Thursday, October 23, 2003
"Out of this light; alas! alas! for some the light is darkness."
-The Lost Stradivarius John Meade Falkner
Hurrah! I have finally finished The Lost Stradivarius! Although this may not be such good news 'cos this means I actually have to start researching my essay. Am thinking of writing on 'gender as a masquerade' using The Strad and Dr Jeckell and Mr Hyde but we will see how that goes 'cos generally if I get too obsessed with the topic it ends up being shit. Although, this time I have a cunning plan. I am going to write on masculinity which is a whole new ball park for me. It was sparked off when I heard how a talkback caller explained the man trying to commit suicide (or whatever, details, details) on the Westgate Bridge a while ago...(which held up traffic and sparked people to suggest the police should shoot him so they could get home quicker)...anyway...the caller suggested that the problem was we don't value masculinity anymore. And it got me to thinking no, I don't value masculinity, and then, why not? It's not like I don't value men, most of my friends are men, but I think masculinity (i.e. maleness, rather than socially prescribed traits) has been so strongly associated with patriarchal values that it has come to be percieved as a negative thing. Anyway this is all leading to a breakdown of binary codes yada, yada, yada, idea so I will stop, but am going to investigate some site which classifies people into ten genders soon so if this pushes your buttons, watch this space...
-The Lost Stradivarius John Meade Falkner
Hurrah! I have finally finished The Lost Stradivarius! Although this may not be such good news 'cos this means I actually have to start researching my essay. Am thinking of writing on 'gender as a masquerade' using The Strad and Dr Jeckell and Mr Hyde but we will see how that goes 'cos generally if I get too obsessed with the topic it ends up being shit. Although, this time I have a cunning plan. I am going to write on masculinity which is a whole new ball park for me. It was sparked off when I heard how a talkback caller explained the man trying to commit suicide (or whatever, details, details) on the Westgate Bridge a while ago...(which held up traffic and sparked people to suggest the police should shoot him so they could get home quicker)...anyway...the caller suggested that the problem was we don't value masculinity anymore. And it got me to thinking no, I don't value masculinity, and then, why not? It's not like I don't value men, most of my friends are men, but I think masculinity (i.e. maleness, rather than socially prescribed traits) has been so strongly associated with patriarchal values that it has come to be percieved as a negative thing. Anyway this is all leading to a breakdown of binary codes yada, yada, yada, idea so I will stop, but am going to investigate some site which classifies people into ten genders soon so if this pushes your buttons, watch this space...
