Oppressed Female Expressions of Sexual Desire?

Kifah Hannah’s lecture “Ethics and Desire in Contemporary Levantine Literature” reminded me a lot of the homoerotic comic books (known as Boys Love or Yaoi) from Japan that have become popular in the US and other parts of the world. Kifah Hanna spoke about a love for beautiful young boys and stories that depict foreigners coming to teach young boys about homosexuality. Both of these themes are very prevalent in Japanese homoerotic comics. Often, the object of affection within the story is a young boy who is beautiful and supple (the only thing differentiating him from being a female is the genital region). There are also many stories in which these beautiful young boys are saved or (more often) held captive by foreigners. For the most part, these foreigners are English noblemen or Maharajas from India. The young boys are taught about homosexual love from these older men and come to accept their own sexuality.

         Because she spoke mainly about homosexual relationships in novels written by women, I couldn’t help but make the connection. It made me wonder if the ways in which these women wrote about male homosexuality was also a way to express sexual desires that are normally hindered by oppressive female responsibilities (having to marry, give birth, and serving their husband) in the way that Japanese women express themselves through stories of male homoeroticism. Could these female writers find freedom in exploring sexuality through the body of their male characters?

"Yard Work is Hard Work" But So Are Relationships

I really enjoyed Jodie Mack’s animation, “Yard Work is Hard Work”, namely because of the catchy songs and her amazing use of magazine clippings. But I also really liked it because the couple in the story tried to work through their problems instead of giving up. Many couples call it quits when things get hard and nothing can be more emotionally distressing than money problems. They cried with each other, they fought with each other, but in the end they tried their best work through it.

I took the renovation of their house to symbolize a renovation of their relationship. They both agreed that they needed to make a change and they worked very hard to do it. Yet, in the end they did not win the competition, even after all of the hard work on their house. I took this loss to also mean that even though they tried hard at their relationship, something still wasn’t right. I interpreted the end of the animation as having the message that even after a couple works really hard at their relationship, sometimes things just don’t work out. The ambiguity of the ending made me think that the couple had two choices: try again, or give-up. Regardless, I admire the character for trying hard in the first place, especially in a world where it has become the standard to just give up.