalls the conservative Tatler, to the Ladies’ emphasis on a gender concept that demands equal rights and educational opportunities for women. In establishing its own code of conduct in the periodicals, the middle class dismisses overt sexuality as a display of decadent, aristocratic promiscuity. Aristocratic women were supposed to mix with men in conversation, whereas middle-class women had to comply with the new ideals of modesty and silence, which are promoted in the

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__________________________________________________________________ first fifty-one editions of the Female Tatler, but criticised and opposed in the following sixty issues. Gillian Teiman argues that the Female Tatler by a Society of Ladies was a more unassertive version of Mrs Crackenthorpe’s paper, criticising their ‘near silence on the subject of sexuality.’ 13 According to Gillian Teiman, ‘the Ladies’ choice of voice, which is the product of their choosing the mask of modesty, brings them closer to Bickerstaff’s ideal than Mrs Crackenthorpe’s apparently more conservative thinking.’ 14 However, Mrs Crackenthorpe follows Mr Bickerstaff’s ‘method to get a footing into the world and deliver the first paper gratis’ in the very first issue of the Female Tatler. 15 The close connection between Bickerstaff and Mrs Crackenthorpe becomes evident again in the second issue of the periodical, in which an acquaintance of Mrs Crackenthorpe’s states that ‘she could not propose a match half so suitable as Mr Bickerstaff and myself … and for our progeny, the sons would be all bishops, judges and recorders and the daughters Behns, Philips and Daciers.’ 16 The present analysis shows that the discourse on female sexuality was not erased in the Ladies’ issues, but rendered more autonomous. The Ladies reject the male gaze on women’s bodies and behaviours that Mrs Crackenthorpe had adopted and perpetuated from Steele’s narratives. Consequently, the Society of Ladies no longer maintains the depiction of women’s weakness and collusion in their own sexual oppression. The word modesty, which is clearly attributed to the Ladies, is used with a different meaning in the issues fifty-one to one hundred-eleven. In this study, I will show how the ‘Society of Ladies’ defines women against their stereotypical status as sexual objects. Under the new sobriquet, the periodical’s orientation shifts from personal satire to topics ranging from poetry to history and women’s required share of it. The fiction of multitudinous authorship allows for different viewpoints to be uttered within the same publication and for discrepancies between individual members of the Society of Ladies. In Female Tatler number eighty-eight, one of the periodical’s personas, Artesia, illustrates how women were formally excluded and erased from history: From what I have said it is evident that the women, unless they had enjoyed an equal share of power and greatness with the men, will not be found upon record for their excellencies so much as the latter, though they had exceeded them in any virtue. Since men have enslaved us, the greatest part of the world have [sic] always debarred our sex from governing, which is the reason why the lives of women have so seldom been described in history. But as this is only to be imputed to the injustice and tyranny of men, so it ought not to be of any disadvantage to the women. 17

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__________________________________________________________________ In this issue, Artesia calls her readers’ attention to the fact that men direct and write history and clearly states that women’s erasure from history is an intentional and conscious act by men. Though marginalised in history, women even outclass men in terms of virtue. It is interesting to note that Artesia sees the subordination of women in a global context and holds that women were enslaved, not only in Britain, but also in other countries. The gender of the implied reader in this passage is definitely female, as the first person plural ‘our sex’ indicates. The assumed ‘sisterhood’ among all women, regardless of age or social class, and the call for sororial unification peak in Artesia’s claim for the inclusion of women in history and even the call for female governance. Such a strong argument against the Salic Law of Succession and for women’s engagement in politics and government would have been impossible in the Female Tatler by Mrs Crackenthorpe. Artesia not only regrets the formal exclusion of women from the public sphere, but actually adjudges men because of their tyranny and enslavement of women. There is no doubt that issue number eighty-eight is one of the most feminist-oriented and progressive displays of gendered editorship in the Female Tatler: The men, like wary conquerors, keep us ignorant, because they are afraid of us, and, that they may the easier maintain their dominion over us, they compliment us into idleness, pretending those peasants to be tokens of their affection, which in reality are the consequences of their tyranny. But what enrages me most is to see our sex so stupid as to believe themselves better treated than the women of other nations, because we are more egregiously cheated out of our right and liberties than they. A man is called prudent for not trusting anything of moment to his wife, and makes her believe that to be his co-partner in the management of his estate would be insufferable trouble to her; whilst by his neglect, folly or extravagancy, she is often made a beggar the same time, when she considers herself a wealthy woman. 18 The term ‘modesty’, which was attributed to the Society of Ladies from the very beginning, is given a completely new meaning in this passage. The Ladies advocate modesty in the sense of relinquishing idleness, not because they are the more virtuous version of Mrs Crackenthorpe, but because they see vanity, fashion and luxury as means of perpetuating male dominion and female subjection. Luxury items such as fashionable clothes and jewellery are used as compensatory means which encourage women to accept their subjugation. In Female Tatler number eighty-eight, the Ladies adopt the conduct book-advertised bourgeois virtue of modesty, but this modesty has a new, subversive implicative in the essay. 19 Its appeal to women is opposed to the depiction of women’s collusion in their own

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__________________________________________________________________ oppression practiced by Mrs Crackenthorpe. It discloses the mechanisms of this collusion as well as the impact it has on the virtual silencing of women. The comparison of women’s situation in England and in other countries is particularly interesting because it testifies to female competence in politics and international relations. The fact that a female periodical writer highlights women’s problems in England and compares the situation to other countries displays a new female selfconsciousness within the literary scene. The Ladies do, as the following quote taken from the last issue of the Female Tatler clearly illustrates, wittily reinterpret and reassess the contemporary notions of modesty and therefore subvert hegemonic constructions of femininity. All that I have heard of the women of our family, as worthy memory, is that they looked upon the ground when they spoke, were frightened at the appearance of a stranger and fled to their several recesses. But if compelled to stay by the authority of parents, they sit confused, blush if they were spoke to, and answered nothing. This was called modesty and discretion, and often preached to me by way of example, but for their fear I ever looked on it as proceeding from their opinion of themselves, their blushes from conscious guilt and their silence from a perfect stupidity, not knowing what to say. Therefore I ventured to take my own way. My shame I keep for my faults, which but too often require it; my silence for instruction when wisdom or virtue speak and my fear for that doubtful hour when I find it difficult to discern between good and evil, least I should blindly choose the last. 20 Lucinda encourages women to be self-confident and proud rather than passive, shy and submissive. Women who blindly adhere to the ‘virtues’ of modesty and silence are criticised by Lucinda, even though this behaviour was expected from her as well. Blushing and keeping silent are represented as a public display of weakness and lack of intelligence. According to Lucinda, there is no reason to blush except for guilt. It is very interesting to retrace how the Ladies subvert the normative code of conduct established by Eighteenth Century England hegemonic, male-centred discourse. Moreover, the fact that this quote is to be found at the very end of the last issue of the Female Tatler turns it into a final, declarative statement.

Notes 1

Dawn H. Currie, ‘Decoding Femininity: Advertisements and their Teenage Readers’, Gender and Society (1997): 453.

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__________________________________________________________________ 2

Ibid., 460. Harriet Guest, ‘Eighteenth-Century Femininity: A Supposed Sexual Character’, in Women and Literature in Britain 1700-1800, ed. Vivien Jones (Cambridge University Press, 2000), 47. 4 Anthony Pollock, Gender and the Fictions of the Public Sphere, 1690-1755 (London: Routledge, 2009), 3. 5 Shawn Lisa Maurer, Proposing Men - Dialectics of Gender and Class in the Eighteenth-Century English Periodical (Stanford University Press, 1998), 207. 6 Fidelis Morgan, ed., The Female Tatler (London: J.M. Dent, 1992), 109. 7 Thomas Laqueur, Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992), 151. 8 Morgan, The Female Tatler, 91. 9 Maurer, Proposing Men, 12. 10 Morgan, The Female Tatler, 91. 11 Ibid., 121. 12 For more on the publication history of the Female Tatler, see Ionia Italia, Journalism in the Eighteenth Century - Anxious Employment (London: Routledge, 2005), 49-66. 13 Teiman, Gillian, The Female Ideal and the Female Voice: Ideology, Resistance, and Accommodation in the Tatler and Spectator, the Female Tatler and The Female Spectator (Ontario: North York University Press, 1992), 232. 14 Teiman, The Female Ideal, 233. 15 Morgan, The Female Tatler, 2. 16 Ibid., 4. 17 Ibid., 177. 18 See Ibid. 19 Ibid., 176. 20 Ibid., 202. 3

Bibliography Armstrong, Nancy, and Leonard Tennenhouse, eds. The Ideology of Conduct: Essays on Literature and the History of Sexuality. London: Methuen, 1987. Ballaster, Ros, ed. Women’s Worlds: Ideology, Femininity and the Women’s Magazine. London: McMillan, 1993. Currie, Dawn H. ‘Decoding Femininity: Advertisements and their Teenage Readers’. Gender and Society (1997): 453.

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__________________________________________________________________ Foucault, Michel. The Order of Things: An Archeology of the Human Senses. New York: Pantheon, 1971. Gigante, Denise, ed. The Great Age of the English Essay - An Anthology. Yale University Press, 2008. Guest, Harriet. ‘Eighteenth-Century Femininity: A Supposed Sexual Character’. In Women and Literature in Britain 1700 - 1800, edited by Vivien Jones, 46–69. Cambridge University Press, 2000. Habermas, Jürgen. Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit – Untersuchungen zu einer Kategorie der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1990. Hurl-Eamon, Jennine. Women´s Roles in Eighteenth Century Europe. Santa Barbara: Greenwood, 2010. Ingrassia, Catherine. Authorship, Commerce and Gender in Early Eighteenth Century England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Italia, Iona. The Rise of Literary Journalism in the Eighteenth Century: Anxious Employment. London: Routledge, 2005. Jones, Vivien. Women in the Eighteenth Century - Constructions of Femininity. London: Routledge, 1990. Knott, Sarah, and Barbara Taylor, eds. Women, Gender and Enlightenment. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2005. Laqueur, Thomas. Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992. Morgan, Fidelis, ed. The Female Tatler. London: J. M. Dent, 1992. Orsell, Tedra. ‘Tatling Women in the Public Sphere: Rhetorical Femininity and the English Essay Periodical’. Eighteenth Century Studies 38, No. 2 (2005): 283–300. Pollock, Anthony. Gender and the Fictions of the Public Sphere, 1690 to 1755. New York: Routledge, 2009.

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__________________________________________________________________ Shawn Lisa Maurer. Proposing Men - Dialectics of Gender and Class in the Eighteenth-Century English Periodical. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998. Shepard, Alexandra, and Garthine Walker, eds. Gender and Change: Agency, Chronology and Periodisation. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Shevelow, Kathryn. Women and Print Culture - The Construction of Femininity in the Early Periodical. New York: Routledge, 1989. Teiman, Gillian. The Female Ideal and the Female Voice: Ideology, Resistance, and Accommodation in the Tatler and Spectator, the Female Tatler and The Female Spectator. Ontario: North York University Press, 1992. Caroline Lafitte is a PhD student in English Literature at the University of Konstanz in Germany. Her doctoral thesis on the ‘Construction of Gender in English Periodicals of the Eighteenth Century’ is expected to be completed in 2013.

Tracing Identities. Body Modifications as Inscriptions of Gender Ambrogia Cereda Abstract Contemporary debate on the role of the body is pointing out the increasing importance of appearance as a privileged realm for the construction and the expression of individual identity. In this framework to modify one’s body and to work on its surface using different techniques represent the necessary prerequisites to participate in everyday social interactions: a successful look is searched for in contrast with - or in juxtaposition to - other moral, intellectual, and professional qualities. The ‘right figure’ has to be carefully looked after in order to create a good impression at the gym, in the swimming pool, among the peers’ group. 1 Body maintenance and ‘body modification,’ 2 which is the transformation of the appearance of the body using more or less invasive techniques (ranging from make up to subdermal implants), thus become the key strategies of embodiment for contemporary social actors: the inscription of identity as it is personally conceived and socially transmitted passes through a voluntary transformation which can tune individual bodies to cultural models. Up-to-date representations available in the cultural scenario seem to allow individuals to perform their preferred identification among a host of possibilities, but is this a real liberation of expression? How is gender identity materialised in this process? This contribution aims to cast a light on the issue of body modifications as spreading (but not completely free) ways of embodying gender, accounting for data collected in an empiric research (1 month participant observation in tattoo and piercing studios, situated observations in tattoo conventions and body modifications studios; 28 in-depth interviews) focused on professionals and users (16 males and 12 females; age 19 to 56) of different bodily practices (i.e., tattooing, scarification, piercing, aesthetic surgery). Discussing the issue of embodiment a set of bodily models will be outlined and their interconnections with performances of gender identity will be discussed in their social relapses on masculinity and femininity. Key Words: Gender, embodiment, body modification, identity, body techniques. ***** 1. Embodiment, as a Way of Introduction Contemporary Western societies have witnessed an unprecedented transformation of the role of bodily appearance. In the last decades the status of one’s personal look has shifted from natural gift, adorning a core identity and confirming a social position, to an essential part of the toolkit for social communication. 3 This change can be observed both on a macro and on a micro level.

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__________________________________________________________________ Industrial capitalism has moved towards a post-industrial system of the global economy, in which service industries, advertising and advanced consumption are prominent, while communication is controlled and manipulated by the public relations industry. Western societies have thus been facing the incessant commercial promotion of the desire for a more beautiful, healthier, younger body. 4 This new image spread and the consumption habits of the twentieth century get changed along with the attitude of consumers towards themselves. This same model is currently made reachable through the proliferation of facilities and forms of financial support for those who want to improve their physical appearance or to regain a beautiful look (after pregnancy, against ageing) to be more competitive at work, and happier in their private life. The success of TV programmes about the makeover performances of individuals who are not satisfied about their body; the increasing number of travel agencies that offer special prices for surgical operations in Eastern countries (Emirates, Tunisia, Morocco, Croatia, Poland); the proliferation of websites and bloggers who celebrate the cult of the body allow the so-called ‘culture of appearance’ 5 or ‘makeover culture,’ 6 in which anyone needs to purchase services of personal trainers, diet gurus, plastic surgeons and other beauty professionals, and the market creates personalised formulas to do it. On the level of interaction, our individuality is expressed through our look in many ways (behaviour, clothing, speech, haircut), and it has become a continuous performance, which renders the process of embodiment an oscillation between two premises of a paradox: being a body and having a body. This duplicitous and sometimes contradictory dimension hosts the ‘body project,’ 7 a reflexive work made to complete our body, which is felt as something unfinished but disposable, and needs therefore to be inscribed with a set of symbols, connoting its interdependence on the context, its social position, and our personal difference within a precise configuration. 8 All techniques for the transformation - the so-called body techniques 9 - are not invented by an individual who wants to express himself/herself, but generally are derived from a cultural code, which pre-exists the individual and is learnt and reinforced in the process of socialisation. Bodies thus pass from nature to culture and let self-perception and self-image change. In the following paragraphs I will discuss body projects as related to embodiment of gender identity in particular, moving from a concept of gender as a social praxis continually referred to bodies and what they do, (different from social praxis reduced to the bodies). 10 I will then describe different typologies of bodily models as outcomes of relations and practices, not as simply dependent on a fixed set of determinants. I will conclude with a further model, where the convergence of different techniques of body modification seems to question the same gender lines, which in part structure the transformation of individual bodies.

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__________________________________________________________________ 2. Body Projects as Gender Projects Is there any gender prescription about changing one’s look via tattooing? Is piercing a feminine or masculine practice? Can aesthetic surgery be considered a part of the new masculine beauty kit? Far from being useless doubts, such questions may introduce an element which is taken for granted in our everyday life: we expect bodies to be looked after and maintained in different ways according to our gender affiliation, we differentiate the very practice of maintenance in conformity with gender; moreover, we can observe that practices can trespass genders. Plucking eyebrows and waxing are typically feminine practices, but they are increasingly entering the masculine realm, promoted by consumer culture and lifestyle magazines. Bodybuilding has appeared as a masculine practice of cultivating a typically manly feature muscularity - nevertheless it can count on many enthusiasts among women bulking up their muscles, and reinforcing their feminine features with exaggerated makeup and jewels in a cross-gender effect. Actually, if we consider the history of the practices I selected for this study, we can see their relation to precise moments of the life of an individual and to the life of his/her community. We can also detect their gender connotation, being ways of expressing an individual’s affiliation to a masculine or feminine group through a codified ritual, a ‘rite of passage.’ In North Africa traditional tattooing of the face (on nose, chin, neck, forehead, between the eyebrows) has been for many centuries a way of defining feminine identities; while tattooed arms have been part of a typically masculine tradition in Europe among sailors and criminals. 11 Contemporary cosmetic surgery seems to be still constructed as a feminine task, undermining the medical risks related to post-operation and diverting men’s interests in undergoing it. 12 Even though many other examples can be listed, I will focus on some practices of ‘body modification’ (i.e., tattooing, scarification, aesthetic surgery, piercing) considering how they intertwine gender and context. I will concur with Connell’s conception of gender as the domain of social practice organised in relation to a reproductive arena which is constituted by the materiality of the body, 13 in this framework common-knowledge about masculinity and femininity is not fixed but rather results from the rationale of the ways in which ‘doing gender’ takes shape in everyday practices. Since bodily practices can trespass gender boundaries and finally be considered as part of individual body projects, I will discuss the intentionality of body projects as social conduct and the way body projects are organised through time. This gives birth to a complex system of materialisations of identity that can be subsumed in a series of bodily typologies. 3. Typologies of Modified Bodies: Between Situation and Choice Modification practices cannot be explained regardless the capability of individuals to move and define gender relation to already predisposed roles and

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__________________________________________________________________ bodily codes. Body projects are allowed by a shared bodily code, which can produce different variations. I will try and outline four typologies 14 that can be conceived as four models of embodiment: screen body, monumental body, differed body, and consumable body. In the first model, corporeality becomes the always insufficient place for a bricolage of the self, a temporary play of one’s presence, 15 which consists on the flow of performances that an individual does to fix one’s identity like in a picture, but dismisses immediately after. Understanding the screen body means thus conceiving embodiment as an uncountable series of transformation - writing and erasing one’s identity - by projecting on its surface the images accepted and promoted by mainstream culture. The process of embodiment results in a perpetual mutation of crystallised images which make up an efficient self that can be replaced at the first occasion. These continuous transformations are possible since: Your body is your canvas, it’s your task to paint it, to embellish it, like you do with your house, you have to live within it, it’s your freedom to choose how it has to be, to change with your changes. 16 Since a quick transformation is the aim of this embodiment, no bodily technique is preferred to the others; moreover, being a continually repeated practice, young people have already learnt how to make it full-time work. 17 It is a fashionable body, which changes look at intervals even if in minimal part. The ambivalence of this bodily model cannot connote too much exoticism or subcultural features, preferring a translation of tribal signs or weird scars already absorbed by the mainstream culture. The audience is indeed an undifferentiated and wide community, who has accepted the myth of the beautiful, successful and young model, while it has become dependent on the information and the shared definitions of what is indispensable to be legitimated by the dominant groups. 18 The body project carried out according to such suggestions is broadcast by the media and is that of the woman protagonist of her sexuality and desire, a representative strategy translated into practice by many young women. 19 In this process of construction, feminine bodies have the responsibility of constructing one’s own identity and giving recognition to masculine subjects, who are located in a heterosexual - and strongly sexualised - gender frame. It is the body of the seductress, an artificial construction meant to become pure appearance in order to last over time. 20 Such an evanescent model is opposed to the monumental body, depicted as: People have to learn that they should follow precise rules for body modification, they can’t forget to disinfect their piercing even once, or to cover their tattoo when in the sun: you need to

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__________________________________________________________________ be disciplined to be sure that everything is going well … nevertheless you can’t think that the others cannot see you. When you come to be pierced in your face, I can do what you want, but are you sure you can stand the gaze of all the people you meet, everyday, every time, on your pierced face? 21 This is the outcome of a precise process of domestication, through which individuals learn how successful embodiments are the result of an education to control and organise body maintenance, 22 whose process is carried out through prizes (gadgets, discount rates) and sanctions (scolding, rejection). Thanks to an almost charismatic attribution of power, professionals teach disciplinary regimens and tell people where they can display their new body; they assure that the modification (piercing, scarification, tattoo, nose job) is ‘natural’ for the client’s/patient’s body - and therefore for his/her gender affiliation; control the evolution of the transformation; combine the strength of many bodies in the unique mass of the community of tattooed, pierced, or surgically modified people, distinguished by their habitus. 23 Interactions between professionals and ordinary people are influenced by a gendered membership according to which the former can play the role of the seducer/seductress or good father/mother towards the latter of their opposite sex; while using a register of friendship and complicity in samesex interactions. Performance is important for differed bodies, a third typology partly inspired to subcultural instances, but at the same far from the extremeness of body performers and radical body modifications. Gendered typologies are here rethought in terms of taste, reproduced diverting from mainstreaming categories of beauty, to find new expressions for the self. I think modifying the body is keen when you improve, embellish, but in a personal way, a personal taste, your feminine taste, your masculine taste, when you do it to exhibit, to hybridize technology or to imitate tribal communities, then it’s only mockery, and you’re ending up in a parody. 24 On the one hand, taste is partly interpreted in a Bourdieusian meaning, being the expression of one’s class membership and education, transpiring in bodily habits and manners. On the other hand, it partly differs, including a widened conception of aesthetic as a form of communicative relation without concepts, supported by physical engagement in everyday experience 25 clearly opposed to consumer culture, whose model is the consumable body. As a last typology, this is partly the outcome of the so-called consumer culture. Even if some similarities can be found with the screen body, it is different from that in being the container - and not the surface - of materials and meanings.

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__________________________________________________________________ Seduction is not the only aim of this model of embodiment, but also, and especially, its reduction to commodity via bodily techniques: gender, as well as identity and beauty, can be bought and sold, this is the silent promise of a consuming body. A body as maintained as possible, using also aesthetic surgery. Maybe tattooed. A body that doesn’t allow giving in. That’s it. Also in physical terms. And tattooing can be ok. Because it is usually for young people, anyway, you see, if you pay attention many women say: ‘Nut, I can’t do it, I’m already 45 years old!!!’ Oh, dear … you’re not going to be dead tomorrow!! 26 Since the global cultural supermarket contributes to a context within which individuals can locate their narratives and give a structure to their modulation of identity, 27 via the commodification of their bodies individuals can acquire symbols on their skin as well as dresses or surgical implants and can cross the boundaries of national identities. 28 The lesson suggested by this typology seems to be that since society does nott impose any uniform, the consumable body becomes the only uniform everyone can accept and show in everyday practices. 4. The Convivial Body. Another Question on Gender Identity Alongside the typologies depicted above, a model has emerged from the accounts of the interviewees as an abstraction opposed to screen, consumable, differed and monumental bodies. It is not a matter of doing one thing or another one. It is a matter of analysing anything, what is happening to you, to learn how the body is healed, and reacts, how it changes. It is a discipline that you can bring about in your life, that can change the way you are. 29 More than a bodily typology, this model represents a challenge to embodiment. Interviewees have provided an interpretation of body modification as human inventions to satisfy the needs of social membership, communication and, therefore, attribution of a meaning to reality. Nevertheless, they have depicted their modified bodies according to the vulgate of sociological theory: bodies are something on which we work, eating, cleaning, dieting, 30 and our attention has to be addressed to the mechanical conditionings of consumer culture and mass aesthetic taste. The images broadcast by media, television etc. push forward models which compel us to bring people back to the Earth. You

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__________________________________________________________________ cannot think that you can change yourself like you can change your shirt this morning, from white to blue. The tissue of the body is not fabric, cotton or linen, that can be cut and sewn! it is living. 31 While professionals exhort their customers and patients to keep on learning something about themselves, even if they are being pierced for fashion or if they undergo aesthetic surgery to withstand social pressure, gender projects are reinterpreted as movements between identification and individualisation to produce a visual and material outcome that can be understood and recognised. Tattoos, aesthetic surgery, piercing and scarification are still useful tools to express such connections between the intimate and the social - or global - dimension in which individual body, gender lines and culture merge; moreover, they seem to pinpoint gender tacit knowledge in terms of physical capital, which can be converted in many other resources. 32 In this framework, a contribution may be given about the way in which gender is embodied not only under structural influence but also questioning the pattern in which the modification takes place, in a slow trial. Inscriptions of identity via body modification take on the shape of answers to the questions of the professionals’ (and lay) community: ‘how would you materialize your gender affiliations in this cultural context?’ and above all, ‘how would you narrate its story?’

Notes 1

Yves Travaillot, La Sociologie Des pratiques D’entretiens du Corps (Paris: PUF, 1998). Mike Featherstone, Body Modification (London: Sage, 2000). 3 Bryan S. Turner, The Body and Society. Explorations in Social Theory (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985). 4 Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth. How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women (London: Vintage, 1990), 185. 5 Georges Viganello, Histoire de la Beauté. Le Corps et L’art D’embellir de la Renaissance à nos Jours (Paris: Seuil, 2004). 6 Meredith Jones, Skintight. An Anatomy of Cosmetic Surgery (Oxford and New York: Berg, 2008). 7 Chris Shilling, The Body and Social Theory (London: Sage, 2003). 8 Michael Atkinsons, Tattooed. The Sociogenesis of Body Art (Toronto: Toronto University Press, 2003). 9 Marcel Mauss, ‘Les Techniques du Corps’, in Sociologie et Anthropologie (Paris: PUF, 1950), 365-386. 10 Robert W. Connell, Masculinities (Sidney: Allen & Unwin, 1995). 11 Giovanna Salvioni, I Tatuaggi (Milano: Xenia, 1996). 2

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Kathy Davis, ‘“A Dubious Equality”. Men, Women and Cosmetic Surgery’, Body and Society 8, No. 1 (2002): 49-65. 13 Connell, Masculinities, 6. 14 Max Weber, ‘Die “Objektivität” Sozialwissenschaftlicher und Sozialpolitischer Erkenntnis’, Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik XIX (1904): 22-87. 15 David Le Breton, Anthropologie du Corps et Modernité (Paris: PUF, 2008). 16 Excerpt of interview with a professional tattooist, 40 years old, male. 17 Luisa Stagi, Anticorpi. Dieta, Fitness e Altre Prigioni (Milano: FrancoAngeli, 2008). 18 Clint C. Wilson and Félix Gutierrez, Race, Multiculturalism and the Media (Thousand Oaks, London and New Delhi: Sage, 2003). 19 Rosalind Gill, ‘Postfeminist Media Culture: Elements of a Sensibility’, European Journal of Cultural Studies 10, No. 2 (2007): 147-166. 20 Jean Baudrillard, De la Séduction (Paris: Galilée, 1979). 21 Excerpt of interview to a professional piercer, 37 years old, male. 22 Michel Foucault, Surveiller et Punir. Naissance de la Prison (Paris: Gallimard, 1975). 23 Pierre Bourdieu, La Distinction. Critique Social du Jugement (Paris: Minuit, 1979). 24 Excerpt of interview with tattoist, 29 years old, female. 25 Michel Maffesoli, Au Creux des Apparences (Paris: Plon, 1990). 26 Excerpt of interview to a professional tattooist, woman 45 years old. 27 Gordon Mathews, Global Culture/Individual Identity: Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket (London and New York: Routledge, 2000). 28 Sander L. Gilman, Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural History of Aesthetic Surgery (Princeton: Princeton University, 1999). 29 Excerpt of interview to a professional tattooist, 34 years old, male. 30 Turner, The Body and Society, 161-164. 31 Excerpt from interview with a surgeon, 56 years old, male. 32 Shilling, The Body and Social Theory, 145-149.

Bibliography Atkinsons, Michael. Tattooed. The Sociogenesis of Body Art. Toronto: Toronto University Press, 2003. Baudrillard, Jean. De la Séduction. Paris: Galilée, 1979. Bourdieu, Pierre. La Distinction. Critique Social du Jugement. Paris: Minuit, 1979.

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__________________________________________________________________ Connell, Robert W. Masculinities. Sidney: Allen & Unwin, 1995. Featherstone, Mike. Body Modification. London: Sage, 2000. Foucault, Michel. Surveiller et Punir. Naissance de la Prison. Paris: Gallimard, 1975. Gill, Rosalind. ‘Postfeminist Media Culture: Elements of a Sensibility’. European Journal of Cultural Studies 10, Vol. 2 (2007): 147–166. Gilman, Sander L. Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural History of Aesthetic Surgery. Princeton: Princeton University, 1999. Jones, Meredith. Skintight. An Anatomy of Cosmetic Surgery. Oxford and New York: Berg, 2008. Le Breton, David. Anthropologie du Corps et Modernité. Paris: PUF, 2008. Maffesoli, Michel. Au Creux des Apparences. Paris: Plon, 1990. Mathews, Gordon. Global Culture/Individual Identity: Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket. London and New York: Routledge, 2000. Mauss, Marcel. ‘Les Techniques du Corps’. In Sociologie et Anthropologie, 365– 386. Paris: PUF, 1950. Sociologie et Anthropologie. Paris: PUF, 1950. Salvioni, Giovanna. I Tatuaggi. Milano: Xenia, 1996. Shilling, Chris. The Body and Social Theory. London: Sage, 2003. Stagi, Luisa. Anticorpi. Dieta, Fitness e Altre Prigioni. Milano: FrancoAngeli, 2008. Travaillot, Yves. La Sociologie des Pratiques D’entretiens du Corps. Paris: PUF, 1998. Turner, Bryan S. The Body and Society. Explorations in Social Theory. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985.

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__________________________________________________________________ Vigarello, Georges. Histoire de la Beauté. Le Corps et L’art D’embellir de la Renaissance à nos Jours. Paris: Seuil, 2004. Wilson, Clint C., and Gutierrez, Félix. Race, Multiculturalism and the Media. Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage, 2003. Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth. How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. London: Vintage, 1990. Ambrogia Cereda earned a PhD in Sociology and Methodology of Social Research at UCSC (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan). Where she is currently collaborating with Modacult, Centre for the study of Fashion and Cultural Production. Her research interests are related to the process of embodiment, with a special focus on the issues of gender, body modification and identity narration.

‘Doing a Lynndie’: Artist Responses to Representation of Gender in Abu Ghraib Torture Photographs Uros Cvoro Abstract This paper will address in a preliminary fashion the work of three artists who frame the gender politics of the Abu Ghraib photographs as a process that simultaneously defines and excludes women. Regina Jose Galindo’s ‘Confession’ (2006), Martha Rosler’s ‘Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful, New Series’ (2004), and Coco Fusco’s ‘A Room of One’s Own: Women and Power in the New America’ (2006) all approach the figure of included/excluded woman as central to understanding and rethinking Abu Ghraib. Galindo’s reorientation of the fantasy of gender implicit in torture, Rosler’s rethinking of gender through the historicisation of antiwar narratives, and Fusco’s pushing of military egalitarianism to its extreme logical conclusion attempt to carve out a space for feminist responses to Abu Ghraib images beyond the conservative appropriation of feminism. Key Words: Abu Ghraib, art, women, Regina Galindo, Martha Rosler, Coco Fusco. ***** 1. Regina Jose Galindo Regina Jose Galindo’s 2007 work ‘Confession’ directly addresses the use of torture on women. The two-minute performance features a large muscular man dragging a resisting petite woman (Galindo) into a non-descript bare concrete room and repeatedly forcing her head into a barrel of water. The confronting scene ends with the man violently throwing Galindo across the room and the sound of her body hitting the hard floor. The difficult subject matter of the performance is highlighted by the muted aesthetics and audio: the room is stripped down and plain, the colour palette is muted, there is limited light and there is no audio other than Galindo’s strained grunting and gasping for air. Galindo’s performances deal with violence against the underclass and women in general in her native Guatemala. Her work is also more broadly about the politics of state-sanctioned violence. ‘Confession’ is set in a non-descript room and both the torturer and the victim are wearing plain civilian clothes. The location of this room is in Palma de Mallorca, one of the black sites used by the CIA for illegal extradition and torture of prisoners. Galindo subjects herself to this ordeal. ‘Confession’ transcends its particular context to a performance about global state violence conducted in non-descript rooms around the world. She joins a long lineage of performance artists such as Marina Abramovic, Yoko Ono and Ana

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__________________________________________________________________ Mendieta who similarly put their bodies through physical ordeals to make a political statement. Like Ono’s ‘Cut Piece’, Galindo questions the limits of performance in her work. The violent ordeal is confronting to watch, more so as she ostensibly has little control over what happens. Adding to this is the intentional contradiction between the title of the work and the work itself. There is no confession forced from Galindo, suggesting the work to be less about soliciting information than the exercise of brutality and domination. ‘Confession’ occupies a position between performance and documentation of torture. It raises associations with the Abu Ghraib photographs as documents of torture performed in an unknown location, and taken by people who become participants in the torture. It is seen by the public who in its very act of witnessing prolongs the means of torture. I first saw this work as a video of the performance at the 2010 Sydney Biennale. In the video, the scene of torture is interrupted for few seconds when a man carrying photographic equipment comes into view. I recall my shock at becoming aware that someone else was in the torture room taking photographs. Even though the flash was visible in the frame before this, and even though the shutter click was audible, it was only with the appearance of the photographer in the frame (and the consequent readjusting of the angle of the video camera) that his presence became significant. When the photographer walked into frame, the video camera vanished as a neutral and invisible lens. He became the witness to the event, the participant in the torture and a point of identification for the audience watching the video. It is possible that the shock at the photographer in the frame was more indicative of my own perception of the camera as a neutral observer of the performance. After all, photographic and video documentation are a regular if not inherent part of performance art. Yet, the momentary rupture of the representational universe of ‘Confession’ by the introduction of a camera into the filed of vision seemed more significant in the context of the work’s subject matter. The photographer turned out to be art historian Julian Stallabrass. He wrote an essay on Galindo’s work, in which he reflected on his role in documenting ‘Confession’: The purity of the event, its laudable simplicity and singlemindedness, it seemed at first, was compromised by our presence. Yet in looking again at the Abu Ghraib photographs, or reading about the use of photographs in the interrogation sessions at Guantanamo Bay, cameras take up a darker and more sinister place than that of mere tools of documentation, held back from not interfering with the scene. 1

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__________________________________________________________________ Stallabrass is here referring to his role in photographically documenting the original performance. Amelia Jones argues that in performances known only through documentation the photographer is an ‘agent’ who sublimates suffering into aesthetic form. 2 In ‘Confession’ it is significant that the photographer is an established art historian (as opposed to a low-level US soldier), a subject ‘supposed to know’ with implied critical agency. Yet Galindo is already an agent in the work. The act of photographing then doubles the representation of suffering, and the intrusion of the photographer in the representational frame of the video triples the representation of suffering. This is not simply a multiplication of representational levels because the photographer here functions as a vanishing mediator between the performance and documentation of torture. In closing the distance between the representation of torture and the audience, the photographer blurs the line between art and life. In becoming part of the event taking place Stallabrass is engaging in ‘gonzo art history,’ an equivalent of embedded journalism, where as Slavoj Zizek argues: We are all the time reminded that what we are watching is a staged performance - as if to protect us from the danger of getting too involved in what we see. 3 Stallabrass’ appearance in the frame operates as a buffer between ‘Confession’ as ‘just’ an art performance with all the safety implied (safe gestures, safe words, and awareness that this is a mild version of torture and Galindo will not be harmed) and ‘Confession’ as traumatic documentation of torture. This is crucial for our understanding of ‘Confession’ as a work about women as subjects inside and outside of the symbolic order. This is the confession of the work: that Galindo as a willing participant in a performance of torture confronts us. We reveal not only what we know (and ignore) about torture in the name of democracy, but also our assumptions about its social, political, cultural and gender dimensions. Stallabrass is our ‘safe word’ that prevents us from confronting our own investments in torture too closely. 2. Martha Rosler Martha Rosler’s rethinking of sexual difference in ‘Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful, New Series’ (2004) positions Abu Ghraib in the history of US military interventionism from Vietnam through the first Gulf War to the present conflicts. This is partly because her work is inextricable from this history. The original ‘Bringing the War Home’ series were made from 1967-72, at the height of the Vietnam War, as newspaper protests. They were later shown in galleries in 1991 during the first Gulf War, and the 2004 series is a self-referential repetition of the work.

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__________________________________________________________________ The originals featured collages of newspaper photographs from Vietnam with domestic interiors from ‘House Beautiful’ magazine, bringing death, destruction, and violence into the American home. The new series feature collages of contemporary domestic interiors from magazines, advertisements for fashion accessories and mobile phones with images from Iraq and Afghanistan. In establishing a dialogue with her earlier work, Rosler references historical events that replay and revise the language through which they are visualised. We are inevitably drawn into thinking about the differences between the visualisations of the Vietnam War, the first Gulf War and the present. In 1991 Brian Wallis read the original series as inversions of the clean computer-enhanced warfare of the first Gulf War into ‘authentic’ images of horror. 4 From today’s perspective, Rosler’s images are more about the lessons that the military image propaganda machine has learned from the two conflicts and applied in the present ‘war of images.’ If the Vietnam War was the most photographed conflict in recent history, and the first Gulf War was the most ‘simulated,’ then the present is the most heavily censored. It is mediated now through the propaganda machine of embedded journalism. The ‘New Series’ thus addresses ‘the historical, political and cultural erasure that has allowed America to engage, again, in yet another “living room war”, as if the Vietnam War had never happened.’ 5 The bringing together of historical amnesia, violence and consumerism into a single image references a cathartic experience rather than historical consciousness. Rosler’s repetition of the themes from the earlier work is self-referential, but it can also be understood as an intentional process of doubling. The artistic strategy of the ‘New Series’ is firmly rooted in the anti-Vietnam, anti-capitalist aesthetic of the sixties and seventies. This strategy of using collage and photomontage to generate a political critique can be linked to even earlier to Dada and World War One, but Vietnam is the key reference point here. This is more than simply relying on a political art platform harking back to an idealised counterculture, or an attempt to recast the present conflict through its semblance to Vietnam. Rosler uses doubling to raise the question of historicising war images in the public sphere, but also to problematise the special status of antiwar counterculture of the sixties and seventies as a legitimate challenge to corporate control over images. The protests against the Vietnam War as part of the anti-capitalist movement (of which the original series was symptomatic) presented a cultural critique of alienation of everyday life, commodification of consumption, inauthenticity in the mass media and sexual oppression. From the seventies onward, capitalism has appropriated this rhetoric, presenting itself as opposed to oppressive social control: highlighting consumer choices, personalising products, being sensitive to cultural diversity and incorporating hedonism and sexual liberation into its ideology. Rosler’s repetition of anti-war universalism is a process through which symbolic mastering of the anti war radicalism might be attempted. The repetition

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__________________________________________________________________ links with doubling through inversion and displacement of female figures in ‘New Series’ which ‘represent both American domesticity and American aggression, signifying a collapsing of the boundaries that were ideologically important in the 1960s.’ 6 This is particularly evident in ‘Election (Lynndie)’ (2004) from the new series. The work features a photo of a model kitchen from a home décor magazine. Various magazines are visible on the wall stand and on the bench, featuring Abu Ghraib photos on their cover. The back window opens onto a scene of street violence in what could be Iraq, shot in black and white to contrast the colour of the interior. An enlarged newspaper proclaiming the importance of the 2004 US Presidential elections is posted on one of the cupboard doors. In the centre is Lynndie England, a low-ranking clerk in Abu Ghraib, who became the public face of the scandal. Despite the fact that of the eleven soldiers featured in the publicly available Abu Ghraib photographs, only three were women, the role of women, exemplified in the image of England, consumed much of the attention. Rosler takes the image from one of the publicised photos featuring England holding a detainee on a leash, except that here the detainee is not visible. He is in the background framed in the oven door. Lynndie’s leash extends behind the workbench, becoming the means of her imprisonment. She is fixed in a perpetual position of a failed soldier and failed woman. Her figure is intentionally blurred and pixelated in contrast to the smoothness of the scene. She is the outsider here, not the scenes of violence. Her pixellation also connects her to her source, the Internet. 3. Coco Fusco Coco Fusco’s performance ‘A Room of One’s Own: Women and Power in the New America’ (2006) investigates the role of female interrogators in the ‘war on terror.’ For this project, she carried out extensive research into interrogation techniques, including attending interrogation simulation ran by retired US military intelligence officers, documented in the film ‘Operation Atropos’ (2006). Fusco performs as a military official conducting a briefing on sexually charged tactics used by women interrogators. Her presentation is complimented by images and simulated CCTV video featuring a detainee being interrogated by Fusco. Dressed in a camouflage uniform and speaking in an official tone, Fusco uses her performance to inhabit the symbolic universe of military power. Fusco’s work is concerned with appropriation of sexual difference by the military. More importantly her work is interested in the strategic performance of sexuality as an identity that is part of interrogation procedure. Her work testifies to the way in which theatrical devices are used in interrogation to both increase the effectiveness of coercion and to help interrogators to emotionally disassociate from the violence. Fusco mirrors interrogation as a double performance of an identity and of professional detachment. ‘A Room of One’s Own’ is a performance of a performance that reveals instrumental use of performativity to generate minimal

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__________________________________________________________________ distance towards acting in the service of power. This minimal distance is crucial insofar as it allows subject to retain a sense of removal from enjoying in the torture. Fusco intentionally destroys this distance, presenting sexual difference as completely subsumed under the symbolic law of the military, and its marginality as a key tactical device. The importance of Galindo’s Rosler’s and Fusco’s work is in the recognition that radicalising of marginality in Abu Ghraib does not operate as a critical gesture but as an intrinsic function of deterritorialised violence. By articulating the question of sexual difference in Abu Ghraib as one of systematic inclusion and exclusion, they all connect the debates around perceptions of women soldiers to the larger questions in the wake of Abu Ghraib.

Notes 1

Julian Stallabrass, ‘Performing Torture’, Accessed 8 March 2011, http://www.scribd.com/doc/31591443/Regina- Jose-Galindo. 2 Amelia Jones, ‘Performing the Wounded Body: Pain, Affect and the Radical Relationality of Meaning’, Parallax 15 (2009): 49. 3 Slavoj Zizek, Living In the End Times (London: Verso, 2010), 123. 4 Brian Wallis, ‘Living Room War’, Art in America (1992): 105. 5 Heather Diack, ‘Too Close to Home: Rethinking Representation in Martha Rosler’s Photomontages of War’, Prefix 14 (2006): 68. 6 Siona Wilson, ‘Girls Say Yes To Boys Who Say No’, Oxford Art Journal 32 (2006): 130.

Bibliography Diack, Heather. ‘Too Close to Home: Rethinking Representation in Martha Rosler’s Photomontages of War’. Prefix 14 (2006): 56–69. Jones, Amelia. ‘Performing the Wounded Body: Pain, Affect and the Radical Relationality of Meaning’. Parallax 15 (2009): 45–67. Stallabrass, Julian. ‘Performing Torture’. Accessed http://www.scribd.com/doc/31591443/Regina-Jose-Galindo.

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2011.

Wallis, Brian. ‘Living Room War’. Art in America (1992): 107. Wilson, Siona. ‘Girls Say Yes To Boys Who Say No’. Oxford Art Journal 32 (2006): 121–142.

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__________________________________________________________________ Zizek, Slavoj. Living In the End Times. London: Verso, 2010. Uros Cvoro is a Lecturer in Art History and Theory at the Australian Catholic University in Sydney. His research focuses on cultural representations of national identity and nationalism.

PART 3 Blurring the Boundaries of Genders

Introducing Gender Equality in the Early Childhood Classroom Denise M. Maynard Abstract As early childhood educators, we have an obligation to create an environment, which fosters a gender-free classroom. Where else in society can young children have an opportunity to express themselves freely, without a preconceived notion of who they are or what they must enjoy as individuals? Whether one is a teacher, administrator or parent, expectations need to be on equal par: void of imposing gender restrictions on young minds. Classroom teachers must lead in educating parents, colleagues and students to view gender as a non-binary system. This is exhibited by promoting students to socialize with peers by selecting activities, centers and experiences based on their likes, interests and curiosities; furthermore, eliminating gendered groupings and hallway line-ups. Children, when not impeded by cultural biases, choose toys, games and partners that are of their innate tastes. The media, society and the toy industry force educators to spend much time reversing their carefully taught messages. Two viable approaches are role modeling and creating a bullying-free safe space that endorse play, based on personal choice. Once given permission to embrace every crayon color, any dressup clothing, all toys or playmates they naturally desire, students socialize genderfree without reservation. While parents and educators witness the play and joy of a gender-free classroom, they become more open-minded and willing to release the beliefs of their own biases. This paper will discuss, when leading by example, gender-free classroom practices which reduce the typical enforcement of boy/girl stereotypes of the past. Though biological sex differences are acknowledged, they are no longer the reason for creating barriers or preventing play. For children who have not yet acquired the language to explain they do not identify as a genderconforming boy or girl, in an early childhood setting, this type of classroom can prove to be an emotional and psychological haven. Key Words: Gender, education, early childhood, gender-variance, classroom, center-based instruction, play, kindergarten, gender stereotypes, gender equality. ***** As an early childhood educator, there is an obligation to create an environment, which fosters a gender-free classroom. Where else in society can young children have an opportunity to express themselves freely, without a preconceived notion of who they are or what they must enjoy as individuals? The following paper will discuss, when leading by example, gender-free classroom practices which reduce the typical enforcement of boy/girl stereotypes of the past. This fictional account is based on my twenty-five years of observation and experience as an early childhood

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__________________________________________________________________ teacher; in order to, demonstrate the possibility of what could be and of what often is occurring in many school districts across the United States. Once upon a time, there was a five-year-old named Leslie who loved school. Every day Leslie’s pregnant teacher, Ms. Gender-Free, would set-up different centers and students were encouraged to participate in each area. Leslie’s favorite center was the Dress-Up Center. On any typical day, Leslie would select the bright purple oversized tutu plus jeweled tiara and imagine being the star ballerina. The next area Leslie would choose was the Tool Center. There, Leslie would grab a tool belt and hook it directly upon the tutu. Ms. Gender-Free would allow the students to continue to wear any costume they had on from the last center and they were able to keep all the clothing on while at school. At the Tool Center, Leslie would begin painting the fire truck that had been constructed last week with the fire fighter volunteers. The color was going to be pastel pink because it reminded Leslie of cotton candy. Third on the rotation was the Family Center. Leslie and Tyler always baked together. On this day, they were going to follow Ms. Gender-Free’s recipe for chocolate chip cookies: brown Play-Dough with black buttons for the chips. Once the cookies were ready to harden, Tyler and Leslie moved on together to the Entrepreneurial/Invention Center. This was where they prepared the packaging and priced all the things they made in the Tool Center, baked in the Family Center or costume they had sewn in the Fine Motor Center. Next Leslie would leave Tyler and continue on to the Building Center to play with Cameron. Cameron was the best block builder in the entire school. Cameron’s structures never fell down and were always decorated with the most outstanding self-made accessories; in fact, Cameron’s accessories were so popular, that Ms. Gender-Free would allow Cameron to sell them in the Entrepreneur/Invention Center. Once done with the Building Center, Leslie proceeded to the Music Center, which was located outside the room to the left, directly passed the three unisex bathrooms. Ms. Gender-Free’s assistant, Mr. Rhythm, was there waiting for the little musicians. They could sign up for lessons and choose any instrument they desired. At the next area, the Science Center, Leslie would meet up with Drew at the water/sand table. Here, they would bury their artifacts and set out on an archeological dig. Leslie would do different things at this center: paint animals on large murals, create 3-D cards or mold things out of clay. Off to the Technology Center, Leslie would play rhyming games on the computer. If the computers were being used, the classmates could use the Smart Board, listen to books on tape or record student interviews with the video/digital camera. Continuing on, Leslie usually joined Chris and Pat at the Theme Center. Every month, the students selected a theme for this center. Students would construct the

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__________________________________________________________________ area based on the theme and then they were encouraged to use it. During the last month of Ms. Gender-Free’s pregnancy, the students voted to design a maternity wing. Whitney, the best seamstress of the class, began working on the baby bibs! That month, Ms. Gender-Free gave birth to Kelsey and Mrs. Traditional became her substitute replacement. Mrs. Traditional was quite different from Ms. Gender-Free. Leslie was never allowed to wear his tutu because that was what little girls do, not little boys, according to Mrs. Traditional. In fact, Mrs. Traditional would forbid Drew from exploring her digs. Cameron could no longer build her structures since the substitute felt that was men’s work, not ladies. Furthermore, Whitney was forced to focus his attentions on this center and could no longer sew because Cameron was now the official female seamstress. Mr. Rhythm was told that certain instruments were off limits to girls. They were permitted to play bells, tambourines or sang in the band; however, they could no longer play the drums. The only center that remained the same was the Technology Center and the students never were permitted to finish their maternity wing. Now, Leslie hated school! When they would color or paint, Mrs. Traditional insisted that the children stop representing fathers in pink and mothers had to be wearing dresses. Mrs. Traditional had scheduled boy and girl times to use the bathroom. When the students would walk to lunch, Mrs. Traditional had boy and girl lines, unlike Ms. Gender-Free who encouraged everyone to choose any partner for line up. Whole class snack time had separate boy and girl tables. Now, Whitney, Drew and Cameron would cry all the time. Even worse for them was the fact that Mrs. Traditional would remind them everyday, ‘Now you are a boy or you are a girl so you must make sure you choose the correct line when we leave the classroom.’ They would earn stickers for doing so. School was no longer happily ever after for these students. Which scenario seems more realistic, the one involving Ms. Gender-Free or the one involving Mrs. Traditional? Well the truth is, they both exist and they could be in the same school right next door to each other. All the gender-free centers that the original teacher carefully created were done so because these opportunities prepare children for their future adult roles and their limitless possibilities enable students to learn according to their tastes, abilities and experiences rather than heteronormative gender roles. Though many would wish for a gender-free classroom, as a place for students to discover, explore, grow and nurture who they are, most societal realities reinforce a traditional philosophy. In the science of gender difference research there has often been the assumption that boys have an innate attraction towards particular toy preferences and girls for theirs; however, some research shows that these initial inclinations are actually developed and ingrained by social reinforcement. 1 When exposed to a variety of options, for example: boys to nurturing or care-giving activities and girls to spatial or physical tasks, each in turn begins to acquire the skills necessary to succeed in these areas. There is no

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__________________________________________________________________ clear policy to ensure gender equality in these realms of early childhood education and it is the responsibility of those in the classroom to not only write these policies but also ensure their important execution. When purchasing toys/games for my classroom, I opted to obtain them from a popular online website. When I connected with this site, two toy/game categories appeared: boy and girl games/toys! Just as the traditional teacher had emphasised, boy categories were Action Figures, Construction, Electronic Games, Play Vehicles, Bikes, Skates and Legos while girl were: Go Laptop Pink, Pink Radio Flyer, Barbie Pink Dream Townhouse, Arts & Crafts, Dolls, Stuffed Animals & Plush, and Dress-Up & Pretend Play. 2 In the year 2011, this form of binary, stereotypical practices are still accepted and used in society. The perpetual use of blue for boys and pink for girls is influenced based on the artworks of Thomas Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy from 1770 and Thomas Lawrence’s Pinkie from 1794, which has inundated the global merchandising market. Educators often use the colors to code paperwork to differentiate boys from girls as expressed in the Kindergarten Kids, which clearly illustrates pink attendance cards represent girls’ names and blue cards represent boys’ names. 3 Moreover, the majority of adults rarely know the origins of this practice yet the marketing departments of baby supplies for clothing, toys and furniture, continue to sell the concept. A person would be ridiculed if they were to give a pink gift for a baby boy at birth or possibly even a blue gift for a baby girl. The issue is not with the colors, but rather, the use of them restricts personal choice and ensures discrimination promoting gender-bias even before birth. This simple but monopolising custom has stigmatised many a child, adolescent and adult. It has become perfectly acceptable for fast food restaurants to enforce that masculine implies male and feminine implies female, which has been questioned since Judith Butler. 4 When my school joined in partnership, with a fast food chain for a fundraiser, I volunteered to work. Children from my district would purchase a child’s meal that came with a toy and would then be given a toy based on their perceived gender. A female student who identified more as male, asked for a ‘boy’ toy, the manager insisted I give the young child a ‘girl’ toy. After my relentless arguing, the manager surrendered and I gave the student a ‘boy’ toy. Why, in this day and age, is this policy allowed to exist? Why do some parents, caregivers and even some teachers feel it is proper to make separate boy and girl gift bags, send out birthday invitations based on gender, often disregarding a student’s real classroom friendships; which are not always based on gender? These natural opposite gender friendships, when encouraged and embraced, occur frequently in a gender-free classroom. If this practice commences the first day of school, opposite and same-sex friendships grow strongly, which is witnessed by me every year. After a troubled start of a new school year, a young male student was reassigned to my classroom. It was explained that he could become quite physical,

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__________________________________________________________________ verbally oppositional and inappropriately social in a bullying manner, yet no one understood why. When he entered my classroom, I observed his behavior. I noticed he preferred to be the mother in family role-play, dress in ‘female’ clothing and socialize with the girls. Though he was often upset if he did not get his own way, he never harmed another classmate. During the year, a female classmate invited all the female peers to her sixth birthday party at a nail salon. He was devastated to find out he was not included. When they returned to school the next day with their nails polished, he was inconsolable. The next morning, I was summoned to his bus because he had taken a pink magic marker and painted his nails on the bus to match his female friends. The outrage of the bus aide was as cruel as I had ever seen. I addressed the situation, clarifying the only error the child made was using marker on the bus and that it could be toxic unlike nail polish. This poor young man was humiliated and victimised twice for simply being who he was meant to be. Proponents of the Gender Identity Disorder in Childhood diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders would support the beliefs of the aide in labeling his behavior as disordered. 5 Why, as school districts demand academic differentiation for all types of learners, is it not required for educators to differentiate the social and emotional goals of achievement too? Teachers recognise these academic best practices benefit not only those who receive the accommodated services, but also for those who do not. The same logic would apply if school districts encouraged equal respect for those on the gender continuum. If society, with the help of media and toy companies, continues to endorse the binary, children who do not fit the mold are virtually forced to choose or live a life of isolation, ridicule and often abuse in a multitude of situations. More damaging is the fact that these children, who have a need to express themselves, could possibly be harmed even further by being labeled mentally ill. 6 School is a place that has the opportunity to educate, but it often adds to this form of discrimination and indoctrination of the gender binary. Cheryl Kilodavis took matters into her own hands when she realised her son, Dyson, could not conform to the stereotypical roles. After educating his school district, Ms. Kilodavis wrote, My Princess Boy. 7 In the book, the young boy expresses his desire to wear a ‘princess dress’ and tiara without people laughing at him. Reading this book in the class could open a necessary dialogue amongst students, parents, teachers and administrators alike. With sensitivity and appropriate guidelines, topics that include gender equality could change the school environment and positively affect a child’s self-esteem for the better. Prior to reading the book and hearing Dyson’s mother speak; I received an article about the book from a colleague. This article was distributed in response to a ‘research-based’ article and emailed to faculty by an administrator, in order to, provoke a discussion among the staff. 8 According to this article, in certain school districts, classroom times are being designated for same-sex instruction. This

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__________________________________________________________________ practice is based on the claim that boys learn best from physical and competitive instruction unlike girls who learn best from imaginative and fine motor play, supported in part on Brain Organization Theory research, which has been seriously questioned by Jordan-Young. 9 Though some traditional colleagues may have applauded the ‘research based’ article, most which held the philosophical convictions of gender-free classrooms, were outraged. One faculty member rebutted with: Having three daughters, one who ran away from fairies and princesses to go kick the ball around, and another who was all about competition, and a third who actually did like to dress up and role play but who also needed lots of physical activities to satisfy her bounding energy…I cannot think that this model would work for more than those who fit the mold. I would have thought that we had gotten away from such antiquated stereotypes. 10 Whether one is a teacher, administrator or parent, expectations need to be on equal par: void of imposing gender restrictions on young minds. Classroom teachers must lead in educating parents, colleagues and students to view gender as a non-binary system and not necessarily linked to biological sex. This is exhibited by promoting students to socialise with peers by selecting activities, centers and experiences based on their likes, interests and curiosities; furthermore, educators need to eliminate gendered groupings and hallway line-ups in early childhood settings. Children, when not impeded by cultural biases, choose toys, games and partners that are of their innate tastes. The media, society and the toy industry force educators to spend much time reversing their carefully taught messages. Two viable approaches are role modeling and creating a bullying-free safe space that endorse play, based on personal choice. Once given permission to embrace every crayon color, any dressup clothing, all toys or playmates they naturally desire, students socialise genderfree without reservation. While parents and educators witness the play and joy of a gender-free classroom, they become more open-minded and willing to release the beliefs of their own biases. Though biological sex and gender differences are acknowledged, they are no longer the reason for creating barriers or preventing cross-gender play. For children who have not yet acquired the language to explain they do not identify as a gender-conforming boy or girl, in an early childhood setting, this type of classroom can prove to be an emotional and psychological haven.

Notes

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__________________________________________________________________ 1

Gerianne M. Alexander, ‘An Evolutionary Perspective of Sex-Typed Toy Preferences: Pink, Blue and the Brain’, Archives of Sexual Behavior 32, No. 1 (2003): 7-14. 2 ‘Toys and Games at Amazon.com’, Accessed 13 September 2011, http://www.amazon.com/toys/b/ref=sa_menu_tg10?ie=UTF8&node=165793011. 3 Ellen B. Senisi, Kindergarten Kids (New York: Scholastic, 1994). 4 Judith Butler. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 1990). 5 American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (Washington: American Psychiatric Association, 2000). 6 Susan J. Langer and James Martin, ‘How Dresses Can Make You Mentally Ill: Examining Gender Identity Disorder in Childhood’, Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal 21, No. 1 (2004): 5-23. 7 Cheryl Kilodavis, My Princess Boy (New York: Aladdin, 2009). 8 Rita Michel, ‘Kindergarten Gender Groups in Shaler play to Strengths’, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 4 November 2010, Accessed 13 September 2011, http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10308/1100358-54.stm. 9 Rebecca Jordan-Young, Brainstorm: The Flaws in the Science of Sex Difference (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010). 10 Claudia Domb, personal communication, 9 November 2010.

Bibliography American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 4th Edition, Washington: American Psychiatric Association, 2000. Alexander, G. M. ‘An Evolutionary Perspective of Sex-Typed Toy Preferences: Pink, Blue and the Brain’. Archives of Sexual Behavior 32, No. 1 (2003): 7–14. Amazon. ‘Toys and Games at Amazon.com’. Accessed September 13, 2011. http://www.amazon.com/toys/b/ref=sa_menu_tg10?ie=UTF8&node=165793011, 2011. Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York, NY: Routledge, 1990. Jordan-Young, Rebecca. Brainstorm: The Flaws in the Science of Sex Difference. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010. Kilodavis, Cheryl. My Princess Boy. New York: Aladdin, 2009.

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__________________________________________________________________ Langer, Susan J., and Martin, James I. ‘How Dresses Can Make You Mentally Ill: Examining Gender Identity Disorder in Childhood’. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal 21, No. 1 (2004): 5–23. Michel, Rita. ‘Kindergarten Gender Groups in Shaler play to Strengths.’ Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 4 November 2010. Accessed 13 September 13 2011. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10308/1100358-54.stm. Senisi, Ellen B. Kindergarten Kids. New York: Scholastic, 1994. Denise M. Maynard, holds her S.A.S./S.D.A. degrees and is a veteran teacher with over twenty-five years experience working in Mineola School District located in Long Island, New York. She is the founder/director of Maynard’s W.I.S.D.O.M., Inc., an educational service which supports the needs of students, parents, caregivers, teachers and administrators by providing workshops and programs that incorporate best practices while learning through P.L.A.Y. activities.

Barbie: Is She a Postfeminine Icon Now? Dikmen Yakalı-Çamoğlu Abstract Barbie is a cultural icon who has set a standard of femininity and beauty for millions of children since her introduction into the market in 1959. Ever since, she has been a centre of criticism, in particular for the feminists who have argued that Barbie reproduces and reinforces the patriarchal order. There are other works suggesting that, with her adult form, Barbie actually gives girls a subject position other than that of motherhood and that, from this standpoint, she is liberating. She may be played as resisting the norms. In some of her latest animation films, Barbie appears as an activist feminist. The media products of Barbie took a direction which turned various binary oppositions about femininity and masculinity upside down, implying fragmented and contradictory subject positions for femininity and the feminist; connecting the feminist with the anti-feminist; focusing on individualism, choice and empowerment. Hence, these media products need reconsideration. This paper aims to analyse three Barbie animation films from the last five years (2006-2010), taking a postfeminist point of view. Narrative (thematic) analysis of the texts will seek to answer the questions: Is Barbie becoming a postfeminist? Is she now an icon of postfemininity? Key Words: Barbie, children’s media, narrative identity, feminism, postfeminism, postfemininity, toys, girls’ studies, cultural studies. ***** 1. Introduction It is often argued that second wave feminism has created an opposition between ‘bad’ feminine identities and ‘good’ feminist identities. 1 We can also talk about an oppositional relationship between feminism and femininity, where the feminists are seen to be anti-feminine. 2 For many critics, Barbie was the symbol and embodiment of ‘bad’ feminine identities. She has been thought of as the icon of the ‘late capitalist construction of femininity.’ 3 She was also blamed for constructing her life and identity around her boyfriend Ken. 4 In this framework, Barbie signifies heterosexual norms and fixed gender roles. 5 Her consumerist values are thought to teach little girls femininity through standards of dress. 6 In this paper, I will argue that Barbie is a postfeminine icon and also, currently, a postfeminist. Her postfeminine status arises from her capacity to negotiate and reconcile conflicting histories of femininity and incompatible feminine and feminist subject positions. In this sense she is playing in an in-between position.

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__________________________________________________________________ Hers is a play of subjectivities and I will further argue that such a postfeminine identity points to a narrative identity which is dialogically constructed. In putting forward my arguments, I focus here only on three animation films of Barbie as examples. These movies are Barbie as the Island Princess (2007), Barbie and the Three Musketeers (2009), and Barbie and the Fashion Fairytale (2010), 7 which I analyse thematically. Basically, then, I will consider these films as texts and will concentrate on the themes and the ways in which they position Barbie as a postfeminine/postfeminist icon. First of all, I should point out the distinctions between the practice of playing with the plastic doll and that of watching the animations. Barbie’s subversive potential has been recognised by many critics. Poststructural feminist and queer theories have brought alternative views to Barbie play. Rand asserts that interpreting Barbie as an ideological tool of white patriarchy is limiting. For example, queer Barbie play offers a site for queer pleasure and a resistance to the heteronormative ideals. 8 It is also argued that, instead of reinforcing ideals of women as passive and objectified, Barbie play can be liberating and empowering for girls because it enables them to resist and reject the stereotypes of femininity. 9 In the animations, however, Barbie is not only a plastic embodiment to which we can attach any meaning we like. In each one Barbie acts out a different character and shows that this is a play of subjectivities. Barbie can never attain a singular identity; indeed, hers hardly has a core. From this standpoint, animation films also become a terrain where Mattel, the producer of Barbie products, can respond to various criticisms and can aim to sell its products even to feminist parents. 2. Postfeminism and Postfemininity Understandings of postfeminism are highly contested and oppositional. The term is mostly used to call attention to the changes in the representation of women in popular culture; changes in feminist discourses and the entrance of feminist concerns to the mainstream in ideologically contradictory ways. 10 However, whether the shifts add up to progress or are a conservative backlash for feminism remain contested. 11 Postfeminism offered a conceptual framework in which feminism intersected with and was affected by other anti-foundationalist movements, such as postmodernism, post-structuralism and post-colonialism. 12 As such, postfeminism carries femininity away from easy categorisations and binaries, including the dualistic patterns of male power and female victimisation. 13 Following Genz, I use ‘postfemininity’ as a term to indicate the paradoxes of contemporary femininity which encapsulate the traditional narratives of femininity and more progressive narratives of feminine agency and subjectivity. 14 Postfemininity lies at a postfeminist liminality which ‘moves us from the exclusionary logic of either/or to the inclusionary logic of both/and.’ 15 As an embodiment of the postfeminist

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__________________________________________________________________ feminine, Barbie is searching for feminine agency in her films and she seems to be making references to the past and present femininities and feminisms in her search for their hybrid qualities. As Genz says, today, ‘the feminine feminist is not an oxymoronic, hypothetical subject position but a postfeminist possibility that demands our critical attention and analysis.’ 16 I will suggest that Barbie’s terrain is exactly this in-between space and she seems to be up to constructing a whole generation of feminine feminists. 3. Barbie as the Island Princess: Deconstructing Nature/Culture Dichotomy In 2007 Mattel released Barbie as the Island Princess. Here the main themes are ‘finding one’s way,’ ‘true’ identity,’ ‘love’ and ‘helping others.’ However, as Barbie builds up these themes, the story also deconstructs the phallogocentric dichotomy between nature and culture. After a violent storm, a little girl, Ro, is shipwrecked on an island. Over time, she learns to talk to animals, but can remember nothing about her past before the shipwreck. Ten years later, Ro is one and complete with nature. Meanwhile a handsome prince named Antonio discovers Ro’s island. He is a curious adventurer with a love of nature. As soon as he arrives on the island, crocodiles attack him, but Ro saves him. Grateful for her help, Antonio says, ‘You saved us and now let us save you. Come back to my kingdom.’ It is suggested that they begin their relationship on equal terms and that Ro was able to save his life. However, it is also suggested that Ro is the damsel in distress and in need of saving from nature, when he insists: ‘Ro, come with us to civilization.’ The situation can be read from a conformist point of view, which aligns woman with nature, irrationality and the body; in this, Antonio seems to be an example of traditional masculinity speaking on behalf of culture, reason and the mind. This is exactly how Ro is treated by Antonio’s parents when she meets them; they want their son to marry Princess Luciana, who is the perfect, submissive, ‘cultured’ girl. Although both nature and Ro as its representative of it seem at first to be exploitable and subject to masculine mastery, by the end, the story reclaims the status of the female subject and displaces phallogocentrism by subverting this dualistic thought. Ro finds out who she is, learns about civilisation and then chooses to deny its supposed supremacy. More importantly, instead of Antonio imposing his own culture on Ro, he accepts the contrary and they get on a boat and sail away as soon as they are married. 4. Barbie and the Three Musketeers: The Feminine Feminist In this 2009 movie, Barbie becomes an action heroine who is a postfeminine position in that she embodies the multiple subject and agency positions that are available to women in the twenty-first century. 17 Above all, in the characterisation of the action heroine, ‘the concepts of subject and object and man and woman are deconstructed and reinterpreted.’ 18

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__________________________________________________________________ Here, Barbie stars as a country girl named Corinne. She decides to go to Paris with a dream of being one of the Musketeers, protectors of the French royal family, just like her father, D’Artagnan. Before she leaves, Corinne’s mother says: ‘True courage is pursuing your dream, even when everyone else says it’s impossible.’ This is the main theme of the movie. In a 17th Century setting, everyone who hears of Corinne’s plan to become a musketeer laughs and mocks her. They say that a girl cannot be a warrior, but she can work as a servant for the warriors. Thus, the traditional pre-feminist idea is constructed of femininity as something essential but subservient; only to be deconstructed before long. Corinne is a feminist. She asserts that a girl can be a warrior. Nobody listens to her. Through coincidence, she enters the palace as a maid. Corinne meets with Viveca, Aramina and Renée, who also dream of becoming musketeers. With Hélène, who is an elderly maid skilled in fighting, as their trainer, each girl chooses a weapon and develops her own unique fighting style. This shows that Corinne is not exceptional and that there is nothing quintessential in femininity that would prevent a woman from being a soldier. Postfeminist Barbie here reshapes the binary boundaries of masculinity and femininity, as well as feminism and femininity. She displays an emphasized feminine body and manners along with a feminist consciousness and masculine forcefulness and power. With her ‘emphasized femininity’, she moves as if in a stylised dance even when she fights. 19 But still she wins. Moreover, unlike the supergirl characters in other media forms for children, who do things of this sort through having superpowers, Barbie does this through her determination and hard work. In short, Barbie’s image and manners points to a new alternative way to construct female heroism and subjectivity. Prince Louis is depicted as a scientist who is the inventor of an air balloon. The same patriarchal discourse reminding Corinne that a girl cannot be a warrior asserts to him that a prince does not have the luxury of pursuing his dreams. He is as imprisoned in society’s norms as Corinne is. Thus, it is implied that, in a patriarchal order, even a prince representing the hegemonic masculinity of the time, cannot be free. Louis also combines qualities associated with masculinity and femininity, since he cannot fight and does not seem to conform to traditional types of masculinity. This underlines the artifice of opposing traditional masculinity and femininity and undermines the boundaries which maintain dualistic concepts. Both Barbie and the prince refuse to be controlled by one-dimensional, totalizing classifications and they disrupt the barrier between the binaries, establishing an in-between position. From this aspect, the end of the movie is especially striking. Corinne and her friends save the prince and his kingdom. After his coronation, King Louis appoints the girls as the first female Musketeers in history. Louis later invites Corinne to take a balloon ride with him. However when the Musketeers are informed of a plot

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__________________________________________________________________ against the new king, Corinne asks Louis to postpone their date and runs to join her friends. The girls ride into the sunset, lifting their swords and exclaiming ‘All for one, and one for all!’ Thus the traditional scene is subverted of the knight departing as the submissive woman waves her hand. Postfeminist Barbie reverses and resignifies the scenario and is created as a feminist role model, whereas she has always been considered a victim of patriarchy. 5. Barbie and a Fashion Fairytale: A Core Identity or a Narrative One? In this 2010 movie, Barbie is cast as herself, whatever that may mean. Through the movie, we may question whether Barbie can have a core identity or suggests a narrative one. The story sets Barbie in Hollywood shooting her next movie when the director fires her for expressing her opinion. Just as Barbie notices that her dismissal has been leaked to all the gossip websites, Ken calls her on the phone and breaks up their relationship. Losing all confidence in her acting and herself, she decides to go away to Paris to live with her Aunt Millicent. But on her arrival she finds that Aunt Millicent is about to lose her fashion house and Barbie helps her and Alice, the young aspiring designer, in a plan to save the firm from bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Barbie’s best friends discover that Raquelle had recorded Ken’s voice during a drama rehearsal and used his phone to make it seem as though he had abandoned Barbie. Ken decides to take a plane to Paris and surprise Barbie in a ‘grand romantic gesture.’ In the end, the fashion house is saved; Ken arrives in Paris and the studio calls Barbie back. In Fashion Fairytale, Barbie’s all-perfect identity as a beautiful movie star is called into question. When she is dropped by the studio, her audiences write their comments on the Internet. She reads such comments as: ‘So never liked her. Awesome news.’ On her arrival in Paris, she feels deflated and depressed. Her feelings are reflected through the background song: I wanna be someone, Feel something so different ... I wanna jump out of my skin, Into what I’ve never been So free Another me. 20 © 2010 New Mania Music (ASCAP) & Shabby Music (ASCAP). In the movie one of the main themes is ‘life is a fabric we are to colour.’ Barbie is in search for an identity, a narrative of her own in all three movies. On the

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__________________________________________________________________ island, the Princess’s song tells us why exactly she agrees with Antonio to go to ‘civilization’: I need to find my way Seize my tomorrow Learn my yesterday. 21 © 2007 Mattel Rhapsody (ASCAP) & Songs of Mattel (BMI). In Barbie and Three Musketeers, the main themes of ‘knowing/finding one’s way’ once more are reflected in a song. On her way to Paris, she sings: …cause I’ve opened my eyes, I am making my way, you see Throwing out the disbelief I am jumping in ... There is nothing left to prove To anybody else but me So go right ahead and call me crazy ... Does it freak you out? I am fierce and proud. ... I have finally sifted through the useless attitudes Ain’t nobody pushing me around, no. I know who I am. 22 © 2009 MPL Tunes, Inc. (BMI). These themes of finding a way of one’s own and choice bring us to the idea of a dialogically constructed narrative identity. On the one hand, Barbie has only one ‘core identity,’ that of a plastic doll. Here plasticity may imply ‘instability and process and, like its definition, the many forms plastic may take are ambiguous and contradictory ... . It is transformative, contaminating the distinctions between natural and artificial, subject and object.’ 23 As Toffoletti argues, Barbie is a precursor of a posthuman identity. On the other hand, Barbie’s intertextual narrative identity as a movie star is dissolved and problematised in Fashion Fairytale by her own need for a new identity. Even the model of perfect femininity may in the postmodern world be in need of a new narrative. Thus it is implied that there is no ‘truth’ to the meaning of Barbie, or the meaning of any woman, for that matter. Multiplicity, conflict and even contradiction in the structure of the self are present for all and we cannot assume a singularity of identity or even selfhood. 24

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__________________________________________________________________ However, one needs a narrative for a sense of a coherent stable self and to avoid the dissolution of the subject. 25 Through Barbie, little girls are introduced to the possible social narratives of femininity that are culturally and historically available. In all these stories Barbie’s play of subjectivities represent and thus construct the available femininities for girls to base their own narratives on. The main themes often suggest little girls that they will be placed in social positionings which are governed by contemporary societal expectations, role models and prescriptions. And the self will be performed ‘as a kind of contrapuntal dialogue of voices [that] ... debate and dispute among themselves the moral basis of the ... social order in which they find themselves positioned.’ 26 Positioning implies that conflict and opposition will be a part of their subjectivity. Barbie warns the girls about this through Millicent’s comment: ‘You are brave enough to follow your passion, no matter what people might say. And that is true style.’ This is also the narrativity of postfeminine identities. Barbie’s femininity is a feminist subject position. She integrates femininity and feminism and hints that they can actually co-exist. Barbie makes reference to the feminine stereotypes propagated by a misogynist patriarchal culture, but also to the feminist consciousness and critique of these images. The stories have a postmodern poststructural awareness of gender construction, as well as a neo-liberal belief in the autonomous individual who has all the choices to make. 27 All these make Barbie a postfeminine and postfeminist icon, which I believe will be the position of the new generation.

Notes 1

Joanne Hollows, Feminism, Femininity and Popular Culture (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2000), 9. 2 Stacy Gillis and Joanne Hollows, eds., Feminism, Domesticity and Popular Culture (New York and London: Routledge, 2009), 1-13. David Gauntlett, Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction (London and New York: Routledge, 2002). 3 Jacqueline Urla and Alan Swedlund, ‘The Anthropometry of Barbie: Unsettling Ideals of the Feminine Body in Popular Culture’, in Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Difference in Science and Popular Culture, eds. Jennifer Terry and Jacqueline Urla (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995), 281. 4 Wendy Varney, ‘Of Men and Machines: Images of Masculinity in Boys’ Toys’, Feminist Studies 28, No. 1 (2002), 155. 5 Shirley Steinberg, ‘The Bitch Who Has Everything’, in Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood, eds. Shirley Steinberg and Joe Kincheloe (Westview: Boulder, 1997), 207-218 and Shirley Steinberg, ‘Barbie: The Bitch

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__________________________________________________________________ Still Has Everything’, in Media/cultural Studies: Critical Approaches, eds. Rhonda Hamer and Douglas Kellner (New York: Peter Lang, 2009). 6 Kim Toffoletti, Cyborgs and Barbie Dolls: Feminism, Popular Culture and the Posthuman Body (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2007), 60-64. 7 Barbie™ and a Fashion Fairytale. Barbie Entertainment Presents; A Rainmaker Animation Production, written by Elise Allen, directed by William Lau. © Mattel, Inc., 2010. Barbie™ and the Three Musketeers. Mattel Entertainment Presents; A Rainmaker Animation Production, written by Amy Wolfram, directed by William Lau. © Mattel, Inc., 2009. Barbie™ as the Island Princess. Mattel Entertainment Presents; A Rainmaker Animation Production, written by Cliff Ruby and Elana Lesser, directed by Greg Richardson. © Mattel, Inc., 2007. 8 Erica Rand, Barbie’s Queer Accessories (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1995). 9 Lana F. Rakow, and Caitlin S. Rakow, ‘Educating Barbie’, in Growing Up Girls: Popular Culture and the Construction of Identity, eds. Sharon R. Mazzarella and Norma Odom Pecora, (New York: Peter Lang, 1999), 11-20. Jacqueline ReidWalsh and Claudia Mitchell, ‘“Just a Doll?”: “Liberating” Accounts of BarbiePlay’, The Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies 22, No. 2 (2000): 175-190. Anita Brill, ‘Barbie, My Liberator’, in Re-visioning Feminism Around the World, ed. Florence Howe (New York: Feminist Press, 1995). 10 Rosalind Gill and Christina Scharff, New Femininities: Postfeminism, Neoliberalism and Subjectivity (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 3-5. 11 Stephanie Genz and Benjamin Brabon, Postfeminism: Cultural Texts and Theories (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press), 2009. 12 Ann Brooks, Postfeminisms: Feminism, Cultural Theory and Cultural Forms (London and New York: Routledge, 1997), 1. 13 Stephanie Genz, Postfemininities in Popular Culture (New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan 2009), 24. 14 Ibid., 17. 15 Ibid., 24. 16 Ibid., 27. 17 Ibid., 154. 18 Ibid. 19 Mary Rogers, Barbie Culture (London: Sage, 1999). 20 ‘Another Me’, in Barbie™ and a Fashion Fairytale, perf. Lindsay Sorenson, music and lyrics Jeannie Lurie (ASCAP) and Gabriel Mann (ASCAP), vocal production Gabriel Mann, movie version instrumentation arranged and produced by BC Smith. Used by permission of New Mania Music (ASCAP) & Shabby Music (ASCAP).

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__________________________________________________________________ 21

‘I Need to Know’, in Barbie™ as the Island Princess, perf. Melissa Lyons and Alessandro Juliani, music by Megan Cavallari, lyrics by Amy Powers and Rob Hudnut. © 2007 Mattel Rhapsody (ASCAP) & Songs of Mattel (BMI). 22 ‘Making my Way’, in Barbie™ and the Three Musketeers, perf. Leslie Mills, written by Leslie Mills and Chris Pelcer Loveriot Music / MPL Tunes, Inc. (BMI). Bensofi Music/ Imaginary Venus Music / Music & Media International, Inc. (BMI). 23 Toffolletti, Cyborgs and Barbie Dolls, 68. 24 Peter T. F. Raggatt, ‘Multiplicity and Conflict in the Dialogical Self: A LifeNarrative Approach’, in Identity and Story: Creating Self in Narrative, eds. Dan P. McAdams, Ruthellen Josselson, and Amia Lieblich, (Washington: American Psychological Association, 2006), 15-35. 25 Kenneth Gergen, The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life (New York: Basic Books, 1991). 26 Raggatt, ‘Multiplicity and Conflict in the Dialogical Self’, 19. 27 Stephanie Genz, Postfemininities in Popular Culture, 33-34.

Bibliography Brill, Anita. ‘Barbie, My Liberator’. In Re-visioning Feminism Around the World, edited by Florence Howe. New York: Feminist Press, 1995. Gauntlett, David. Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction. London and New York: Routledge, 2002. Genz, Stephanie. Postfemininities in Popular Culture. New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Genz, Stephanie, and Benjamin A. Brabon. Postfeminism: Cultural Texts and Theories. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009. Gergen, Kenneth. The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life. New York: Basic Books, 1991. Gill, Rosalind. Gender and the Media. Cambridge: Polity, 2007. Gill, Rosalind, and Christina Scharff, eds. New Femininities: Postfeminism, Neoliberalism and Subjectivity. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

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__________________________________________________________________ Gillis, Stacy, and Joanne Hollows. ‘Introduction’. In Feminism, Domesticity and Popular Culture, edited by Stacy Gillis and Joanne Hollows, 1–14. New York and London: Routledge, 2009. Hollows, Joanne. Feminism, Femininity and Popular Culture. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2000. Rakow, Lana F., and Caitlin S. Rakow. ‘Educating Barbie’. In Growing Up Girls: Popular Culture and the Construction of Identity, edited by Sharon R. Mazzarella and Norma Odom Pecora, 11–20. New York: Peter Lang, 1999. Raggatt, Peter T. F. ‘Multiplicity and Conflict in the Dialogical Self: A LifeNarrative Approach’. In Identity and Story: Creating Self in Narrative, edited by Dan P. McAdams, Ruthellen Josselson, and Amia Lieblich, 15–35. Washington: American Psychological Association, 2006. Rand, Erica. Barbie’s Queer Accessories. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1995. Reid-Walsh, Jacqueline, and Claudia Mitchell. ‘“Just a Doll?”: “Liberating” Accounts of Barbie-Play’. The Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies 22, No. 2 (2000): 175–190. Rogers, Mary F. Barbie Culture. London: Sage, 1999. Steinberg, Shirley. ‘The Bitch Who Has Everything’. In Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood, edited by Shirley Steinberg and Joe Kincheloe, 207–218. Boulder: Westview, 1997. —––. ‘Barbie: The Bitch Still Has Everything’. In Media/cultural Studies: Critical Approaches, edited by Rhonda Hamer and Douglas Kellner, 270–279. New York: Peter Lang, 2009. Toffoletti, Kim. Cyborgs and Barbie Dolls: Feminism, Popular Culture and the Posthuman Body. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2007. Urla, Jacqueline, and Alan C.Swedlund. ‘The Anthropometry of Barbie: Unsettling Ideals of the Feminine Body in Popular Culture’. In Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Difference in Science and Popular Culture, edited by Jennifer

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__________________________________________________________________ Terry and Jacqueline Urla, 277–313. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995. Varney, Wendy. ‘Of Men and Machines: Images of Masculinity in Boys’ Toys’. Feminist Studies 28, No. 1 (2002): 153–174.

Filmography Barbie™ and a Fashion Fairytale. Barbie Entertainment Presents; A Rainmaker Animation Production. Written by Elise Allen. Directed by William Lau. © Mattel, Inc., 2010. Barbie™ and the Three Musketeers. Mattel Entertainment Presents; A Rainmaker Animation Production. Written by Amy Wolfram. Directed by William Lau. © Mattel, Inc., 2009. Barbie™ as the Island Princess. Mattel Entertainment Presents; A Rainmaker Animation Production. Written by Cliff Ruby and Elana Lesser. Directed by Greg Richardson. © Mattel, Inc., 2007.

Discography ‘Another Me’. In Barbie™ and a Fashion Fairytale. Performed by Lindsay Sorenson. Music and Lyrics by Jeannie Lurie (ASCAP) & Gabriel Mann (ASCAP). Vocal Production by Gabriel Mann. Movie Version Instrumentation Arranged and Produced by BC Smith.Used by permission of New Mania Music (ASCAP) & Shabby Music (ASCAP). ‘I Need to Know’. In Barbie™ as the Island Princess. Performed by Melissa Lyons & Alessandro Juliani. Music by Megan Cavallari. Lyrics by Amy Powers & Rob Hudnut. © 2007 Mattel Rhapsody (ASCAP) & Songs of Mattel (BMI). ‘Making my Way’. In Barbie™ and the Three Musketeers. Performed by Leslie Mills. Written by Leslie Mills & Chris Pelcer Loveriot Music / MPL Tunes, Inc. (BMI). Bensofi Music/ Imaginary Venus Music / Music & Media International, Inc. (BMI). Dikmen Yakalı-Çamoğlu received her PhD in cultural studies from the University

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__________________________________________________________________ of Birmingham, UK. She is currently assistant professor at Doğuş University, Istanbul. She teaches courses on communication theories, cultural theory and popular culture.

Between Inverting and Perverting Gender Affiliation? Doing Research on Men in Contrasting Occupational Settings Isabelle V. Zinn Abstract While scientific research has been primarily focused on women who occupy professions considered to be ‘masculine’ - and particularly on women who embrace a professional career in executive functions - little investigation has been carried out about men who work in female-dominated occupations. Whereas there exists a great deal of research on male workers in traditional male occupations, most of this work is not framed in a gender perspective and does not investigate how ‘masculinity’ is constructed and articulated in different occupational settings. This paper redresses this balance and discusses men’s access to female dominated professions and the construction of masculinities in traditional male and statistically ‘gender-balanced’ occupations, while focusing specifically on dynamic modalities. My epistemological position does not allow us to consider the group of men as a homogenous category in search of a common social identity. Although the affiliation to a gender may be true, it is not necessarily relevant in every situation. In arguing thus, I will draw attention to the fact that gender differentiation should not be taken as a starting point for analysis, in order to avoid an ideological bias and a search for simple confirmation of assumptions. Key Words: Masculinities, gendered identities, sex membership, gender affiliation, occupational segregation, doing gender, ethnography, Switzerland. ***** 1. Introduction Sociological studies of professions have long been developed within a genderneutral framework. Scientific research on occupational segregation has been primarily focused on women who enter male-dominated professions, particularly those located in the upper reaches of the occupational hierarchy. 1 To date, relatively little investigation has been dedicated to men who work in femaledominated occupations 2 and few sociologists have actually investigated the objective and subjective experiences of men who enter such professions. 3 Whereas a great deal of research exists on male workers in traditional male occupations, most of this work is not framed in a gender perspective and does not investigate how ‘masculinity’ is constructed and articulated in different occupational settings. 4 Moreover, specific research on masculinities has frequently neglected the professional sphere, preferring a focus on men’s practices and experiences in leisure and sport activities or in intimate relationships, for example.

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__________________________________________________________________ This paper proposes to redress this balance by comparing men’s experience of gender in three distinct occupational settings: a) in a female-dominated occupation (florists); b) in a male-dominated occupation (butchers) and c) in a genderbalanced occupation (opticians). It aims to examine how and when sex affiliations become relevant and meaningful to individuals within a given professional context. More specifically, it aims to investigate how gender categories are mobilised, subordinated or transcended in these specific occupational settings and what effects are produced on employment experiences and career trajectories of men and women. By selecting occupations characterised by a varying degree of sex segregation, this study aims to investigate the influence of sex composition of the professional context on the salience of gender for the individuals concerned. 2. Theoretical Framework This research focuses on the construction of gender categories, the management of gender affiliation, and the production of ‘masculinities’ within a range of specific occupational contexts. I aim to tease out the ways in which gender issues become particularly salient within the occupations of florist, butcher, and optician. The project aims to characterise the specific ‘gender regimes’ in operation in these three occupational settings and to identify the dominant (or ‘hegemonic’) models of masculinity that preside over interactions in the workplace. I will study the ways in which sex affiliation is invested (or not) as a central component of professional and individual practices and identities and the experiences of those individuals who act in conformity to or in transgression of these dominant models of gender. The project aims to identify the potentially variable ways in which men mobilise their gender affiliation in their daily lives and the effects of this on their personal and professional aspirations and experiences. I will assume that certain activities, practices or different types of social actors are particularly enlightening to uncover a specific phenomenon. I will thus address the following research problems: how are these men and women ‘gendered’ in such a way that being a male florist may create a ‘problem,’ while male butchers fit perfectly into our conception of what is ‘normal’? Starting from the premise that workplaces represent one of the most important areas for the consolidation, reproduction and negotiation of gender, 5 I will propose an analysis of the processes behind the ‘gendering’ of occupational groups. In order to fully grasp issues related to gender inequalities and identities, I will focus both on occupations that have historically been primarily associated with women, as well as those occupations that have been a largely male preserve. In this way I intend to shed a light on different constructions of masculinity in specific occupational settings. 3. Three Occupational Settings

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__________________________________________________________________ I will focus my research on three professions in which the following statistical trends can be observed: Table 1: Gender composition of the chosen occupations, 1970 & 2000. 6 1970

2000

Total

Men

Women

Total

Men

Women

Florists

2389

478 (20%)

1911 (80%)

6122

366 (6%)

5756 (94%)

Butchers

17284

516 (3%)

8644

7867 (91%)

777 (9%)

Opticians

957

16768 (97%) 822 (85%)

135 (15%)

3501

1826 (52%)

1675 (48%)

The profession of florists has been gender segregated since the beginning of the Swiss census and with a clear-cut majority of female workers. The number of male florists is slowly decreasing, while the number of women working in this profession is constantly increasing. The occupation of butchers, clearly male dominated, has experienced a huge decrease in numbers during the last decades: their number was in fact cut in half to 7876 men in 2000. The number of women has slightly increased over the last 40 years. The professions of florists and butchers are both strongly associated with one or either sex - with being masculine or feminine - in a statistical sense and in our collective imagination. In the case of butchers, I will be interested in the gender dynamics that such a ‘men’s group’ might activate; looking into patterns of workplace interaction, I will try to understand how a range of characteristics associated with ‘masculinity’ are in fact required and promoted through professional discourses. Furthermore, I will investigate how ‘masculinity’ is displayed through situational actions and ordinary discourse in given contexts. To generally associate ‘masculinity’ with features of the workplace such as heavy and dirty work would be too simplistic and in the end it might help reproduce traditional and stereotypical assumptions. Given this minority/majority context, different situations can be outlined in which the gender affiliation of male florists and butchers might be meaningful for themselves and for those people with whom they are interacting: for male florists particularly during their training and in interactions with their female colleagues, and, on a more private level, also with their friends and family who might consider their decision to become a florist to be inappropriate for a man. Nowadays, there are almost as many women opticians as men in Switzerland. The number of men working in this profession has slightly increased during the last decades while the number of women has consistently increased. This occupation seems to be interesting because of its evolution from being statistically

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__________________________________________________________________ masculine to being ‘gender-neutral;’ in view of this, I will investigate the ‘change of sex’ within this profession and I will look into how men experience the fact that more and more women are entering ‘their’ profession. The occupations I have selected all require extended educational training and apprenticeship. According to Christine Williams 7 these extended periods of training are indicative of a certain level of commitment of an individual to his/her job. Furthermore, the three professions selected are service occupations and all of them embrace commercial and creative components. Lastly, the occupational structures of these three professions enable the employees to set up in independent practice and even to become employers - which I consider to be interesting in terms of investigating the vertical segregation within each occupation. 4. Research Questions I assume that the gender composition of an occupation might influence the ways in which men and women ‘do gender’ in their everyday interactions, with colleagues, customers and bosses. In my opinion, different workplaces and occupations create and reproduce different forms of being a man. 8 Likewise, workplaces and occupations define a range of masculinities, which will be considered as legitimate within this given context. Some workplaces will accept a small range of appropriate behaviour, others might be more loosely gendered and support a wider range of ways of doing ‘masculinity’ (or ‘femininity’). In particular, a minority gender status may produce alternative ways of managing gender affiliations. It can be presumed that the social context and socio-cultural factors have a great impact on whether a majority or minority status it is positively or negatively experienced by individuals. Nevertheless a potential asymmetry may have to be recognised in the individual experience of women and men who ‘cross over,’ notably concerning the decision to enter a profession, the mechanisms underlying the entrance, the development of the career and professional trajectory. In other words, I expect that men and women in atypical occupations will experience their ‘deviant’ status in specific ways. According to Morgan 9 various studies about the changing gendered character of an occupation can be found, but very few have analysed how such transitions are experienced by men and women. This is even more surprising given that such changes potentially allow a researcher to look into the construction of masculinities and femininities, and in particular to understand how professionals face them by managing their gender affiliation and their conception of self. In this perspective, two levels of analysis appear: one is to be referred to a macro level regarding occupational segregation and the transformation of gendered structures, while the other one consists on an individual level concerning how men and women experience the gender composition of their occupations. The way in

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__________________________________________________________________ which individuals face their potential identity issues is of course strongly linked to ‘the extent to which the occupation as a whole is ... defined in gender terms.’ 10 Men and women in sex atypical occupations might partially upset gendered boundaries within the workplace, but does the inversion of traditional sex roles also lead to a sustainable shift in gender differentiation? In other words, is their gender affiliation perverted? Investigating the experiences of men or women in atypical occupations leads to an important consideration as to the way in which these transgressions result in challenging the gender order, if they let gender differentiation decrease, or if, on the contrary, they highlight gender boundaries: 11 to what extent are the consequences of transgressions gender-conservative or gender-revolutionary? How do they challenge or stabilise our binary gender and sex systems? In terms of career paths and promotions, a number of research questions emerge from the existing literature: Firstly, do men in female-dominated occupations suffer similar levels of social disadvantage as their female counterparts? Secondly, do men use their minority status as a resource, to win a promotion, to move into the most interesting sectors of the occupation - those with the highest levels of autonomy? I neither suppose that men automatically suffer from a loss of socioeconomic status when they enter a female-dominated occupation, nor think that all men in minority positions automatically constitute a privileged minority, capable to reap the benefits of their gender affiliation. What I suggest is to adopt an alternative analytical stance, based on the idea that the experiences of men in female dominated professions are more ambiguous: studies have shown that men tend to establish their masculine identity through their professional occupation: Men who ‘cross over’ are often suspected of not being ‘real men.’ 12 Male florists thus must cope with an occupation that seems to be threatening to their conception of self. Finally, since I do not mean to investigate how ‘masculine’ these men are or to what extent they can be defined as more or less ‘masculine’ than other men in other professional sectors - I will neglect categorisation leading to stereotyping models which are not useful to understand ‘gender in action,’ because they do not develop further the meanings men may connect to masculinity. In order to explore my research questions, I will mobilise three main theoretical concepts, as follows: ‘ruling relations;’ 13 ‘going gender’ 14 and ‘gendered organizations.’ 15 5. Ruling Relations Dorothy E. Smiths’ concept of ‘ruling relations’ helps to better understand the issues at stake for individuals who move into traditional or non-traditional occupations. According to Smith, these relations form a complex field of coordinated activities which convey cultural rules and in turn construct the

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__________________________________________________________________ ‘existence’ of actors and set a symbolic order which influences their aspirations. 16 This order defines our consciousness by labelling what individuals do (or do not do) as socially desirable or not. ‘Ruling relations’ can be thus understood as a form of objectified consciousness in the sense that they are produced externally, but imposed on individuals through more or less invisible mechanisms. 17 Picturing a series of characteristics or statuses that people may have, it clearly reveals that some combinations are seen to be more ‘natural’ and thus more acceptable for our society. 18 In this sense, following Hughes, it is worth asking: In what circumstances may a male florist simply be seen as a florist? It could be argued that men in female-dominated professions have transgressed the cultural boundaries defined by the ‘ruling relations’ in a given society. In other words, the ‘ruling relations’ of occupational segregation should prevent the existence of male florists … and yet these individuals exist. 6. On Doing Gender Gender is a pervasive and an intrinsic part of our everyday life, but a phenomenon that we often fail to notice. In fact, everyone ‘does gender’ at all time: Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman state that ‘gender’ is neither a rigid variable, nor a social role, but the product of ‘social doings.’ 19 ‘Gender’ therefore tells us little about what a given individual is, but refers rather to what he or she does: ‘We do become what we practice being.’ 20 From this point of view, we can assume that people produce themselves - and are actively produced - as gendered beings, but we still need to know exactly how they make sense of their everyday world in gendered terms. The notion of ‘doing gender’ refers to the social construction of differences between men and women that are in no way ‘natural,’ but that become real through everyday interactions that legitimise the binary nature of sex and gender categories. However, although no individual can escape being allocated to one or other of sex category, this sex affiliation is not necessarily relevant in all social contexts at all times. 21 The aim of this research is precisely to investigate under what circumstances sex affiliation becomes meaningful for individuals in particular occupational settings. Rather than taking sex categories for granted, I intend to focus on the meanings individuals attribute to their practices. 22 This implies thinking about men and women as social collectives without assuming that they necessarily share a set of common attributes. In line with the work of Iris Young, I will distinguish between the notions of ‘group’ - composed of individuals who mutually identify with a set of common attributes - and the notion of ‘series’ - a set of individuals who are unified, but ‘passively by the relation their action has to material objects.’ 23 This allows us to posit that a person may experience one of his or her serial memberships (class, sex, race, etc.) as more or less important than other affiliations.

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__________________________________________________________________ 7. The Concept of Gendered Organisations The concept of ‘gendered organizations’ is useful for framing gender as an intrinsic part of social structures: Joan Acker argues that occupations need to be considered as ‘gendered institutions,’ which actively create and reproduce gender differences and inequalities. 24 Thus, occupations are structured in the individual mind with the particular gender composition of the labour-force. In other words, there are built-in assumptions about certain posts and the kind of workers likely to be employed in them - certain jobs are clearly developed for either one or the other sex. These gender assumptions actually provide a kind of common-sense background, which tends to mask the underlying social mechanisms of gender segregation: 25 professions appear to be gender neutral and their characteristics seem to be inevitable products of the professional structures. 8. Concluding Remarks Given the constraining gendered character within organisations, we need to consider the possibility that everyone does not necessarily strive to behave in accordance with those models and stereotypes. 26 According to Le Feuvre it is useful to assume variability in the ‘predictive power of gender’ over time. She suggests that it may be useful to think of ‘non-gender’ in order to move away from an essentialist point of view in terms of sex categories. To imagine a certain ‘interchangeability’ of men and women in the workplace and to focus on possible ‘frictions’ within a gender regime may help us to adopt a dynamic conception of gender relations. 27 As long as one does not consider ‘gender’ as something based on a ‘pre-existing, natural binary division between the sexes,’ 28 but gives a great importance to the situated use of the member’s categories, analysis of gender dynamics becomes possible. Above all, it should be acknowledge that the category of ‘men’ consists of multiple subcategories, in individuals who have been labelled as ‘men’ but who might have nothing in common besides that shared label. To put it another way: One should not adhere to an external categorisation and constitute the objectivity of a ‘group’ from outside but always include ‘embodied experience.’ 29 Sex categories are (also) member’s categories and thus understandable for both ordinary and sociological discourses - in other words - they are part of a shared knowledge. It is thus still useful to operate with the categories of man and woman, and it is possible without implying a trans-situational salience of their sex membership. I can conclude that researching on men in statistically male/female dominated and in gender balanced professions does not necessarily mean to support the dominant gender models but will hopefully enable to challenge the taken for granted relevance of sex categories.

Notes

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__________________________________________________________________ 1

Françoise Belle, Être Femme et Cadre (Paris: LHarmattan, 1991). Margret Bürgisser, Frau und Karriere (Zürich: Schweizerischer Arbeitgeberverband, 2003). Erika Flahault, L’insertion Professionelle des Femmes. Entre Contraintes et Stratégies d’Adaptation (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes 2006). Jacqueline Huppert-Laufer, La Féminité Neutralisée? Les Femmes Cadres dans l’Entreprise (Paris: Flammarion, 1982). 2 Philippe Charrier, ‘Des Hommes chez les Sages-Femmes. Vers un Effet de Segmentation?’, Sociétés Contemporaines 3 (2007): 95-118. 3 David H.J. Morgan, Discovering Men (London and New York: Routledge, 1992); Christine L. Williams, Doing ‛Womens Work’. Men in Nontraditional Occupations (Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1993). 4 Ibid. 5 Hernan Ramirez, ‘Masculinity in the Workplace: The Case of Mexican Immigrant Gardeners’, Men and Masculinities 14, No. 1 (2011): 97-116. 6 Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSOa), Erwerbstätige nach Geschlecht sowie Beruflicher Tätigkeit und Höchster Abgeschlossener Ausbildung (Aggregiert) sowie Fünfjahresaltersklassen, 1970-2000, (Neuchâtel 2011). 7 Williams, Doing ‘Women’s Work’. Men in Nontraditional Occupations. 8 Morgan, Discovering Men. 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid., 122. 11 Nicky Le Feuvre, ‘Gender, Occupational Feminization, and Reflexivity: A Cross-national Perspective’, in Restructuring Gender Relations and Employment. The Decline of the Male Breadwinner, ed. Rosemary Crompton (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999); Penser la Dynamique du Genre: Parcours de Recherche. Dossier pour l’Habilitation a Diriger des Recherches (Toulouse: Institut des sciences sociales Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail, 2003). 12 Morgan, Discovering Men. 13 Dorothy Smith, The Ruling Relations, Writing the Social: Critique, Theory and Investigations (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998). 14 Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman, ‘Doing Gender’, Gender & Society 2 (1987):127. 15 Joan Acker, ‘Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations’, Gender and Society 4, No. 2 (1990): 139-158; ‘From Sex Roles to Gendered Institutions’, Contemporary Sociology 21, No. 5 (1992); ‘The Future of ‘Gender and Organizations’: Connections and Boundaries’, Gender, Work & Organization 5, No. 4 (1998). 16 Smith, Ruling Relations. 17 Smith, Institutional Ethnography. A Sociology for People (Lanham: AltaMira Press, 2005).

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Everett C. Hughes, The Sociological Eye. Selcted Papers (New Brunswick and London: Transaction Books, 1984). 19 West and Zimmerman, Doing Gender, 127. 20 Ibid., 146. 21 Daniel Cefaï, ‘(D)écrire: Catégorisation, Prise de Notes et Écriture’, in L’engagement Ethnographique, ed. Daniel Cefaï (Paris: Editions de l’Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 2010). 22 Robert M. Emerson, Rachel I. Fretz, and Linda L. Shaw Linda, Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995). Judith Lorber, ‘Shifting Paradigms and Challenging Categories’, Social Problems 53, No. 4 (2006): 448-453. 23 Iris M. Young, ‘Gender as Seriality: Thinking about Women as a Social Collective’, Signs 19, No. 3 (1994): 713-738. 24 Joan Acker, ‘Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations’, Gender and Society 4, No. 2 (1990): 139-158; ‘From Sex Roles to Gendered Institutions’, Contemporary Sociology 21, No. 5 (1992): 565-569; ‘The Future of ‘Gender and Organizations’: Connections and Boundaries’, Gender, Work & Organization 5. No. 4 (1998): 195-206. 25 Acker, ‘Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations’. 26 Le Feuvre, ‘Penser la Dynamique du Genre’, 91. 27 Ibid., 125. 28 Le Fevre, ‘Gender, Occupational Feminization, and Reflexivity’, 135. 29 Dorothy Smith, The Conceptual Practices of Power: A Feminist Sociology of Knowledge (London: Northeastern University Press, 1990).

Bibliography . Acker, Joan. ‘Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations’. Gender and Society 4, No. 2 (1990): 139–158. —––. ‘From Sex Roles to Gendered Institutions’. Contemporary Sociology 21, No. 5 (1992): 565–569. —––. ‘The Future of ‘Gender’ and ‘Organizations’: Connections and Boundaries‘. Gender, Work & Organization 5, No. 4 (1998): 195–206. Belle, Françoise. Être Femme et Cadre. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1991. Bürgisser, Margret. Frau Arbeitgeberverband, 2003.

Und

Karriere.

Zürich:

Schweizerischer

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__________________________________________________________________ Cefaï, Daniel. ‘(D)Écrire: Catégorisation, Prise de Notes et Écriture’. In L’engagement Ethnographique, edited by Daniel Cefaï, 107–129. Paris: Editions de l’Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 2010. Charrier, Philippe. ‘Des Hommes chez les Sages-Femmes. Vers un Effet de Segmentation?’ Sociétés Contemporaines 3 (2007): 95–118. Connell, Robert W. Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987. Emerson, Robert M., Rachel I. Fretz, and Linda L. Shaw. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. Le Feuvre, Nicky. ‘Gender, Occupational Feminization, and Reflexivity: A CrossNational Perspective’. In Restructuring Gender Relations and Employment. The Decline of the Male Breadwinner, edited by Rosemary Crompton, 150–178. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. —––. Penser la dynamique du genre: Parcours de recherche. Dossier Pour l’Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches. Toulouse: Institut des Sciences Sociales, Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail, 2003. Flahault, Erika. L’insertion Professionelle des Femmes. Entre Contraintes et Stratégies d’Adaptation. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2006. (FSOa), Swiss Federal Statistical Office. ‘Erwerbstätige Nach Geschlecht Sowie Beruflicher Tätigkeit Und Höchster Abgeschlossener Ausbildung (Aggregiert) Sowie Fünfjahresaltersklassen, 1970-2000’. Neuchâtel, 2011. Hughes, Everett C. The Sociological Eye. Selected Papers. New Brunswick and London: Transaction Books, 1984. Huppert-Laufer, Jacqueline. La Féminité Neutralisée? Les Femmes Cadres dans l’Entreprise. Paris: Flammarion, 1982. Lorber, Judith. ‘Shifting Paradigms and Challenging Categories’. Social Problems 53 (2006): 448–453. Morgan, David H .J. Discovering Men. London and New York: Routledge, 1992.

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__________________________________________________________________ Smith, Dorothy. The Ruling Relations. Writing the Social: Critique, Theory and Investigations. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. —––. Institutional Ethnography. A Sociology for People. Lanham: AltaMira Press, 2005. West, Candace, and Don H. Zimmerman. ‘Doing Gender’. Gender & Society 2 (1987): 125–151. Williams, Christine L. Doing ‘Women’s Work’. Men in Nontraditional Occupations. Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1993. Young, Iris M. ‘Gender as Seriality: Thinking About Women as a Social Collective’. Signs 19 (1994): 713–738. Isabelle V. Zinn is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Social and Political Science, Laboratory of Sociology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Her work focuses on gender, masculinities, men, and intersecting work processes.

A Feminist/Femininity Perspective on Esther Tusquets’ SelfRepresentation in Confesiones de una Vieja Dama Indigna Nicole S. Dobianer Abstract This paper analyses the latest autobiographic novel by Esther Tusquets. Confesiones de una Vieja Dama Indigna (2009) (trans. Confessions of an Old Indignant Lady) is an exceptionally frank account of her life from childhood to old age and includes professional, familial and emotional experiences. This paper focuses on the author’s self-representation from a feminist or femininity perspective. The author argues that the freedom of expression that she enjoys today resides in her old age. I argue that this may certainly be true but that a large part of the explanation can also be found in female identity formation and the transformations to which the feminist movement has been subject over the last forty years. This paper therefore argues that due to the socio-political changes undergone by Spain since the 1970s, femininity and feminism have been redefined. I use the these two terms interchangeably in this paper because as it will show, what once used to be considered ‘feminist’ is now considered ‘feminine’ in Spain. For women writers like Tusquets, sufficient historical recess after Franco’s dictatorship and the difficult transitional years has opened up a creative literary space to discover that a sense of femininity exists that is divorced from the collective feminist movement and which refuses to engage with its subject as a representation of the feminist cause. To confute this argument, this paper situates Tusquets’ self-representation within the concept of 21st century femininity and contrasts it with changes in the feminist movement since 1970. With the help of various theories of autobiography, this paper suggests the hypothesis of women’s new perspective on feminism and femininity. Key Words: Esther Tusquets, autobiography, self-representational writing, feminism, identity formation. ***** When writing this paper I have concentrated my analysis of Tusquets’ autobiography on how she represented herself as a woman. I have found that the author portrays herself as an old indignant lady, who due to her age is allowed to speak of her impressions, opinions and experiences with a freedom and a liberty that she believes never to have had in her youth. The author feels that this is only so because of her age, which may certainly have an influence; but the fact that the author feels never to have had this freedom during the 1940s or 50s suggests a socio-political obstacle that could have been influenced by the strict dictatorship

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__________________________________________________________________ under Franco, its expectation of the ‘ideal’ woman and consequently its effect on the generation living through it and the ones to come. When following this conviction, the issue that drives Tusquets’ selfrepresentation becomes one of identity formation. To provide a better understanding of this association this paper will address Tusquets’ autobiographic self in connection with the feminist movement, truth, female writing and its autobiographic implications on a personal and socio-political level. The history and development of the feminist movement in 19th century Spain manifested its first distinct presence with the instauration of the Second Republic in 1931. 1 Between 1931 and 1936 women were given the right to vote, and appointed to political positions and parliament. 2 The progress made during the Second Republic was then crushed with the rise of the Franco dictatorship and while dedicated feminists maintained their resistance through clandestine meetings, there were few active members until the 1970s. 3 1975, which coincided with the death of Franco, was declared the international year of women by the United Nations and caused a revival of feminist activity, not only in Spain but worldwide. 4 This led to the organisation of the I Jornadas Nacionales para la Liberación de la Mujer (I National Days for the Liberation of Women) in Madrid and also the first significant rise of feminism in Spain. 5 Feminism was first introduced in its radical and socialist form. 6 It saw patriarchy as an evil that caused the oppression of women and saw their only liberation in the complete eradication of a class system. 7 Clearly, it demonstrated a black and white approach which in these terms is quite far from reality. Nevertheless, it can be attributed to radical feminism that female sexuality, motherhood and raising practices were finally brought into the political sphere. 8 Following its emergence, radical feminism underwent several transformations from being institutionalised to losing its collective unity. 9 Consequently it stopped to solely signify civil rights and equality for women and became known for topics such as lesbianism, violence against women, sexuality, new technology, prostitution, work and health. 10 However, it also did pay particular interest to an individuation movement that allowed women to re-define their own identity divorced from the more traditional ideal. 11 The topics of lesbian love, sexuality, work and individuation are all topics reflected in Tusquets’ literature from 1978 until today. However, in this paper, particular focus is attributed to Confesiones and to a new sense of femininity related to the individuation process. When analysing Confesiones, there are four factors that are significant in the light of this proposition: these are the implications of autobiography, Tusquets’ gender, the transformations experienced by the feminist movement over the last years and the element of truth in conjunction with Tusquets’ self-representation. Truth has a particular implication here because autobiography is a powerful tool, for the author as well as the reader. ‘Autobiography creates learning’ through

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__________________________________________________________________ its discourse. 12 Furthermore, it gives autobiography, what Roy Pascal describes as a life-like movement that induces a new awareness of self and a new formulation of responsibility vis-à-vis the ‘I’. 13 In this way, autobiography is never divorced from the self but becomes what Germaine Brée claims ‘a retrospective reconstruction through language of a developing sense of self.’ 14 Pascal additionally argues that autobiography does not just seek to portray the identity of the author but also desires to seek freedom and liberation through that very portrait of life. 15 Pascal outlines that autobiography can, particularly in elderly people, take on a form of theodicy, whose characteristic and purpose remain the same even when the element of faith is removed. 16 This is in agreement with Georges Gusdorf’s opinion that the author that writes autobiography always on some level desires to prove his worthiness to the outside world. He writes to justify himself in front of others, as Lleonart Amselem likewise affirms. 17 Considering Tusquets’ autobiography two questions pose themselves: Does Tusquets seek to justify her lifestyle choices through her autobiography? And from a feminist perspective, can we ignore the implications of Tusquets being a woman, when autobiography is primarily a literary tool that seeks the expression of an individual’s identity? The answer to the first question is affirmative. There are several instances where this is the case. The most significant one from a feminist perspective is her justification of combining motherhood and career. When she states that she had often been reproached for not having been a good mother and that she still remembers various occasions where she felt she had failed her children, she concedes by acknowledging that she had also felt deeply guilty for these failings and justifies her choice by outlining that, curiously, it had never been her children who had remembered these failings, but always only other people, whose accusations she swears were often not even true. 18 The question that produces the most weight in light of this paper’s proposition is one that results rather as an interim question from the previously answered, namely: why would she find it necessary to justify her choices? The answer resides not solely in the e nature of autobiography. Instead I believe that gender is a further significant factor and this leads to this paper’s consequent issue. Gusdorf argues that autobiography presupposes a certain degree of selfesteem. 19 This does by no means indicate arrogance or superiority in the individual, but it requires a disposition to question existing structures and indicates a desire to constitute one’s own moral framework. 20 By positioning oneself through autobiography, the author is required to affirm her own identity, and Tusquets does so by positioning herself outside standard life experiences of her generation. 21 Her autobiography portrays a woman who has implemented all the benefits that feminism, in its various forms and benefits, has accorded the Spanish female population; who has enjoyed the full spectrum of sexual encounters, tricked the Church into an annulment of her first marriage and never married her life

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__________________________________________________________________ partner, fulfilled all her career aspirations, enjoyed personal fulfilment in motherhood and has seemed to suffer little living all these experiences to the fullest. When we read her autobiography, it seems like the feminist movement in Spain has accomplished all that it ever set out to fulfil and that the double standard is a symptom of the past. While her own experience may be legitimate, it is not always experienced the same way by other women, and she even concedes this when telling the story of her nanny, Marisa, who took back a husband who had repeatedly left her, only because not having a husband at all was a bigger social disgrace than having a lousy one because it meant that she was ‘nothing.’ 22 One is still left wondering to what extent Tusquets’ experiences are typical. One can argue here that it resides in class difference. Tusquets was born into the upper-class bourgeoisie of Catalonia, which conferred her privileges, but I doubt that experiences like these were simply restricted to the lower class; instead I tend to believe that it is a simple question of perception that finds its origin in the transformation in the feminist movement over the last ten to fifteen years. 23 Women like Tusquets, who have repeatedly throughout their lives been told that they are capable of doing anything, are used to regard the obstacles in their lives as individual issues. 24 They are personal and in no way related to a collective feminist problem, and, consequently, Tusquets refrains from engaging with the issue of being a woman. Omitting identification need not necessarily deny a feminist agenda, but her ambiguity in dealing with this concern lets me suggest that feminism in the last ten to fifteen years has become a rather personal experience, and Aronson’s research supports this assumption. She confirms that women ‘tend to be depoliticised and individualistic ... they typically focus on individual solutions and express feminist ideas without labelling them as such ... viewing gender disparities as illegitimate, rather than in collective terms’ and so individual experiences are not seen as politically relevant manifestations. 25 It appears that Carol Hanisch’s feminist slogan of the late 1960s has become irrelevant today. And that ‘the personal is political and the political is personal’ is no more. 26 Instead feminism is regarded as ‘an ideology of equality’ and one simply assumes that discrimination or any other significant obstacles will not cost women time or nerves. 27 In light of this, there remains room for the supposition that Tusquets may have simply preferred a more personal, more individual kind of feminism and which may not even be considered feminism at all. It seems to fit what Aronson’s describes as ‘third wave’ feminism, characterised by ‘hybridity, contradiction, and multiple identities.’ 28 And then there is of course the fact that women are less willing to openly admit to being feminist. 29 Aronson explains that women are often reluctant to label themselves as feminists because many believe that the movement in the 1970s has gone too far and they dislike being associated with a movement that alienates men, the media and often the general population. This concern women voice is curiously

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__________________________________________________________________ connected to what Tusquets has described as women’s inherent desire to please men. 30 A character trait that she says has been exalted in women over the decades and to which she too, has fallen prey to over the years. 31 Tusquets has herself on various occasions consciously disavowed any feminist tendencies or agenda in her writing. 32 But since she is a woman and admittedly writes from a very personal perspective, to an extent that a classification of autofiction is often not far off, it has been accordingly hard to refrain from ‘feminist’ conclusions in her thinking - even if it is greatly understated in Confesiones and her other books. 33 This becomes even more difficult when we take account of the fact that in 2006 she published a book entitled Prefiero ser Mujer (I Prefer to be Woman), a collection of articles that discuss the condition of being female in Spain during the 1950s to the 1980s. In that very book she clearly argues a feminist agenda. 34 So, if Tusquets argues for the emancipation of women in this book and talks about what has been done and what still remains to be done, why does she disregard gender implications in her own, very personal life story? 35 Milena Busquets argues: because feminism has become a term and a movement that is despised by our generation today, because the actual movement has nothing to do with what really goes on in our lives. These are the words of the editor of the publishing house RqueR, which published Tusquets’ book. The editor is curiously also Esther Tusquets’ daughter. 36 I suppose it would not be a far stretch to suggest that mother and daughter may think alike on this topic, seeing the close connection that is represented here. To therefore say in conclusion that Tusquets regards feminist issues as irrelevant does not appear accurate. She may however have regarded them irrelevant in Confesiones. In any case it appears quite obvious that in regard to feminism Tusquets is what Aronson calls a ‘fence-sitter.’ She represents a paradox by ‘embracing ambiguity.’ 37 Tusquets, despite being born in 1936 and having witnessed the full development of feminism in Spain, denies the feminist movement any credit in her development as a writer. This, however, does not invalidate its influence; it merely defines Tusquets’ reluctance to accommodate for it. What Tusquets has done in Confesiones is furthermore insightful in its own way. Her avoidance in addressing feminist issues in her writing is what Pascal describes in Leslie Stephen’s words as distortions in the revelation of truth. And it can be as insightful as the truth itself but it must be interpreted in relation to the author’s personality and autobiography. 38 To me it shows a woman intent on controlling, manoeuvring and influencing her own destiny, a woman who likes to assert herself and who knows who she is without looking for excuses of why she is not what society or someone else expects her to be. This is certainly how she portrayed herself in Confesiones. But, of course, there is, in the nature of anyone’s subjective perception, always a discrepancy between one’s own perception of life, its reality and what one wishes it was and this conflict provokes a splitting of the subject that

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__________________________________________________________________ becomes evident in literary creation and on which this paper has commented. 39 In Confesiones it is reflected in the refusal to engage with these issues on a personal basis, instead referring to someone else’s experience. And it also is a characteristic reflection of what Martínez-González explains as the transformation in the relationship between the concept of feminism and the woman as its primary political subject, which has provided women with the perception that there is no longer one single ideal that reflects femininity but a wide range of ideals that are open to be constructed. As a result, feminist identity has become ambiguous and personal and also decidedly different to feminism as a political movement. 40 And this is clearly demonstrated by Tusquets and Confesiones and additionally, as several academics like to argue, specifically in Spanish women’s literature over the last decades.

Notes 1

Santiago Pastrana-Álvarez, ‘El Feminismo En España’, 2008, 1, http://www.pastranec.net/ccss/sociedad/feminismoes.htm. 2 Ibid. 3 Lisette Rolón-Collazo, Figuraciones - Mujeres En Carmen Martín-Gaite (Madrid: Veruvert, 2002), 23-24. 4 Margaret Jones, ‘XVI.Vindicación Feminista Y La Comunidad Feminista En La España Posfranquista’, in Literatura En España, ed. Lisa Vollendorf (Barcelona: Icaria, 2005), 288. 5 María Martínez-González, ‘El Movimiento Feminista En La España Contemporánea. Avances De Una Tesis En Proceso De Construcción’, 2011, 10, http://www.uv.es/iued/actividades/articulos/MMartinez_Valencia.pdf. 6 Rolón-Collazo, Figuraciones - Mujeres En Carmen Martín-Gaite (Madrid: Veruvert, 2002), 24. 7 Rosemarie Tong, Feminist Thought - A Comprehensive Introduction (London, Sydney and Wellington: Unwin Hyman, 1989), 95-98. 8 Ibid., 127. 9 Rolón-Collazo, Figuraciones, 26-27. 10 Anonymous, ‘Historia Del Feminismo En España’, Federación Mujeres Progresistas, Viewed May 2008, http://www.fmujeresprogresistas.org/feminismo4.htm. Martínez-González, ‘El Movimiento Feminista’, 2011, 14, http://www.uv.es/iued/actividades/articulos/MMartinez_Valencia.pdf. 11 Anonymous. ‘Historia Del Feminismo En España’, Federación Mujeres Progresistas, 2008, 6, http://www.fmujeresprogresistas.org/feminismo4.htm. 12 Kristi Siegel, Women’s Autobiographies, Culture, Feminism (New York: Peter Lang, 1999), 27.

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Roy Pascal, Die Autobiographie: Gehalt und Gestalt (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1965), 213. 14 Germaine Brée, ‘Chapter 14 - Autogynography’, in Studies In Autobiography, ed. James Olney (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), 173. 15 Pascal, Die Autobiographie, 215. 16 Ibid., 213-214. 17 Georges Gusdorf, Auto-bio-graphie (Paris: Odile Jacob, 1991), 256. Alberto Lleonart Amselem, ‘En Torno A La Autobiografía En España. Una Vision Críticahistórica’, in Estudios de Literatura Española De Los Siglos XIX Y XX: Homenaje A Juan María Diez Taboada, ed. Miguel-Ángel Garrido-Gallardo (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1998), 588. 18 Esther Tusquets, Confesiones De Una Vieja Dama Indigna (Barcelona: Bruguera, 2009), 261. 19 Gusdorf, Auto-bio-graphie, 227. 20 Ibid., 229-230. 21 Ibid., 246. 22 Tusquets, Confesiones,, 277. 23 Ernest Alós, ‘Esther Tusquets Retrata En Sus Memorias A La Brugesía Franquista’, 2007, http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=46&idioma=CAS&idno ticia_PK=459398&idseccio_PK=1026 (this claim had disappeared from the mentioned webpage by 28th March 2011). 24 Tusquets, Confesiones, 261. 25 Pamela Aronson, ‘Feminists Or Postfeminists? - Young Women’s Attitude Toward Feminism And Gender Relations’, Gender And Society 17 (2003): 905. 26 Carol Hanisch, ‘The Personal Is Political’, 1969/2006, 4, http://www.carolhanisch.org/CHwritings/PersonalisPol.pdf. 27 Ibid., 913-905. 28 Ibid., 905. 29 Ibid., 906. 30 Ibid., 905-906. 31 Esther Tusquets, Prefiero Ser Mujer (Barcelona: RqueR Editorial, 2006), 36. Tusquets, Confesiones, 104-105. 32 Mercedes Mazquiarán De Rodriguez, ‘Talking With Tusquets’, in The Sea Of Becoming - Approaches To The Fiction Of Esther Tusquets, ed. Mary S. Vásquez (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991), 174-175. 33 Ibid. 34 Andrea Aguilar, ‘Ideas Nuevas En Femenino Plural’, 2006, 1, http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/Ideas/nuevas/femenino/plural/elpepicul/200

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__________________________________________________________________ 60606elpepicul_6/Tes%3E (this claim had disappeared from the mentioned webpage by 28th March 2011). 35 Ibid. 36 Ibid. 37 Aronson, ‘Feminists Or Postfeminists?’, 916. 38 Pascal, Die Autobiographie, 79-84. 39 Domna Stanton, ‘Autogynography: Is The Subject Different?’, in Women Autobiography Theory - A Reader, ed. Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson (Madison, London: Wisconsin University Press, 1998), 136. 40 Martínez-González, ‘El Movimiento Feminista En La España Contemporánea. Avances De Una Tesis En Proceso De Construcción’, 2011, 22-23, http://www.uv.es/iued/actividades/articulos/MMartinez_Valencia.pdf.

Bibliography Aguilar, Andrea. Ideas Nuevas En Femenino Plural. El País (2006, 6.6.2006): 1–2. Alós, Ernest. ‘Esther Tusquets Retrata En Sus Memorias A La Burgesía Franquista.’ 2007. Accessed 17 November 2007. http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=46&idioma=CAS&idno ticia_PK=459398&idseccio_PK=1026. Anonymous. ‘Historia Del Feminismo En Espana’. Federación Mujeres Progresistas, 2008. Accessed 19 March 2008. http://www.fmujeresprogresistas.org/feminismo4.htm. Aronson, Pamela. ‘Feminists or Postfeminists? - Young Women's Attitude toward Feminism and Gender Relations’. Gender and Society 17, No. 6 (2003): 903–922. Brée, Germaine. ‘Chapter 14 - Autogynography’. In Studies in Autobiography, edited by James Olney, 171. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. Gusdorf, Georges. Le Principe de l'Identité. Auto-Bio-Graphie. Paris: Odile Jacob, 1991. Hanisch, Carol. ‘The Personal is Political’. Accessed 21 March 2011. http://www.carolhanisch.org/CHwritings/PersonalisPol.pdf.

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__________________________________________________________________ Jones, Margaret. ‘XVI. Vindicación Feminista Y La Comunidad Feminista En La Espana Posfranquista’. In Literatura Y Feminismo En Espana, edited by Lisa Vollendorf, 285–303. Barcelona: Icaria, 2005. Lleonart Amselem, Alberto ‘En Torno A La Autobiografía En Espana. Una Visión Crítico-Histórica’. In Estudios De Literatura Espanola De Los Siglos XIX Y XX: Homenaje A Juan María Diez Taboada, edited by Miguel-Ángel Garrido-Gallardo, 586–593. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1998. Martínez-González, María. ‘El Movimiento Feminista En La Espana Contemporánea. Avances De Una Tesis En Proceso De Construcción’. 2011, Accessed 16 March 2011. http://www.uv.es/iued/actividades/articulos/MMartinez_Valencia.pdf. Mazquiarán De Rodríguez, Mercedes. ‘Talking With Tusquets’. In The Sea Of Becoming - Approaches to the Fiction of Esther Tusquets, edited by Mary Vásquez. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991. Pascal, Roy. Die Autobiographie: Gehalt Und Gestalt. Stuttgard: Kohlhammer, 1965. Pastrana-Álvarez, Santiago. ‘El Feminismo En Espana’. 2008. Accessed 19 March 2008. http://www.pastranec.net/ccss/sociedad/feminismoes.htm. Rolón-Collazo, Lisette. Figuraciones - Mujeres En Carmen Martín-Gaite. Madrid: Veruvert, 2002. Siegel, Kristi. Women's Autobiographies, Culture, Feminism. Revised Edition. New York: Peter Lang, 1999. Stanton, Domna ‘Autogynography: Is The Subject Different?’. In Women, Autobiography, Theory - A Reader, edited by Sidonie Smith, and Julia Watson, 131. Madison and London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998. Tong, Rosemarie. Feminist Thought - A Comprehensive Introduction. London, Sydney and Wellington: Unwin Hyman, 1989. Tusquets, Esther. Confesiones De Una Vieja Dama Indigna. Barcelona: Bruguera, 2009.

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__________________________________________________________________ —––. Prefiero Ser Mujer. First Edition. Barcelona: RqueR Editorial, 2006. Nicole S. Dobianer is a final-year PhD candidate at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. She is a peer-reviewer for the journal Akademeia and teacher of English and Spanish.

PART 4 Femininity/Masculinity: De-Normalising a Continuum

United States of Tara: Gender Trouble in Popular Culture Sarah Lécossais Abstract Referencing to the United States of Tara I will show how this TV fiction takes into account the struggle of women, and especially for mothers, to find a combination for all the statuses they hold. Women have to be mothers, wives, friends, daughters, sisters, lovers, workers, and so on. They have to multiply their selves by performing all their social roles. The character of Tara embodies the modernity ‘self crisis’ of women, a multi-facetted role which fanciful alter egos symbolise. Each of them illustrates the gender issue through a performance of femininity or masculinity. Tara embodies the figures of a fantasised patchworked America: a teenager, a perfect housewife from the 1950s, a Vietnam veteran, and a nongendered animal - referencing to American literature. All their occurrences allow her to transgress social roles and norms. Granted of these different personalities, Tara can shape herself: choosing from this repertory of identities, she becomes whomever she wants. Moreover, borders between genders are crossed, since Tara can become a man while taking on the personality of Buck, the veteran. When he appears, Tara performs a type of masculinity by borrowing some of its stereotyped - codes (violence, swearwords, ‘man’ activities like bowling or shooting, etc.). This modifies the relation between Tara and her husband, Max: through Buck, she has the possibility to share a ‘masculine’ friendship with him. Therefore, the alter egos represent what Tara would like to be: a perfect mother, a sexy young girl, an irresponsible guy, etc. This TV serial proposes to redefine femininity and masculinity and, in the identity issue, it opens the possibility for a woman to be herself, beyond the gender boundaries. Key Words: Gender trouble, femininity, masculinity, identity crises, motherhood, popular culture. ***** American TV fictions talk about us, our lives, our Zeitgeist. As a ‘cultural forum,’ as Horace Newcomb said, 1 TV series question our definitions of femininity, masculinity, gender, motherhood and so on. They propose us ambivalent representations of mothers. Some of them are desperate housewives, another is a ‘good wife,’ and a third tries to feed her family by dealing drugs. All of them are struggling with the injunction to be perfect mothers and their desire to be emancipated and free women. These well-known examples point to the representations of motherhood and femininity. The family mother is one of the most widespread figures through television fictions. These characters ask themselves about their place in the family, their role, their ability to be a mother

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__________________________________________________________________ and a working woman and they respond to contemporary social debates about the place of women in society. These preliminary remarks involve some questions. How does popular culture represent women? What do they suffer from? How could they reconcile their multiple identities (working woman, mother, friend, lover, daughter)? How do they construct their femininity according to - or against - social norms? Inter-disciplinary research helps us to analyse these representations and debates in popular culture, by mobilising Gender and Cultural Studies, Sociology and Media Sociology. Trying to answer to these questions, we propose to choose the example of The United States of Tara (broadcast on Showtime, 2009) in order to explore the identity crisis of the main character, Tara, which is widely applied to women in popular culture. She is living with her husband, Max, and their two children, Kate (sixteen years old) and Marshall (fourteen years old). This character is very interesting because it involves ‘gender trouble,’ like Judith Butler 2 used to say. This trouble comes from the appearance of alter egos. Tara is suffering from identity troubles: her alter egos take her place in her family. During the first season, four alter egos appear: T, Alice, Buck and Gimmy. Every apparition involves a physical and behavioural transformation of Tara: when she turns into one of them, she changes her clothes, make-up, look, and attitudes (she even becomes left-handed!). The spectator follows this transformation. Each character refers to a performance of femininity, youth, motherhood or masculinity. Prior to analysing the presence of alter egos as illustrations of women identity crisis, I intend to analyse them in terms of gender performance. 1. Four Alter Egos, Four Gender Performances Each alter ego performs gender. The first alter ego, T, is a teenager. T wears a string, chews a gum, smokes weed, swears, is voluntary vulgar and is very sexy, even ‘hot.’ She is always trying to have sex with Max, who is always refusing. She’s fifteen years old and behaves as a teenager. She likes flirting, dancing, she has no inhibitions. She has a close relation with Kate. This alter ego offers Tara the possibility to be a friend for her daughter. They go shopping with Tara’s credit card, they are always joking or laughing. In the first episode, Kate is scared of being pregnant. T knows that she has taken a morning-after pill. T represents the ‘mother-friend,’ who understands her daughter and is complicit. Tara hesitates between being proud of Kate, who has taken her responsibility for her actions, and being angry with her. As T, she can help her and support her. As Tara she adopts her ‘social role,’ to use the terms of Erving Goffman. 3 The social role of mother involves a specific response to Kate’s attitude. Tara, in her desire to be a good mother, considers that she has to have a serious discussion about sexuality and contraception with her daughter. The second alter ego is Alice. She embodies the perfect housewife of the 1950s. She is an irreproachable hostess, a good cooker, and a practising catholic. Her idea

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__________________________________________________________________ of motherhood lies in attention and prevention. She is really shocked by Kate’s sexual practices. For Alice, a mother has to preserve her daughter’s virginity. Alice reads books about ‘how to be a good wife’ and enforces the rules of this way of womanhood. This character has not incorporated the aftermath of feminism. She represents traditional femininity. Her role as woman is to be a mother. She cries when she realises that she is not pregnant, because maternity is a fate for her. She evokes her ‘nature of woman’ and embodies essentialism. Even if this alter ego appears stereotyped, it refers to the traditional image of the mother, to those characteristics that Tara attributes to the idealised mother. After T and Alice, Buck appears. He is a Vietnam veteran: a classical figure of American culture and history. Becoming Buck, Tara is becoming a man. This alter ego involves gender trouble and dissociation between biological sex and gender. Tara is no more defined as a woman when she is Buck. She performs masculinity by adopting some of its stereotyped codes: taste for violence, swearwords, ‘man’ activities like bowling or shooting, etc. Buck smokes, drinks beer, and always wears glasses and a cap. He prides himself on being a seducer who is successful with women. Buck pinches women’s bottoms, and reminds Max of his sexual experience with a woman who gave him crab louses. Therefore, Buck is heterosexual. Does this turn Tara into a lesbian? Tara is kidding about being a lesbian because of her alter egos’ sexuality, but she is still heterosexual. We can see here how biological sex, gender and sexuality are interlinked. Buck is defined by his performance of masculinity, but this masculinity expresses itself in a female body. And Buck, even if he is biologically a ‘woman,’ has sex with women and is heterosexual. United States of Tara de-constructs gender, femininity, masculinity and shows that gender is the result of identity choices. Buck, a man in a female body, can choose his identity. Tara can also appear as a woman or as a man, as a heterosexual or a homosexual. We can notice that people who know Tara call her ‘Mrs Gregson’ when she is Buck, while strangers speak to him as if he were a man. The last alter ego, Gimmy, represents her childish part. Gimmy is a kind of animal who appears during the night. He is eccentric and defies social norms. He carries out all the things that Tara could not do, because of her social role. Gimmy embodies her discontent and makes up for her everyday humiliations, which she expresses through him. For example, one day Tara’s father, Frank, decides to take her children home with him, because Tara is ill. According to him, she is not able to be a good mother. Tara refuses and chases her parents away. During the night before her parents leave, Gimmy pees on Tara’s father while he is sleeping to make him believe he is incontinent. When Tara’s parents are leaving, Max ironically tells Frank that dealing with ageing is not easy. Gimmy offers Tara comic opportunities to take her revenge. Gimmy embodies the refusal of gender or social assignation. He is neither a man nor a woman. No social rules for him, no proprieties. He is the non-socialised part of Tara.

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__________________________________________________________________ All these alter egos are emerging from American culture and history, the housewife of the 1950s, the Vietnam veteran, the teenager of the 1980s, or a literary figure like Gimmy. This latter may be a character of the short novel The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 4 in which a mother, who had only just given birth to a child, began to see women creeping out of the yellow wallpaper of the bedroom in which she was locked up. She thought that she was one of them and sank into madness. When Tara’s becoming one of them, she performs stereotyped figures of femininity or masculinity. But, even if these alter egos are stereotyped, trouble appears through the distinction between gender and biological sex. As Butler used to say, gender is not a consequence of biological sex, but a social construction. So, ‘masculine’ gender is not a perfect reflect of masculine sex, and can be performed by biologically women. Before becoming a stereotyped man, Tara becomes a man. We do not have to forget the context of this gender confusion. United States of Tara is a product of cultural industries. As a product of popular culture, this serial is innovative and creative and proposes a unique vision of gender comparing to other productions. 2. Identity Crisis I have not discussed Tara’s character so far, and I have to repair now. Tara represents a ‘modern woman.’ She is an artist and she works as a painter, she is a family mother, a loving wife, a thoughtful sister, and an ‘individualised individual.’ 5 She tries to reconcile her social and personal roles. Many episodes begin with Tara speaking to the camera. These scenes allow us to understand her mood. She does not succeed in carrying out her self unity. During the first scene of the season, she explains that she is a place of frictions: one part of her would like to do something, and the other would like to do the opposite. The alter egos illustrate the ‘self crisis’ of women in modernity, to quote François de Singly. 6 This crisis is illustrated by the appearance of alter egos. Each of them represents a part of Tara. This vision of a woman divided up into her social roles finds an echo in the images. Tara is filmed as a woman in pieces, like the actresses of pornography described by Linda Williams. We can see ‘pieces’ of Tara: her bottom and her thong when she is T; her hands cooking when she is Alice; or her feet in rangers when Buck appears. These pieces of Tara represent the kind of woman she would like to be. This is a metaphor for a female divided identity and it goes through culture in general. Elif Shafak, a Turkish author, represents her female identity in the same way. In Lait noir 7 she explains that her heroine has got many little women inside her, who embody ambition, desire, motherhood or her soul. United States of Tara proposes another version of this metaphor by exposing Tara’s troubles with identity. The character of Tiffany, a friend of Tara, sums up the central question on identity set out by the fiction when she says: ‘Throughout a single day how many different women do we have to be? We have to be the Tiffany at work, the sexy Tiffany or the Tiffany who’s got dogs. We find it hard.’

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__________________________________________________________________ At least, Tara is on a therapy. We attend most of the sessions. Her therapist, a woman, explains to her why her alter egos appear. Tara created this process to find support in her life and in such realities as school, university, marriage or children’s education. Alter egos are supportive. According to the therapist, women have lots of things to endure in their everyday life, and they are not even aware of that; they suffer from many attacks, and have no socially recognised way to forget these aggressions. Alter egos appear as a tactic that helps to endure everyday difficulties. The program reminds us of the difficulty of being a woman - and above all of being a mother -who has to juggle a career and a family (to combine all her social statuses). The pressure to be a perfect mother is really present in popular culture and refers to a model of maternity. A ‘good mother’ is a caring mother who is always around when she is needed, a woman who is broad-minded and fair, a woman who has to help her children to become individuals. But, as an individual, this mother has to achieve her own personality and to listen to her own desires. She has to share her time between work, children, family life, loving life, etc. Alter egos offer Tara the opportunity to be all the women she would like to be and to multiply the types of relationships with the people she loves. Thanks to these different personalities, Tara can be a complete ‘self,’ she can draw from this repertory of identities and choose who she wants to be. This program develops the idea of identity fluidity. We cannot be defined by one and only identity. And we have to find tactics to be the self that we want to be. As T, she is a friend of her daughter Kate, a young mother who understands the difficulties of adolescence. When she is Alice, she can perform her role as a perfect mother and housewife. As Buck, she is not Max’s wife anymore, but his friend. Their contacts are totally different. They drink a beer watching porn on TV. She is able, thanks to Buck, to share a ‘masculine’ friendship with Max. They go to the shooting gallery together. Because shooting is a masculine activity, Marshall has to come with them. But he is not interested in shooting and prefers reading during their training. Tara can break the rules of normative attempts of society. Buck can fight with a man to defend and protect Kate. Tara, as a woman, as a mother, could not fight. Violence does not correspond to the social definition of womanhood. Alter egos offer lots of transgressions. Tara can perform different gender identity, different ways of being a mother or a wife, different norms of femininity. The program reveals how femininity is a social construction. When an alter ego appears, the transformation of Tara becomes a ritual of a gender performance. Being a woman is not a biological fact, it is a cultural performance. This fiction proposes different cultural constructions of femininity and motherhood. 3. Conclusion In conclusion, United States of Tara stands for a perfect example of gender trouble in popular culture. The boundaries between genders are reduced: Tara can become a man thanks to the appearance of Buck. The fiction explains to the

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__________________________________________________________________ spectators that gender lies in a choice of identity, not in a supposed biological fact. Through the alter egos characters, the program reveals that femininity or masculinity are social constructions. Each alter ego embodies a form of motherhood. The alter egos represent what Tara would like to be: a perfect mother, a sexy young girl, an irresponsible guy, etc. This TV series propose to redefine femininity and masculinity and to open the possibility for a woman to choose her identity, to be herself, beside the gender boundaries, and against the normative attempts or injunctions of society. The title includes two meanings. On the one hand, it refers to the alter egos as stereotypes of a fantasised America: its housewife, its nutty teenager or its Vietnam veteran. So, in this way the fiction talks about American society and its roots. On the other hand, the title refers to the difficulty for Tara, who is a symbol of the American woman, to unify her self. Tara has cleared a way and made it possible for women to choose their identity and break the rules of gender and social norms.

Notes 1

Horace Newcomb, Television: The Critical View, 6th Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). 2 Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York and London: Routledge, 2006). 3 Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (New York: Doubleday, 1959). 4 Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, The New England Magazine 11, No. 5 (1892): 647-657. 5 François De Singly, Les Uns avec les Autres. Quand l’Individualisme Crée du Lien (Paris: Nathan, 2003). 6 Ibid. 7 Elif Shafak, Lait Noir (Paris: Editions Phébus, 2009).

Bibliography Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London, New York: Routledge, 2006. De Singly, François. Les Uns avec les Autres. Quand l’Individualisme Crée du Lien. Paris: Nathan, 2003. Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday, 1959.

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__________________________________________________________________ Newcomb, Horace. Television: The Critical View. 6th Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Perkins Gilman, Charlotte. ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’. The New England Magazine 11, No. 5 (1892): 647–657. Shafak, Elif. Lait Noir, Phébus Editions, Paris: 2009. Sarah Lécossais is PhD Student and Lecturer at the Institute of Communication and Media of the University Paris 3-Sorbonne Nouvelle. She is working on the representation of mothers in French TV series by mobilising cultural studies, sociology and gender studies. She has got an allowance from the Institute Emilie du Châtelet.

Who’s Afraid of Grace Marks? A Perspective of Feminist Disability Studies on Female Insanity in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace Barbara Braid Abstract Disability studies generally aim at an analysis of how an impairment becomes a disability due to the society’s definitions of normativity which do not encompass less-than-perfect bodies. Ever since its appearance in 1990s disability studies has focused on cultural and social contexts, thus going beyond the medical and biological discourse of disability. Consequently, a natural step in its development has been to combine disability studies with issues of race, class, gender and sexuality. Such agendas of disability studies as denaturalisation of disability and inclusion of dismissed (disabled) bodies give disability studies and feminism a common ground, thus leading to an emergence of feminist disability studies. Its focus on both feminine and disabled body as a source of identity and a struggle with stereotypes of the female disabled are the most often discussed aspects. The issue of mental disability, however, has not been as yet thoroughly researched. As a theory used for the study of literature, it has been proposed and applied by Elizabeth J. Donaldson. In ‘The Corpus of the Madwoman’ (2002) she put forward a hypothesis that a madwoman is not an avatar of a rebellious feminist but a corporealised reality. This view has been anticipated by Andrea Nicki’s paper ‘The Abused Mind’ (2001), where she searches for a trauma, especially a bodily and a sexual one, to explain female insanity and fight with its stereotypes. This view will become the starting point for the analysis of the theme of female madness in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace (1996). Using feminist disability studies, this paper will discuss Grace Marks’ relation to her body and her femininity as well as traumas in her past to examine the function of the motif of madness in Atwood’s novel and its role in the overall interpretation of the book. Key Words: Feminist disability studies, trauma, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Neo-Victorian fiction, Alias Grace. ***** In Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s words, ‘to denaturalise disability’ is the primary objective of feminist disability studies. 1 Such an agenda requires a politicisation of the disability discourse; that is, replacing the medical perception of disability with its social and cultural reading as ‘otherness’. Thus, a non-normative body should not be seen as ‘a flaw, lack or excess,’ 2 disability then would not be an undesirable pathology marking a subject as naturally deviant from normality, but rather a social label used to mark bodily difference with a stigma of aberrance.

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__________________________________________________________________ The visibility of a given disability has a crucial impact on the subject’s selfperception and identity; thus, it might be said that the embodiment lies at the heart of disability studies. However, if ‘[o]ne is not born, but rather becomes, a woman,’ 3 than the impaired are not born, but rather become disabled; the female impaired are thus doubly shaped by the social expectations, stereotypes and limitations. ‘The female body, like the disabled body, never quite measures up and must be continually refashioned to fit social norms of beauty, fitness, and appropriate behaviour.’ 4 What happens to a female disabled body, then, is a double stigmatisation and abjection: ‘[i]f the male gaze makes the normative female a sexual spectacle, then the stare sculpts the disabled subject into a grotesque spectacle.’ 5 One can say that a female disabled body is both a sexual and a grotesque manifestation, an abject embodiment which haunts the margins of culture, both attracting and repulsing at the same time. Similarly, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson defines disability as ‘an assignment of aberrance to physical difference’ 6 and divides it into two subcategories which might, but not always do, coexist in one person. The functional disability is usually a chronic or acute illness, and it might or might not change a person’s appearance, but it often brings an internal change as far as one’s skills and abilities are concerned. The formal disability, on the other hand, is the external side of the illness or invalidism; these ‘corporeal differences [are] usually pathologised as physical ‘defects,’ ‘abnormalities,’ or … ‘monstrosities.’ 7 In the light of this categorisation, mental illness might seem less crippling, as it apparently belongs to the functional category - it does not need to involve a physical deformation that would attract stares. However, even though the connection between the phenomenon of madness and the embodiment is not obvious at first, the mentally ill need to grapple with their own set of pathologising and disabling stereotypes. The dismissal of the mentally ill, even if does not involve a physical deformity, is based on the prevalence of reason and logos; the insane, representing the lack of reason, are silenced and marginalised; the irrationality and incoherence of the mad language result in an apparent lack of language altogether. Another part of the disability studies agenda is then regaining the dismissed voices and recreating the silenced experience of madness. The figure of a madwoman as a feminist rebel, popularised in academia since the publication of The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, or later The Knotted Subject (1998) by Elizabeth Bronfen and symbolised by triumphing Bertha on the roof of the burning Thornfield, has been criticised by most of the postfeminists. As it has been noted by Marta Caminero-Santangelo in The Madwoman Cannot Speak (1998), female madness constitutes an obvious paradox: the subversiveness of a madwoman is paired with her inability to express herself, her lack of language (due to its irrationality but also lack of - often male listeners/doctors ready to give her credibility) and retreat into the world of fantasy. 8 Feminist disability studies also reject the ‘romanticisation’ of madness as

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__________________________________________________________________ rebellion, as it has been called by Elizabeth Donaldson, 9 as unfair and even debilitating for mentally ill women; similarly, it has been recognised by Jane Ussher that a typical reading of madness by second-wave feminism is counterproductive for many female psychiatric patients, because ‘[i]t places the burden of change on the woman herself, implying that if only she expressed her anger, realised the root of her oppression, demanded equality and refused to be pathologised, she would be fine - or at least happy … .’ 10 Elizabeth Donaldson, on the other hand, calls for an embodiment of mental illness. By that she understands recognising a physical aspect of insanity and the ‘reality’ of illness; she claims that ‘theories that pay attention exclusively to the social causes and construction of mad identity while overlooking the material conditions of the body, and the body as a material condition, have a limited political scope.’ 11 However, in the study of embodied madness female disability studies also cannot dismiss the social and cultural aspect, as it is responsible for marginalisation of the mentally ill women. 12 Thus, a golden means should be proposed, where a simultaneous study of the aetiology, psychopathology and the embodiment of madness is conducted together with its representation and reading in culture. In her proposal of the agenda for the study of mental illness within the field of feminist disability studies Andrea Nicki focuses on trauma as a key element enabling an inclusion of the mentally disabled. 13 Trauma as aetiology of hysteria has been recognised by Sigmund Freud in 1896 - in his lecture for the Viennese Society for Psychiatry and Neurology, he claimed that ‘at the bottom of every case of hysteria there are one or more occurrences of premature sexual experience.’ 14 Nine years later, however, he revised his opinion, claiming that the sexual encounter with a parent needs only to be imagined to serve as a trigger for hysteria, which today the critics of Freud’s theory dismiss as a betrayal of a female patient. 15 At the bottom of this critical shift in Freud’s thought lay a disbelief that sexual abuse in families can be as prevalent as hysterics’ accounts would suggest. In 1976 the Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry would still claim that fatherdaughter incest was as rare as one in a million. The 1980s, however, brought a change and criticism of rendering the female trauma in the realm of the fantastic. 16 Judith Herman, for example, discussing the famous case of Dora, criticised Freud for founding the dominant psychological theory of the 20th century on ‘the denial of women’s reality.’ 17 Instead, a new diagnosis has been proposed by the psychiatrists of the 1980s: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In case of prolonged childhood abuse the symptoms of PTSD might include, among others, an intrusive recall of a traumatic experience and amnesia; and if blocking out the reality and entering a trance-like state becomes a habitual self-preservation mechanism, alternative personalities can emerge. 18 and the key words Margaret Atwood, the author of Alias Grace (1997), seems to be aware of these developments in the history of trauma and female psyche, although it has been noted that she took some liberties as far as the historical accuracy of her references

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__________________________________________________________________ is concerned. 19 The novel is based on what documents and accounts are available to tell the story of the mysterious murder of Thomas Kinnear, Grace Marks’ employer, and Nancy Montgomery, his housekeeper and lover, which took place in Canada on 23 July 1843. Grace and her accomplice James McDermott were captured soon afterwards and found guilty. Young and apparently mentally handicapped, Grace was shown mercy and sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime of which she claimed she was innocent. The novel is structured around the central symbolic image of a patchwork, as it is partly made of historical documents and folk accounts of the story, and to a certain extent constitutes a fictionalised semi-confession told by Grace herself; it also includes the perspective of a fictional figure, Dr Simon Jordan, a pre-Freudian alienist who tries to cure Grace’s amnesia and uncover the truth. Hilde Staels sees in the central dilemma of the novel whether Grace is really guilty - a reference to detective fiction; but it is a postmodern play with the genre, where the reader is the actual detective. 20 However, their attempt to find a clear resolution of the textual mystery is futile the novel is a postmodern, open-ended interpretation of the tragic events, and there are as many interpretations as readers/detectives. This multifariousness is represented by the several opinions presented at the end of the novel, where several characters comment on a mesmerist séance during which a voice of Grace’s dead friend Mary Whitley confesses to be the murderer. 21 Jerome du Pont, a fictional mesmerists and James Braid’s student, claims that the only explanation is double consciousness; Reverend Verringer notices that in the past Grace would be said to be possessed by a demon; 22 Mrs Quennel, an advocate of spiritualism, believes that it is the ghost of Mary Reilly who haunts Grace; 23 and finally, Grace’s former doctor from the asylum, Dr Bannerling, proposes what he claims is the most obvious and down-to-earth explanation: moral degeneration.24 The truth, however, is obscure, and none of those possible resolutions can be perceived as the ultimate one. Nevertheless, the feminist disability studies as a methodological tool used for the interpretation of the novel allow us to see a hidden element of the puzzle, one which is more elusive than the others. These hidden clues make the reader realise that Grace’s amnesia may not be a ruse nor a lie, but might be caused by a trauma which was deeply connected to her experience of femininity and sexuality, which in turn led to Dissociative Identity Disorder. In the central position in Grace Marks’ life are the three women, who through their death became the most abject images in the novel. They are, in turn, Grace’s mother, who died from a tumour on the ship to Canada, Mary Whitney, Grace’s 16-year-old servant-friend who died of a botched abortion, and Nancy Montgomery, Kinnear’s housekeeper, lover and ultimately, Grace’s alleged victim. In all three cases, the women were the victims of their own desire; the connection of the maternal body with the dead body stands in the novel for a warning against the female sexuality and ‘mortal perils of reproduction.’ 25 Julia Kristeva’s concept of the abject, seen in terms of the body, is represented by bodily fluids, waste, and

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__________________________________________________________________ a corpse, to signify disorder, death, and transgression. The image of the dead, wounded, lusting and lusted for female body haunts the text as a presence which is threatening for the Victorian discourse. 26 Female corporeality in Alias Grace seems to be both attractive and repulsive, and Grace herself represents this paradox: on the one hand, as a murderess and a madwoman, she represents the menacing Other, but her innocent appearance and femininity attract the male gaze and inspire lust. The death of these three women and the resulting encounters with the abject female bodies constitute traumatic experiences in Grace’s life. However, a trauma strong enough to result in a creation of a Dissociative Identity Disorder has to be looked for in those parts of Grace’s narrative which are disrupted and blank, in ‘repression, silence, ellipsis, elaboration, and fantasy.’ 27 Peonies, a symbol of Nancy’s murder and its trauma, only grow in ‘the soil which is emptiness.’ 28 Thus, they symbolise the painful memories that stem from the trauma represented in the ellipses in Grace’s narratives. The most obvious explanation would be the traumatic memory of the brutal murder committed in Mr Kinnear’s house; however, the aforementioned symptoms of PTSD which might lead to DID are usually caused by the trauma of childhood sexual abuse. Such symptoms are, surprisingly, also visible in the novel. They include the recurring vision, appearing both in a dream and in reality, of a man who blocks the cellar door, as well as chronic amnesia which starts with Mary’s death, and finally an apparent series of trance-like states, of which Grace is not aware, and during which she apparently committed or was an accomplice in the murder of Mr Kinnear and Nancy - all of these would suggest that Grace is a sufferer from PTSD. The erratic visions and dreams can also provide evidence for Grace’s possible sexual abuse in childhood. Hilde Staels provides several such quotations, 29 most prominently the apocalyptic dream about a man who restrains Grace and caresses her from behind; she comments: ‘[it was] someone I knew well and had long been familiar with, even as long ago as my childhood, but had since forgotten; nor was this the first time I’d found myself in this situation with him.’ 30 Some other visions include remembered dialogues which also would suggest abuse and intimidation: I know you’re hiding from me, come out at once or I’ll have to find you and catch you, and when I’ve got hold of you, then who knows what I will do. I’m keeping very still behind the door, I can hear my own heart. Oh no, oh no, oh no. Here I come, I am coming now. You never obey me, you never do what I say, you dirty girl. Now you will have to be punished. It is not my fault. What can I do now, where can I turn? You must unlock the door, you must open the window, you must

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__________________________________________________________________ let me in. 31 hat happens to a female disabled What happens to a female disabled Grace also mentions dreaming about someone watching her, someone covering her mouth with their hand in her sleep, or someone dragging her out of her bed.32 Such visions might suggest memories of abuse so repressed that they become elusive also to the reader, who might easily dismiss those fragments as elements of the rumblings of a madwoman. Thus, the twists and turns of a traumatised psyche are also reflected on the level of narration that is used to represent it. The narrative enigma of the unresolved mystery might be perceived as a choice between two interpretations: Grace is either a sufferer from a mental illness, called double consciousness, or she is possessed by a ghost of her deceased friend. It seems that feminist disability studies would support the former interpretation, claiming that the madness she suffers from is the trauma-induced Dissociative Identity Disorder. However, on a metaphorical level it might be concluded that Grace Marks is actually both mad and haunted - by a traumatic memory of sexual abuse. Mary Whitley, her alternate personality and her ghost, is the embodiment of Grace’s internalized anger, but she also stands for all that is suppressed in Grace: a capacity for laughter and a satisfying friendship and an ability to rebel against the abjection and abuse of a female body. 2

Notes 1

Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, ‘Feminist Disability Studies’, Signs 30, No. 2 (2005): 1557. 2 Ibid. 3 Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, trans. and ed. H. M. Parshley (London: Vintage, 1997), 295. 4 Monica J. Casper and Heather Laine Talley, ‘Feminist Disability Studies’, in The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Sociology, ed. George Ritzer (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007), 1697. 5 Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 26. 6 Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, ‘Redrawing the Boundaries of Feminist Disability Studies’, Feminist Studies 20, No. 3 (1994): 589. 7 Ibid. 8 Marta Caminero-Santangelo, The Madwoman Cannot Speak: Or Why Insanity Is Not Subversive (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1998), 2. 9 Elizabeth J. Donaldson, ‘The Corpus of the Madwoman. Toward a Feminist Disability Theory of Embodiment and Mental Illness’, NWSA 14, No. 3 (2002): 101.

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Jane M. Ussher, Women’s Madness: Misogyny or Mental Illness? (New York and London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991), 236. 11 Donaldson, ‘The Corpus of the Madwoman’, 102. 12 Andrea Nicki, ‘The Abused Mind. Feminist Theory, Psychiatric Disability and Trauma’, Hypatia 16, No. 4 (2001): 89-91. 13 Ibid., 97. 14 Sigmund Freud, ‘The Aetiology of Hysteria’, in The Freud Reader, ed. Peter Gay (New York and London: W. W. Norton Company, 1989), 103. 15 Heidi Darroch, ‘Hysteria and Traumatic Testimony. Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace’, Essays on Canadian Writing 81 (2004): 103-121. 16 Lisa Appignanesi, Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present (London: Virago, 2009), 480-481. 17 Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror (New York: Basic Books, 1992), 14. 18 19

See Judith Knelman, ‘Can We Believe What the Newspapers Tell Us? Missing Links in Alias Grace’, University of Toronto Quarterly 68, No. 2 (1999): 682, and Darroch, ‘Hysteria and Traumatic Testimony’, 108. 20 Hilde Staels, ‘Intertexts of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace’, Modern Fiction Studies 46, No. 2 (2000): 432-436. 21 Linda Morra, ‘Articulating Madness: the Foucauldian Notion of Madness and Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace’, West Virginia University Philological Papers 45 (1999): 124. 22 Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace (London: Virago, 1999), 470-471. 23 Ibid., 467. 24 Ibid., 504. 25 Ibid., 778. 26 Amelia Defalco, ‘Haunting Physicality: Corpses, Cannibalism, and Carnality in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace’, University of Toronto Quarterly 75, No. 2 (2006): 772. 27 Janet Walker, ‘The Traumatic Paradox: Documentary Films, Historical Fictions, and Cataclysmic Past Events’, Signs 22, No. 4 (1997): 814. 28 Atwood, Alias Grace, 344. 29 Staels, ‘Intertexts of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace’, 437. 30 Atwood, Alias Grace, 326. 31 Ibid., 344-345. 32 Ibid., 303.

Bibliography

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__________________________________________________________________ Appignanesi, Lisa. Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present. London: Virago, 2009. Atwood, Margaret. Alias Grace. London: Virago, 1999. Bronfen, Elisabeth. The Knotted Subject: Hysteria and Its Discontents. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1998. Caminero-Santangelo, Marta. The Madwoman Can't Speak: Or Why Insanity Is Not Subversive. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1998. Casper, Monica J., and Heather Laine Talley. ‘Feminist Disability Studies’. In The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Sociology, edited by George Ritzer, 1696–1701. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007. Darroch, Heidi. ‘Hysteria and Traumatic Testimony. Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace’. Essays on Canadian Writing 81 (2004): 103–121. De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. Translated and Edited by H. M. Parshley. London: Vintage, 1997. Defalco, Amelia. ‘Haunting Physicality: Corpses, Cannibalism, and Carnality in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace’. University of Toronto Quarterly 75, No. 2 (2006): 771-783. Donaldson, Elizabeth J. ‘The Corpus of the Madwoman. Toward a Feminist Disability Theory of Embodiment and Mental Illness’. NWSA 14, No. 3 (2002): 99–119. Freud, Sigmund. ‘The Aetiology of Hysteria’. In The Freud Reader, edited by Peter Gay, 96–111. New York and London: W. W. Norton Company, 1989. Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. ‘Feminist Disability Studies’. Signs 30, No. 2 (2005): 1557–1587. Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. ‘Redrawing the Boundaries of Feminist Disability Studies’. Feminist Studies 20, No. 3 (1994): 582–595. —––. Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.

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__________________________________________________________________ Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000. Herman, Judith Lewis. Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror. New York: Basic Books, 1992. Knelman, Judith. ‘Can We Believe What the Newspapers Tell Us? Missing Links in Alias Grace’. University of Toronto Quarterly 68, No. 2 (1999): 677–686. Morra, Linda. ‘Articulating Madness: the Foucauldian Notion of Madness and Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace’. West Virginia University Philological Papers 45 (1999): 123–129. Nicki, Andrea. ‘The Abused Mind. Feminist Theory, Psychiatric Disability and Trauma’. Hypatia 16, No. 4 (2001): 80–104. Staels, Hilde. ‘Intertexts of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace’. Modern Fiction Studies 46, No. 2 (2000): 427–450. Ussher, Jane M. Women’s Madness: Misogyny or Mental Illness? New York and London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991. Walker, Janet. ‘The Traumatic Paradox: Documentary Films, Historical Fictions, and Cataclysmic Past Events’. Signs 22, No. 4 (1997): 803–825. Barbara Braid is an Assistant Lecturer at the English Department in Szczecin University, Poland. She has published several articles on the Neo-Victorian novel and is currently working on her PhD dissertation about female madness motifs in Victorian and Neo-Victorian fiction. Her academic interests comprise of the representation of gender in literature and culture, lesbian literature, gender theory, and Victorian, postmodern and gothic fiction.

Non-Phallic Masculinity as Homophobia in Fight Club Tamas Nagypal Abstract The hero of Fight Club is a young white collar professional who is stuck doing debilitating office work for a big auto company not to be named. Being an insomniac, he literally sleepwalks through his life while serving as a drone for the consumerist ideology propagating a boring but comfortable lifestyle for moderately privileged white middle class men. He dwells in a state that Lacan called alienation, an existence without agency and freedom, subordinated to the social symbolic order. Throughout the film, after a series of breaks with his former lifestyle, the hero’s subjectivity is forged in the homosocial environment of fight clubs and terrorist cells. What makes this tale of a young guy becoming a man interesting is its anti-identitarian framing. Not only does the film’s character development not follow the classical ideology of Hollywood masculinity which Kaja Silverman identifies as the disavowal of male castration, its downright celebration of self-humiliation and disintegration resembles Leo Bersani’s masochistic queer politics. The enigma of the film’s ending, however, is that despite of its rejection of phallic masculinity, the assumed queerness of the main character nonetheless is presented not only in heteronormative but also homophobic terms. The conclusion, on the one hand, echoes Michael Kimmel’s thesis about modern masculinity being constructed through homophobia, but also seems to refute the central element in his theory, namely that this homophobia is nothing but a ‘flight from the feminine.’ My paper explores the development of a non-phallic yet homophobic gender performance through the figure of Fight Club’s Tyler Durden, and shows how it can be seen as a new form of hegemonic masculinity. Key Words: Masculinity, film, queer, homophobia, psychoanalysis, hegemony, phallus, capitalism, homosocial, David Fincher. ***** 1. Introduction The hero of Fight Club 1 is a young white collar professional, played by Edward Norton, who is stuck in a debilitating office job at a major auto company. Being an insomniac, he literally sleepwalks through his life while serving as a drone for the consumerist ideology propagating a boring but comfortable lifestyle for white middle class young men. He does not know he is missing something until one day, when complaining about the pain he suffers from sleep deprivation, his doctor advises him to go and see the support group of testicular cancer patients; that will change his perspective. It does indeed, and from then on, he finds himself on a

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__________________________________________________________________ slippery slope leading to an alternative lifestyle that involves squatting, not going to work and founding a men only secret society where people beat each other up and perform terrorist activities. All this happens under the influence of a mysterious stranger called Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) who he meets on a plane by chance and who from then on becomes his life coach on the path to selfdestruction. 2. Anti-Capitalism as Queer Politics? After a series of breakdowns in his life, our hero starts to squat with Tyler in an abandoned house where his ideological reconfiguration to an enraged anarchist begins. Most of the rhetoric here is directed against fathers who abandoned their sons, against the empty values of the phallic order that lost its authority: ‘Our fathers were models for God, if our fathers bailed; what does that tell you about God? God doesn’t love you, he hates you! We don’t need him!’ And the specific version of patriarchal society criticised is capitalist consumerism: ‘We were raised on television promised to be millionaires. We slowly realize that’s not gonna happen and we are pissed!’ As an alternative of self-perfection, Tyler suggests selfdestruction: ‘You have to know that one day you’re gonna die. Only after you have lost everything are you free to do anything.’ 2 To put his ideas in practice, he organises fight clubs, secret male communities where the participants are to have bare knuckle fights as a form of therapy, to have their socially conditioned persona literally beaten out of them. As the movement’s popularity grows, they start to perform direct action against the corporate culture, destroying offices, burning logos vandalising luxury cars etc. They reappropriate public spaces by breaking the smooth functioning of the normative (capitalist) Symbolic that controls them, making visible the glitches in the system. I would like to argue that these subversive acts can be interpreted along the lines of the queer politics of the 1990s and its undermining of fixed identities as well as the heteronormative symbolic order that supports them. The billboard slogan ‘I praise God with my erection’ put out by Queer Nation 3 can be read together with one from Fight Club that says ‘Did You Know? You Can Use Old Motor Oil To Fertilize Your Lawn - Environmental Protection Agency.’ Both works for the same reason: they enact in public the disavowed fantasmatic underside of the ruling symbolic order. That is, we might say, in the US, respectable Christians are already praising God with their erections, in the sense that there is a jouissance involved in their symbolic (phallic) identification, the real of which is covered over by fantasy. Thus queer activism, as well as actions of the Fight Club can be understood as critiques of ideology, which, as Žižek puts it, should aim at extracting the kernel of enjoyment, at articulating the way which - beyond the field of meaning but at the same time internal

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__________________________________________________________________ to it - an ideology implies, manipulates, produces a preideological enjoyment structured in fantasy. 4 In the same way, the motor oil prank can be read as making visible the obscene underside of the seemingly benevolent environmental infomercials, for example their interconnectedness with the very polluting practices they openly criticize (car companies giving money for environmental research etc.). It is along the same lines that Žižek reads one of the film’s key scenes where Edward Norton beats himself up in front of his boss, staging the disavowed fantasy that holds his authority in the office together. He reads this act of masochism as a first step towards the liberation of the subject whereby he, the servant is beating out of himself his libidinal attachment to the master, acting it out publicly thus making the master embarrassed and superfluous. 5 Leo Bersani comes to a very similar conclusion when he claims that: Phallocentrism is … not primarily the denial of power to woman (although it has obviously also lead to that, everywhere and at all times), but above all the denial of the value of powerlessness in both men and women. I don’t mean the value of gentleness, or nonaggressiveness, or even of passivity, but rather of a more radical disintegration and humiliation of the self. 6 He then claims that such masochism is an inherent part of male homosexuality and instead of repudiating it one should rather embrace it for the purposes of queer politics. And perhaps this is what the assignment Tyler gives to the Fight Club members is about: queering the public space by initiating a fight and losing it. 3. The Other Side of Fight Club’s Homosocial: Marketplace Manhood On the other hand, Fight Club’s ‘queer’ masculinities bear a close resemblance to what Michael Kimmel describes in his Masculinity as Homophobia. 7 He discusses the emergence of a new type of masculinity in the 19th century US, made possible by the rise of capitalist market relations. This Marketplace Manhood 8 is formed by men adapting to the challenges of marketplace competition, where the pressure to accumulate wealth and power knows no limits. In this environment, the best way to be successful for a man is to show independence, strength and calmness to the outside while constantly remaining restless and agitated on the inside, suspicious of any achievement, staying alert, aware of newer and newer tests of one’s manhood. The first of these aspects leads to an increasing ‘flight from the feminine,’ 9 starting with the repudiation of the son’s dependency on the mother which then extends to the devaluation of femininity in the self and in the other as it gets marked as sissyness, a sign of dependency and failure to comply to real manhood.

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__________________________________________________________________ Kimmel sees the expulsion of homosexuality following the same logic in this gender performance, as homosexual desire is identified as feminine, a part of the self that has to be cut out. This quest for real manhood, however, can never be successful; there is always a remainder of unmanliness that returns. This ties to the second aspect of the marketplace masculinity, namely that its attempted performance is continuously challenged and undermined by the scrutinising gaze of the homosocial community. It is for the eyes of other men that men feel obligated to prove their manhood again and again, it is the fear of this ‘gender police’ 10 that forces them into aggressive risk taking enterprises and repeated exclusions of the emasculated others (women, racial minorities, homosexuals, etc.). We can read the men only action groups in Fight Club along the lines of Kimmel’s homosocial community. The scenes when a couple of men fight each other in front of their peers is a spectacle of risk taking; what one risks is the specific ego-image he is coming to the club with, the one that positions him in the corporate capitalist social hierarchy of the 1990s. One can be a parking valet or a business executive; it all does not matter when it comes to proving one’s manhood by letting one’s imaginary identity be beaten out of him in the arena of the Fight Club. Thus paradoxically, this masculinity that I described earlier as politically queer is, according to Kimmel’s model, constructed through the very ‘flight from the feminine’ and homophobia. In the film this can be seen in Tyler’s derogatory remarks about Marla (‘We don’t need her’) 11 as well as his violent attempt to expulse Bob, Edward Norton’s pre-Oedipal same sex love object from the homosocial club (first by denying him entry, then by sending him to a mission which leads to his death). There is, however, a crucial difference between Kimmel’s account of masculinity and the one depicted in Fight Club. Although they seem to be presenting the same phenomenon, Kimmel describes it as a capitalist identification whereas in the film we can see an anti-capitalist disidentification. For Kimmel, the emphasis is on the fragility of the Real Man-image one tries to perform in front of his peers, on the fact that repudiating sissyness can never be complete. With this analysis he aims to explain the phenomenon why individual men feel real powerlessness despite (white, heterosexual, middle class) men’s domination as a social group. 12 Fight Club, on the contrary, emphasises the opposite aspect of Marketplace Manhood: what is performed for the eyes of other men is an act of disidentification, self-shattering, the renunciation of any kind of symbolic or imaginary identity. And the lesson of the film is precisely that there is always a remainder, or rather surplus of identity present after this performance. The film’s ideological battle is fought over this excess: what is it going to be: Tyler’s queer proto-totalitarian radicalism or the main character’s resurfacing white middle class heteronormative reflexes? As for Tyler, before the final showdown, he in fact disappears as a person and lives on as a legend, the superhuman savior of mankind, an empty screen that

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__________________________________________________________________ everyone can fill out with his own fantasy. According to Žižek, this is the logic keeping the totalitarian leader in power, whose message to his subjects is: ‘In myself, I’m nothing, I am what I am only as an expression, an embodiment, an executor of your will, my strength is your strength.’ 13 The trick is, as Žižek emphasises, that the people who the leader refers to exist only through him, only through his representative power. Fight Club thus reaches the opposite conclusion to Kimmel in the sense that for Kimmel it was men’s individual feeling of powerlessness coupled with their privileges as a collective. Here we actually have a model for a male community where the collective (symbolic or imaginary) powerlessness of men is supplemented by their individual abundance of power, where the collective assumption of queerness through disidentification from one’s ego ideals and ideal-egos supports an even stronger masculine subject in the real. 4. Beyond Marketplace Manhood: Fight Club’s Subversion of the Penis – Phallus Equation But is such subjectivity necessarily totalitarian? Or can it serve, rather, as a productive force in the resignification of the symbolic order? In the case of Tyler himself, the plan is to suspend the functioning of society through his apocalyptic plan Project Mayhem by organising a terrorist attack on the headquarters of major credit card companies to ‘erase the debt record’ and create social chaos. On the other hand, he himself, with his new post-phallic body, in a Nietzschean vein, would be the source of values in the new world. The totalitarian temptation emerges, one might argue, because in the process of symbolic resignification the gap between imaginary and symbolic, or to use Kaja Silverman’s terms, between penis and phallus is suspended: the actual powerful image of Tyler, or rather his imagined body, directly stands in for the phallic symbolic position he occupies. For Silverman, such an equation is an ideological procedure whereby men’s symbolic castration becomes suspended. 14 The crucial thing to observe in Fight Club, however, is that such an ideological closure does not happen in the end. What is missing from the final scene is the ideological denial of the hero’s castration through a phallic imaginary. Our hero manages to stop Tyler’s evil plan precisely by assuming his own castration: by shooting himself through the mouth and thus making his evil double disappear forever. With this gesture, the film seems to suggest, he solves the paradoxes of queer politics, or rather, to use the Hegelian term, sublates them. He indeed goes to the end with Tyler’s Project Mayhem, right after he reaches a moment of wisdom: the cynical wisdom that such a plan is not possible anyway; that it is all a lie feeding Tyler’s superhuman ego. And he makes his choice: he chooses to be ‘only’ human instead. Accordingly, in the following scenes, we see Edward Norton’s character in a miserable state: he is in his underwear, his head is bleeding and most importantly he has no control over what is happening around him (everything was set up by Tyler). This spectacle manhood, as opposed to what Silverman calls

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__________________________________________________________________ ‘classic male subjectivity’ in Hollywood cinema, 15 mobilises images of impaired masculinity. Castration is not denied, rather, openly assumed. And yet, the (re)signifying power of the phallus still works, but because of the visible dislocation of imaginary from the symbolic, it appears as a miracle, an act of god (in the scene when the skyscrapers start to blow up). The gaze of the woman is crucial in this finale: although it is for Marla’s eyes that this ‘miracle’ is organised for (Tyler arranged for her to see it), she is denied the possibility of criticism and resistance, precisely because Edward Norton’s tamed Tyler does not claim to be the author of it. But he does not deny it either. He can look and act castrated as long as the phallic work is done for him in the background, he can act and look queer, this will only strengthen his heterosexuality, as the male - female couple holding hands in the end shows. With the elimination of the excess what Tyler stood for, what remains is what has been there from the beginning, the homophobic man of the marketplace, except now, after a long lasting self-therapy, he managed to overcome his private feelings of powerlessness. If for Lacan, the phallus is the signifier of castration, 16 for him, castration is the phallus.

Notes 1

Fight Club, DVD, directed by David Fincher (Region 1: 20th Century Fox, 2000). Brad Pitt in Fight Club. 3 Lauren Berlant and Elizabeth Freeman, ‘Queer Nationality’, in The Queen of America Goes To Washington City, ed. Michèle Aina Barale and Jonathan Goldberg (Durham: Duke University Press, 1997), 205. 4 Slavoj Žižek, The Sublime Object of Ideology (London: Verso, 1989), 125. 5 Slavoj Žižek, ‘An Ethical Plea for Lies and Masochism’, in Lacan and Contemporary Film, ed. Todd McGowan and Shelia Kunkle (New York: Other, 2004), 183. 6 Leo Bersani, ‘Is the Rectum a Grave?’, October 43 (1987): 217. 7 Michael S. Kimmel, ‘Masculinity as Homophobia: Fear, Shame and Silence in the Construction of Gender Identity’, in Gender of Desire: Essays on Male Sexuality, ed. Michael S. Kimmel (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005). 8 Ibid., 29. 9 Ibid., 31. 10 Ibid., 36. 11 Brad Pitt in Fight Club. 12 Michael S. Kimmel, ‘Masculinity as Homophobia’, 40. 13 Slavoj Žižek, The Sublime Object of Ideology, 146. 2

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Kaja Silverman, Male Subjectivity at the Margins (New York and London: Routledge, 1992), 42, my italics. 15 Ibid. 16 Jacques Lacan, ‘The Signification of the Phallus’, in Ecrits, ed. Jacques Lacan (New York: W.W. Norton, 2006), 576.

Bibliography Berlant, Lauren and Elizabeth Freeman. ‘Queer Nationality’. In The Queen of America Goes To Washington City, edited by Michèle Aina Barale and Jonathan Goldberg. 193–229. Durham: Duke University Press, 1997. Bersani, Leo. ‘Is the Rectum a Grave?’. October 43 (1987): 197–222. Kimmel, Michael S. ‘Masculinity as Homophobia: Fear, Shame and Silence in the Construction of Gender Identity’. In Gender of Desire: Essays on Male Sexuality, edited by Michael S. Kimmel, 23–43. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005. Lacan, Jacques. ‘The Signification of the Phallus’. In Ecrits, edited by Jacques Lacan, 575–585. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. Silverman, Kaja. Male Subjectivity at the Margins. New York and London: Routledge, 1992. Žižek, Slavoj. The Sublime Object of Ideology. London: Verso, 1989. –––. ‘An Ethical Plea for Lies and Masochism’. In Lacan and Contemporary Film, edited by Todd McGowan and Shelia Kunkle, 173–187. New York: Other, 2004. Tamas Nagypal is a PhD student at York University, Toronto. His research interests include: masculinities, film noir, Lacanian psychoanalysis and queer theory.

Renaming the Self, Recreating the Past in Erna Brodber’s Louisiana Sonia Gertzou Abstract Dealing with representations of colonised femininity, Erna Brodber’s Louisiana undoes the hailing of the Caribbean Other as a subject of language and a subject in language suggesting alternative formations of identity-making. In an attempt to subvert the colonising grip of western ontology over the Caribbean woman, Brodber cross-fertilises diverse black female voices and their different cultural backgrounds, personal stories and experiences that join the Caribbean basin to the American South. Defying spatiotemporal limitations of ‘here’ and ‘there,’ past and present, Brodber produces an eccentric female community that intervenes and disorganises, through personal narratives, western metaphysics and the hegemonic production of colonised femininity. Challenging the homogenising effect of western representations, Brodber further subverts the cultural appropriation of the American-Jamaican protagonist on the grounds of performance. The black female performing body undoes the double trauma of colonisation and patriarchy realigning the colonised woman of colour to her estranged cultural heritage as well as to her appropriated body. Insinuating the common understructure between patriarchy and colonisation, the author reinforces the associative links between colonised bodies and colonised landscapes. By means of appropriating the colonial power of naming and through the effect of the ambivalent repetition of the Name, the author criticides the historical fallacy of prefabricated identities and bounded spaces. In effect, the cross-pollination of diverse black subjectivities, stories and landscapes enables Erna Brodber to question the monolithic production of black female subjects and colonised landscapes making a statement for the production of anti-narratives of identity and counter-histories of places. Key Words: Textuality, framing, appropriation, representation, race, gender, voices, subjectivity, re-naming, re-embodiment. ***** 1. Introduction Erna Brodber’s Louisiana1 creates a discursive community of black women that renegotiate their relationship to the phallogocentric discourse. My aim in this paper is to show how Brodber’s black women disrupt race and gender inscription patterns concealed in hegemonic discourse and how they become re-embodied through a changing relationship to discourse. I have arranged my paper in two main sections. In the first part, I will focus both on the black woman’s discursive appropriation and the re-articulation of black female subjectivity through the effect

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__________________________________________________________________ of multivocality. In the second section, I will turn to the development of an embodied subjectivity on the grounds of performativity and the interpenetration of physical and discursive spaces. 2. The Frame of Discourse: Out-Speaking the Black Slef Revealing the violence of colonial discourse, Brodber traces the entrapment of the black woman within Anglo-European textuality. The American-Jamaican anthropologist, Ella Townsend, is a scribe of the American academia. Framed through a fictitious ‘Editor’s Note,’ Ella is said to constitute ‘one of those up and coming black women writers’2 employed to ‘to retrieve the history of the Blacks of South West Louisiana using oral sources.’ 3 Enframed in scribal colonialism and ‘[a]lienated from their own bodies, [Brodber’s] women become speaking puppets of a…gendered Anglo-imperialism.’4 Because this is a story ‘that [the white people] want to write,’5 Ella is required to take up the task of re-producing totalising narratives over black populations. She is required to ‘get in touch with, to try to know and to machine record, the life of Mrs Sue Ann King and [she] had focused on her. There [were] others like [her] working throughout the nation.’6 The discursive capture of the black subject as the object/subject of knowledge also implies historical and cultural enclosure. Discussing the links between language and subjectivity Judith Butler notes that ‘the subject has its own ‘existence’ implicated in a language that precedes and exceeds the subject, a language whose historicity includes a past and future that exceeds that of the subject who speaks.’ 7 As both race and gender histories are embedded in discourse, Ella’s scriptive desire is meant to ensure the survivability and reiteration of the dominant phallogocentric colonial structure. In a continuous effort to ‘transcribe and to draft conceptual schemes in [her] head,’8 Ella strives for a coherent whole ‘to give to the white people.’ 9 Yet the disruption of totalizing black representations allows the retrieval of black female voices and bodies. Focusing on the significance of the black female voice, Brodber undoes the discursive silencing of black women and their homogenisation as a result of the visibility of skin colour. Mocking Western epistemology and ethnographic framing, Sue Ann King, also known as Mammy, dies early in the narrative flouting Ella’s desire to ‘sift through [her] brains.’10 Disrupting Ella’s task to bring the black woman under the voyeuristic scrutiny of the West, Mammy communicates with Ella both telepathically as well as through her recording machine. Ella cannot accept that ‘[t]he ears are hearing other frequencies’ that the words she heard ‘are not her words for they are nowhere in her head but she is quite sure that she has heard them … . With so many years of formal schooling, she cannot think “ghost.’’’11 As Ella ‘[comes] under the influence of psychic forces,’12 voices on the reel multiply when Louise/Lowly Grant - Mammy’s dead West Indian friend and sister in spirit - also surfaces to speak her own life. Sue Ann and Louise intervene with the hegemony of the Logos and transform Ella’s written manuscript into a

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__________________________________________________________________ ‘mixture of social history and out of body experiences.’ 13 Their discontinuous narrations undo the ‘distribution of the sensible’ which lies at the heart of identity politics. In Jacques Ranciere’s words, the distribution of the sensible is a delimitation of spaces and times, of the visible and the invisible, of speech and noise, that simultaneously determines the place and the stakes of politics as a form of experience. Politics revolves around what is seen and what can be said about it, around who has the ability to see and the talent to speak, around the properties of spaces and the possibilities of times. 14 This over-determination of the woman of colour in terms of both colour and gender fixes her in space and time. Yet, the speech of Brodber’s disembodied individuals the narrations of Mammy and Louise - undermine the double colonisation of the female body as both gendered and raced. By retrieving their own voice, both Mammy and Louise reveal the possibility for discursive re-embodiment. Doing away with the visible marker of the skin, Mammy and Lowly speak their personal stories beyond the grave, frustrating Ella’s efforts of categorising them, of ‘find[ing] some way of transposing … sighs and … laughs and other non-verbal expressions of emotions into the transcript she would submit to her masters.’15 Opening up her narrative to singular black female voices, Louisiana undoes the totalising effect of discourse over black bodies. The infestation of the text with diverse female voices creates an effect of polyphony that undoes the discursive appropriation of black women. Ella had ‘come to be with one woman. The one woman had turned into two and here was [she] now totally taken up by them and the machine through which they communicated with [her].’16 Seeking to deconstruct the ‘expectation that the black woman subject would ‘speak through’ or be spoken for,’17 Brodber prioritises singular memories and personal expositions over the production of a totalising whole by a unifying narrative voice. Mammy’s fragmented memories of her family history of ‘punished resistance’ 18 in the South, of her involvement in the longshoreman’s strike in New Orleans and her subsequent flight north to escape punishment clash with Louise’s discursive and geographic trails. Through narrative shifts Louise shares her own story of the ‘[l]ittle green gal from the islands.’19 Narrating her Jamaican orphanage, Louise describes her service to Father Bailey, a ‘white, male, foreign [minister], as ephemeral and foggy as the smoke which made the cloud on which … the Holy Catholic family sat,’20 as well as her subsequent transplantation to the kitchen of a Chicago guest house where she meets Mammy. Preoccupied ‘by the nature of [her] place in the triangle and in particular by the fact that the sisters possessed a history of [her] of which [she] had just the faintest glimpse,’21 Ella finally responds to cultural amnesia with her own personal narrative. Louise’s description of colonised life in Jamaica and her subsequent

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__________________________________________________________________ migration to the US.A stir Ella’s repressed memories. Narrating the story of her own abandonment in Jamaica, Ella relives the trauma of the loss of her maternal grandmother and her distress as ‘a little nine month old girl watching the one sure link with love lying prostrate on the floor.’22 The three women’s reciprocal acts of narrating-sharing rewrite western ontology through the prism of intercommunication. According to Jean Luc Nancy, the subject’s entrapment to dominant representations is undone by the subject’s exposition to an outside; as a result, ‘[t]his exposure, or this exposing-sharing, gives rise, from the outset, to a mutual interpellation of singularities, prior to any address in language.’23 The exposition of each singular experience and the creation of a discursive community where the narratives of Mammy, Lowly and Ella ‘co-appear’ or ‘compear’24 revise black female subjectivity beyond specular identifications and rewrite female bonding as simply a mode of being-together without being the same, in the same place, at the same time. 3. Performing the Self, Appropriating the Name: Bodies, Landscapes, Identities The cross-fertilisation of singular stories on the page undermines the appropriating effect of language over black bodies and re-articulates the colonised woman as an agent of identity production. Failing the expectations of a ‘word smith’ 25 for the American nation, Ella expresses the trauma of migration, of ‘being seen as different’ and ‘being called King George’s negro’ 26 in an ecstatic cry that frees the black body from the cultural grip of western language. Discussing the notion of ek-stasis, Edouard Glissant remarks that ‘[w]hen the body is freed … it follows the explosive scream. Caribbean speech is always excited, it ignores silence, softness, sentiment. The body follows suit. It does not know pause, rest, smooth continuity. It is jerked along.’27 Ella’s fear for the ‘connection between the content of the reel and [her] own unrevealed experiences’ 28 awakens her repressed cultural memory. Returning to traditional African-heritage folkways, she converts into a performing body. She ‘write[s] and shout[s] … [as people] for[m] a circle around [her] and [do] a kind of shoe patter accompanied by deep grunts.’29 Through the ritual of the ring shout, Ella frees the silenced black body through the explosive scream that relates to the trauma of both race and gender. Escaping the interpellative frame of subject production, Ella renegotiates her relationship to power discourses. Abandoning structurality, she reclaims her self through an act of re-naming. By renaming herself ‘Louisiana, the former Ella Townsend,’30 the line of heteronormative European names imposed upon her is erased. Through this act of self-naming and the adoption of the name Louisiana, Ella underlines the phallocentric foundation of colonialism. Voicing a masculine perspective, the fictitious Editor remarks that Ella ‘disappeared leaving a blotch on her name’ while, at the same time, she is described as having gone into ‘store-front story-telling in receptive New Orleans.’ 31 The breakage of the masculinist frame

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__________________________________________________________________ insinuates the creation of difference that destabilises the genealogical power of interpellation. Displacing herself from normative gendered representations, Ella subverts the power of the Law to name and found raced women. By escaping the reifying aspect of colonial power to name, Ella also rewrites her relationship to power discourses because ‘[i]f you are afraid of what people call you, then they have power over you. They call you ‘coon,’ then call yourself ‘coon.’ You now have power of the name.’32 Moreover, Ella’s appropriation of the name ‘Louisiana’ - a historically and culturally infested name - implies the patriarchal foundation of colonialism. As Helen Tiffin puts it, ‘[t]he violence done to others by colonial discourse is also a gendered technology, and gender matters at those moments of textual violence.’ 33 Ella as Louisiana mocks the colonial scriptive drive for the production of uniform subjects and totalising histories. In effect, the production of an anti-name undermines the historical erasure of the colonised woman through the cross-fertilisation of physical and discursive spaces. The re-articulation of identity entails a rethinking in terms of crossings and passages between the physical and the discursive. Ella as Louisiana turns into the medium that brings heterogeneous trails and trajectories together. Through the discursive encounters of Mammy, Louise and Ella, Louisiana transforms into a place of both contact and separation, disclosing different possibilities of beingtogether as black women and as black subjects in discourse. Ella describes: [P]ut the tips of your index fingers and the tips of your thumbs together. Your extremities now form a diamond. Imagine the diamond to be solid, three dimensional. Now pierce a hole through the center of this. That hole, that passage is me. I am the link between the shores washed by the Caribbean sea, a hole, yet I am what joins your left hand to your right. I join the world of the living and the world of the spirits. I join the past with the present. In me Louise and Sue Ann are joined. Say Suzie Anna as Louise calls Mammy. Do you hear Louisiana there? Now say Lowly as Mammy calls Louise and follow that with Anna as Louise sometimes calls Mammy. Lowly - Anna. There’s Louisiana again … Or you could be Spanish and speak of those two venerable sisters as Louise y Anna. 34 As the physical and the discursive interact, the lived stories that criss-cross the Louisiana landscape decollectivise black experience and deterritorialise conquered space. Discussing identity-making, Nancy argues that the history of a place or subject is always a question of mixed blood or, the action of a ‘mêlée.’35 Discarding absolute beginnings and origins, Nancy remarks that identities are derived by ‘mixing together again the various lines, trails, and skins, while at the same time describing their heterogeneous trajectories and their webs, both those

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__________________________________________________________________ that are tangled and those that are distinct;’36 in fact, ‘[i]t is the task of never believing in the simple, homogeneous, present “man”. Or woman.’37 Brodber’s Louisiana becomes both the geographical and the discursive space where singular subjects and stories clash and meet. The tracing of the three women’s heterogeneous routes and their individual narrative slippages reorganise both discursive and cultural imperialism while, at the same time, they re-articulate identities through an embodied and embedded prism. 4. Conclusion To conclude, Louisiana, as an act of scriptorial disobedience, questions the monolinguistic production of race and gender. Retrieving black women from discursive erasure, Erna Brodber explores the potential for the re-materialisation of black women by means of reclaiming their singular voices. The contingent female community that is created is not bound together by common experience but rather by the act of sharing out and exchanging their individual stories and memories. In effect, the ongoing circulation of texts and bodies in Louisiana undoes the violence of representation towards black women as it infinitely extends the search for identity towards numerous worlds, words, subjects and stories.

Notes 1

Erna Brodber, Louisiana: A Novel (Jackson, Mississippi: University of Mississippi Press, 1994). 2 Ibid., 3. 3 Ibid. 4 Helen Tiffin, ‘Cold Hearts and (Foreign) Tongues: Recitation and the Reclamation of the Female Body in the Works of Erna Brodber and Jamaica Kinkaid’, Callaloo 16 (1993): 913. 5 Brodber, Louisiana, 21. 6 Ibid., 47. 7 Judith Butler, Excitable Speech (New York: Routledge, 1997), 28. 8 Brodber, Louisiana, 63. 9 Ibid., 21. 10 Ibid., 12. 11 Ibid., 28. 12 Ibid., 4. 13 Ibid. 14 Jacques Ranciere, The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible, trans. Gabriel Rockhill (London: Continuum, 2004), 13. 15 Brodber, Louisiana, 14. 16 Ibid., 59.

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Joan Anim-Addo, Touching the Body: History, Language and AfricanCaribbean Women’s Writing (London: Mango Publishing, 2007), 128. 18 Ibid., 151. 19 Ibid., 13. 20 Ibid., 122. 21 Brodber, Louisiana, 64-65. 22 Ibid., 90. 23 Jean-Luc Nancy, The Inoperative Community, trans. Peter Conor, Lisa Garbus, Michael Holland and Simona Sawhney (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008), 29. 24 Ibid., 28. 25 Brodber, Louisiana, 40. 26 Ibid., 58. 27 Edouard Glissant, Caribbean Discourse: Selected Essays, trans. Michael Dash (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1992), 123. 28 Brodber, Louisiana, 45. 29 Ibid., 45. 30 Ibid., 31. 31 Brodber, Louisiana, 3. 32 Ibid., 145. 33 Tiffin, ‘Cold Hearts and (Foreign) Tongues’, 912. 34 Brodber, Louisiana, 124. 35 Jean-Luc Nancy, Being Singular Plural, trans. Robert D. Richardson and Anne E. O’Byrne (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), 151. 36 Ibid., 147. 37 Ibid.

Bibliography Anim-Addo, Joan. Touching the Body: History, Language and the AfricanCaribbean Women’s Writing. London: Mango Publishing, 2007. Brodber, Erna. Louisiana: A Novel. Jackson, Mississippi: University of Mississippi Press, 1994. Butler, Judith. Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative. New York: Routledge, 1997. Glissant, Edouard. Caribbean Discourse: Selected Essays. Translated by Michael Dash. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1992.

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__________________________________________________________________ Nancy, Jean-Luc. Being Singular Plural. Translated by Robert D. Richardson, and Anne E. O’Byrne. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2000. —––. The Inoperative Community. Translated by Peter Conor, Lisa Garbus, Michael Holland, and Simona Sawhney. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008. Ranciere, Jacques. The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible. Translated by Gabriel Rockhill. London: Continuum, 2004. Tiffin, Hellen. ‘Cold Hearts and (Foreign) Tongues: Recitation and the Reclamation of the Female Body in the Works of Erna Brodber and Jamaica Kinkaid’. Callaloo 16 (1993): 909–921. Sonia Gertzou is a PhD student in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Her PhD thesis focuses on contemporary Caribbean literature and the notion of community. Her research interests involve psychoanalysis, postcolonialism, gender and identity politics.

Conclusions Ambrogia Cereda and Jon Ross This collection points to some of the ways in which it is important and appropriate to broaden the perspective upon the issue of gender. This does not mean only to analyse the ways in which femininity and masculinity are reconfigured by social actors - may they be writers, educators, TV series protagonists, artists, or scholars - but also to acknowledge that the last word about femininity and masculinity cannot be uttered at this time. The evolution and continuous transformation of the ways in which individuals embody their interpretations of the meaning of femininity and masculinity and make them visible are continually challenging the effort to give a shape to and trace the boundaries between categories. Nevertheless, normativity, hegemony, cacodoxy, and identity, even if lacking and unsatisfying, are still unavoidable tools for the revelation of the hidden rules of the word game that any subjectivity encounters in his/her/its process of construction and in which he/she/it is called to participate. If we try to consider the practical contribution to the enlightening of the meaning of femininity and masculinity, we can say that he authors in this book have selected precise fragments of the ‘language games’ 1 that define the meaning of things and situations in our life, and have exploited the possibility to see the prevalence of a type of logic above the others. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of this volume, the issue of femininity/masculinity is revealed in its multifaceted and everlasting pre-eminence in everyday life, and especially in its omnipervasiveness in every kind of discourse. Besides, the binary distinction, useless and faking, remains to remind a limit of the language, from which neither the scholar nor the ordinary woman (or man) can escape, not even if we want to regard it as the heritage of a mythological metaphor for a unique reality.

Notes 1

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, trans. Gertrude E. M. Anscombe e Rush Rhees (Oxford: Blackwell, 1953), remark 83.

Bibliography Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations. Translated by Gertrude E. M. Anscombe e Rush Rhees. Oxford: Blackwell, 1953.