Securing a Place of Power: Reinventing the Role of Women in Theatrical Representation
In The Feminist Spectator as Critic, Jill Dolan examines the current hegemony of the “white, heterosexual, middle-class male” (121) as the subject of representation in theater. She examines why feminist attempts to expose this bias and use it to change the objectification of the roles of women have failed, when this has even been attempted, and furnishes her hypothesis on how this failure can be prevented.
In the dominant illusionist tradition of American theater, the individuality of the spectator is subsumed in the singular mass of the audience. The face most often given to this mass audience is that of the “white, heterosexual, middle-class male” (121). Women’s roles are objectified, and, in the process, the feminist spectator is alienated as her gender, race, class, and/or sexual orientation have no relation to what is presented onstage.
Feminism is a critique of the prevailing male-dominated social norm that seeks to change this norm and therefore is the platform from which to change its domination in theater. Dolan enumerates three segments of American feminism: liberal, cultural or radical, and materialist. She credits liberal feminism with the bolstering of female visibility and involvement in theater and acknowledges the women-affirming aspects of cultural feminism, but she finds them both flawed and unsuitable for an effective attack on the male domination of theater.
Materialist feminism looks at women as a class, oppressed by material conditions and social relations. It considers gender as a social construct, in the service of the dominant culture’s ideology and accepted as normative by the less powerful, which is oppressive to both men and women. It rejects the universality of the mythical Woman and instead views women as historical subjects whose position in the social structures of the dominant culture is influenced by race, class, and sexual orientation.
Materialist feminism sees as necessity the unmasking of the ideas of gender and power of the dominant culture and thus what most theater and performance represents. Materialist feminism does not aim to judge, but to examine the ways in which a performance delivers its ideological message, in order to formulate strategies for combating the oppressive cultural assumptions inherent in this message. Its goal is “to affect a larger cultural change in the ideological and material condition of women and men” (18), and it sees the necessity of politically analyzing the current condition and its representational
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory." Theatre Journal 40.4 (1988): 519-31. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Web. 11 May 2011.
This systematic review conducted by Takeda A, Taylor SJC, Taylor RS, Khan F, Krum H, Underwood M, (2012) sourced twenty-five trials, and the overall number of people of the collective trials included was 5,942. Interventions were classified and assessed using the following headings.-
Article two entitled “Clinical trials: are they ethical?” is written by Eugene Passamani discusses the importance of randomized clinical trials. Passamani rejects the argument that the physician-patient relationship demands that physicians recommend ...
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory." Theatre Journal 40.4 (1988): 519-31. Print.
Theatre is an art form that has been shared across cultures for hundreds of years. This art form is extremely versatile in the types of plays, such as comedic, tragedy, and many other genres. Although theatre is thought of a form of entertainment, playwrights have seized the opportunity to inject political opinions into the play to inform the audience about present issues in their lives. Issues that playwrights have incorporated into plays have included stories that people may not be ready to hear but it encourages the audience to look inside themselves and assess their moral standing on certain issues. One subject that has been incorporated into many plays throughout the last century is women’s issues. These plays have challenged the way women
In “Barbie Doll” the reader can see that societies unrealistic expectations for girls and women contribute to their subordination, as many of them cannot live up to these standards. Just as in “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” her husband caused the subordination of Aunt Jennifer because he was holding her back. These poems were not made to pity women; they were made to empower them. From “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” and “Barbie Doll” women should take home the message that life does not have to be that way. What one does with their life is up to them, not their husband or classmates. The more we as a society talk about the unfair treatment of women, the more it becomes a problem. That does not mean it needs to be brushed under the rug, it means that no gender should be victimized.
Torgerson, D. J. (2003). Avoiding Bias in Randomised Controlled Trials in Educational Research. British Journal of Educational Studies, 51(1), 36-45.
Turner, B. J., Newschaffer, C. J., Zhang, D., Fanning, T., & Hauck, W. W. (1999). Translating clinical trial results into practice. Annals of Internal Medicine, 130(12), 979-986.
He challenged the traditional idea of Russian nobility by demanded men cut off their long flowing sleeves and beards, publishing a book of manners which expressly prohibited eating with one’s fingers (and spitting on the floor), required polite conversation between sexes, and requiring the noblemen (and noblewomen) to wear Western clothing during public events: weddings and banquets. Additionally, Russian nobles’ children were sent to Europe for education and European ‘experts’ were moved into Russia to house new schools and academies, design buildings, and serve in Peter’s army, administration, and navy. However despite the previous examples of Peter’s transformation of Russian society, his primary goal was to establish Russia as a great military power of Europe, not modernize Russian society. An example of this is his taxation system which established taxes per individual, not household, and as a result obliterated the divisions of the Russian peasanty, however the new taxation system’s primary purpose was to increase money for the war effort. Peter’s Table of Ranks reversed the traditional hierarchy of Russia by exalting the military class, then administrative, and finally
Stacy Wolf, a Professor of Theatre in the Lewis Centre for the Arts wrote the book ‘Changed for Good’. This book observes the roles of women in Broadway and how musical theatre’s history has changed massively from the 1950’s to the twenty first century by analysing, inspecting and listening to what women actually did on the Broadway stage through every chapter. It argues that ‘gender and genre are inseparable’ (Wolf. S. 2011. P. 20) the representations and performances by women radically changed in the musical from the 1950’s; from Anita in West Side Story to Adalaide in Guys and Dolls, Wolf demonstrates a centrality toward women in the form of ‘friends, girlfriends and wives as journalists, students and maids, and also as singers and dancers’ (Wolf. S. 2011. P. 4)
O'Brien (2013) defines RCT as a research technique that has been through the ages. It first was applied in medical studies. Today, it is a quantitative method widely used in clinical trials where participants answer or confirm a research question. Clinical trials that are designed with RCT in a medical context focus on prioritizing the protecting of human participants with the aid of ethical criteria; however, at the discretion of the researcher (O'Brien, 2013).
As a white, homosexual, upper class, female spectator, I am an oppressor in my whiteness and class but am oppressed through my “alternative” sexuality and through my gender. Addressing and recognizing my own personal identity as oppressor but also the oppressed helps me to examine these four plays, China Doll, Sex Kitty, Snake Oil Show, and Spell #7 in terms of representation of identity through performance. I am analyzing how these women playwrights configure identity for themselves and the audience by observing the similarities in form and content within these texts. A shared theme in these works is to move away from and/or deconstruct a universal, ideal spectator’s lens through personal experiences.
The first strictly female-based shows were released in the 1950’s. These musicals attracted more female-based audience members and ticket sales rose exponentially. Musicals such as The Sound of Music and My Fair Lady showed how women were an important part of life, whereas musicals such as Spring Awakening, Aida, and Wicked showed extreme women empowerment. Gender inflicts and shapes every aspect of the musical. ”Gender is a constitutive element of Broadway musical theatre, fundamental to the musical’s architecture, and as vital a building block as music, lyrics, orchestration, spoken text, choreography, and dance, lights, sets, costumes, and props. It shows from the very beginning the role to be played” (Wolf, p.6)
In the health care industry, gathering information in order to find the best diagnosis route or even determine patient satisfaction is necessary. This is complete by conducting a survey and collecting data. When the information is complete, we then have statistical information used to make administrative decision within the healthcare field. The collection of meaningful statistics is an important function of any hospital or clinic.
The outcome of each trial was standardized to an odd’s ratio; a odd’s ratio below 1.0 indicated a beneficial effect. The qualities of the trials were assessed by thee factors: randomisation, masking and data analysis. The information abo...