• About
    • The Magazine
    • The Foundation
    • The Collective
    • Columns
  • 2011 Calendar
  • The Dreams for Women Project
    • About
    • Postcards
      • Dreams for Women Weeks 1 – 4
      • Dreams for Women Weeks 5 – 8
      • Dreams for Women Weeks 9 – 12
      • Dreams for Women Weeks 13 -16
      • Dreams for Women Weeks 17 – 20
      • Dreams for Women Weeks 21 – 24
      • Dreams for Women Weeks 25 – 28
      • Dreams for Women Weeks 29 – 32
      • Dreams for Women Weeks 33 – 36
      • Dreams for Women Week 37 – 40
      • Dreams for Women Week 41 – 44
      • Dreams for Women Week 45 – 48
      • Dreams for Women Weeks 49 – 52
      • Dreams for Women Weeks 53 – 56
      • Dreams for Women Weeks 57– 60
      • Dreams for Women Weeks 61– 64
      • Dreams for Women Weeks 65– 68
  • Read Antigone Magazine 
  • Contact Us

Monthly Archives: August 2009

The Feminist Scholar: The Performance of Feminism Issue 1

30 Sunday Aug 2009

Posted by Kaitlin Blanchard in female politicians, Masculinity, The Feminist Scholar, Women and politics, women leaders, women's issues

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Battlestar Galactica, Female Presidents, Laura Roslin, Mary McDonnell, The Feminist Scholar

Surfacing the Female Leader: The Performance of Laura Roslin

I wasn’t going to blog on this until I had engaged the brilliant Mary McDonnell in her question and answer session at the Toronto sci-fi convention; however, she (sadly) had to leave to attend a memorial for one of the show’s producers–my condolences.

I’m in the process of organizing a paper on her character “Laura Roslin” and “her” relation to Western culture’s interpretations of female power. In my rush to develop my grant proposals on the position of the audience in post-restoration theatres and the intersections between theatre and activism, I have, sadly, put Laura to the side. However, meeting McDonnell and engaging in some interesting conversations with fellow fans has rekindled my urgency to discuss the character and her reflections of the tradition of the female leader’s body. Indeed, I’m reaching all the way back the mystics of the medieval era in order to examine how women in power become text; that is to say, how their bodies become the surface for ‘other’ discourses. One of the things which I find perhaps the most fascinating about “Laura” is the simultaneous omnipresence and absence of her body in the performance of leadership. Laura’s illness makes her body undeniably present insofar as it ‘escapes’ her attempts to diminish its presence through her countenance etc… , while at the same time, her illness renders the question of the gendered body perhaps a moot one. In a sense, her suffering both reveals and conceals the female body. I continue with perhaps too much philosophy below, but bear with me.

The suffering body, as Elaine Scarry has argued in her book The Body in Pain, cannot be represented in and of itself. That is, it requires ‘others’ to speak for it. Pain, for Scarry, is both universal and un-shareable. (Teresa Brennan has argued elsewhere that pain is perhaps the moment when the boundaries of the human dissolve most completely–an interesting point, which I will come to later.) But I digress, for Scarry, physical suffering is the paradox of simple presence: “…pain comes unsharably into our midst as at once that which cannot be denied and that which cannot be confirmed [by its sufferer]” (4). Pain, then, requires others in order to represent itself. Pain expresses itself through ventriloquism, an imitation which presupposes a split in presence (between the speaking mediator/performer and the suffering, inarticulate body).

The suffering body is a limit of mimesis (as a principle of absolute identity), but not necessarily the limit of catharsis (as a principle of partial identity). In displaying the suffering body in the performance of leadership, “Laura” engages with the subjunctive “as if” (Scarry 22) of pain as a relation of metonymy. That is, to ‘invent’ the suffering body is to represent it metonymically, through relations of partial substitution. “Laura” then comes to take on a series of discourses in order to perform pain. For viewers of the show, I suspect this prohibits reflection on the female body as a ‘absolute’ presence in leadership.

McDonnell makes a brilliant point in another interview discussing how her glasses symbolize yet another performance within Laura’s role. For McDonnell, the glasses act as a kind of mediating barrier between the femininity inherent in Laura’s leadership and her need to play the Machiavellian leader. She observes that glasses seem to act as an interpreter between the middle-aged woman’s countenance (in the political realm at least) and the world; almost as if we as a culture are not yet ready to view that which is the fact behind why so many female politicians have to adopt what might be considered very unforgiving demeanours: their very bodies. While she interprets this mediation as a result of the fact that women display their experience on their bodies, that they take-in the world differently from men, I would suggest that perhaps it simply that we as a culture are not ready to recognize female experience in this fashion. Indeed, if male politicians adopt what are understood to be maternal actions (crying, for example) they are criticized heavily. However, if women adopt cold and distancing politics they are praised and criticized in equal measure (ironically, in the case of criticism, for not being “feminine” enough). The feminine is, apparently, disavowed in the process of gaining political recognition. And this is where I will likely carry out the bulk of my discussion in the paper on the problematics of recognition. How do we ‘know’ people in a way that does not require an always-already formed knowledge of them; in other words, how do we know, how do we recognize without assuming a closed, or dominant bearing to others?

Teresa Brennan’s examination of the problematics of affective boundaries, of assuming that affects (emotions–though she wouldn’t like the use of this term) are owned, generated and contained by subjects might provide an answer. In the acknowlegement that we can be affected by others, that our boundaries do end and begin in others, that our intentions might not be solely our own, might lie the key to becoming more aware of our reactions to others. In other words, accepting that affects travel is to accept that we are not bounded; it is to stop living in fear of others. It is to surface the body so to speak. Until that day comes, however, McDonnell’s observations suggest another direction for understanding the feminine side to leadership.

McDonnell hits the nail on the head (yet again) with her observation here: “I read once in a Buddhist text, and it’s something I really responded to, that there’s a defensive way and an open way of perceiving life, or meeting life. In an open way, the image is straight back, open front – open heart. In a defensive way, the back is bent and the front is closed. I think the glasses were Laura Roslin’s attempt to keep the front open but protect it.”

I would translate this observation as what I (poaching from the equally brilliant Bettina Stuum) understand to be “bearing.” That is, our intentionality (as both a direction and a disposition) in our relations with others. An active bearing would assume an aggressive, or as McDonnell puts it a defensive, bearing, a kind of subjective lense on life. The person adopting an active “bearing” says “I am here” to life out of fear. While the person adopting a passive and more ethical (open to McDonnell) bearing responds to others; in other words, those adopting a passive bearing receive their agency and identity in an address from others (As Kelly Oliver has convincingly argued in her book Witnessing: Beyond Recognition) in a move which precludes the kind of performances which women leaders frequently have to put on in concessions to masculine ideas of leadership.

So where do we really have to look in order to recuperate the feminine side of leadership? Well, I would suggest it is not a question of looking; rather, it is a question of feeling. It is to give the feminine body what Eve Sedgewick suggestively calls “texture,” to read for the surface of the female body, rather than to inscribe upon it.

McDonnell has mentioned in an interview (I cannot remember the reference or I would note it) that she understands Battlestar as a show “searching for its femininity.” I wholeheartedly agree. I don’t know that Ron Moore’s answer of going back to the roots of survival–place–as a return to the maternal is perhaps the most adept answer to solving the deficit of female representation in politics, but it does suggest that women, as Luce Irigaray might agree, truly are the “elsewhere” when it comes to the political domain. Maybe, then, we just need to speak politics from that place, from our very womanly bodies…

~Kaitlin Blanchard

The Feminist Scholar:Thoughts from a (young?) Feminist

28 Friday Aug 2009

Posted by Kaitlin Blanchard in The Feminist Scholar, women's issues

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

feminism, The Feminist Scholar, women's studies

Dear Readers,

It has been far too long since I have properly blogged and I do apologize.

I would like to offer some reflections on what has been a rather turbulent year. For Antigone this has been both an inspiring and frustrating year. We are so touched and humbled every single day by the submissions we receive from our participants; thank you for dreaming with us. On the other hand, we have encountered so many systemic roadblocks in our advocacy that, for me, it has confirmed more than ever that the fight is not over and will not finish for some time yet….

Preparing to send out my applications for PhD programs in the states has meant that I have engaged in (perhaps too much) self-reflection. I proudly carry the banner of feminism on my shoulders and I am proud to have such caring, inspiring, and intelligent sisters to carry it with me. However, we are becoming a rare breed in my demographic. One of the things I have always believed is that the academic work I carry out is not and need not be divorced from the activism I engage in. In other words, I want my words to do things rather than sit motionless on dusty shelves.  I want to affect change. One of the ways I have sought to do this is in publishing Antigone, another will be my work on the intersection between theatre and activism and yet another, my creative works. However, I am finding that my sense of urgency is not shared by those who surround me.

Upon discussing feminist theatre criticism (a phenomenon of the rush for theory in the 80s) with my lovely thesis supervisor, she remarked to me that books which she once read in the 80s with zeal and excitement she now shudders to examine. These women are part of a radicalism she no longer sees as necessary. I responded by saying that we do need these women to buttress the achievements we have gained toward parity. She agreed, if reluctantly. But her initial recoil and wish to dissociate her own position from the ‘zeal’ which these women embody in their criticism was somewhat saddening to me because it speaks more largely of an unwillingness to think about our current moment.

It is certainly true that we have deconstructed gender to the point where “woman” as a category no longer stands as a buttress for second-wave activism. The death of women’s studies is for some a fait accompli. Women’s Studies departments are (happily) no longer the mainstay of the white feminist litigating for “woman” as race, sexuality, and class have broken into the discipline. However, it is also true that the kind of analysis which these spaces undertake CANNOT be diminished by the theoretical impasse which has been reached–nor can a kind of reverse discrimination be undertaken by those who do their work within these spaces. Thus, I return to my title. My question is:  is this really a dilemma of my generation, or one which I share with all generations? I would argue the latter. The question of “woman” is the issue of feminism. We can argue the death of “woman” all we like, but feminism as a movement cannot die. Ultimately, for me, feminism is about the act of asking questions.

My supervisor’s reluctance belies her sense of privilege within the category of woman itself, or perhaps her need to disavow her association therein; because, to identify with the term would mean engaging a set of questions which might destabilize her sense of self. It is here that I return time and time again, our fascination as a culture with the phenomenon of the ego. It is my sense that our reliance on a stable self whose relations with others are concrete and definable undermines our ability to reflect critically on our own implication within our situation(s). Have we put ourselves into a place of performative positionality?

My own research centers on the ways in which our conceptions of self have overtaken the possibility of genuine and ethical relations with others. Moreover, I want to ask questions about how in our eagerness to deconstruct the categories of oppression we have in fact reified them further, and in so doing, cut off the affective bonds which connect us all. As I define my research further I am realizing more and more just how much what I do in the world informs what I do on the page. And I am more determined than ever to ‘keep on’…

As I make my way through my research I hope to develop these questions further and I encourage you to enagage with me. I intend to make this a bi-weekly series beginning on September 11th: The Performance of Feminism. Stay tuned!

One day off – Dreams for Women Week 32

22 Saturday Aug 2009

Posted by kelizabethlau in Dreams for women, women's issues

≈ Leave a comment

And I want one day of respite, one day off, one day in which no new bodies are piled up, one day in which no new agony is added to the old, and I am asking you to give it to me. And how could I ask you for less–it is so little. And how could you offer me less: it is so little. Even in wars, there are days of truce. Go and organize a truce. Stop your side for one day. I want a twenty-four-hour truce during which there is no rape.

– Andrea Dworkin

DSC03783

DSC03785

DSC03786

DSC03787

DSC03788

DSC03789

DSC03790

What are your dreams for women?

What are your own dreams for yourself, your friends, your sisters, your daughters? Paint, draw, write, sketch or decoupage your dreams on a postcard and send it to the address below
Antigone Magazine
C/O WILLA UBC
Box 61-6138 SUB Boulevard
Vancouver, BC, Canada
V6T 1Z1

We are raising the money in order to help launch the Antigone Foundation, a national foundation that will encourage young women aged 10-30 to get politically and civically engaged. Help support Antigone as we help to make the dreams of young women come true! We want submissions from all over the world – so forward this on!

Graphic Designer needed!!

19 Wednesday Aug 2009

Posted by antigonemagazine in Dreams for women, women's issues

≈ Leave a comment

Antigone Magazine is in desperate need of one graphic designer/artist willing to volunteer their skills to help us design our upcoming 2010 Dreams for Women Calendar. In honour of Vancouver’s Winter Olympics, we will be featuring Canadian female athletes’ dreams for women postcards.

Description

The designer will be in charge of the entire layout and cover design using calendar and graphics editing software.

Benefits

An addition to your resume; exposure to women’s issues; gain experience with calendar design; gain experience working with a women’s organization and as part of a team. Even though the position is unpaid, the designer(s) can have free advertising space.

Apply

If you or someone you know is interested in helping out a non-profit women’s organization’s calendar beautiful, please forward this information to them and/or send us an email at antigonemagazine AT hotmail DOT com.

Dreams for Women Week 31

08 Saturday Aug 2009

Posted by kelizabethlau in Dreams for women, women's issues

≈ Leave a comment

Apologies for the less-than-ideal quality. My scanner has gone haywire. Rainbows courtesy of a chandelier and gorgeous Vancouver sun. How appropriate for a Happy-belated Pride!

P.S. The Robert Pattinson one gets me every time.

DSC03800

DSC03801

DSC03802

DSC03803

DSC03804

DSC03805

What are your dreams for women?

Antigone Magazine
C/O WILLA
Box 61 – 6138 SUB Blvd
Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z1
OR antigonemagazine(at)hotmail.com

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • September 2011
  • July 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007

Categories

  • 2010
  • Abortion
  • american politics
  • Antigone Foundation
  • Antigone Magazine
  • Beauty
  • BlogHer
  • CEDAW
  • Charter
  • child care
  • Commission on the Status of Women
  • CONNECT
  • Darfur
  • Day of rememberance
  • Dec 6
  • Diary of an Activist
  • Dreams for women
  • Elizabeth May
  • Environment
  • Equal Voice
  • Federal Election
  • female politicians
  • feminist freethinker
  • feministing
  • Feminists Who Totally Rock
  • film
  • France
  • Gardasil
  • Gay Rights
  • Gloria Steinem
  • Hillary Clinton
  • Human rights
  • human trafficking
  • I'm a feminist because
  • immigrant women
  • In need of enlightenment
  • Legalized prostitution
  • LGBT
  • marriage
  • Masculinity
  • Media
  • Minerva
  • Mira Hall
  • Morgentaler
  • motherhood
  • NDP
  • Ottawa
  • Oxfam
  • patriarchy
  • pay equity
  • pensions
  • persons case
  • poverty
  • Pro-choice
  • Queer Issues
  • Race
  • Rape
  • Reproductive Rights
  • Retirement
  • robert pickton
  • sexism
  • Sexual Assault
  • Sexual paradox
  • sexuality
  • Single Women
  • Some Leaders are Born Women
  • Spivak
  • status of women
  • stereotypes
  • Stupid misogynists
  • The Feminist Scholar
  • UBC
  • UN
  • UNIFEM
  • US elections
  • vancouver events
  • Vancouver Sun
  • Violence against women
  • Women and politics
  • women in politics
  • Women in the Middle east
  • women leaders
  • Women's groups
  • women's issues
  • Young women
  • Your Voice

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • antigonemagazine.wordpress.com
    • Join 27 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • antigonemagazine.wordpress.com
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.