Colorism and Beloved

When Denver goes to ask Lady Jones for help. Toni Morrison reveals that Lady Jones dislikes her light complexion and blond hair. Her features, at the time, could only be accomplished by rape.  Her features are a constant reminder of what everyone in her community ran away from. In that way, she feels alienated from her community

Today, the black women that society deems "most beautiful"  have the same features that Lady Jones has. This is because are visually closer to what society deems as true beauty, whiteness. While light skin women during Lady Jones' and now feel isolated from the black community, they benefit from their features in both black and non-black spaces. Within the black community, colorism (prejudice against those of a darker skin tone, typically among people of the same race) runs rapidly. Light skin black women are viewed as more docile and feminine. Conversely, dark skin black women are seen as rough and masculine. Because of this, light skin black women are more acceptable and "wife-able" in a society where marriage is the only goal women should. 

I understand that Toni Morrison was trying to get at a particular point by talking about Lady Morrison's light complexion. I which that she would have also included the struggle that dark skin black women in the novel because it is a very important part of our history.

Pirates of the Caribbean and Orientalism

While the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is one of my favorites, and my sister and I love watching Jack Sparrow fumble around during dramatic battle scenes, upon learning about orientalism I recognized some problematic scenes and characters in the series. These problems come to mind, specifically, with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and its character, Sao Fen, as well as its fight scene which takes place in Singapore.
The scene in Singapore opens with two white characters cautiously entering the dangerous Sao Fen's bathhouse and finding their white friend being basically tortured by Sao Fen's entirely Asian crew. This sets off a giant fight scene which rages throughout the bathhouse and out into the streets, where people fight with guns, swords, and even fireworks. Opening right away picturing the heroes as white and the bad guys as Asian immediately gives the audience opposing feelings toward Asia (because most of the audience probably didn't really care that it was specifically set in Singapore). Then, portraying them as violent, but in a comical way (using "typical" fireworks to fight rather than guns [which the Chinese invented by the way]) gives white people a sense of superiority, because they are "bad guys", but bad at it.
Additionally, Sao Fen is portrayed with a long mustache and scars all over his face and tattoos. This fulfills the stereotypical mystery aspect required for "the Orient". Then, later in the movie, he is shown trying to rape the white heroine, not only playing into racial stereotypes, but gender stereotypes as well, pitting the aggressive, non-white man against the fragile, white woman.

Orientalism

In today's society an orientalist mindset is common. I think that the binary and power dynamic of Us vs them is natural no matter where you live. It is natural to consider your social group the superior one. Thus, without a good understanding of the "east" or the "other" in any instance-without mutual recognition- misunderstanding, even injustice, takes place. For instance, I have never been east of the east coast of the United States and for most Americans the "east" isn't as popular a travel destination as Europe or other states. This allows the media to take advantage of people's lack of knowledge and create entertainment that feeds off of people's willingness to believe that they are the "normal" or the "civilized." Movies such as Aladdin and Doctor Strange present the "east" as a mystery, as a place with unique powers only used for good when a western hero arrives.

I think that "The God of Small Things" is written for a "western" audience to create mutual recognition and empathy with the experiences of those of a different culture. However, I think that it also emphasizes the injustices that people everywhere are familiar with. Issues of social class, police brutality, and domestic abuse force the reader to consider classism, racism and sexism, mostly from the innocent point of view of children. Roy says in the "The God of Small Things", "[the violence of the police was] impelled by feelings that were primal yet paradoxically impersonal. Feelings of contempt born of inchoate, unacknowledged fear- civilization's fear of nature, men's fear of women, power's fear of powerlessness." These fears are seen in every society, but manifest themselves in different ways. I think by understanding this we can take a step away from the orientalist mindset.

My Fair Lady

I think that very few comedies can be considered meaningful. In fact, the meaning in comedies is not apparent or easily found. The reader or viewer must be intentional in their search. For instance, I easily enjoyed reading the "original" comedy, Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, but once I finished I just as easily forgot the novel due to its lack of obvious meaning and importance, like that found in tragedies such as King Lear.

Nevertheless, I think there is something to be said about the humor and love stories of Jane Austen's novels and some of Shakespeare's plays such as "Twelfth Night", "As You Like It", and "The Taming of the Shrew". By crafting humor with irony and contrasting it with the seriousness of love, readers can take these works seriously and not just as entertainment for women. These comedies are the exception, though, as many more modern comedies use too little irony and satire for their humor and more ridiculous or extreme circumstances to convey a love story thus making the work less meaningful.

For example, the popular romantic musical "My Fair Lady," taken from the play "Pygmalion" by George Shaw, has many situational similarities to Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" though the characters are a little different. "My Fair Lady" is clearly a comedy as Aristotle defined it. The heroine (Eliza Doolittle) is a young women clearly of a low class due to her unclean clothes and accented, harsh speech. A somewhat abusive man takes on the challenge of transforming her into a lady and the sympathetic heroine rises in fortune through her new knowledge of what it means to be proper and her relationship with the man. This musical enhances the viewers understanding of love as something that can overcome the oftentimes ridiculousness of social classes. Furthermore, it emphasizes how love develops in the wake of prejudices such as sexism and misogyny. This musical is one example of a meaningful romantic comedy that should not be dismissed as trivial.

Sexism in Poetry

Poetry emerged in western society as language matured and intellectuals rose above the laity of everyday life. Poetry was originally used to describe beauty and utilized elaborate rhyme schemes and poetic devises to achieve such a goal. At this point in history poets were men, and as such the subject of their poems tended to be women or love as was seen in sonnets from 17th and 18th centuries. Later as metaphysical poems gained popularity, the tone of the poems shifted from love to lust as men used beautiful conceits to try to attract the attention and sexual favors of women. However the sweet sentiment of the victorian sonnets did not transfer to the metaphysical poems which have a purpose to seduce rather woo.

This language of seduction is seen in lines like, "My vegetable love should grow / Vaster than empire, and more slow" (11-12) from Andrew Marvell's To his Coy Mistress. These are two generic examples of the beautiful examples used by poets to attempt to display the love they hold for certain women. However when this love is unrequited or refuted the tone changes to scrutiny as seen in Marvell's writing, "then worms shall try / That long preserv'd virginity, / And your quaint honor turn to dust, and into ash all my lust" (27-30). This statement is sexist is multiple ways, on the surface because the speaker shames his "love" for not giving her virginity to him, instead of accepting her choice. Additionally he claims that his lust will turn to ash, but he never acknowledges his audiences possible lust or the societal constraints holding his audience back from achieving her love.

There are similar instances of sexism, particularly unrequited love being met with shame and degrading insult, through out metaphysical poetry. One that I find especially interesting is in A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning by Johne Donne. It exhibits instances of sincere love, "But we by a love so much refined, / That ourselves know not what it is, / Inter-assured of the mind, / Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss." (17-20), however it also has sexist trappings, unlike those seen in most metaphysical poetry. This poem states that sincere love can surpass physical distances, however it simply accepts that the man must travel while the woman is left at home to pin for her absent partner.

Both of these poems demonstrate sexist ideas from the time they were written, some more bluntly than others, however this does not mean the poems should be avoided or their ideas danced around. It is important to read such works of literature to better understand the history of the time periods they are from. And although they're meanings or phrases can be offensive it does not make the language any less beautiful or sincere. I believe writings such as these should continue to be taught with the asterisks of the time period they are from and the time period we are in.