Sexism at Rocky

[jrising]

Elaina is quitting the show for a variety of reasons, but the relevant one is sexism at Rocky. She convinced me that the problem is extensive, but I don't know how to respect those concerns and still encourage the individual creative talents and sexualities of our members and the boundary-pushing of the show. But I think we can find a way, and enjoy our work better for reaching for it.

Sexism has become a party-crashing term. People worry that if they acknowledge it, it will make every decision more difficult and force us to be more conservative. It shouldn't. Sexism itself-- the faulty societally-ingrained role preconceptions we have-- is inherently incredibly conservative and creativity-blocking. By harboring it, we cripple the sexual and individual potential of our members.

I think that the best solution to the sexism problem has to do with promoting an attitude at the show, not by making rules, and I think we can do it, because we're strong, freely-sexual people who want to promote sexual equality. This attitude would be characterized by honest recognition of how our actions and shows play out sexual stereotypes, and the constant search for what's beyond them.

One aspect of this attitude might be that men at Rocky would be encouraged (expected) to put themselves on sexual display as much as women. It will make us better men. Another is that we should consider the sexism-jostling potential of our preshows. We can get more out of challenging our audience than playing to its fantasies.

Next week: How to get the most out of a rape fantasy...

Comments

[just-al.livejournal.com]

First of all.. if you think the preshows lean heavily towards provocatively attired women it's because that is what people write. Not just the men but the women write them too. Also, our audience seems to like the preshows with sexily dressed women and the cast likes applause so you'll probably see more.

Next time you go to the show, take a walk up and down the line outside and see how the audience is dressed. You are going to see a lot of women dressed in a way that may lend itself to the belief that they are being objectified, but in reality they've finally found a place where they can let their hair down and feel attractive.

I did the show for a very long time, I even directed for almost 5 years. We put men who were nice to look at up on stage to be looked at. Hell, I even threw a hint as to what might be in the Rocky audition towards Jim Allen because he was CHISELED OUT OF MARBLE and had to be on MY STAGE.

Rocky is about being uninhibited in the face of society's conventions. Some of that may appear sexist but to find any of the goings on sexist is to allow yourself to not step away from polite society and give in to the hedonism and self expression that most people come to rocky for. Seriously, look at the audience and see how much they enjoy how freaky it is at the Rocky Horror Picture Show. If you don't get why they are there and why they are having a good time, you just don't get it.

[jrising.livejournal.com]

That's the way I was thinking about it before, but I'm convinced that the expectations go deeper than that. If men are such boiling vats of sexual desire, and if Rocky is a place to let that all out, why is it mostly the women who are letting it out?

It's great that people can display themselves at Rocky and be appreciated for it, and feel attractive for themselves and make other people happy. But it's expected that most of the people doing that will be women.

[just-al.livejournal.com]

When I directed, I encouraged men as well as women on this front. I haven't been there in a while so maybe things have changed... Never did I overencourage or try to force anybody who wasn't comfortable doing so. In fact if you weren't comfortable being "on disply" I didn't want you on stage looking awkward. It's bad for you and gives off bad vibes to the audience who are there to have a good time, get a little crazy and perhaps step just a tiny bit out of the box for that 3 hours a week they go to rocky.

Besides, to put in bluntly, most of the men I knew at rocky didn't want to be looked at to express their sexuality, they wanted to have sex and lots of it.

There have been those men at the show who really like to strut their stuff, and they were never discouraged from doing so, in fact I'm all for equal time even though I don't go out of my way to find men strutting their stuff. The FBC has always been about entertaining the audience, at least in theory.

[5411tech.livejournal.com]

My claim is that FBC isn't being "uninhibited in the face of society's conventions" but rather just taking them to the extreme. Men like to ogle women! I know, let's do a LOT of that! It's not radical, it's not experimental, it's barely even self expression. It's just taking previous models of behavior to the extreme, rather than challenging and changing them.

[just-al.livejournal.com]

Considering the push-back you've gotten from cast and crew and alumni. One of three things are happening here.

1) You are absolutely right and the people you hang out with are insensitive sexist bastards who won't come around to your point of view.

2) You hold to a higher standard of gender equality than the FBC.

3) You are perhaps a little oversensitive on this point and the people of the FBC have a slightly cavalier attitude on this point.

If you honestly believe it's anything but option 3 you probably don't fit in the crowd. Rocky may look and sound like volunteer theatre but really it's just a bunch of people's leisure time and they want to have fun and not worry about larger issues.

[jrising.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's quite any of those three, although option 3 may be the closest. Elaina's answer might be different.

If this were a question of simple fact or opinion, your division would make sense. This isn't a question of whether something is blue or red, or whether it should be red instead of blue. Our assumptions about the situation help define the options. For example, I attended essentially every preshow meeting for halloween, and I didn't notice anything sexist about them until Elaina pointed them out. But seeing the show again yesterday, I had to admit that to any outsider's eyes, there are parts that are blaringly sexist.

I think what people are responding to is much more complicated. Sexism is an abstract concept; it doesn't *really* exist in the world, but it's a useful model for an effect we can have. No one disputes that it's mostly women putting themselves on display, or that people have been offended. But we get to decide if we want it to be mostly women, and how we want to go about offending people. This isn't about sensitivity or standards of gender equality. It's about what we want to be, and whether what we want is what we have.

I think people are responding to the word "sexism" more than anything else, and the worry that that word is somehow going to make us have less fun a time at Rocky. It shouldn't do that at all. Thinking about sexism is just an excuse for encouraging our men to be more outwardly sexy, and for coming up with preshows that present real sexuality instead of traditional sex roles.

[5411tech.livejournal.com]

Fist of all, have you read the comments in which people agree with me, at least in part, or have brought up other concerns relating to sexism issues that I hadn't even thought of? Sure, people are offended that somebody *dare* do something as radical as challenge the norm (even at a "subculture" place like Rocky), but not everyone disagrees entirely.

Second, I find it a little sad that you'd accept people being "cavalier" about something like gender issues. I'm being labeled as oversensitive and "politically correct," but when did radicalism and thinking for oneself become uncool and so antithetic to a group of people that call themselves a "subculture?" I laugh at politically incorrect jokes, but I'm not into using that as an excuse to accept the status quo when things need change, or at least are worth examining.