Woman

I had a writing task in Script For Performance today that asked us to look at a photo of a person, and then to write a description of this person, starting from a close-up physical description, then to pan out to a wide-shot which gives her some form of identity, and finally to put her into a “space”, a context.

I had a photo of a Japanese woman standing in water, while behind her there was only rubble. I don’t want to describe the photo too much because I wrote about it, and I hope you can get the sense of the photo from what I wrote.

Her hair sticks to her face and forehead, plastered in place by sweat. The lips are set, not pressed firmly, but with some determination. A towel is draped around her neck, acting not only as its original purpose, but more as insulation. Her body has morphed into a sphere, all features hidden underneath layers that try to keep her warm from the inside. In fact, apart from the parts of her face – and those determined lips – unobscured by her hair, not another inch of her kin can be seen.

Were her clothes only there to keep her physical body warm? Were her lips only tightened to keep any despair out? She stands ankle deep in water so clear that a distorted version of herself stares back. The ripples of the water smooth out, leaving a stillness that wasn’t just her, but seems to contaminate everything around her. She stares off into a personal thought, until the determination in her lips gives way to a sigh of the overwhelmed.

She looks down. A perfectly blue sky, straight out of the imagination of a child, reflects back at her. In front of it, her distorted twin looks at her, silent and strong.

She looks up. The sky gives way to the mess of a country in ruins. The shadow gives way to short and panicked breaths.

She recognizes the mangled red sedan behind her – she had driven her (still missing) son to school countless times in it. She looks down again, and for a moment all those short, packed breaths gathered at the top of her throat as she wondered how quickly the idyllic sky that lapped around her ankles had destroyed her car.

It was difficult to write this piece, not only for its technicality, but also because when you start emotionally putting yourself in her position, it hurts just that much more.

Alex.

Who wears the pants?

Another Uni blog for Sex and the Screen:

The thing that made me think the most – apart from Butler’s mindblowing suggestion that there is no such thing as an ungendered sex – was that everything is brought back to heterosexuality, or a version thereof.

I have a few friends in a lesbian relationship, and in the three cases that I immediately think of, at least one of them is considered “butch” while the other “girly”. I know this is counter-productive, but they sort of prove the theory that in a relationship, one of them have to be the “masculine” one (or, the one who takes on the role of masculinity), and the other the “feminine” one.

One of the couples got asked at a party “so, who’s the guy in your relationship?” which ALSO solidifies that idea of a relationship as between a “masculine” and a “feminine”.

There’s also that saying “wearing the pants in the relationship”. Again, that implies that in a relationship, there is someone who takes the masucline role, and if those pants happen to be on the non-male (or the “non-masucline”) of a relationship, then it’s considered amusing because it’s an inversion of the “normal”.

However, there seems to be a different way of looking at this for homosexual guys. For some reason, when someone says lesbian couple, the first thought to come to mind is a butch girl with a girly girl, or two butch girls (I am giving up on the “” marks, but you understand where they might go), yet when someone mentions a gay couple (gay guys), the first thing to come to mind (at least for me) are two “feminine” guys – two guys who enact more of a feminine role than a masculine one.

(Argh, drowning in the prescriptive non “” words here.)

I don’t know where I’m going with this, but I just find it weird that the heterosexual relationship pairing only exists for lesbian couples, and not gay couples…

Oh oh and this video confused a lot of my (straight) guy friends a lot. I like this (watch before you keep reading):

Thailand’s Got Talent video

My guy friends found themselves at a loss as to whether to think she’s adorable, or what. I think, when you live in a country with more transexuals (like Thailand), you kind of become more desensitized to the ambiguity of transexuals.

Alex.

That video, seriously, love it.

Alex