Scences From "10"

"Cheating" and Different Roles in the Movie "10"

I think that "cheating" is relative to both men and women.
Back in the day, for a man to have a mistress on the side
it wasn't as much of a 'disgrace' as was having an unfaithful
wife. Yet isn't this cheating? It is 'understood' that men
have strong lustful urges and it seems more 'acceptable'
when they act on them. If women followed their desires like
this they would just be considered sluts. The movie "10"
portrays a sexually open woman who definately isn't scared
to speak her mind. The problem everyone had was that she was
“cheating” on her husband and she didn't seem to care because
she was able to distinguish between the physical and emotional
and remain detached. To her sex seemed like it was almost a
'need', like it was once thought of for men. I think that even
today if a woman isn't cheating, but is just sexually open,
society might still label her a slut. Yet I think that there is
a difference between a sexually free woman and a slut. I think
its the way they carry and promote themselves. When I think of
a slut I picture a girl dressed in ‘hoochie’ clothes, hanging
on guys, and giving off that “I’m easy" vibe. There is some
tactic that goes into being a sexually free woman so that men
wont assume anything upon meeting and the woman would maintain
respect.
In Barker's chapter 9, Diana Meehan gives examples of stereotypes
that many women in movies are portrayed as and I saw a few in Julie
Andrews character. I thought she could be considered: the imp
because she was rebellious against societal norms, the harpy, because
she was aggressive and not only went after, but got what she wanted,
the siren, because she was sexually alluring to men although it did not
show that either man really had a bad ending, and then last but not
least, the bitch, because she was seen by many as a sneak, a cheat,
and being manipulative of her faithful husbands love.


Works Cited

Barker, Chris. "Cultural Studies Theory & Practice". 3rd ed. Los Angeles: Sage
Publications. 2008.
"10". Dir. Blake Edwards. Prod. Tony Adams & Blake Edwards. Dist. Orion Pictures Corporation & Warner Bros. 1979.

Reassurance and Power

Reassurance is nice but why does it seem like that in movies women
are portrayed as dependent on men as a one way street? Men like
to be reassured just like women. I think the underlying fear is being
alone. It is true that humans are social creatures and perhaps if a
woman doesn't have a man then she fears what others may think of
her, such as she was not able to get one. This is turn may imply that
she is flawed and of course no body wants to stick out in a bad way
so many conform to the socially accepted norms, which in our culture is heterosexual marriage and monogamy. I don't think its good to preoccupy oneself with what others think. If a man or a woman could do this, then I would say that they are truly in power because they wouldn't have imposing outside forces guiding their lives.

A Streetcar Named Desire

What I thought was interesting was the sex and gender stratification in this play. Stella, a female was considered the weaker sex and it was a gender norm for her to be submissive to her husband Stanley. I thought it was interesting that Stella had allowed herself to be pulled from her privileged background and be made common by Stan even though in many other relationships money is what determines power.
Blanche related herself more closely to this privileged economic
background but yet still had an affair with someone whom she herself
called common. So perhaps this further demonstrates women as the
weaker sex because they will take reassurance wherever and
whenever they can find it as is implied by this role of dependence.
This goes back to what Beauvoir said; that "man can think of himself
without woman, but woman cannot think of herself without man.”
This may be the reason for continued oppression.
I noticed Stanley and Stella's dysfunctional relationship and
although he treated her badly it could be argued that they loved one
another. Stella dismisses abusive events to her sister Blanche
and it seems that these outbursts are accepted occasional
occurrences. I cannot judge ones love of another so I will not
venture further into this but I did notice the typical stereotypes of
both men and women present throughout this play. Blanche was
portrayed as the unstable, emotional female that was very
dependent on men. She was more feminine than the other women,
as she liked to take long bathes and dress in fine clothes. Stanley,
besides being male, seemed to be the complete opposite as he was
compared constantly to an animal. He was independent, confident
and many times rude and condescending to the women. The women
feared and respected him, especially when he drank. Over all it
gives the sense that women are still regarded as inferior, almost
the property of a man as is demonstrated when Stanley yells at Eunice
that he wants "his girl" to come home with him! (66.)


Work Cited

Williams, Tennessee. "A Street Car Named Desire". New York:
New Directions Publishing Corporation. 2004.

Culture vs. Pop. Culture

Culture is deeply embedded in all aspects of life: social, political,
and economic. When I think of culture I think of social customs,
ways of life, and traditions or celebrations that differ among races
and ethnicity, based on the resources available to them. Without
outside influence, it could be argued that cultures could remain
unchanged or only develop slightly throughout time, for if ends
are being met, then why is there need for change?
Popular culture on the other hand is ever changing, is created by
corporations, and is mass produced for profit. Advertisements and
other media play on peoples' values, making them feel as
though they need a certain product, or need to subscribe to a
certain belief,to achieve some means which they on their own
could not accomplish. I think that culture was the result of
necessity but I think Pop. Culture was created from convenient
opinions. It is subjective and helps create peoples' identities
but I believe that Pop. Culture stifles individuals’ creativity
and represents many stereotypes and other falsities.

Some Grass is Singing Q & A

1) Mary doesn't like the farm and instead prefers the town. Dick on the other hand would rarely go into town and liked to stay on the farm. However he was not capable of effectively running the farm and thus he and Mary lived in poverty. Charlie Slatter saw the farm as a way to make profit and thus was protective of it.

4) Mary over hears her friends saying that she "is not like that", meaning that she is not the type to settle down and get married. She has reasons for not wanting to however, especially after seeing how miserable her parents were together. Yet then realizing that she may end up alone in life, she gets scared and seeks a partner whom she finds in Dick Turner.

6) The Turner house is described on page 23 as an overwhelmingly hot, "ugly little house" with a "bare crackling tin of a roof", "faded gimcrack furniture", and "dusty brick floors that were covered with ragged animal skins." This seemed to symbolize misery and even to Tony it seemed like a hell hole trap.

9) For a long time Mary had worked to support herself so she wasn't refusing economic responsibility. But she showed refusal in other areas of life such as her reluctantness to get married and her loathing of showing physical affection to her husband. She doesn't seem to have a concrete identity. It seems that she tried her best to fit in in any situation.

10) I think the most powerful institutions are race and gender assignations because these determine who will be master and who will be slave, thus making human relations difficult. These two institutions play a crucial role in this book as whites are masters over blacks and women are slaves to men.

11) Mary's fear of marriage/sexuality, which was based a lot on her father, plus her realization that she is stuck in her lowly status position and must abide by societal norms perhaps contributed to her feeling isolated. After hearing her friends talk about her she began to feel as though her time to find a man would soon run out with her fading beauty/youth.


Work Cited

Lessing, Doris. "The Grass is Singing". New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics. 2008.

Contribution to Casablana Group Project

For this project I was assertive and took the initiative in trying to get the Casablanca group to stay after class so we could schedule group meetings to discuss what each person wanted to talk about. I was able to organize 4 meetings, counting the one in which we will practice our presentation before class tomorrow. Those few people who consistently attended the meetings worked well together and we helped bounce ideas off each other. Since our group was big and many people had other responsibilities I was mostly able to work closely with one other student and we helped each other solidify our thoughts. Working this way allowed us to see things in a different way and aided in our understanding of the class material. Certain members were able to communicate by cell phone and/or email. I had to do both because we never were able to get everyone's numbers.

Here is what I will talk about in order to help my groups' presentation:

I am going to discuss how Ilsa’s character can be seen in various ways according to what we read in Chapter 9 of our Barker books. On page 307 Diana Meehan lists common stereotypes of women. I thought that Ilsa could be seen as a few of these because throughout the movie Casablanca it seems that she took on different roles.

I saw a few stereotypes in a certain scene. In the scene where Ilsa came to get the letters of transit and Rick at first says “No”, she pulls a gun on him which perhaps can be seen as what Meehan names “the decoy”, or someone who is “apparently helpless but actually strong”. But then she doesn’t follow through and tells Rick that she still loves him. He then accuses her of being what Meehan calls “the bitch”, which is a “sneak a cheat and/or manipulative”, thinking that she is saying this only to get what she wants. But then she falls into his arms and became the “victim”, and becomes “passive” as she tells Rick that “he has to think for the both of them now”, because her judgment is clouded with emotion.

But Ultimately I think Ilsa was the “good wife” because even though I believed she loved Rick more, she left him at the train station to go take care of her husband Laszlo. Then again at the end, even though I think she wanted to stay with Rick she left with Laszlo because this was the socially accepted norm. However, in a way I also saw “the decoy” in this scene because Ilsa understood the expectations of women at the time and even though she was sad, she stayed strong doing “what was right” of her.

Then I’m going to ask the class

“What do you guys think about Ilsa’s character?”

Work Cited

Barker, Chris. "Culturally Studies and Theory and Practice". 3rd ed. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. 2008. (pg 307).
"Casablanca". Dir. Michael Curtis. Prod. Hal B. Wallis. Dist. Warner Bros. 1942.

Heres a couple clips from "Out Cold" that resemble the 'bar scene' in Casablanca as well as imitating the ending.

Sex and Gender Analysis on the movie Casablanca

The movie “Casablanca” is a romantic drama that was released in 1942. It is set during World War II in the French controlled Moroccan city of Casablanca. The main focus is on a cabaret owner named Rick, who is torn between love and virtue. Rick must choose between keeping the love of his life, Ilsa, for himself, or to help her and her husband, Victor Laszlo, the Resistance leader, to escape from Casablanca to continue his fight against the Nazis.

“Casablanca” conveys typical ideas about sex and gender during the forties. It also displays the relationship between master and slave, both of which can be examined by looking at Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex”. I will attempt to explain the relationship between Ilsa and Rick and the relationship between Ilsa and her husband Lazlo. I will also explain how according to Derrida and Saussure the meaning of words are not fixed and may change over time due to social constructs. An example of how words such as gender, masculinity, and femininity change over time is given through contrasting Shakespeare’s “Taming of a Shrew” to “Casablanca” to the modern day movie “Knocked Up”.

In “Casablanca”, Ugarte, a petty criminal, arrives in Rick's club one night with "letters of transit" obtained through the murder of two German couriers. Ugarte asks Rick to hold them for him for a little while, yet is later arrested and Rick then must decide what to do with the letters. These papers allow the bearer to travel freely around German-controlled Europe to neutral Portugal and from there to America. They were priceless to the refugees stranded in Casablanca.

Previously, Ilsa and Rick had met in Paris and fallen in love because Ilsa was told that her husband, Laszlo, had been killed while trying to escape from a concentration camp. She never shared this knowledge with Rick because her marriage to Victor had been kept quiet for her own safety. She knew too much about her husband’s work. She finally told Rick when she came to him seeking the letters of transit. She pulls a gun on him to force him to give her the letters, but cannot go through with shooting him. She confesses that she still loves him and wants to be with him. She says that she cannot leave him again. He accuses her of manipulation and of saying anything to get what she wants because she knows how he feels about her.

However I believe that Ilsa does in fact love Rick and it shows through in the way she looks at him. She acts as the stereotypical submissive girl by telling Rick that he needs to “think for the both of them now” because her emotions cloud her judgment in the previous scene. I think she left him at the train station only because it was what was expected of her as a good woman and wife to Laszlo.

Laszlo’s love of Ilsa is apparent because he actually tries to have Rick safely escort her out of Casablanca while he opts to stay behind and accept his fate. However, instead of using the letters of transit for Ilsa and himself, Rick does what he feels is right by sending Ilsa “where she belongs”, with her husband Laszlo. Rick’s love for Ilsa is made evident by the extreme risks he takes in order for her and her husband to escape. He double crosses local Police Captain, Renault, holding him at gun point, and actually kills the German Major Strasser.

This is why I feel that in a way Rick is a slave to Ilsa because of his love for her that causes him to go these extremes. But Ilsa seems to be a slave to Laszlo because of the expectations of society which force her to stay with him. It would not have been morally appropriate for her to have run off with Rick. I think that ultimately everyone is a slave to society because it is society that guides life through concepts such as gender norms and definitions of masculinity and femininity. Even though Rick shows emotion, it is regarded by all that he is a masculine character as is Laszlo. Ilsa of course is feminine.

Despite my opinion that a man can be a slave to a woman, according to Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” women were the slaves and men were the masters. “Man can think of himself without woman. She cannot think of herself without man…She cannot even dream of exterminating the males. The bond that unites her to her oppressor is not comparable to any other.” Beauvoir, however, also claims that man’s sexual desire and the desire for offspring make the male dependent on the female for satisfaction. She explains how master and slave have a reciprocal relationship yet the master does not acknowledge his need of the other, while the slave, in his/her dependent condition, is quite conscious of the need he/she has for the master.

“The Second Sex” which was written in 1949 conveyed a view of women that was similar to that of the time this movie was filmed. It espoused the theory that women were dependent on men, especially economically, and that therefore they were obedient and subservient to them. In this movie and in this time men were depicted as respectful of women’s dignity and ‘frailty’, which was then thought to be based on their biology. But men were also expected to be brave, bold and moral. Beauvoir states that women are inferior to men because their situation affords them fewer possibilities. She also warns of “social discriminations which seem outwardly insignificant but which produce in women moral and intellectual effects so profound that they appear to spring from her original nature.” I think that this means that these discriminations produce unnatural social constructions of women.

As I said earlier I believe that we are all slaves to society. An example of this is what we come to know as social constructs which help in the governance of the meaning of language. Both Saussure and Derrida agree that meaning can never be fixed. Saussure explains that language is a system of signs that express ideas. These signs are composed of signifiers and signified. “A signifier is taken to be the form or medium of signs, for example a sound, an image, or the marks that form a word on the page. The signified is to be understood in terms of concepts and meanings.” (Barker 76). However he argues that the relationship between the signifiers and the signified is arbitrary which “suggests that meaning is fluid because it is culturally and historically specific.” (Barker 77).

Derrida believes that “since meaning is generated through the play of signifiers not by reference to an independent object world,” and because language is ‘non-representational’, that meaning is “inherently unstable.” Derrida argues that supplements add to and substitute meanings. An example Barker gave on this matter was to look up the words “Dog” in the dictionary. He said you would find the long chain of signifiers: “dog, canine, hound, hybrid, crossbreed, composite…If a dog is now a composite, is it still a dog?” (86). Since meaning is subjective it furthers the point that words, such as sexuality, are a social construct and thus people are slaves to conforming with culture adapting as connotations change.

Examples of how concepts have changed can be seen in the meanings of words such as gender in regards to masculinity and femininity. In 1594 Shakespeare completed “The Taming of the Shrew” which clearly placed women beneath men seen through lines such as, “Thy husband is thy lord, they life, they keeper, thy head, thy sovereign…place your hands below your husband’s foot” He claims that women’s bodies are “unapt to toil and trouble in the world.” Casablanca demonstrated how women are still subordinate under men, however not to the extreme that they used to be, yet women were expected to be submissive and obedient. This was demonstrated because a man’s voice held authority and women followed his orders without talking back. A modern day example of how gender roles have changed can be seen in the 2007 movie “Knocked Up”. In this movie it is interesting to note that women’s sexuality is more permissible in society perhaps because women have become more independent from men, which is evident in the main female character having a job while her male mate does not work. These examples show that meaning is subjective and is tied to social constructs of different cultures and it changes throughout time.

Casablanca wasn’t originally expected to be such an influential movie but it has enduring legacies with memorable lines such as “We’ll always have Paris,” and “Here’s to looking at you kid.” This movie dealt with issues of sex and gender and also with the master slave relationship which was further explained by Beauvoir. Saussure and Derrida, as well as other class sources, describe how the meanings of words such as masculinity and femininity, that accompany gender, change over time and between cultures.



Work Cited:


Barker, Chris. "Cultural Studies Theory & Practice". 3rd ed. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. 2008.
Beauvoir, Simone. "The Second Sex". France. 1949.
"Casablanca". Dir. Michael Curtis. Prod. Hal B. Wallis. Dist. Warner Bros. 1942