scholarly journals "When will my reflection show who I am inside?": Queering Disney Fantasy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Macie St. Jacques
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Identity ◽  
Subsequent Treatment ◽  
Symbolic Order ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Mirror Stage ◽  
Queer Identity ◽  
Evolutionary Progress ◽  
Proper Representation

In this thesis, I argue that the treatment and seemingly progressive representation of gender and queer identity in Disney films serves merely as a form of baiting to modern audiences, a baiting that suggests Disney wants to be understood as having embraced the ideas of progressive feminism and "homosexually-inclusive" ideologies, only to undermine and disavow them with a "bait and switch" narrative maneuvering that undercuts the film's ostensible message. I analyze and interpret the ways in which "classic" Disney animated features represent gender and sexual identity binaries through a close reading of Bambi (1942), Mulan (1998), and Frozen (2013). I bring together Lacan's notion of the "mirror stage," the Symbolic order, and the idea that at the heart of identity lies a fundamental misrecognition, which leaves children especially vulnerable to the "hail" of ideology as it informs nearly the entirety of a child's headspace. Today, gender and sexual binaries are challenged at every level, and Disney seems to have embraced this progressive trend. Yet the lack of proper representation of LGBTQ characters and the negative subsequent treatment of those allowed to be seen in its films complicates this evolutionary progress that Disney claims it has achieved.

Skin Deep: Identity and Trauma in God Help the Child

2020 ◽  
pp. 5-29
Author(s):  
Shirley A. Stave
Keyword(s):  
Symbolic Order ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Mirror Stage ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Human Connection

In “Skin Deep: Identity and Trauma in God Help the Child,” Shirley A. Stave argues that the novel plays surface off depth, unravelling the dichotomy as false through the lens of racism, which is predicated upon the gaze, the surface, but which profoundly disables the depth, leaving its victims traumatized. Morrison’s two main characters, Bride and Booker, both live fractured lives because of their attempt to avoid depth, choosing image and intellect as mechanisms to insulate themselves from further trauma. Bride’s ruptured skin, which exposes what lies beneath, begins her journey toward wholeness, which results in her leaving the Lacanian Mirror Stage and a misguided sense of her completeness to enter the Symbolic Order. Similarly, Booker embraces intellect as a way to isolate himself from human connection. Bride and Booker, through the agency of Booker’s aunt Queen, learn to open themselves to vulnerability and achieve the completeness they have resisted.

scholarly journals All that glitters is not gold: Counter penetrating in the name of Blackness and queerness, or, Athi-Patra Ruga's camp act in the dirt

Image & Text ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adéle Adendorff
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Queer Identity ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Comprehensive View ◽  
Political Intent ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Black Queer

ABSTRACT In this article I engage South African artist Athi-Patra Ruga's artistic practice to flesh out the complexities that arise from the intersection of the terms Black and queer. Drawing on diverse historical, social and textual resources, I interpret Ruga's dismantling of dominant post-apartheid and postcolonial narratives vis-a-vis a close reading of some of his provocative avatars. Ruga's practices of staining, tainting and contaminating serve to expose the borders that produce conventional notions of race and gender. The article employs camp discourse in its allusion to performativity, displacement and artifice in order to 1) lay bare prevailing normative structures; and 2) dismantle conventional views of identity. To avoid being blindsided by camp's flamboyance and ostentation, I propose a view that favours an intimate embroilment with dirt - a stance I argue may furnish camp acts with political intent and so help create a more sophisticated and comprehensive view on the juncture of Blackness and queerness. Relying on Ruga's method of counter penetration as a way of fleshing out a hermeneutic view of Black queer subjectivity, I show how counter penetration in Ruga's estimation is a subversive and transgressive act intent on contaminating and infecting conventional narratives of history, identity and politics. Keywords: Black queer identity, camp, Athi-Patra Ruga, performance.

An equal marriage retrospective in two voices: Where have ten years taken us?

Sexualities ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawn M Onishenko ◽  
Julie A Erbland
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Identity ◽  
Sexual Minorities ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Queer Identity ◽  
Objective Reality ◽  
Dominant Discourse ◽  
Epistemological Foundation ◽  
Shared Spaces ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Right

This article represents the reflexive journey of one of six couples that launched a Constitutional Challenge to the definition of marriage. An account of our motivation for marriage deconstructs the experience from two disparate, yet shared, spaces. Using reflection and documentation, we explore multiple truths and realities of what the case, and the ‘right to marry’, meant to us: then, and now – 10 years later. In recounting our story, we expose the embodiment of risk taken by sexual minorities when engaging in activism and claiming heteronormative public spaces. Each with our own epistemological foundation, we explore the pitfalls and possibilities of marriage activism and consider its role as a space of queer liberation. Illustrating how the struggle for equal marriage is situated in the messy notion of what it means to be queer, we posit two narratives as a means of challenging dominant discourse. To research marriage as an objective ‘reality’ is to desexualize and depersonalize queer identity; an autoethnographic account claims the subjective sexual identity and facilitates a discussion of the nuances and complexities of queer lives and choices. Given the vitriolic marriage debate, documenting and deconstructing our experience is an important element of queer history and praxis. Using reflexivity to explore our individual and collective perspectives and reflect upon how those experiences were shaped through intersection with family, friends, each other, community and society allows us to claim our insider positionality and challenge queer/straight binaries, force conversations about these binaries, and demonstrate how the personal is political.

Vomito, Ergo Deconstruo (I Vomit, Therefore I Deconstruct): A Practical Analysis of Deconstruction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Rosel Kim
Keyword(s):  
Julia Kristeva ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Symbiotic Relationship ◽  
Mirror Stage ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Practical Analysis ◽  
Real Self

Vomit: a digestive malfunction, or a deconstructive metaphor? Through close-reading of a meal gone awry, I set out to prove that Derrida and vomit are indeed compatible, and may even share the same objectives of demonstrating the shortcomings of Western rationalism that expects and anticipates only perfection. The first stage of getting ready involves the méconnaisance (misrecognition) of Lacan's mirror stage: the immaculate self catches a glance of the neat and perfect self in the mirror, and mistakes the snapshot of the flawless Ideal-I as his/her real self. This Ideal-I quickly destabilizes, however, when he/she crumbles into the ground in the middle of the meal, as the meal proceeds not to pleasantries, but projectile. The "impeccable" self disappears as it hurls on the floor, creating a problem that nobody wants to see. This is what Julia Kristeva labels a "narcissistic crisis," where boundaries and perception of the self are obscured by the body's production of the abject matters, deconstructing the seemingly neat and definite boundaries of self and other. The essay concludes by deconstructing the meal/vomit binary, by showing the symbiotic relationship between the two that cannot exist without the other by applying the Derridian of différance and freeplay.

scholarly journals In or Out? The Existential Dilemma of Homosexuals in Iris Murdoch’s A Fairly Honorable Defeat

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Wei Guo
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Sexual Identity ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Gender Performance ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Moral Vision ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Social ◽  
Moral Weakness

A Fairly Honorable Defeat is one of Iris Murdoch’s best acclaimed novels. Critics generally regard it as a triumph of the evil over the good, as embodied in characters Julius King and Tallis Browne. It could also be read from a different perspective as a fairly honorable defeat of the heterosexual love by the homosexual love. But Simon and Axel only win a narrow victory. Their non-normative sexuality still entangles them in gender, social and moral dilemmas. A detailed and close reading of the novel shows Murdoch’s concern not only about how the existential dilemma of homosexuals has shaped their gender identity and limited their moral vision and choice, but also about the underlying social problems of power and violence. By bringing into conversation Goffman’s theory of stigma, Butler’s theory of gender performance and Foucault’s view of male friendship, the article argues that Simon and Axel have to struggle between secrecy and disclosure of their sexual identity because of the large homophobic social environment. The insecurity and anxiety engendered by their sexual identity makes it difficult for them to associate with others in sincerity. Their moral weakness and failures are largely occasioned by the social environment.

scholarly journals Seeing Things Within and Beyond The Mirror: An Analysis Of “The Lady In The Looking Glass: A Reflection”

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Keyword(s):  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
Symbolic Order ◽  
Stream Of Consciousness ◽  
Mirror Stage ◽  
Ego Ideal ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Construction Of Self ◽  
Ideal Ego ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Looking Glass

Virginia Woolf a highly appreciated writer both for her literary-critical insight and innovative writing techniques explores the role and character of women in society to reveal the truth and reality of their nature. Woolf in her works surfaces forth the inner discomfort of apparently integrated and a whole individual. In “The Lady in The Looking Glass: A Reflection” (1929) Woolf employs the stream of consciousness technique to communicate the thoughts of a narrator who ponders an image of Isabella Tyson to unveil the nature of truth and reality of her person by opening the intricate layers of her appearance. This paper explores the concept of the split self with reference to the character of Isabella to see the impact of the other on/in the construction of self. Lacan’s concept of the mirror stage is used as a theoretical framework to see how Isabella’s character is put in the external symbolic order and is alienated from its own history to examine how the self can be conceptualized and affected by the interplay of various forces and the inside form in and through other. This study demonstrates that Isabella’s self-image is the distorted product of the ideal ego and ego ideal and is made and changed by acting towards others to make them believe what they see in her as true of her.

Surgery for Lung Cancer and the Consequences for the Swallow

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (13) ◽  
pp. 162-168
Author(s):  
Pippa Hales ◽  
Corinne Mossey-Gaston
Keyword(s):  
Lung Cancer ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Vocal Cord Palsy ◽  
Subsequent Treatment ◽  
Physiological Reserve ◽  
Palliative Phase ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Swallow Function

Lung cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers across Northern America and Europe. Treatment options offered are dependent on the type of cancer, the location of the tumor, the staging, and the overall health of the person. When surgery for lung cancer is offered, difficulty swallowing is a potential complication that can have several influencing factors. Surgical interaction with the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) can lead to unilateral vocal cord palsy, altering swallow function and safety. Understanding whether the RLN has been preserved, damaged, or sacrificed is integral to understanding the effect on the swallow and the subsequent treatment options available. There is also the risk of post-surgical reduction of physiological reserve, which can reduce the strength and function of the swallow in addition to any surgery specific complications. As lung cancer has a limited prognosis, the clinician must also factor in the palliative phase, as this can further increase the burden of an already compromised swallow. By understanding the surgery and the implications this may have for the swallow, there is the potential to reduce the impact of post-surgical complications and so improve quality of life (QOL) for people with lung cancer.

Minimizing Carry-Over Effects After Treatment Failure and Maximizing Therapeutic Outcome

2014 ◽  
Vol 222 (3) ◽  
pp. 171-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mareile Hofmann ◽  
Nathalie Wrobel ◽  
Simon Kessner ◽  
Ulrike Bingel
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Failure ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Subsequent Treatment ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Administration Route ◽  
Healthy Human ◽  
Negative Experiences ◽  
Analgesic Treatment ◽  
Balanced Design ◽  
Carry Over

According to experimental and clinical evidence, the experiences of previous treatments are carried over to different therapeutic approaches and impair the outcome of subsequent treatments. In this behavioral pilot study we used a change in administration route to investigate whether the effect of prior treatment experience on a subsequent treatment depends on the similarity of both treatments. We experimentally induced positive or negative experiences with a topical analgesic treatment in two groups of healthy human subjects. Subsequently, we compared responses to a second, unrelated and systemic analgesic treatment between both the positive and negative group. We found that there was no difference in the analgesic response to the second treatment between the two groups. Our data indicate that a change in administration route might reduce the influence of treatment history and therefore be a way to reduce negative carry-over effects after treatment failure. Future studies will have to validate these findings in a fully balanced design including larger, clinical samples.

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