Orlando was challenging for me to watch at times. I mentioned in class how uncomfortable it felt to spend the entire film trying to place Orlando in a sex or gender. It was difficult knowing the actress was female, and watch her play a male role. It really made me wonder about sex and gender, and nurture versus nature. We often hear the argument that gender is a combination of both nature and nurture, but more nurture. I think this is evident in Orlando, when in the beginning he is a very "feminine" man, but those were signs of the time period. As the movie progresses, what is masculine and expected of him changes. I find the war scene when he went overseas very interesting. He was asked to help defend the country (I can't remember which one it was now), as an ambassador. He was completely disinterested in war and fighting, when it was perceived as masculine to fight for one's country, or allies. This brings me to the point in the movie where Orlando changes, and looks right in to the camera saying "Same person, no difference." We may be, at times, "gendered" into specific roles, but the core of us is not rooted in these roles or in our sex. I think it tells a beautiful story about humanity in general, which I also found evident in The Left Hand Side of Darkness. We are androgynous, to an extent, when we are stripped from our "gendered roles" and the expectations of other people.
Do any of you agree? Does Orlando represent the idea that we are androgynous? If so, how do we bring that into the context of our own lives?
I also thought a lot about us all being considered androgenous. I thkn that in some ways we are, most of us carry characteristics of both masculine and feminine, though some more than others. I agree that a lot of the idea of being one or the other comes more from society and thte exprectaions that go along with it. for example; in Karhide the people only took on a gender role when tin Kemmer. it was hard for Ai to grasp this concept of a androgynous society/culture becase this was not the norm he was use to.
ReplyDeleteWhen Orlando makes his "same person different body" comment the only thing that has changed is "his" sex but the still carries whatever masculine characteristics he had, but is still able to portray as feminine because he had those same characteristics before the switch (same person).
I think the concept of being "gendered" into specific roles is very apparent in our society. Little boys are told "Boys don't cry", but it's okay for girls (especially if they want to get out of a traffic ticket). That is just a simple example, but I feel like nurture does play a big role on this. Yes, in nature, if a boy is always crying he is not going to be able to defend himself and his family as well, but it's nurture that says it is the boys job to say that he must be the family defender.
ReplyDeleteSo Lauren, I agree that Orlando explored this idea in a neat way and showed us how we could be stripped of our "gendered" roles and still be an individual ("same person"). Orlando definitely shows of the androgynous qualities that exist withing us, but I think you would have to have a special and unique personality to explore these. I feel like I have never met anyone like Orlando whereas they are trying to identify as no gender (at the end) or switch back and forth, they always pick one (it just may or may not be related to their sex). So to bring this into context of our own lives I would like to analyze my individual self and think about what roles I was "gendered" into. I don't know if I should feel wrong for feeling with okay that I was gendered into many "female" roles, but I don't mind. I don't see what is wrong with it, yet I may have been a completely different person without those "gendered" roles. I feel like I would definitely not wake up and say "Same person, different body" and be okay with it.
In response to Lauren's questions, "Do any of you agree? Does Orlando represent the idea that we are androgynous? If so, how do we bring that into the context of our own lives?"
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a big question that Orlando represents. I feel like as a society we all have qualities that would be considered masculine or feminine Yet as a society we have this concept of what is masculine or feminine and we need to be placed under one of them. Orlando challenges this by traveling between the two. That is why I personally was so uncomfortable watching it. The fact that I couldn't "classify" her was making it harder for me to sort out.
I definitely agree with the idea that we are "gendered" into specific roles. I think that Orlando absolutely represents the idea that underneath these "gendered roles" we are androgynous. I never thought about this idea or concept until I saw this film and read The Left Hand of Darkness. I think that if we strip away all of the typical stereotypes associated with men and women, we would see that we really are androgynous. Yes, we each have a sex that we were born with but I think it represents nothing more than the biology of our body. We all do embody roles associated with men and women, but I think that we only assume these roles because that is what society has taught us and each generation learns it from the generation before them. Like Aimee mentioned, boys are taught not to cry and girls are told to wear pink. If we had never been taught these concepts or had these roles pushed onto us by society, I believe that women and men would relate better to one another and find that we really aren't that different.
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