So first a medical update: I致e been SO tired for the longest time - no matter how much sleep I get or how much exercise I do or how much coffee I drink, I知 tired. Some days I think I cannot possibly go through without a nap. Friends, I知 happy to report I will be getting turboplasty (a surgery for my nose) to help my breathe better in my sleep. My nostrils are permanently blocked by enlarged turbinates and I can only breathe through 4% of my nostril! It値l be at least a month until I have this procedure but I知 THRILLED because everyone online says they were REBORN with this small surgery.
Secondly, an academic update. I知 doing Sexing Power, a gender studies subject, and I make my own essay question. This is the proposal I just sent to my teacher for her feedback:
泥iscuss the ways female corporeal agency is perceived/manipulated as a reflection of intellectual freedom in cultural narratives."
I'm hoping to focus on three particular cultural narratives throughout the essay with a different angle for each:
First:
Chinese Foot Binding.
I want to talk about this in relation to cultural narratives of imperialism, and how the eurocentric gaze essentially saw the lack of corporal agency of women as a reflection of the intellectual freedom of the nation - this is following the reading we did earlier in the semester that suggested that it suited European interests to see foot binding as a metonym for the general crippling freedom of intellect on the entire nation. So in this instance, the cultural narrative was a convenience to European authorities, and the intellectual freedom of the nation as a whole.
Two:
Veiling in the Middle East (focusing on Afghanistan)
Using a more modern example, I want to talk about the convenience of using the agency of women in relation to veiling as a reflection of their limited intellectual freedom according to American perception. Specifically, I was inspired by the comments made by the First Lady regarding the veiling of Afghan women. The corporal agency of women has been used as a convenient narrative and excuse for the US to exert Western condemnation. I'm also reading Susan Carland's Fighting Hislam which is raising some interesting points about the agency of women in choosing to veil.
Three:
A more modern example again, I want to talk about sex workers and female participation in sexual liberation in Western civilisations (I haven't yet narrowed it down to a country, nor do I know if I will). I need to narrow this down more, but I want to take a creative approach to finish the essay by looking at the way Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale has portrayed a future time that looks back on women exerting sexual freedom (corporeal agency) and suggests that they were brainwashed. I want to take this angle because I think it will be interesting to look at it through literature that is inspired by several societies colliding. In the book, the new dystopic world was justified as protecting women from their own liberation, thus patronising their intellectual freedom.
I want to look at these three examples through the common thread of the way the link between corporeal agency and intellectual freedom is adapted to suit the cultural narrative that a condemning force can imagine and project in order to execute their own ulterior motives. Essentially - the link between agency and freedom and body and mind of women fails to actually address the needs and desires of women, and instead paternalistically decides what is best for them, despite ironically claiming that they are being oppressed.
I know it's early days and there's lots of researching to do, but I'd really like your thoughts on this. I'm very keen to get a move along with this because I'm very much enjoying researching so far! I've also never written a somewhat creative essay before (creative isn't the right word) which is why I'm so excited to fuse academia and a little bit of literature at the end there.
And lastly, I just got a HD result back for a journalism assignment I worked really hard on. HELL. YEAH. I知 really trying to push my marks this semester because I finish next year and want to give myself the best finishing GPA possible