Class Pulse

This course has personally been very eye opening. I have never thought about many of the aspects that this class has been exploring. Each reading has brought up ideas and theories that I not only had never heard of, but also have never been exposed to in any manner. For example the binary divide being more than just male and female is one aspect of this class that was confusing to me since I never thought of an ambiguous gender, or of a gender at all that is not defined as male or female. I also came into this class with the idea that biological determinism is what defines gender, and learning in this class that this is not the case has been a little mind boggling to say the least. Many aspects of this course, since they were quite unfamiliar to me before the class have been surprising and baffling. The screenings have been very eye opening, especially the reading and screening on Fight Club that brought up many background concepts of masculinity that I had never given thought to, even though I have seen the film before. The material for this class has definetely challenged the ideas of gender and sexuality that I had before entering this class. The reading of Laura Mulvey was the most engaging for me, since it layed out the way that film is formulated on the basis of female sexuality yet passivity and highlighted how the female is a visual pleasure that is in the film to be gazed upon by the active male of the film. The Kate Bornstein reading was also extremely engaging especially when she speaks about traditional gender roles creating an imbalance of power amongst the genders. Rosmarys Baby instilled the imbalance of power amongst the genders by Rosemary being controlled by her husband and the male doctor she is seeing. She looses her power over her situation because the men in her life hold all the power. Media plays into traditional gender roles in the most extreme ways by defining woman and men as separate entities that should each play into society's traditional views and conceptions of what a male or female should be. This is shown through the use of masculinity and femininity since those are simply just social constructs by society, yet they are seen on a wide scale as the defining factors of each gender. The reading of Alexander Doty was the most difficult for me since it laid out the idea of queer which is confusing to me. The framework of queer, as I understand is an umbrella term that encompasses ambiguous gender roles, but the idea of what queer really means is still a little fuzzy to me. The idea that gender is not based on flesh, and is not biologically determined which is pointed out in the Judith Butler reading is a very puzzling concept for me since it goes against the mindset I've had of gender up until this course. Through this class I have learned to keep an open mind and learned that there are many things about gender and sexuality that I do not know and there are many ideas that contradict what I thought I knew about gender and sexuality. This course has replaced my seemingly know it all perspective on gender and sexuality, with a blank slate that I am filling with opinions and ideologies that are completely new to me. As Lou Reed sang Take a Walk on the Wild Side:

Holly came from Miami F.L.A.

Hitch-hiked her way across the U.S.A.

Plucked her eyebrows on the way

Shaved her legs and then he was a she

She said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side,

Said, hey honey, take a walk on the wild side.

This class has allowed my mind to "take a walk on the wild side" and free my mind of what I think I knew about this topic, and let myself learn new perspectives and ideologies of gender and sexuality.