METTE BRYNAA HANSEN &
UNSEX ME ANNE LOUISE HAUGAARD CHRISTIANSEN
LINDHARDT OG RINGHOF
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UNSEX ME Af Mette Brynaa Hansen og Anne Louise Haugaard Christiansen © 2016 Lindhardt og Ringhof Uddannelse, København – et forlag under Lindhardt og Ringhof Forlag A/S, et selskab i Egmont. Forlagsredaktion: Ulla Benzon Malmmose Grafisk tilrettelægning og omslag: Ulla Korgaard, Designeriet Billedredaktør: Ulla Barfod Mekanisk, fotografisk, elektronisk eller anden gengivelse af denne bog eller dele heraf er kun tilladt efter Copydans regler. Forlaget har forsøgt at finde og kontakte alle rettighedshavere. Tryk: Livonia Print 1. udgave 1. oplag 2016 ISBN 978 87 70 666 541
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CONTENTS Forord
Page 5
ONE: MAN TO WOMAN How to Throw like a Boy if You’re a Girl v
Page 9
(2014) (website material) Fight Club, the movie v v
Page 11
by David Fincher (1999) (promotional posters) Fight Club, the novel v v
Page 13
by Chuck Palahnuik (1996) (novel) Cat in the Rain v v
Page 23
by Ernest Hemingway (1925) (short story) Gender Equality is Your Issue Too v v
Page 28
by Emma Watson (2014) (speech) ’Training to be Batman’s Wife’ Shirt for Teen Girls Sends all the Wrong Messages v v
Page 35
by Jessica Samakow (2014) (web article) Sonnet 130 v v v
Page 39
by William Shakespeare (1609) (poem) Macbeth, Act 1, scene 5 v v v
Page 41
by William Shakespeare (1606) (play)
TWO: GENDER BENDER The metrosexual is dead. Long live the ‘spornosexual’ v
Page 47
by Mark Simpson (2014) (web article) Brokeback Mountain v v v
Page 53
by Annie Proulx (1999) (short story) Conceal, Don’t Feel: A Queer Reading of Disney’s Frozen v v v
Page 71
by Angel Daniel Matos (2014) (blog) Oranges are not the only Fruit v v
Page 75
By Jeanette Winterson (1985) (novel)
U N S EX M E
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You are my Sister by Antony and the Johnsons v
Page 82
(2005) (lyrics) Golden Boy v
Page 87
by Abigail Tarttelin (2013) (novel)
THREE: MIND YOUR BODY When your Mother Says she’s Fat v
Page 102
by Kasey Edwards (2013) (letter) On Chesil Beach v v
Page 105
by Ian McEwan (2007) (novel) Lady Oracle v v
Page 118
by Margaret Atwood (1976) (novel) The Bloody Chamber v v v
Page 129
by Angela Carter (1979) (short story)
FOUR: DEEDS OR WORDS Freedom or Death v v
Page 147
by Emmeline Pankhurst (1913) (speech) The Subjection of Women v v
Page 155
by John Stuart Mill (1869) (essay) The Declaration of Independence v v v
Page 157
by Thomas Jefferson (1776) (document) The Hope Speech v v
Page 163
by Harvey Milk (1978) (speech) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) v v
Page 168
(document)
INNOVATION PROJECTS
4
Innovation Guide
Page 170
Innovative Project 1: Violence Against Women in India
Page 171
Innovative Project 2: Body Images in the Media
Page 173
Innovative Project 3: Teaching Human Rights
Page 175
Rhetorical devices
Page 177
Credits
Page 178
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FORORD ” Unsex Me” er et undervisningsmateriale, som kaster lys på emnerne kønsidentitet, ligestilling, kropsidealer og rettighedskamp. Kapitel 1 Man to Woman præsenterer begreberne ’sex’ og ’gender’, og via en række kreative skrive- og diskussionsopgaver åbnes emnet. Kapitlet tager bl.a. fat i de nye feministiske stemmer, som fx Emma Watson. Stemmer som Watsons peger på en feministisk diskurs, som ikke ønsker at grave grøfter, men som netop vil have og give lov til at genåbne debatten om køn og ligestilling. Blandt andet taler Watson om, hvordan det også i høj grad berører unge mænd, at der er snævre rammer for, hvad kønnene hver især kan og må. Kapitel 2 Gender Bender beskæftiger sig med de kønsidentiteter, som ikke passer ind i de traditionelle rammer. Her er der fokus på den ensomhed, frygt og skam, der er forbundet med at falde helt udenfor den traditionelle modsætning mellem de to biologiske og sociale køn, enten fordi man lever i et miljø eller en tid, hvor eksempelvis homoseksualitet anses som en synd, eller fordi man ikke klart kan defineres som enten mand eller kvinde. Kapitel 3 Mind Your Body ser nærmere på kroppen - mandens såvel som kvindens. Her åbnes der også med kreative skrive- og diskussionsopgaver om kropsidealer mere generelt, men også i dette kapitel knyttes kroppen til litteraturen og elever/kursister bliver bedt om at undersøge, hvordan kroppen dyrkes, misbruges, undersøges og ”står i vejen” i kommunikationen mellem mennesker. Kapitel 4 Deeds or Words tager fat i rettighedskampen som et bredt begreb. Der arbejdes med kvindesagsforkæmpere i England og USA , de homoseksuelles krav om lige rettigheder, men også menneskerettighederne og den amerikanske uafhængighedserklæring inddrages for at give en historisk dybde og dermed slutte bogen af med en viden om temaernes udspring og ophav. Hvorfor overhovedet beskæftige sig med køn, identitet og krop i engelskundervisningen? Vi mener at spore en ny interesse for emnet hos elever/ kursister, men også ude i den store verden har emnerne fået ny relevans. Både inden for film og musik, på det politiske plan og i særdeleshed på de sociale medier præger nye stemmer debatten. Omvendt møder de unge også stereotyper på køn via præcis samme kanaler og konfronteres dagligt med ensidige kropsidealer. Vi oplever, at de fleste elever/kursister har en holdning til emnerne og med denne bog får de redskaber og begreber, som U N S EX M E
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gør dem bedre rustede til at stille kritiske spørgsmål og udtrykke sig. Vi ønsker at åbne debatten og ikke at pege fingre eller udnævne hverken skurke eller ofre. ” Unsex Me” kan bruges på både STX og HF på A niveau og på B niveau på andet år. Vi har angivet sværhedsgraden ved de enkelte tekster, så den enkelte lærer kan vælge til og fra alt efter klassens niveau og interesse. Bogen indeholder mange forskellige samtaleøvelser og vores erfaring er, at netop bogens emner kan få tungerne på gled. Desuden inddrager vi en del centrale forfattere, som de fleste undervisere nok allerede anser som en del af en uskreven kanon, men vi tilføjer også nogle, som ikke i lige så høj grad er repræsenterede i eksisterende lærerbøger. I forbindelse med såvel skønlitterære tekster som sagprosa har vi udarbejdet arbejdsspørgsmål, og i de længere tekster har vi brudt teksterne op i mindre dele, så læreren bedre kan dosere lektiemængden. Alle tekster medfølges af enten en kreativ øvelse eller skriveøvelser, og til flere af teksterne knyttes ordforrådsopgaver eller grammatikopgaver. Derudover er der flere tekster, opgaver og links at hente på bogens hjemmeside: lru.dk/unsexme. Bogen afsluttes med tre oplæg til innovationsprojekter, som kan tilføje et bredere perspektiv. Disse projekter har et omfang af 3-4 moduler og kan enten afslutte arbejdet med et kapitel eller tænkes ind i et tværfagligt forløb som fx studieretningsdagene eller AT. København, 2016 forfatterne
WARM UP
STUDY QUESTIONS
TASK
GO WRITE
GO
DISCUSS
GO
DRAMATIZE
GO
M
DEBATE
GO
RESEARCH
GO
DESCRIBE 6
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ONE
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SEX VS. GENDER – WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? Sex refers to biological differences like chromosomes, hormonal profiles, and internal and external sexual organs. Gender refers to the characteristics that in a society or culture are considered masculine or feminine. So while your sex as female or male is a biological fact that is the same in any culture, what that sex means in terms of your gender role as a 'man' or a 'woman' can be quite different from one culture to the next.
GO WRITE
Write for 4 minutes non-stop about each of the following questions. Then share some of your points with the class. – What is a ‘real’ man? – What is a ‘real’ woman? – Have you ever felt that a certain behaviour was expected of you
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solely because of your sex?
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HOW TO THROW LIKE A BOY IF YOU’RE A GIRL Wikihow, 2014 The following is a manual found on WikiHow, a website that gives how-to instructions on a wide variety of topics.
palm: håndflade shoulder width: skulderbredte
The worst insult a boy can give another boy is “you throw like a girl”. However not all girls throw like they have never thrown a ball before. 5
Some girls throw harder than boys. If you’re a girl who can’t throw hard, this is the perfect article for you.
STEPS
1. Hold the ball with your fingers, not your palm.
5. The next steps happen one 2. Keep your wrists loose.
3. Focus your eyes on your target.
4. Turn sideways with your throwing arm on the opposite side of the person you’re throwing to. Remember, feet are shoulder width apart.
after another quite quickly. • Step forward with your front foot • Push off with your back foot • Raise arm up and reach toward target • Keep your elbow high • Snap your wrist forward at the last second • Let your arm follow through.
6. Now you won’t be insulted when a boy says you throw like a girl. Now watch the boy’s face when you throw the ball.
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STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Who is the text addressed to? 2. Are these accurate instructions for throwing? 3. What assumptions are made about girls and boys in the text?
sexist: kønsdiskriminerende
TASK
4. Could you argue that this text is sexist towards girls? Why/why not? 5. Could you argue that this text is sexist towards boys? Why/why not?
MATCH THE WORDS AND THE DEFINITIONS
King-size
The technique or practice of gaining a feeling of superiority over another person
Queen-size
A person regarded as effeminate or cowardly
Lady-like
To work or operate something (like a piece of equipment)
To man
…of a larger size than average, very large
Manpower
Appropriate for a well-bred, decorous woman or girl
One-up-manship
Showing efficient competence
Sissy
…of a larger size than average, but smaller than something which is king-sized
Tomboy
The number of people working or available for work
Workmanlike
A girl who enjoys rough, noisy activities traditionally associated with boys
Må kopieres. Unsex Me.
GO
Are there any of the words in the task above that strike you as positive or negative?
– Do you think language plays a role in maintaining certain stereotypes about gender? Why, why not? Think of examples to substantiate your view.
DISCUSS
– Go to www.youtube.com and watch the ‘Always’-campaign: ‘#LikeAGirl’. What is the focus of this campaign? What does this campaign imply about language and gender?
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FIGHT CLUB by David Fincher, 1999 WARM UP
– Write down as many film genres you can think of. – What is your favourite genre? – What is typical of this genre?
GENRES Genre means type or kind. It is an overall term that categorises the type or character of any given cultural production: a text, a film, a painting or even a statement. When we define the genre of a text, we signal what type of text we are dealing with.There is no limit to the number of genres, and distinguishing between genres can be difficult since there are no fixed rules. However, we are rather good at understanding and interpreting the codes of different genres.
SUBGENRES IN FILM When we start watching a film, we immediately try to define the genre of the film. In order to understand the meaning of the film, we, subconsciously, try to determine whether a film can be labelled as either romance, drama, action, comedy, or science fiction. We look for clues in both form and content. We may recognise the structure of the film, the types of characters, the camera movements or lighting as typical of e.g. A romantic comedy. But our brain does not wait for the film to start; in fact, we already start analysing before we press play.
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STUDY QUESTIONS
CINEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE OFFICIAL TRAILER Go to youtube.com and find the official trailer for David Fincher's "Fight Club". Analyse the trailer and note down points. 1. Which themes are presented as central in the trailer? 2. How does the film present these themes? Have a look at the cinematic techniques listed below. 3. Which cinematic techniques do you find most striking in the trailer?
TOOLS FOR ANALYSING FILM – CINEMATIC TECHNIQUES When analysing the form of a film it is relevant to consider how the following techniques are used in the film. FRAMING
SOUND
• Close-up: Captures the emotions
• Diegetic sound (from the film’s
of the character or draws attention
location): Dialogue, real sound and
to a specific thing
music that the characters can hear
• Long shot: The whole setting,
• Non-diegetic sound (not from the
may be used to make characters
film’s location): Voice over, sound
appear small
effects/music that the characters
• Medium shot: Often used in dialogue so that you can see the body language of the characters
cannot hear • Contrapuntal sound: Stands in direct opposition to the images of the film (e.g. a happy tune while
ANGLES
watching a murder)
• Low-angle: Makes a character seem big and powerful • High-angle: Makes a character seem small and weak • Eye-level: Makes us feel on the same level as a character
LIGHTING • Low-key lighting: Dark, contrastfilled, can create a negative mood • High-key lighting: Brightly lit sets can create a more positive mood • Natural lighting: No use of artificial
Camera movements • Pan (
) or Tilt (
light, may create a feeling of )
• Steady-cam: Calm, dreamy camera movement • Hand-held: Chaotic,
realism • Colour symbolism: Colours have symbolic meanings, they may be positive or negative
disorderly, subjective
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FIGHT CLUB by Chuck Palahnuik, 1996 CHUCK PALAHNIUK Journalist and writer of novels, short stories and comic books Chuck Palahniuk was born February 21, 1962. He lived part of his childhood in trailer parks until his parents divorced and he was sent to live with his grandparents on their farm. Palahniuk’s most famous novel ‘Fight Club’ was published in 1996 and adapted to film in 1999.
WARM UP
Step 1: Individually, fill in as many of the boxes as you can without using your dictionary. Step 2: In pairs, take turns explaining the meaning of the words in English. Check whether you agree and help each other define as many words as possible. Step 3: In pairs, now grab your dictionary and write down the correct meaning
Write down the meaning of the word or phrase
Write down the Danish translation
Protagonist Represent Consumer society Insomnia Commence Develop Corporate Numbness Cures Illness Må kopieres. Unsex Me. U N S EX M E
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TASK
FILL IN THE BLANKS IN THE FOLLOWING SUMMARY OF THE NOVEL "FIGHT CLUB" USING THE WORDS AND PHRASES ABOVE. Fight Club is a novel by the author Chuck Palahnuik. The
(and
narrator) of the story leads a boring life working as a product recall specialist. In order to rid himself of recurring
and
, he sets
out to understand what “real suffering” means. In spite of not having any physical , the protagonist starts attending different support groups. This his insomnia, but only until another ‘support group tourist’ Marla Singer shows up.
Shortly after, another character is introduced, Tyler Durden. The protagonist and Tyler
a friendship primarily based on beating each other up. They
move in together and start a fight club and America and bring down modern
on a project to piss off .
Må kopieres. Unsex Me. 14
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Fight Club (Chapter 6) TWO SCREENS INTO my demo to Microsoft, I taste blood and have to start swallowing. My boss doesn’t know the material, but he won’t let me run the demo with a black eye and half my face swollen from the stitches inside my cheek. The stitches have come loose, and I can feel them with my tongue 5
against the inside of my cheek. Picture snarled fishing line on the beach. I can picture them as the black stitches on a dog after it’s been fixed, and I keep swallowing blood. My boss is making the presentation from my script, and I’m
snarled: sammenfiltret before you’re sick: før du kaster op steam shovel: gravemaskine stock: regular stock boy: dreng der arbejder på et lager
running the lap top projector so I’m off to one side of the room, in the dark. More of my lips are sticky with blood as I try to lick the blood off, and when 10
the lights come up, I will turn to consultants Ellen and Walter and Norbert and Linda from Microsoft and say, thank you for coming, my mouth shining with blood and blood climbing the cracks between my teeth. You can swallow about a pint of blood before you’re sick. Fight club is tomorrow, and I’m not going to miss fight club. Before
15
the presentation, Walter from Microsoft smiles his steam shovel jaw like a marketing tool tanned the color of a barbecued potato chip. Walter with his signet ring shakes my hand, wrapped in his smooth soft band and says, “I’d hate to see what happened to the other guy.” The first rule about fight club is you don’t talk about fight club. I tell Walter
20
I fell. I did this to myself. Before the presentation, when I sat across from my boss, telling him where in the script each slide cues and when I wanted to run the video segment, my boss says, “ What do you get yourself into every weekend?
25
I just don’t want to die without a few scars, I say. It’s nothing anymore to have a beautiful stock body. You see those cars that are completely stock cherry, right out of a dealer’s showroom in 1955, I always think, what a waste. The second rule about fight club is you don’t talk about fight club. Maybe at lunch, the waiter comes to your table and the waiter has the two
30
black eyes of a giant panda from fight club last weekend when you saw him get his head pinched between the concrete floor and the knee of a two-hundredpound stock boy who kept slamming a fist into the bridge of the waiter’s nose again and again in flat hard packing sounds you could hear over all the yelling until the waiter caught enough breath and sprayed blood to say, stop.
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You don’t say anything because fight club exists only in the hours between when fight club starts and when fight club ends. You saw the kid who works in the copy center, a month ago you saw this kid who can’t remember to three-hole-punch an order or put colored slip U N S EX M E
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condominium: ejerlejlighed
sheets between the copy packets, but this kid was a god for ten minutes when you saw him kick the air out of an account representative twice his size then land on the man and pound him limp until the kid had to stop. That’s the third rule in fight club, when someone says stop, or goes limp, even if he’s just faking it, the fight is over. Every time you see this kid, you can’t tell him what
5
a great fight he had. Only two guys to a fight. One fight at a time. They fight without shirts or show. The fights go on as long as they have to. Those are the other rules of fight club. Who guys are in fight club is not who they are in the real world. Even if
10
you told the kid in the copy center that he had a good fight, you wouldn’t be talking to the same man. Who I am in fight club is not someone my boss knows. After a night in fight club, everything in the real world gets the volume turned down. Nothing can piss you off. Your word is law, and if other people
15
break that law or question you, even that doesn’t piss you off. In the real world, I’m a recall campaign coordinator in a shirt and tie, sitting in the dark with a mouthful of blood and changing the overheads and slides as my boss tells Microsoft how he chose a particular shade of pale cornflower blue for an icon.
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The first fight club was just Tyler and I pounding on each other. It used to be enough that when I came home angry and knowing that my life wasn’t toeing my five-year plan, I could clear my condominium or detail my car. Someday I’d be dead without a scar and there would be a really nice condo and car. Really, really nice, until the dust settled or the next owner.
25
Nothing is static. Even the Mona Lisa is falling apart. Since fight club, I can wiggle half the teeth in my jaw. Maybe self-improvement isn’t the answer. Tyler never knew his father. Maybe self-destruction is the answer.
30
Tyler and I still go to fight club, together. Fight club is in the basement of a bar, now, after the bar closes on Saturday night, and every week you go and there’s more guys there. Tyler gets under the one light in the middle of the black concrete basement and he can see that light flickering back out of the dark in a hundred pairs of
35
eyes. First thing Tyler yells is, “The first rule about fight club is you don’t talk about fight club. “The second rule about fight club,” Tyler yells, “is you don’t talk about fight club.” Me, I knew my dad for about six years, but I don’t remember anything. My
40
dad, he starts a new family in a new town about every six years. This isn’t so much like a family as it’s like he sets up a franchise. What you see at fight club is a generation of men raised by women. Tyler 16
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standing under the one light in the after-midnight blackness of a basement full of men, Tyler runs through the other rules: two men per fight, one fight at a time, no shoes no shirts, fights go on as long as they have to. “And the seventh rule,” Tyler yells, “is if this is your first night at fight 5
club, you have to fight.” Fight club is not football on television. You aren’t watching a bunch of men you don’t know halfway around the world beating on each other live by satellite with a two-minute delay, commercials pitching beer every ten minutes, and a pause now for station identification. After you’ve been to fight
10
club, watching football on television is watching pornography when you could be having great sex. Fight club gets to be your reason for going to the gym and keeping your hair cut short and cutting your nails. The gyms you go to are crowded with guys trying to look like men, as if being a man means looking the way a sculptor or
15
an art director says. Like Tyler says, even a soufflé looks pumped. My father never went to college so it was really important I go to college. After college, I called him long distance and said, now what? My dad didn’t know.
20
When I got a job and turned twenty-five, long distance, I said, now what? My dad didn’t know, so he said, get married. I’m a thirty-year-old boy, and I’m wondering if another woman is really the answer I need. What happens at fight club doesn’t happen in words. Some guys need a
25
fight every week. This week, Tyler says it’s the first fifty guys through the door and that’s it. No more. Last week, I tapped a guy and he and I got on the list for a fight. This guy must’ve had a bad week, got both my arms behind my head in a full nelson and rammed my face into the concrete floor until my teeth bit open the inside of
30
my cheek and my eye was swollen shut and was bleeding, and after I said, stop, I could look down and there was a print of half my face in blood on the floor. Tyler stood next to me, both of us looking down at the big O of my mouth with blood all around it and the little slit of my eye staring up at us from the floor, and Tyler says, “Cool.”
35
I shake the guy’s hand and say, good fight. This guy, he says, “How about next week?” I try to smile against all the swelling, and I say, look at me. How about next month? You aren’t alive anywhere like you’re alive at fight club. When it’s you and
40
one other guy under that one light in the middle of all those watching. Fight club isn’t about winning or losing fights. Fight club isn’t about words. You see a guy come to fight club for the first time, and his ass is a loaf of white bread. You see this same guy here six months later, and he looks carved out of wood. U N S EX M E
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This guy trusts himself to handle anything. There’s grunting and noise at fight club like at the gym, but fight club isn’t about looking good. There’s hysterical shouting in tongues like at church, and when you wake up Sunday afternoon you feel saved. After my last fight, the guy who fought me mopped the floor while I called
5
my insurance to pre-approve a visit to the emergency room. At the hospital, Tyler tells them I fell down. Sometimes, Tyler speaks for me. I did this to myself. Outside, the sun was coming up.
10
You don’t talk about fight club because except for five hours from two until seven on Sunday morning, fight club doesn’t exist. When we invented fight club, Tyler and I, neither of us had ever been in a fight before. If you’ve never been in a fight, you wonder. About getting hurt, about what you’re capable of doing against another man. I was the first guy
15
Tyler ever felt safe enough to ask, and we were both drunk in a bar where no one would care so Tyler said, “I want you to do me a favor. I want you to hit me as hard as you can.” I didn’t want to, but Tyler explained it all, about not wanting to die without any scars, about being tired of watching only professionals fight, and wanting
20
to know more about himself. About self-destruction. At the time, my life just seemed too complete, and maybe we have to break everything to make something better out of ourselves. I looked around and said, okay. Okay, I say, but outside in the parking lot.
25
So we went outside, and I asked if Tyler wanted it in the face or in the stomach. Tyler said, “Surprise me.” I said I had never hit anybody. Tyler said, “So go crazy, man.”
30
I said, close your eyes. Tyler said, “No.” Like every guy on his first night in fight club, I breathed in and swung my fist in a roundhouse at Tyler’s jaw like in every cowboy movie we’d ever seen, and me, my fist connected with the side of Tyler’s neck.
35
Shit, I said, that didn’t count. I want to try it again. Tyler said, “ Yeah it counted,” and hit me, straight on, pow, just like a cartoon boxing glove on a spring on Saturday morning cartoons, right in the middle of my chest and I fell back against a car. We both stood there, Tyler rubbing the side of his neck and me holding a hand on my chest, both of us
40
knowing we’d gotten somewhere we’d never been and like the cat and mouse in cartoons, we were still alive and wanted to see how far we could take this thing and still be alive. 18
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