Things I Hate

These are in no particular order:  1. I hate staying up all night and feeling like I've gotten nothing done, even though I did. I just submitted my abstract for the conference after finishing it 10 minutes ago. Wanna read it:  "Wicked Little Town": Approaching Gender Re-Existence in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"

As Hedwig makes her way down the alley at the end of the film "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," it is clear that she is rejecting the gender markers she constructed for herself. Additionally, the uncomfortable way she takes each step implies a re-birth of sorts, a learning how to walk in a society not prepared for what Hedwig is presenting. This retreat from the audience, which is a representation of a gender system, disrupts an otherwise comfortable state of gender existence into which society has lulled itself. Through an exploration of the film, I will examine not only the construction of Hedwig’s gender, but also the impetus for this construction. What is the meaning behind her version of feminine, and what does it suggest about “acceptable” forms of gendered behavior? What do Hedwig’s actions at the end of the film suggest about a society that operates within a rigid gender structure? Finally, what factors were in place for Hedwig to manipulate the notions of gender to which she originally felt she had to succumb? The answers to these questions will illustrate how the development and subsequent existence of a gender system must weaken under its dialectical relationship with subjects that exist within and without masculine and feminine.

So that's that. If it sucks, I don't want to hear about it. A rejection from the conference will be notice enough. The dialectical relationships refer to the fact that there is obviously a gender system that is represented in popular cultural modes of expression: film, advertisements, television.That it exists has to mean that there is something out there that operates in opposition to it. Those operating in opposition to it are not transgendered individuals, which I originally tried to argue. Is there a definition of these individuals? I argue no. There can’t be, or else they would have to merge into the system and subsequently be swallowed up and become invisible. Unrecognizable and therefore non-existent. But they do exist and this is what I see in Hedwig. And hopefully the other two films I’m going to examine.  2. I hate Cingular. This is why I called them and insisted on being let out of my two-year contract without having to pay the penalty. I love Verizon. I can talk in the house! In my bedroom!  3. I hate discovering that I am so stupid as to fall for the "charms" of manipulative people who have no concern for me or anything about me. Perhaps one of these days I'll learn. Weed out the bad ones. Yeah, right.  4. I hate manipulative people.  It's late, or, rather, early. I'm gonna try to catch a couple of hours of sleep. May I have no dreams.