I cannot resist putting a toe, foot, whole leg into this icy pool.
Here is in an interesting quote from the article, "Lighting Up the Brain, a clever combination of optics and genetics is allowing neuroscientists to map - and even control - brain circuits with unprecedented precision," by Gero Miesenbock in October's Scientific American magazine.
". . .in my lab at Yale, postdoctoral fellow J. Dylan Clyne used genetically encoded actuators to gain insights into behavioral differences between the sexes. The males of many animal species go to considerable lengths in wooing the opposite sex. In the case of fruit flies, males vibrate one wing to produce a "song" that females find quite irresistible. To probe the neural underpinnings of this strictly male behavior, Clyne uses light to activate the pattern generator responsible for the song. He found that females, too, possess the song-making circuitry. But under normal circumstances they lack the neural signals required for turning it on. The discovery suggests that male and female brains are wired largely the same way and that differences in sexual behaviors arise from the action of strategically placed master switches that set circuits to either male or female mode."
Now that I am in the pool, it seems as if everyone is rapidly swimming away. Hold up. Wait.
I am not sure what I know, so prefer to ask questions, which makes for slow going. The author above has used the terms female and male. Are these less "cultural" words? Is "woman" a cultural term and "female" a biological term? At least “woman” is a human term. When I think of the bears, several hundred of them, living in the mountains nearby, I do not think of them as women bears and men bears, but I cannot answer for the Native Americans who live here. Do Native Americans view them differently? A local tribe bought a suite of my drawings of crows to hang in their new preschool building. (Not a likely choice of subject matter for an Anglo preschool) Spontaneously, the children named them all. I suspect that Native Americans see themselves and animals in the same family. Animals are not “other. “ In the fairy tale, "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," it is Papa Bear and Mama Bear. Scientific types call that anthropomorphizing, but a black bear may call it appropriating. Is it worth the effort to stake out carefully your point of view? to know where you’re coming from? I think so. I am, at sixty-five, still trying to figure out where I am coming from.
What about the title of the group, "Understanding the Woman?" Why that syntax and not “Understanding Woman," without the the, “Understanding Women" or "Understanding a Woman?" Why not “appreciating,” “comprehending” or “grasping” instead of understanding. That last one makes my male mind move. In English “understanding” is the present progressive tense. It is going on now. Do all languages allow this use? Would that make a difference in the discussion? In the future will there be a discussion group called “Understood Woman?” Nah, there will always be novices - women and men. Wait. “Understooding woman.” What does the construction of a language keep us from talking and thinking about?
Patricia Fernadez Miranda, why do you find the title derogatory? Derogatory to whom? Derogatory how?
Aviva Beigel gives us an image about her feelings as a woman - human female. The artwork is a thing and not a question. Still, looking at and seeing the artwork, I have to ask my self some questions. Many parts are all the same - dolls, eyelets? Does the artist feel like a duplicated automaton? Why a red doll? Heat, blood, life? Blond and white? Not all dolls smile. Is that a message? Smile under all circumstances. Is that broken glass? If so, why are the pieces rounded and not sharp? The doll shown has very limited articulation. Was the toy designer aware that he or she put the torso’s point of articulation to coincide with the location of the genitals? Wire and clasps bind the dolls. A wire fence separates us from the artwork’s space. Who or what is fencing me out? What is fenced in. Is there another artwork to be made seen through the eyes of the dolls? The sexual content screams at me. Is this artwork a sexual fantasy of or about bondage?
Let us go a little slower. Something interesting happens when we change all the declaratory sentences to questions. Does something interesting happen when we change all the declaratory sentences to questions?
11 October 2008
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