Agency, I haz it.
Sep. 14th, 2008 01:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
green_dreamsDisclaimer: I play in an LJ RPG. This is a discussion of the text created in the RPG from a feminist perspective. I have made judgements.
If you're in the game, and not interested in a moderately informed layperson's critical analysis that might touch on a PC you happen to play, or not up for reasoned discussion of same in a moderately informed context of society's views on the role of women, please do not read this. If you've asked me not to discuss your PC, or aren't interested in hearing me possibly do so, the same. Thank you.
And since this discusses the use of sex as a tool, there is going to be mention of rape. May be triggery.
Now that I've been all reasonable:
Lilith. Fucking Lilith. "I will not lie beneath you" Lilith. In the spreading modern context of Yahweh as domineering force rather than source of love[1] "I will be outcast rather than be the toy of a man" Lilith.
Sprawled on her back and sniggering proud of herself because she got a reaction from a man.
Lilith.
Fucking textual valorization of the male gaze as definer of a woman's goals and worth. And the presentation of sexually active and forward women as morally corrupt is just... Jesus, Jesus, Jesus bleeding Christ on the cross and Mary Magdalene coming out with a bat to kick ass and take names. It's not universal, certainly. I mean, this is an online LJ RPG--as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
brown_betty pointed out in a post I'm trying to find, this is the kind of thing that is a safe space, that tends to be a female-dominated space, and that is going to result in exploration and discussion of sexuality in a way that isn't normally done.
I think of the discussions around this community, and the acceptance, and what I'm reminded of immensely isamazon_syren's lovely women-only soirées. Hell, given the discussion we get at those, I want to call them salons.
(And yes, this means characters shag. A lot.)
Look, I understand the perception of women as Other, in comparison to the male norm. I understand the perception of the Judeo-Christian god as male. I am sure everyone here is up on the fact that the presentation of God as male correlates with the normative nature of the masculine in society. And I understand it's really easy to place Lilith in the role of other who is active rather than passive, who claims the autonomy that is socially speaking still greatly seen as a man's right and who thus is demonized, in every sense, as a threat to the established order.
And thinking of her as a symbol of genuine independence, of the Lilith of The Coming of Lilith, is not a requirement for anyone else. And I understand that in a fictional game, people are free to make her a fallen women in the traditional judgemental sex-and-lust-is-bad-m'kay? way. (You'll note that there's a disclaimer, an LJ-cut, and me posting this on my personal journal.)
It's just--dammit. The evil PC men in the game--and the fallen angel Iblis is to a great extent discussed and perceived as male, and yes I suspect that's in part yet another example of the male as normative--use sex as a tool. They understand what it can do, they understand it's a powerful driving force, they appear to understand that people who are attracted to or pleasured by them are going to be more receptive. And they use this, because they are cruel and manipulative vicious bastards. And yes, they use it as a stick as well as a carrot; there is off the top of my head one instance of a rape used to establish dominance, one of the casual consideration of rape to establish dominance as a possible course of action, and one of rape as punishment.
When they do this, when they commit rape, it is transcendent cruelty, and its cruelty springs at least in part from a denial of agency in a huge and fundamental way.
When the PC women in the game rape people, they do not deny the agency of their victims; they manipulate it. They deceive and they force wanting and--basically, the cruel strength of men is in that they can do things. The cruel strength of women is only in that they can make others want to do things by living up to the social ideal of the desirable woman.
And I look at this, at the cruelty, and over and over what I'm seeing is that men can act on their own, they can change things, they have agency. Women can act on the world if they live up to the heteronormative ideal of a sexy female and make others do things.
A woman alone is nothing. Her power lies in others wanting her.
*sigh* ...and I'm gonna be ill now.
It's not so bad once you move out of the discussion of characters committing (physical) rape. I'm typing this, and it's occurring to me that Anushka--who I would definitely classify as a malengine if not malevolent, having turned herself into something I would feel comfortable defining as mostly a sociopath--has her own agency. She is, in fact, about nothing but her own agency; she has transformed herself into a transcendent monster.
When she wants to hurt others, she does not coax. She is not coy. She stands and she takes and she shatters resistance. She does as she pleases, and she can be balked by stronger characters but she is a force in her own right. She does not need to trick others into acting for her. The character, in fact, is brutal and great and terrible, and has divorced herself from her humanity through her own force of will. She is, practically speaking, a small-g god.
And yes, she has done this by shattering her humanity, and yes the particular symbolism of it--the murder of her child--is a rejection of a woman's role as mother--
--Jesus, I am typing this and just realizing the parallels Anushka has to Lilith. Refuses to accept the constraints she was born/made under. Turns to a Devil!figure and goes beyond it. Rejects the social role of a woman and the devotion to a male (in this case, herself as mother to her young son). Turns into a monster, but a free and powerful one who can stand on an equal footing with powerful entities that sway the lives of men.
I will note that I find that the writing (and the player of Anushka is an amazing writer) consistently conveys the character's rejection of not only traditionally feminine emotions and roles but (almost) any tie to humanity and its social nature, and not so much a rejection but an ignoring of the body as well... it seems almost Manichean, honestly, the split between body and mind. Need to look back at that, been ages since I've contemplated the context.
Okay, this keeps getting longer and harder[2] to write, and I need to go post up a discussion of the moral foundation for Iblis being evil. Also get lunch.
ETA: I never got lunch. Also, potentially triggery stuff in the comments.
---
[1] And I do not agree with this being the truth from within the Christian context, personally, being a fan of Boethius and Lewis, but I do acknowledge that God is frequently both seen as and (more often) used that way.
[2] Heh. Insert Excolo joke here.
If you're in the game, and not interested in a moderately informed layperson's critical analysis that might touch on a PC you happen to play, or not up for reasoned discussion of same in a moderately informed context of society's views on the role of women, please do not read this. If you've asked me not to discuss your PC, or aren't interested in hearing me possibly do so, the same. Thank you.
And since this discusses the use of sex as a tool, there is going to be mention of rape. May be triggery.
Now that I've been all reasonable:
Lilith. Fucking Lilith. "I will not lie beneath you" Lilith. In the spreading modern context of Yahweh as domineering force rather than source of love[1] "I will be outcast rather than be the toy of a man" Lilith.
Sprawled on her back and sniggering proud of herself because she got a reaction from a man.
Lilith.
Fucking textual valorization of the male gaze as definer of a woman's goals and worth. And the presentation of sexually active and forward women as morally corrupt is just... Jesus, Jesus, Jesus bleeding Christ on the cross and Mary Magdalene coming out with a bat to kick ass and take names. It's not universal, certainly. I mean, this is an online LJ RPG--as
brown_betty pointed out in a post I'm trying to find, this is the kind of thing that is a safe space, that tends to be a female-dominated space, and that is going to result in exploration and discussion of sexuality in a way that isn't normally done.I think of the discussions around this community, and the acceptance, and what I'm reminded of immensely is
amazon_syren's lovely women-only soirées. Hell, given the discussion we get at those, I want to call them salons.(And yes, this means characters shag. A lot.)
Look, I understand the perception of women as Other, in comparison to the male norm. I understand the perception of the Judeo-Christian god as male. I am sure everyone here is up on the fact that the presentation of God as male correlates with the normative nature of the masculine in society. And I understand it's really easy to place Lilith in the role of other who is active rather than passive, who claims the autonomy that is socially speaking still greatly seen as a man's right and who thus is demonized, in every sense, as a threat to the established order.
And thinking of her as a symbol of genuine independence, of the Lilith of The Coming of Lilith, is not a requirement for anyone else. And I understand that in a fictional game, people are free to make her a fallen women in the traditional judgemental sex-and-lust-is-bad-m'kay? way. (You'll note that there's a disclaimer, an LJ-cut, and me posting this on my personal journal.)
It's just--dammit. The evil PC men in the game--and the fallen angel Iblis is to a great extent discussed and perceived as male, and yes I suspect that's in part yet another example of the male as normative--use sex as a tool. They understand what it can do, they understand it's a powerful driving force, they appear to understand that people who are attracted to or pleasured by them are going to be more receptive. And they use this, because they are cruel and manipulative vicious bastards. And yes, they use it as a stick as well as a carrot; there is off the top of my head one instance of a rape used to establish dominance, one of the casual consideration of rape to establish dominance as a possible course of action, and one of rape as punishment.
When they do this, when they commit rape, it is transcendent cruelty, and its cruelty springs at least in part from a denial of agency in a huge and fundamental way.
When the PC women in the game rape people, they do not deny the agency of their victims; they manipulate it. They deceive and they force wanting and--basically, the cruel strength of men is in that they can do things. The cruel strength of women is only in that they can make others want to do things by living up to the social ideal of the desirable woman.
And I look at this, at the cruelty, and over and over what I'm seeing is that men can act on their own, they can change things, they have agency. Women can act on the world if they live up to the heteronormative ideal of a sexy female and make others do things.
A woman alone is nothing. Her power lies in others wanting her.
*sigh* ...and I'm gonna be ill now.
It's not so bad once you move out of the discussion of characters committing (physical) rape. I'm typing this, and it's occurring to me that Anushka--who I would definitely classify as a malengine if not malevolent, having turned herself into something I would feel comfortable defining as mostly a sociopath--has her own agency. She is, in fact, about nothing but her own agency; she has transformed herself into a transcendent monster.
When she wants to hurt others, she does not coax. She is not coy. She stands and she takes and she shatters resistance. She does as she pleases, and she can be balked by stronger characters but she is a force in her own right. She does not need to trick others into acting for her. The character, in fact, is brutal and great and terrible, and has divorced herself from her humanity through her own force of will. She is, practically speaking, a small-g god.
And yes, she has done this by shattering her humanity, and yes the particular symbolism of it--the murder of her child--is a rejection of a woman's role as mother--
--Jesus, I am typing this and just realizing the parallels Anushka has to Lilith. Refuses to accept the constraints she was born/made under. Turns to a Devil!figure and goes beyond it. Rejects the social role of a woman and the devotion to a male (in this case, herself as mother to her young son). Turns into a monster, but a free and powerful one who can stand on an equal footing with powerful entities that sway the lives of men.
I will note that I find that the writing (and the player of Anushka is an amazing writer) consistently conveys the character's rejection of not only traditionally feminine emotions and roles but (almost) any tie to humanity and its social nature, and not so much a rejection but an ignoring of the body as well... it seems almost Manichean, honestly, the split between body and mind. Need to look back at that, been ages since I've contemplated the context.
Okay, this keeps getting longer and harder[2] to write, and I need to go post up a discussion of the moral foundation for Iblis being evil. Also get lunch.
ETA: I never got lunch. Also, potentially triggery stuff in the comments.
---
[1] And I do not agree with this being the truth from within the Christian context, personally, being a fan of Boethius and Lewis, but I do acknowledge that God is frequently both seen as and (more often) used that way.
[2] Heh. Insert Excolo joke here.
