Doing Gender, Buying Drinks - My FIRST YouTube video :)

A Little Conversation with my Mom

Mom: What are your plans for tonight?

Me: Oh, um, I'll be going out to a couple bars.    

          NOTE: this is extremely out of the ordinary for me. 

Mom: What!?! 

Me: Yea, well I have to. 

Mom: What do you mean you have to?

Me: It's for class; I'm collecting data. 

Mom: Nice try. 

Me: No, really! It is for my Gender and Society class. 

It really was. Between you and me (and the rest of the blogsphere!), I was not simply trying to pull one over on my mom. 

The Assignment

Our group project assignment called for us to examine gender out in the field. And, believe it or not, of all people, yours truly was assigned to examine gender in a field study of a bar on a downtown Saturday night. 

Most of my peers were either intensely jealous or in disbelief. 

My parents were a little confused in how this counted as education they were paying for ;) 

And me, well... 

Mind you, before this project, I could count on one hand the times I'd been in a bar on a Saturday night. Lame, I know but a Southern Belle has to maintain her classy image and that cannot be done slamming back cold ones in a bar ;) 

Our Research

Nonetheless, I've discussed before that when a grade is involved, the NERD in me wins out ;)

So the Southern Belle in me risked my class and any chance at being cool by heading out to the bars, notebook in hand. 

I kid you not. 

So my group members and I sat there observing, scribbling notes and taking interviews. Unlike most group projects, though, our research did come complete with a Tequila Sunrise - an attempt to blend in despite the aforementioned notebook which hopefully everyone was too drunk to notice.

People did notice, however, when we returned on another night with a video camera. Strange how intoxicated people flock to be recorded... a clear indication that alcohol affects your logical reasoning ;)

Lastly, we also recorded ourselves - and I had not one drop to drink so I cannot blame alcohol on that decision. So forgive my poor acting skills but our aim was to create a satire of sorts (by doing gender wrong) based on what we discovered in our research on how to do gender in a bar scene.

Our Focus

We decided clothing was too obvious: duh, girls wear less and boys wear more. Researching that would have not been very insightful to our class or you. 

Instead, we chose to focus on the gender of drinks. 

Below, you'll find our answer via a few interesting and entertaining descriptions and interviews of what drink to buy if you want a masculine, feminine, or gender neutral drink.

I hope you like it!

Oh and if you DO like it, please pass it on. For those of you who know me (and my YouTube video obsession), you know how it would please me beyond belief for this to go viral ;) 

Then we could all drink to that - in whatever gender of drink you'd like!

Spoleto Festival and Gender

Long time, no talk. My apologies.

I have been super busy, blessed with the opportunity to be a Media Relations apprentice for the 2010 Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, SC. I worked in the Press Room and was able to see over 20 shows!?!

Unfortunately: work + festival going = no time to blog :(

Fortunately: festival going + a feminist audience member (ahem...me) = the following interesting observations on gender :)

1) Flora, an Opera .... Southern Belle Feminist impression: Flora, a Feminist

• This opera was the first-ever performed in American - 275 years ago in 1735!?! But it is surprisingly modern with its female lead :)
• She is damsel-in-distress-y stuck in a castle by her evil uncle (Sir Testy... funny, right?) BUT she plans to escape with her lover (Mr. Friendly... another clever name).
• However, once she is outside the castle walls, Flora doesn't just run off to la-la land but questions Mr. Friendly with "what ifs" for their future. I say good for her, using her heart AND her head.
• Visually and vocally beautiful! Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=fnbPhLHBFxc&feature=related

2) This is What Happens Next.... SBF impression: Gender Identity Crisis

• This one man show still managed to have multiple characters.Phenomenal lighting and sound made a clear distinction as Daniel MacIvor morphed into the role of each new character complete with different names, voices and mannerisms. 
• From a gender perspective, the most interesting "character" was his aunt/uncle Aaron/Erin. He literally talked about the name change and referenced physical changes as well. Furthermore, he briefly touched on the mental aspects of the gender identity crisis with what to wear, who to date, etc. 
• Definitely thought provoking! Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FzXiidFBP8

3) Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo... SBF impression: Ballet in Drag

• If you saw the photo on that link, all those ballerinas are men. Despite the fantastic make-up (that they apply themselves) and convincing wigs, look for the hairy chests ;) 
• These men play the male and female roles in point ballet shoes (one guy was almost 7 feet tall with them on) as well as wearing tights, and of course tutus. 
• Because they truly dance the parts, precise in all the techniques and moves, this is quite amazing that they are able to move their much larger bodies in the same way that dainty, thin prima (aka female) ballerinas do. 
• And it was soooo funny; almost like the Monty Python of ballet.
• Wonderful, original show! Check them out: http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=IYLpzXO40Zk&feature=related AND http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=gyqQ-VNnEIQ&feature=related

4) I Can See Myself in Your Pupil... SBF impression: Gender Bending

• This dance group was amazing and soooo strong in their moves but also in their lifts; men did the traditional lifting of women but men also lifted men and women lifted women. Even more impressive though, women lifted men!
• These pairs were also repeated for dancing and dragging portions of the show where couples definitely paired off: man + woman, man + man, and woman + woman
• A final thing that I quite possibly just read into too much was a dance where one woman seemed to be fighting off one of the male dancer's sexual advances. He would grab her and she would pull away or push him off, etc. In general, the show displayed defiant and strong women. 
• Plus, the whole show was just really cool with fun music, colorful costumes, and creative dancing (e.g. at one point, they danced with their shadows!?!) Check them out: http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=ewKtJOMGqGg&feature=related AND look for their shadows on the back wall in this one, especially around the 2-3 minute mark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01i1ix310Ko&NR=1

5) Lucinda Childs' Dance....SBF impression: Androgynous

• This show was revived from 1979 when Lucinda Childs was the female lead and other than new, younger dancers, the music, moves, costumes, shoes, etc. were recreated as closely to the originals as possible. 
• The really captivating part was the current show is performed in front of video of the original 1979 performance and the two intertwine seamlessly.
• What was strange though was you couldn't really tell the men from the women. All were dressed in white pants and shirts and were so thin that breasts or biceps were hardly large enough to clearly designate one dancer male or one dancer female. 
• Overall though, the effect was mesmerizing. Check them out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8Z3yRkvzyM

These shows and all the others made for a fantastic festival. I hope you were able to see some of the shows or at least enjoyed a taste of them here :)