Still here!

Haven't been blogging too much as I've been trying to sort the paper. It's coming along verrrrrrrrrrrry slowly but somewhat surely?

Dare I say: Kuch kuch hot hai (sp?)

D'ya ken wat-a mean?

For the transgender in these movies, femininity is a masquerade, but isn't femininity just as much of a masquerade for the women? Think of Jude's three distinct personas, the characters she interchanges throughout the film. Just because she is biologically a woman, she is credited with more authenticity in her femininity. But she's so much harder than Dil at any stage.
Dil literally has her own phallus and absolute control over it, and Jude has had control over both Fergus' physical phallus sexually and then over his manhood/power-as-a-man/fate, even metaphorically. Both "women" here represent female control of the phallus, be it their own or that of another.
Which is scarier? Why?
I don't know just yet, but I'm pondering whether it is the hidden or the overt/dominant. Because, Jude has just as much control over Dil --she could out him and ruin his life, right? So then would Fergus be able to relate to Dil better than if Dil was biologically a woman.
I still don't know.
Just an interesting half-thought that keeps popping up.

Mo' Mulvey

I've not read Mulvey in a minute, so going to go back to brass tacks, grass roots, grass tacks and brass boots and all that.
But before all that: just read an article by Alexander Doty who was my first film professor here:
"There's Something Queer Here"
A handful of interesting tidbits I can use to apply to my idea including the generally "perverse" nature of melodramas---this'll be splendabadoozy for getting me away from the analysis of one genre just. Also snippets on differentiating heterosexual and straight: sweet.
Alrighty, bang on I shall. Offski for some more.

Also:

Getting a touch distracted with the horror film aspect. I've thought maybe my topic was a wee bit broad but fancied it'd be alright if I used specific enough examples. If it explodes over then I have a couple different directions I can reign in with, orrrrrrr not. Yeah.
But mostly: domesticated woman and castrating-female ---> biological women
M-to-F as stronger and less typically effeminate in terms of narrative power
Alright.

Having mentioned horror: I don't want to focus on the horror aspect of the transexxual, although that might be all but impossible. Yeah, there's the "Oh-balls-you-have-balls" scene in "The Crying Game." And yes, in "Psycho," the fellow does dress up as his mum and kill folks. And sure, " The Silence of the Lambs"--maybe that is a wee bit weird skinning women to make a suit for yourself.
But I want to focus on the human, gender-codings, not the ohmygoshshe'sgotapenisandaknife aspect of it.
The need to be loved, the maternal instinct, the self-conciousness all women feel, the over-protective, jealous mother, etc.

To watch or not to watch

I've rewatched a couple of the movies on my list from an earlier post.
I think I'm going not nix "The Bird Cage" as it's mostly just not my cup of tea. Although there are several billion parallels I can draw between that and other films like "Transamerica" and "Some Like it Hot."
I've not quite made up my mind about "Hedwig" as it really just annoys me as a movie. I think I've overdosed on "transgressive" film and all the "ooh" "aah" factors therein. So I'm going to make myself watch again (even though it's about as much as fun as pulling teeth on your birthday in a dark room) and focus on what I can bring to my thesis.

ADD but you'd appreciate it

ILL ILU

Dear Inter-library Loan,

Thank you for bringing me "Nobody Wants to Be a Man Anymore?" by Elisabeth Zimmer. I will now read it.

Post-structurally yours,

Hannah Queer-This Mesouani