> without sounding too queer, why do men find internalization a problem?
> is there any learning that can ever in this existence take place
> without the irrepressible process of learning?
I would agree.
> why would you assume that 'appropriation' is somehow optional?
> isn't this like assuming that learning can be controlled or regulated?
In some sense I suppose I'd like it to be optional to a certain extent,
maybe it can't. There is probally always appropriation in some degree. I
was thinking about this in regards to "resistance" where for a variety of
reasons we may apply certain knowledge but not identify with it. My
primary concern is appropriation will become something else to be
controlled and regulated.
>
> yikes. YIKES. you make it sound as if gender roles are conscious options,
> when we live in a misogynist world, and when any gender digression of
> female-feminine or female-masculine or female-male is a subject of
> discovery,
I don't think they are conscious options perse, but American culture in
specific spends alot of time keeping gender roles rather limited. If its
how we tend to buy girls dolls year after year, or keep the doll and block
area segregated, or even how the blocks tends to promote building while the
doll area is fully assembled I think there is a certain appropriation of
gender roles involved.
> and yet the male=queer equations are noticeable in their absence.
> appropriating a gender identity involves a cultural context of approval -
> any gender identity that resists misogyny is the work of
> internalizing a gender identity and invariably involves a context of
> resistance.
I hope not. I am curious though how you felt they were noticable in their
absence. I do think the picture would have been a little different if it
was a boy playing with the doll. The question of "did you kiss the baby"
probally would not have been asked. The boys probally were not given
"dolls" as objects which was sort of my point. My experience is the boy
would be seen as needing to be fixed. The rationale would be how to find
activities so he could appropriate the "right" gender roles. There would of
course be a level of appropriation on the part of the child. The boys
don't want to play with him, the girls think he's weird. I was looking at
the other end, in how the teacher would create opportunities so he could
appropriate the "correct" gender roles. He would probally be sent to a
psychiatrist.
Nate