Sex and the City

 Amanda Ladanyi

4 November 2009

Sex and the City Analyzed

            In Barker’s text he explains and defines the concept of space as a place where, “Human interaction is situated in particular spaces that have a variety of social meanings. For example, a ‘home’ is divided into different living spaces – front rooms, kitchens, dining rooms, and bedrooms” (Barker 374). Barker goes on further to state that there is such thing as front space and back space. “Front space is constituted by those places in which we put on a public ‘on-stage’ performance…Back regions are those spaces where we are ‘behind the scenes’” (Barker 374). A space that constitutes as a back region is the bedroom, which is seen as a place where “behind the scenes” stuff is supposed to go; stuff we, the audience, is not supposed to see. It can be seen as a place to hind from the outside, or front space.

           

This clip shows that back regions of space are for relaxing and are really meant to be behind the scenes. When we watch this scene we feel comfortable with the talk that is going on in the bedroom because it is deep talk that would normally happen in the back region, in this case the bedroom. When the guy walks into the bedroom it immediately turns uncomfortable for the characters, which reflects on to how the audience feels, and the discussion between characters turns cold, which is shown by the lights being turned out. This clip shows that back regions are places where people can hide and discuss problems “behind the scenes” without anyone else hearing and when it is invaded it is supposed to make you feel uncomfortable.

            

This clip shows that sex and sex related topics are more comfortable as a back region. This clip shows that the norm. is too feel uncomfortable when watching something like orgasm in public. When you watch this clip you feel a little awkward and it makes you laugh, but the laugh is one to cover the discomfort the scene brings about. Barker is correct when he says that there are certain spaces and in these spaces there are normal activities that are done. The bedroom is a space where it is normal to perform sexual activities, such as orgasm, and this is shown by the discomfort that we feel that’s covered up by laughter when we watch a man orgasm in public and then cum on one of the ladies.

            

This last clip shows again that sexual talk should be used in a different space than out in public. When inappropriate talk start one of the women immediately walks out of the space and this reflects that it is inappropriate. It is even stated in the clip by one of the characters that it is an inappropriate place to be talking about a mate’s ejaculation. I find it interesting though that the writer shows this scene about tasting a man ejaculation and describing it as food when they are in a restaurant. I think the space that the writer picks brings out the discussion because they are in a place to eat and talking about eating, but not in the terms of food. I would call this clip a radical scene because when you are eating out in public with a group of friends you would normally have small talk about how good food is and how everyone is doing. You don’t normally talk about your experiences that happen in the back region with your friends in a front space and this is what makes this scene radical.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Amanda Ladanyi

Professor Wexler

English 313 Honors

14 October 2009

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, by Tennessee Williams, is a story about two brothers and their families competing for the inheritance of their dying father, Big Daddy. In the middle of this is the whirlwind of sexuality un-tethered in Maggie, the cat, and the burden of love repressed in Brick, Maggie’s husband. One of the main themes in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the father and the son.

The father and son, Brick and Bid Daddy, have a narcissistic relationship. Narcissistic relationships are often defined by an “excessive self-love and grandiosity.” (xi Lerner) Big Daddy’s narcissistic love for Brick is made clear because Brick bears the charmingly masculine indifference Bid Daddy must have in his youth. At the end of the play Big Daddy’s narcissistic personality is shown through Maggie and Big Momma when “Maggie: Announcement of life beginning! A child is coming, sired by Brick, and out of Maggie the Cat! I have Brick’s child in my body, an’ that’s my birthday present to Big Daddy on this birthday!” (167 Williams) “Big Momma: BIG DADDY’S DREAM COME TRUE!” (168 Williams) This shows that Bid Daddy wants above anything else for Brick to provide him with a grandson who is as much like his son, Brick, who is much, like him. This further shows that Brick is Bid Daddy’s rightful heir and his means of immortality. In act 2 of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Big Daddy shares with us his observation about life, which is, “The human animal is a beast that dies but the fact that he’s dying don’t give him pity for others, no sir.” (90 Williams) This shows Big Daddy’s narcissistic personality because even though he is dying he still will show no pity or love to anyone else. If Big Daddy shows pity and love to anyone else then to him, it is seen as him loving them more than he loves himself, which doesn’t stand by the definition of a narcissist stated earlier by Lerner.

Chris Barker writes that, “Identity is best understood not as a fixed entity but as an emotionally charged discursive description of ourselves that is subject to change.” (216 Barker) We see this in the relationship between Big Daddy and Brick when they have a show down over their respective secrets, which leads to both of them changing their identity to tell the truth; Big Daddy’s “death country” and Brick’s “almost not alive” in his drunkenness. In this fashion, unlike the other characters, they both present themselves as the only ones who have never lied to each other. Big Daddy’s final struggle marks the reverse side of the narcissistic love between him and Brick, which is the aggressive logic of either you go or I go between both of them who mirror each other so closely.

Another theme that is seen through the play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is that of manliness and homosexuality. Barker states that, “Sexual Identity is held to be not a universal biological essence but a matter of how femininity and masculinity are spoken about.” (314 Barker) The category of sex is from the start of life normative or what Foucault has called a “regulatory ideal.” (Foucault) Judith Butler argues that, “In other words, ‘sex’ is an ideal construct which is forcibly materialized through time.” (298 Barker)

In many of William’s works cat concerns itself with the elaboration of a certain fantasy of broken manliness. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Brick is a manliness that is left crippled by the homosexual desire he must keep in abeyance. Brick, a “brick” of a man, embodies an almost archetypal masculinity. Brick’s enviable coolness is the coolness of repression, a repression that keeps his desires at bay. Brick is an alcoholic who cannot acknowledge the desire in his relationship with his dead friend Skipper. Turning from his desire for Skipper, he has depressively distanced himself from the world with a screen of liquor, which creates a click of peace for him. Brick mourns his love for Skipper and for Brick it is the only true and good thing in his life. His mourning is made more difficult by the desire that he cannot confess or admit. As Maggie notes, “theirs is a love that dare not speak its name, a love that could not be satisfied or discussed.” (Act 3 Williams) Thus Daddy, assuming the position of judge, will force Brick to confront this love. Brick's attempts at dodging him are crucial to the way the play imagines manliness. As Daddy approaches what has been tenuously repressed, Brick empties his words of all significance. As he tells Daddy, their talks never "materialize" and nothing is really said. When Daddy presses him, Brick reveals why he yearns for "solid quiet." Ultimately the revelation of the desire in his friendship with Skipper cracks Brick's cool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies ed.3. SAGE Publications. 2008.

Foucault, Michel. “The History of Sexuality.”      https://webteach.csun.edu:31987/SCRIPT/ENGL313HON_18895-Wexler-Fa09/scripts/serve_home

Lerner, Rokelle. The Object of My Affection is in My Reflection, Coping with Narcissists. Health Communications, Inc. 2009.

Williams, Tennessee. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. New Directions Publishing Corporation. 2004.

 

 

Ethnography

This weekend on Friday night I went to the 65^th annual fair in Santa Clarita at OLPH Church. I observed many different ages, genders, races, and the way they all reacted with one another and with the people surrounding them. The first thing I observed was young boys and girls. It was interesting to me to see how each gender reacts different. The boys were crazy and couldn’t stand still because they were so excited to get onto the ride. The parents had to keep a close eye if not a hand on their kid so he wouldn’t walk away. The little girl wouldn’t let go of her dad’s leg. She seemed intimidated and shy in such an outgoing atmosphere. When I walked to the swings there were two boys that were trying to kick each other and kick the kids in front of them while the girls sit and enjoy the ride. As I was standing in line with my little sister, 5 years old, for the ferris wheel I watched a dad talk his son into going onto the ferris wheel and his son was crying because he didn’t want to go. The peer pressure coming from his dad was so harsh on the little boy. I concluded that the norm is for girls to be more intimidated and boys to be more outgoing. When this is not the case the parent feels like something is not right and peer pressures their kid into doing the norm.

I also watched pre-teens and teenagers walk around the fair and interact with each other. I watched how one couple, ages 16 or 17, ran out onto the dance floor and danced in a way that I would call not the norm, but didn’t seem to care about the impression they were leaving. Another couple that was with them stood off the dance floor and watched. The couple that stood off the dance floor was also really reserved and didn’t show much affection toward each other. The couple that was on the dance floor walked off the dance floor and gave each other a big kiss and the guy slapped the girls butt. There was a group of girls that all danced together and there was one girl who sort of led the pack. Whatever dance move she was doing is what everyone else did and when one person left the floor the rest followed. They danced standing up and not any big movements were made. Then three guys came running onto the floor and slid on their knees and sizzled like bacon, tried to get people from the crowd to come and dance with them, and clapped to the beat with their hands over their heads.

Lastly I watched adults react with one another and it was interesting to see that most men were standing in a group with other men with a beer in their hand trailing behind the women. The Caucasian couples stayed together and showed a lot of affection, while the Latin men were sitting by themselves and their significant others would randomly walk up and then walk away. They seemed very distant from one another. The Asians were always together but not affectionate toward each other. Unfortunately, there were no African American couples to observe.

I think that it is interesting to observe people and see how everyone reacts the same but different. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof we talk about the relationships everyone has and how they are not defined and kind of leave us to interpret what we think heir relationships are about. I found the book interesting because their relationships are outside the norms of today’s society. I think today it is normal when you see kids acting crazy and more specifically boys. I think this was observed through the parent peer pressuring his son to go on a ride and stop crying because every other boy was. The parent immediately feels like something is wrong with their kid if they don’t want to do what little boys are supposed to do. These norms that we expect everyone to fit into are constantly changing because culture is always changing. Barker states that we see “culture as being ordinary and encapsulating ‘a whole way of life’.” This shows that culture shapes who we are and how we act and what we do.

I think that in middle school, ages 12-15, we are trying to fit in with culture and figure what we want our image to be like. I think this shows through my observation of the couple that would not dance because they seemed too concerned in what everyone was going to think of them. Our culture cares so much about what other people think that it holds us back from doing the things we really love to do. It seems like boys don’t care as much as girls about their image. The girls who were dancing in a group would not do anything radical. They swayed their hips and giggled and pointed fingers at other people dancing. Guys would run onto the dance floor and make a scene of it and they seemed to enjoy the attention. I think that this age group is really conscious about their social identity, which Barker defines as, “the expectations and opinions that others have of us.”

I think it is interesting how people say that men have more power and that’s why men get to make decisions in relationships and they say, “the men wear the pants in the relationship.” When I was observing it was interesting to see that Caucasian men were following their significant others around. The women lead the men to where they wanted to go and when the women were talking they would hand their kids to the men to take care of. Traditionally it is always the men that do the talking and the women that follow behind with the kids. Latin men sit around in a huddle and talk while the women take care of the kids and in this case take the kids on all the rides. A lot of Latin people I know seem very distant from their significant others. I know one couple personally who seem like they have a relationship like Brick and Maggie do in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The woman loves her husband but he is not interested in her and when they go out he is always eyeing other women. She stays with him because she feels like there is no better way out. If she is one her own she will not have money and will have a kid to take care of on her own.