"That which does not kill me makes me cuter." - tele Nietzsche
Friday, March 19, 2004
Ah, been quite long no blog yet again... ok interesting thing... this past wednesday my group had a tutorial presentation on the issue of androgyny in which we're supposed to compare androgyne artistes between japan and another country. So, I got us to look into America, and what example can be better than Mr. Marilyn Manson himself. Since we told the tutor we had many clips to show, she dicided to put us last, which was all for the better. The other 4 groups talked about androgyny using subjects that were, compared to ours, somewhat more confined to the lighter and popular music side, ranging from the bishounen phenomenon from Johnny's Entertainment (eg. Kinki Kids, SMAP) to Taiwan's 5566 and such. Some talked about L'arc en Ciel and Glay.
I found that when they were presenting their stuffs, most of the time the girls were laughing and ogling at the handsome feminine-featured bishounen Johnny's boys, while the guys expressed certain displeasure over such stuffs, not all the guys of course. Whilst their presentation focused more on pure comparison and band/group profile description and some Japanese clips, they did not really touch on why or how this thing came about. The "heaviest" or "most jialat" bands talked about were L'arc en Ciel and Glay. Even then, when they were commenting about how feminine they looked, how 'weak' their image was compared to some Taiwanese boy group with a more muscular look, and crew cut hair, they did not actually realise the 'visual' past of the two bands but were using the later 'short-hair' Hyde/Teru images. Not that i'm blaming them of course as i can understand their ignorance due to lack of media exposure on even these J-bands. But the amusing part i found was when one of the guy remarkedsomething that went like, "If this Glay and this Taiwan group were to fight, who do you think will win? Obviously the Taiwan one right? You see their crew cut army style hair and muscular build and sleeveless shirts, so strong and this Glay here looks so weak, like they might just fly off if a wind blows." Ahahaa... that's so duh... wait till they see the true Visual Kei, ahahaha.
In any case, our turn came and first we showed androgyny from the West which were
- Pete Burns, Dead Or Alive - You Spin Me Right Round (Like A Record)
- Boy George - Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? (contibuted by my groupmate friend)
- Marilyn Manson - I Don't Like The Drugs But The Drugs Like Me
After that, we showed androgyny from Japan
- Hyde, L'arc en Ciel - Blurry Eyes (contibuted by my groupmate friend)
- Mana - Malice Mizer - Gekka no Yasoukyaku (Popjam Live)
- Yoshiki, X Japan
So the class watched and it looked like an eye-opener for them. After that, since i had the most info about the topic, i said most of the stuffs. Sorry this is gonna be a long post. Up to you if you like to carry on. ^^
Ok, Why can's men wear dresses? What is so wrong with it? Why do we go "Eeeee! Gross!", "What the hell is that?", "What kind of people are those?", "How can there ever be such people around? Yucks!"
Ok, a person's sex as we know, is absolute, either ur born a male or a female (not including nature's mistakes or mutations). So there's no way you can ever argue against that fact. It is the universal law.
But gender... gender is a social construct. Why? How? Take a look, on what basis do we make our disgusted remarks and unplesant comments? Where do those questions and comments come from? Is it on the assumption that the gender of man and woman is absolute and there are no in-betweens at all? On the basis that you were raised in a society which has taught you certain values and ways to live and that certain things are right while others are wrong?
All these are actually products of society itself. Gender is a social construct. If the image of the man and the woman can be created by people, so can androgyny. The only difference is that androgyny is not popular, that's why not many people can accept it. But that in no way means that androgyny is wrong, it still has a right to exist. What makes a certain style or way of life popular or unpopular depends on much or how little we are exposed to or know about them.
Why do little girls wear pink and play with tea sets and dolls while little boys wear blue and play with toy trucks and action figures? We have all been, since the day we were born, raised to internalize certain values and modes while rejecting others. It is all a process of social engineering or socialization, stuffs like that.
The socially created ideal image of man looks something like corporate suit, suitcase, tie to represent the successful working man of society. The image of the ideal woman is one who, oh well, wears dresses, skirts and has a great huge wardrobe with clothes for different occasion... so on and so forth.
Because we internalize such values and reject others, the result of it is that it leads to discrimination of those who do not conform. Those who do not follow suit become conveniently and easily labelled as undesirable and sometimes even evil, just for the pure reason that they aren't popular at all, and also usually without according much understanding for them.
Take for instance, we are at present constantly bombarded with images of how men and women ought to look like by the media. We see them in TV programmes, fashion shows, MTVs, advertisements like slimming ads and product consumption with subtle messages like, ?If you do not buy this facial cream, you skin complexion will be ugly and nobody will like you.? "If you do not come down to our service centres and slim down, ur gonna be so fat and ugly that noone's gonna like u."
It is this kind of selective adoption and popularization of styles, products and consumption by those that have the power such as the media, the government and institutions that make certain ways popular, normal and conventional while other ways become marginalized and discriminated against.
At the same time it is also our very own fears of becoming ostracized that we readily adopt these prescribed ways of life, usually without second thoughts. So if you think that the choices that you make, the way you dress, the questions you ask is really your own, you may never be sure that they can actually be products of social engineering.
So i guess sometimes when we follow certain rules too much, or consume something too quickly or eagerly without first thinking about why we're doing it at all, we simply lose our individual ability to make choices which are genuinely our own. Creativity and free-willed imagination, our freedom, become suppressed because of our fears of not conforming.
In the face of these structured lifestyles and expressions, behavior such as cross-dressing continues to persist, generally with great stigma attached to them. People who go against culture and step into other avenues in society, often do so at great cost. While they lose something such as respect from the mainstream, they may gain other things such as fame or money.
So, in response to the initial question of why men can?t wear dresses, the best presentable answer is probably something close to: ?Because people will laugh at them?. This is ultimately a question of fear on the part of the individual, but is motivated through a Gain Vs Loss economy.
(Thanks to reference source from http://www.virtualcity.com/youthsuicide/news/men-wear-dress.htm)
After the presentation, nobody asked any question. My tutor nodded in agreement all the time i was presenting the material. Guess it's a fact of life nobody can really argue against. But she was intrigued about Marilyn Manson. "What about Marilyn Manson?" I said it's gonna take a long time to explain that guy and we may not have enough time.
So briefly, about Marilyn Manson... (or at least this is how i would personally interpret him, so if there's something not accurate about him, just think of it as my own interpretation)
Marilyn Manson... he openly defies convertion, he challenges order and structure and believes in individual freedom of expression. You all see him as ugly, well he does it deliberately. He purposely creates himself in the iameg that evokes everybody's displeasure. You may think that you hate this guy, hate the way he looks so ugly and his rebellious attitude. But, actually, you're not hating him, you are in effect hating yourself. Why? This is because, Marilyn Manson is a human, like you and i, we're all the same, and the fatc that he's can become like this, if u look deeper, u also realize that, without all those rules, u too can become as ugly as him, as outcast as him. But this ugliness is actually not something really that undesirable the way the media and instituiosn and organizations and so on have made it to be. This ugliness of life isn't evil. It is, after all, a part of yourself. In following too many trends and even certain social values too blindly and unquestioningly, u're being led to reject half of which essentially makes what is you, after all, you.
By the way, the example of the " If u don't buy and use this facial cream, everybody's gonna hate u cos u're so ugly," actually came from Manson himself. This is why when Marilyn Manson does the thing he does, he's actually in a way telling you that u are losing a lot of ur individuality without even realizing it.
So why does Manson choose to adopt an androgynous image? He could just be trying to experiment with new things? He wants to use it to shock people? Whatever it is, creativity requires no structured reasoning.
There's a greater freedom beyond these rules and you are being kept mum about it by those who hold power above. Of course, at the same time, I'm not saying that you should go all out and wage war against society, there are rules that are beneficial. Convention is still a good thing in that it gives people something in common to relate to and communicate more effectively, such and such, so on and so forth. All you need to do, is to have a good and fair balance between following rules and maintaining personal freedom. Don't be afraid to question things around you and try out something new. Creativity and expression is part of life after all.
Yeah. The End. I added some extra stuffs above but on the whole the tutor re-iterated, as Manson has said, don't be too quick to follow soemthing blindly, you might end up losing ur individuality.
Does the whole thing sound like i'm trying to show off or something? Cos I don't intend that. Just wanna share with those who do not realize they can actually have more than what is around them everyday.
I found that when they were presenting their stuffs, most of the time the girls were laughing and ogling at the handsome feminine-featured bishounen Johnny's boys, while the guys expressed certain displeasure over such stuffs, not all the guys of course. Whilst their presentation focused more on pure comparison and band/group profile description and some Japanese clips, they did not really touch on why or how this thing came about. The "heaviest" or "most jialat" bands talked about were L'arc en Ciel and Glay. Even then, when they were commenting about how feminine they looked, how 'weak' their image was compared to some Taiwanese boy group with a more muscular look, and crew cut hair, they did not actually realise the 'visual' past of the two bands but were using the later 'short-hair' Hyde/Teru images. Not that i'm blaming them of course as i can understand their ignorance due to lack of media exposure on even these J-bands. But the amusing part i found was when one of the guy remarkedsomething that went like, "If this Glay and this Taiwan group were to fight, who do you think will win? Obviously the Taiwan one right? You see their crew cut army style hair and muscular build and sleeveless shirts, so strong and this Glay here looks so weak, like they might just fly off if a wind blows." Ahahaa... that's so duh... wait till they see the true Visual Kei, ahahaha.
In any case, our turn came and first we showed androgyny from the West which were
- Pete Burns, Dead Or Alive - You Spin Me Right Round (Like A Record)
- Boy George - Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? (contibuted by my groupmate friend)
- Marilyn Manson - I Don't Like The Drugs But The Drugs Like Me
After that, we showed androgyny from Japan
- Hyde, L'arc en Ciel - Blurry Eyes (contibuted by my groupmate friend)
- Mana - Malice Mizer - Gekka no Yasoukyaku (Popjam Live)
- Yoshiki, X Japan
So the class watched and it looked like an eye-opener for them. After that, since i had the most info about the topic, i said most of the stuffs. Sorry this is gonna be a long post. Up to you if you like to carry on. ^^
Ok, Why can's men wear dresses? What is so wrong with it? Why do we go "Eeeee! Gross!", "What the hell is that?", "What kind of people are those?", "How can there ever be such people around? Yucks!"
Ok, a person's sex as we know, is absolute, either ur born a male or a female (not including nature's mistakes or mutations). So there's no way you can ever argue against that fact. It is the universal law.
But gender... gender is a social construct. Why? How? Take a look, on what basis do we make our disgusted remarks and unplesant comments? Where do those questions and comments come from? Is it on the assumption that the gender of man and woman is absolute and there are no in-betweens at all? On the basis that you were raised in a society which has taught you certain values and ways to live and that certain things are right while others are wrong?
All these are actually products of society itself. Gender is a social construct. If the image of the man and the woman can be created by people, so can androgyny. The only difference is that androgyny is not popular, that's why not many people can accept it. But that in no way means that androgyny is wrong, it still has a right to exist. What makes a certain style or way of life popular or unpopular depends on much or how little we are exposed to or know about them.
Why do little girls wear pink and play with tea sets and dolls while little boys wear blue and play with toy trucks and action figures? We have all been, since the day we were born, raised to internalize certain values and modes while rejecting others. It is all a process of social engineering or socialization, stuffs like that.
The socially created ideal image of man looks something like corporate suit, suitcase, tie to represent the successful working man of society. The image of the ideal woman is one who, oh well, wears dresses, skirts and has a great huge wardrobe with clothes for different occasion... so on and so forth.
Because we internalize such values and reject others, the result of it is that it leads to discrimination of those who do not conform. Those who do not follow suit become conveniently and easily labelled as undesirable and sometimes even evil, just for the pure reason that they aren't popular at all, and also usually without according much understanding for them.
Take for instance, we are at present constantly bombarded with images of how men and women ought to look like by the media. We see them in TV programmes, fashion shows, MTVs, advertisements like slimming ads and product consumption with subtle messages like, ?If you do not buy this facial cream, you skin complexion will be ugly and nobody will like you.? "If you do not come down to our service centres and slim down, ur gonna be so fat and ugly that noone's gonna like u."
It is this kind of selective adoption and popularization of styles, products and consumption by those that have the power such as the media, the government and institutions that make certain ways popular, normal and conventional while other ways become marginalized and discriminated against.
At the same time it is also our very own fears of becoming ostracized that we readily adopt these prescribed ways of life, usually without second thoughts. So if you think that the choices that you make, the way you dress, the questions you ask is really your own, you may never be sure that they can actually be products of social engineering.
So i guess sometimes when we follow certain rules too much, or consume something too quickly or eagerly without first thinking about why we're doing it at all, we simply lose our individual ability to make choices which are genuinely our own. Creativity and free-willed imagination, our freedom, become suppressed because of our fears of not conforming.
In the face of these structured lifestyles and expressions, behavior such as cross-dressing continues to persist, generally with great stigma attached to them. People who go against culture and step into other avenues in society, often do so at great cost. While they lose something such as respect from the mainstream, they may gain other things such as fame or money.
So, in response to the initial question of why men can?t wear dresses, the best presentable answer is probably something close to: ?Because people will laugh at them?. This is ultimately a question of fear on the part of the individual, but is motivated through a Gain Vs Loss economy.
(Thanks to reference source from http://www.virtualcity.com/youthsuicide/news/men-wear-dress.htm)
After the presentation, nobody asked any question. My tutor nodded in agreement all the time i was presenting the material. Guess it's a fact of life nobody can really argue against. But she was intrigued about Marilyn Manson. "What about Marilyn Manson?" I said it's gonna take a long time to explain that guy and we may not have enough time.
So briefly, about Marilyn Manson... (or at least this is how i would personally interpret him, so if there's something not accurate about him, just think of it as my own interpretation)
Marilyn Manson... he openly defies convertion, he challenges order and structure and believes in individual freedom of expression. You all see him as ugly, well he does it deliberately. He purposely creates himself in the iameg that evokes everybody's displeasure. You may think that you hate this guy, hate the way he looks so ugly and his rebellious attitude. But, actually, you're not hating him, you are in effect hating yourself. Why? This is because, Marilyn Manson is a human, like you and i, we're all the same, and the fatc that he's can become like this, if u look deeper, u also realize that, without all those rules, u too can become as ugly as him, as outcast as him. But this ugliness is actually not something really that undesirable the way the media and instituiosn and organizations and so on have made it to be. This ugliness of life isn't evil. It is, after all, a part of yourself. In following too many trends and even certain social values too blindly and unquestioningly, u're being led to reject half of which essentially makes what is you, after all, you.
By the way, the example of the " If u don't buy and use this facial cream, everybody's gonna hate u cos u're so ugly," actually came from Manson himself. This is why when Marilyn Manson does the thing he does, he's actually in a way telling you that u are losing a lot of ur individuality without even realizing it.
So why does Manson choose to adopt an androgynous image? He could just be trying to experiment with new things? He wants to use it to shock people? Whatever it is, creativity requires no structured reasoning.
There's a greater freedom beyond these rules and you are being kept mum about it by those who hold power above. Of course, at the same time, I'm not saying that you should go all out and wage war against society, there are rules that are beneficial. Convention is still a good thing in that it gives people something in common to relate to and communicate more effectively, such and such, so on and so forth. All you need to do, is to have a good and fair balance between following rules and maintaining personal freedom. Don't be afraid to question things around you and try out something new. Creativity and expression is part of life after all.
Yeah. The End. I added some extra stuffs above but on the whole the tutor re-iterated, as Manson has said, don't be too quick to follow soemthing blindly, you might end up losing ur individuality.
Does the whole thing sound like i'm trying to show off or something? Cos I don't intend that. Just wanna share with those who do not realize they can actually have more than what is around them everyday.
Thursday, March 04, 2004
The Warrior. Seemingly cold and heartless, your
sword is your life. Even though there is a
loyalty to those you consider friends and you
will fight for them if truely needed, your
cause is your own: be it gold, honour or power.
What is the Dominant Inner being within You?
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