Monday, December 1, 2008

Week 9 and 10

Week 9

I thought the "Bring a Man to Class Day was quite a success. I think when we broke up into smaller groups I think that it gave the men in my group an opportunity to express themselves in a smaller group and feel comfortable. I think its helpful to have a few guided questions nut also leave some room from the freedom of interpretation of discussion questions. I think my group did a good role in helping the participants elaborate on some concepts we clearly understood well. Overall, I think that the discussion that was introduced to the visitors both men and women were great. I think some key things that they were looking for too was how to approach the subject with friends, peers or even other family and that was something that I had no real premise to go from. We helped them understand what an ally is, but I don't think there is one formula in terms of how to be an ally.

Week 10

I watched the slasher film Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock. This film is a prime example of violence against women. Most of us know the story line a woman steals a sum of money and takes off out of town. She has to stop driving for fear of utter exhaustion when she comes upon a small and quaint motel. She decides to stay the night, but senses that she won't get much sleep. Of course she is eventually killed in one of the most gruesome ways in the "Alfred Hitchcock time" films. First, I wanted to examine the forms of violence that were evident on a lower end of the continuum of violence. Clearly as she undresses she is being watched through a peep whole by the motel manager. It is very alarming to the audience, yet I think it desensitizes the audience to the ideas that people actually will peep in on you. On the other hand it makes women fear traveling alone, leaving a domestic violence situation, move to a new city. Though the movies intent is not to reinforce these ever so present visualizations of violence against women it is clear. I watch the 2001 version of Psycho but have seen the 19?? versions as well. I think Jackson Katz pointed the concept of how much more sexualized the woman was viewed in the movie. When she is showering you can almost see her being exposed several times, where as the old version there are hardly any aspects of overt sexual invasion. I remember while watching this movie and other scary movies, constantly repeating to myself, "this is not real" over and over and I'm sure there are plenty of people that do the same. By having a mind frame set around not believing you are less likely to actually be aware that these events occur. Somehow I've chalked it up to cinematic art that only the actresses are attacked, while in reality it's any woman and any young girl that is susceptible to the violence against themselves, family or friends.

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