tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15711168073909705322024-02-19T03:36:29.474-05:00THE PIERCED POMEGRANATE TAVERNServing Up A Fresh Take on True Blood from a Uniquely Feminist-With-A-Twist! PerspectiveRachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.comBlogger92125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-83231898415460886612013-01-05T21:52:00.002-05:002013-01-05T22:48:37.792-05:00A True Blood Season 5 Retrospective: Turn! Turn! Turn! Part IGreetings and Happy New Year! 2012 was challenging for us to say the least, and last year's roller coaster ride of ups and downs resulted in very little time put in at the Pierced Pomegranate Tavern. For that, your salonnières offer a public <em>mea maxima culpa</em>; or in plain 'ol English, my bad! <br />
<br />
In 2013 we intend to keep the metaphorical drinks flowing here, and what better way to start than to put the time we've had to reflect on Season 5 of <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em> in its entirety to good use?<br />
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While it certainly was never our intention to go a whole season without offering commentary, I must admit that watching S5 straight through gave us quite a different vantage point from which to view the show than during seasons past when we posted on each discrete episode. This past year, we were able to take in <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em> from a more holistic perspective, noticing themes that stretched across and unified the arc of the season that perhaps we wouldn't have had we been commenting on each episode right after it aired.<br />
<br />
So, in the spirit of a retrospective we'd like to offer some of our thoughts on Season 5 and its greatest hits, misses, and the overarching themes we noticed, starting with <u>Episode 1, <em>Turn! Turn! Turn!</em></u><br />
<em></em><br />
During this premiere episode, our favorite Bon Temps denizens seemed to be <em>adjusting to some new realities</em>. And, as the Biblical verse this title is drawn from suggests, there is a time and a place for everything. Here's a bit of a recap:<br />
<br />
<strong>Bill and Eric were coping rather differently to Sookie's rejection...</strong><br />
<br />
(while on hands and knees scrubbing Nan Flanagan's splattered remains off King Bill's office floor)<br />
<br />
....looking up, intensely concerned in response to what he senses as Sookie's distress at Tara's shooting, Bill exclaims, "Sookie!"<br />
<br />
Eric: "Fuck Sookie...Did you not hear her tonight? She rejected us both".<br />
<br />
<strong>Lafayatte and Sookie are facing the possibility of losing Tara, as she lies lifeless in a pool of blood on Sookie's kitchen floor, having taken a bullet for Sookie at Debbie Pelt's hands.</strong> Now, remember, Lafayette had just lost Jesus - having stabbed him to death while possessed by Marnie's spirit the day before.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXSK_RIIPkwVHoKyGyRKZ8m40zSXHBTkfT7QL3kiMdyEifapMbcK4PMpRGMyNH9RCH6_uR8Dy34_h2Ox9Rvf-0bVLBYqAq1mY8WOYWLxZnc5TdeNdiFac7R30t2tBLJeUCH49tP3AdPHA/s1600/tara+sookie+s5e1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="275" width="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXSK_RIIPkwVHoKyGyRKZ8m40zSXHBTkfT7QL3kiMdyEifapMbcK4PMpRGMyNH9RCH6_uR8Dy34_h2Ox9Rvf-0bVLBYqAq1mY8WOYWLxZnc5TdeNdiFac7R30t2tBLJeUCH49tP3AdPHA/s320/tara+sookie+s5e1.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<strong>Unable to face the prospect of losing another dear one, Lafayette begs Pam, who had just happened by since she was apparently making the rounds of anywhere Eric might be desperately looking for him since their falling out, to "turn" Tara for them.</strong><br />
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Pam: "Turn her, I don't even like her!"<br />
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Sookie is incredulous, and at first can't accept this as the right course of action.<br />
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Lafayette: "Bitch, she took a bullet for you, you gonna deny her another chance?"<br />
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Pam begins to see how this proposition may work in her favor, and bargains with Sookie for her to use her "magic hands or super snatch" (interesting way to ascribe Sookie's value to isolated functional/sexual body parts!) to "fix what's broken" between she and her maker.<br />
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Sookie agrees to owe Pam one, thus <em>putting in motion a series of events that will ultimately lead to a very different reality for Tara, one not of her own choosing but which she must deal with the fallout of.</em><br />
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<strong>Here, we see the emergence of a theme of Season 5: CHOICES</strong><br />
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Meanwhile, outside Jason's house, Reverend Newlin has made his reappearance and is dealing with some dramatically different realities of his own!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFRqQrtToPzmyf_PBg2No5Vbxr4C5Lq3jGySXYMghmd7TFFdmbuiY7Z8D4oZCnMqqyEfiZOSiArcgqQFi__HT1lcWgnmxm1CGhpRRTMbPaYr0wpYUJWbajdQRR0_5n9uUkMlD9ElI411k/s1600/steve+and+jason.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="212" width="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFRqQrtToPzmyf_PBg2No5Vbxr4C5Lq3jGySXYMghmd7TFFdmbuiY7Z8D4oZCnMqqyEfiZOSiArcgqQFi__HT1lcWgnmxm1CGhpRRTMbPaYr0wpYUJWbajdQRR0_5n9uUkMlD9ElI411k/s320/steve+and+jason.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Steve: "I woke up in a hole in the ground with a strange women who didn't tell me anything...didn't even give me her name".<br />
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You guessed it folks, Steve came back a vamp, without his followers, who he now characterizes as "People I trained to kill folks like me", his maker, or even his wife Sarah to turn to for support, reassurance, or guidance.<br />
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Now, only in his transformed state, can Steve Newlin admit...<br />
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Steve: "I'm a gay vampire American...and I love you Jason Stackhouse".<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #20124d;"><strong>Steve does imply, somewhat disturbingly, that his repressed homosexuality and unrequited longing for Jason is what led him to act "all murderous and whatnot".</strong></span> Let's think about this for a second. We know that one of the criticisms leveled at the show is that if the vampire rights movement is an allegory for the gay rights movement (a far too reductionist analysis of the show IMHO), then by framing vampires as stand-ins for the LBGT community, <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em> is essentially saying that LGBT folks are violent, antisocial monsters. Can we simply construe Steve's admission as a device, albeit taken to the extreme, for exploring the destructive effects of denying one's sexuality and identity? Or can his declaration be seen as fuel for the aforementioned critique? I hope some of you out there will weigh in on this! <br />
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<strong>Jason</strong>, bewildered and naked except for the blanket Steve strategically draped over him while he was still glamoured, <strong>had quite a different response than one might expect from a typical, heterosexual "vain-ass, body-conscious ex-<wbr></wbr>jock" (Tara's characterization of him in S1 during the infamous priapism scene):</strong> "First off, I'm flattered, that was without a doubt the nicest 'I love you' I've ever gotten from anyone, male, female, or otherwise".<br />
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Steve looks pleased at first but can't take it when Jason let's him know, "this dog...just don't bark that way".<br />
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Right before Steve, in a fit of exasperation, frustration, rage, and lust, sinks his fangs into an unwilling ans struggling <strong>Jason, Jessica bursts through the door and with an unmistakable air of new found confidence and comfort in her own skin as both woman and vampire, declares herself the older (and therefore more powerful) vampire, and utters those potent words, "Jason is mine".</strong> With his invitation swiftly revoked, Steve is run off. But not before he can get in one more, "I love you" before he's sucked out the door.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtTIFEr_c-QQ4bPjbbD7oXroDFe5OcuZHWurVPcmG2wG564h9XybWtL2k0uNEYZuAO1FEG6sFtCma7659OMgoRW1df7XWB0b1BXpJeRiKg94x02e1R1K94b5tFskMI2TcH33vLX2EVchU/s1600/steve+and+jason+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="188" width="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtTIFEr_c-QQ4bPjbbD7oXroDFe5OcuZHWurVPcmG2wG564h9XybWtL2k0uNEYZuAO1FEG6sFtCma7659OMgoRW1df7XWB0b1BXpJeRiKg94x02e1R1K94b5tFskMI2TcH33vLX2EVchU/s320/steve+and+jason+2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib8hBfQVTv4Nn3F7fVTKQcp93Y3iVY8l5qcocLHYL2SXW3xOfts4PJ3h6CZYbY-Bt17PxR0IP4SvAAzJzQc1tdQFiLppmjOmKUpj49CBgYR6F_ssPpYVqrMhi4q_RAeftfHFYKpUX85-Y/s1600/jess+s5e1+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="194" width="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib8hBfQVTv4Nn3F7fVTKQcp93Y3iVY8l5qcocLHYL2SXW3xOfts4PJ3h6CZYbY-Bt17PxR0IP4SvAAzJzQc1tdQFiLppmjOmKUpj49CBgYR6F_ssPpYVqrMhi4q_RAeftfHFYKpUX85-Y/s320/jess+s5e1+5.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQYP7LNsBkyhnJlgzamPGTxxrF1HrBGgIotM-Lb0ctuP7X0zS6RQVp7BVnnyUi3tYzSSqz96hrPmWRmVrHcSTjk1UG6A7Vxc3lnRcb6V96ltPgxujWyy53VYZw7uk3rbNEoxKlaKogMXg/s1600/jess+s5e1+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="184" width="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQYP7LNsBkyhnJlgzamPGTxxrF1HrBGgIotM-Lb0ctuP7X0zS6RQVp7BVnnyUi3tYzSSqz96hrPmWRmVrHcSTjk1UG6A7Vxc3lnRcb6V96ltPgxujWyy53VYZw7uk3rbNEoxKlaKogMXg/s320/jess+s5e1+2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Her self-assurance and confident sexuality palpable, Jessica initiates sex with the still bound and naked Jason...only now, he's much more willing.<br />
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And that's not even the halfway mark of the episode!<br />
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<strong>Over the course of <em>Turn! Turn! Turn!,</em> we are confronted with a host of other new realities, as well as issues and themes that prove to be recurring throughout S5</strong>, from the <span style="color: #660000;">political factions and hierarchies of the werewolf pack and vampire authority</span>, <span style="color: #073763;">self-sacrifice in the persons of Sam Merlotte and vampires Nora and Eric...and Pam ;)</span> to <span style="color: #274e13;">the sexual politics of hook-ups between so-called vampire siblings and waitress-sheriff couplings</span>, <span style="color: #741b47;">choices involving when to pull the trigger and when to lie</span>, <span style="color: #783f04;">whether or not to let your past into your present (if it can be held at bay), and how one's past influences the person one is today</span>.<br />
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We have entree to the <u>very real issues of wartime trauma and recovery</u> which couldn't be more timely as veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflict are arriving home in greater numbers in the story arc of Terry, Patrick, and Arlene that launches during this episode.<br />
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And, in Lafayette, we are faced with <u>the heaviness of grief and regret</u> in a way that is startlingly true-to-life, human, and so very relatable. <br />
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We've also got <u>the very human desires to be liked and accepted</u> playing out in the <u>friendship-kinship-belonging plot lines</u> that touch many characters as part of this episode.<br />
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This leads us to the question, "can men and women ever just be friends", or perhaps, "can men and women's relationships ever NOT be sexualized" that reverberates across a few story arcs this season, beginning in episode 1 with Jason and Jessica, Eric and Nora.<br />
<br />
I'll be back in the next post to discuss some of my observations along those lines!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #741b47;">~Rachel</span>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-48298829550872047822012-03-15T13:45:00.001-04:002012-03-15T13:47:27.798-04:00Checking Our Inventory & Restocking Our Shelves...<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> Getting
ready for the <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em> season 5 premiere! New content coming soon!!!</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZtJHG5pTXolPFKhjGqE3VUQ3VaMszcobmthwbzkCHZXnQrhKAuYiTgNhEV0VXBhSuHBbF2gKIAe2xCtBkNXuHz4_HMaYHhWKlU8kE29VDzes4XcbXsurz7x0bIpaHz4VJTCNsj-zFi8E/s1600/12-BLOG-Photo-Mixing-Up-Drinks-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZtJHG5pTXolPFKhjGqE3VUQ3VaMszcobmthwbzkCHZXnQrhKAuYiTgNhEV0VXBhSuHBbF2gKIAe2xCtBkNXuHz4_HMaYHhWKlU8kE29VDzes4XcbXsurz7x0bIpaHz4VJTCNsj-zFi8E/s320/12-BLOG-Photo-Mixing-Up-Drinks-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looks like Fangtasia and/or Merlottes is stocking up too...<br />
...for more on that check out the <a href="http://www.inside-true-blood-blog.com/blog/2012/2/14/mixing-up-drinks.html">Inside True Blood</a> blog!<br />
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~ <span style="color: blue;">Rebecca</span> & <span style="color: purple;">Rachel </span>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-43622261486780008772011-10-13T15:51:00.000-04:002011-10-13T15:51:37.489-04:00A Very Special Birthday Mini Post<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The <i style="color: red;"><b>PPT </b></i>would like to wish a very happy birthday to one of our own! It is my pleasure to wish my sister and fellow <i>salonniere</i> Rachel all the best today. If you happen to stumble upon this mini post be sure to leave some happy birthday wishes in the comments section below! Happy Birthday Rachel....this Tru Blood's for you :-) ~ <span style="color: blue;">Rebecca</span>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-43649160255033207172011-10-08T02:35:00.014-04:002011-10-08T03:11:46.740-04:00Resurrecting Steve Newlin's Argument That Because Vampires Don't Respect Death They Can't Respect Life<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s a provocative (perhaps overly) philosophical concept.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Remember how back in Season 2 Steve Newlin challenged Nan Flanagan
on TV, baiting her with the logic that because vampires don’t respect death
they also can’t respect life? He was essentially implying that their undying
bodies are an affront to the endless cycle of death and rebirth―of course, his
vision of rebirth being one awash in His Holy Light as the immortal soul splits
from the body, leaving this mortal coil behind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pam’s decay, while utterly horrifying to her (and us!), can be seen as a return to the natural processes
of birth, death, and renewal. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG2PZ4RfyXAUQtMC99zxR4wXY4pxyzvXQ_0E9M2wN-PsA3vPOapwbNifQPQqeiXhkQbWvuSGHqiCBOS0em93sSgJCHx0mT72-Je1fk4XQgilh8JHDxPxHsW1Dq7-znMvFMq5La426akAE/s1600/Pam%2527s+rotting+face.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG2PZ4RfyXAUQtMC99zxR4wXY4pxyzvXQ_0E9M2wN-PsA3vPOapwbNifQPQqeiXhkQbWvuSGHqiCBOS0em93sSgJCHx0mT72-Je1fk4XQgilh8JHDxPxHsW1Dq7-znMvFMq5La426akAE/s200/Pam%2527s+rotting+face.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Our culture worships birth and its correlates youth and
beauty, but it can’t acknowledge and uplift that single phase of life alone; we
need the goddess of death to chew and destroy the unneeded so new forms can
emerge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I’ve spoken about the neglected value of the death aspect of
the goddess before, i.e. </span><a href="http://piercedpomegranate.blogspot.com/2011/02/who-is-she-who-munches-dead.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Who Is She Who Munches The Dead?</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> and </span><a href="http://piercedpomegranate.blogspot.com/2011/08/pams-taken-veil.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Pam's Taken The Veil</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s think about the process of death and rebirth in cosmic
terms. A fundamental truth, the most profound property of time, is that nothing
lasts forever; this plays out on earth and in the depths of space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A supernova burns out to a nebula with a tiny point of light at
its center―the remnants of a star crushed to oblivion by its own gravity. In the
nebula― a gas cloud of elements―all the elements a star produced in its life
and death is pumped out across the universe yielding greater complexity, the
seeds of our own existence.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj53LUMt3ZcqX3eKEIlDcV05_7CwDH_UanzS_ra940YiJJaejq6ziM9QJCeLEF_HXOKGp6bJIKKfGub3f2jOqua9hQv6X9gtCUBBFFGE1zz5yM2hoUGimEHqBmRt2ZYN5tsywU5dGi5MIs/s1600/supernova.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj53LUMt3ZcqX3eKEIlDcV05_7CwDH_UanzS_ra940YiJJaejq6ziM9QJCeLEF_HXOKGp6bJIKKfGub3f2jOqua9hQv6X9gtCUBBFFGE1zz5yM2hoUGimEHqBmRt2ZYN5tsywU5dGi5MIs/s200/supernova.png" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
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</span>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">supernova</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSGErsv46F5SW967e7LthoWJEwI1GJP-2CHWbAzrsvwEopgQXL5ZL6LbCNceED7Y7Pl9pAfh9cEKaoAGAjOn6t4mfONFa9eClLX8z1zHITMPV6rz2_WQoJmTYdMJwlaBi5mp8t5gxgiqE/s1600/orion+nebula.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSGErsv46F5SW967e7LthoWJEwI1GJP-2CHWbAzrsvwEopgQXL5ZL6LbCNceED7Y7Pl9pAfh9cEKaoAGAjOn6t4mfONFa9eClLX8z1zHITMPV6rz2_WQoJmTYdMJwlaBi5mp8t5gxgiqE/s200/orion+nebula.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Orion nebula</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But eventually, all life on this planet will cease to exist.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Decay, entropy, and disintegration will rule as the universe
becomes less ordered. According to the 2<span style="font-size: small;"><sup>nd</sup> law of thermodynamics―
everything tends from more to less order.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Stars cannot shine forever.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In 6 billion years our sun will explode.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The cosmos will one day be plunged into eternal night when
the stars fade and die―the end of the stelliferous era.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Only black dwarves―dark dense balls of decaying matter―will remain.
</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglgqxG_3devNHYrxzWt-WPqHg2gBihL51MI2hFbtGrcdIe3fonUXzQKznHFX1oh66-Nt5a3pxpYb-U7PUBA5PmbkJbjpKUxFdpRgRWWzDGe6d-V7ojjwNSVF2__Wk9l9C4Mrl_gAPTfpc/s1600/black+dwarf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglgqxG_3devNHYrxzWt-WPqHg2gBihL51MI2hFbtGrcdIe3fonUXzQKznHFX1oh66-Nt5a3pxpYb-U7PUBA5PmbkJbjpKUxFdpRgRWWzDGe6d-V7ojjwNSVF2__Wk9l9C4Mrl_gAPTfpc/s200/black+dwarf.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">black dwarf</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then, only a sea of photons tending towards absolute zero.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Life only exists for a fleeting, bright time.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But in death to old forms once again comes the potential for
new life.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Life is the cosmos made conscious, how the universe
understands itself.What new life will emerge from the death of our universe?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A new big bang…</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">…come on, sing it with me</span><br />
<br />
<em><span style="font-family: inherit;">our whole universe was in a hot dense state…</span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix0ysA4guSERg-KO1SquwWKKjNv8rfU70zZ2gy7RHa7nLSYTF265OcEPBVzWN5xVjCTvq6r8uVGCBRl9aWzY3x3Q7jmwe478uDk7SdPXhXwxhtzdS12PFOb494CUDokzO_e2HCQYZd8h0/s1600/summer+true+blood.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix0ysA4guSERg-KO1SquwWKKjNv8rfU70zZ2gy7RHa7nLSYTF265OcEPBVzWN5xVjCTvq6r8uVGCBRl9aWzY3x3Q7jmwe478uDk7SdPXhXwxhtzdS12PFOb494CUDokzO_e2HCQYZd8h0/s200/summer+true+blood.png" width="173" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As we've seen,<em> <span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em> alums can be reborn on CBS's The Big Bang Theory!</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr1KysowaukKJYzrJZXKYPJtXgWG0LctlZVLlykvv5zQ4ry2B8j62AVFV9tgSHe24PABRL-9J21qSXTJz0VYJAacwhoDDCk03r8pEm7JTSLZ6eDxnzDmLAqAuTVknmzTMphYygLh2z9f8/s1600/Melissa+Ivy+Rauch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr1KysowaukKJYzrJZXKYPJtXgWG0LctlZVLlykvv5zQ4ry2B8j62AVFV9tgSHe24PABRL-9J21qSXTJz0VYJAacwhoDDCk03r8pEm7JTSLZ6eDxnzDmLAqAuTVknmzTMphYygLh2z9f8/s200/Melissa+Ivy+Rauch.jpg" width="200" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">None of it’s possible without the old forms first passing
away.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, we know vampires’ undead bodies are static and
unchanging, seemingly closing them off from life's cycles. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">But their minds and hearts, as we’ve seen over the course of four
seasons of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></i> that that’s
another story entirely. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">What deaths and rebirths of the mind and heart can we expect
from our undead friends in Season 5?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">We’d love to hear your ideas!</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">~ </span><span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rachel</span> </span></span>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-67189423035720444642011-09-25T00:27:00.006-04:002011-09-25T02:10:22.307-04:00ALL THAT & A VAMPIRE JUICE BOX!!! Our Season 4 finale partyWho needs the bag of chips when you've got an anatomically correct human organ as part of your fiesta...<br />
<br />
Just for fun, I give you - <br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">***DRUM ROLL, PLEASE***</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #4c1130;">Pics from our SEASON OF THE WITCH FINALE PARTY!!!</span><br />
<br />
Held at my house, it was a kitchy Halloween-themed f<span class="st">ête with a <em>very</em> different vibe than our much more formal <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em> Season 4 premiere party; which we have yet to share photos from! </span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">Don't despair, they're coming...accompanied by some TB-derived viewpoints on being open or closed to the worlds and experiences of the Other..but that's for another post.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">For now, you're welcome to step vicariously into <em>our </em>world of goofy finale party fun...but don't get too crazy, or your invitation may be revoked!!!</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">As you'll see, we take our feminist analysis of social issues in <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em> mighty seriously here at the <em><span style="color: red;">PPT</span></em>, but we also know how to cut loose and have a good time. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">Oh, and credit to Rebecca for supplying the vampire juice boxes; Eric would be so proud!</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlkQg3oHmZMneA28WmaVQKbQMUpBVa-NWAP2xTYdVN5GdVLVV2jaCrgApFhSSxAmObLnrRIRJzmSotFHM16omPXk0ToKQWgLADEINuEIflRJjGFfb6dSh6ldL9Y3_IMUJ4S6CahE5tFcE/s1600/vampire+juicebox.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlkQg3oHmZMneA28WmaVQKbQMUpBVa-NWAP2xTYdVN5GdVLVV2jaCrgApFhSSxAmObLnrRIRJzmSotFHM16omPXk0ToKQWgLADEINuEIflRJjGFfb6dSh6ldL9Y3_IMUJ4S6CahE5tFcE/s1600/vampire+juicebox.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric's got his juice box... </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkdoaFQ_n9lIhOurfbIMmmBVa3y2nUj2D-EVknSYQtP2aH3LsZt6ITBjNxeVq5iQVidw0eJnVFwiz5NbyB7hU8akG2K49zcW6IoUNvxIhhtxyLkU07upDpqNknnQReHACRP6-Zi9fMrtI/s1600/007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkdoaFQ_n9lIhOurfbIMmmBVa3y2nUj2D-EVknSYQtP2aH3LsZt6ITBjNxeVq5iQVidw0eJnVFwiz5NbyB7hU8akG2K49zcW6IoUNvxIhhtxyLkU07upDpqNknnQReHACRP6-Zi9fMrtI/s320/007.JPG" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...and we've got ours!<br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9tOFyqkTmmRI1rJ0M9m4YmXnizo_xDbawpPnyDkyBw7dpGDQS62W4yV9UAskwGQ0p8V2S38N_DOb_cNVnjSPZMi-KJYDCluhgStVKbit3oYBrxc1-ubbGaJMOyyrDmI_IVfOg42dPMgI/s1600/005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9tOFyqkTmmRI1rJ0M9m4YmXnizo_xDbawpPnyDkyBw7dpGDQS62W4yV9UAskwGQ0p8V2S38N_DOb_cNVnjSPZMi-KJYDCluhgStVKbit3oYBrxc1-ubbGaJMOyyrDmI_IVfOg42dPMgI/s320/005.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
the dessert spread, artfully staged<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFpX4C2h7xFIWhH9bOQtbpWQzM9trjuuPXQfMi6mxcEnx2uD1O9PQm9JS_OrPdOxcJTIhTLBzjnGuamtjBpaDwUUK9VWShdlA2VbOlH-3Jvl5zhfz2Tkpjai97FyjaXex-_q11lieuoMg/s1600/008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFpX4C2h7xFIWhH9bOQtbpWQzM9trjuuPXQfMi6mxcEnx2uD1O9PQm9JS_OrPdOxcJTIhTLBzjnGuamtjBpaDwUUK9VWShdlA2VbOlH-3Jvl5zhfz2Tkpjai97FyjaXex-_q11lieuoMg/s320/008.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
mmm...Halloween candy!!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpvcM_Bjg8WjUpELEcvY3R5bUn6RlYyswkloqGdaFFpBESpHzdNK3RiEqjEMsewAe36LXtNXQO1aq7vfC8tJ_HKXfgm-rnHtmuuWd2S3UAVy9pzBbEbYIFk5CkSaASb6IHEjUuPagrCDY/s1600/006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpvcM_Bjg8WjUpELEcvY3R5bUn6RlYyswkloqGdaFFpBESpHzdNK3RiEqjEMsewAe36LXtNXQO1aq7vfC8tJ_HKXfgm-rnHtmuuWd2S3UAVy9pzBbEbYIFk5CkSaASb6IHEjUuPagrCDY/s320/006.JPG" width="180" /></a></div>
<br />
a taste of the Adirondacks...drink local, act global!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjooLKnc83vr9lUdGBEwBRAmivT7hOSV6xIjx3-nr6kmTZDli_mIF5uETeV3NccO4yJytuz54xFIaRwe6rhYPXKd2EmLBAGzh-TiBoJ6OLrRLmemNJfITPglTbzo9BvAAoLpNQpmb0X5y8/s1600/009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjooLKnc83vr9lUdGBEwBRAmivT7hOSV6xIjx3-nr6kmTZDli_mIF5uETeV3NccO4yJytuz54xFIaRwe6rhYPXKd2EmLBAGzh-TiBoJ6OLrRLmemNJfITPglTbzo9BvAAoLpNQpmb0X5y8/s320/009.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
pumpkin spice brew masterfully poured into cinnamon and sugar-rimmed<br />
Merlotte's pint glasses by bartender extraordinaire Rebecca!<br />
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<span class="st">Too bad you couldn't join us, maybe next time!</span><br />
<br />
What did you do for the Season 4 finale? Anything that can trump our Eric-approved sippy cups? Please share below.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="st">Yours in TB withdrawal...</span><br />
<span class="st">~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel</span></span><span class="st"><span style="color: #741b47;"> </span></span><span style="color: #741b47;"> </span>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-30266589810486606352011-09-18T21:34:00.004-04:002011-09-18T21:42:30.248-04:00Ginger and Pam & The Power of Female FriendshipThe late radical feminist philosopher, academic and theologian <a href="http://marydaly.org/default.aspx">Mary Daly</a> espoused the controversial idea that women's primary loyalties should be to other women.<br />
<br />
Seeing phallocracy as the root cause of "rapism, racism, gynocide, genocide, and ultimate biocide" (p. 203), she urged women to drop their ties to all patriarchally created groups and tribes, including ethnic, religious, and national identifications and to cleave to their bonds with each other.<br />
<br />
Allowing that women (for example, slave-holding women) have often expressed unspeakable cruelty to each other, she understood this cruelty as a function of the patriarchal "soul molding sado-institutions" (p. 203) we are socialized into that enable our oppression of other women, that desensitize and dissociate "the woman who has 'power' from her more oppressed sister" (p. 202).<br />
<br />
While Daly's view that women's primary loyalties should be to other women is disputed by other feminist thinkers who, while sharing Daly's commitment to women, also affirm other loyalties, her work does point to the importance of female relationships and friendships.<br />
<br />
Although in her essay "Be-Friending: Weaving Contexts, Creating Atmospheres" Daly wrote, "I do not mean to suggest that every woman, or even every feminist, can 'be friend to' or 'be friends with' every other woman" (p. 199) she did envision, in stark contrast to the hair-pulling, eye-gouging state of perpetual and allegedly natural female rivalry hyped by reality TV, "the creation of an atmosphere in which women are enabled to be friends".<br />
<br />
Imagine that.<br />
<br />
Imagine that it might be possible for women whose existences couldn't seem more divergent from one another's to become friends.<br />
<br />
Women like Ginger and Pam.<br />
<br />
Oftentimes it seems that Ginger is Pam's only true friend in the world; and a dedicated friend she is.<br />
<br />
In Pam's moment of anguish over the loss of Eric who is seemingly the single most significant figure in her life, it was Ginger who braved her wrath and offered her comfort.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRWdHYhr97mUHI7VrHQtT4owGr1I_SbToZNn7nmvl7udlkt5hCT-6H4UuzD9aAnW-7eMGta2JskDKnmQLc1VNPz0eI-b1eoBTfFuExKQmq0MqIbFZgHxnlEsOLY-B4rItM4zRHdXnMCs8/s1600/ginger+and+pam.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRWdHYhr97mUHI7VrHQtT4owGr1I_SbToZNn7nmvl7udlkt5hCT-6H4UuzD9aAnW-7eMGta2JskDKnmQLc1VNPz0eI-b1eoBTfFuExKQmq0MqIbFZgHxnlEsOLY-B4rItM4zRHdXnMCs8/s1600/ginger+and+pam.png" /></a></div>
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And although Pam's cutting words and tone warned Ginger to back off, the vampire was in desperate need of the solace Ginger's simple embrace offered; the human woman remained steadfast and held her boss close despite her fear. Like the hug Holly asked for from Andy, it was just what Pam needed, and ultimately she realized this and accepted it.<br />
<br />
Ginger has always been there for Pam; a woman who despite her extreme femininity could be characterized as an <em>Athena woman</em> - a woman born of man (she was made by Eric) who, like Joan of Arc, or Queen Elizabeth I seems "constitutionally born for a man's world" (Ward, 2006, p.127). An archetype described by Carl Jung as "a man who is accidentally a woman" (Ward, 2006, p. 127). Pam's sexual attraction to and preference for female partners does not necessarily translate into an appreciation of and desire for friendship and mutuality in platonic relationships with other women.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgicgRrEzy9WD-CsMC9c2hyPMNBaYaMKhOD-YjQZ25qn7hW_4ev3REwojzLinSOn67eAGkLPasw516HKRJSdBVbtcq12W5p7wwqlvORMCyjgtgvbnU8WswZtj8gPsWUc3Qxg4j48ESf8rc/s1600/ginger+helping+pam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgicgRrEzy9WD-CsMC9c2hyPMNBaYaMKhOD-YjQZ25qn7hW_4ev3REwojzLinSOn67eAGkLPasw516HKRJSdBVbtcq12W5p7wwqlvORMCyjgtgvbnU8WswZtj8gPsWUc3Qxg4j48ESf8rc/s200/ginger+helping+pam.jpg" width="141" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_FQ-dDztCf2cBKtRuyE10eT9SYk_B7sHsknnitbxPCKJ6soUGgpxphoiOVMN8bkVpDfibz40XEXBefbR8OaRx7iM2SjecEhq4sXM24iFfElYn15WCTSNKxRse8urCZcjlmvYfNbQE0Rc/s1600/Ginger+unsilvering+Pam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_FQ-dDztCf2cBKtRuyE10eT9SYk_B7sHsknnitbxPCKJ6soUGgpxphoiOVMN8bkVpDfibz40XEXBefbR8OaRx7iM2SjecEhq4sXM24iFfElYn15WCTSNKxRse8urCZcjlmvYfNbQE0Rc/s200/Ginger+unsilvering+Pam.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Is Ginger a participant of sorts in in what Daly saw as the process of Be-Friending; a metapatterning in personal relationships, in political activity, in a work or theory or art, in spiritual understanding, or all of the above that makes our friendships possible? That allows us to break through the rancor society fosters between us to invent new ways of living and being? That helps us accept our own femaleness?<br />
<br />
Ward writes of the misogyny of Athena. Can Ginger's olive branch of friendship open the Athenian Pam to the power of female friendship?<br />
<br />
I hope so.<br />
<br />
~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel </span><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<span style="color: black;">References</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
Daly, M. (1989). "Be-Friending". In Plaskow, J. & Christ, C. (Eds.) <em>Weaving the Visions. </em>(pp. 199-207). San Francisco, CA: Harper.<br />
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</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Ward, T. (2006). <em>Savage Breast.</em> New York, NY: O Books. <em></em></div>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-88264292740159774812011-09-15T18:11:00.005-04:002011-09-25T01:01:13.733-04:00Women Setting Boundaries in True Blood S4 FinaleWOW. I mean, really, WOW. There's so much that can be said about the unreal <span style="color: red;"><em>True Blood </em></span><span style="color: black;">S4 finale that aired this past Sunday, "And When I Die".</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">Multiple viewings of it may in fact be truly hazardous to your health!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">Case in point: I crashed at Rebecca's house on Tuesday night, and we decided to re-watch the episode together. Just as the opening credits began, our brother pulled into the driveway and we shot each other looks acknowledging the fact that as soon as he came in the door and realized we were watching it AGAIN, he might just kill us! </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">You see, Johnny's a fan of the show too, but for him watching each episode once is enough. And when he comes in from work, he likes to relax in front of the tube and decompress. So as the key turned in the door we braced ourselves and when we heard him in the hallway, we both grimaced and Rebecca almost timidly called out, "hey man" to test his mood. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">Luckily for us, his shift had been good and he was feeling benevolent. Striding up the stairs, he caught the strains of <em>Bad Things </em>rising and joked, "third time's the charm, huh?" before briefly taking inventory of the fridge and descending back down the stairs to his room.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">Whew, close call. We were now free to watch "And When I Die" yet again, and although each of us had already seen it at least once (we viewed the finale together late Sunday night and Rebecca had re-watched the next day and taken notes), we were both still feeling the effects of the fangover and attempting the process the show's dizzying chain of events. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, so much happened during the finale that we could discuss here at the <em><span style="color: red;">PPT</span></em>. But since the Web has been abuzz for several days with recaps, reflections, and questions concerning the central action, <u><strong>I'd like to address a subtly nuanced theme of female empowerment nestled within the episode's dizzing action</strong></u>. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;"><strong>Easy to overlook in light of the general craziness of the S4 finale, this theme is made evident in the pattern of several female characters drawing boundaries for themselves in their relationships that emerged during the course of the show, particularly in relation to Sookie, Jessica, Luna & Holly.</strong></span><br />
<br />
Rebecca and I started to flesh out our ideas on this topic on Tuesday night. <br />
<br />
When the episode ended, we joked a little about how I had, in a moment of denial that the season had actually come to its conclusion on Sunday night, told her "no, we've got to see the coming attractions" when she lifted the remote to switch the station. Rebecca had astutely pointed out on Sunday that there would be no trailers for next week and that I'd have to face the fact that a sobering nine months of <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em> withdrawal stretched out like a barren wasteland before us. <br />
<br />
Maybe a little over-dramatic, but true nonetheless.<br />
<br />
So we laughed a little about that again, and Rebecca quickly turned our attention to an article she had read online that pointed out how, <span style="color: #0b5394;"><strong>in her two-way break up with Eric and Bill, <span style="color: #990000;"><u>Sookie</u></span> has actually chosen <em>herself</em></strong>.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimiRC2cQGszxkj425SeohNLoWXj3Rh4r6UPA6x6wa-kj6CK2YI_E_yBeM4JBnKqULLg3cluPjfSnBwNPTB981Br2h83LsaKW47_g47XfebGymQ3-j8YEVMZE9ceVfVh7R1F1dGo7pUKIg/s1600/Sookie+Bill+Eric.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimiRC2cQGszxkj425SeohNLoWXj3Rh4r6UPA6x6wa-kj6CK2YI_E_yBeM4JBnKqULLg3cluPjfSnBwNPTB981Br2h83LsaKW47_g47XfebGymQ3-j8YEVMZE9ceVfVh7R1F1dGo7pUKIg/s1600/Sookie+Bill+Eric.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Although leaving without either of them in her life caused she and both her lovers great heartache, Sookie realized - perhaps due in part to the poignant words of her dearly departed Gran's spirit - that being alone is nothing to be afraid of.<br />
<br />
And that maybe the best thing for her to do instead of trying to choose between Bill and Eric was to take some time to discover and get to know herself, outside of a relationship. Although shocked and deeply hurt, both vampires respected Sookie's wishes enough (at least for now) to let her go.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4AuelQ8pnvkELWaJJMFOs9nf5xALUyACwI5TnVqrz0IgjV1Uw8MYeeD-HD4GYmnNTKEwlUo430eGmf84XIwPnvgdFtitp25jyjEcYJ6rCyakKIZnTVcw9O7w-4_L_wquV5GzJveXRBBQ/s1600/Sookie+chose+herself.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4AuelQ8pnvkELWaJJMFOs9nf5xALUyACwI5TnVqrz0IgjV1Uw8MYeeD-HD4GYmnNTKEwlUo430eGmf84XIwPnvgdFtitp25jyjEcYJ6rCyakKIZnTVcw9O7w-4_L_wquV5GzJveXRBBQ/s1600/Sookie+chose+herself.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Similarly, during her sexy Halloween night tryst with Jason, <span style="color: #38761d;"><strong><u>Jessica</u></strong></span> verbalized her own sense that she is just barely getting to know herself.<br />
<br />
Jessica is Rebecca's favorite female character for the reason that she feels the baby vamp displays the most real, believable [human] emotion. Sorry Sookie - Rebecca's words, not mine ;-) but I don't disagree.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifo36hwz1wbDUyat73PKKOTmKdIN5RpflPqRtY_Q2_IAB3x0BSclBMjw8J7vtUkOjUVCQSPMHlrydHLsQmsCHMDhBuob30IyfVoEMZKv0qb0y-JcnHlepfCbLTKUxgfv3X9Qb33JdTcnY/s1600/Jessica+and+Jason.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifo36hwz1wbDUyat73PKKOTmKdIN5RpflPqRtY_Q2_IAB3x0BSclBMjw8J7vtUkOjUVCQSPMHlrydHLsQmsCHMDhBuob30IyfVoEMZKv0qb0y-JcnHlepfCbLTKUxgfv3X9Qb33JdTcnY/s1600/Jessica+and+Jason.png" /></a></div>
<br />
Despite their strong mutual attraction and genuine caring towards one another, Jessica was brave and authentic enough to draw a mid-coitus line in the sand, telling Jason that she did not want to be his girlfriend. It's not that she doesn't want him; she's simply not ready to commit to him yet because she recognizes her inexperience in relationships and she doesn't want to hurt Jason the way Hoyt ended up hurt when they broke up.<br />
<br />
In this scene, Jessica asserted herself as a sexual woman and vampire who is beginning to know what she wants and needs and isn't afraid to articulate that to the man in her life. And for his part, Jason was understanding and accepting of Jessica's reticence to jump into a committed relationship with him or to be intimate enough with him to drink his blood; as Jessica said, at least not yet.<br />
<br />
<strong><u><span style="color: #741b47;">Luna</span></u></strong>, too, put the breaks on a close encounter that could have heated up into quite the romantic night for she and Sam.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXq8Tk87ivt1inwq-pzG_GyGzp0eUW3slFvfQqVM2EQqjooIr9Pnc-dsN0VnbdVpxxFdBCPiFKUUC7t1wErZY4DhHPzAgUxULGn0AKy0YzuYt-k5y-HWAaIwqPSTAO81EhhiN2QgwrZAY/s1600/Luna+and+Sam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXq8Tk87ivt1inwq-pzG_GyGzp0eUW3slFvfQqVM2EQqjooIr9Pnc-dsN0VnbdVpxxFdBCPiFKUUC7t1wErZY4DhHPzAgUxULGn0AKy0YzuYt-k5y-HWAaIwqPSTAO81EhhiN2QgwrZAY/s1600/Luna+and+Sam.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Not because she's not ready to stay the night with Sam or for them to be an official item (although that may well the be the case), but because she felt her baby girl Emma may not be. Luna and Sam both displayed the emotional maturity required to take their budding relationship slow; let's hope the snarling wolf that confronted Sam just as the van carrying Luna and Emma home drove up the Merlotte's driveway towards the parish road and out of view doesn't put the permanent brakes on this promising couple!<br />
<br />
Last but not least, we've got fairy-costumed Holly, who, despite (or maybe because of) her mental and physical exhaustion brought on by the drama of the night had the gumption to tell it like it is to a persistent, Halloween bouquet-toting Andy Bellefleur. <br />
<br />
Here's the dialogue courtesy of <a href="http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/true_blood/and_when_i_die-1.php?page=13"><em>Television Without Pity</em></a><span style="color: black;">: </span><br />
<br />
<strong>Andy:</strong> "Sorry about the last time, when I took your
flowers."<br />
<b>Holly:</b> "That's okay, you were nervous."<br />
<b>Andy:</b> "No,
I was a drug addict. V. thought I needed it to do the job, and to talk pretty
ladies like you... So I didn't feel like a loser all the time. It worked for a
while, then it didn't."<br />
<b>Holly, wearily:</b> "Okay look, honey. You're
really sweet and everything, but this is all just too much for me right
now."<br />
<b>Andy:</b> "It's no problem. Lot of baggage, I get it. I just wanted
to say that I'm sober and I'm lonely. And I can be good to someone if they let
me. 'Night."<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj908l0MlKuI-8Ne_EF44wwDNf5nVJq1j1YDiGKxtjRqCKd39b6B_UphHXoWI6ta3SMn-GE0s6cExRYRuIqrIbJ9VxjpUY-dcbLU5jQp5NzdRmDfTyliTyVU3ZbZ_Kp4VasiZPtpjB-tAQ/s1600/Holly+asking+Andy+for+a+hug.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj908l0MlKuI-8Ne_EF44wwDNf5nVJq1j1YDiGKxtjRqCKd39b6B_UphHXoWI6ta3SMn-GE0s6cExRYRuIqrIbJ9VxjpUY-dcbLU5jQp5NzdRmDfTyliTyVU3ZbZ_Kp4VasiZPtpjB-tAQ/s1600/Holly+asking+Andy+for+a+hug.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
After taking in and weighing what he had to say, Holly asked Sheriff Andy for a much-needed hug, which I think may have been balm for both their souls. I look forward to seeing what will come next for these two, and if the kind of "rigorous honesty" the tragically doomed Debbie Pelt had talked about having with Alcide might prevail for both of them; given their respective pasts (Holly as a survivor of sexual assault and Andy as a recovering addict) should they become involved.<br />
<br />
Now, the above is not to suggest that self-actualization and being in relationship are mutually exclusive. In fact, as the introduction to the section on self-in-relation in the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Weaving-Visions-Patterns-Feminist-Spirituality/dp/0060613831"><em>Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality</em></a> asserts, the idea of self as relational is prominent in feminist thinking. <br />
<br />
The concept of the relational self has not caught on in the traditions of dominant Euro-Western philosophy and theology in which Descartes's' vision of the self as essentially <em>rational</em>, <em>disembodied</em>, and <em>solitary</em> holds sway. From this perspective, it is easy to see how relationships could be seen as detrimental to the growth and development of the self - especially for women - whose stereotyped roles as nurturers and caregivers of others threaten to swallow us alive.<br />
<br />
Another vision of the self suggests that we are by nature <em>embodied</em>, <em>passionate</em>, <em>relational</em>, and <em>communal</em>. Many feminist adhering to this viewpoint stress that identity is found in community. Black womanist theologian Delores S. Williams coined the term "relational interdependence" to name Black women's struggles for freedom from racist and sexist stereotypes within the context of relationships, family, and community. In this view, women's independence is relational.<br />
<br />
There is no you without me; no me without you. The self is forged in relationship. <br />
<br />
Even so, drawing healthy boundaries for the relationships that structure our lives and bind us to others is necessary, and it's refreshing to see the women of <span style="color: red;"><em>True Blood</em> </span><span style="color: black;">taking these steps - and their men responding in kind!</span><br />
<br />
Yours in TB withdrawal...<br />
<br />
~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel</span>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-21856892469018836132011-09-04T14:53:00.003-04:002011-09-04T15:02:50.472-04:00Some more thoughts on Pam & the (postmodern) veilSo as far as we know of, Pam is still cursed, right?<br />
<br />
In her desperation to prevent a world without Bill in it, Sookie's amped-up fairie power knocked the spell right out of the attacking amnesia Eric, restoring him to his former Viking god state with his memories of his entire life - both human and vampire - up until the present intact.<br />
<br />
Rebecca thinks this is a nod to the exceeding complexity of a woman's psyche; with a snap of Sookie's microwave fingers Eric has recovered his "true" self , but for Pam, a solution is not so simple.<br />
<br />
Because although Pam has looked none the worse for wear since undergoing Dr. Ludwig's unconventional full body spa treatment and a painful series of daily injections administered by the dizzy-but-stalwart Ginger, she continues to rot from the inside-out.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqm9wsADlk92OUveOZuybGfG-GDbhg_bJ1AJNj-9gxZ_b_eOm4xsK-4YuJUYIpHLiA6kyWoI45XN2AORy49x2NTlbd2R0wiYHiQrTr7eHQ-OtPDf8_u7krg_vTKOSyoOqOqHwQ1dqAlcw/s1600/pam+spa+treatment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqm9wsADlk92OUveOZuybGfG-GDbhg_bJ1AJNj-9gxZ_b_eOm4xsK-4YuJUYIpHLiA6kyWoI45XN2AORy49x2NTlbd2R0wiYHiQrTr7eHQ-OtPDf8_u7krg_vTKOSyoOqOqHwQ1dqAlcw/s200/pam+spa+treatment.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQPguDf9kP30W7Lo4qDDDwV-VSy8iEixSxLQaE55VzKKo7FwDzJ0IgygOR_d7KfU31vzcLJ5nxDduzyoBVdIfTG2BFn0Ki5xNwuF2yRzjH2O1_TfYTl9g_KLU1F-3G7L1VrRDDwLwk0Cw/s1600/Pam+healing+face.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="103" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQPguDf9kP30W7Lo4qDDDwV-VSy8iEixSxLQaE55VzKKo7FwDzJ0IgygOR_d7KfU31vzcLJ5nxDduzyoBVdIfTG2BFn0Ki5xNwuF2yRzjH2O1_TfYTl9g_KLU1F-3G7L1VrRDDwLwk0Cw/s200/Pam+healing+face.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
When she's been on the receiving end of the lady vamp's rage, Tara's made it all too clear that Pam's putrefying innards continue to emit a horrific smell despite her back-to-glamour-puss appearance.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Ub5TYP18nhOP9F77VCNgn_ObgriKjMcRb9xoAXbbc8WA24xxZlZBCT1JSZl-ieKE8h6sMHMxmx2j2j8QJm1VtBctVnv74IL0dA8SCzUH9sGQFptUT3nd31xPIDiLqs9poUc1dDZiVdY/s1600/Pam+none+worse+for+the+wear.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Ub5TYP18nhOP9F77VCNgn_ObgriKjMcRb9xoAXbbc8WA24xxZlZBCT1JSZl-ieKE8h6sMHMxmx2j2j8QJm1VtBctVnv74IL0dA8SCzUH9sGQFptUT3nd31xPIDiLqs9poUc1dDZiVdY/s200/Pam+none+worse+for+the+wear.png" width="164" /></a></div>
<br />
And (high maintenance) glamour-puss Pam is! In my last post on this topic, <a href="http://piercedpomegranate.blogspot.com/2011/08/pams-taken-veil.html">Pam's Taken the Veil</a>, I referenced The Vault interview <a href="http://www.trueblood-online.com/cast-crew/kristin-bauer-pam/kristin-bauer-talks-about-her-face-off/"><span style="color: #2aaadd;">"Kristin
Bauer talks about her 'face-off'</span></a> in which the actress remarks that Pam's predicament is an intolerable affront to her vanity: "Having her skin peel off in
ribbons of goo is a massive blow for Pam".<br />
<br />
She's a woman whose priorities include Eric and her appearance, not always in that
order. <em>Putting her face on</em> is a deeply embedded part of who she is.<br />
<br />
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<br />
Remember when Bill tried to suggest that perhaps there was a cosmetic solution to her plight; that maybe a little more lipstick might help?<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="283" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sHxmz7daG68?rel=0" width="450"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Now, although for the most part I try my best to remain non-partisan here at the <em><span style="color: #990000;">PPT</span></em>, I admit that I love Bill with the best of the Team Bill girls. But come on, Bill, seriously? How clueless can you be? A little extra make-up is not going to solve a problem that runs far more than skin deep, and to suggest that it might smacks a smidgen too much of the dismissive recommendations male medical practitioners and others have made for ages when it comes to "female ailments".<br />
<br />
For example, there's <a href="http://psychology.about.com/od/sigmundfreud/p/freud_women.htm">Sigmund Freud's notoriously biased and inadequate understanding of women</a> whose perspectives formed the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysteria">once-common diagnosis of female hysteria </a>in which a woman's unmanageable emotional excesses (or maybe her <a href="http://www.jstor.org/pss/3298478">wandering uterus</a>, since according to Plato and others down the line, female psychology and biology are ruled by the reproductive system) was to blame for her ills. Feeling weepy and irritating the men in your life? You must be PMSing, or maybe you're on the rag - pop a pill and get over it. Crass, I know, but I'm fairly certain that most women have been blown off with such patronizing comments when they're facing legitimate life challenges that extend beyond that time of the month.<br />
<br />
I found an interesting take on the idea of Pam taking the veil that actually relates to her penchant for make-up, and Bill's tragically (but typical guy?) misinformed impression that a little extra lipstick might help her situation.<br />
<br />
An article on veiling entitled <a href="http://www.suppressedhistories.net/articles/veil.html">Some thoughts on the Veil</a> appears on Max Dashu's <a href="http://www.suppressedhistories.net/">Suppressed Histories Archives</a>. It's in her <em><span style="color: #20124d;"><strong>confronting oppression</strong></span></em> section on <span style="color: #274e13;"><strong><em>taming the female body</em></strong> <span style="color: black;">and it addresses some fascinating topics like the gender and class implications of veiling from a historical perspective far older than Islam - which is, aside from the communion and bridal veils common in Western culture, what most people think of when it comes to the practice. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="color: black;">It also raises some interesting points about make-up as a post-modern veil, citing its near-compulsory use in certain contexts (like shielding Pam's disfigured face from the innocent gaze of hapless onlookers who should not have to be exposed to such female monstrosity?).</span></span><br />
<br />
Here's an excerpt from the article, which picks up after the mention of the compulsory use of make-up:<br />
<div>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It remains so in the workplace, at the employer's whim, according to a ruling by
the California Supreme Court in 2000. The judges upheld the firing of Darlene
Jesperson, a longtime bartender at Harrah's Casino in Reno, for refusing new
requirements that women wear lipstick, face powder and mascara on the job. This
court decision also allows employers</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> to dictate dress, hair length, and other
grooming decisions for their employees. These strictures have special
ramifications for African-American women; employers often bar them from wearing
their hair in natural and cultural styles (or simply refuse to hire
them).</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here the rationale of
enforcement is economic; in the Iranian context, it is religious.
There, both the state and the family act as enforcers. Posters in Tehran explain
that "Bad hijab [incomplete covering of hair] is equal to prostitution. Lack of hijab means lack of man's
manhood." With these kinds of controls in place, lipstick looks like freedom to
many Iranian women...</span></blockquote>
...which the article goes on to state has been scraped off the faces of Muslim women with a razor blade.<br />
<br />
Damned if we do and damned it we don't, huh? What do you think of this catch-22? I wear make-up, and I won't stop wearing it because of the perspective offered in this article (which I do encourage you to read) but the idea of make-up as a post-modern veil has certainly occurred to me before.<br />
<br />
This taps into related debates about cosmetic surgery, advertising culture, the cult of beauty, whose beauty is beautiful, etc. You can never be too young, too rich, and too thin, right?<br />
<br />
Please share your thoughts on this!<br />
<br />
Oh, and keep your fingers crossed that Pam's curse is lifted before the Season 4 finale...<em>is it 9 yet!?!</em><br />
<br />
~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel</span><span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="color: black;"> </span> </span> </div>
Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-63004188204774173562011-08-23T20:31:00.003-04:002011-08-23T20:36:27.469-04:00Gendered JudgmentalismWhen Jason's Hot Shot rape arc first launched, our friend Amy (webmistress of the clever and hilarious <a href="http://imaginarymen.wordpress.com/">She Liked Imaginary Men Best of All</a>) was justifiably outraged.<br />
<br />
She commented on Facebook that if a woman were strapped to a bed and used as a breeding mare, people would be going nuts. Rebecca responded that she felt people were <em>supposed</em> to be disgusted and outraged by this depiction of the repeated violation of a man by a string of (I would argue also exploited) women.<br />
<br />
And during Sookie's (hot! hot! hot!) Bill/Eric dream this past Sunday, she admonished the two of them for buying into the double standard that she <em>must</em> be one of theirs, but she - as the proper lady she is -shoudn't even entertain the idea of having both of them be <em>hers</em>. <br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR7OJtmXPSxqXlGf5D3OtqEZ5IVKTddhnlZnyCxJvbEkf92c75aeBxtBxcr5RB-cRTBSj0EJUv0w32hURTqrfhBP03Ona-8F9LSaINyEnWUAmorg5n0sNuqi17J4xvYtyJvYf0uZsmics/s1600/sookie+bill+and+eric.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR7OJtmXPSxqXlGf5D3OtqEZ5IVKTddhnlZnyCxJvbEkf92c75aeBxtBxcr5RB-cRTBSj0EJUv0w32hURTqrfhBP03Ona-8F9LSaINyEnWUAmorg5n0sNuqi17J4xvYtyJvYf0uZsmics/s1600/sookie+bill+and+eric.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
And forget the idea of a vampwich with Sookie in the middle; that's just <em>too</em> far outside the boundaries of society's standards for acceptable female sexuality (but as Sookie said, it's OK if the threesome consists of girl-boy-girl, even if the players barely know each other)!<br />
<br />
It was her dream, so ultimately they both caved. I wonder if that had anything to do with the fact that she emphasized how her desire for both of them to love her was born out of her total, complete love for the two of them. Because women are hardwired to conflate love and sex, right...and to reserve intimate relations for partners with whom she is in love, rather than in lust, with?<br />
<br />
Now, I'm not advocating for indiscriminate, lust-driven sex outside of a caring, mutually consenting, adult relationship. I'm just interested in seeing more expansive options for women to express ourselves and our sexuality outside the constricted bounds of our society's gender-based norms, is all.<br />
<br />
This idea of double-standard and reversal got me to thinking...<br />
<br />
...If a woman were carrying on a purely physical affair or two while still in love with, or hung up on an ex-lover (as Bill had been doing with Katerina and Portia) how would that be viewed?<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoBLACvnKjTqv2rZdMk7E-hn2ZWxVVktvnrAP2pXXaRD7QAUkLUqmEdT1d81aLVQMIIP44DYW4yPNVoyF2ONmwDHbSUlf5EVuORhCncufejz2mn9Xn3sbYSdqqiG8QptxTK57RuiagL2Q/s1600/bill+and+katerina+sex.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoBLACvnKjTqv2rZdMk7E-hn2ZWxVVktvnrAP2pXXaRD7QAUkLUqmEdT1d81aLVQMIIP44DYW4yPNVoyF2ONmwDHbSUlf5EVuORhCncufejz2mn9Xn3sbYSdqqiG8QptxTK57RuiagL2Q/s200/bill+and+katerina+sex.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYzY7dqMsiuJWQ_kqz2bWlqEkLcCzXdbvFWQHStdO0Ls_0yrWI3Mt1YuwnNWu6y0hW_DfFwY5NCJahkwLVAFqNyxHffTy5oc14inPrfLWo7DsqedsvjBBt-dnamQNDmSxc5ZbU8fuZrFg/s1600/bill+and+portia+sex.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYzY7dqMsiuJWQ_kqz2bWlqEkLcCzXdbvFWQHStdO0Ls_0yrWI3Mt1YuwnNWu6y0hW_DfFwY5NCJahkwLVAFqNyxHffTy5oc14inPrfLWo7DsqedsvjBBt-dnamQNDmSxc5ZbU8fuZrFg/s200/bill+and+portia+sex.jpg" width="200" /></a>How is it viewed when <u>he's</u> doing it?<br />
<br />
Does it negate his continuing love for Sookie?<br />
<br />
<br />
She sure let him have it for "sticking his fangs and God knows what else into every girl in Bon Temps". S4E6 <em>I Wish I Was the Moon</em><br />
<br />
Is it OK because he's a man, and as such, has needs for <br />
companionship and sexual gratification that must be satisfied?<br />
<br />
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Granted, he has been upfront with these women and has not led them on.<br />
He even told Portia outright (albeit rather coldly) that he could never love her, and although it was she who suggested that they casually add sex to the equation of their already successful and friendly professional relationship, I'm pretty sure I saw her flinch.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MnJKw9r5XKQ?rel=0" width="425"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Yet she accepted Bill's terms for taking their relationship to the next level.<br />
<br />
Does this diminish her femininity?<br />
<br />
Reduce her to a cliché with all the fixins expected of the (in her words) "smartest and most powerful" professional woman in Bon Temps, i.e. ballbuster, bitch, etc.?<br />
<br />
She goes after what she wants. She's willing to enter into a "friends with benefits" situation. She's a self-described "terrier", as a lawyer and a lover.<br />
<br />
Does this make her emotionally bankrupt (an undesirable trait in a woman)?<br />
<br />
Would these pitbull qualities make others see Portia as being too much like a man to be a real woman?<br />
<br />
Now, since Bill found out that Portia is actually his great-great-great-great granddaughter, we're not likely to be seeing her again (at least not in his bed) any time soon. But honestly, don't you think his brush-off was a little silly and condescending?<br />
<br />
Sure, Portia was very aggressive in her rationalization of incest. And yes, he's got an awful lot on his hands, what with his kingdom facing the witch crisis, and all. To top it off, Bill was not overly invested in their brief relationship; he had promised her nothing.<br />
<br />
Even so, no matter how busy Bill was, however eager to short circuit their dance around his desk, with him in retreat as she gave chase he may have been, didn't such an intelligent, sophisticated woman deserve a letdown that <em>didn't</em> involve being glamoured to scream at this sight of him?<br />
<br />
Please weigh in below!<br />
<br />
~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel</span>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-53194853339046122772011-08-21T16:00:00.001-04:002011-08-21T16:02:19.467-04:00Character Spotlight: Hoyt Fortenberry - Hall of Shame<blockquote>
<i><b>Hoyt Fortenberry, you have been charged with numerous counts of verbal, emotional, and psychological abuse. How do you plead?........</b></i></blockquote>
<br />
It is with a heavy and utterly broken heart that I place Hoyt Fortenberry in this installation of our <i style="color: red;">True Blood</i> character Hall of Shame. We have created this space for those characters who at one time garnered nothing but respect and admiration but through a series of uncharacteristic behaviors have fallen from our good graces. We here at the PPT believe in the redemptive qualities of the human (or not so human at times) spirit; and reserve the right to remove any character who can rise above and move beyond their previous and or current offenses from these Halls. That being said let's take a closer look at what landed Hoyt here in the first place.<br />
<br />
How could you do this to us, Bubba? How could a man once so gentle, loving and kind turn into this angry, hate filled, abusive person that we saw last week? You were the only person in Merlottes with a kind thought for Dawn after her murder in the first season. You stood up to your mother calling her out for all her racist beliefs (secret or otherwise). You have been a good and loyal friend to Jason, even when he referred to Rene-the murderous, misogynist, psychopath as his best friend (I know how much that must have hurt!). You met and fell in love with a beautiful, strong, smart and caring women who just happens to be a vampire. Throughout all the discord you were our rock, a constant reminder of how good people can actually be. You gave all the bad boys of the world something to think about, proving that the nice guy COULD get the girl. These and many other selfless acts of blind love, and dedication to your moral compass are what made us all (Jessica included) fall in love with you.<br />
<div style="color: red;">
****************************</div>
At the beginning of this season we saw a side of Hoyt we thought
we'd never see. He has been argumentative, moody, insensitive,
emotionally and verbally abusive towards Jessica; cutting her down to
the quick with his words. He has violently lashed out, punching walls,
throwing lamps and God knows what else around the house, and even though
these actions can't physically hurt Jessica they can leave a very
visible scar emotionally and psychologically. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_violence">These abuses rank among the top offensives in most cases of domestic violence! </a>He
has made several unsubstantiated claims of Jessica's infidelity
allowing his own self-consciousness to bubble up and pollute their
relationship. This unhealthy pattern of behavior lead us to this scene
as it played out last Sunday night. Re-watch this clip taken from <i style="color: red;">True Blood</i> season 4 episode 8: <i>Spellbound</i> for the last straw that landed Hoyt into our Hall of Shame.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
Couples fight all the time, but it is the way Hoyt fights that upsets me so much. He knows that he is not a physical match so he attacks Jessica verbally and emotionally. He tears into her, accusing her of sleeping with another man. Hoyt then goes on to commit what I consider to be a cardinal sin....he calls Jessica a bitch. While many women feel as though they have "taken back" the sting of being called a bitch, softening the blow by making the word theirs, I still find this word offensive and hurtful. When we think of the archetypal "bitch" what do we see? Does she come anywhere close to resembling Jessica or her actions in any way, shape, or form? I think not, which is precisely why the use of this word is so offensive. How can you say this to someone you love? "You don't deserve me" he yells "and I sure as hell don't deserve you". He goes on to list all the reasons he deserves someone better than Jessica. He attacks her nature both feminine and vampiric. "I deserve someone who's not gonna be a fuckin virgin for all eternity." Women have been simultaneously revered and shamed for their virginity; we are expected to be pure and virtuous yet taught to feel unwanted or inadequate if still a virgin. "I deserve someone I can have a normal life with, with babies....and daylight!" These are all things Hoyt was well aware of while falling for Jessica, things she cannot be held accountable for. Note her reaction as she hears these words. It's as if his words are literally wounding her...as Rachel pointed out, stabbing her like a knife in the chest. As if this weren't bad enough he lands his final blow by exclaiming he deserves someone who's "not fuckin dead" then with a look of disgust on his face revokes Jessica's invitation to their own home. When Hoyt slammed the door on Jessica, leaving her demoralized and sobbing on the front porch, did he also slam the door on any hope that this relationship can be mended? I, for one eagerly await the answer to this and would love to see if Hoyt has it in him to redeem his character's good name. Still a few hours until our next hit, just enough time to see what everyone else is thinking....Thoughts??<span style="color: cyan;"> <b><span style="color: blue;">~ Rebecca</span></b></span>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-65959884763599533212011-08-20T14:21:00.003-04:002011-08-20T17:19:49.291-04:00O Lafayette, Lafayette! Wherefore art thou, Lafayette? Tokenism on True Blood - Oh, Hell No!In <span class="st">Shakespearean terms, "wherefore" actually means "why", as in, <em>why must Romeo be a Montague -</em> why must he be of the family that is the sworn enemy of his star crossed lover Juliet's House of Capulet?</span><br />
<br />
In <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em> terms, it means why oh why must Lafayette's dialogue over the past few episodes - and especially last week's <em>Spellbound </em>- have him teetering at the precipice of being "the token black guy", uttering nothing but silly exclamations like "damn!", "snap", and "oh, hell no!"?<br />
<br />
See Exhibit A below from <em>Not Another Teen Movie</em> and tell me LaLa's meager lines from last week don't put him squarely in this category.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Vyq61qQF9ik?rel=0" width="420"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<br />
This is a major disappointment because we need more from this erstwhile dynamic character and the gifted actor who portrays him, Nelsan Ellis. Rebecca and I have been talking about this all season, but last week's episode really solidified our stance.<br />
<br />
Where has the Lafayette who entranced Tara and Jason with his intoning of a poignant Inuit prayer over Sookie's unconscious body as she lay in the hospital last season gone?<br />
<br />
Here's the prayer:<br />
<br />
"I think over again my small adventures, my fears.<br />
Those small ones that seemed so big.<br />
For all the vital things I had to get and to reach,<br />
and yet there is only one great thing.<br />
The only thing.<br />
To live to see the great day that dawns<br />
and the light that fills the world."<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7YS0evq71GA?rel=0" width="420"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Listen to him recite this beautiful, poetic verse and as YouTube poster SilverfoxG wrote, you can't help but be moved by the depth and meaning with which he delivered it.<br />
<br />
Now, I'm not saying that it's Lafayette's duty as a person of color on the show to be the exoticized psychopomp, the Wise Other that breathes spirit and life into the worlds of others while they (and we in the audience), for the most part, are free to just be regular Joes going about their everyday lives.<br />
<br />
But I know that there's more to LaLa than what the writers have been giving us lately, and I want to see our favorite short order cook continue to grow and develop. Yes, he's just discovered that he's a medium. Yes, he has considerable, as-yet untapped magical power. But these new revelations about who Lafayette is and what he's got in him have not translated into scenes with much meat for him, in my humble opinion.<br />
<br />
What's up with the pendulum swing in the writing for Lafayette? I realize that the witch-vampire war and Eric & Sookie's romance have taken center stage in recent episodes, and I know that Lafayette is considered a supporting character, but I don't want to see him recede into the background of the show. His character has been too important and stereotype busting to allow him to take the token backseat I fear he has been receiving.<br />
<br />
If the writers don't step up for LaLa soon, it's going to be ME saying "damn!" and "oh, hell no!"<br />
<br />
Thoughts?<br />
<br />
~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel</span> Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-71989374179579094542011-08-09T21:31:00.001-04:002011-08-09T21:32:11.391-04:00Guest Bartending at The SookiesDiary™ DailyFYI, our <a href="http://piercedpomegranate.blogspot.com/">Legendary Monsters to Fellow Citizens</a> piece below excavating the shifting image of the vampire and the growing social
acceptance (and lust!) for what used to be considered the vilest of fiends, the most menacing of monsters and considering the monstrous images of inhuman beasts dominant society spins to create hate and
fear of those it demonizes has made <a href="http://paper.li/SookiesDiary/1312836006">the Society Page of The SookiesDiary™ Daily</a>!<br />
<br />
It's a well done news roundup, you should check it out!<br />
<br />
~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel</span>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-9466504608536220522011-08-09T13:45:00.001-04:002011-08-09T14:11:17.210-04:00From Legendary Monsters to Fellow Citizens<span style="background-color: yellow;">*DISCLAIMER - OFFENSIVE PROPAGANDA IMAGES AHEAD*</span><br />
<br />
I recently discovered a curious statement about the show on <a href="http://hbo.com/">HBO.com:</a><br />
<blockquote>
"In <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em>, vampires have gone from legendary monsters to fellow citizens overnight".</blockquote>
I, personally, would amend this to read <em>sexy, desirable </em>(and sometimes sparkly) fellow citizens...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi16_AXupUvFZJtkHUvWlX5sb_zwHj7xUAce-wM61BUSshMMRHAUkPQteaLGcWj_exYsxiXJZV5TBGHOZmV9EAzXx8fGx63iTuLzEW5kE0uehahw5jKIORDoq9EaWeYkEqzxJASARqI5f0/s1600/sexy+vampires+10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi16_AXupUvFZJtkHUvWlX5sb_zwHj7xUAce-wM61BUSshMMRHAUkPQteaLGcWj_exYsxiXJZV5TBGHOZmV9EAzXx8fGx63iTuLzEW5kE0uehahw5jKIORDoq9EaWeYkEqzxJASARqI5f0/s200/sexy+vampires+10.jpg" width="140" /></a></div>
<br />
...quite a change from the way vampires used to be envisioned, huh?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirq00cutpLujejeVyDhl7U3Wlm1KhFgOJJql7iDfVkT9Y8Mud4x2OnVxzAFQa3VQMPophk84_v67UY-_QEPsj0WKLNsD6pnBbfN-4Fw5o1PgN6kzNOmDrflOou2GuHoYz2POj5I4ToNTI/s1600/nosferatu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirq00cutpLujejeVyDhl7U3Wlm1KhFgOJJql7iDfVkT9Y8Mud4x2OnVxzAFQa3VQMPophk84_v67UY-_QEPsj0WKLNsD6pnBbfN-4Fw5o1PgN6kzNOmDrflOou2GuHoYz2POj5I4ToNTI/s200/nosferatu.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOyHg9_x0zAe1XJZ-yNC928idDwFkdMoI5Nhtt5mB4RiUaJeC9jw7RCgjXG_0H9v2RH80UqBh2hRt9N9HQGSASq6JgbTn-77qDDAOJq_Esd6UAkOxXoJh-ne_MOPQFknOsoIRlVt2HFjg/s1600/nosferatu+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOyHg9_x0zAe1XJZ-yNC928idDwFkdMoI5Nhtt5mB4RiUaJeC9jw7RCgjXG_0H9v2RH80UqBh2hRt9N9HQGSASq6JgbTn-77qDDAOJq_Esd6UAkOxXoJh-ne_MOPQFknOsoIRlVt2HFjg/s200/nosferatu+3.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqyB-X2gTTpLPY5Cts2nnvsni6uIXUTzo1oM0FVS-AmxViyRCd9vorO5scjiwaMYGvlVM18qUdpEPYfuwUbLiOVLtcfeVSA-jKvPG6CjmYioiIJyzryjrbL8c-Yl_LAR1_qdL3x1rgkQE/s1600/nosferatu+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqyB-X2gTTpLPY5Cts2nnvsni6uIXUTzo1oM0FVS-AmxViyRCd9vorO5scjiwaMYGvlVM18qUdpEPYfuwUbLiOVLtcfeVSA-jKvPG6CjmYioiIJyzryjrbL8c-Yl_LAR1_qdL3x1rgkQE/s200/nosferatu+2.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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Nothin' sexy about <em>that</em>, no siree!</div>
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<br /></div>
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Contemplating the shifting image of the vampire and the growing social acceptance (and lust!) for what used to be considered a vile fiend, I began thinking about the monstrous images dominant society spins to create hate and fear of those it demonizes.</div>
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A five minute Internet search turned up a horrendous cache of offensive visuals, here's a few:</div>
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<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjebgXwaPoymwbV8wh4lZ5FXbrqAj4ZJjRbtZLHmNkA7v2-yHx4BzB2Q-cVBtLAPpZaqXfDOmbQ2srEVzWGjpgm8aaxFDTI0vUmtYsPrQ7S4IxY_C5faCmE-JlakssLGdJHH7JwbbQM0rc/s1600/nazi+propaganda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjebgXwaPoymwbV8wh4lZ5FXbrqAj4ZJjRbtZLHmNkA7v2-yHx4BzB2Q-cVBtLAPpZaqXfDOmbQ2srEVzWGjpgm8aaxFDTI0vUmtYsPrQ7S4IxY_C5faCmE-JlakssLGdJHH7JwbbQM0rc/s200/nazi+propaganda.jpg" width="151" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">WWII anti-Jewish propaganda</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Can you see the common threads tying these Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda posters to the Nosferatu images above?<br />
<br />
The ugly, distorted facial features?<br />
<br />
The cannibalistic, devouring mouth?<br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1xqeu18-IfgxQ6V70h2W6G4DOWAZbRz50e7bKvs_t8rFH2kwNkke68swYMb1h39FG2zpdcOosoCtIkOyyJhEP8e_Iq_IQbRNz9tgtJE6Uw1OWyX05TqDwhilH_4MNuD7KSkQzzRQlKsQ/s1600/Nazi+cross+kills+a+jewish+rat-ww2shots.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1xqeu18-IfgxQ6V70h2W6G4DOWAZbRz50e7bKvs_t8rFH2kwNkke68swYMb1h39FG2zpdcOosoCtIkOyyJhEP8e_Iq_IQbRNz9tgtJE6Uw1OWyX05TqDwhilH_4MNuD7KSkQzzRQlKsQ/s1600/Nazi+cross+kills+a+jewish+rat-ww2shots.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nazi Cross killing the Jewish rat</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The Nosferatu's gnawing, rat-like incisors as corollary to the image of the Jewish vermin that must be exterminated? <br />
<br />
<br />
And then, there's the image of Other as dim-witted, primal beast:<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9GSUNmR1FhJf-mi4nVxqO-xxERPyXia_gI87KyYADFEIWasyfQHY7Cgoj98p6NaL98C4ZMir0-438miKSrADZoXTFQZJlAMOfWgKh-sU6cnSTJK0okBea_bQc-r3ZwXp3KtH8oKSq7EM/s1600/propaganda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9GSUNmR1FhJf-mi4nVxqO-xxERPyXia_gI87KyYADFEIWasyfQHY7Cgoj98p6NaL98C4ZMir0-438miKSrADZoXTFQZJlAMOfWgKh-sU6cnSTJK0okBea_bQc-r3ZwXp3KtH8oKSq7EM/s200/propaganda.jpg" width="141" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span id="ctl00_ctl00_ctl00_ContentMain_ContentMain_ContentMain_item_title"><i>The Negro a Beast or In the Image of God</i> by C. Carroll</span><br />
published in 1900</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Described on the <a href="http://www.cowanauctions.com/auctions/item.aspx?ItemId=59669">Cowan's Auctions</a> website as, "382pp of racist propaganda", this deplorable book deems, "The Negro a beast, but created with articulate speech, and hands, that he may be of service to his master-White man."<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy6yen5hRi0qJRHA6CJt6KufdZgzsub2sst0lZYqfIP64DLXIIbeS3nQqVgyTazP4NJckCAhHglxfuDi2hyphenhyphenm2yuD0nLQkNKa8rwAADQYbaWMigh69wEQZRTXrbZIRyqBMyaftiKJt_Ip4/s1600/propaganda+1912+anti-muslim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy6yen5hRi0qJRHA6CJt6KufdZgzsub2sst0lZYqfIP64DLXIIbeS3nQqVgyTazP4NJckCAhHglxfuDi2hyphenhyphenm2yuD0nLQkNKa8rwAADQYbaWMigh69wEQZRTXrbZIRyqBMyaftiKJt_Ip4/s200/propaganda+1912+anti-muslim.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">anti-Muslim propaganda</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3pPM1fd97piT4fd9PZVF_St5EAFxQG15GJ5H5SZw1EAXHCPt6OxAy0g381IJ2XeAW_tBVCp2xFJrBcDpA8VhQOr-NHp_dL1vdvCvUqj-HVcJqRtMh35cmRN-ocv0XX3xLo9xf-NWZXMg/s1600/propaganda+against+african+americans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3pPM1fd97piT4fd9PZVF_St5EAFxQG15GJ5H5SZw1EAXHCPt6OxAy0g381IJ2XeAW_tBVCp2xFJrBcDpA8VhQOr-NHp_dL1vdvCvUqj-HVcJqRtMh35cmRN-ocv0XX3xLo9xf-NWZXMg/s200/propaganda+against+african+americans.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
These dehumanizing tactics have been employed by obvious bigots and hate-mongers like Nazis and white supremacists, colonial occupiers, and racially motivated crackpots like <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2011/07/28/oslo-shooter-linked-to-british-anti-muslim-organization/">the Oslo shooter linked to a British anti-Muslim organization</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Z5DejsiFUGKma37xrp2GbucAIv-nKQN8Iobl3WWhZKaBPiR5eMrASQE__RaThhWbIrLB8gSvrJgT_neCqRoIRKp_sYsGxNq1ga6QIKRs-mbebumIbslycuoh_8bWS5dyKwHO5z3HQew/s1600/propaganda+WWI+anti-german.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Z5DejsiFUGKma37xrp2GbucAIv-nKQN8Iobl3WWhZKaBPiR5eMrASQE__RaThhWbIrLB8gSvrJgT_neCqRoIRKp_sYsGxNq1ga6QIKRs-mbebumIbslycuoh_8bWS5dyKwHO5z3HQew/s200/propaganda+WWI+anti-german.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
Less expected (but still morally challenged) are the benign-by-comparison entities like the WWII allied forces that stooped to using such propaganda.<br />
<br />
Did you happen to notice how great a threat these inhuman brutes appear to pose to white womanhood?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Much has been written on how vampires - starting most famously with <em>Dracula </em>- have been stand ins for the threat of the invading foreign Other.<br />
<br />
For instance, in his essay "Pure Blood", Joseph McCabe writes that <em>Dracula</em> belonged to a difficult historical moment when unease permeated the nation; there was a mounting concern in England that the British Empire had passed its peak. Decline was signalled politically by a series of failed military adventures.<br />
<br />
McCabe quotes Stephen D. Arata's "The Occidental Tourist: <em>Dracula</em> and the Anxiety of Reverse Colonization" (2010, p. 103):<br />
<blockquote>
Dracula enacts the period's most important and pervasive narrative of decline, a narrative of reverse colonization...This narrative expresses both fear and guilt. The fear is that what has been presented as the "civilized world" is on the point of being colonized by "primitive forces". Such fantasies were all the rage in Victorian England (as evidenced in everything from H. Rider Haggard's <em>She</em> to H.G. Wells' <em>War of the Worlds</em>). </blockquote>
In this context, the undead Romanian Count presented the Victorian male's worst nightmare - one in which the Eastern European invader, from a supposedly less civilized land, would assail his country and take his women.<br />
<br />
Yet, this most menacing of monsters from a century ago has nearly been welcomed into the fold of humanity. It seems mainstreaming can pay off, after all! Much has also been written about the evolution of the vampire from inhuman, monstrous outcast to sensual, darkly seductive - and very human - object of desire.<br />
<br />
What about those who the propagandists have tried to sell as monsters? Are they yet our fellow citizens, fully? What will it take for them to be?<br />
<br />
We'd love to hear from you on this!<br />
<br />
~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel</span><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<span style="color: black;">References</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 22.5pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">McCabe, J. (2010). "Pure Blood". In Wilson, L. (Ed.), <i>A
taste of true blood: The fangbanger’s guide. </i>(pp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>101-110). Dallas: Smart Pop.</span> </span></div>
Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-91224034969247740472011-08-02T22:04:00.002-04:002011-08-02T22:09:27.846-04:00As much as I love it, every bad thing that has ever happened to me is because of sex<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jason Stackhouse's relationship to sex is complicated and conflicted, to say
the least.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And after narrowly escaping his breeding mill ordeal at Hot Shot, he knows
it.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Flashback to Season 1. Do you remember the <em>Cold Ground</em> scene when,
after Gran's death, Jason tried to lose himself in an empty, hollow, loveless tryst with a
blond woman - a virtual stranger he couldn't remember the name of - who rode
him reverse cowgirl-style? His bid to mindlessly fall back on predictable Stackhouse sexcapading as a means of escape backfired terribly. The two of them never made eye contact; while she
moaned, "I love you", Jason softly cried.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">His rape at Hot Shot felt to me like an extreme, twisted, alternate universe
redux of that scene; his facial grimaces and sounds as he was repeatedly
violated in the breeding shed reminded me very much of that scene.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">While it’s true that he’s had lots of fun romps (with lots of different women) in the
sack, Jason’s also had his share of sexual experiences that were exploitative and devoid of
real emotion; where no true human connection or bonding took place – as in the two
instances above.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And it seems to be going from bad to worse.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's a good thing Hoyt and Jessica found him lying battered and bruised on
the side of a deserted rural back road; the baby vamp's blood was his
salvation. Having been miraculously healed by Jessica's blood, a restored-to
health-Jason told his best friend over breakfast at Merlotte's:</span><br />
<blockquote>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As much as I love it, every bad thing that has ever happened to me is
because of sex, (counting on his fingers) jealous boyfriends, becoming a
drug addict, being accused of murder… Maybe God’s punishing me for having too
much sex. He’s like "Jason Stackhouse you have fucked too many hot women, now
let’s see how you like it."</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">*Transcription credit to </span><a href="http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/on-rape-in-true-blood/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">Thought Catalog</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And now, part of Jason seems to think that maybe he's been the victim of
reverse objectification, his studly past having finally caught up to him and
put him in God's punishing crosshairs. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In her online piece </span><a href="http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/on-rape-in-true-blood/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">On Rape in True
Blood</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Kat George addresses this concern:</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Firstly, this insinuates that sexual "sins" are tantamount to
punishment by rape. Secondly, the delivery of these lines is both humorous and
cutesy on Jason’s part. Thirdly, since when was it ever OK to<em> deserve</em>
rape (and how would we feel listening to a woman declaring that a rape was her
just desserts)?</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Good points, all.</span><br />
<br />
B<span style="font-family: inherit;">ut let’s remember, as Kirsty Walker (2010) writes
in her essay </span><a href="http://www.smartpopbooks.com/1841"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"True Stud: Jason Stackhouse in Search of Masculinity"</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, Jason
is often the comic relief on the show. His light, funny tone with Hoyt is perhaps in keeping with this role and persona. Moreover, his use of a comical “God
voice” - <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jason Stackhouse you have fucked
too many hot women, now let’s see how you like it -</i> may very well be a
defense mechanism. He’s been traumatized, and he knows it, but he's got to maintain some semblance of control - humor may be Jason's way of doing that, as it is for many people.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ms. George takes the position that <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em> has trivialized the male experience of rape. While I agree that it is often underplayed in our society (as I wrote in my </span><a href="http://piercedpomegranate.blogspot.com/2011/07/not-cause-some-mean-man-shoves-you-in.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">last post on Jason & Hot Shot</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">) I don't think the show has treated this topic lightly or brushed it under the table.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In fact, I think it's brought new dimension to the mainstream discourse around sexual assault, <em>particularly</em> in light of the FBI’s 80-year-old, outdated definition of rape: "the carnal knowledge of a <u>female</u> forcibly and against her will." Each year
the FBI omits hundreds of thousands of rapes from its</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
based on this limited definition.</span><br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">The FBI’s flawed definition of rape excludes any form of sexual assault that falls outside of the narrowest understanding of heterosexual sex, including the rape of men and boys as well as transgender people.</span></strong><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The FBI's stance on what rape is and isn't is evidence for the idea that in our culture, it is often questioned whether a red-blooded, virile guy like Jason can even <em>be </em>raped. Men are supposed to be into sex under any circumstance; expected to enjoy it every which way, with as many partners as possible. Under this paradigm, most will allow that maybe boys or weaklings can be sexually abused, manipulated, or dominated, but <em>surely</em> not young, strong ex-jocks who are seen as being in control, and <span class="st">insatiable in their</span> hunger for sex.</span> <br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Jason told Hoyt his experience was horrible; some might argue that a stud
like him probably wouldn't (or maybe the right word here is <em>shouldn't</em>)
have thought being forced to have sex with dozens of women was so awful <span style="color: black;">if they
had been hot women</span>, and that he only protested because the women forced into
the breeding line didn’t measure up to his standards of feminine beauty or
sexiness. </span><br />
<div style="color: #333333; margin: 0px 0px 12px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But this thesis falls flat when one considers that the first woman to
violate Jason had been the object of his desire, Crystal Norris, whose (in his
words) "cute butt" he had chased all the way to Hot Shot.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">He didn't want it, not even with her. Men <em>can</em> be raped, after all. Even by hot women.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I found out about the FBI's definition of rape from an action alert from </span><a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-the-fbi-rape-is-rape?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&alert_id=WqIorhKQzm_RjqyhgOLRM"><strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">Change.org</span></strong></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>.</strong> You can </span><a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-the-fbi-rape-is-rape?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&alert_id=WqIorhKQzm_RjqyhgOLRM"><strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">sign their petition to tell the FBI to update their definition to include all forms of rape</span></strong></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>,</strong> by doing so you can help ensure that the resources law enforcement receives to aid survivors and apprehend perpetrators is based on real crime figures instead of dramatically underestimated statistics.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We've been trained to see Jason Stackhouse as a Louisiana Lothario, a "horn
dog" who lets his penis guide him through life. Yet as Walker (2010) points
out, while in his very first <em>Strange Love</em> scene Jason is depicted as a sexual creature, he
is also shown to be perhaps not quite as experienced as he would have folks
believe – and as his reputation would suggest (he was easily shocked by unconventional sexual behavior, i.e. the bite
marks on Maudette's inner thigh). </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When it comes down to it, Jason is a man in search of his own masculinity in a
world that no longer feels quite so stable or knowable; a world that has been upended
by the appearance of vampires on the scene. Even for a guy like Jason, having
been brought up in a patriarchal, heteronormative society where those in
positions of power were for the most part other white males, navigating through a culture in flux is no easy task. (Walker, 2010). </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And up until now, he’s attempted to define himself through sex and violence
(his </span><a href="http://www.fellowshipofthesun.org/lodi/index.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Light of Day Institute</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> adventure); both failed
ideologies by which Jason could become self-actualized, according to Walker. As
she writes, by the end of Season 1 he had come to experience sex as a bonding,
as opposed to purely physically gratifying, experience. And he’s still learning and growing.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">About his character, Ryan Kwanten has said, “it was important for Jason to
have a sense of vulnerability and for the audience to be able to sympathize
with him, and not to see him as…a piece of meat or just a dumb redneck, that
there is really some soul and some hurt deep inside” (Walker, 2010, p. 122). </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The hurt in him has been exacerbated by his now conflicted relationship to
sex, and his victim/survivor status.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, despite the humorous tone Jason used to make some light of his dreadful experience
with Hoyt and the racy distraction of his dream-sequence encounter with his buddy's girlfriend vampire Jessica, I am certain that his Hot Shot ordeal with have a profound and lasting
impact on his continuing personal development. I am looking forward to seeing
how this shakes out for him.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I just hope that since Jason now sees sex as the root cause of his troubles that he doesn't take what some might view as the next logical step and assign to women the wholesale label of temptress, she who leads man (i.e. him) down the garden path to ruin; the devil's door. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHKAMqa7p-z18CumG7dmJd0oK_eyUFa2pfDViruaL4PzhQQbgH7WsWzvguTlS1kxFbTaLMSBZFE6rUo40sDbbe6YbCIelYzA7_7GXVKC7yUfrL6Ab4hLG5ynxpubsf8yvxCcZ5YjIQ1ZM/s1600/devils+doorway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHKAMqa7p-z18CumG7dmJd0oK_eyUFa2pfDViruaL4PzhQQbgH7WsWzvguTlS1kxFbTaLMSBZFE6rUo40sDbbe6YbCIelYzA7_7GXVKC7yUfrL6Ab4hLG5ynxpubsf8yvxCcZ5YjIQ1ZM/s200/devils+doorway.jpg" width="164" /></span></a></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Woman, The Devil’s Door</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">12<sup>th</sup> C. CE, France</span> </span></td></tr>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
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<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Jason <em>did</em> say, “As much as I love it, every bad
thing that has ever happened to me is because of sex”, and that worries me a little. Could Crystal's betrayal set him on the course of viewing all women as deceivers, as Eve's daughters, as portals to the corruption of men?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Do you not realise, Eve that it is you?</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The curse of God pronounced
on your sex weighs still on the world. Guilty you must bear its hardships. <b>You
are the devil’s gateway</b>, you desecrated the fatal tree, you first betrayed
the Law of God, you softened up with your cajoling words the man against whom
the devil could not prevail by force. The image of God, Adam, you broke him as
if he were a plaything. You deserved death, and it was the son of God who had
to die!”</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> ~ Tertullian</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I don’t think it will. Despite his puffed-up bravado
when it comes to hooking up, I think Jason genuinely likes women - women in general, and the ones in his life. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_514862327"><span style="font-family: inherit;">as Wayne Koestenbaum, </span></a><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=138895817&m=138895810"><span style="font-family: inherit;">author of <em>Humiliation</em>, remarked in his 8/1/11 NPR</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, humiliating experiences, <span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">if you survive them, are capable
of being reinterpreted.</span> When most of your recognizable personality or sense of self worth
is decimated and you wake up from that experience still alive - as Jason has - a kernel or residue of the self is left
and gold can be spun from this straw.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Now, the self-depreciating Jason may never let on that he's been rocked to the core; he may well continue to bemoan the horrors of Hot Shot and joke about it in the next breath as he has with Hoyt. This is the guy who, last season, told Hoyt he never thought he was smart enough to be depressed, after all. But he is smart enough, sensitive and emotional enough - and human enough - to have been deeply impacted by his rape experience. And he has surely come through what Koestenbaum calls a "kiln of shame and suffering" which can lead to transfiguration.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Koestenbaum allows that not everyone can spin the experience in this way, but I think Jason can. And I think he can do it without vilifying all women in the process. Hopefully, although his rape was in no way his fault, he will also grow from this experience and learn to make better choices, since, as he admitted to Sookie in <em>I Wish I Was the Moon, </em>he's not always so good at controlling his impulses.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And I, for one, am pulling for him!</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel</span></span>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-4630482222986018602011-08-01T21:31:00.005-04:002011-08-09T22:19:39.223-04:00Pam's Taken the Veil<span class="hw">So Pam's taken the veil.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
And last night, she was hiding under a blanket to evade Eric's gaze when they were thrown in King Bill's subterranean slammer together.<br />
<br />
<span class="hw">Did she really have much of a choice?</span><br />
<br />
Ever the style maven, last week's Pam—dressed in funerary black lace with a heavy veil covering her decaying face (“<i>Even when her face is putrefying, she comes up with an outfit for putrefying</i>,” Kristen Bauer van Straten remarked in an interview posted to <a href="http://www.trueblood-online.com/cast-crew/kristin-bauer-pam/kristin-bauer-talks-about-her-face-off/">The Vault</a>)—had to deal with the aftermath of a spell cast on her by possessed witch Marnie that has caused her immortal vampire body to rot. <br />
<br />
And this week, it's only gotten worse!<br />
<br />
I found it interesting that HBO on Demand's description of last Sunday's episode, <i>Me and the Devil</i>, makes mention of this fact with the phrase, "Pam takes the veil".<br />
<br />
What's so intriguing about this verbiage?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thefreedictionary.com/">Thefreedictionary.com</a> defines this term as <i>the life or vows of a nun.</i><br />
<br />
And when I think of becoming a nun, one of the first mental pictures that comes to mind is that of a woman retreating from the world and hiding (or being confined) behind the imposing walls of the convent.<br />
<br />
Let's take a look at thefreedictionary.com's definition of <u>veil</u>:<br />
<br />
<span class="hw"><b>veil</b></span>
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<i>n.</i><br />
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<b>1. </b>A length of cloth worn by women over the head, shoulders, and often the face.</div>
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<b>2. </b>A length of netting attached to a woman's hat or habit, worn for decoration or to protect the head and face.</div>
<div class="ds-list">
<b>3. </b>The part of a nun's headdress that frames the face and falls over the shoulders.<br />
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</div>
</div>
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<b>4. </b><br />
<div class="sds-list">
<b>a. </b>A piece of light fabric hung to separate or conceal what is behind it; a curtain.</div>
<div class="sds-list">
<b>b. </b>Something that conceals, separates, or screens like a curtain: <span class="illustration"><i><span style="color: #226699;">a veil of secrecy.</span></i></span></div>
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<i>v.</i> <b>veiled</b>, <b>veil·ing</b>, <b>veils</b> </div>
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<i>v.</i><i>tr.</i><br />
<div class="ds-list">
<b>1. </b>To cover with or as if with a veil: <span class="illustration" style="color: black;"><i>Dense fog veiled the bridge.</i></span></div>
<div class="ds-list">
<b>2. </b>To conceal or disguise.<br />
<br />
One word in particular is repeated over and over: <u>conceal</u>.<br />
<br />
This is significant because it speaks to what a woman must do when her beauty is marred. She must hide, separate, screen herself off. As The Vault interview <a href="http://www.trueblood-online.com/cast-crew/kristin-bauer-pam/kristin-bauer-talks-about-her-face-off/">"Kristin Bauer talks about her 'face-off'</a> states, "Having her skin peel off in ribbons of goo is a massive blow for Pam"; an affront to her vanity.<br />
<br />
And for a woman whose priorities include Eric and her appearance (not always in that order), this presents quite the predicament.<br />
<br />
Pam: "I can put up with a lot, but <b>fuck with my face</b> and <b>it's time to die</b>!" S4E5 <i>Me and the Devil</i><br />
<br />
<span class="hw">To understand why this fate is worse for Pam than, say, her maker's would be, let's take a moment to consider the core difference between the spells the possessed Marnie cast on both vampires.</span><br />
<br />
The spell cast on Eric <b>wiped clean his</b> <b><u>mind</u>,</b> that part of the self envisaged in Cartesian dualism as being characteristically male. The one cast on Pam <b>disfigured her</b> <b><u>body</u>, </b>that which is associated with the female; the second-mentioned and therefore lesser valued of the male/female pair of lhierarchical dualisms.<br />
<br />
Applying this framework of gendered hierarchical dualisms, the biblical <span style="font-family: inherit;">Adam is revealed as a <i>soul type</i>, while Eve is <i>of the flesh</i> (Stone, 1976). </span>In Christian theology, it was asserted that women must become more "like a man" (more "rational" and "spiritual" than is her "nature") to come into relationship with God, who was envisaged as masculine.<br />
<br />
Feminist scholar Carol Christ writes that according to poet, essayist and feminist Adrienne Rich, such views have made the body "so problematic for women that it often seemed easier to shrug if off and travel as a disembodied spirit" (1997, p. 148). If only it were so easy for Pam; if only she could escape the prison of her rotting flesh like her ghostly harasser Antonia has. But there can be no such simple solution for Pam. As a woman, she is, as Rich writes, controlled by being lashed to her body - "the carnal flesh to which the elevated mind is shackled" (Sanchez-Grant, 2008, p. 78).<br />
<br />
As Sanchez-Grant writes, if the mind is allied with culture and reason, it follows that the body is associated with all that is "other"; if woman is inextricably associated with the body, and the body is regarded as inferior to the mind - then surely woman <i>is</i> the inferior Other.<br />
<br />
This theme has run through several of my last posts.<br />
<br />
That's why the curse Marnie (under Antonia's influence) uttered, "Corrupt unsanctified corpse who walks behold your true self" is so torturous for Pam; for woman, dualism insists that the body<i> <u>is</u> the true self</i>, the essentialized ground of our being.<br />
<br />
Under this logic, had the spell beset Pam's mind as the one cast on Eric did, it wouldn't be so bad.<br />
<br />
This sexist construction of gender holds that the [feminine] body is entirely separate from the <i>true</i> inner self.<br />
<br />
Intriguingly, under the witch's magic, amnesia Eric has become <i>more </i>endearing - he's playful, gentle, contrite for past offenses; he openly displays emotion and seems <i>perhaps more his authentic self</i>.<br />
<br />
You know something? The more I think about it, maybe in his current state amnesia Eric is even <i>more</i> than his authentic self. He seems transcendent, self-sacrificing. Godric-like, even.<br />
<br />
And he gets the girl, since he is more attractive to Sookie than when he is cold, cruel and calculating, swaggering "real" Eric.<br />
<br />
While it's true that he must hide in Sookie's house for fear his vulnerable state may make him an easy target for anyone gunning for him (i.e. the witches, Bill, etc.) Pam must <i>truly</i> hide behind a mourning shroud - lamenting the death of her "true" self since the face a woman shows the world is how she is judged.<br />
<br />
This connects to <span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Sam Trammell's uneasiness at his character's yelling "damn, you're ugly" at a female bar patron as he crashed into Merlotte's fresh off his bender; hung
over, agitated, and over-the-<span style="color: black;">top belligerent. In my </span><a href="http://piercedpomegranate.blogspot.com/2010/10/wrapping-up-dragon-con-from-my.html"><span style="color: black;">post on Dragon * Con 2010</span></a><span style="color: black;"> I noted that it seemed Mr. Trammell sensed the egregiousness</span><span style="color: black;"> of <span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="color: black;">assailing a woman's appearance, since aside from impugning her sexuality (i.e.
labelling her as promiscuous, a whore, a "dyke", etc.) it's is one of the most
cutting attacks someone can level at a female in our culture.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="color: black;">And here's a (depressing) </span><span style="color: black;">dose of reality: <a href="http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43898300/ns/today-relationships/t/half-men-would-dump-woman-who-got-fat/?gt1=43001">Nearly half of men questioned in a recent poll of 70,000 people said they would ditch a partner who gained weight, compared to only 20 percent of women.</a> Talk about how the body "feeds" identity, how a woman's "corporeal experience" influences her overall experience (Sanchez-Grant, 2008)!</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
Pam's own maker has made constant reference to how he could never harm Sookie because she is so beautiful. Where you suprised that in last night's <i>I Wish I Was the Moon </i>Eric recoiled only slightly from Pam, that he didn't all-out reject her ruined visage?<br />
<br />
She has become the dreaded Rotting Goddess.<br />
<br /></div>
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<br />
<br />
Hecate, She who repels. "A hideous hag and flesh-eating ghoul, her skin pallid and decaying, her robes a shroud...the repository for all the dark and fearsome forces of the feminine divine" (Ward, 2006, pp. 152-153).<br />
<br />
She <i>is</i> Rot. Ooze and decay may have no place in the life of the disembodied [rational, male] mind, yet the messiness of birth, sex, and death - the cycle of embodied life - refuses to disappear. This is Hecate's realm. To exhume Her is to face the death aspect of the Goddess and the fusion of need and fear She arouses.<br />
<br />
According to Ward (2006), the fear we projected of the Rotting Goddess onto witches long ago we now put onto ordinary women. He writes:</div>
<blockquote>
I get a flicker of something vile when I contemplate the image of the Rotting Goddess. She viscerally repels me, yet draws me, as if she holds a secret for me inside her fetid mouth, <b>a flicker of truth about men's revulsion towards feminine flesh.</b> I remember a friend of mine - he was only in high school at the time, and yet he understood this all too well - he told me he had found an easy way to break up with a girlfriend after he no longer wanted to be with her. When they started making out he said he would keep his eyes open, and he would just examine her, as if through a microscope. He would stare at the glistening pores, pimples, blackheads, the creases, hairs, erupting moles and folded skin. He would feel nauseated, and that would be the end of his attraction for her. In my 20s, in India and Thailand, I learned <b>Buddhist techniques for eliminating sexual desire</b> that followed much the same course. I was instructed to <b>imagine a woman's body split up into five heaps of skin, nails, hair, teeth and internal organs, or to visualize a woman as nothing but sacks of blood and pus and shit.</b> Feel sexual desire for that? <b>Thus men learn that it is to treat women like dirt (as matter, not Mater) and break their spell over us.</b></blockquote>
WOW.<br />
<br />
Perhaps, in her current spellbound state, Pam can teach us about how men at large have been socialized to see women.<br />
<div align="center">
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">R</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">eferences</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Christ,
C.(1997) </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic;">Rebirth of the goddess</span><span style="color: black;">. </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="color: black;">New York: Routledge.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Sanchez-Grant (2008).
The Female Body in Margaret Atwood's </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic;">The Edible Woman </span><span style="color: black;">and </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic;">Lady Oracle. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 9,
#2, </span><span style="color: black;">77-92</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Ward,
T. (2006). </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic;">Savage
breast: One man’s search for the goddess</span><span style="color: black;">. New York: O Books.</span></span></div>
Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-88285879943448056972011-07-31T16:11:00.008-04:002011-08-01T17:26:35.131-04:00I don't know who you think you are, but before July is through, I wanna talk equal rights with you!"I ought to post something about this", I remember telling my mom after she finished reading <a href="http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/adams-honor-foremothers-by-passing-era-1.2997258">a piece on it being high time to honor our foremothers and pass the Equal Rights Amendment by Newsday opinion columnist Janus Adams</a> to me over the phone on the Friday before the 4th of July.<br />
<br />
By the time we got on the phone, the crickets were already humming in the grass and the sun had dipped low on the horizon. I was hurried, getting ready to take off for a trip upstate to the Lake George area to spend the long weekend with my in-laws. I knew we had to shove off in about two hours or so, and my mind was preoccupied.<br />
<br />
Stomping around in the cramped confines of my laundry room with the phone balanced precariously on my shoulder, I was rooting through piles of folded wash for enough clean underwear to pack for the next three days and thinking about how best to avoid the crush of holiday traffic when Mom asked if I had time to hear an article she planned to tape to the fridge.<br />
<br />
She does that, you know. A lot. Taping stuff to the fridge, that is. Her refrigerator is like a veritable billboard; gone are the scribbles and macaroni mosaics that decorated it when we were kids, replaced by political cartoons clipped from the paper, magnets that share the varied causes and ideas she supports, and lovely artwork accompanied by philosophical or spiritual mantras reminding her - and us - of who she is and what she believes. It's like a personal - or family, really, mission statement.<br />
<br />
The apple hasn't fallen far from the tree - you should see <em>my</em> fridge! But I digress...<br />
<br />
Mom wanted to read me something she planned to include as part of the rotating exhibit of refrigerator wisdom in the hopes of sparking a family conversation around the gendered politics of Independence Day that weekend, and I knew it behooved me to listen.<br />
<br />
She had me at the first sentence, "As we celebrate our Declaration of Independence this holiday weekend, a triumph of history, let's pause to consider our <strong>herstory</strong>" [emphasis mine].<br />
<br />
Also the author of <em>Sister Days: 365 Inspired Moments in African-American Women's History</em>, Adams highlighted Democratic NYS Rep. Carolyn Maloney's efforts to reintroduce the <a href="http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/">Equal Rights Amendment</a>. It's been four decades since Congress passed this constitutional amendment enshrining the equality of rights under the law not to be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of gender - and three decades since its defeat, three states shy of the 38 needed to ratify it within 10 years. <br />
<br />
The struggle for women's rights in the U.S. has been long and hard. Adams traced its history to March of 1776, when <em>another</em> female Adams - Abigail - chided her husband John to "remember the Ladies", following it through to the present day and <a href="http://womensissues.about.com/od/GenderDiscrimination/tp/Gender-Discrimination-The-Supreme-Court-And-The-Walmart-Class-Action-Suit.htm">the recent Supreme Court dismissal of a massive class-action gender discrimination suit against retail giant Walmart</a>. In this context, she asked, "What of the rights of women?".<br />
<br />
According to Adams, we here in 2011 are far from 1848 (the year of the Women's Rights Convention and its platform, "A Declaration of Sentiments," that exposed "a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman."). But not far enough.<br />
<br />
Invoking the liberatory legacy of the Seneca Falls convention the Female Anti-Slavery Society, of Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and of the unsung women - black and white - who defied slavery and refused to be silenced or deterred by white abolitionist men who thought they had no place in the movement, Adams called for the passing of the ERA.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s the <em><span style="color: red;">True
Blood</span></em> connection: the as-yet unratified </span><span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Equal
Rights Amendment</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> (ERA) is the capstone for the gender-blind laws liberal
feminism has historically fought for which, according to the eminent Professor
of Social Work Mimi Abramovitz (1996), include the right to vote, to enter the
market, the receive an education, to own property, and to control their own
bodies, to earn equal wages, etc. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As we wrote
on our <a href="http://piercedpomegranate.blogspot.com/p/our-unique-feminist-perspective.html">Feminism-With-A-Twist!</a> page, the ERA (along with other equal rights and civil
rights legislation of the past) seems to serve as the model for <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood's</span></em> Vampire<strong>
Rights Amendment (VRA)</strong>; the campaign for which has come recently to a highly
contentious and divisive head with the string of reactionary anti-vampire
terrorism touched off after King Russell Edgington "went Medieval" on
TV.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By ripping
out the spine of a news anchor and speechifying about the evils of humanity and
the "true face of Vampire" before a television audience of millions, the King of Mississippi virtually nuked the <a href="http://www.americanvampireleague.com/">American Vampire League's</a>, as he called it, "precious
VRA". </span></span><br />
<br />
Check out this hilarious (yet educational!) AVL "children's outreach program" video promoting the VRA:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/giNuQKhGkf0?rel=0" width="425"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
According to the <a href="http://trueblood.wikia.com/wiki/Vampire_Rights_Amendment">True Blood Wiki</a>, the VRA is a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that if approved and ratified would extend equal rights to vampires, creating parity with humans. The American Vampire League is the main supporter of the bill; there is also some support in the Senate.<br />
<div class="WikiaArticle">
</div>
<div class="WikiaArticle">
</div>
<br />
<article class="WikiaMainContent"><div class="WikiaArticle">
<span class="mw-headline" id="Opposition">Did you know there was a pro-VRA rally in D.C. in 2008?</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SnAIdUysobc?rel=0" width="425"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
Yes, it was part of the viral marketing campaign launched on the website <a href="http://www.archive.bloodcopy.com/">BloodCopy</a>, but it did more than generate interest for the show; it actually helps set its sociopolitical tone.<br />
<br />
The Wiki continues that the VRA has received strong opposition from freshman "Congressman David Finch" (remember him from S1, smoking weed with Lafayette after their paid-for "date"?) and other conservative elected officials and organizations such as the <a href="http://fellowshipofthesun.org/home.html">Fellowship of the Sun</a>. The main fear of the opposition is that recognizing equal rights for vampires would lead to the "vampirization" of America.<br />
<br /></div>
</article>
<article class="WikiaMainContent"><div class="WikiaArticle">
<small><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Under the law as it presently stands,</span> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">vampires do have certain rights:</span></small></div>
</article><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Vampires are able to own not only their own homes, but open-to-the-public businesses as well; </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">for example, Eric & Pam own Fangtasia</span></li>
<li>They can marry IN SOME STATES ONLY, paralleling the limitations for under the <a href="http://www.domawatch.org/about/federaldoma.html">Defense of Marriage Act</a></li>
</ul>
<br />
<article class="WikiaMainContent">Vampires also have their own hotels, such as the Hotel Carmilla in Dallas, which caters to vampires, as well as their own airline, Anubis Air, equipped with specialty coffins for flight. Remember these from Season 2? While these niche busineses necessarily provide for the special needs of vampires, they also raise the spectre of "separate but equal".</article><article class="WikiaMainContent"></article><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, anti-vampire
sentiment seems at an all-time high. I remember seeing some tell-tale graffiti
scrawled across a brick wall in an early Season 4 episode, "Save a friend, kill
a vampire". In her Newsday piece Adams recalls that in </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1838, so opposed were
pro-slavers to the activities of the Female Anti-Slavery Society (started by
black woman and, by that time, joined by white abolitionist women) that
rioters - emboldened by the blind eye of the police - torched the group's Pennsylvania </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hall convention site and stoned the fleeing women. A similar fate for vampires
seems possible in light of the threat posed by Marnie, possessed as she is by
the spirit of a 17</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><sup>th</sup> century witch who was burned at the stake and
is seeking retribution against the undead for her torment at the hands of a few
of their numbers centuries ago. </span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Would there be public outcry if she caused scores of vampires to walk into the sun? Or would the public feel that the uppity undead - audacious in their quest for equal rights with humans - had gotten what they deserved; the true death? </span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><em><span style="color: red;">True Blood's</span></em> VRA plot line acknowledges the inequality and stratification of contemporary U.S. society as well as the challenges of partisan politics (<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43967924/ns/politics-capitol_hill/?GT1=43001">hello, debt ceiling talks</a>) and making social and political change. We’ll see if
Nan Flanagan can muster a political solution or if the legislation – and the
AVL - are dead in the water. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Tears of resonance are moistening my eyes; writing this post (like gazing at Mom's refrigerator) been an exercise in remembering what really matters, what's important, and what we must continue to fight for. I feel reinvigorated in my commitment to anti-oppression work and ever grateful to my mom for sowing its seeds in me - and for being there to water, fertilize, prune, and trellis my plant of social justice as it's grown and matured, branching out in many directions.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks, Mom.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And Vive la Fridge!</span><br />
<br />
~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel</span><br />
<div align="center">
References</div>
<br />
<div align="left">
Abramovitz, M. (1996). Regulating the lives of women: Social
welfare policy from colonial times to the present. Boston, MA: South End Press. </div>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-45614114686569167422011-07-31T01:10:00.013-04:002011-08-02T03:24:26.999-04:00Allusions to the Feminine in Season 4 of True Blood, OR, Has the Season of the Witch Brought Compelling, Multidimensional Female Characters to the Screen?<span style="font-family: inherit;">And since we're talking about the Season of the Witch, I've noticed that the past five episodes have been rich with to the allusions to the Feminine.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">For example:</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdvw6zjikTgGSPwD05ht02QBN0ys7eKQEqS7o-jYH-3oRf1-Aih791vpx1GmgF7GT0AaN2v1zRbn_4dmv6escyUiJHB59EGwXE3k0urxfSyK5Q79ZS7eQsIOGl3bll16ZNY5AK6w4CusE/s1600/moon+goddess+emporium.jpg+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdvw6zjikTgGSPwD05ht02QBN0ys7eKQEqS7o-jYH-3oRf1-Aih791vpx1GmgF7GT0AaN2v1zRbn_4dmv6escyUiJHB59EGwXE3k0urxfSyK5Q79ZS7eQsIOGl3bll16ZNY5AK6w4CusE/s200/moon+goddess+emporium.jpg+2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div>
<strong><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: inherit;">Moon Goddess Emporium</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The sacred, feminine-feeling space Marnie and her eclectic circle of Wiccans call their own.</span></div>
<ul>
<li></li>
</ul>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzQB7NY2xuE9JIY0qgptYY-lXFKQiXslDj8Oiokpj4S59i7AIf0aHXXz_u4ZJ0XwgAI91m5toI7cHSZU2DlKYb3q0x3FG5Puw6-nmQLW5SWyGcN0SvADVI96BgB7JFRfqMknprjwQQN2s/s1600/Luna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzQB7NY2xuE9JIY0qgptYY-lXFKQiXslDj8Oiokpj4S59i7AIf0aHXXz_u4ZJ0XwgAI91m5toI7cHSZU2DlKYb3q0x3FG5Puw6-nmQLW5SWyGcN0SvADVI96BgB7JFRfqMknprjwQQN2s/s1600/Luna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzQB7NY2xuE9JIY0qgptYY-lXFKQiXslDj8Oiokpj4S59i7AIf0aHXXz_u4ZJ0XwgAI91m5toI7cHSZU2DlKYb3q0x3FG5Puw6-nmQLW5SWyGcN0SvADVI96BgB7JFRfqMknprjwQQN2s/s200/Luna.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Luna</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This newly-introduced character's name is evocative of the elusive, watery moon-governed depths associated with the Feminine.</span><br />
<ul>
</ul>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSFQgrjSOEg4GeOnGYfHCN1Q4r5gOk20nprq6gofzKvW17bxRvmdcUyRcBUvycwJpGHhNVnyQZxHhZFhWVu7sRUg55aFYVcAfUuuayOuj0g-dYXpZctHk_8XZVaVitP-rcT0RCf0dZ_mQ/s1600/great+goddess+of+laussel.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSFQgrjSOEg4GeOnGYfHCN1Q4r5gOk20nprq6gofzKvW17bxRvmdcUyRcBUvycwJpGHhNVnyQZxHhZFhWVu7sRUg55aFYVcAfUuuayOuj0g-dYXpZctHk_8XZVaVitP-rcT0RCf0dZ_mQ/s1600/great+goddess+of+laussel.png" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sookie's being gone for thirteen months, the number of moon cycles in a solar year. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As </span><a href="http://www.heartgoddess.net/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Heart of the Goddess: Art, Myth and Meditations of the World's Sacred Feminine</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Hallie Iglehart Austen (1990) writes, The Great Goddess of Laussel (left) points to her belly with left hand, and in her right she holds a horned crescent notched with thirteen lines, representing the ancient honoring of the mysteries of the female body. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">In this image is reflected the waxing and waning of the moon parallelled by the ebb and flow of menstrual blood; it embodies the wisdom of non-linear, cyclic time - spiraling eternal growth.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">According to Austen, in the French limestone cave where this relief is found, "The soot of countless fires has darkened the ceilings, and the floors have been beaten down by many feet" (1990, p. 6). Indeed, She once pervaded.</span> <br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc00da316QmEXmpccW8cx-JREwaQKiWOD6T3Y8zw1UKNLKkp4A-QMufQ7Yodqfu2Ihg-mQ5zOkRwQDCRzxpNG2pP08jw0L4ruUb59bXbc12SN11Je30Jx3nBI2b9GT71qfDhWy72x6zvc/s1600/she+once+pervaded.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc00da316QmEXmpccW8cx-JREwaQKiWOD6T3Y8zw1UKNLKkp4A-QMufQ7Yodqfu2Ihg-mQ5zOkRwQDCRzxpNG2pP08jw0L4ruUb59bXbc12SN11Je30Jx3nBI2b9GT71qfDhWy72x6zvc/s1600/she+once+pervaded.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">On her gorgeous website </span><a href="http://www.suppressedhistories.net/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Suppressed Histories Archives</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, </span><a href="http://www.suppressedhistories.net/aboutmax.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Max Dashu</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> explains that rock murals, clay and bronze pots, and countless figurines recovered from archaeological sites worldwide show that in the earliest cultures, representations of humans were almost exclusively female.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibl8y_QOwvfR2n6wA8O0fCBMWo5keLBaERhEJa6vBcIstyGUlDg9XoM5Ts8Hoc3xI0isQVpMFnECy55oAKIzLO2VIGsfSWMOz9ViwivgJEZNawqpx3U0hheg8BnhzvpsdXEaD6iNGbKhE/s1600/she+once+pervaded+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibl8y_QOwvfR2n6wA8O0fCBMWo5keLBaERhEJa6vBcIstyGUlDg9XoM5Ts8Hoc3xI0isQVpMFnECy55oAKIzLO2VIGsfSWMOz9ViwivgJEZNawqpx3U0hheg8BnhzvpsdXEaD6iNGbKhE/s200/she+once+pervaded+5.jpg" width="185" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs7x2u3xf4xmiUl4McPMsqErD91r9ruLR3XL5PEz6RFo4n7tqpufWlbUg8YVGGZJrd7FMjRYlxSLNRYxlrYKJYGYKHXv8plh0YDm3lqoRZrfOqi8_T1MpzVQWvaWfMunfRYyCQMwC8_Vc/s1600/she+once+pervaded+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs7x2u3xf4xmiUl4McPMsqErD91r9ruLR3XL5PEz6RFo4n7tqpufWlbUg8YVGGZJrd7FMjRYlxSLNRYxlrYKJYGYKHXv8plh0YDm3lqoRZrfOqi8_T1MpzVQWvaWfMunfRYyCQMwC8_Vc/s1600/she+once+pervaded+2.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">These recurring signs reflect spiritual concerns and ritual &
everyday life of the people who created them.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFij7NSoaIiEHxKbQ5XHhmvtri3xJcKHX0MjYsHTWak7tibQhW8whBYM-_XtdaoMeLx7e_0GiEi7Q7oP0kfyNvd0IyVqVZjIxEvlrONsdEulTtmfGu_E7x4ly67kFl6OcPsU1LJmU_IEI/s1600/she+once+pervaded+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFij7NSoaIiEHxKbQ5XHhmvtri3xJcKHX0MjYsHTWak7tibQhW8whBYM-_XtdaoMeLx7e_0GiEi7Q7oP0kfyNvd0IyVqVZjIxEvlrONsdEulTtmfGu_E7x4ly67kFl6OcPsU1LJmU_IEI/s200/she+once+pervaded+4.jpg" width="151" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Commonalities recur in artifacts of diverse archaic cultures; same patterns appear in more recent indigenous societies in the Americas, Africa,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>parts of Asia. <span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Austen (1990) writes that for 25,000 years the
female body was revered as sacred. </span>The hold of the Goddess <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>may go back much farther.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">According to Ward (2006) some of the earliest work of human art in existence consists of female figures dating to at least a quarter million years old.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlJrLZSNqyUKqz99TwQG7dbecmZqrBy6Q678uVFb5kCG-CR8DQ9M2qSBuWufEFUhrXK09YRg8nqCJ5O-dWH51x1Xez35gKPyYoF5odGFCg9HDAv-8N4Zmpv31rzLUWwU0nPX_GNP743vg/s1600/she+once+pervaded+10.jpg.gif.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlJrLZSNqyUKqz99TwQG7dbecmZqrBy6Q678uVFb5kCG-CR8DQ9M2qSBuWufEFUhrXK09YRg8nqCJ5O-dWH51x1Xez35gKPyYoF5odGFCg9HDAv-8N4Zmpv31rzLUWwU0nPX_GNP743vg/s200/she+once+pervaded+10.jpg.gif.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">For example, the Berekhat Ram Figurine, a small yellowish-brown pebble the size of a jellybean (left) found in the Golan Heights in 1981, is dated to approximately 233,000 B.C.E. - a time when early humans weren't even supposed to have developed symbolic thinking, or even language yet. In fact, this carving dates to 100,000 before the appearance of <em>Homo sapiens</em>; the race that carved it was only just evolving into "us". And yet, one of them thought to shape a woman out of a small stone.</span><br />
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</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
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<div align="left">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">How might living in such a culture make you feel about
women? The world?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This was not art as we know it, to be displayed on a museum
shelf. Though these figurines, the Goddess truly lived amongst her people; they
have been caressed, danced with, sung to, had oils and ochre rubbed into them.</span> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh13xsgYY_k1KWx797wbGfXjFqoW2KA1-IgTvshn8-bLEI-tVvf0cz4EbggC6HTx83LEARi0b-zDPgZ0AuIrZCN3qT09QTDBaojLWXuUOng_G-0HnzIBsnuDlkpGNTAiup6pZ-WEFrrq60/s1600/she+once+pervaded+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh13xsgYY_k1KWx797wbGfXjFqoW2KA1-IgTvshn8-bLEI-tVvf0cz4EbggC6HTx83LEARi0b-zDPgZ0AuIrZCN3qT09QTDBaojLWXuUOng_G-0HnzIBsnuDlkpGNTAiup6pZ-WEFrrq60/s200/she+once+pervaded+6.jpg" width="159" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Acheulian Goddess<br />
Golan Heights, 800,000 yrs. old</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMax1lXYSqRDxpN_CInUzJEx4nD4YGiJ-qtunOS3OG4r5uE_N73lBnB0t6eFOCjWI8Ni6Z68q52Ln-HlYfwFQRmB7gVkss3Ai3rLofOmpqdgZl-S7ikk4-4rssX9Ci6sbp8-hdoxYt8vM/s1600/she+once+pervaded+7.jpg.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMax1lXYSqRDxpN_CInUzJEx4nD4YGiJ-qtunOS3OG4r5uE_N73lBnB0t6eFOCjWI8Ni6Z68q52Ln-HlYfwFQRmB7gVkss3Ai3rLofOmpqdgZl-S7ikk4-4rssX9Ci6sbp8-hdoxYt8vM/s1600/she+once+pervaded+7.jpg.gif" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Great Goddess of Willendorf<br />
Europe, 25,000 B.C.E.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Imagine holding one of these Goddesses in your
hand.</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Feel her roundness, the comforting security of it</span>.</span> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 22.5pt 0in;">
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Imagine
carrying her throughout your day’s work…on your travels, sleeping with her
beside your bed, waking up beside her (Austen, 1990, pp. 4-5) as our
Paleolithic and Neolithic ancestors did.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">How might being in such close contact and communion with Her
form change your relationship to the female body?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Austen implores us to imagine a world in which images like
the Great Goddess of Laussel were carved over the entrances to our houses of
worship, or over our supermarkets and schools. She seems to be asking how a cityscape
covered with (positive, representative) female images might shift our collective
ways of being.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Do you agree that there is a dearth of such female images in
our society?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Season 4 of <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em> may offer a remedy, at least according to writers like John Kubicek of BuddyTv who in his June 24th piece describes it as the </span><a href="http://www.buddytv.com/articles/true-blood/true-blood-review-season-of-th-40768.aspx"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Season of the Witch and the Women</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">With the addition of "a number of new strong women to the show" via two new female main characters (the powerful witch Marnie & shapeshifter Luna) and the promotion of Nan Flanagan (vampire spokeswoman) and Holly (witchy Merlotte's waitress) to series regulars joining Sookie, Jessica, Tara, Arlene & Pam, Kubicek feels the women really get their chance to shine.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Besides Marnie and Luna, we've also met three new female supporting characters, including the lawyer Portia, Wiccan-cum-vampire security woman Katerina, and Naomi, a cage fighter with an unlikely romantic connection to Tara.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Plus, the credits are now more evenly disbursed in terms of gender, with nine female and ten male primary cast members.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Clearly, Kubicek isn't just talking about quantity, he's also talking about quality.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When he talks about "strong women" on the show I get the impression that he means well-written female characters as opposed to ones who are invulnerable to pain and strife, etc. And goodness knows we need more of those; the lack of good writing for women in Hollywood - not to mention in literature - is what drove Tanya Wright (Deputy Kenya Jones) to pen the script for her film </span><a href="http://www.butterflyrisingthemovie.com/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Butterfly Rising</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, which she later adapted into a novel of the same name. If you can't find solidly written female characters, you've gotta develop them yourself, right?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here's an archetypal model for such a "strong woman"...</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4k9p_Wk7G2wXsc27vqr0pe6buf0Q-3s2tJB0u7qLNEPGOfKEWxasxzCBTBTmCC6D5hawhe662zRlqAREvRMqKQsdoaekY_IFWzsWOpTKKhUjDVQ7sBt7QQyfFpbv_KuG3Gtf1ww4JpZo/s1600/098.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4k9p_Wk7G2wXsc27vqr0pe6buf0Q-3s2tJB0u7qLNEPGOfKEWxasxzCBTBTmCC6D5hawhe662zRlqAREvRMqKQsdoaekY_IFWzsWOpTKKhUjDVQ7sBt7QQyfFpbv_KuG3Gtf1ww4JpZo/s320/098.JPG" width="180" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">...Look familiar? Yup, this painted terracotta female figure circa 3,500-3,400 B.C.E. was the model for the artifact the maenad Maryann struck the pose of while summoning and channeling her considerable power.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">All the other images in this post came from books or websites, but I took the picture above myself; when I visited this pre-dynastic Egyptian figure in person with Rebecca and our mom at its current home in the Brooklyn Museum I was awestruck.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMAcacNpjEtlx1-fl2ropr4YP5SAHE7u_UKD3_-1q_6nffTVCTFLj8KUsHvG8HZKtHzKGIWTPw7m5TxJI6i5GwLihAX5fCuK3-WZEYydgO1jNE5SJn3YN93McGQtV1Fzrtif9b1ZcOt8c/s1600/097.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMAcacNpjEtlx1-fl2ropr4YP5SAHE7u_UKD3_-1q_6nffTVCTFLj8KUsHvG8HZKtHzKGIWTPw7m5TxJI6i5GwLihAX5fCuK3-WZEYydgO1jNE5SJn3YN93McGQtV1Fzrtif9b1ZcOt8c/s200/097.JPG" width="112" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm9UwWtZ0q_RNkGam9vo8K5v32qKRyIDdOLSfePbJGhrSrL7m9mFa732kKEDpAgTynwWTEbg9TMlODPPUUPyktAUW6ZC139ZFRT1byUh6L7eFfuuvf34ixtLXQkEl6Dcjgqchg8KDAPVk/s1600/101.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm9UwWtZ0q_RNkGam9vo8K5v32qKRyIDdOLSfePbJGhrSrL7m9mFa732kKEDpAgTynwWTEbg9TMlODPPUUPyktAUW6ZC139ZFRT1byUh6L7eFfuuvf34ixtLXQkEl6Dcjgqchg8KDAPVk/s200/101.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">So taken was I by this statuette that I took photos from several angles.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A plaque near its display case reads:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: inherit;">This female figure, shown in a long white skirt, was found in a tomb. Does she represent a goddess, a priestess, or a mourner? Is she grieving, dancing, or manifesting her power?</span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So striking is this statuette - one of the most famous pre-dynastic works in the world - that all of the museum's educational and PR materials are anointed with its image.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Another similar, "triumphantly female" (Austen, 1990, p. 8) terracotta piece also comes to us from pre-dynastic Egypt:</span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMIGZtNYVuNl5r5IrY_L4QSRIzCFECgW3UHNNLH04aJzqmieeRsydcYXqR9DEJzYgs2LWTf0LsL9TSPv9p2GjfwN2RZoIBgvOCygqXHHAs3O09N03kF8d-I3rl_JgMSn0wX0L6eAkl7Xk/s1600/BirdHeadedSnakeGoddess.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMIGZtNYVuNl5r5IrY_L4QSRIzCFECgW3UHNNLH04aJzqmieeRsydcYXqR9DEJzYgs2LWTf0LsL9TSPv9p2GjfwN2RZoIBgvOCygqXHHAs3O09N03kF8d-I3rl_JgMSn0wX0L6eAkl7Xk/s320/BirdHeadedSnakeGoddess.jpg" width="227" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As Austen writes, she emphasizes her breasts and buttocks with a dignity and strength that reminds us of women's power and beauty.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">These are compelling, multidimensional female images.</span><br />
<br />
So w<span style="font-family: inherit;">hat do you think, has <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em> stepped up to the plate in terms of writing women characters that bring such strong presence to the screen?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let us know below!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel</span></span><br />
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">References</span></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Austen, H. I. (1990). <i>The heart of the goddess: Art, myth
and meditations of the world’s sacred feminine. </i>Berkeley: Wingbow Press.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dashu, M. Icons of the Matrix. Retrieved March 15, 2011
from: </span><a href="http://www.suppressedhistories.net/articles/icons.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">http://www.suppressedhistories.net/articles/icons.html</span></a><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ward, T. (2006). <i>Savage breast: One man’s search for the
goddess</i>. New York: O Books.</span> </span></div>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-61577156928162497322011-07-30T17:27:00.022-04:002011-07-31T13:12:28.328-04:00Thou Shall Not Suffer a Witch to Live<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-index: 1; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">*</span></span></span><span style="color: black; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-index: 1; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: yellow; font-family: inherit; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">DISCLAIMER - GRAPHIC IMAGES AHEAD*</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-index: 1; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: #990000; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Burning Times & Sexual Torture</span></b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-index: 1; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Did you happen to notice the unholy glee with which these
two matter-of-factly discussed the perversely sexualized protocol for burning a
witch? Rebecca and I did, and it turned our stomachs.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-index: 1; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqoGizSaZjwXSxfkaMxfW2hIa50lzzsMd9-AAbZ3XA3CLVS-JUgg7GPeVYh5RDn_cyvmNZlGFaBYbhOvMfzwcOmyQvLAMrtgXH0ClRKPKt1AZhygz7wz4_oOvm1U5qyBJRWQxOOuq3vac/s1600/priests+witch+burning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqoGizSaZjwXSxfkaMxfW2hIa50lzzsMd9-AAbZ3XA3CLVS-JUgg7GPeVYh5RDn_cyvmNZlGFaBYbhOvMfzwcOmyQvLAMrtgXH0ClRKPKt1AZhygz7wz4_oOvm1U5qyBJRWQxOOuq3vac/s1600/priests+witch+burning.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"You must burn a witch properly, first the
calves," the bishop leeringly explained in Spanish to the aristocrat at
his side, "the thighs, and the hands, then the torso and forearms"...</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">...and as added sick delight played across both their faces,
he continued, "<i>los senos"</i> (the breasts).</span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Marnie's dreaming mind had conjured this diabolic vision,
injecting her into the spectacle as an unseen, unheard observer. "This is
madness" she shouted as a hooded figure touched his lit torch to the pyre
that had been built up around the condemned Antonia, and ran into the crowd.
"We must stop this, we have to save her!" Her frantic cries went
unnoticed, as the bishop pronounced to the wealthy noble, "She cannot be
allowed to die until her face is in flames."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*This scene appears in the video clip below, preceded by
some context</span></i></span><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="286" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/l9Da43eax2k?rel=0" width="450"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<i><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Thou shall not suffer a witch to live</strong></span></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW9zuOykiR3HIN5UVuo_3QOkXr4ZH_z5OBTgTI0eljW_MnUfqS5Pu6_oPSL3NQ8jeql9RIrA9rWDX714X295mBfLLTFh3slAxFM2H3umWppVTO-CZwuPWL9QGOA-qfakd7N-eAXiy7eHc/s1600/malleus+maleficarum.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW9zuOykiR3HIN5UVuo_3QOkXr4ZH_z5OBTgTI0eljW_MnUfqS5Pu6_oPSL3NQ8jeql9RIrA9rWDX714X295mBfLLTFh3slAxFM2H3umWppVTO-CZwuPWL9QGOA-qfakd7N-eAXiy7eHc/s200/malleus+maleficarum.png" width="161" /></span></a></td></tr>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">perhaps the world's most misogynistic book</span> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></td></tr>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></tbody></table>
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<i><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></i><span style="font-family: inherit; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(Exodus 22:18)</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This single line of scripture also appears in Part One,
Question 6 of the infamous </span><a href="http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/"><i><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">Malleus Maleficarium</span></i></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> (Latin for “The Hammer
of Witches”, or “Hexenhammer” in German)<i>. </i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger and
first published in Germany in 1487, it went on to become the de facto manual
for the witch-hunters and Inquisitors of the Burning Times in Europe - a brutal
period spanning the four centuries preceding the Enlightenment. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ashes and cobwebs have gathered in the dark corners of our
collective memory of the time from the late Middle Ages to the early Modern Era
when women [and some men] deemed heretics by the Church were ruthlessly
persecuted. In her book </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1571116807390970532&postID=6157715692816249732"><i><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">Shakti Woman</span></i></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> self-described radical feminist
healer, independent scholar and wisdom teacher </span><a href="http://www.motherpeace.com/index.php?loc=biographies"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">Vicki Noble</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> sweeps them away, revealing the still
smoldering embers of remembrance of "the incredible loss of nine million
'witches' (women healers)" (1991, pp. 2-3) still glowing in our psyches.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Noble writes of the <i>Malleus Malleficarum</i>:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This book charged women, in the lewd
details that sprang from the repressed minds of the Catholic clergy, with all
manner of lust and fornication. But most prominently this book declared in no
uncertain terms that any woman who was successful at healing was by definition
a witch and would be burned. Children were forced to watch their mothers burn
at the stake, and women were routinely raped, violated, and tortured until they
confessed to anything the Inquisitors accused them of. (1991, p. 192)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
According to Noble, the virulence of the Church's enforced celibacy erupted in the mass acting-out of this most noxious of medieval treatises' prescriptions for identifying and dispatching witches. Women were accused of being “carnal” at the core, the source of every temptation for men, linked with evil, sin, and degradation.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZMRjAnW0ZksG9lRFENCsbuzdEqmCk1eua0V1SxAFfM-GoeBL4TpA5qvfmRp-cCYUxX1dgwvLxmMWw03VvV_gfjwMy3O2sz550jZU_g-YAf1j2kQ-w-clXCRTKJRHzmXEZDdhjNgPzPzI/s1600/the+witches+sabbath.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZMRjAnW0ZksG9lRFENCsbuzdEqmCk1eua0V1SxAFfM-GoeBL4TpA5qvfmRp-cCYUxX1dgwvLxmMWw03VvV_gfjwMy3O2sz550jZU_g-YAf1j2kQ-w-clXCRTKJRHzmXEZDdhjNgPzPzI/s320/the+witches+sabbath.jpg" width="221" /></span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">THE WITCHES SABBATH German, 1510. C.E. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Brazen nakedness was a sign of witches' evil nature <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Once held as sacred, female body now represented depravity<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The "</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">blaming of the flesh" (Sanchez-Grant, 2008, p.
89) - and its harsh punishment - was part of every Inquisitor's playbook as the
female body (seen as naturally unstable, deficient, unruly) became a site of
oppression.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the fevered and repressed minds
of the witch-hunters, if sex = evil (Stone, 1976), the punishment must fit the
crime.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I hesitated to post the image below
due to its graphic nature, but after consulting with Rebecca I decided to go
ahead and put it up because it's actually one of the tamer representations of
the <b>interrogation by sexual torture inflicted upon accused witches. </b></span>
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</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi6emtG-TdIrN-YUN11_lIXbyp2NxARFRuPvftrPMpZSZbtIYI-QTO-fWJJc6UVrkk2Mnz7gZcyAfqdAH_9L1zRLM02kGZw7xRFis884TEFbUC36aTOJnYgR-bGZ0ml_H4kbTBvauCsEw/s1600/torture+of+accused+witches.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi6emtG-TdIrN-YUN11_lIXbyp2NxARFRuPvftrPMpZSZbtIYI-QTO-fWJJc6UVrkk2Mnz7gZcyAfqdAH_9L1zRLM02kGZw7xRFis884TEFbUC36aTOJnYgR-bGZ0ml_H4kbTBvauCsEw/s320/torture+of+accused+witches.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It comes from </span><a href="http://atheism.about.com/od/christianityviolence/ig/Christian-Persecution-Witches/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">an excellent slideshow on About.com on the persecution of
witches and witchcraft</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> where you'll find other such period
illustrations that rival today's most hard-core pornography.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*PLEASE
NOTE* We believe that no matter how dark and disturbing, we can't deny our
history lest we be doomed to repeat it. However, we do feel some images are
just too graphic and offensive for display at the </span></i><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PPT</span></i><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">.
To view a woodcut depicting the true depth of the depravity of the sexual
torture of accused witches (and information on the origins of witchcraft, influences
on our modern perceptions of witches, etc.) </span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">see <a href="http://gardenofthewitch.wordpress.com/category/witches/"><span style="color: blue;">Garden of the Witch</span></a></span></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: inherit;">According to Noble
(1991), the late American radical feminist philosopher, academic, and
theologian </span><a href="http://marydaly.org/default.aspx"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">Mary
Daly</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> would cite <b>a parallel between the killing and maiming of
women in large numbers during that time to the modern practices of gynecology</b>.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In this vein, </span><a href="http://www.ciis.edu/Academics/Faculty/Arisika_Razak_Bio.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">Arisika Razak</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> writes of <b>"the cultural
rape of women by the dominant health care model"</b> - a model that has
usurped the woman-centered and woman-dominated profession of midwifery and
placed birthing in the hands of "an obstetric speciality that accepts the
myth of the dangerous womb and the hostile vagina" (1991, pp. 165
& 171). She continues that under the Newtonian and Cartesian worldview,
the body was seen as a functional machine. The male body was he perfect
expression of that machine; the female most imperfect and scarcely worth study.
Under this logic, which persists today, the medical profession casually removes
the sexual parts of women; breasts, uteri, and ovaries - and a hundred years
ago, clitorises.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Interestingly, Razak notes that since pain in labor was sen by the medieval
Church as God's punishment to wisdom-seeking Eve, midwives in the Middle Ages
were burned as witches for the sin of seeking herbs to reduce women's pain.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">T</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he About.com gallery covers witch
hunt and Inquisition-related topics ranging from the suppression of dissent
& outsiders, Church depictions of witches & witchcraft, and how
misogynistic, patriarchal attitudes fed the fear of witches to the persecution
of women, torture implements used, witch hunts in America, and witches as
scapegoats.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you're curious (and brave) I
encourage you to check out these valuable resources to learn about this
shameful time during which the Catholic church seized all property of the
witches it murdered and became rich as a result of the plunder; centuries from
which records tell of whole villages where all the women were wiped out (Noble,
1991).</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: inherit; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Implications of this Barbarous History for
Today's World</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I hate the disagree with ya, Nan Flanagan, <b>but
what happened in Salem, MA</b> in the terrifying year of 1692 when nineteen men
and women were hanged as witches, one man was pressed to death under heavy
stones for refusing to confess, and several more people died in jail <b>can't
just be chalked up to, "just a bunch of neurotic Puritanettes who needed a
good lay".</b></span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The same formula that led to the conflagrations of the
Burning Times (fear + trigger = scapegoat) was at play in Salem and still
operates in the modern world - as evidenced most recently by </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/jul/22/norway"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">last week's terrorist attacks against multiculturalism in
Norway that claimed the lives of more than 70 people</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And we are still living in a culture in which, as Razak
writes, "male participation in the acts of sexuality and procreation have
become so equated with the acting out of hostility, physical oppression, and
fear that rape, incest, and sexual abuse and murder of children, and the battering
of women have become health issues of pandemic proportions" (1991, p.
165). This is certainly not to brush all men with the broad strokes of
modern-day Inquisitors, but the larger societal patterns Razak speaks of are
undeniable. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The </span><a href="http://www.salemwitchmuseum.com/index.shtml"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">Salem Witch Museum</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> serves as an educational
resource for the lessons of that time applied to the present day. My husband
and I visited in 2005 and I still have our admission stickers glued to my
wallet:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmFdgPU1hIlis9JFZqF0bD7zNfOlnKKvTY3yrpCfVYsWFJkNKKX3HQ60ZrD2ACm2-ZJlZ9FSM-wRhSzY6sS9txH340Yy4LR0AloCVL50R35COjwaUl4O4iCxuE9B7L7gP6wMlZPiwbra8/s1600/001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmFdgPU1hIlis9JFZqF0bD7zNfOlnKKvTY3yrpCfVYsWFJkNKKX3HQ60ZrD2ACm2-ZJlZ9FSM-wRhSzY6sS9txH340Yy4LR0AloCVL50R35COjwaUl4O4iCxuE9B7L7gP6wMlZPiwbra8/s200/001.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There we saw an exhibit asking visitors to consider the
phenomenon of witch hunting in the context of contemporary examples of witch
hunts: the Japanese-American internment after Pearl Harbor, the McCarthy
hearings on Communism and the persecution of the gay community at the start of
the AIDS epidemic - these examples of the fear + trigger = scapegoat formula
bring the lessons of stereotyping and prejudice full circle.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For some people, Marnie and her circle & their
alternative religious practices/lifestyle might just fit the scapegoat bill. Who are the other scapegoats, what other witch hunts are under way today?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thoughts?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: inherit;">~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="color: black;">Transcription credits to <a href="http://fangswandsandfairydust.blogspot.com/">Fangs, Wands & Fairy Dust</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">References</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; line-height: 80%; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Noble, V.
(1991). <i>Shakti woman: Feeling our fire, healing our world. The new female
shamanism. </i>San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; line-height: 80%; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Razak, A.
(1991). Toward a Womanist Analysis of Birth. In Orenstein, G.F. (Eds.), <i>Reweaving
the world: The emergence of ecofeminism. </i>(pp. 165-172). San Francisco:
Sierra Club Books.</span></div>
</span><br />
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</div>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-72986413397921503062011-07-28T19:54:00.008-04:002011-07-28T21:06:59.297-04:00I am your daddy and I'm gonna teach you how to hunt, shoot, trap and fish and…and how to take clothes out of the dryer<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So a bathrobed Terry Bellefleur promised the baby boy he cradled in his arms in <em>I'm Alive and On Fire</em>. C</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">ontrast
his words with Melinda Mickens’ to her prodigal son Tommy when they were
reunited after a time apart: “Don’t you cry too, you’ve gotta be the man”.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Do you see a difference in terms of the image of manhood and masculinity; what it
means to grow up and be male in our culture conveyed by these scenes? I do. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On the one hand, we've got a sensitive father figure imagining aloud his future as a male role model for his wife's son Mikey who, although not his child biologically, he is raising as his own. They'll do all kinds of typical red-blooded American outdoorsy guy stuff together, and yeah, he'll show his boy how to do things that until recently were reserved for the domestic womanly sphere, too.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And on the other, we've got a [conniving and manipulative in her own right] mother trapped in an abusive patriarchal marriage encouraging her son to adhere to more retro-rigid models of masculinity and repress his emotions. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">need </i>different
– more like <u>new</u> - images of maleness and masculinity to replace the ones that reassert the
genderized ethos of domination, as Tommy’s mom does when she entreats him to bottle
up his feelings, dry up his tears. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the words of womanist midwife (and professor of women’s
studies at my alma mater, the </span><a href="http://www.ciis.edu/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">California Institute of Integral Studies</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">) </span><a href="http://www.ciis.edu/Academics/Faculty/Arisika_Razak_Bio.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Arisika Razak</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">:</span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The last time I checked, men had tear ducts. They had arms for holding babies.They cared about their children. And they cried at births. (1991, p. 172)</span></blockquote>
Maybe she was checking Season 4 of <span style="color: red;"><em>True Blood</em></span><span style="color: black;">!</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ3NmpgIKgElHmsAuaUXqkD7FIo8jEHWOenM9UcraSCCoFCdjhLCwW-TKA7InjKJLPDYKV8qXRih7rClcSo3blzLss53LPcm7lIB1Pl-sf8CJvPUUezo7sf9CumvUPZWknqm77x7GXBLs/s1600/redefining+masculinity.jpg+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ3NmpgIKgElHmsAuaUXqkD7FIo8jEHWOenM9UcraSCCoFCdjhLCwW-TKA7InjKJLPDYKV8qXRih7rClcSo3blzLss53LPcm7lIB1Pl-sf8CJvPUUezo7sf9CumvUPZWknqm77x7GXBLs/s200/redefining+masculinity.jpg+4.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">tear ducts - check!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj60t1-j9G-mrAenCrPBpJeSp_Skk_eSXcTkJ3CbRrayLSGYJCYB3faW4ttU86KOMoUQuXuWZbWA_tu0LkT7Iu2DXn3V7lYb96KbXsazBBgeoW6sC7Sp0IPeQH9JGdQVUx-dkg1znqEcxQ/s1600/redefining+masculinity.jpg+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj60t1-j9G-mrAenCrPBpJeSp_Skk_eSXcTkJ3CbRrayLSGYJCYB3faW4ttU86KOMoUQuXuWZbWA_tu0LkT7Iu2DXn3V7lYb96KbXsazBBgeoW6sC7Sp0IPeQH9JGdQVUx-dkg1znqEcxQ/s200/redefining+masculinity.jpg+2.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">arms for holding babies - check!<br />
<br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZbs0HeewHBYi8iNJfSXm7Z7eOWb8bjsj2iXGvBpfWS15v26SbdBLRBTYM1hu4HaMcA4lfIud0EqCw7gsan_KcdRPYdNlIdKGRb3PlpnM-Vtw_WP8JGoERToikqQPS7ZUZP5Zle_mdM3Q/s1600/redefining+masculinity.jpg+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZbs0HeewHBYi8iNJfSXm7Z7eOWb8bjsj2iXGvBpfWS15v26SbdBLRBTYM1hu4HaMcA4lfIud0EqCw7gsan_KcdRPYdNlIdKGRb3PlpnM-Vtw_WP8JGoERToikqQPS7ZUZP5Zle_mdM3Q/s200/redefining+masculinity.jpg+3.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">caring about children - check!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The current season of <span style="color: red;"><em>True Blood </em><strong>-</strong></span><span style="color: black;"><strong> </strong></span>and the episode <em>I'm Alive and On Fire</em> specifically - have delivered several such images that run counter to our culture's image of male heroes as warriors, conquerors of women and nature; a picture of masculinity a growing number of men are increasingly uncomfortable with.<br />
<br />
Take Eric, for instance.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji_6NcAxB9-0hvmcBiEb0LXqZ-aW6gbV8knTM7Lddy6WoVxYZLPlSXvA_MD5z6fPBRS8VQkaWp2CyNnyS-5SRQNJc62n7nb2WVfjiSKvhlBhD8psQZgQvZ6KEXZB3dNptWuYFXjZSMrL8/s1600/eric+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji_6NcAxB9-0hvmcBiEb0LXqZ-aW6gbV8knTM7Lddy6WoVxYZLPlSXvA_MD5z6fPBRS8VQkaWp2CyNnyS-5SRQNJc62n7nb2WVfjiSKvhlBhD8psQZgQvZ6KEXZB3dNptWuYFXjZSMrL8/s200/eric+1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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No, no no - not <em>that</em> Eric....</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWZrzceXl99eIqy7eV5e4ra9ljHUZFKe4ZLcwQRJARxW2fcn3PXeALbn9VO9IvA-QF4XsqaxTCtqMhG2r9UoWrf3LR7GUS8jiAzHR5aFbJ8NEmfRAJh0MZYKkW_s2VkhiALMyFMxns8EI/s1600/eric+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="109" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWZrzceXl99eIqy7eV5e4ra9ljHUZFKe4ZLcwQRJARxW2fcn3PXeALbn9VO9IvA-QF4XsqaxTCtqMhG2r9UoWrf3LR7GUS8jiAzHR5aFbJ8NEmfRAJh0MZYKkW_s2VkhiALMyFMxns8EI/s200/eric+2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-48TUKv9-S1zEIwWPtPlkCW2FhdOkzhriKiWJpa47BYslWQbIZv8I0txWzUxfPEJK8LNVa03MLba5gPGsd-FmIMAsU1TZ7WEraYwB0TryzDCW26fLUvfU8uxfzd_32necxmqnWm9TA7k/s1600/eric+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-48TUKv9-S1zEIwWPtPlkCW2FhdOkzhriKiWJpa47BYslWQbIZv8I0txWzUxfPEJK8LNVa03MLba5gPGsd-FmIMAsU1TZ7WEraYwB0TryzDCW26fLUvfU8uxfzd_32necxmqnWm9TA7k/s200/eric+3.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin0duJCSX8tY6k6iKKpCPyGd8pCFaeF73iaESyizhMj9CpKlk8UIe9h5KAuJhZWP5OURg_aGaEzTLZ0kNPOEv7mtRQ-10jTEdN0jdXKfk_9xO4p3SNoi9aZb1QbBU7w7R5C2DBoSWq5I0/s1600/eric+5.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin0duJCSX8tY6k6iKKpCPyGd8pCFaeF73iaESyizhMj9CpKlk8UIe9h5KAuJhZWP5OURg_aGaEzTLZ0kNPOEv7mtRQ-10jTEdN0jdXKfk_9xO4p3SNoi9aZb1QbBU7w7R5C2DBoSWq5I0/s200/eric+5.png" width="200" /></a>...the <em>new</em> Eric.</div>
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Nope, wrong again! Not the jogging suited Eric of Season 2 who showed up freshly shorn at the <em>Forever 21</em>-esque boutique where Bill was shopping for Jessica, declaring, "it's the new me".</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKwfF8cz1717Ufw0y72Kc8Zde1RYuhxd9zETozlG5g5lycrgoN_9DvxyGTaE4d2-lW1HFM05XUOrsOKztotdB20W_P19_ER6Ak4oQtoveYP8N5xVxfGAskOc3tS0w_87rBeblkzEI0N7s/s1600/eric+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKwfF8cz1717Ufw0y72Kc8Zde1RYuhxd9zETozlG5g5lycrgoN_9DvxyGTaE4d2-lW1HFM05XUOrsOKztotdB20W_P19_ER6Ak4oQtoveYP8N5xVxfGAskOc3tS0w_87rBeblkzEI0N7s/s200/eric+7.jpg" width="178" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKwfF8cz1717Ufw0y72Kc8Zde1RYuhxd9zETozlG5g5lycrgoN_9DvxyGTaE4d2-lW1HFM05XUOrsOKztotdB20W_P19_ER6Ak4oQtoveYP8N5xVxfGAskOc3tS0w_87rBeblkzEI0N7s/s1600/eric+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span class="st"><span class="ft">I'm talking about the <em>new-new</em> Eric. <em>Amnesia</em> <em>Eric</em>. He's contemplative. Playful. Vulnerable, even. And seemingly contrite for the sins of his [distant & more recent] past. Sookie sees the change, noticing out loud to Eric, "<span class="st"><span class="ft">It's just that you weren't always like this; gentle, sweet, but it suits you.” (S4E5 <em>Me and the Devil</em>)</span></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicfNx-WglqoRfqKgiL1OxmUhocUwY5rPbbUwtAjkIS4FjXcPPHfAjQNNf_h4zt3jUTuR4HRQRbxcnlxGb4A0ixttX9Ddak6W_2a7bm2fT2HtR7jPdJafqEnPRHEgfiZfD6M964OQCch_Y/s1600/eric+8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicfNx-WglqoRfqKgiL1OxmUhocUwY5rPbbUwtAjkIS4FjXcPPHfAjQNNf_h4zt3jUTuR4HRQRbxcnlxGb4A0ixttX9Ddak6W_2a7bm2fT2HtR7jPdJafqEnPRHEgfiZfD6M964OQCch_Y/s200/eric+8.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2uAXnDklJIAOaLWj80VNyYpIXcg1oxFy5aD4OcbprynAIIFDeNG0AH62vEoPkHAA-ums9BqeneO_I5zcJiuGEdJCZCs98xtuH0dYv_p_IFApex5zPnyILmes-N4OPbQx1eI2qIMRw8wQ/s1600/eric+9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2uAXnDklJIAOaLWj80VNyYpIXcg1oxFy5aD4OcbprynAIIFDeNG0AH62vEoPkHAA-ums9BqeneO_I5zcJiuGEdJCZCs98xtuH0dYv_p_IFApex5zPnyILmes-N4OPbQx1eI2qIMRw8wQ/s200/eric+9.jpg" width="200" /></a>Indeed, this [perhaps temporary] version of the Viking, Eric 2.0 seems light years away from the swaggering, coldly calculating, at-times viciously cruel (or as Sookie said in last week's episode, the "smug sarcastic ass") side of the vampire sheriff we have come to know best.</div>
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<span class="st"><span class="ft"><em><strong>YOU LIKE?</strong> </em></span></span></div>
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<em><span class="st"><span class="ft">*Sorry, couldn't resist adding that in - truebies will get the reference!</span></span></em>. </div>
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<span class="st"><span class="ft">Sookie certainly seems to. Yet despite her obvious warming to him, Eric doubts himself. Something deep within him knows that he has drifted from society's expectations of an [alpha] male and he fears Sookie will reject him for it.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="st"><span class="ft">In the <em>I'm Alive and on Fire</em> scene below, Sookie climbs down into her basement cubby to rouse the uncharacteristically [for the Eric she thinks she knows] morose vampire moping there. She comments that the "real" Eric would not be so down. He begs to differ, replying in protest, "I AM real". </span></span> </div>
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<span class="st"><span class="ft">This exchange is particularly relevant to the point I'm trying to make about <em><span style="color: #cc0000;">True Blood</span></em> offering up new, more expansive images of masculinity:</span></span><br />
<br />
Eric: You think I'm weak.<br />
Sookie: No.<br />
Eric: You want the Eric that doesn't feel.<br />
Sookie: It's not that.<br />
<br />
Feminist scholar and CIIS professor <a href="http://www.goddessariadne.org/index.htm">Carol Christ</a> (1997, p. 161) writes:</div>
<blockquote>
Rooted in the ethos of the warrior, modern societies have been described as "dominator cultures" by cultural historian (<em>also</em> on the CIIS faculty) <a href="http://rianeeisler.com/">Riane Eisler</a>. The ethos of dominator cultures states that power stems from control. Dominators are taught to control women, nature, children, animals, other men, their own bodies, <u>and their feelings and sensations. </u>The ethos of domination denies or disparages human embodiment, relationship, and interdependence. In the ethos of dominator cultures, finitude, vulnerability, and limitation are called <u>weaknesses</u>. </blockquote>
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We've seen Eric's emotional side before; with Godric, Pam, even with Sookie. But this new openness to feeling, this often being lost in emotive reverie stuff would likely not have jived too well with his human life as a Nordic warrior - or with his present duties as a figure of considerable authority amidst the shifting sands of the cutthroat vampire hierarchy.<br />
<br />
It must feel strange and unsettling to Eric; like weakness. On the contrary, in the new Eric I see an image of masculinity that's a step towards changing the patterns of domination that govern our lives and society.</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqhORRmap-JTILsxzOkI-abWo_yCfCqapPmVUNY1yOx306EUF5hMkwG_vdQgLZXr5hEdlSLwBzX_25X2WvwwGsIaYWCQ_8whegoCI8BZ-s7ZJz26ntB1Ggq_esPawZ-DcXwR9NTly-rpY/s1600/terry+comforting+lafayette.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="113" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqhORRmap-JTILsxzOkI-abWo_yCfCqapPmVUNY1yOx306EUF5hMkwG_vdQgLZXr5hEdlSLwBzX_25X2WvwwGsIaYWCQ_8whegoCI8BZ-s7ZJz26ntB1Ggq_esPawZ-DcXwR9NTly-rpY/s200/terry+comforting+lafayette.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"In a society that wishes us to see men as devoid of feelings,<br />
let us hold an image of men as nurturers (Razak, 1991, p. 172)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">And then, we've got Terry who - as we wrote on our </span><a href="http://piercedpomegranate.blogspot.com/p/scope-of-this-forum.html"><span style="font-size: small;">Forum's Scope</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> page - describes himself as "<strong>a nurturer</strong>". </span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This seems an odd juxtaposition with his military background, since the military identity tends to be traditionally hypermasculine in the U.S. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">In Christ's thinking, military training figures prominently in the indoctrination into dominator cultures; into the way such social systems define masculinity and power. "Manhood" is equated with the denial of Eros (defined as a transformative force of intelligent, embodied love which connects us to each other and the web of life) and its replacement with violence. Feminist political scientist Judith Hicks Stieham's quote underscores her point:</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The appeal to manhood is very much part of military training...the familiar "This is my rifle, this is my gun [pointing to the penis], one is for killing, one is for fun." (1997, p.162)</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The ethos of this institution that breaks down young men's defenses (that which connects them with others) in order to turn "boys" into "men" who readily submit to authority and are prepared to kill has permeated the whole of our culture. In the rituals of daily life we reenact its basic training.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Christ ponders, what would happen if all the energy and resources (money and human capital) spent on war and the cost of repairing its damages were instead devoted to the nurturing of life?</span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXiZ8SsBxGM2Ajjhr307UjbUjUr8PqxUa6PL39fg0v7j0cuShrPzW-pI8Gw_15p2SuIeqge6mI4bQZlgPMymZE0rQ1o69G6mqxWdEFJp0vfCaUzUVe6L9QpzjVeG-17hShzrJFr47tvcI/s1600/wounded+warrior.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXiZ8SsBxGM2Ajjhr307UjbUjUr8PqxUa6PL39fg0v7j0cuShrPzW-pI8Gw_15p2SuIeqge6mI4bQZlgPMymZE0rQ1o69G6mqxWdEFJp0vfCaUzUVe6L9QpzjVeG-17hShzrJFr47tvcI/s200/wounded+warrior.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Razak (1991) proposes that new images can be created by men who participate in childbirth and affirm themselves as nurturers of life</span>. </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"></span>Could Terry as a wounded warrior/ wounded healer - someone who [usually, except for that whole Arlene pregnancy thing] responds well to the emotions needs of others, doesn't shy away from holding another wounded man in his embrace, and finds fulfillment in nurturing family life - be seen as positing a new model of maleness? And a particularly potent image of masculinity for our times, at that, given that scores of battle-worn soldiers will soon be returning to our shores from the Iraq and Afghanistan fronts? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">And finally, there's everyone's favorite shape-shifting bar owner, Sam Merlotte. Sure, he's interested in pursuing a romantic relationship with Luna, so getting on her daughter's good side just makes good sense. But did you notice that initially, Luna seemed hesitant to even let Sam know she <em>had</em> a daughter; much less let him meet or get close to her?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Luna's shady behavior when he showed up at her door to return her seducing favor <em>almost </em>led me to believe that she was harboring not a pint-sized dynamo of a kid, but another man inside. Her leeriness to allow a strange man into her daughter's life is perfectly understandable; she's instinctively protecting her child, and part of her probably thought Sam would bolt at the sight of such "baggage".</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">But he proved her wrong! Sam was immediately at ease with Luna's daughter, crouching down to ask her, "which Barbie doll do I get, I hope she has a bunch of pretty dresses." If a rugged, scruffy-sexy guy sitting on the floor playing with Barbies isn't masculinity stereotype busting, I don't know what is!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX1tXtR4vOB9yKqWTr0RbTiKYFAQWS9MtckucBrfXPCb4-hUws82u754h4EhDNl-FG-8bn6zCHee2uWTlsePNsNHlXo81ONQY-XMlhAEGsJdrrr8hx_DylfA0_MCktT4Moy8_5lzFpdu4/s1600/sam+and+kid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX1tXtR4vOB9yKqWTr0RbTiKYFAQWS9MtckucBrfXPCb4-hUws82u754h4EhDNl-FG-8bn6zCHee2uWTlsePNsNHlXo81ONQY-XMlhAEGsJdrrr8hx_DylfA0_MCktT4Moy8_5lzFpdu4/s200/sam+and+kid.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: small;">Children are usually pretty adept judges of character; from the image to the right, it appears as though Luna's daughter has given Sam her stamp of approval. She can probably sense his genuine vibe.</span></div>
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</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Men in our
culture are not raised to see themselves as relational; they have long been
socialized to accept the model of the linear hero’s journey in which others he
meets along the path are seen as either assets or barriers to his achieving his
purpose. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As Christ writes, many thinkers have portrayed
“man” as an isolated rational and moral individual – an island, if you will – and
have posited an intrinsic opposition between the self and others who are
perceived as impinging upon the freedom of the self. This ideal “independent
self” of traditional philosophies and theologies can be seen as a fiction.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Theologian Martin Buber says, there is no “I”
without a “Thou”, no self that is not created in relationship with others.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><blockquote class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 22.5pt 0in;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The basic word I-You can only be spoken with one’s
whole being. The concentration and fusion into a whole being can never be
accomplished by me, can never be accomplished without me. I require a You to
become, becoming I, I say You. <b><u>All actual life is encounter</u></b>. (Christ, 1997, p. 137)</span></blockquote>
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</blockquote>
</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Buber states further that it is wrong to say that
first we “are” and then we “enter into” relationships. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Rather, the longing for relation is primary, the
cupped hand into which the being that confronts us nestles…In the beginning is
the relation – as the category of being, as readiness, as a form that reaches
out to be filled" (Christ, 1997, p. 137).</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Too often, the models for being extended to men are
more accurately represented by a closed fist than by an open hand reaching out
to clasp with another. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The men of <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em> profiled here - at least in their curr</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">ent incarnations - seem to have hands open and outstretched; they seem ready for relationship, for conceiving of themselves as relational. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We absolutely need <strong>new images, integral models of maleness and masculinity</strong>, but, as Razak (1991, p. 165) writes, we must also answer "the critical need our society has to make <strong>a new model for human interaction</strong>". </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My eyes are glued to <span style="color: red;"><em>True Blood </em></span><span style="color: black;">for what I hope will be a continuing stream of alternative images that can add to the discourse in this regard.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">~ </span><span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel<em> </em> </span> </span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">References</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-index: 1; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Christ,
C.(1997) </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-index: 1; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Rebirth of the goddess</span><span style="color: black; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-index: 1; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">. </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-index: 1; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-index: 1; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">New York: Routledge.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-index: 1; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Razak, A.
(1991). Toward a Womanist analysis of birth. In Diamond, I. & Orenstein,
G.F. (Eds.), </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-index: 1; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Reweaving the world: The emergence of
ecofeminism. </span><span style="color: black; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-index: 1; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">(pp. 165-172). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. </span></span></div>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-31124443379368346882011-07-26T00:51:00.005-04:002011-07-26T14:06:34.472-04:00Not 'cause some mean man shoves you in a shed and says you got to...Jason's Hot Shot ordeal was absolutely horrific.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In <em>Body Matters: Essays on the Sociology of the Body</em>, editors David Morgan and Sue Scott write, "Historically, women have been defined by their <strong>'biological potentiality' </strong>(1993, p. 11). Indeed, the same could be said of Jason's recent predicament - strapped down to a filthy cot and forced to be Ghost Daddy stud to the females of the compound, each one having been programmed to obediently and dutifully fulfill her <strong>"reproductive destiny"</strong> (Sanchez-Grant, 2008, p. 78).</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgZ3Jgu2Nwtpn-75zM5hJLfktgz4p2g1KUt89npkW1W88mvqUFij2M2TwCS3wINF-6mSb9vrnAC7e00x1yIBl_P41tJgBt7dvsYfspNcbxayBJO397myzjlN0NlfsumyWiuntYU3pIuxE/s1600/i+got+a+duty+to+my.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgZ3Jgu2Nwtpn-75zM5hJLfktgz4p2g1KUt89npkW1W88mvqUFij2M2TwCS3wINF-6mSb9vrnAC7e00x1yIBl_P41tJgBt7dvsYfspNcbxayBJO397myzjlN0NlfsumyWiuntYU3pIuxE/s320/i+got+a+duty+to+my.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crystal to Jason, "I got a duty to my kinfolk to propagate the bloodline" S4E2 <em>You Smell Like Dinner</em><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8vt_ozC2lpwHhGX3euiXFooaH8Ecju9znjALyM5-zHEpzXvbIyz-Nh9_eqbUu3-O7bxxqzDii_piRN6Is5dyyVlslRiOFcyFgTXk0Uw2Za-z_nmw5Y-cFg-hbWZzqt9f36M5t1aaoYt4/s1600/becky+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8vt_ozC2lpwHhGX3euiXFooaH8Ecju9znjALyM5-zHEpzXvbIyz-Nh9_eqbUu3-O7bxxqzDii_piRN6Is5dyyVlslRiOFcyFgTXk0Uw2Za-z_nmw5Y-cFg-hbWZzqt9f36M5t1aaoYt4/s1600/becky+2.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Becky to Jason, <span class="ft">“Uncle Felton says I'm old enough and you'd
better give me a cub!” S4E4 <em>I'm Alive and On Fire</em></span></div>
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<div align="left">
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Bound and nearly helpless himself, Jason was valiant in his determination to have the young Becky spared from such a debasing and dehumanizing fate, displaying the generosity of spirit his captor Crystal lauded him for earlier.<br />
<br />
To recap:<br />
<br />
Jason, horrified upon seeing Becky approach him from the rear of the breeding shed, shouts out to anyone in earshot: <span class="ft">“Oh no, hey she's just a little girl!”. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="ft">Old man Luthor, looking in, yells: "Never you mind, breed
Ghost Daddy, breed."</span><br />
<br />
<span class="ft">Jason tries to reason with Becky, whose sense of duty to her clan and overriding fear of Felton compelled her to take her place on the breeding line: </span><br />
<br />
<span class="ft">Jason: “You ever do sex before?”<br />Becky: “Sure, lots of
times...No, but
I ain’t scared.”<br />Jason: “This ain’t the way it should be, your first time. It should be special. With a boy you really like, who brings you
presents and candy.”<br />Becky: “Boys do that?!”<br />Jason: “They sure do. And, hey, you make
love with him cause it’s the right time. Not ‘cause some mean man shoves you in
a shed and say you gotta.”</span><br />
<span class="ft">Becky: “I don’t wanna do this with you, I don’t wanna do this at
all.”<br />Jason: “Then cut me loose.”</span><br />
<br />
<span class="ft">And she does, exhibiting the bravery and decency that not a one of her kinfolk would, or could. But not before Jason's and many of the women of Hot Shot's bodies were bent to the will of others; their spirits trampled, their humanity utterly violated.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="ft">Jason was undoubtedly used, abused, and traumatized at Hot Shot, but so too were the women in the breeding line. The women queuing up to be recepticals for Ghost Daddy's seed have been been manipulated, bullied and exploited by their men; forced to do the bidding of a small number (perhaps only one, truly - Felton) who sit atop the werepanther social heap.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRh4lDNC4n_OSaWm7LMnagzsImd8MXNZj_vNobv9gR1h45lTWD7JI40uQO-aLz_Gu6bRq2nS4RjPOMPXVn7CsNPgxF1m9sEGf385Dy7GDy_HkqSfXB-pP34exaIzRHqUNqH4ctHseZ4y0/s1600/women+waiting+to+be+impregnated+by+jason.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRh4lDNC4n_OSaWm7LMnagzsImd8MXNZj_vNobv9gR1h45lTWD7JI40uQO-aLz_Gu6bRq2nS4RjPOMPXVn7CsNPgxF1m9sEGf385Dy7GDy_HkqSfXB-pP34exaIzRHqUNqH4ctHseZ4y0/s1600/women+waiting+to+be+impregnated+by+jason.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<span class="ft">Here's an interesting angle on this.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="ft">In their article "'Katrina That Bitch!' Hegemonic Representations of Women's Sexuality on Hurricane Katrina Souvenir T-Shirts", Kris Macomber, Christine Mallison and Elizabeth Seale (2011, p. 529)point out that <strong>within the framework of androcentric cultural production</strong>, far more derogatory terms exist in English for women than for men [and] <strong>sexual slang terms that insult men often simultaneously insult women (e.g. <em>son of a bitch</em>).</strong> <strong>Applied to the context of the Hot Shot breeding mill, a torment that insults and injures a man also insults and injures many women</strong>.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="ft">Take for instance the woman who, grunting in frustration as she rides an unwilling Jason, works in vain to reach the orgasm she has been denied her entire married life.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2z2ACWKQIKWgkMlnL2RKG8AZfWMPnv5hwPJmzd39kFdwO-EzH_u9CXzU1ugm0mu3eonhumFv93LeSwgW9rgDqBIUO4M4ZfjudqIkU3pPsMZTiCwEGQmvJGS6isClxkCx1j0d29EH9Uk8/s1600/hot+shot+woman+crying.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2z2ACWKQIKWgkMlnL2RKG8AZfWMPnv5hwPJmzd39kFdwO-EzH_u9CXzU1ugm0mu3eonhumFv93LeSwgW9rgDqBIUO4M4ZfjudqIkU3pPsMZTiCwEGQmvJGS6isClxkCx1j0d29EH9Uk8/s200/hot+shot+woman+crying.jpg" width="197" /></a></div>
<br />
Jason: “Come on now...Get off me!"<br />
Woman: “I ain’t done yet.”<br />
He repeats it, shouting and rocking from side to side, unbalancing her so
she is forced off. She starts crying. <br />
Jason: “I don’t know why you’re crying, I’m
the one what getting raped.”<br />
Woman: “My
brother husband, he just bites the back of my neck, and he holds me down 'til
it’s over. You’re the best I ever had.<br />
She pads off, slumping as she yells,
“Next!”<br />
<br />
Heartbreaking. Jason's rape is unforgivable, but so is the tragedy of a woman's sexuality blunted; pleasurable physical intimacy and the warmth of a loving relationship denied her.<br />
<br />
<span class="ft"><strong>Where does healing begin?</strong> For Jason, maybe through the bonds of friendship. In Sunday's episode we witnessed Jason share his pain and suffering with Hoyt. His openness is surprising - but encouraging - given that statistics show male survivors of sexual assault or intimate partner violence are slow to report such crimes or even talk about them at all when their attacker is female. I'm guessing few men [and boys] relish the thought of being re-traumatized, as they will likely be shamed and made to feel less of a man for being victimized by a female. For the women of Hot Shot, now under the paw of Crystal "Big Mama Kitty" Norris, who knows... </span><br />
<br />
On a larger, systems level, we've got to recognize that sexual violence and exploitation is deeply entwined with the prevailing culture of violence; the ethos of domination. As feminist scholar Carol Christ (1997, p. 158) writes:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
To transform the cycle of violence, we must proceed simultaneously on several levels: We must change ourselves and our intimate relationships, especially those with our children, we must transform the deepest values of our culture, and we must reconstruct our social institutions.</blockquote>
We need sweeping paradigmatic change, and it it really does start with us - our own ways of thinking and being, the way we move through the world. Integral thinkers agree that the point at which to leverage the greatest potential for change within a system is at the level of <strong>mindset</strong>. <br />
<br />
When a show like <span style="color: red;"><em>True Blood </em><span style="color: black;">presents </span></span><span style="color: black;">- or perhaps the better word is <em>confronts</em> us - with images of that which is abhorrent, (i.e. Jason's ordeal), it can catalyze within its audience deeper reflection upon the way things are and get us to think and talk about how they might be different. And, maybe unseat some taken-for-granted assumptions and habits of mind along the way. Not a bad place to start, if you ask me! </span> <br />
<br />
Transcription credits: <a href="http://fangswandsandfairydust.blogspot.com/2011/07/true-blood-july-17-im-alive-and-on-fire.html">Fangs, Wands & Fairydust</a><br />
<br />
~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel</span><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<span style="color: black;">References</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
Christ, C. (1997). <em>Rebirth of the Goddess</em>. New York: Routledge.<br />
<br />
<br />
Macomber, K. Mallinson, C. & Seale, E. (2011). "'Katrina That Bitch!' Representations of Women's Sexuality on Hurricane Katrina Souvenir T-Shirts". <em>The Journal of Popular Culture</em>. (525-544). Vol. 44, #3.</div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
Morgan, D. & Scott, S. (1993). "Bodies in a Social Landscape. In <em>Body Matters: Essays on the Sociology of the Body</em> by Morgan, D. & Scott, S. (Eds.). pp. 1-22, London: The Falmer Press.</div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222;">Sanchez-Grant,
S. (2008). The Female Body in Margaret Atwood's <i>The Edible Woman</i> and
<i>Lady </i></span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>Oracle. </i>Journal of
International Women's Studies, Vol. 9, #2.</span></span></div>
<div align="center">
</div>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-12920911649529270552011-07-25T17:21:00.004-04:002011-07-28T21:49:10.231-04:00You aren't supposed to think, you're supposed to follow protocol!So said King Compton to his [grudging] subject Pam in <span style="color: black;">S4E4 <em>I'm Alive and On Fire</em></span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13;"><strong>This quote speaks well to a major theme I detected in that episode: <u>hierarchical, authoritarian power & control</u> </strong></span><br />
<br />
IN THE FAMILY<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiatz2ArC-fs_j1KM-EaE6GXl1Tu-ZCcXDLptJmePaFGX4M7Od40HApxdt8hcqnP-Aew8ouZawcTm9hBqFfEQjIA6dLpX0T17GdA7g7StYDoVK_U-QLpe9OKFJsWe3zZffYOk1AjYSSi7E/s1600/joe+lee+choking+tommy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiatz2ArC-fs_j1KM-EaE6GXl1Tu-ZCcXDLptJmePaFGX4M7Od40HApxdt8hcqnP-Aew8ouZawcTm9hBqFfEQjIA6dLpX0T17GdA7g7StYDoVK_U-QLpe9OKFJsWe3zZffYOk1AjYSSi7E/s200/joe+lee+choking+tommy.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joe Lee has a choke hold on Tommy <em>and </em>Melinda Mickens<em> </em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
IN THE COMMUNITY<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg7F7PvxGc8SeCniX3O-3_mmcTxFKt-ZcQRYZRsqN4Z9ljdX952j2bczcJI3j0NgJXA5flIQYdDYz8G7L2OJ4lwzOP_vY-tUBHK5rpkbc5NfZFmWGu6NXHaCs0tfxDHP3EUfuzvBROl00/s1600/crystal+norris+big+mama+kitty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg7F7PvxGc8SeCniX3O-3_mmcTxFKt-ZcQRYZRsqN4Z9ljdX952j2bczcJI3j0NgJXA5flIQYdDYz8G7L2OJ4lwzOP_vY-tUBHK5rpkbc5NfZFmWGu6NXHaCs0tfxDHP3EUfuzvBROl00/s200/crystal+norris+big+mama+kitty.jpg" width="177" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crystal: "I'm big mama kitty now, finally. Everyone gonna do what I say"<br />
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
AND IN THE NATION<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFWbK9CCo6aLEJY2_qsyCxdmueeqPsUl7MKgqxRmLZowyeN_hzyz8Mpt3q4UFl6d5OdlxbfsTqZa5TVtpehK3ePfn_5H-cAcMTXcyDcC8176Xo-kHYudyy7h_N6hBeownaZyZrN7TUKpk/s1600/KING+BILL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="90" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFWbK9CCo6aLEJY2_qsyCxdmueeqPsUl7MKgqxRmLZowyeN_hzyz8Mpt3q4UFl6d5OdlxbfsTqZa5TVtpehK3ePfn_5H-cAcMTXcyDcC8176Xo-kHYudyy7h_N6hBeownaZyZrN7TUKpk/s200/KING+BILL.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the newly crowned vampire king of Louisiana<br />
<br />
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
How is such autocratic rule achieved? How is it maintained? Is it legitimate? Effective? Do we have any alternatives? How can we throw it off? <br />
<br />
If we are to organize ourselves and act to get out from under oppressive rule, we've got to be able to determine who's <em>really </em>in charge. <br />
<br />
For example, Bill looks rather more presidential than kingly here, no? <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW2NWdtqZozeJLHGdZyiwDA7dcWko51QsTDD5-BTR3ZlfWpKA1eI91cIpTDqWPMwnRG7IzrPFRaIv45jwkSEIijBZkydNpBhL0tYreY_0a5SKLErOSHfOYg-oPtWxPw5SGj-wO69uOZdE/s1600/president+Compton.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW2NWdtqZozeJLHGdZyiwDA7dcWko51QsTDD5-BTR3ZlfWpKA1eI91cIpTDqWPMwnRG7IzrPFRaIv45jwkSEIijBZkydNpBhL0tYreY_0a5SKLErOSHfOYg-oPtWxPw5SGj-wO69uOZdE/s200/president+Compton.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
In countries where there are both royalty and systems of representative government, the royals are generally seen more as figure heads than politicians; that label being reserved for those in elected office. Interestingly, Bill is being portrayed as the later. <br />
<br />
And he certainly seems to be more involved with matters of state than the two other vampire monarchs we have met thus far on <span style="color: red;"><em>True Blood</em><span style="color: black;">,</span> </span> Russell & Sophie-Ann, ever were. Yet, it seems <em>someone else is really in charge</em>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHMYgfFFrG6lnOtOdYnYGeX5f2eKwkgsA4esdjJSmpfmJkj5EkGkjCo-x7g5t7iKdCKOYxRXjDoMahOVW-zFyre_yvV4FrFBxeok5n9j2CLMEleadCxSXXatU32JAoWohTCXG4qzsSkNI/s1600/no+dead+humans+or+I%2527ll+have+your+ass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHMYgfFFrG6lnOtOdYnYGeX5f2eKwkgsA4esdjJSmpfmJkj5EkGkjCo-x7g5t7iKdCKOYxRXjDoMahOVW-zFyre_yvV4FrFBxeok5n9j2CLMEleadCxSXXatU32JAoWohTCXG4qzsSkNI/s320/no+dead+humans+or+I%2527ll+have+your+ass.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Now, we all know that at least in this country, there is [supposed to be] balance of power. The executive branch of government is not omnipotent; the president must answer to the congress, etc.<br />
<br />
On the surface, at least, this appears not be the case in the vampire nation.<br />
<br />
So far this season, King Bill's power seems rather absolute and iron-fisted. Pam's telling him she wouldn't risk lying about Eric's whereabouts because word of Bill's ruthlessness as king has travelled far and wide is seemingly evidence of that. And then there's his condemning the vampire caught on YouTube feeding on a human to the true death without benefit of a trial (<span class="ft">I want to take this case to the Authority!" Bill: "I <strong>am</strong> the Authority, you idiot !"). S4E3 <span class="ft"><em>If you Love Me, Why Am I Dyin'</em></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="ft"></span>But in this week's episode, we found out that things aren't so simple.<br />
<br />
With Bill cast as somewhat of Nan's puppet - his distaste for power wielded unilaterally & unjustly made clear by his sarcasm when she inquird about the execution - could this be a critique of the U.S. system of government? Is <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em> suggesting that our elected officials from the school board to the Commander-In-Chief aren't really holding the reigns, the [fill in the blank - multinational corporations, shadowy interest groups, others in government, etc.] are?<br />
<br />
Hhmmm...<br />
<br />
Thoughts? Please share below.<br />
<br />
~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel</span>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-35954759768021610402011-07-25T17:17:00.002-04:002011-07-25T17:19:41.643-04:00I'm Alive and On FireI started out here trying to squeeze my thoughts on several of the interlocking themes I detected in last week's episode, <em>I'm Alive and On Fire</em> into this one post, but quickly realized that it would be waayyy too long and unwieldy to handle.<br />
<br />
So I've decided to post separately about the following concepts in the order they are listed below:<br />
<ul>
<li>Hierarchical, authoritarian power & control </li>
<li>Domination & power-over</li>
<li>[Re]Defining Masculinity</li>
<li>Maintaining power through violence & terror</li>
</ul>
HAPPY READING!<br />
<br />
P.S. without your input the <em><span style="color: red;">PPT</span></em> is like an echo chamber, and we already know what our own voices sound like. Lend us yours; please join the conversation! <br />
<br />
~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel</span>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-8801424834822258822011-07-25T15:08:00.009-04:002011-07-25T15:41:35.299-04:00Why wouldn't Hoyt like Jessica's vlog?As you can see from our response to Season 4 thus far, we're pretty interested in the story arc following Hoyt & Jessica's relationship, or - as we like to say using a play on Alan Ball's words (AB has said that one of the themes he wants to explore through the show is the "terrors of intimacy") - the "<em>terrors of domesticity</em>".
<br />
<br />
Jessica Hamby's vlog <a href="http://www.babyvamp-jessica.com/?cmpid=ABC162">Babyvamp Jessica</a> (not a typo, short for "video blog") offers a great extension of this <i><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span> </i>subplot; it brings added emotional tone and tenor to its characters, twists, and turns.<br />
<br />
Her first two posts of 2011 were put up three days before the Season 4 premiere episode "She's Not There" aired, likely as a means of adding to the media buzz while, at the same time, feeding the appetites of Truebies hungry for anything <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em>.<br />
<br />
Aside from being a marvelous marketing ploy, Jessica's June 23rd posts open a new window on her relationship with Hoyt. <br />
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<strong>Here's the first one; Jessica's hiding out in the backyard to tape the vlog from a disapproving Hoyt...</strong><br />
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<a href="http://www.hbo.com/video/video.html?view=grid&vid=1189321&autoplay=true" title="Jessica's Blog: Blowin' Smoke ">Jessica's Blog: Blowin' Smoke </a><br />
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<strong>...and the second; he's found that she's still vlogging by rustling through her private things.</strong><br />
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<a href="http://www.hbo.com/video/video.html?view=grid&vid=1189325&autoplay=true" title="Jessica's Blog: Snoopin' Around">Jessica's Blog: Snoopin' Around</a></div>
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Here's some of the serious questions these posts have raised for me about the dynamics of Jessica & Hoyt's relationship:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><strong><span style="color: #351c75;">Why doesn't Hoyt like her vlog</span>?</strong> <em>Is it because he's a quiet, private person who fears such a public platform will lead to an invasion of their privacy? Has he become controlling? Maybe he'd like Jessica to himself, instead of having to share her with the anonymous Internet "friends" she discloses personal things to in each post? Has he communicated clearly with her as to why he is uneasy with it, can they strike a mutual understanding that will work for both of them?</em></li>
<li><span style="color: #274e13;"><strong>Must Jessica hide any action of hers she thinks Hoyt won't like or disagree with</strong></span>?</li>
<li><span style="color: #a64d79;"><strong>How can they both ride the razor's edge of maintaining their individual identity while being part of a relationship - not let the "me" be subsumed by the "we"? </strong></span><span style="color: black;"><em>Can they learn to allow each other the space they need, or will one smother the other? Can they respect each other's privacy/choices within the context of their relationship? </em></span><strong> </strong> </li>
<li><strong><span style="color: #660000;">What are the consequences of Jessica's continuing to do something she told Hoyt she would stop - and his finding out about it via snooping</span>?</strong> <em>Will this whittle the foundation of trust a relationship should be built upon further? Will they have an open and honest discussion or will this drive her further underground with her vlogging? Give rise to his further snooping?</em></li>
<li><span style="color: #741b47;"><strong>Should Hoyt have veto power over Jessica's activities and pursuits?</strong></span> <em>What is the role of compromise in healthy relationships? If he can legitimately make the case that her vlog is negatively impact him and/or their relationship does she have a responsibility to her partner to be considerate of his feelings and stop the behavior that is upsetting to him?</em></li>
<li><strong>What role in her life is Jessica's vlog playing; what needs is it fulfilling?</strong> <em>If it is an important outlet for her, should she have to hide it/give it up? Should Jessica and Hoyt - who are both somewhat isolated in their relationship, without family support or many close friends - be exploring ways to build up their supportive circle together?</em></li>
</ul>
<br />
<strong><span style="color: #274e13;">What do you think? Has anything similar ever happened in <em>your</em> relationship? How do <em>you</em> negotiate the terrors of intimacy; of domesticity? I'm curious, please let me know in the comments section below!</span></strong><br />
<br />
~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel</span>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-80217022962936339532011-07-23T17:56:00.004-04:002011-07-25T15:12:20.047-04:00True Blood sans politics is like Tru Blood Lite; the show de-fanged<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In her July 22, 2011 piece, </span><a href="http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/07/22/comic-con-2011-true-blood-alan-ball/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Comic-Con2011: ‘True Blood’ creator Alan Ball lets secrets slip”</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Los Angeles Times correspondent Gina
McIntyre wrote:</span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ball
did hint, though, that the vampires might continue to fight over Sookie, but
they will unite to fight for their survival as the season reaches its dramatic
conclusion. The year’s big baddie, Marnie, played by Fiona Shaw, isn’t exactly
the threat Ball mentioned, though: “They’re going to stick together because
they are fighting against a common enemy,” he said. “And that enemy is Michele
Bachmann.”</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">At least one reader took umbrage; someone identifying himself only as Edward commented:</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It would be nice
if Ball would <strong>keep his politics to himself</strong> rather than taint the show with his
liberal leftist views. I was actually enjoying the comic-con panel until he
decided to inject politics. I thought that was very inappropriate. Not
impressed by Mr. Ball.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, I know that the way you see something is determined largely by the lens you use to view it through; but seriously, what is <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em> without its politics?</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's wildly entertaining to be sure. Sexy. Fun. We know lots of fans see it that way - and judging from the Comicon coverage thick with references to the panel attendee who stood up and announced to Mr. Ball and the cast that the show has "improved his marital relations" and was met with raucous cries of agreement - this view isn't fading anytime soon. And it's justified. And I love it for those reasons. But it's more than that, too; it's more than the sum of its parts.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I, for one, appreciate a healthy dose of sociocultural and political content with my excellently acted, smartly written, so-called-escapist entertainment, thank you very much.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In my opinion, the show is neither didactic nor preachy. Yes, it has its fair share of "partisan" lefty rhetoric, i.e. when Jessica glamoured out of the guy she ran into at Merlottes who remembered her from her time spent at Bible camp as a human that he had been out, "picketing the baby killer factory in Birmingham" (S3E4 <em>9 Crimes</em>). But I think that <em><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></em> actually posits far more questions than answers, and that's what makes for good civic discourse via pop culture.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The show reflects and comments on real issues in our real world; for me, therein lies its ultimate value. If the show had no greater relevance than do bodice-ripping romance novels or the usual throwaway popcorn TV fare the networks usually try to ram down our throats each summer (and year round for that matter), I'd have tuned out a loooong time ago.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Any thoughts? Please share below.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel</span></span>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1571116807390970532.post-4420789937237706842011-07-23T16:39:00.002-04:002011-07-26T00:49:42.557-04:00"I'll trade you the red one for the blonde one"...Russell Edgington shows his true misogynist colors<o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the mood for a little vintage <i><span style="color: red;">True Blood</span></i>? We're going deep, deep down into the wine cellar for this one, dear friends...<i>all </i>the way back to Season 3 ;-)</span></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Remember the Episode 8 showdown between Russell and Bill in front of Sookie's house? Here's a quick recap. </span></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bill and Jessica had gone over to defend Sookie from Debbie and her werewolves. It was looking pretty good - vamps: 1, weres: 0 - when, before Bill could stop her, Jessica chased a fleeing wolf out the door and onto the front lawn where the King of Mississippi was waiting. Of course, he couldn't enter a human's residence; instead, he waited in stealth mode for an opportunity such as the one that had presented itself when Jessica ran straight into his evil clutches.</span></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bill - who was on the way up the stairs to give aid to Sookie - wavered for a moment before stepping out onto the porch in defense of his progeny. Challenging Russell, Bill asked the king if he was a coward or just plain lazy; hiding behind werewolves and the struggling baby vamp he was about to sink his fangs into. "How about you and I settle this amongst men", Bill growled.</span></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;">This next part is rich. Russell - in almost the same breath as he derided Bill for his sexism (<span class="ft">"How very sexist of you, Bill. When it comes to
killing, I've always been an equal opportunist.") </span>- suggested, <b>"I'll trade you the red one for the blond one"</b>. S3E8 <i>Night On The Sun</i></span></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Smacks of some of the essentialist concepts laid out in my post </span><a href="http://piercedpomegranate.blogspot.com/2011/07/you-smell-like-dinner.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You Smell Like Dinner</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, i.e. women are not real subjects, complex and distinct but <strong>“infinitely substitutable beings”</strong>; objects branded with the <strong>“mark of the plural”</strong> (Rivera, 2003, p. 145 & 147), huh?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me thinks King Russell hath shown his true [misogynist] colors!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And let's not forget <strong>some of his other most revealing gems</strong>, several of which were uttered in the Titanic-esque, patriarchal king-of-the-world plantation manor setting of <i>9 Crimes</i> (S3E4) - complete with blood brandy and cigars...</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">...like the Rudyard Kipling quote he worked into his conversation with Bill; <strong>"A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke."</strong></span> </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPyJ4wVrCt3OFezcyLXOwpRglKT6T-SrfsFOXzB7JYGr3gv49sl4iyMxgUVmK_Q7aQlWWX_LhnQno5-_uyCspGReKKGv_bItNJAZ8rArBxXAOScGFw10up0ja1IR4CGBxOC_kXOnPnyo8/s1600/bill+and+russell+kings+of+world.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPyJ4wVrCt3OFezcyLXOwpRglKT6T-SrfsFOXzB7JYGr3gv49sl4iyMxgUVmK_Q7aQlWWX_LhnQno5-_uyCspGReKKGv_bItNJAZ8rArBxXAOScGFw10up0ja1IR4CGBxOC_kXOnPnyo8/s320/bill+and+russell+kings+of+world.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Or this lovely sentiment - apparently all his own in the sense that it wasn't lifted from a late 19th & early 20th century literary figure who celebrated British imperialism - although likely not foreign to the worldviews of many other men; "<strong>Tug on her purse strings, and you'll find a lady's heart".</strong></span><br />
<br />
<strong>It seems to me that these patronizing, dismissive attitudes would have been right at home in the dark wood paneled and opulently furnished retreats of Gilded Age wealthy men.</strong> Places where they could bathe in their power and the arrogance of their lording over their women, children, and servants shone through their masks of etiquette like the sun through clouds. Havens where their positions of authority both in the home and in the world of business were reinforced; their sexism [and other "isms"] likely met with a wink and a smile.<br />
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It is this type of Edwardian gentleman's parlour atmosphere that Russell seems to have tried to recreate, driven perhaps by his snobbish desperation to project an air of both affluent civility and unquestioned authoritarian power. </div>
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Has the [white] male ruling class not changed that much since the time of first class crossings on the White Star Line? It seems such elitist fantasies have not gone down with the ship. </div>
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Thoughts? We'd love to hear them.</div>
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~ <span style="color: #741b47;">Rachel</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">References</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">Rivera, R. Z. (2003). <i>New
York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone. </i>New York: Palgrave</span></div>Rachel and Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18056580025523705925noreply@blogger.com0