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Disability studies generally aim at an analysis of how an impairment becomes a disability due to the society’s definitions of normativity which do not encompass less-than-perfect bodies. Ever since its appearance in 1990s disability studies has focused on cultural and social contexts, thus going beyond the medical and biological discourse of disability. Consequently, a natural step in its development has been to combine disability studies with issues of race, class, gender and sexuality. Such agendas of disability studies as denaturalisation of disability and inclusion of dismissed (disabled) bodies give disability studies and feminism a common ground, thus leading to an emergence of feminist disability studies. Its focus on both feminine and disabled body as a source of identity and a struggle with stereotypes of the female disabled are the most often discussed aspects. The issue of mental disability, however, has not been as yet thoroughly researched. As a theory used for the study of literature, it has been proposed and applied by Elizabeth J. Donaldson. In ‘The Corpus of the Madwoman’ (2002) she put forward a hypothesis that a madwoman is not an avatar of a rebellious feminist but a corporealised reality. This view has been anticipated by Andrea Nicki’s paper ‘The Abused Mind’ (2001), where she searches for a trauma, especially a bodily and a sexual one, to explain female insanity and fight with its stereotypes. This view will become the starting point for the analysis of the theme of female madness in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace (1996). Using feminist disability studies, this paper will discuss Grace Marks’ relation to her body and her femininity as well as traumas in her past to examine the function of the motif of madness in Atwood’s novel and its role in the overall interpretation of the book.
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The idea that in the patriarchal world men overpower and limit women’s freedom is so obvious that has become a cliché. However, a closer look at the motherdaughter relationship, following the seminal works of such feminists like Adrienne Rich, Phyllis Chessler and Luce Irigaray, enables us to change the focus from male-female power struggle to the one within female genealogy, where mothers become not just the victims, but also the wardens of the patriarchal prison and perpetrators of the ‘punishment,’ thus leading the daughters either to ‘matrophobia’ or engulfment by the mother. The three neo-Victorian novels on which the paper will be focused represent three examples of deeply ambiguous and often hostile relationships between mothers and daughters. Firstly, in her novel Affinity Sarah Waters presents the world of a Victorian lady visitor in Millbank prison, who seems to be imprisoned by hostile and menacing femininity motherhood, and whose matrophobia makes her an easy target of Selina Dawes’ manipulation. Secondly, in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace, Grace’s mother is herself a stereotypical victim of gender roles and patriarchal oppression, becoming an antimodel for her daughter and preparing a foundation for a real mother figure in Grace’s life, Mary Whitney. In this case, Grace becomes engulfed by her second ‘mother.’ Thirdly, Michel Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White presents an example of an abusive mother-daughter relationship and the resulting ‘matrophobia’ of the main character. All of these mother figures are shown from a perspective of their impact on the main characters’ female identity as well as their own attitude to other women later in life. In its conclusion, the paper will touch upon the issue of neo-Victorian novel as a genre, which as its aim has the preservation of female genealogy.
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Since its premiere in September 2011 at Venice Film Festival, Shame (dir. Steve McQueen) has been interpreted as a cinematographic illustration of sexual addiction. Set in contemporary New York, it presents Brandon Sullivan, a professional in his early thirties, as he indulges in sexual excess and pornography. The arrival of his sister Sissy, a needy and neurotic artist, shakes his carefully constructed routine and forces him to face his compulsions. But a much more subversive aspect of this film is provided by the problematic relationship between Brandon (Michael Fassbender) and Sissy (Carey Mulligan); it has become the subject of a heated debate among the film’s viewers, who ponder on the possible traumatic source of the characters’ mental disturbances as well as a conceivable past and/or present incestuous desire. However, their corresponding first names (Brandon/brother and Sissy/ sister) would suggest a possibility of a more symbolic nature of the conflict between the siblings, one which would posit these characters as metaphorical representations of a heteronormative masculinity and femininity immersed in the concrete jungle of the patriarchal context. Brandon’s objectification of females through his male gaze and avoidance of all intimacy correspond to R. W. Connolly’s concept of hegemonic masculinity, a preferred gender performance for males in a patriarchal society. Sissy, on the other hand, represents femininity, understood as those aspects of one’s identity which are externalised and rejected by hegemonic masculinity. Together, Brandon and Sissy represent two binaries, doppelgängers at war with each other. Brandon’s instantaneous attraction and repulsion toward Sissy may symbolically signify the crisis in which hegemonic masculinity (Brandon) finds itself, threatened and engendered by femininity (Sissy). Only when Brandon engages in an extreme sexual objectification of himself is he able to accommodate the female vulnerability into his identity. The objectification of the male body this film seems to practice by an extensive display of Michael Fassbender’s full frontal nudity underlines the message that once masculinity incorporates a possibility of ‘female’ elements in its identity performance, it will be able to free itself from the demands of patriarchy.
Author:
Disability studies generally aim at an analysis of how an impairment becomes a disability due to the society’s definitions of normativity which do not encompass less-than-perfect bodies. Ever since its appearance in 1990s disability studies has focused on cultural and social contexts, thus going beyond the medical and biological discourse of disability. Consequently, a natural step in its development has been to combine disability studies with issues of race, class, gender and sexuality. Such agendas of disability studies as denaturalisation of disability and inclusion of dismissed (disabled) bodies give disability studies and feminism a common ground, thus leading to an emergence of feminist disability studies. Its focus on both feminine and disabled body as a source of identity and a struggle with stereotypes of the female disabled are the most often discussed aspects. The issue of mental disability, however, has not been as yet thoroughly researched. As a theory used for the study of literature, it has been proposed and applied by Elizabeth J. Donaldson. In ‘The Corpus of the Madwoman’ (2002) she put forward a hypothesis that a madwoman is not an avatar of a rebellious feminist but a corporealised reality. This view has been anticipated by Andrea Nicki’s paper ‘The Abused Mind’ (2001), where she searches for a trauma, especially a bodily and a sexual one, to explain female insanity and fight with its stereotypes. This view will become the starting point for the analysis of the theme of female madness in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace (1996). Using feminist disability studies, this paper will discuss Grace Marks’ relation to her body and her femininity as well as traumas in her past to examine the function of the motif of madness in Atwood’s novel and its role in the overall interpretation of the book.
Author:
Abstract
Controversies surrounding Lady Gaga include not only her fashion choices, but also her representation of the (female) body: sexually objectified, commodified, subject to violence, battered and disabled. In the following chapter the author examines the body imagery used in Gaga’s music and videos, especially images of disabled, modified, and/or monstrous body, as Gothic aesthetic is often used in Gaga’s oeuvre. The subversive potential of faux disability drag used by Lady Gaga, and of the female Gothic conventions present in her art is suggested as a way to represent the blurring of the lines between the Self and the Other. However, the power of Lady Gaga’s work lies not in its political message, but in the artistic one. The author goes on to prove that the images of disabled bodies are used by Lady Gaga to exemplify a wider idea of a queer body and of a fluid, performative identity, which Lady Gaga represents in her artistic persona.
In:
Bodies in Flux
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The idea that in the patriarchal world men overpower and limit women’s freedom is so obvious that has become a cliché. However, a closer look at the motherdaughter relationship, following the seminal works of such feminists like Adrienne Rich, Phyllis Chessler and Luce Irigaray, enables us to change the focus from male-female power struggle to the one within female genealogy, where mothers become not just the victims, but also the wardens of the patriarchal prison and perpetrators of the ‘punishment,’ thus leading the daughters either to ‘matrophobia’ or engulfment by the mother. The three neo-Victorian novels on which the paper will be focused represent three examples of deeply ambiguous and often hostile relationships between mothers and daughters. Firstly, in her novel Affinity Sarah Waters presents the world of a Victorian lady visitor in Millbank prison, who seems to be imprisoned by hostile and menacing femininity motherhood, and whose matrophobia makes her an easy target of Selina Dawes’ manipulation. Secondly, in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace, Grace’s mother is herself a stereotypical victim of gender roles and patriarchal oppression, becoming an antimodel for her daughter and preparing a foundation for a real mother figure in Grace’s life, Mary Whitney. In this case, Grace becomes engulfed by her second ‘mother.’ Thirdly, Michel Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White presents an example of an abusive mother-daughter relationship and the resulting ‘matrophobia’ of the main character. All of these mother figures are shown from a perspective of their impact on the main characters’ female identity as well as their own attitude to other women later in life. In its conclusion, the paper will touch upon the issue of neo-Victorian novel as a genre, which as its aim has the preservation of female genealogy.
Femininities and Masculinities in Context
Gender performativity, its variances depending on their historical, social and cultural contexts, and the rituals, representations and institutions involved in gender performances are some of the issues the authors addressed in this collection. Gender under Construction takes a non-essentialist view of gender and provides illustrative examples of gender constructive processes by pursuing them in various contexts and by means of diverse methodologies. In so doing, the book demonstrates that it is unfeasible to consider gender as a fixed biological trait. Instead, the authors propose to look at gender performance as ongoing processes in which femininities and masculinities enter multiple and dynamic intersections with a myriad of categories, including those of nationality, ethnicity, class, sexuality and age.
Contributors are Iqbal Akthar, Renata Ćuk, Ewa Glapka, Deirdre Hynes, Borja Ibaseta, Martin King, Ana Cristina Moreira Lima, Mervi Patosalmi, Marcia Bastos de Sá, Andréa Costa da Silva, Vera Helena Ferraz de Siqueira, Christi van der Westhuizen and Isabelle V. Zinn.
Contributors are Iqbal Akthar, Renata Ćuk, Ewa Glapka, Deirdre Hynes, Borja Ibaseta, Martin King, Ana Cristina Moreira Lima, Mervi Patosalmi, Marcia Bastos de Sá, Andréa Costa da Silva, Vera Helena Ferraz de Siqueira, Christi van der Westhuizen and Isabelle V. Zinn.
Femininities and Masculinities in Context
Gender performativity, its variances depending on their historical, social and cultural contexts, and the rituals, representations and institutions involved in gender performances are some of the issues the authors addressed in this collection. Gender under Construction takes a non-essentialist view of gender and provides illustrative examples of gender constructive processes by pursuing them in various contexts and by means of diverse methodologies. In so doing, the book demonstrates that it is unfeasible to consider gender as a fixed biological trait. Instead, the authors propose to look at gender performance as ongoing processes in which femininities and masculinities enter multiple and dynamic intersections with a myriad of categories, including those of nationality, ethnicity, class, sexuality and age.
Contributors are Iqbal Akthar, Renata Ćuk, Ewa Glapka, Deirdre Hynes, Borja Ibaseta, Martin King, Ana Cristina Moreira Lima, Mervi Patosalmi, Marcia Bastos de Sá, Andréa Costa da Silva, Vera Helena Ferraz de Siqueira, Christi van der Westhuizen and Isabelle V. Zinn.
Contributors are Iqbal Akthar, Renata Ćuk, Ewa Glapka, Deirdre Hynes, Borja Ibaseta, Martin King, Ana Cristina Moreira Lima, Mervi Patosalmi, Marcia Bastos de Sá, Andréa Costa da Silva, Vera Helena Ferraz de Siqueira, Christi van der Westhuizen and Isabelle V. Zinn.
Page:12