Dealing with Disturbing Films

What follows is a discussion of how to deal with the discomfort some
students experience when watching certain films.  The discussion
took place on WMST-L in February 2001.  Among the films mentioned
are several by Spike Lee and also "Boys Don't Cry." 
Of related interest may be two earlier discussions entitled
Dealing with Sensitive Subjects in Class. and Sensitive Subjects II.  
For additional WMST-L files now available on the Web, see the
WMST-L File Collection.

I teach a humanities-based intro to Women's Studies course, and I've
encountered student discomfort to course material.  I'm wondering if any of
you could share similar experiences or point me to helpful resources.

Watching Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It and the rape scene it portrays is
something I assigned not without some anxiety, but it's only this semester
that I'm finding that one or two students have said that they don't want to
watch it.  One student is quite eloquent in saying that the essay by bell
hooks on the film (students are reading it along w/watching the film for an
upcoming class) has persuaded her that she shouldn't watch the film and
participate in the violence it depicts or expose herself to it.  I'm
looking for strategies for how to handle this, be respectful, yet also open
up dialogue on the issue, etc.

Do any of you have experience with teaching She's Gotta Have It?  Any
suggestions/resources about the sensitive issues surrounding rape and
representations of it in popular culture ?

Thanks--Please respond privately (and I'll happily compile responses and
post them later)


Rebecca Walsh
Department of English
and
Women's Studies Program
UW-Madison
rawalsh  @  facstaff.wisc.edu

In a message dated 2/18/01 12:01:44 AM Eastern Standard Time,
LISTSERV  @  UMDD.UMD.EDU writes:

<<  Do any of you have experience with teaching She's Gotta Have It?  Any
 suggestions/resources about the sensitive issues surrounding rape and
 representations of it in popular culture ? >>

First on the subject of Spike Lee films in general. I teach a course in
gender and media.
I had trouble last semester with students who felt that, and I quote, "it's
inappropriate to show this film in class." I teach two sections, so I showed
one section _Do The Right Thing_ and the other _School Daze_ (though many
recommended _Higher Learning_...not by Spike). Near the end of the semester,
I realized that NONE of the films I had shown during the semester had ANY
black people in them. So, I chose rectify this definicency (since our book is
called _Gender, RACE, and Class_). I was villified by many students who felt
that movies about black people, especially ones with an obvious "political"
agenda like _Do the Right Thing_ had no place in a class about gender. I
guess for those students black people have no gender. I was also told that
these films were made with black people and FOR black people. That was really
funny. Because of this wonderful controversy, I have decided to make movies
with predominately black casts a regular feature of my course.

On the other subject, because of the nature of my course, we deal with
depictions of rape. Sometimes, too many. I have to respect students' feelings
about viewing scenes of graphic violence. I don't badger or attempt to coerce
them to remain in the room and watch these scenes if they are opposed to it.
I give them advance warnings of these scenes and then give them a break, so
that these students may slip away surreptiously.

However, I argue that it's important for us to not refuse to view anything if
we are going to be critics of media. In fact the uglier the media, the more
deserving it is of our attention. I can see a valid argument made against
buying, say, _The Marshall Mathers LP_ or the Abercrombie and Fitch catalog,
or an issue of _Hustler_  magazine so as to not provide support for these
industries while at the same time not just critical of them but possible
totally opposed to them. However, I don't think this extends to watching of a
rented video. Spike Lee doesn't see any money from the student's viewing of
the movie and if the department owns the movie, then money was already paid
to Spike for the film, and the student's watching of it still in no way
financially supports the viewing of it.

I even argue that there's no way to study popular culture and have it given
to you. Eminem is not going to give me a copy of his CD so I can blast him to
shreds in some academic journal that he would just mock. Unfortunately,
there's no way to do a critical study of these things without someone buying
them. And I think critical study is needed of these cultural artifacts.

I think education is a free choice thing, and we instructors should
appreciate this as much as possible. If the class were called "Studies in
Media depictions of Rape," then a student's refusal to view this media would
be unacceptable as it would involve a complete lack of participation in the
course. But for isolated parts of a course, I think we need to respect the
needs for students to choose not to participate.

However, if everyone preferred to look away and to NOT study these depictions
of rape, then our culture would be all the poorer for it. There's nothing to
be gained from sticking our heads in the sand.

peace
chris tower

Chris writes:

> Near the end of the semester,
> I realized that NONE of the films I had shown during the semester had ANY
> black people in them. So, I chose rectify this definicency (since our book is
> called _Gender, RACE, and Class_). I was villified by many students who felt
> that movies about black people, especially ones with an obvious "political"
> agenda like _Do the Right Thing_ had no place in a class about gender. I
> guess for those students black people have no gender.

Interesting discussion. I'm a Spike Lee fan, and I think this class's
reaction sounds pretty darn racist. However,  wouldn't it be good to also
show a film by a black female director, to underline the point that gender
and race are intersecting categories and "black people have gender"?  One
black male voice shouldn't monopolize the discourse on blackness and gender.

On another note, I wonder in general if students are as disturbed by rape
scenes in films directed by women (are there any?) and/or in films that are
sensitized to the potential power-relationship between the (Hollywood style)
camera eye and the female body. Is it rape scenes as such or the point of
view that disturbs?

Leah Ulansey
Maryland Inst. C. of Art
leahu  @  earthlink.net

I'd like to caution against making generalizations about students' need
to watch films with rape scenes or other disturbing material. Of course
it's important to be critical consumers of the media, but, for a variety
of reasons, not all folks are able watch this stuff, nor do they need to
in order to be savvy critics.

When I show the Sut Jhally video Dream Worlds II, I distribute and read
the following message to the class:

Today we will see the video DREAMWORLDS II about images of women in rock
videos and their relationship to real incidents of sexual violence
against women. The video is disturbing because of the very nature of the
subject matter it addresses. Included in the video are scenes of a rape
from the movie The Accused.

I think this is a very valuable and thoughtful educational video with a
message that is important for all of us to consider, but, at the same
time, I understand that some viewers may find it too painful to watch,
either because of violence that they themselves have experienced or that
persons they know and love may have experienced.

Therefore, I urge you to be sensitive to your own needs and to leave the
room at any time if you find it too difficult to continue watching.

If you have been sexually abused or assaulted, you may find that viewing
any portion of the video and discussing its issues trigger painful
memories or even depression. Do not hesitate for a minute to seek help
dealing with this great pain. If you find yourself overwhelmed with
feelings, take one or more of the following actions:

 Call a trusted family member.
 Call a trusted friend.
 Talk with a trusted mentor or teacher on campus.
[Then I list half a dozen phone numbers for local hotlines and crisis
centers]

I don't think we should shrink from dealing with controversial material,
but I do think we need to allow for the wide variety of experience and
sensitivity our students bring to the classroom.

on 2/18/01 8:30 PM, Kari McBride at kari  @  EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU wrote:

> I'd like to caution against making generalizations about students' need
> to watch films with rape scenes or other disturbing material. Of course
> it's important to be critical consumers of the media, but, for a variety
> of reasons, not all folks are able watch this stuff, nor do they need to
> in order to be savvy critics.

For additional discussion of relevant issues, see

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~n51ls801/hrosqwsh.html

David.
--
David F. Austin
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~n51ls801/homepage.html
http://courses.ncsu.edu/phi340/lec/001/wrap/ [NCSU only]
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Department of Philosophy and Religion
Box 8103
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC  27695-8103
(919) 515-6333
FAX (office): 919-513-4351
Winston Hall 006
David_Austin  @  ncsu.edu
Harassment Resolution Officer
NCSU Harassment Prevention Policy:
http://www.ncsu.edu/equal_op/harassment/HROs.html

I include Spike Lee's film "School Daze" in my course, Black
Body, Dress and Culture. I assign the essay of the same name by
Toni Cade Bambara to accompany the discussion (Deep Sightings and
Rescue Missions: Fictions, Essays and Conversations, Pantheon
Books, 1996). I think Bambara did a good job in bringing out the
problematic aspects of the film, such as sexism, masculinism and
homophobia, as well as the metaphorical elements of the film that
relate to black-U.S. history and popular culture.

I engage a class discussion as follows:

A gender analysis of skin colorism and issues around (black)
hair. Intra-racial tensions, class and caste.

Stereotypical and negative attitudes regarding Africa among black
Americans.

Analysis of black womanhood as portrayed in the Jigaboo/Wannabe
dichotomy and the presentation of femininity, beauty and
womanhood and issues around female rivalry and sisterhood.

The presentation of masculinity and manhood and issues around
sexism and heterosexism.

Dress and adornment behavior, body image, identity and corporeal
practices.

Since many/most of the students have seen School Daze (since it
is considered to be a classic) as entertainment for the most
part, they enjoy a re-reading within an academic setting and
often quite pleased at how they develop a critical eye as a
result.  Of course, many already bring a critique of the
superficial treatment of women and the sexism and masculinism
that dominate the film.

Beti Ellerson
Department of Art
Howard University
Washington DC USA

bellerson  @  fac.howard.edu

I am shortly to be teaching Boys Don't Cry, and I expect some
degree of student discomfort.  Does anyone with experience of
teaching this film have any helpful comments with regard to useful
articles to read or techniques to use?  Please respond privately.

Cheryl Stobie
stobiec  @  nu.ac.za  

I'd like to caution, too, about assuming that we always anticipate what our
students will find disturbing. When teaching Introduction to Women's
Studies, I used to assume that the classes on topics like rape, abortion,
and compulsory heterosexuality would be the most difficult for students and
for me. Recently, however, transgendered students and colleagues have told
me that they find particularly challenging the customary early discussions
of the social construction of gender and the relationship between gender
and sex. Their comments have pushed me to present these ideas differently,
using Anne Fausto-Sterling, Judith Butler, and others to trouble what often
seem like fundamental tenets of Women's Studies.

Jessica Fields

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

Jessica Fields
Sociology, UNC-CH
jfields  @  email.unc.edu

Christopher Tower wrote:

> First on the subject of Spike Lee films in general. I teach a course in
> gender and media.
> I had trouble last semester with students who felt that, and I quote, "it's
> inappropriate to show this film in class." I teach two sections, so I showed
> one section _Do The Right Thing_ and the other _School Daze_ (though many
> recommended _Higher Learning_...not by Spike). Near the end of the semester,
> I realized that NONE of the films I had shown during the semester had ANY
> black people in them. So, I chose rectify this definicency (since our book is
> called _Gender, RACE, and Class_). I was villified by many students who felt
> that movies about black people, especially ones with an obvious "political"
> agenda like _Do the Right Thing_ had no place in a class about gender. I
> guess for those students black people have no gender.

A Spike Lee film that would be totally appropriate for looking at the
intersections of race and gender is _Get On the Bus_, about a group of
African-American men on a bus ride from Southern California to Washington
DC for the Million Man March. I think it's one of his most
under-appreciated films, and does an outstanding job of raising race,
gender AND class issues, albeit from a men's point of view.

Re Rebecca Walsh's original question about teaching _She's Gotta Have
It_: I've never taught the film, but I think it handles the rape scene
well--it's not, as I recall, even slightly titillating, as so many
filmed rape scenes tend to be. However, I haven't read the bel hooks
essay either, so I'm not familiar with her arguments against the film.
Could someone provide a complete citation for the essay?

Judith

Judith Poxon
poxon  @  saclink.csus.edu

Reply-To: Women's Studies List <WMST-L  @  UMDD.UMD.EDU>
To: WMST-L  @  UMDD.UMD.EDU

Jessica Fields wrote:  "Their [transgendered people's] comments have pushed
me to present these ideas differently, using Anne Fausto-Sterling, Judith
Butler, and others to trouble what often seem like fundamental tenets of
Women's Studies."

Could you please clarify what these "fundamental tenets" are and what you
mean by "troubling" them?  Thank you.

DP

---------------------------------
daphne.patai  @  spanport.umass.edu

I thought about responding privately, but I felt this needed to go
out to every one -

Cheryl, I am curious as to why you chose to use this film,
especially when there is a more truthful documentary film based on
the same event available - The Brandon Teena Story. In the "fiction
based on a true story" version (i.e. Boys Don't Cry), many of the
facts were distorted or blatantly ignored (e.g. existence of the
third - and only Black - victim, Tom Nissen's involvement in white
supremacy group). It also contains the most objectifying depiction
of rape that I've seen on screen in a while.

Of course rape scenes are by definition objectifying, but this
particular one forces the audience to identify with the rapists'
gaze as they strip Brandon, for which viewers are excused on the
premise that they are concerned about the violence against trans
people and therefore they want to know more. It shivered me when I
overheard a man talking to his female partner "it was like a porn
film, ha ha," as he walked passed me outside of the theatre, where I
was trying to calm myself down so that I wouldn't throw up - but
later, I realized how true that was.

If you absolutely must use this film, however, the most common
complaint from transsexual men (along with the exoticization/
eroticization of trans existence) is that so many non-trans people
who saw the film wanted to talk to them about it. One practical
advice you could give is to ask them why they need to talk to trans
people about the film or the murder, and make sure that it's not
because you are merely curious or because you want to show how
compassionate you are. My friend Micah (a transman whose work will
appear in the upcoming anthology on intersex and trans feminisms
which I co-edit) wrote:

"The Boys Don't Cry Syndrome: Since this movie came out, many many
people have taken it upon themselves to discuss it at length with
me, ask me if I've seen it, explain how tragic it was and how hard
it was for them to watch as a non-trans person. This is sort of the
equivalent of coming up to me and saying 'Hey, you're a Jew! Have
you seen the latest movie about the Holocaust? Well, let me tell
you, I'm Very Interested in this subject, and boy was it hard for me
to watch all those people get killed.' It IS really important for
people to educate themselves about different experiences of
oppression. However, someone who has to deal with that oppression
all the time may not want to hear about it, or process how hard it
was for you, as someone not directly affected by it. Check yourself
before you bring up the ten latest, most horrifying transphobic
things you heard yesterday, which your trans friend may actually not
want to re-experience with you." (from _Timtum: A Trans Jew Zine_ by
Micah Bazant)


Emi Koyama <emi  @  survivorproject.org>

--
http://eminism.org/ * Putting the Emi back in Feminism since 1975.

Hi.  I've been reading this thread with some interest.  In some courses
(film study classes) a group screening may be necessary as part of the
content of the discussion.  But in many other situations it's not as
apparent that a group watching experience is vital to the activity/content
of a class.  Using films supplementally rather than as primary texts might
permit the instructor more easily to offer students choices, between
different films, or perhaps between a film or films and other texts.  This
would conceivably enrich class discussion.
Even if only a single film will do, perhaps some students would appreciate
the flexibility of seeing the film privately, and under their own control
(even, if they wish, to fast forward past some scenes, or stop watching,
just as they can read a novel when and how they like as they prepare for
class).   At my institution, films can be placed on reserve just as books
or journals can.

JoAnn Castagna
joann-castagna  @  uiowa.edu

The documentary is really good. We used them both and talked about
the reasons for the differences between the film and the documentary.

In the documentary, people interviewed talk openly about "Othering" 
and how it is related to violence, the role that homophobic
harassment by the killers' friends, as well as the police, played
in contributing to the murder, as well as the other differences Emi
described.

Molly Dragiewicz
Women's Studies and Cultural Studies
George Mason University

mdragiew  @  gmu.edu

By "fundamental tenet," I was referring to the notion, put simply, that sex
= a biological reality, and gender = the social meaning we attach to that
reality. This idea suggests that gender is mutable: for example, we don't
have to make the same sense of female bodies, or it could mean something
else to occupy a male body. This idea doesn't allow as easily the
possibility that what we often take to be biological realities are also
social.

I now use Fausto-Sterling and Butler in my courses to explore this
possibility. Students and I "trouble" the idea of biological sex by
discussing the social investment in (and consequences of) sorting bodies
into two categories and by exploring the ways in which those categories, in
addition to governing bodies, might actually produce those bodies. In
addition, then, to exploring the social construction of gender, we explore
the social construction of bodies.

Jessica

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

Jessica Fields
Sociology, UNC-Chapel Hill
jfields  @  email.unc.edu

--On Monday, February 19, 2001, 11:43 AM -0500 Daphne Patai
<daphne.patai  @  SPANPORT.UMASS.EDU> wrote:

> Jessica Fields wrote:  "Their [transgendered people's] comments have
> pushed me to present these ideas differently, using Anne Fausto-Sterling,
> Judith Butler, and others to trouble what often seem like fundamental
> tenets of Women's Studies."
>
> Could you please clarify what these "fundamental tenets" are and what you
> mean by "troubling" them?  Thank you.

judith poxon wrote:

>A Spike Lee film that would be totally appropriate for looking at the
>intersections of race and gender is _Get On the Bus_, about a group of
>African-American men on a bus ride from Southern California to Washington
>DC for the Million Man March. I think it's one of his most
>under-appreciated films, and does an outstanding job of raising race,
>gender AND class issues, albeit from a men's point of view.

if i might climb on this bandwagon, another stunning piece of work of his
that rarely is seen or discussed is "4 Little Girls," a 1997 documentary
about the 4 girls killed in the birmingham church bombing.  i can't
recommend it enough, and although i am of the school that finds his work
lacking at times when it comes to gender, class and sexuality, this film
exhibits an unusually light touch, permitting the subjects of the film to
go at some of those matters in their own way, without interference from the
filmmaker.

kass fleisher


~~~~~~~~~

kass.fleisher  @  colorado.edu
links to online publications available at:
http://spot.colorado.edu/~fleisher

Hi Emi

The context of my class is different from what you imagine, I
think.  I live in a small town in South Africa, where the level of
discourse differs from the USA.  Boys Don't Cry is a text which is,
however, readily available at video stores, and for this reason I
have chosen to analyse it in my Gender Studies class.  I have
compiled a file of critiques of the film, and intend to discuss
aspects, including the race aspect, which are problematic.

Cheryl

Cheryl Stobie
StobieC  @  nu.ac.za 

I teach first-year composition and experienced some resistance last fall
from students uncomfortable with the content of a film by John Waters,
called "Pecker" (not what you think), because of two scenes in a gay and
lesbian strip club. The unit was on place, identity, and the politics of
representation (with special attention to photography and images of "the
family").

You can read the listserv thread and paper topic that came out of this
conflict at http://www.westga.edu/~ljohnson/pecker.html

I asked students to consider how discomfort works, how it measures the
distance between their comfort zones and the movie's challenge to those
zones, specifically in terms of the feminist debate over the
public/private split, an issue the movie thematizes with great lines
like "Pubic hair causes crime." Asking what we've been taught is
"appropriate" to view in public, or as one student said, "in mixed
company," what we've been taught to avert our eyes from, who defines
what is visible/invisible, etc.

Lisa Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Visiting Assistant Professor
Dept. of English & Philosophy
State University of West Georgia
Carrollton, GA 30118
ljohnson  @  westga.edu
**********************************************
"An essay is my way of pursuing an elusive intuition into the forest of
what I cannot yet understand."

Alicia Ostriker, _Dancing at the Devil's Party: Essays on Poetry,
Politics, & the Erotic_

****************************

Thanks to all who contributed to the discussion of teaching this film,
other material like it, and the issues that come up when course texts
present images that will be difficult for some students to process.  I post
below some bibl info for readings that analyze She's Gotta Have It, as well
as helpful readings suggested to me that address media re-traumatization of
survivors of violence.

A few people wanted the citation for the bell hooks essay on Spike Lee's
She's Gotta Have It:  "whose pussy is this" (In her  _talking back_,
1989).  There's also an essay on the film by Felly Nkweto Simmonds in the
edited collection _Imagining Women: Cultural Representations and Gender_
(ed Frances Bonner, Lizbeth Goodman, et al, 1992) that I've found useful
for my own supplementary reading, makes a similar argument to hooks'.  I've
also read an essay by Henry Louis Gates  and one by Amiri Baraka, who both
find the treatment of Nola's sexuality and her "near rape" (as she puts it
in the film) to be more sympathetically portrayed and critical of the male
character who does it, but I don't have the citations on hand. I think that
one of these is in _Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film_,
Temple UP, 1993, ed by Guerrero.

I typically teach this film to highlight the interlocking nature of gender,
race, class, and sexuality, and teach it alongside clips from other films
like How Stella Got Her Groove Back as well as Foxy Brown/Jackie Brown
(this allows students to see how these films depict strong black female
characters, and their sexuality, alongside supposedly "breakthrough" tough
girl films like Aliens).  Other readings I use come from Sherrie Inness'
recent book Tough Girls: Women Warriors and Wonder Women in Popular
Culture, whose essays sometimes point to the lack of diversity in the texts
she analyzes, but unfortunately largely focuses on recent film/tv featuring
white women.

I agree with one of the respondents to my inquiry that Lee's film doesn't
titillate the viewers with the rape scene in the way that some films do,
yet I think hooks' argument about that rape as a form of patriarchal
control of female sexuality, and black female sexuality in particular, is
pretty compelling. She focuses both on how the central character, Nola, is
made to view it as "near rape" instead of having a full realization of her
violation, and on how the reviewers of the film don't even recognize that
it depicts date rape.  hooks makes a good case that while the movie is
supposedly from a woman's perspective (I think of this possibility ala the
Penelope chapter in Joyce's Ulysses) it in fact depicts the main character
as a blank slate or cypher; depth lies in the male perspective, however
deconstructed by the film.

Here are a few private responses that were extremely helpful to me that I
wanted to forward to you all.  They're all from Leah Ulansey.

  Sometimes you just can't meet
the needs of all students at once. If I were you, I'd show the film and
discuss it both on its own merits and in terms of the controversial things
your student objects to -- I'm guessing she (and hooks?) assess the film to
be unconsciously complicit in a violence it seeks to denounce. The less
sensitive students probably won't have such objections and they have a right
to see and discuss the movie.
If you want to go a step further on behalf of your student who does object,
you could "not just tolerate but celebrate" her decision to remove herself
from something that could re-traumatize her. In other words, help her feel
good about her decision. You could tell her that Catherine MacKinnon and
others have recognized that our culture routinely re-traumatizes survivors
of violent trauma (ie., it's not all in her head).  Judith Herman discusses
this in *Trauma and Recovery* which traces parallels between the PTSD
experienced across gender lines by shell shocked war veterans, rape and
incest survivors and domestic violence victims. Hermann points out that in
order to recover, survivors of violent trauma need to hear from their
culture that the violence they experienced was an aberration from the
cultural norm. Unfortunately, survivors learn instead that the violence is
not an aberration and this makes recovery slower and more difficult.
One final thing you could do is that, if your student chooses to skip the
film, you could point out that this is a loss to the class as a whole: her
voice will be missing from the analysis because the necessary conditions for
her participation were not met. In other words, we--the witnesses
violence--suffer too.
Leah Ulansey
Maryland Inst. C. of Art
leahu  @  earthlink.net

Herman's Trauma and Recovery (HarperCollins, 1997) contains a third
chapter ("Disconnection") with a section on "the role of the community"
(starts on p. 70) that gave me a lot to think about.
Yes, feel free to post my response to the list.

One more recommendation for a quick but thought-provoking read
on "re-traumatization" as a cultural phenomenon: Emilie Morgan, "Don't Call
Me a Survivor" in *Listen Up* (Seal Press, Barbara Findlen, Ed.) It's a
subjective, first-hand account; students will have to tease out the
objective implications.


Rebecca Walsh
Department of English
and
Women's Studies Program
UW-Madison
rawalsh  @  facstaff.wisc.edu

To me, the worst thing about "Boys Don't Cry" is when the Brandon Teena
character says, "This is my fault," to the two men who had just raped her.

I realize it is something someone might say in hopes of talking their
rapists out of killing them. Even so, it perpetuates the stereotype that a
rape victim only gets what they deserve.  Especially when the tactic
didn't work, and she was later brutally murdered by the rapists.

8-/

Betty
________________________________________
Betty J. Glass, Humanities Bibliographer
University Library/322
University of Nevada, Reno
1664 N. Virginia St.
Reno, NV  89557-0044

(775) 784-6500 ext. 303
(775) 784-1751 (fax)

glass  @  unr.edu