Gender on Gender.

Madonna. Enough said...well not quite enough. There are actually great bonds we must reveal within this particular work of hers. It starts out with a couple of people dressed in black leather not really revealing either ones sex. Both men and women have their hair slicked back and are wearing unisex clothes that protest a masculine rather than feminine aura. As we get deeper into the video, Madonna’s character takes on a more feminine role as she lets her hair loose and strips down to leather intimates, revealing that the main character is in fact a woman.

What message do viewers gain from this video? Is the artist depicting a strong and willful woman? Or is she suggesting that women are set back in society by prancing around in tight black outfits and allowing men to tie her up in her videos? Since we are in the depths of gender studies and feminism I could not help but argue that this video/song is an ode to women all over the world. The main character stands up for her self and does not allow anyone to stand in her way in order to get what she wants. She speaks her mind, and as the song states, is not sorry for it.

Yes, it is strange but it is also strange that century after century women have been considered the subordinate sex. Although times are changing, and here in the United States we are very slowly moving closer to the idea of equality between sexes, this concept of the subordinate sex still exists. In 1949 Simone de Beauvoir, released the idea of “the one” and “the other” in her work entitled The Second Sex. De Beauvoir argues that men and women are both human beings of the same nature yet for some reason the woman has always been perceived as “the other” and the man has been perceived as “the one.” It is a form of a master slave relationship that has been conjured up from the beginning of time by non other than the male sex. De Beauvoir suggests that “humanity is male and man defines woman not in herself but as relative to him; she is not regarded as an autonomous being.” She argues that men have been writing the history of women for as long as women have allowed them too. It is possible for women to rise up and take their stance in the world but if they do not strive to achieve this as a whole then their power will stay where it has been lobbying for years to come.

Madonna’s stance of independence in this song falls right into the lap of De Beauvoir, as she refuses to mesh her thoughts with that of another and stands firmly behind her own suggesting “ I’m not your bitch don’t hang your shit on me” (Madonna).

This song also falls into Michel Foucault’s The History of Sexuality. Not only is a woman expressing her mind but she dares to speak about sex openly and does not apologize for her sexuality claiming “I didn’t know I couldn’t talk about sex” (Madonna). Foucault suggests that in the past, specifically around the 18th century, sex was censored and instead transferred into discourse in order to speak of it (Foucault 1504). It became a scientific disciplinary as the English government took it upon themselves to take charge of the scandalous activity labeling citizens as perverts and using religious confession as a way to discipline sexual acts (Foucault 1508). Madonna’s acceptance of sex and the discussion of it definitely embodies Foucault’s work as they both conclude that it is really not that big of a deal as it is only human nature.
Works Cited:

De Beauvoir, Simone. “The Second Sex: Introduction Woman as other.” Marxist.org.10 August 2010. Web.

Foucault, Michel. "The History of Sexuality." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed, Vincent B. Leitch. 2nd ed. W.W. Norton Company, Inc: New York, 2010. 1502-1519. Print.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS6FCoq349o

Marxism > Capitalism... Well at least that's what a Marxist would say.

In this video, Alec Baldwin’s speech exemplifies various aspects of a capitalist society. First and foremost the separation between classes is strictly drawn and painfully played out. In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, divide the capitalist society into two classes, the bourgeois and the proletarians (Marx and Engels 657). The bourgeois are the people in society (owners) who own production, while the proletarians are the people in society (workers/laborers) who do not own production. Alec Baldwin’s character identifies himself only though his material belongings such as his eighty thousand dollar BMW, his expensive watch, and his nine hundred thousand dollar plus yearly salary. In order to achieve a well thought out communist society this separation should be eliminated. A society should be classless and this idea of ownership should cease to exist (Marx and Engels 660).

Here, the “leads” (the people whom they must sell the products to) and the workers themselves are reduced to a commodity. People are seen only as a product and if the workers do not or cannot achieve their goals they can easily be replaced. Marx and Engels suggest that, “ the mode of production in which the product takes the form of a commodity, or is produced directly for exchange, is the most general and most embryonic form of a bourgeois production (Marx and Engels 670). The value of a family is also challenged when Baldwin expresses “ you’re a good father, fuck you go play with your kids,” (Glengarry Ross). Suggesting that this employee is not viewed as a human being, he is only a part of a product whose goal in life is to supply the company with his labor. Proving that the “bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation,” (Marx and Engels 659).

In a capitalist society the bourgeois benefit only from the workers labour power. The workers in this video are not cared for by their employers. They are only paid enough and looked after enough in order to keep them alive so they can fulfill their duties at work. Marx and Engels conclude, "it is self evident that the labourer is nothing else, his whole life through, than labour-power, that therefore all his disposable time is by nature and law labour-time, to be devoted to the self-expansion of capital," (Marx and Engels 671).

Works Cited:

Marx Karl, and Friedrich Engels. “Capital, Volume 1, Chapter . Commodities.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed, Vincent B. Leitch. 2nd ed. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.: New York, 2001. 663-670. Print.


Marx Karl, and Friedrich Engels. “Capital, Volume 1, Chapter 10. The Working Day.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed, Vincent B. Leitch. 2nd ed. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.: New York, 2001. 671-674. Print.

Marx Karl, and Friedrich Engels. “ The Communist Manifesto.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed, Vincent B. Leitch. 2nd ed. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.: New York, 2001. 657-660. Print.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKzMd328bMw