Venus Boyz Essay Example for Free

Venus Boyz Essay In the Euro-American paradigm, the concept of sex, gender and sexuality is highly debated. The society simplifies the gender roles, and branches it out into two categories of: masculine and feminine. Humans learn from the societal norms to behave in ways appropriate to their sex, as it sees gender congruent to the sex of a person. The gender system in the society, seeks to put them in a hierarchical set up, where a man is on the top by default. In such a system, people are prescribed to take up the role of the gender they are assigned by the social system. Men are seen as aggressive, rational, dominant and objective beings who possess power, competency, efficiency and achievement. While women on the other hand are seen as passive, intuitive, submissive and subjective and value love, communication, beauty, and relationship. The idea of dualism that one who appeals and the one with power makes it is easy to describe male- female as a set of opposite traits. In contemporary America, hegemonic masculinity is defined by the physical strength and bravado, exclusive heterosexuality, suppression of â€Å"vulnerable† emotions such as remorse and uncertainty, economic independence, authority over women and other men, and intense interest in sexual â€Å"conquest†. Masculinity is always seen as a form above femininity. Femininity is thus structured around that of masculinity. Its prime feature is its attractiveness to males, the suppression of â€Å"power† and emotions of anger, nurturing children, looking after the household. Masculinity and femininity are the social metaphors of male dominance and female suppression. Woman’s unpaid works of being a home-maker is still devalued, and are prone to get sexually harassed and discriminated on the basis of the work done by women. Society expects men to dominate, and women to suppress, thus gender, significantly, is seen as socially and culturally constructed. There exists different ways in which men can be differentiated from women based on the dress code. However, a woman dressing like a man does not raise questions, as opposed to the male wearing skirts. Society disproves of elements which blur the line between a man and a woman, thus it creates as many distinctions as it can. Language also is seen as a differentiating factor between masculinity and femininity. The pronouns he/she, his/hers, him/her, only present the two extremes. Thus, by defining the two extremes, it implicitly states that they are opposites. Gender is also seen a performance. People are raised to perform a â€Å"certain way†- a girl is raised to be more feminine, and be shy, while a boy is raised to be tough and more masculine. Thus, gender is seen as a social construct, depending on how the person is expected to behave. However, the performance cumulates and takes over the life of the individual, as they are expected to lead themselves in a way that conforms to the society. But, what is ignored is how it could have implications in a certain way that would lead the person into gender inequality- a girl raised up in a feminine way, is highly prone to getting discriminated based on the salary or looked down upon by the man. Sex, defined as the biological characteristics that define a male and a female- hormones, gonads, genitalia, chromosomes, etc., is seen as a very congruent concept to the gender of a person. A person born with a penis is seen evidently as male, and a person born with a vagina, is classified as a female. People have tried to introduce theories and ideas so as to break the two-sex system. The Euro- American paradigm for the intersex child elaborates on its genitals. If the phallus is between 0-1 centimeters, it is accepted as clitoris, and if it is between 3-5centimeters, it is accepted as the penis. However, a phallus ranging anywhere between 2-3 centimeters would account for the surgery. Anna Fausto- Sterling, mentions in her book, Sexing the Body, that if an infant is born with ambiguous genitalia, then the doctors work towards restoring them to â€Å"normal†. And also since it is fairly easy to construct a â€Å"hole† rather than a â€Å"pole†, a biologically born male’s penis is chopped off if it is too small. Thus, sex is also socially constructed, so as to be able to fit into the two binaries available to us. Sexuality in the Euro-American society, does not always mean a male body sexually attracted to a female body. It is seen under three categories: heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality. In the western culture, individual expression is given more importance and this exemplified in the movie Venus Boyz. Venus boyz is the first documentary feature film that fosters visibility and new light on the issue of female masculinity in general, and of drag kings in particular. A legendary Drag King Night in New York is the point of departure for a journey to transgendered worlds, where women become men some for a night, others for their whole lives. Women performance of masculinity has rarely been projected on TV, sitcoms, talk shows, or entertainment. Venus Boyz is highly influenced by the American society at large. The film’s main concerns are related to the problem of stable identity categories and its subversive effects on the so-called natural gender system. Gender: * A gender construction. is how it spins the mystery of gender. * Social concept. * Gender identity. ‘Woman’, ‘man’, ‘masculinity’, ‘femininity’ and so on, are not fixed entities which necessarily comply with the correlative ‘sex/gender system’; rather, these notions form part of an ongoing process by which traditional identity categories can be contested and revisited. Western paradigm- woman are below men. Transgender see them as * Gender is a performance- stated in the film. * Transgender.   * Movie explores female masculinity raises questions about cultural constructions and perceptions of gender. * â€Å"I feel that everyone has a male, female, masculine, and feminine side, but not everyone chooses to explore the other side.† * Gender training. How to act like a man.- male stereotypes * Some of the ladies act out male identities as a way of channeling their male spirit, or creating a third gender other than â€Å"male† or â€Å"female†. They don’t necessarily identify with, or need to make themselves into men. Sex: * biological characteristics that define a man and a woman. Hormones, genetelia, gonads. * Girl talks about Feeling like a man. * The woman with the wig- comes across very androgynous. * Some women strap on dildos as part of their transformation; male-transgender workshop participants pass around a â€Å"faux penis† more supple than customary sex toys. Sexuality: * Female sexuality linked to a woman’s hair, if shaved off, men no longer see that person as sexual. * Relationship between the sexes is on the way to very basic change. No longer concept of reproduction a fundamental aspect of sexuality. * Despie of dressing like a man, desires men, but does not identifies herself as androgynous. Do you think they constitute a third sex and/or gender? No, falls under the continuum of the two binaries.

Stags and Hens - personal performance review :: Drama

Stags and Hens - personal performance review Drama coursework!!! The practical piece that I performed on 16th December ‘04 was a play written by Willy Russel called ‘Stags and Hens’. It was written in 1978 and is set on a hen/stag night in Liverpool for what was at that time, the present - reading the play, however, and comparing it with the portrayal of present day Liverpool I noticed no obvious changes. Another play that I have studied is ‘Blue Remembered Hills’ by Dennis Potter. This play was written in and is set in the heart of Devon in WW2 year 1943 with a cast of 5 boys and 2 girl characters; all of which are children around the age of 7. Composed for a cast of 5 female and 5 male characters, ‘Stags and Hens’ highlights a variety of ways in which men and women differ from each other. The two scenes consist of several location switches, initially between the male and female WC rooms at a nightclub - followed by further ventures into the nightclub itself. When reading a male section, I noticed how there was little hesitation from the majority of characters when it came to leaving their vomiting friend in the WC, whereas the ladies refuse to leave their friend behind while she does her make-up. This points out how men and women can react differently to a situation; here, whilst the women are showing sensitivity and care for each other’s feelings, the men appear thoughtless and self-indulgent. Links similar to this one are made throughout the play, and although not always noticed at first, usually become clear with hindsight. Initially, the male and female characters are kept separate from each other, but as the night progresses they mix up more; this gives the impression of awareness and organisation at the beginning, gradually smudging into a drunken confused muddle towards the end. It is a common feature of modern society for men and women to form separate alliances, and is often encouraged by gender division in everyday things. Things that aren’t even considered like going to the toilet; it is seldom that anyone will see a unisex toilet in public. Also, it is seen as normal for men to play football and drink beer, and women to wear make-up and drink ‘girly’ drinks. This is accentuated in ‘Stags and Hens’ on several occasions. Both genders make referrals to each other putting these stereotypes into place: girls – ‘Y’ can bet they’ll be pourin it down them like it’s goin’ out ‘a fashion.’ (Talking about the men) guys – ‘A woman has responsibility to her feller.

Characteristics of Expository

Essays I read were on Lucy Stone and Cochlear Implants. Author Jone Johnson Lewis wrote a mini-biography about Lucy Stone using â€Å"time order† technique. She had lots of facts on Lucy Stone, starting with how Lucy Stone was the first woman in Massachusetts to earn a college degree and first to keep her own name after marriage. She then wrote when and where Lucy Stone was born and went into more details about Lucy Stone’s Life from her childhood till her death. Author Jamie Berke wrote about Cochlear Implants. He implemented â€Å"Topic† technique to write on Cochlear Implants. He began his introduction with how long Cochlear Implants have been around, and what Cochlear Implants (also known as internal hearing aid) are. He clarified on how Cochlear Implants work and for whom it is made for. In the end the author introduced himself, and explained the reasons he had for getting Cochlear Implants. Each author, Jone Johnson Lewis and Jamie Berke, preferred different approach in order to write a well written paper. The techniques, Jone Johnson Lewis used â€Å"time order,† so she can write about Lucy Stone’s struggle from birth till death for woman’s right. â€Å"Time order† organization helps in arranging information according to date or a specific time line. In this case, Jone Johnson Lewis did just the same. She used dates to help set up the writing process. On the other hand author Jamie Berke used â€Å"Topic† technique to get his audience's attention and to inform his audience about Cochlear Implants. Writing an expository essay using topic technique helps organize information about the subject you chose to write about. In this case, Jamie Berke did the same, by collecting all the information on Cochlear Implants and starting his paper with when they were first introduced. If author Jone Johnson Lewis and Jamie Berke would have decided to used another type of organization technique to write their essay, it might not have received as much attention from readers as they would have liked to or hoped for. Both essays are similar because they both used evidence and examples. Information was presented in a non-biased manner. These two expository essays are tailored to capture different audiences. Essay on Lucy Stone tries to capture the attention of female audience, and essay on Cochlear Implants tries to capture the attention of people who are hearing impaired.

The Doctrinal Design Has Been Used To Study The...

The doctrinal design has been used to study the jurisprudential development in the areas of child witnesses, the reliability and admissibility problems of child witnesses. This has been done primarily with the help of case laws and leading judgments of various courts. 1.5 Research questions: a) Does the child have adequate cognitive skills for comprehending and accurately reporting the witnessed event? b) Can the child successfully discriminate actual events from the internal thoughts, images and fantasies? c) Can the child resist suggestions from various sources to change his or her report or memory of an event? d) What is the status of child witnesses in the Criminal Justice system? 1.6 Chapterization Scheme:It should in sentence†¦show more content†¦Some believe that it is not totally accurate to speak of a criminal justice system. A system, they argue, is an interactive, interrelated, interdependent group of certain elements performing related functions that make up a complex whole. The criminal justice system is a loose confederation of those agencies that perform different functions and are independently funded, managed and operated. However, despite their independence, these agencies of criminal justice system are interrelated because what one agency does affects all others. That is why they are called a ‘system’. The present criminal justice system of India is the product of continuous efforts on the part of those rulers who have controlled the affairs of the country from time to time. In every phase of Indian history the rulers contributed to the development of the criminal justice system. However, most of them treated the criminal justice system more as an instrument to subjugate the masses rather than to protect their rights. The British rulers who made well-thought efforts for the establishment of a sound and well defined criminal justice system in India too suffered from this weakness. They looked at the criminal justice system more as an instrument to uphold the colonial rule in India and less for the administration of fair criminal