What makes your gender?

 

Daniel J. Neumann

Professor Harris (Literary Criticism)

ENG 304 Midterm

November 2nd, 2009

What makes your gender?

 

            Patterns of behavior, on a societal level, determine norms (informal laws). We subconsciously (in our ego) react to these norms for every action. The clothes one wears, the food one eats, to the gender one plays, all come from socially constructed values. Individuals may obey these norms, or challenge them. Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” preaches female subservience and conformity. Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” counters this stance by empowering female rebellion. Freud’s psychoanalysis may explain Palmer’s song, while feminism/lesbian theory fits Twain’s.

 

            Robert Palmer wears a business suit, standing in the center of view, as the lead vocalist. His three female guitarists, one keyboardist, and drummer, on the other hand, bob their heads to the beat, wearing matching black dresses and porcelain-face makeup. The females did not play their instruments (the keyboardist, most apparently). At the end of the music video, one of the guitarists licks her lips seductively.

 

            “Your lights are on, but you’re not home. Your mind is not your own” in Palmer’s song seems to belittle female intelligence, as if all women are slaves to passion alone. Every man desires control. The power to influence a woman becomes easier after they submit their mind. This first quote directs females to reward a male fantasy. Freud’s favorite German word, Heimlich, may clarify this. The desire for sexual pleasure and reproduction (to offspring legacy, to live on in a son’s last name) is hard-wired in the male Id as familiar. The female mind, however, is unfamiliar (as evidenced by psychoanalysis failure to describe it). How can a male woo a female to intercourse if the male cannot understand or relate to her? Palmer resolves this fear of rejection by denying the existence of the female mind, or encouraging women to compulsively engage in heterosexual relationships. “Your heart sweats; you’re body shakes. Another kiss is what it takes” glamorizes anxiousness, rebranding it as excitement. Taken alone, these symptoms (heart arrhythmia, seizures) arouses the fear of mortality. Palmer offers the solution to this illness: a kiss (or intimacy with a male), playing on intense symbolism to incite repercussion for not being heterosexual. “You can’t sleep, you can’t eat… your throat is tight, you can’t breathe” continues the imagery of an illness that women want (further stereotyping women as irrational, overtly emotions creatures of infatuation). “You’d like to think that you’re immune to the stuff” denies any choice in the matter. Palmer decides for women that they are “addicted to love.”

 

            “You see the signs, but you can’t read” perpetuates the illusion of involuntary love with the symbolism of blindness. Freud believes losing one’s eyes substitutes for castration anxiety. Perhaps Palmer projects his fear of losing his penis (his power) or losing his sight (his ability to understand and thus control) on women. Perhaps Palmer merely wants women to not see his intentions. Both could be true. “Another kiss and you’ll be mine, a one track mind” presumes that a woman wants to enter a relationship with Palmer (or any male), and that one more kiss will cement that relationship. While heterosexuality is not impossible, since this song addresses all women simultaneously, one must conclude this is another generalization, another attempt to secure women as tradable commodities. If she only thinks about loving men, of kissing men, then why not dominate her? Humans are more complicated. Toasters and goods have one function. One mutually respects a human. One owns a toaster. “You can’t be saved. Oblivion is all you crave” sensationalizes a woman giving up her identity (i.e. losing her last name in marriage) to her male master. The norms (in the ego) and idealizations (in the superego) of society repress the female’s Id for self-determination. The female gender role contradicts self-interest of individuality. “Your will is not your own,” again, subtracts the choice from women, delegating that responsibility to men.

 

In one sense, gender roles are like religions. One must believe in the ideal woman and man as separated by a barrier. This wall dividing genders not only compliments the pleasure (and legacy) principle in males, but leads to an understanding of life. The theorem’s (or religion’s) accuracy—or how true it is—means little, as long as it makes sense of the world, resolves questions such as Why are men better than women? Also like many religions, authority incentivizes obedience (heaven, belonging) and scorns rebellion (hell, alienation). A man may find it easier to mate with a woman viewed as property rather than a fellow human (with rights).

 

            Shania Twain inverts this relationship of dominance and passivity by mirroring Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love.” The male instrumentalists dress the same. Shania, the lead vocalist, stands in center view. Twain dresses in multiple outfits. Her first attire satires Robert Palmer’s business suit (with the addition of some feminine articles, like the shining boots and make-up). Half-way through the song, she takes off her coat, as one of the men licks their lips seductively at her. Eventually, Twain takes off her white shirt to reveal her black dress underneath. Multiple costumes may symbolize the wide spectrum of female gender, the progression of what is acceptable for women to wear, or simply for aesthetic reasons.

 

            “No inhibitions, make no conditions. Get a little outta line” sympathizes with the feminist’s position. The first step in redefining a culturally constructed norm is for a segment of that society to reject it (all egalitarian, equitable progress materializes by asserting a human right). Shania Twain, as a popular musician, may catalyze this process by publishing her song. “Go totally crazy, forget I’m a lady. Men’s shirts, short skirts” ask women to blend gender roles by dressing as men do (men’s shirts) and how promiscuous as they want (short skirts). Females may confuse the norms by acting like men, or intensify their feminine sexuality to assert power over men (in a two-fold process). “I wanna be free, yeah, to feel the way I feel” exposes the hidden oppression of women by claiming she wants to be free, not enjoying being free. Although no one will arrest Shania Twain for breaking the (non-existent) laws of gender, society may still chastise her. And, even if they did not, total freedom for women is far from achieving realization.

 

            Musicians like Shania Twain melt the distinction between gender roles, but feminism/lesbian theory could use a psycho-analytic theory of their own. Essays such as Adrienne Rich’s “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” offer alternatives to the “disempowerment” of male/female relationships, but serves to alienate heterosexuals who do not assert dominance (but mutually respect the partner). If a multi-erogenous variant for female psychoanalysis existed, then perhaps women may understand where their fears originate and thus how to cope with them. Men would benefit too. As Freud pointed out in “the Uncanny” humans fear that which they do not comprehend yet wish very much so to comprehend. Men want to know why women feel oppressed for the same reason women do: to resolve an appropriate solution. Writing popular music like Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” institutes a reinforcement of male over female values. Shania Twain, however, attempts to undo some of Palmer’s damage to the female psyche at large. Media affects culture (and vice-versa) in a constructivist manner. Ironically, some actors promote essentialists ideas (such as women being passive, emotional; men active, logical), while others spotlight the notion that these norms can be changed. The tug-of-war between the patriarchal establishments versus the human rights of women may never conclude. How could it? The first thing one sees about a person is their sexuality, skin color, and other appearances. The debate further intensifies when one considers the sensitivity of the subject. Freud believed that the Id (the Real, the unconscious, the soul) works on the pleasure principle and survivability. Sex not only feels good, intercourse may lead to offspring, which legitimizes an indirect form of immortality (the sentiment: If I am mortal, then I will leave something behind). At the end of the day, gender roles may be constructed, but they are extremely sensitive topics (not dinner conversation, so to speak). Robert Palmer and Shania Twain both talk to women to guide them in how they should behave. Palmer wants women to be addicted to his love. Twain wants to, at least, have the option of being free from addiction (or gender roles).