The Personal Is Political
Ruth *anxiously*: Are we in the right cinema?
Me *looking at the crowd*: I'm sure we are. See how pretentious the people look! It's French that we bought into tonight.
*
Finally, a French movie that I like!
My first movie for SIFF 2005 was One Sings, One Doesn't - a lovely feminist showcase that pays tribute to the 60s and 70s.
I picked this because of the era and and its themetic concerns. Pleasantly surprised that it turned out so well, given that French movies are usually anathema to me (I have to watch them - obligation to prove the premise they are pretentious instead of just dissing/dismissing them unfairly). Bad experiences, even for acclaimed ones like Jeux D'enfants.
This one was actually engaging, and has a good storyline, and I believe, according to my scholarly academic understanding of feminism, relatively authentic, sincere, and lovingly shot.
I love the quirky, folksy feminist songs and giggled at various scenes, in particular:
Pauline *singing about birth and pregnancy for an audience (she happens to be pregnant at that time)*: Life is a big fat balloon, fat dream...*coos endearingly*
Irate feminist audience member: Are you discriminating against women who have no children???
To her credit, Pauline replies that she's singing how she feel as a woman, of her feelings, and she is currently experiencing the the nascent stages of motherhood. So. Heh.
Well, the personal is political. Okay. So the personal is political - what does this statement mean? To understand that, we have to trace back to what made feminism possible - CR groups
The emergence of consciousness-raising (CR) groups enabled women to be sentient that men have imposed their version of reality on women. By speaking out and sharing in these groups, women grew aware that very often, what is portrayed and projected as the standard, normative female ideals, standards and feelings were constructs by men, which hardly reflected what women were truly embodying and experiencing.
Silent and passive women had perpetuated these falsified experiences, each believing that she was the aberrant and abnormal woman when what was perceived as an individual inadequacy was actually a common-to-all, collective problem.
Through the phenomenon of CR, women discovered there was an alternate reality that was female. As a result, they became more confident and articulate. The slogan that CR groups adopted, “the personal is political” is the very first indication of the boundaries that can be dismantled and crossed for the female experience.
By shifting the personal to the public sphere, women grew increasingly conscious of the urgency to be expressive instead of internalizing blame for failing to match up to the epitome, since what is epitomized was never endorsed and embodied by women but the patriarchy in power.
The “personal is political” slogan empowered women through encouraging and facilitating the discussions of issues that had bothered each woman to show that it was not a unique situation but one which most, if not all, women faced, and making such a problem to be of a political nature, one that was determined and perpetuated by social structures.
Coining of terms like sexism and sexual harassment through CR shifted the locus of reproach from women to men. Previously, before the invention of such terms, it was women who were too sensitive and whose behaviour was problematic if they were bold enough to protest against male behaviour that made them uneasy. The problem is compounded again by the collective silence of women who shared the experiences but each believing it was only she was the odd one with the neuroses. The naming of sexism and sexual harassment established the validity of female problems, which otherwise were deemed unreal.
Women were rediscovering a female reality. CR opened up worlds of possibilities and alternatives for women, promoting speech and sharing, highlighting censorship as estranging and alienating. This dissolution of the personal and the melting into the political heralds the heydays of feminism in the 1970s.
So. Yeah. The personal is political. Never think your thoughts don't count. Everything is political, since everything is personal. You can contribute to change. Like change the world. Make a difference.
I love feeling brainy again :) Anyway, I got to confess I dozed off a couple of times because I was so tired. But it is wholly unfair to attribute that to the film. It was good. And Ruth slept through almost all of it. Nothing to do with the film either.
Me *looking at the crowd*: I'm sure we are. See how pretentious the people look! It's French that we bought into tonight.
*
Finally, a French movie that I like!
My first movie for SIFF 2005 was One Sings, One Doesn't - a lovely feminist showcase that pays tribute to the 60s and 70s.
I picked this because of the era and and its themetic concerns. Pleasantly surprised that it turned out so well, given that French movies are usually anathema to me (I have to watch them - obligation to prove the premise they are pretentious instead of just dissing/dismissing them unfairly). Bad experiences, even for acclaimed ones like Jeux D'enfants.
This one was actually engaging, and has a good storyline, and I believe, according to my scholarly academic understanding of feminism, relatively authentic, sincere, and lovingly shot.
I love the quirky, folksy feminist songs and giggled at various scenes, in particular:
Pauline *singing about birth and pregnancy for an audience (she happens to be pregnant at that time)*: Life is a big fat balloon, fat dream...*coos endearingly*
Irate feminist audience member: Are you discriminating against women who have no children???
To her credit, Pauline replies that she's singing how she feel as a woman, of her feelings, and she is currently experiencing the the nascent stages of motherhood. So. Heh.
Well, the personal is political. Okay. So the personal is political - what does this statement mean? To understand that, we have to trace back to what made feminism possible - CR groups
The emergence of consciousness-raising (CR) groups enabled women to be sentient that men have imposed their version of reality on women. By speaking out and sharing in these groups, women grew aware that very often, what is portrayed and projected as the standard, normative female ideals, standards and feelings were constructs by men, which hardly reflected what women were truly embodying and experiencing.
Silent and passive women had perpetuated these falsified experiences, each believing that she was the aberrant and abnormal woman when what was perceived as an individual inadequacy was actually a common-to-all, collective problem.
Through the phenomenon of CR, women discovered there was an alternate reality that was female. As a result, they became more confident and articulate. The slogan that CR groups adopted, “the personal is political” is the very first indication of the boundaries that can be dismantled and crossed for the female experience.
By shifting the personal to the public sphere, women grew increasingly conscious of the urgency to be expressive instead of internalizing blame for failing to match up to the epitome, since what is epitomized was never endorsed and embodied by women but the patriarchy in power.
The “personal is political” slogan empowered women through encouraging and facilitating the discussions of issues that had bothered each woman to show that it was not a unique situation but one which most, if not all, women faced, and making such a problem to be of a political nature, one that was determined and perpetuated by social structures.
Coining of terms like sexism and sexual harassment through CR shifted the locus of reproach from women to men. Previously, before the invention of such terms, it was women who were too sensitive and whose behaviour was problematic if they were bold enough to protest against male behaviour that made them uneasy. The problem is compounded again by the collective silence of women who shared the experiences but each believing it was only she was the odd one with the neuroses. The naming of sexism and sexual harassment established the validity of female problems, which otherwise were deemed unreal.
Women were rediscovering a female reality. CR opened up worlds of possibilities and alternatives for women, promoting speech and sharing, highlighting censorship as estranging and alienating. This dissolution of the personal and the melting into the political heralds the heydays of feminism in the 1970s.
So. Yeah. The personal is political. Never think your thoughts don't count. Everything is political, since everything is personal. You can contribute to change. Like change the world. Make a difference.
I love feeling brainy again :) Anyway, I got to confess I dozed off a couple of times because I was so tired. But it is wholly unfair to attribute that to the film. It was good. And Ruth slept through almost all of it. Nothing to do with the film either.
1 Comments:
nooo..*aghast* i watched at least half ok. fell asleep somewhere after the bit where you ended up in iran (?), scene where you was chopping veggie and the relationship with hubby was beginning to get strained. and yes whatever i caught was good, the 'amsterdam' song particularly - if only i weren't so tired! hopefully trusty tv12 will show it sometime.
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