http://www.apple.com/startpage/
No on Prop 8
Apple is publicly opposing Proposition 8 and making a donation of $100,000 to the No on 8 campaign. Apple was among the first California companies to offer equal rights and benefits to our employees’ same-sex partners, and we strongly believe that a person’s fundamental rights — including the right to marry — should not be affected by their sexual orientation. Apple views this as a civil rights issue, rather than just a political issue, and is therefore speaking out publicly against Proposition 8.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Cafe De Flore
Yesterday our group had a lovely brunch at Cafe De Flore. It was definitely the place to be seen. There were lots of tables outside for people watching. They had a wide selection of food to choose from, Matt got an omelet, it was delicious!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Queer French | Chapter 5: Gay Paris: Language, Sexuality and Space in the French Capital
excerpts taken from: Queer French: Globalization, Language, and Sexual Citizenship in France
_Denis M. Provencher
Recent scholarship has observed the emergence of the city as the economic and cultural center in the modern period and underscores the connection between the Western city and globalization...Scholars also maintain that globalization helps shape the character of the modern city, and in turn the city affects the pace and form of globalization...Major cities have emerged as a strategic site not only for global capital but also for the formation of transnational identities (p. 149).
What does this have to do with our "identity" discussions employing Foucault and other theorists?
Large cities draw these identities. Paris, for example, has become home to a high number of French homosexuals in recent decades, and 46 percent of France's gay men lived in Paris in the early 1990s...many write of the 'importance of getting one's gay self to a big city' (p. 150, 151).
Specifically, Paris' gay neighborhood Le Marais serves as a canonical gay reference or 'lieu de mémoire' for many of France's homosexual citizens (p. 153).
Situating Gay Paris in Historical and Contemporary Contexts
Scholars have traced the emergence of various homosexual establishments between 1880 and 1920 in northern Paris in the district of Montmartre, which has been qualified as the 'center of anarchism, Bohemianism and illicit sexuality.' During the interwar period, gay venues spread to other parts of the city to include bars and nightclubs on the Champs-Elysées and on the Left Bank at Montparnasse as well as in working-class dance-halls on the Rue de Lappe near Place de la Bastille. In contrast to gay Berlin of this same era, which remained largely separate from the larger urban landscape, gay Paris remained mainly a mixed (hetero and homo) space as Paris' homosexuals frequented many of the same bars and nightclubs as other French citizens. With the emergence of French existentialism in post-war France of the 1950s, gay bars, nightclubs and restaurants such as Le Fiacre on Rue du Cherche-Midi eventually emerged on Paris' Left Bank in the district of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, however, gay night life would eventually return to the Right Bank in the 1970s on the Rue Sainte-Anne between the Palais Royal and the Opera House. The 1980s and 1990s brought about another urban shift, marked by visibility whereby Le Marais and les Halles developed the heaviest concentration of gay-oriented bars and restaurants in the city and replaced many of those found in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Montmartre and the streets around Sainte-Anne. Le Marais celebrates gay visibility (p. 155).
In this chapter, the author cites that there are 185 gay venues throughout the city...(p. 158).
The author asks many of his 'informants' to draw their own gay/lesbian maps of Paris. Analyze these maps - how are they different based on the particular situation of the person drawing the map? French-male/lesbian/Jewish/Beur..
_Denis M. Provencher
Recent scholarship has observed the emergence of the city as the economic and cultural center in the modern period and underscores the connection between the Western city and globalization...Scholars also maintain that globalization helps shape the character of the modern city, and in turn the city affects the pace and form of globalization...Major cities have emerged as a strategic site not only for global capital but also for the formation of transnational identities (p. 149).
What does this have to do with our "identity" discussions employing Foucault and other theorists?
Large cities draw these identities. Paris, for example, has become home to a high number of French homosexuals in recent decades, and 46 percent of France's gay men lived in Paris in the early 1990s...many write of the 'importance of getting one's gay self to a big city' (p. 150, 151).
Specifically, Paris' gay neighborhood Le Marais serves as a canonical gay reference or 'lieu de mémoire' for many of France's homosexual citizens (p. 153).
Situating Gay Paris in Historical and Contemporary Contexts
Scholars have traced the emergence of various homosexual establishments between 1880 and 1920 in northern Paris in the district of Montmartre, which has been qualified as the 'center of anarchism, Bohemianism and illicit sexuality.' During the interwar period, gay venues spread to other parts of the city to include bars and nightclubs on the Champs-Elysées and on the Left Bank at Montparnasse as well as in working-class dance-halls on the Rue de Lappe near Place de la Bastille. In contrast to gay Berlin of this same era, which remained largely separate from the larger urban landscape, gay Paris remained mainly a mixed (hetero and homo) space as Paris' homosexuals frequented many of the same bars and nightclubs as other French citizens. With the emergence of French existentialism in post-war France of the 1950s, gay bars, nightclubs and restaurants such as Le Fiacre on Rue du Cherche-Midi eventually emerged on Paris' Left Bank in the district of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, however, gay night life would eventually return to the Right Bank in the 1970s on the Rue Sainte-Anne between the Palais Royal and the Opera House. The 1980s and 1990s brought about another urban shift, marked by visibility whereby Le Marais and les Halles developed the heaviest concentration of gay-oriented bars and restaurants in the city and replaced many of those found in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Montmartre and the streets around Sainte-Anne. Le Marais celebrates gay visibility (p. 155).
In this chapter, the author cites that there are 185 gay venues throughout the city...(p. 158).
The author asks many of his 'informants' to draw their own gay/lesbian maps of Paris. Analyze these maps - how are they different based on the particular situation of the person drawing the map? French-male/lesbian/Jewish/Beur..
Place Pigalle continued...
Here are a few pictures of St. Lazare (this is the train station we all went to on our CEA trip to Deauville)
Monet's painting of St. Lazare...it is basically the same today
Monet's painting of St. Lazare...it is basically the same today
Queer French | Chapter 1: An Assault on French Gay Culture
excerpts taken from: Queer French: Globalization, Language, and Sexual Citizenship in France
_Denis M. Provencher
Is there a "universal gay identity?"
The emergence of various North-Atlantic constructions of gay culture has resulted in the circulation of a 'universal gay identity' across various national boundaries. Both print and electronic media have helped to transmit this 'universal gay identity.' (Specifically Gai-Pied and TÊTU in France).
Têtu appeared on French newsstands in July 1995 and represents the most recent attempt among politically engaged French sexual citizens to establish a national gay magazine geared specifically toward a gay male and to a lesser extent lesbian readership. (Started with the financial support of Yves Saint-Laurent) (p. 32).
Being 'Gay' in French Culture
...gay and lesbian movements around the world: 'demonstrate a Foucauldian point - they are both a part of and apart from the societies around them, both resisting and participating in - even reproducing - dominant public discourses' (p. 33). (* Read from top of page 34).
'French Singularity' is due to a spirit of universalism in France that stems from centralized, hierarchical control. In theory, French egalitarian philosophy provides a sweeping, universal experience/outlook for the French citizen regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, etc.
...unlike US gays and lesbians who exhibit a strong sense of individualism and at times identify so closely with their sexual identity that it is seen as a kind of 'ethnic' separateness, gays and lesbians in France see themselves, first and foremost, as citizens of the French republican state (p. 34).
Important examples from the text:
(Read from p. 40): "Voici 12 choses que vous ne pourrez plus..."
(and from p. 42): "Les différences entre hétéros et homos"
(and from p. 44): McDonalds
Think about the PaCS example as well. Did homosexuals gain the right to have civil unions through their identity category in this case?
_Denis M. Provencher
Is there a "universal gay identity?"
The emergence of various North-Atlantic constructions of gay culture has resulted in the circulation of a 'universal gay identity' across various national boundaries. Both print and electronic media have helped to transmit this 'universal gay identity.' (Specifically Gai-Pied and TÊTU in France).
Têtu appeared on French newsstands in July 1995 and represents the most recent attempt among politically engaged French sexual citizens to establish a national gay magazine geared specifically toward a gay male and to a lesser extent lesbian readership. (Started with the financial support of Yves Saint-Laurent) (p. 32).
Being 'Gay' in French Culture
...gay and lesbian movements around the world: 'demonstrate a Foucauldian point - they are both a part of and apart from the societies around them, both resisting and participating in - even reproducing - dominant public discourses' (p. 33). (* Read from top of page 34).
'French Singularity' is due to a spirit of universalism in France that stems from centralized, hierarchical control. In theory, French egalitarian philosophy provides a sweeping, universal experience/outlook for the French citizen regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, etc.
...unlike US gays and lesbians who exhibit a strong sense of individualism and at times identify so closely with their sexual identity that it is seen as a kind of 'ethnic' separateness, gays and lesbians in France see themselves, first and foremost, as citizens of the French republican state (p. 34).
Important examples from the text:
(Read from p. 40): "Voici 12 choses que vous ne pourrez plus..."
(and from p. 42): "Les différences entre hétéros et homos"
(and from p. 44): McDonalds
Think about the PaCS example as well. Did homosexuals gain the right to have civil unions through their identity category in this case?
Monday, October 27, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Just a little Sarah Palin treat.
I stumbled across this very enlightening interview of S.P. (that's what I call her)
Be Prepared.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caGjG_9nFwY
Be Prepared.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caGjG_9nFwY
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Transgender Teacher
Sorry all my posts seem to be elementary school centered, but I came across this article today, Kids Pulled From Transgender Teacher's Class
The article explains that the disclosure would violate HIPAA privacy laws, and the school district seems to have handled the situation in the proper way.
A teacher's gender reassignment surgery has caught the attention of some parents who want to know why the school district didn't notify them ahead of time about the change.A music teacher at Foxboro Elementary School, who was formerly a woman, returned to school as a man at the beginning of the school year...
Gavlak said the district consulted with lawyers and determined that legally, it could not disclose any information about the teacher's gender change."We will not be discussing personal matters with either the students, or the parents or the community at large ... because we cannot," Gavlak said...
Parent Angela Weinzinger, who has three children at the school, said she has since transferred her children out of the class."I wasn't given the opportunity to make a choice on what I wanted to do with the situation," Weinzinger said.So far, 23 students from 15 different families have transferred their children out of the music class and into a physical education class.
The article explains that the disclosure would violate HIPAA privacy laws, and the school district seems to have handled the situation in the proper way.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
"art is life and life is art"
For those of us who attended the Loire Valley excursion this past weekend, we saw a van with the words "Futuring Company" written on the side, with the picture of two bald woman inside. Everyone who walked by was extremely curious of what a "futuring company" could be. The two woman inside did not help settle our imaginations either.
Through inquiry, I decided to see what this was all about.
It turns out that this company is actually a lesbian couple, whose dream was to "[carry] on making [contemporary] art together and being art together since their official wedding ceremony in 1991."
Their ultimate goals are to challenge societal ideas about art, gender and sexual identity. "With a powerful and confrontational message, EVA & ADELE defy the conventional description of what an artist is."
"The idea that "art is life and life is art" is what guides them in their constant effort to free themselves from pre-established paradigms and to create truly revolutionary art."
Photos taken from:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3246/2354124029_c779a1631e.jpg?v=0
http://www.claireoliver.com/artists.html?artist_no=21
Monday, October 20, 2008
"And Tango Makes Three"
And Tango Makes Three is the real title of the book which I so eloquently called "the gay penguin book" in class today.
While it has received several awards, it also topped the challenged book list for the American Library Association in 2006 and 2007. It was published in 2005, and the list for 2008 has not yet been released, but I would expect it to make a prominent showing this year, as well.
Book Review:
From School Library Journal (via Amazon)
Starred Review. PreSchool-Grade 3-This tale based on a true story about a charming penguin family living in New York City's Central Park Zoo will capture the hearts of penguin lovers everywhere. Roy and Silo, two male penguins, are "a little bit different." They cuddle and share a nest like the other penguin couples, and when all the others start hatching eggs, they want to be parents, too. Determined and hopeful, they bring an egg-shaped rock back to their nest and proceed to start caring for it. They have little luck, until a watchful zookeeper decides they deserve a chance at having their own family and gives them an egg in need of nurturing. The dedicated and enthusiastic fathers do a great job of hatching their funny and adorable daughter, and the three can still be seen at the zoo today... An author's note provides more information about Roy, Silo, Tango, and other chinstrap penguins. This joyful story about the meaning of family is a must for any library.-Julie Roach, Watertown Free Public Library, MA
Gay Paris Blog and Map
I have invited everyone once again to both the blog and the google map. The map is actually an entirely new map, created again on googlemaps (due to problems with the first one). Please add yourself to this map even if you had already done so for the original one.
If you haven't created a google account yet - do so. Once you do, email me the account information and I will invite you to be both an author on the blog and a collaborator on the map through that account.
If you haven't created a google account yet - do so. Once you do, email me the account information and I will invite you to be both an author on the blog and a collaborator on the map through that account.
Queer French
Just a quick reminder to all: the resource copy of Queer French: Globalization, Language, and Sexual Citizenship is to remain at CEA. It should not be taken from the center and should be used for only a couple of hours and then returned to the shelf. Thanks.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Eureka!
I stumbled across some articles from the archives of Discover Magazine this weekend that I thought might be intriguing to all, that, and I thought you could use some more reading. :) So here are some highlights:
The Real Story on Gay Genes
Homing in on the science of homosexuality—and sexuality itself
by Michael Abrams
published online June 5, 2007
"William Reiner, a psychiatrist at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, explored the question of environmental influences on sexuality with a group that had been surgically shifted from boys to girls. These boys had been born with certain genital deformities; because it is easier to fashion a vagina than a penis, the boys were surgically made into girls at birth. In many cases they were raised as girls, kept in the dark about the surgery, and thought themselves female long into adulthood. Invariably, Reiner found that the faux females ended up being attracted to women. If societal nudging was what made men gay, at least one of these boys should have grown up to be attracted to men. There is no documented case of that happening."
Raw Data: Do Brothers Make You Gay?
Boys with older brothers are more likely to be gay. But is it nurture or nature?
by Stephen Ornes
published online September 1, 2006
"Moreover, the more brothers a man has, the more likely he is to be gay. According to Bogaert, every older brother increases the probability that a man is homosexual by 33 percent. The average estimate of the base rate of male homosexuality is around 4 percent of the general population. So a man with 1 older brother has around a 5.3 percent probability of being homosexual. For the youngest of 3 brothers, that figure rises to 7 percent. Hypothetically, a man with 9 older biological brothers, according to Bogaert's estimates, has about a 50 percent chance of being gay. Notably, Bogaert's estimate breaks down at 12 brothers, when the probability exceeds 100 percent.
Why Do We Know So Little About Human Sex?
by Anne Fausto-Sterling
published online June 1, 1992
"Kinsey and his co-workers discovered a continuum of sexuality. They developed a heterosexual-homosexual rating scale, which they divided into seven categories, from exclusively or predominantly heterosexual to exclusively or predominantly homosexual. Where sex is concerned, it turned out, you find all sorts of shades of gray. They found that 37 percent of the male population surveyed had some overt homosexual experience, that most of these experiences occurred during adolescence, and that at least 25 percent of adult males had more than incidental homosexual experiences for at least three years of their lives.
...
Helms concluded by gay-baiting both of Laumann’s coinvestigators- -distinguished social scientists and acknowledged homosexuals--repeating that the surveys are part and parcel of the homosexual movement’s agenda to legitimize their sexual behavior. "
The Real Story on Gay Genes
Homing in on the science of homosexuality—and sexuality itself
by Michael Abrams
published online June 5, 2007
"William Reiner, a psychiatrist at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, explored the question of environmental influences on sexuality with a group that had been surgically shifted from boys to girls. These boys had been born with certain genital deformities; because it is easier to fashion a vagina than a penis, the boys were surgically made into girls at birth. In many cases they were raised as girls, kept in the dark about the surgery, and thought themselves female long into adulthood. Invariably, Reiner found that the faux females ended up being attracted to women. If societal nudging was what made men gay, at least one of these boys should have grown up to be attracted to men. There is no documented case of that happening."
Raw Data: Do Brothers Make You Gay?
Boys with older brothers are more likely to be gay. But is it nurture or nature?
by Stephen Ornes
published online September 1, 2006
"Moreover, the more brothers a man has, the more likely he is to be gay. According to Bogaert, every older brother increases the probability that a man is homosexual by 33 percent. The average estimate of the base rate of male homosexuality is around 4 percent of the general population. So a man with 1 older brother has around a 5.3 percent probability of being homosexual. For the youngest of 3 brothers, that figure rises to 7 percent. Hypothetically, a man with 9 older biological brothers, according to Bogaert's estimates, has about a 50 percent chance of being gay. Notably, Bogaert's estimate breaks down at 12 brothers, when the probability exceeds 100 percent.
Why Do We Know So Little About Human Sex?
by Anne Fausto-Sterling
published online June 1, 1992
"Kinsey and his co-workers discovered a continuum of sexuality. They developed a heterosexual-homosexual rating scale, which they divided into seven categories, from exclusively or predominantly heterosexual to exclusively or predominantly homosexual. Where sex is concerned, it turned out, you find all sorts of shades of gray. They found that 37 percent of the male population surveyed had some overt homosexual experience, that most of these experiences occurred during adolescence, and that at least 25 percent of adult males had more than incidental homosexual experiences for at least three years of their lives.
...
Helms concluded by gay-baiting both of Laumann’s coinvestigators- -distinguished social scientists and acknowledged homosexuals--repeating that the surveys are part and parcel of the homosexual movement’s agenda to legitimize their sexual behavior. "
Friday, October 17, 2008
Castel | Gentry Lane
Through a friend, I somehow managed to get on the list at Castel (rue Princesses) to see our friend, Gentry Lane, work her burlesque magic. Voila:
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
"That's so gay!"
Suggested substitutions:
That's so...
"...For-get it!"
"...Bor-ing!"
"...English!"
"...5 text messages ago!"
"...adults who wear their pants to their abdomen!"
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Folles, Swells, Effeminates, and Homophiles
Folles, Swells, Effeminates, and Homophiles in Saint-Germain-des-Prés of the 1950s: A New ‘Precious’ Society?
_George Sidéris
In Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin described the atmosphere in a homosexual bar in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés quarter of Paris during the 1950s. Among the bar’s clients, Baldwin focused on “les folles [the effeminate queens], always dressed in the most improbable combinations, screaming like parrots the details of their latest love affairs…they always called each other ‘she’.” (p. 219)
Saint-Germain-des-Prés at that time was the principal setting for male homosexual life in Paris. But homosexual life was not confined to this one quarter. The rue du Colisée and the avenue Gabriel, the Champs-Elysées and the streets around the place de l’Etoile, the Montparnasse quarter and Montmartre quarter, the rue des Martyrs, the Saint-Lazare railway station, the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève in the Latin Quarter (famous for its balls where ‘the men wear evening gowns, the women trousers’), place Pigalle, the rue de Lappe near the Bastille, and the grands boulevards in general were also heavily frequented by homosexuals. This list should also include such traditional sites of homosexual cruising as the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes, the quays along the Seine, the Tuileries Gardens, the Champs de Mars, and the city’s many bathhouses. Finally, there appeared in these years a number of homosexual venues, or rather venues regularly frequented by homosexuals, in the area around rue Saint-Anne (p. 220).
Saint-Germain-des-Prés, however, had a special place in the homosexual geography and sociability of the period. The air of freedom, merry-making and non-conformity given it by existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, the presence of numerous artists and writers, the theatres that put on politically committed plays, in short the more open and tolerant attitude that prevailed there, probably explain in part this homosexual presence in Saint-Germain, where one might encounter, for example, open homosexuals like the writers Jean Genet and Jean Cocteau or the actor Jean Marais (p. 220).
Homosexuals showed themselves openly in the cafés, particularly the Flore, the Reine Blanche, the Royal Saint-Germain, and the Pergola (as well as the Fiacre at 4, rue du Cherche-Midi) (p. 220).
Thus, the post-war homosexual geography of Paris was very different from that of pre-war Paris, which had been dominated by the Montmartre, Pigalle and Montparnasse quarters of the city (p. 220).
Effeminates in general and those of Saint-Germain in particular encountered disapproval, not only from the established authorities, but also from homophiles who did not accept their culture of effeminacy and preciousness, which they considered caricatural and likely to provoke an increased repression of homosexuality. The homophilic discourse on effeminacy and the homosexual life at Saint-Germain shifted in the course of the 1950s from disapproval and disparagement to frank outright hostility. In the end, increased policing and a new political situation had encouraged the development among homosexuals themselves of a ‘homophobia’ directed against effeminates (p. 228).
_George Sidéris
In Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin described the atmosphere in a homosexual bar in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés quarter of Paris during the 1950s. Among the bar’s clients, Baldwin focused on “les folles [the effeminate queens], always dressed in the most improbable combinations, screaming like parrots the details of their latest love affairs…they always called each other ‘she’.” (p. 219)
Saint-Germain-des-Prés at that time was the principal setting for male homosexual life in Paris. But homosexual life was not confined to this one quarter. The rue du Colisée and the avenue Gabriel, the Champs-Elysées and the streets around the place de l’Etoile, the Montparnasse quarter and Montmartre quarter, the rue des Martyrs, the Saint-Lazare railway station, the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève in the Latin Quarter (famous for its balls where ‘the men wear evening gowns, the women trousers’), place Pigalle, the rue de Lappe near the Bastille, and the grands boulevards in general were also heavily frequented by homosexuals. This list should also include such traditional sites of homosexual cruising as the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes, the quays along the Seine, the Tuileries Gardens, the Champs de Mars, and the city’s many bathhouses. Finally, there appeared in these years a number of homosexual venues, or rather venues regularly frequented by homosexuals, in the area around rue Saint-Anne (p. 220).
Saint-Germain-des-Prés, however, had a special place in the homosexual geography and sociability of the period. The air of freedom, merry-making and non-conformity given it by existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, the presence of numerous artists and writers, the theatres that put on politically committed plays, in short the more open and tolerant attitude that prevailed there, probably explain in part this homosexual presence in Saint-Germain, where one might encounter, for example, open homosexuals like the writers Jean Genet and Jean Cocteau or the actor Jean Marais (p. 220).
Homosexuals showed themselves openly in the cafés, particularly the Flore, the Reine Blanche, the Royal Saint-Germain, and the Pergola (as well as the Fiacre at 4, rue du Cherche-Midi) (p. 220).
Thus, the post-war homosexual geography of Paris was very different from that of pre-war Paris, which had been dominated by the Montmartre, Pigalle and Montparnasse quarters of the city (p. 220).
Effeminates in general and those of Saint-Germain in particular encountered disapproval, not only from the established authorities, but also from homophiles who did not accept their culture of effeminacy and preciousness, which they considered caricatural and likely to provoke an increased repression of homosexuality. The homophilic discourse on effeminacy and the homosexual life at Saint-Germain shifted in the course of the 1950s from disapproval and disparagement to frank outright hostility. In the end, increased policing and a new political situation had encouraged the development among homosexuals themselves of a ‘homophobia’ directed against effeminates (p. 228).
Jean Genet
excerpts from Queer French: Globalization, Language, and Sexual Citizenship in France
_Denis M. Provencher
Jean Genet (French author) serves as the archetypal ‘outlaw’ or ‘dissident citizen’ in twentieth- and twenty-first-century France by creating a discursive space where his characters remain somewhat on the social margins by naming their same-sex desires and sex acts without articulating a ‘homosexual identity.’ (p. 53)
For the first half of the 20th century, French homosexual consciousness was informed by French literary figures such as Proust, Gide, Cocteau, Genet (who all deal with homosexuality in their writing). The presence of French writers like Gide and Genet continue to inspire various ‘coming out’ style for French gays and lesbians.’ (p. 93)
“Authenticity”
Genet’s non-identitarian language of desire that defies sexual categories serves as a ‘queer’ French language of sexual citizenship. (p. 55)
Genet’s characters generally avoid the practice of naming or categorizing themselves…In order to remain free, one must find the means in the linguistic system all the while avoiding terms that define identity. Characters such as Querelle and Gil seem to understand the dangers of a stable identity, and look for the means to avoid homosexual identity, without equally dismissing their desires. Seblon, the only character to completely assume his identity ultimately find himself in prison. (p. 64)
What does ‘authenticity’ signify to you? In the context of sexuality and sexual identity?
Is ‘authenticity’ social, natural, genuine, contextual…?
Provencher claims that ‘authenticity is a cultural, textual phenomenon.’ (p. 55) Do you agree?
He sites Judith Butler who sees gender ‘as a construction with no beginning or end – an on-going discursive practice. Whereas the individual’s sex is determined by his/her chromosomes, the individual’s gender identity becomes inscribed on the surface of the body through such artifices as gestures and language…Hence, the ‘realness,’ ‘naturalness’ or ‘authenticity’ of gender emerges over time through a variety of repetitive and performative acts.’ (p. 56)
Authenticity relates to an abstract notion invested with local cultural values, beliefs and assumptions, whereas ‘authentification’ represents the process by which cultural values are repeatedly performed into being by group members. (p. 57)
Language plays a critical role in these acts of ‘authentification.’
Quoting William Leap, Provencher states, “‘speaking is the same as doing; the words we use to describe ourselves and our relationships are crucial in creating our culture.’ Hence, gay identity and cultural authenticity are not pre-discursive; they exist and persist through enunciation and reiteration.” (p. 57)
Quoting Mireille Rosello, “Repeating is the most powerful form of enactment. Repeating is a speech act endowed with the maximum authorized level of power…the truth of a stereotype lies in its successive repetitions.” (p. 57) (Physical example of the cross used).
How does this relate to Foucault’s ideas about homosexuality?
How does this relate to our reading - Folles, Swells, Effeminates and Homophiles in Saint-Germain-des-Pres of the 1950s?
Jean Genet
Richard Dryer writes of Genet: “His name evokes a flavour, a set of images, a world – you don’t have to have read his work to know what sort of thing you’re going to get when someone says such-and-such is Genet-esque, nor to be able to catch illusions to him in so many novels, films and theatre pieces or to grasp the significance of the frequent references to him in the major intellectual trends of the post-war years.” (p. 59)
Genet iconography includes: flowers, prisons, drag queens, dirt, melancholy unshaven criminals and sailors, crucifixes, crotches, tattoos and scars. (p. 59)
While Genet follows in the modernist narrative tradition set forth by such writers as Proust, Gide and Cocteau, he also begins to break away from such convention…’Gidean homosexuality is strangely undemanding, almost to the point of being indistinguishable from a homophobic rejection of gay sex…inverts are, according to Proust, compelled to see with disgust their unnatural selves reflected in the specular presence of their fellow inverts. (p. 60)
(In contrast) Genet signs his own name to his writings on the subject of homosexuality; he creates a narrator who self-identifies as homosexual; the narrator and characters recount undeniably homosexual acts. (p. 61)
Who does Genet write about?
While Proust and Gide chronicle the lies of upper-middle class and aristocrats of Paris society, Genet recounts the experience of the abject of society including among others its drag queens, prostitutes, pimps, assassins, thieves, prisoners, sailors, and soldiers. (“Extreme modernity”) (p. 61)
Excerpt
Excerpt from Genet’s novel Notre-Dame des fleurs (1948) (an initial sexual encounter between the drag queen Divine and her ‘masculine’ lover Mignon):
“Loving each other like two young boxers who, before separating, tear off each other’s shirts, and when they are naked, astounded by their beauty, think they are seeing themselves in a mirror, stand there for a second open-mouthed, shake – with rage at being caught – their tangled hair, smile a damp smile, and embrace each other like two wrestlers, interlock their muscles in precise connections offered by the muscles of the other, and drop to the mat until their warm sperm, spurting high, maps out on the sky a milky way where other constellations which I can read take shape: the constellations of the Sailor, the Boxer, the Cyclist, the Fiddle, the Spahi, the Dagger. Thus a new map of the heaves in outlined on the wall of Divine’s garret.” (p. 62-63)
Unlike previous authors like Proust, Gide and Cocteau who do not allow their characters to ‘parade before an audience with an open fly,’ Genet generally allows his characters to expose their body parts and to participate in vivid sexual acts observed by a homosexual narrator.” And “although he opens his character’s fly, it is not always a penis that falls out. For example, in Miracle de la Rose, an open zipper provides for the release of more than a hundred doves. (p. 63)
“In the final scene of the novel, Genet’s tough guy Mignon finds himself in prison and decides to write to his lover Divine to express his feelings and ask for some help...” (p. 63) *
Un Chant d’amour (1950)
Genet’s use of prison walls in Un Chant d’amour (1950) is notable – where such a physical barrier that generally represents a boundary between prisoners, actually serves as a form of communication between prisoners with the help of graffiti, holes, and chains of flowers or smoke. (p. 65)
Genet in Contemporary French Popular Culture
Jean-Paul Gaultier’s ‘Le Mâle’
Jean-Paul Gaultier’s cologne for men, ‘Le Mâle’ calls upon a stock of Genetesque characters. Similar to Genet’s novels that offer voyeuristic and homoerotic depictions o soldiers, sailors, criminals and the like, this advertisement displays two sailors, as seen through a naval-ship port hole. The two men sit face to face at a table, in front of a blue nautical backdrop, and display their muscular, tattooed biceps in a type of arm-wrestling match. it is noteworthy that Gaultier uses the same male model for both of the characters in this image, which gives the appearance of two twin sailors who are consumed by each other in a narcissistic gaze. The image recalls the scene from Notre-Dame des fleurs… (p. 66) *
Paris’ Queen Nightclub
French Popular AIDS Fiction
Pierre et Gilles Photography: “Merde à le Pen” (p. 73) *
_Denis M. Provencher
Jean Genet (French author) serves as the archetypal ‘outlaw’ or ‘dissident citizen’ in twentieth- and twenty-first-century France by creating a discursive space where his characters remain somewhat on the social margins by naming their same-sex desires and sex acts without articulating a ‘homosexual identity.’ (p. 53)
For the first half of the 20th century, French homosexual consciousness was informed by French literary figures such as Proust, Gide, Cocteau, Genet (who all deal with homosexuality in their writing). The presence of French writers like Gide and Genet continue to inspire various ‘coming out’ style for French gays and lesbians.’ (p. 93)
“Authenticity”
Genet’s non-identitarian language of desire that defies sexual categories serves as a ‘queer’ French language of sexual citizenship. (p. 55)
Genet’s characters generally avoid the practice of naming or categorizing themselves…In order to remain free, one must find the means in the linguistic system all the while avoiding terms that define identity. Characters such as Querelle and Gil seem to understand the dangers of a stable identity, and look for the means to avoid homosexual identity, without equally dismissing their desires. Seblon, the only character to completely assume his identity ultimately find himself in prison. (p. 64)
What does ‘authenticity’ signify to you? In the context of sexuality and sexual identity?
Is ‘authenticity’ social, natural, genuine, contextual…?
Provencher claims that ‘authenticity is a cultural, textual phenomenon.’ (p. 55) Do you agree?
He sites Judith Butler who sees gender ‘as a construction with no beginning or end – an on-going discursive practice. Whereas the individual’s sex is determined by his/her chromosomes, the individual’s gender identity becomes inscribed on the surface of the body through such artifices as gestures and language…Hence, the ‘realness,’ ‘naturalness’ or ‘authenticity’ of gender emerges over time through a variety of repetitive and performative acts.’ (p. 56)
Authenticity relates to an abstract notion invested with local cultural values, beliefs and assumptions, whereas ‘authentification’ represents the process by which cultural values are repeatedly performed into being by group members. (p. 57)
Language plays a critical role in these acts of ‘authentification.’
Quoting William Leap, Provencher states, “‘speaking is the same as doing; the words we use to describe ourselves and our relationships are crucial in creating our culture.’ Hence, gay identity and cultural authenticity are not pre-discursive; they exist and persist through enunciation and reiteration.” (p. 57)
Quoting Mireille Rosello, “Repeating is the most powerful form of enactment. Repeating is a speech act endowed with the maximum authorized level of power…the truth of a stereotype lies in its successive repetitions.” (p. 57) (Physical example of the cross used).
How does this relate to Foucault’s ideas about homosexuality?
How does this relate to our reading - Folles, Swells, Effeminates and Homophiles in Saint-Germain-des-Pres of the 1950s?
Jean Genet
Richard Dryer writes of Genet: “His name evokes a flavour, a set of images, a world – you don’t have to have read his work to know what sort of thing you’re going to get when someone says such-and-such is Genet-esque, nor to be able to catch illusions to him in so many novels, films and theatre pieces or to grasp the significance of the frequent references to him in the major intellectual trends of the post-war years.” (p. 59)
Genet iconography includes: flowers, prisons, drag queens, dirt, melancholy unshaven criminals and sailors, crucifixes, crotches, tattoos and scars. (p. 59)
While Genet follows in the modernist narrative tradition set forth by such writers as Proust, Gide and Cocteau, he also begins to break away from such convention…’Gidean homosexuality is strangely undemanding, almost to the point of being indistinguishable from a homophobic rejection of gay sex…inverts are, according to Proust, compelled to see with disgust their unnatural selves reflected in the specular presence of their fellow inverts. (p. 60)
(In contrast) Genet signs his own name to his writings on the subject of homosexuality; he creates a narrator who self-identifies as homosexual; the narrator and characters recount undeniably homosexual acts. (p. 61)
Who does Genet write about?
While Proust and Gide chronicle the lies of upper-middle class and aristocrats of Paris society, Genet recounts the experience of the abject of society including among others its drag queens, prostitutes, pimps, assassins, thieves, prisoners, sailors, and soldiers. (“Extreme modernity”) (p. 61)
Excerpt
Excerpt from Genet’s novel Notre-Dame des fleurs (1948) (an initial sexual encounter between the drag queen Divine and her ‘masculine’ lover Mignon):
“Loving each other like two young boxers who, before separating, tear off each other’s shirts, and when they are naked, astounded by their beauty, think they are seeing themselves in a mirror, stand there for a second open-mouthed, shake – with rage at being caught – their tangled hair, smile a damp smile, and embrace each other like two wrestlers, interlock their muscles in precise connections offered by the muscles of the other, and drop to the mat until their warm sperm, spurting high, maps out on the sky a milky way where other constellations which I can read take shape: the constellations of the Sailor, the Boxer, the Cyclist, the Fiddle, the Spahi, the Dagger. Thus a new map of the heaves in outlined on the wall of Divine’s garret.” (p. 62-63)
Unlike previous authors like Proust, Gide and Cocteau who do not allow their characters to ‘parade before an audience with an open fly,’ Genet generally allows his characters to expose their body parts and to participate in vivid sexual acts observed by a homosexual narrator.” And “although he opens his character’s fly, it is not always a penis that falls out. For example, in Miracle de la Rose, an open zipper provides for the release of more than a hundred doves. (p. 63)
“In the final scene of the novel, Genet’s tough guy Mignon finds himself in prison and decides to write to his lover Divine to express his feelings and ask for some help...” (p. 63) *
Un Chant d’amour (1950)
Genet’s use of prison walls in Un Chant d’amour (1950) is notable – where such a physical barrier that generally represents a boundary between prisoners, actually serves as a form of communication between prisoners with the help of graffiti, holes, and chains of flowers or smoke. (p. 65)
Genet in Contemporary French Popular Culture
Jean-Paul Gaultier’s ‘Le Mâle’
Jean-Paul Gaultier’s cologne for men, ‘Le Mâle’ calls upon a stock of Genetesque characters. Similar to Genet’s novels that offer voyeuristic and homoerotic depictions o soldiers, sailors, criminals and the like, this advertisement displays two sailors, as seen through a naval-ship port hole. The two men sit face to face at a table, in front of a blue nautical backdrop, and display their muscular, tattooed biceps in a type of arm-wrestling match. it is noteworthy that Gaultier uses the same male model for both of the characters in this image, which gives the appearance of two twin sailors who are consumed by each other in a narcissistic gaze. The image recalls the scene from Notre-Dame des fleurs… (p. 66) *
Paris’ Queen Nightclub
French Popular AIDS Fiction
Pierre et Gilles Photography: “Merde à le Pen” (p. 73) *
School for Social Justice Pride Campus
Chicago, IL. - This 100 student public school was created in 1985 in reaction to the extreme harassment and drop-out rates of homosexual students in public schools. Today, the school is aspiring to expand its small 100 student population to a 600 student campus; welcoming all who were severely harassed and bullied in regular public schools. This school gives these kids an opportunity to learn, when prior, they were too afraid to attend school.
A similar high school, "The Harvey Milk High School", "boasts a graduation rate of 95 percent of its students -- all of whom were at risk of or had dropped out -- well above the city average of 52 percent."
The Pride Campus follows the same curriculum as neighboring districts, however, they also "incorporate lessons about, sexual identity in history and literature classes, officials said."
"It's about creating another option for kids," Edelman said. "When it comes down to it, though, it is all about having a choice and providing high-quality options for students, whether they are gay or not."
Many residents do not approve of this school based on religious or other personal reasons. Others fear that if students are not mixed, acceptance will not be created. The founder and director of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) completely agrees with the need of acceptance:
Here is the full article:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/10/13/gay.friendly.school/index.html
A similar high school, "The Harvey Milk High School", "boasts a graduation rate of 95 percent of its students -- all of whom were at risk of or had dropped out -- well above the city average of 52 percent."
The Pride Campus follows the same curriculum as neighboring districts, however, they also "incorporate lessons about, sexual identity in history and literature classes, officials said."
"It's about creating another option for kids," Edelman said. "When it comes down to it, though, it is all about having a choice and providing high-quality options for students, whether they are gay or not."
Many residents do not approve of this school based on religious or other personal reasons. Others fear that if students are not mixed, acceptance will not be created. The founder and director of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) completely agrees with the need of acceptance:
"Absolutely, we should work for [acceptance] across the board," said Jennings, the GLSEN executive director. "But it's not going to change overnight, and in the meantime, these kids aren't going to graduate."
"The most important factor, according to the GLSEN study, is the existence of a state law that protects students from harassment based on their sexual orientation."
"If we keep doing nothing, we are going to keep getting these horrifying levels of harassment, greater rates of skipping, not going to college and more tragic violence like the murder of Lawrence King," he said. "Those are our choices. We can continue to do nothing, and we know the results, or we can save young people's lives and offer them an education and a future."Here is the full article:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/10/13/gay.friendly.school/index.html
Monday, October 13, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
27, rue de Fleurus
Last weekend I went to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas's apartment for my course on Expatriate Writing. It's near metro Notre-Dame-des-Champs and Saint Placide in the 6th. The street itself is mostly residential, but it's near a school so I wouldn't recommend visiting during after-school-rush period (I felt like a weirdo taking pictures). There's a sign by the door that's more noticible than the sign at Shakespeare and Company. From my paper:
" There was a similarly small plaque decorating the building at 27, rue de Fleurus. Gertrude Stein might be pleased with her sign, stating most prominently her name and that she was an American writer, with a smaller note of the period when her brother Leo shared the home, as well as a line about Alice Toklas and the way the hosted artists and writers... There is no mention of her involvement in the modernist movement, or of any specific works."
The pictures are in slideshow form below, and the larger, original versions can be seen on Flickr
" There was a similarly small plaque decorating the building at 27, rue de Fleurus. Gertrude Stein might be pleased with her sign, stating most prominently her name and that she was an American writer, with a smaller note of the period when her brother Leo shared the home, as well as a line about Alice Toklas and the way the hosted artists and writers... There is no mention of her involvement in the modernist movement, or of any specific works."
The pictures are in slideshow form below, and the larger, original versions can be seen on Flickr
War and Soldierhood
Excerpts from: A History of Homosexuality in Europe
_Florence Tamagne
WWI
"The English army enacted severe sanctions against sexual relations between men: two years of prison for any act; ten years in the case of sodomy. In spite of that, homosexual activity still went on in the ranks: during the war, 22 officers and 270 soldiers were tried for homosexuality." (p. 27)
"By bringing men closer together in situations of extreme danger, the war was a fertile ground for the development of homosexual friendships; and thus it served to relieve homosexuality of some of the tension and drama surrounding it. Warrior aesthetics is based largely on homoeroticism; by focusing on the male body, by accentuating virile characteristics..." (p. 28)
"If the war allowed a blooming of hitherto discreet and timorous homosexuality, it also served as an eye-opener for men who, in normal times, would have looked on such relationships with contempt. Most people still thought of the homosexual as an effeminate and affected man. The friendships created in the trenches were built on a different logic, that of male societies welded together by a code of honor and shared experiences. Most of the homosexual friendships on the front were established between young officers and their men."
(p. 29)
_Florence Tamagne
WWI
"The English army enacted severe sanctions against sexual relations between men: two years of prison for any act; ten years in the case of sodomy. In spite of that, homosexual activity still went on in the ranks: during the war, 22 officers and 270 soldiers were tried for homosexuality." (p. 27)
"By bringing men closer together in situations of extreme danger, the war was a fertile ground for the development of homosexual friendships; and thus it served to relieve homosexuality of some of the tension and drama surrounding it. Warrior aesthetics is based largely on homoeroticism; by focusing on the male body, by accentuating virile characteristics..." (p. 28)
"If the war allowed a blooming of hitherto discreet and timorous homosexuality, it also served as an eye-opener for men who, in normal times, would have looked on such relationships with contempt. Most people still thought of the homosexual as an effeminate and affected man. The friendships created in the trenches were built on a different logic, that of male societies welded together by a code of honor and shared experiences. Most of the homosexual friendships on the front were established between young officers and their men."
(p. 29)
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Gentry Lane Sightings | by Matt Sidow
As you may have known, Fashion Week was this past week in Paris. I was just now looking through the photos of some of the shows and parties on style.com and a few blogs when I discovered photos of Gentry Lane at a couple of the parties! Here is a photo of her at the Fendi party (celebrating Dita Von Teese's Birthday). I was also at a party on saturday night at Maxim's and this morning, while looking for photos, read something that said she was there as well! I guess she is all over the place...
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