tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793244.post5462729106482587329..comments2023-05-10T05:55:31.372-07:00Comments on The Feminist Spectator: Performance Contexts: Wendy Wasserstein's Third in Los AngelesJill Dolanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09674110837402216325noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793244.post-65837066160048060012007-11-21T13:07:00.000-08:002007-11-21T13:07:00.000-08:00Deborah, thanks for this thoughtful comment, and f...Deborah, thanks for this thoughtful comment, and for your useful, difficult questions. Yes, what is the counter-play we might stage? I can think of lots of women playwrights whose plays are resoundingly feminist, and give us much more of a progressive look at feminism as a political movement (and at women in general). But it does seem like their names aren't as popular (and therefore producable) as Wendy Wasserstein's.<BR/><BR/>I recently saw Adrienne Kennedy's OHIO STATE MURDERS in New York (and hope to blog about it shortly), which is about an African American woman who becomes an intellectual/professor. The whole play is set in an academic milieu, and Kennedy eloquently critiques its racism and its sexism. I doubt, though, that despite the quality of the production I saw, the Kennedy play would get as much traction as Wasserstein's already has.<BR/><BR/>In terms of why people won't accept that feminism is a useful social critique that would empower both men and women, and hopefully people across class and race, I think the media has done an excellent job of poisoning the well. It redounds to us, then, to keep re-educating people about feminism's possibilities, to break through the convenient media stereotypes that suggest feminism is "over" and ineffectual.<BR/><BR/>Since you graduated from Mount Holyoke, it'd probably be really useful for you to stage this conversation about feminism perhaps in their alumni magazine, perhaps as a way of calling attention to how one of their no doubt favorite "daughters" has sold the movement short. They might listen to you and give you a necessary forum for your very important thoughts.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for writing; keep writing!<BR/><BR/>My best, JillJill Dolanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09674110837402216325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15793244.post-21380556556889844552007-11-13T15:10:00.000-08:002007-11-13T15:10:00.000-08:00As a fellow alum of Wasserstein's women's college ...As a fellow alum of Wasserstein's women's college alma mater, a theatre artist and a feminist I am consummately disappointed in her plays that cast feminism as naive, self-obsessed, irrational and unsympathetic. What's more, the way she portrayed feminism did not shed new light on it, but rather reinforced common perceptions. I'm in my mid-twenties, surrounded by well-educated, liberal people in their 20's and 30's. And among these peers I feel like a lonely feminist. To the men and many women, feminism is a bad word (like the opposite and equal in its evilness to neo-con) or they believe we've entered a post-feminist era. Even among those who take on the feminist moniker, they subscribe to a Wassersteinian feminism that desires women should break the glass ceiling, but once it's broken we should stop our whining. They're not signing on for a revolution and they're threatened by voices that criticize the more insidious forms of oppression in our society. The subtext I hear in Wasserstein's plays and the women around me is that they feel they have something to lose if feminism were to win. It seems that to them, subscribing to feminism would be as good as admitting that they can't succeed in this world. My women friends think they're stronger than that. Perhaps they want into the boys club, and so don't want to dismantle it. They fail to see that the feminist struggle isn't about reversing who's wearing the boot that sits on the neck of the oppressed, but about changing the picture altogether. The man who beats his wife to assert his masculinity has nearly as much to gain from feminism as the woman who will be freed from his fists.<BR/>How do we reach people who share Wasserstein's perspective on feminism? How do we break down the defenses around what they see as their individual power? <BR/>What's the counter-point play that UCLA could stage and have talk-forwards about?Advocatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13662799359367064781noreply@blogger.com