Why the “Signifier/Signified” concept is irrelevant to women

In structuralism, the signifier/signified concept is core to what theorists like Ferdinand de Saussure believed in. I think it can be applied to how women are oppressed in society. Let’s take the idea of chastity for example. My church, the Roman Catholic church, puts an extremely strong emphasis on people to be chaste before marriage. For women, chastity is rewarded and belief of not being chaste is punished severely as honour killings highlight. The signifier, in this case, the patriarchal societies that enforce chastity like the Roman Catholic church, ensure that the signified, women must subscribe to chastity et al.

According to this site, “ The thing signified is created in the perceiver and is internal to them”. Patriarchal societies like African and Middle Eastern ones that emphasise the importance of tradition thus create the neurosis of the signified, which in this case is the woman. Societies that emphasise the importance of a woman being a virgin and women working in “domain”, the kitchen, put women as the signified in an ambivalent position — why can’t women be the in position of power as the signifier ?

Jacques Lacan, the eminent structuralist thinker came up with the idea of the Symbolic. In his eyes, the Symbolic was the arena where social structures were created and notably, where the signifier was produced. It is also the order where sexual desires are repressed, according to this book. Women cannot exist as equal creatures in this Lacanian Symbolic simply because if we assert that women are the signified, how can they understand what it feels like or moreover, how can they enjoy the privileges of being the signifier ? Repression of sexual desires too denotes an emphasis on the heterosexual male experience of sexuality since women are seen to be the vessels in which repressed hetero desire is channelled and released.

I think womanhood operates in binary positions like “signifier/signified” because that is how humankind has conditioned itself to believe that there are men and women and that men oppress women. Women must strive to find relevant theories and lifestyles that ensure that oppression is at least decreased. The question is, even if we think structuralism is irrelevant, how can we argue that any theory from the canon of philosophy really is relevant when they such as structuralism, modernism, post-modernism have all overwhelmingly been created from the standpoint of privilege (white, hetero, male).

-Next topic: Is queer theory an apt ideology for hetero (black/asian) women ?

Gary Dourdan arrested for drugs!

(image @ msn.co.uk)

Father-Daughter Incest: Man in Austria locked daughter in cellar for 24 years

This story has to be one of the most horrific news stories for a very long time. A man in Austria imprisoned his daughter in a cellar for 24 years. He raped her and she bore 7 of his children, one of whom died.

“Honour Killing”: Iraqi girl murdered for falling in love

The headline shocked me when I heard about it. The Observer is reporting of a “honour killing” that happened where a young Iraqi girl was murdered by her father for falling in love with a British soldier in Basra.

Natural Hair Photographs!

So for once, I can show some photographs of hair progress! Here are a few photos of what my hair looks like @ the moment. Please tell me what you think of my Afro and any advice to make it grow. Pictures after the finishing line!

Under the Microscope: Graduate Media Salaries in the UK

In a previous post of mine, I was discussing the ethics of unpaid work experience interns. I then read this illuminating article on the G that featured award-winning journalist Johann Hari from the Independent. Hari commented that he earned £9,000 a year as a part-time worker @ the New Statesman. He could only afford this job due to the fact that he was still kotching with his parents in London! This figure of £9,000 is £1,000 lower than that figure I mentioned in my previous post. So on average, how do media salaries for graduates in the UK look like ?

News: An All Black Issue of V-O-G-U-E ?

According to threadtrend, Italian Vogue shall be featuring an all black model issue of Vogue magazine. I truly wonder what this is going to look like. Many of the fashion boards are already barking with people complaining that Asian models are underrepresented in fashion too and that this diversity issue should feature all models. Hello!! When will these people who have their head in the sand realise that that line of thinking is so myopic! I agree that Asian models are underrepresented but the situation with black models is dire. Quite frankly, I am pleased that they are trying to tackle the issue of lack of diversity in fashion via magazine editorials since magazines really do account for a lot of how fashion is digested. However, British Vogue had no black, asian or ethnic minority models at all in any of its 2007 covers. None of the 12 covers. None. That is shameful. Just shameful. If you proclaim to be a magazine for all women, why not include black & asian women too ? Anyway, when I get my hands of Italian Vogue, I will get the scans up on the blog. I am eagerly anticipating which models will be there (I *love* the Kenyan tower that is Ajuma so I hope she is in there). At least some black models will be getting some work. The editorials in Italian Vogue are always great too.

Post-modernism & Postcolonial theory: Diluting “Black Culture”

Can black people subscribe to the ethos of post-modernism? Assuming we even all have the same descriptions of post-modernism anyway ? Is it a fair theory to use to describe the situations affecting the black medium of culture even though it did not originate out of black critical theory ? According to the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, “it can be described as a set of critical, strategic and rhetorical practices employing concepts such as difference, repetition, the trace, … and hyperreality to destabilize other concepts such as presence, identity,… and the univocity of meaning.” Postcolonial theory on the other hand seeks to recapture the essence of the colonial soul and instil the real meaning of identity and power back into the colonial soul. The royalty of postcolonial theory include my favourite theorist Frantz Fanon, Homi Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak. I will discuss a few issues relating to the locomotive of black culture within the frames of both theories to see which one can truly dissect the diasporan “black culture” and what futures black culture has under both.

Black Girls in Magazines: Liya Kebede in Harper’s Bazaar (May 2008)

Under the Microscope: Advertising

(image @ kareem black photography)