Thesis is done, but life hasn't found a way to uncomplicate
itself. But, I'm updating this blog--finally. So, here is a post. I hope the next one doesn't take me a couple of years to write.
I received via email an unexpected but very welcomed
comment from a reader. It really made my day/week/year… While I received this a while back, I think of it from time to time.
Here it is:
Hi Janine,
We don't know each other, I just stumbled upon one of your old
blog posts and it made me laugh so much! The post is dated November 2006,
"Starship Troopers vs. The Brain Sucking Vagina", and, although it's
quite concerning overall, this was hilarious: "[...] throughout the film the soldiers stand at attention (giant
penises) and use their huge guns (giant penises) to kill, and their medical
instruments (giant penises) to poke, prod, and rape the Brain Bug in one of the
final scenes. At the end of the film it is suggested that the troopers will
defeat the alien race, because they are recruiting more soldiers (more
potential giant penises)."
I don't know if you're aware of it, but the image of penis was
extremely widespread in several real fascist [c]ountries, particularly in Italy.
Images of towers, swords, guns, rifles and verbs such as
"fertilizing", "conquering", etc. were carefully selected
because of their supposed relationship with men's virility. It seems that such
(medieval) idea is still very alive, which is quite concerning... However, you
expressed it clearly, creatively and, perhaps unwillingly, funny! Thanks for
giving me something worth reading, in this era of pointless "list
posts" blogs. :)
It was really nice to receive some positive feedback about my writing. What's even more fulfilling is that someone enjoyed my writing and had a good laugh (and not in the "OMG this writing is so horrible, hahaha" kind of way).
So, fuck you, Prof. M., (one day I'll have the balls to write out her name--maybe when I am published somewhere besides my blog) for telling me my writing sucked and that I shouldn't be in the English Master's program. Hahaha.
The SiFeet Pussy Foot is a silicone foot with a "fully functional and totally fuck-able silicone vagina" on the underside of the foot. While I wonder what the "fully functional" aspects of the vagina are, the fact that it is obviously "fuck-able" isn't the only thing that disturbs me--the feet are disembodied (in a crude manner) and bound together by a rope, hanging like a piece of meat.
But why am I surprised? Foot fetishes are behind Chinese Foot Binding. The objectification and fragmentation of female bodies through sexualization is the main reason why women are still seen and treated as disposable and consumable material objects.
Stockroom.com describes "[t]his silicone sex toy is also a convenient practice tool for preparing to get hot and kinky with actual feet." Well, maybe their customers should practice with these feet--and get intimate with the destructive history men's foot fetish has had on women throughout the centuries.
Ah, yes. We all know this term. It needs no definition, although the cameltoe article on Wikipedia.com (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameltoe) does a splendid job at delineating the term's definition and offering various physical causes that may play a part in the creation of a cameltoe.
Recently, I came across a YouTube video of an old song I often heard when I was younger, but I've never seen the music video. The song, of course, is FannyPack's single “Cameltoe.”
It was interesting to watch the video and listen to the lyrics with a much more critical eye and ear. Female genitalia is not only being made fun of, but it is also categorized as disgusting and revolting. In the music video, people look disgusted and shocked at seeing a cameltoe, one man even throws up.
Personally, I don't think that the human body should ever be an object of shame or disgust. But, let's assume for a moment that this wish of mine is too much of an ideology. Then, are men also the subject of ridicule and humiliation when it comes to their reproductive organs? Let's ponder this for a moment.
What is the male equivalent of a cameltoe? Some sites argue that it is the term “bulge.” An obviously neutral term which carries with it no negative connotations. Other sites argue that it is the term “moose knuckle” and other slight variations of it. I'm sure that's going to catch on...
Ok, so let's take the term, bulge. If it was as negative as cameltoe I doubt baseball players or professional dancers would wear such enhancing protective gear in that area. I'm going to stray from the topic of cameltoes and moose knuckles a moment... Why is it that women have no equivalent protective wear for breasts or the genitalia in sports? I've gotten hit in the breast by a spiked volleyball and I almost passed out from the pain. It is probably dangerous too (I am no doctor, scientist, nor have I done studies...but do these studies even exist? Is anyone looking out for the welfare of female athletes?). Anyways...back on track now... showing off and having a prominent outline of the male genital area is definitely not a negative thing in our society. Men’s jeans even enhance that, giving the illusion of having a larger package than exists in reality by creating a nice little poofy pouch in the front area.
Now, I’m not someone who is wishing for men to be ashamed of their bodies—quite the contrary—I just wish the same standards existed for women.
I remember an incident that happened during my freshmen/sophomore year of high school (can’t remember when exactly)... we wore uniforms but some days we were allowed dress up days. On one of these dress up days I came to school with jeans and a white t-shirt with a smiley face on it. It was a baby-tee (was that what they were called?), which is generally a cotton t-shirt that is fitted to your body with small sleeves. Well, I’ve always had large breasts and there’s nothing I can do about them. I can’t stuff them into a tiny bra and hope they’ll shrink. They’re there. They are prominent. Get over it.
Well, I got called out for them. The president of the student council (a girl) and a teacher (a woman) both came up to me and said I was dressed inappropriately!!! I remember my face turning red. I felt ashamed and instantly put on the spot and insecure. I knew it was my white shirt. You could probably see the outline of my bra underneath and the t-shirt wasn’t loose so you could see my breasts pretty clearly. But, I was also not ready for a wet t-shirt contest or something. My conservative, Hispanic grandmother would never have let me walk out of the house if she thought I looked too hoochie or “inappropriate” for a catholic school.
This event embarrassed me, made me feel insecure and ashamed. I had to ask my grandmother, who worked at the bookstore to lend me a jacket so I could cover myself. Never mind this is Florida and it was hot. The student council president and the faculty member pointed out something that I wasn’t aware of that morning as I was getting dressed—the overt sexuality of female breasts and the shame society associates with sexuality.
If this incident would have happened to me today I would have been able to respond “appropriately” and asked them exactly what they wanted me to do with my breasts? Should I tape them down? Wear huge bulky sweaters (as many women ashamed of their bodies tend to do...as I often did in high school as a result of that incident)? Should I get a breast reduction? Should I be ashamed? Of course not. Damn them for ever making me feel that way.
What a backwards world we live in. Women with big breasts getting breast reductions...women with small breasts getting breast enlargements. Penis reductions—yeah right—not in this society.
Let’s return to the genital area once more and think back to our early childhood for a moment. If you are male do you remember an older relative pointing to your penis and remarking on the “cuteness” of it? Probably. If you are female, do you have any similar memories? Probably not. My memories are of family members always making sure I was covered up. Or if I was jumping around and sat down with my legs spread open, I would be told to close my legs. I’d obey automatically, without thinking of the “why” of the action. Pretty soon I was imitating women who crossed their legs.
It’s “ladylike” to cross your legs if you are a woman, but for me it’s always been damn uncomfortable. I get a red spot (I am very pale) on my calf when it has rested on my knee for a while. My leg falls asleep and sometimes my hip feel funky after a long sitting time with my legs crossed. This is social convention working here, this is probably not biological.
Another reason to cross our legs is the same reason we tend to do it as young girls—there are different standards and social mores surrounding genitalia that affect our behavior well into adulthood. As a result, we often transmit these ideologies to our own children without even knowing.
Men tend to sit with their legs spread far apart and women try to constrict their legs, crossing them or keeping their knees together, which requires some effort. The result—women take up less physical space than men. This must carry with it some psychological reinforcement about who is superior more important. In fact, at least my own personal experience supports this.
At a Cirque de Soliel show here in Miami, in a tent, with itty-bitty little seats squished together to fit the maximum number of people into the show area, I found myself between my huge boyfriend and a huge man who I did not know. I didn’t mind having my leg rub against my boyfriend’s, but I did mind having my leg rub against some stranger. I brought my legs closer together, I moved closer to my boyfriend—to no avail. I was forced to sit through the show feeling some other man’s leg against my own.
The problem with this is that I was the one moving, I was the one trying to take up less space. The man next to me, never batted an eyelash over the situation, nor did he try to bring his legs closer together. Yes, I am aware of the male genital area but I have never seen men walking down the street as if they were straddled on a horse or prepared to allow a semi-truck drive through their legs. Why do they insist on sitting like that then?
This blogger discusses the Hispanic male as the culprit behind this action, but really all males do it. It’s something they learn unconsciously. Women close their legs, men open theirs. Women are ashamed of their genital area, men are not. This is pure social convention and social mystification of sexuality.
Of course there are many reasons for this, but the constant hiding of female genitalia probably contributes to an overwhelming sense of shame about it. While little boys can run naked with people comment positively on their sexual parts of course they will grow up with a quite different understanding and relationship with their private parts than women do.
Even masturbation and self touching is something often associated with men rather than women. Men use their hands, women use dildos. The companies that produce dildos to help satisfy women sexually wouldn't make their hefty profits if more women just used their hands. Vaginal climax (the “mature” type of climax, according to Freud) is difficult—and some argue impossible—to reach without clitoral stimulation (Freud believed that climax is “immature” reinforcing the need of the male penis, or some phallic object to do the trick).
Think about gynecological examinations which women learn are something they need to do every year. We go see a virtual stranger, spread our legs, and allow that person (most often a man) look at, open up, and stick something into our vaginas. How many of those women who visit gynecologists ever look at themselves? Touch themselves? Have ever even tried? If this is offending you, disgusting you, don't worry—you are sharing the sentiments of most people in our culture.
Here is the New York Times article "Anti-Rape Condom" by Christopher Shea. (See original source here.)
The vagina dentata - a vagina with literal or figurative teeth - is a potent trope in South Asian mythology, urban legend, Freudian rumination and speculative fiction (the novel "Snow Crash," by Neal Stephenson, for example). But it took a step toward reality this August with the unveiling of the Rapex, a female "condom" lined with rows of plastic spikes on its inner surface.
The Rapex is the brainchild of Sonette Ehlers, a retired blood technician in South Africa who was moved by the country's outlandish rape rate, which is among the highest in the world. The device is designed to be inserted any time a woman feels she is in danger of sexual assault. Its spikes are fashioned to end an assault immediately by affixing the Rapex to the assaulter's penis, but also to cause only superficial damage. The Rapex would create physical evidence of the attack as well and, as Ehlers laid out a course of events for reporters at a news conference, send the offender to a hospital, where he would be promptly arrested.
Ehlers estimates that each Rapex would cost 50 to 60 cents - a pricey proposition in Africa for a nonreusable item. On a Web site, www.rapestop.net, she answers other frequently asked questions: How is it inserted and removed? In each case, with an applicator. Do you hate men? No. Won't it get some users killed? Many rapists kill anyway; you stand a better chance against a temporarily disabled man. (On this last point, some may find Ehlers a little blithe about the prospect of an enraged rapist.) In a phone interview, she said that she has found the Rapex prototype to be more comfortable than a tampon. But Chantel Cooper, director of the Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust, remains unimpressed. The Rapex, she said in an e-mail message, sends the retrograde message "that women should be responsible for their own safety."
There are obvious problems with this device. Using this may give women a false sense of security. Men who rape are violent and rape is a violent act. Causing this type of injury to men will not debilitate them, they can still use their hands, arms, legs, body weight, etc. to hold women down and inflict even more vengeful violence onto them. The website's claim that it will give women a chance to get away is idiotic.
Also, this device will enable women to commit violent acts towards men. An unsuspecting boyfriend can be seriously injured by this device. Unfortunately, many women use rape in order to seek criminal charges against men. When false rape charges are brought against men, the only result is further invalidation of women whose real claims of rape are disbelieved and questioned. This putts them in danger and allows perpetrators to get away unpunished.
Starship Troopers[i] a film by Paul Verhoeven was released in 1997 and was loosely based on Robert A. Heinlein’s science fiction novel of the same title. There are many similarities and dissimilarities between the film and novel, and while many people criticize the modern film adaptation,[ii] the subject of this blog lies in an examination of the film, not the novel.
The film is a political satire on our country’s growing militarism and the loss of individual rights, which occur during times of war. Although filmed almost a decade ago many of the issues underlying the film resonate today. The initial criticism of this film did not grasp that it was parodying the fascist philosophy and utopian society depicted in the film, not condoning it. Starship Troopers is a film made in reaction against such a possible world. For this reason, the film depicts its characters as beautiful, yet almost mindless, obsessed with following orders. While early criticism often overlooked these details, later criticism also ignores some other interesting moments that allow for further discussion and analysis of this satiric film. There are moments in the film that create a commentary about the human race and specifically, women.
The following clip depicts the moment in the film when humans decide to launch a war against the alien bugs.
It is interesting to note a few things about this clip. To begin, the main characters discover that an alien meteor destroyed their home city of Buenos Aires. This ‘news’ appears on a large screen controlled by the Federal Network. In this clip the Fed Net is depicted numerous times and is not only the government, the source of information, or entertainment, but it also functions as a teaching tool where viewers can choose to learn more, but it is only what the Fed Net wishes to show them. The Fed Net provides these people with all of their knowledge and feeds them whatever point of view they feel is necessary to sustain their agenda.
Patriarchal history/science/theology/philosophy has worked in much the same way. Each field tells whatever is necessary in order to perpetuate the common held belief that man is superior to all other races: women, blacks, and other ‘primitive’ societies. Gerda Lerner observes, “[u]ntil the recent past, [...] historians have been men, and what they have recorded is what men have done and experienced and found significant” (4).[iii] In Nancy Tuana’s The Less Noble Sex[iv] she explains various ‘scientific’ studies which sought to associate the size and weight of a brain to the amount of intelligence possessed by the specific individual. Craniology’s popularity was due to the fact that its results could “be easily manipulated [.... Thus, craniology] was a popular method of justifying slavery. It was also used to combat the growing women’s rights movement” (68) of the nineteenth century. Tuana provides numerous examples that show how because these male scientists had preconceived notions about the results they ‘should’ obtain from these experiments, they were not at all hesitant to alter the facts or their explanations of the results in order to mold them to fit their ideas. While craniology is one example that shows how science is not always as objective as it is supposed to be, many feminist writers have begun to uncover much of the ‘history’ that has been altered or erased.
The second important quality of this clip lies after a propagandistic spread of the destruction in Buenos Aires, when the Fed Net depicts the Federal Council meeting in Geneva led by Sky Marshall Dienes. His romantic speech is indicative of the recruitment efforts of past militaristic movements aimed at falsely persuading people to join up and do their duty for the country. However, what is most telling is when Dienes states that this war effort is to “ensure that human civilization, not insect, dominates this galaxy now and always.” He does not discuss the need for defense against further meteor attacks, or even explains how, if at all, the arachnids sent this meteor. The only thing that is important is domination, even of a race on the other side of the galaxy. The reason why these people loathe these aliens and label them as enemies is because they are different, and their difference is threatening. This creates the urge to destroy and obliterate this ‘other.’ In the film, unexplainable differences, as well as unexpected similarities,[v] led to hatred, misunderstanding, and loathing of the aliens.
The situation with women throughout history is similar. Women often are seen as ‘different’ from men biologically and mentally mainly because of their ability to give birth and to menstruate. Before patriarchy women were associated with everything earthly, with Nature, and later patriarchy vilified women because of fear, as suggested by Nancy Tuana who examines the writings of Otto Weininger. She writes that “Weininger is [...] able to account for what he believed to be the deepest fear of man—the fear of women, who represents ‘unconsciousness, the alluring abyss of annihilation’” (65-6). This fear lies in women’s power to create life. Similarly, in the film the arachnid alien race represent a powerful force which if left unchecked seemingly has the power to annihilate the human race if they so chose. However, the film never establishes that these arachnids ever consciously try to harm humans; however, humans do consciously enter the arachnid environment and seek out the destruction of this alien race.
The beginning of the following clip shows “scientists” studying the bugs, because in order to defeat your enemy you must know them. This clip shows the final moments of the film when the brain bug is captured and later experimented upon. Interestingly, the brain bug looks very similar to a vagina. In addition, while its sides are pierced it is only when the phallic scientific torture device penetrates its mouth/vagina is a large “censored” banner erected before the scene.
Obviously, this scene is significant on many levels. It represents the patriarchal invasion of women’s bodies carried out for centuries by scientists, the government, men under the guise of research/science that is nothing more than torture and a controlling mechanism. In order to understand the mysteries of the female body scientists carried out experiments of torture. For the most part, “the purpose and intent of gynecology was/is not healing in a deep sense but violent enforcement of the sexual caste system” (Daly 227).[vi] “Dr. Charles Meigs [who] was advising his pupils that their study of female organs would enable them to understand and control the very heart, mind, and soul of woman (Daly 227) exemplifies the controlling nature of gynecological studies and a social concept understood since before written history—that the mutilation of female genetalia works as a controlling force. Daly notes that “the recent hysterectomy epidemic in the United States [...] which is a major surgery, [has been described] as ‘a simple solution for everything from backaches to contraception” (238). The list continues with birth control, which takes away control from women and places it in the hands of pharmaceutical companies. There exist issues with birth control that other women writers have criticized. To begin there are major side effects associated with birth control and part of the mystification lies not only in popular culture (commercials and other advertisements), but also with gynecology which Daly argues does not completely inform women of the benefits/risks associated with taking the pills. Inga Muscio writes in her book Cunt that she has “never heard of condoms that make men’s dicks shrivel off their bodies. [She] assert[s] that this is a calibrated reflection of who produces what for whom” (67). Women do not create birth control pills and therefore their side effects are the result of uncaring men hoping to make a profit. The health of women is not foremost in their minds. In addition, advertisements for birth control pills use language to suggest that having a period is cumbersome and annoying, a problem that can be solved, that is, removed and obliterated, just like women’s uteruses in hysterectomies. Now lighter/fewer periods is the message transmitted through the airwaves, just as radioactive as some of the procedures used on women in the past decades.
Mary Daly quotes Barker-Benfield’s study of nineteenth-century gynecologists’ writing: “There is. . . ample evidence that gynecologists saw their knives cutting into women’s generative tract as a form of sexual intercourse” (246). Similarly, the scene in the preceding clip depicts the Brain Bug mouth/vagina violently penetrated by a scientific instrument, a metaphor for the history of female gynecology.
It is a fact that women’s bodies are othered in order to lessen any guilt felt by the patriarchal society who have raped and tortured them. Similarly, in a scene not depicted in these clips, the moment the Brain Bug is captured and pulled out of her cave/womb[vii] a scientist stands erect before the bug and lays his hands on her. Someone from the crowd asks him what the bug is thinking (he has extrasensory perception[viii]) and he replies, “It’s afraid!” In response, the crowed erupts in an uncontrollable roar. These soldiers are unremorseful that they have invaded, killed, captured, tortured, and experimented on these aliens. Instead, they are proud, triumphant, righteous. Their goal is to instill fear, and in this film, they succeed.
In this clip the Brain Bug sucks the brains out of one of the main characters, Zander Barcalow, who previously sneaked a knife to the female character, Carmen Ibanez. She uses the knife to cut off the sucking appendage that comes out of the mouth/vagina of the Brain Bug.
The significance of this clip illustrates the misogyny and fear towards women and their sexuality that literally renders men brainless and sucked dry. History depicts women as unable to possess a mind of their own, or have a mind as superior to that of men. Therefore, sucking a man’s brains out would be fitting. The sucking action of the Brain Bug is similar to the female stereotype of the vamp, a woman bloodthirsty and willing to suck the life out of any man. In addition, a money hungry woman who eventually leaves men high and dry also depicts another similarity between the Brain Bug and female metaphors, in this case, the gold digger.
Right before the Brain Bug sucks out Zander’s brain he tells the bug, “One day someone like me is going to kill you, and your whole fucking race.” He then spits on the bug. The relationship between this giant vagina sucking out a man’s brains and the man swearing to obliterate the race is very similar to the “misogynistic violence” (12)[ix] identified by Jane Caputi. She writes that all women are at risk “by virtue of our femaleness, [...to be] variously beaten, brainwashed, disrespected, objectified, incested, harassed, mutilated, battered, raped, tongue-tied, defamed, enslaved, or systematically murdered by men” (12).
After Zander is dead Carmen is next to have her brains sucked out, but she has a knife and uses it to slice off the bug’s appendage, debilitating her. It is significant that a female cuts and harms the bug because through the centuries women have often been the perpetuators of female genital mutilation as well as other cultural practices aimed at suppressing women while men have remained in the background, inactive, blameless. Mary Daly writes that “among the Bambaras [...] a man who sleeps with a nonexcised woman risks death from her ‘sting’ (clitoris)” (160). The film suggests that the alien’s appendage which sucks the life out of the soldiers is a clitoris, which when erect/sexually aroused will penetrate/pierce the victim. Similar language can describe the action of the penis, which is one of the reasons why women’s clitorises have been excised throughout history. The clitoris made them more masculine, while males undergo circumcision to remove the foreskin, which resembles the female labia. Only in this case, the clitoris sucks in, rather than comes out. Still, it is a threat and only a female character can mutilate it. Nawal El Saadawi writes of female genital mutilation noting with vivid imagery the role of the daya in circumcising young girls as well as being in charge of the process of defloration where a thick and steady stream of blood was expected to flow on the wedding night. She writes about the “[n]umerous [...] nights which [she] spent by the side of a young girl [...] treating a haemorrhage that had resulted from the long dirty finger nail of a daya cutting through the soft tissues during the process of defloration” (29).[x] She criticizes the role women play in perpetuating this tradition of pain passing it down to their daughters. In a previous clip a female teacher cheers as her young pupils stomp on defenseless bugs, a metaphorical representation of the daya in today’s educational system, perpetuating stereotypes, violence, and militarism.
This final clip is one of the featurettes included in the special edition of the DVD. Those involved behind the scenes provide commentary about the Brain Bug and the reasoning for its resemblance to female genetalia.
When these male producers discuss the Brain Bug they refer to it as a “he.” One calls the alien, “The evil emperor of the bug world” while another refers to it as the “king.” The fact that this male alien has female genetalia for a mouth is interesting and explained at the beginning of this clip by Phil Tippett who says that the director was “insistent that it be offensive to everybody. Its mouth, or whatever it was, was supposed to look like something... Paul would say, ‘Perhaps it should look like a vagina; perhaps it should look like an anus, but I don’t know.’” The director wanted to make the alien look disgusting and offensive, and what came to mind was a vagina or an anus. These are interesting binaries, especially when the vagina is chosen over the anus. Therefore, while the anus excretes shit from the body, the vagina is where life begins, and the most disgusting and offensive of the two is the vagina! The implications of this are extremely interesting, but they are not new. Current society sees female bodies, vaginas, menstruation as dirty and unclean phenomena. Gone is the time when women and their bodies were sacred.
The crew working on this film also immediately associates the Brain Bug as a male because it can think and it is the ruler of the aliens. However, the need to make the bug more disgusting called for the use of a vagina. It is virtually impossible for me to imagine the Brain Bug being considered disgusting if a giant, leaking penis had been used instead. On the contrary, throughout the film the soldiers stand at attention (giant penises) and use their huge guns (giant penises) to kill, and their medical instruments (giant penises) to poke, prod, and rape the Brain Bug in one of the final scenes. At the end of the film it is suggested that the troopers will defeat the alien race, because they are recruiting more soldiers (more potential giant penises).
Part of feminism’s goal is to reinstate the importance of nature and all things organic, which in this film is another disgusting aspect of the Brain Bug. The designers thought that making the Brain Bug seem organic, by adding a rippling movement to its soft body in order to simulate the thought process, would create a more disgusting creature. Why exactly this would be disgusting is not immediately clear to me. Yet, women’s bodies are often discussed in terms of softness while men’s bodies optimally should be hard and muscular. However, the turn away from organic life towards a more mechanized one is clear in the film, but it is also clearly present in the philosophy of those working on the film. This film is supposed to be parodying today’s society, but it seems that those involved are not aware of the many levels of societal thought that have found its way into the film and buried itself there.
These filmmakers are portraying deeply embedded societal concepts about women and their bodies. Towards the end of this clip, the actor playing Zander remarks, “In a word—disgusting” and then the camera shifts to the Brain Bug’s mouth/vagina oozing with slime. Will such an image ever be beautiful/powerful/sacred/mysterious ever again?
[i]Starship Troopers. Dir. Paul Verhoeven. Perf. Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, and Neil Patrick Harris. DVD. Tristar and Touchstone Pictures. 1997.
[ii] I make these generalizations based on my visits to numerous sites where people are posting comments about this film. The links and forums at the following sites will provide further information on this film.
[iii] Lerner, Gerda. The Creation of Patriarchy. New York: Oxford U P, 1986.
[iv] Tuana, Nancy. The Less Noble Sex: Scientific, Religious, and Philosophical Conceptions of Woman’s Nature. Bloomington: Indiana U P, 1993.
[v] The characters learn that the alien bugs have a super bug, a Brain Bug that thinks. The ability to think is often what marks us as humans. It is also a linear marker used by society to place humans high up on the hierarchy of living beings, the Great Chain of Being. As mentioned previously, craniology tried to affirm the notion that white men’s brains are the largest, therefore securing the top place in the hierarchy, justifying their control and exploitation of all other living things that do not think. The Brain Bug thinks just like a human does, and one character exclaims, “Frankly, I find the idea of a bug that thinks offensive!” Indeed, a thinking bug, a ‘primitive’ human, or a woman could never have the same mental capacities as a man. History reveals numerous attempts to perpetuate that myth/stereotype.
[vi] Daly, Mary. Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. Boston, Beacon P, 1990.
[vii] Right before this scene the main character arrives to save Carmen from the bugs. The soldiers have penetrated the cave and have brought with them a bomb. He threatens the Brain Bug with it who shrinks back in fear. The introduction of the bomb/atomic power into the caves/feminine power is another metaphor for our present society.
[viii] The fact that this dildo-like character could have extrasensory perception, sensitivity to feeling/thought/emotion/other living beings, seems quite comical. Usually, women experience sensitivity to their surrounding and their own bodies during menstruation, something that the ingestion of hormone pills will eventually obliterate.
[ix] Caputi, Jane. Gossips, Gorgons & Crones: The Fates of the Earth. Santa Fe: Bear, 1993.
[x] El Saadawi, Nawal. The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World. Trans. Dr. Sherif Hetata. London: Zed, 2001.
