je suis diaphane
‘brought into being by nothing other than the look’*
using poetry to stitch the seams, painting them with vitreous enamel
burnishing golden orbs of beauty, enhancing the visual field
to make the world seem habitable
inherently empathetic to human existence
when does the illusion, this disembodied utterance,
enter firmly into the realm of futility?
jamais vu à travers
philosophical argument merely hints at a promise of liberty
floating upon the surface of psychological experience
a convincing conundrum that won’t unlock
inner barriers to designing boundaries of self-definition
societal viewing provides ample opportunities
to manifest cognitive dissonance, reinforcing the brute
that omniscient spectator-god within the man
emmuré dans ce paradoxe
feminine artistry is required to remain comfortably incarcerated
chaos churns with near indomitable force
why fight when you are forever outnumbered?
control may simply be a part of the disease
disempowering internalization of the oppressor’s abuse
replaying his semiotic position as the maker of meaning
whom I know is never she, never me
une illusion, un fantasme masculin
called into existence through the male gaze, the internalized observer,
objectified and exploited by possession and protection
filming my every move in art house cinematic style
encircled in an ouroboros of scopophilia
blinded to feminist themes, it traps what’s possible
entangling these hands, bloodied with struggle
incapable now of creating and preserving identity
une créature spécieuse, chose éphémère
scraping molded forms to sharpen focus
no spiritual value arising from inherent worth
only sculpting my usefulness in a deterministic role
voyeur’s fantasy allays the weight of moral consequences
fixing upon the screen the sanctioned story
i am a dissociated, breathing pleasure toy, imaginary signifier,
an unintentional participant living in a heightened state of unreality
Notes: *Christian Metz, French film theorist
Scopophilia or scoptophilia, from Greek “love of looking”, is deriving pleasure from looking. As an expression of sexuality, it refers to sexual pleasure derived from looking at erotic objects: erotic photographs, pornography, naked bodies, etc. It can also be described as intermittent desire of gazing at. Alternatively, this term was used by cinema psychoanalysts of the 1970s to describe pleasures (often considered pathological) and other unconscious processes occurring in spectators when they watch films. The term was borrowed from psychoanalytic theories of Jacques Lacan and Otto Fenichel. Critical race theorists, such as Bell Hooks, David Marriott, and Shannon Winnubst, have also taken up scoptophilia and the scopic drive as a mechanism to describe racial othering.
French translation: I am diaphanous/forever seen through/immured in this paradox/an illusion, a male fantasy/a specious creature, ephemeral thing
Reposted with notes and additional material for Karin’s French Poetics Prompt at dVerse Poets Pub http://dversepoets.com/2012/07/14/poetics-a-french-twist-for-quatorze-juillet/
Chromapoetica 
nice….took me a bit as i translated your french lines…a sad reality the objectivization of women…and the further we push that envelope the scarier it becomes…interesting as well the title and the notes behind that…interesting a poet last night had several of us come up on stage and stand watching each others facial expressions as they read…the process you describe made me think of that…
I don’t know where the incorrect first line arrived from but now it is fixed (there’s always something, a typo, etc.). I agree with you, it becomes more frightening the further we drive the internalization of objectification or racial stereotyping. We are deeply affected by images.
very interesting topic and even more interesting how you go step by step in your poem with the french intro line and then move from there.. i agree with what bri says..always sad when women are degraded to sexual objects.. think there is a thin line between how you look at something/someone and how you look at something/someone… and that can go into many other areas as well
I like how you’ve put that Claudia, a razor’s edge really and so easy to lean toward the object side when it comes to film. It’s interesting because Catherine Breillat, an avant garde french director believes that obscenity is an aesthetic, not an issue of morality.
I guess most of us are voyeurs to a certain extent. We are (mostly) such curious beings. I’ve never heard of the term before but, it never surprises me that you have. Your knowledge and talent never cease to amaze me. 🙂
Yes, an uncomfortable position and one that John Berger argues women internalize so that they become both observer and observed of themselves. His Ways of Seeing explores this and the difference between naked and nude (pornography versus art).
Such an interesting topic for a poem, and so well conceived and carried out. (And women fall into the mold too – well-described.) k.
Thanks k! This was a wonderful prompt.
Very nice…I’ve been thinking of the female body today (thanks to a link from Silverpoetry) and I am really close to concluding that the female body is the highest form of visual art…
Thank you for your feedback.
You’re welcome Anna…what I meant to say is that, in my opinion, the female body (its form) is the most beautiful subject matter in visual art.
This probes with an almost clinical incessance
True, it’s a subject close to my heart.
I hope I’m not going too far off topic (this is a very heavy subject, requiring a lot of thought), but I think it’s interesting how female visual artists who never got the same attention their male contemporaries got are in some cases being recognized in recent years. Personally I am paying attention to Hannah Höch. She may have been one of the better known women of the early 20th century, still, in my mind she is as fascinating as any of the men. It’s also fascinating to compare the work of men and women contemporaries, to explore the nuances of the paradox you mention, how that “feminine artistry” is used to both self-confine and undermine constraints. Didn’t mean to go off on a tangent, but I’d be surprised if you didn’t have thoughts on the subject. Your learning always impresses me.
Oh, I don’t know her but am already searching for images. There’s a lot of debate about the role and expression of gender in art. Obviously it must be viewed in cultural and historic context. I see your point about using identity to circumscribe or subvert; another difficult choice to make in the artistic process. Do I call attention to disparity (as feminist poets do) or insist on my right as a total subject (as Monique Wittig), recognizing gender as an ontological joke. I’ll get off my soapbox now but suffice it to say, yes, I do have some thoughts :).
So well done, Anna. Your blending of social issues, art, and the underlying French nuances works so well. A sad reality is the prevalance of the reification of young women, even girls, that seems so acceptable now.
Thank you Victoria, I watch a lot of French cinema and have read some of the French feminists so it whirls around in my mind frequently. I took a course in college where I had to watch pornography for a critical thinking/media skills exercise and was appalled! Our group spent weeks researching and pulling clips to create a central thesis and I am still traumatized by the experience. It seems the sexualization of girls happens at increasingly younger ages! I cannot believe that violence is not intricately connected.
Yes, it would seem that there has to be a connection. Don’t think I’d want to take that course.
What you’ve done with this interesting prompt is just fantastic, Anna. There’s so much that’s beautifully woven into this piece…I love ”ephemeral thing.”
The french phrasing and placement is gorgeous and I love that you’ve translated it for us : )
-Eva
Thank you Eva, I thought about linking the Camille Claudel piece I remember you enjoyed but so many people had already read it I added the French phrases and notes to this piece I initially posted in January instead. Wonderful to hear it is effective and maintains some aesthetic value (in my mind it is an essay :)).
I really enjoyed these lines:
“when does the illusion, this disembodied utterance,
enter firmly into the realm of futility?”
I am impressed at how you manipulate long words easily. Very beautiful AND meaningful.
Thank you so much for this comment. Specificity and aesthetics in language are so important to me. I often find polysyllabic words very beautiful.
The subject of male gaze and videogames discussed recently on a profession game developers website. Cinematic theories would apply to games since these days many of them contain cutscenes depicting men a certain way, and depicting women a certain way. The latest trailers of Hitman and the new Lara Croft was screened at a recent E3 conference -had caused stir due to how the women were portrayed and played.
“feminine artistry is required to remain comfortably incarcerated
chaos churns with near indomitable force
why fight when you are forever outnumbered?
control may simply be a part of the disease
disempowering internalization of the oppressor’s abuse
replaying his semiotic position as the maker of meaning
whom I know is never she, never me”
Interesting how it parallels. When female gamers are asked on this issue, some of us simply shrug it off as the way things are. There’s certainly still the feeling that it’s a guy’s world, the situation has improved little over the years. Female gamers, designers and game makers struggle and encounter abuse or prejudice often. Whenever it is being brought up, the general male crowd reacts with great hostility and rage. They make us feel like we are always over-reacting, or too emotional or something. I’m not saying all the guys are like that, but it doesn’t take more than a few replies before the female gets flamed for bringing it up. “if you don’t like it, just go away, don’t spoil our fun.” is generally the response, peppered with insults you wouldn’t think would be uttered against women in the 21st century. For those who still stuck with the idea that gamers are just kids, the majority of gaming community members are in their late teens to 30s. They are enjoying themselves and they fear “artisitc freedom” will be threatened by feministic considerations.
Personally I had a bad experience with a guy who was in his 50s. Perhaps he is stuck in his ways. And we were pretty good friends on this game forum until one day I couldn’t take his jokes anymore and told him how uncomfortable he made me feel. He responded by saying he would never talk to me ever again. It was very hurtful. That’s just as good as ousting me from the group, because he was the administrator. The group, much as I was friends and still am with a few of them, disappointed me by not openly telling him that I had a point. They told me privately but they wouldn’t speak against him publicly. I was made to feel like I was overreacting. Even my other female friend in that group made me feel that way because she said nothing — actually she told me that I was right — but continue to stay there, joke the same kind of jokes. So that’s how it is.
So, back to the poem, I think this is an important issue and I’m glad you wrote such a effective poem on it.
I completely agree with your points, especially that gaming shares so much in common with cinema. The gaming world seems quite far behind in its portrayal of women and I am frequently put off by that representation. I’m terribly sorry to hear of your experience. I have had similar problems in speaking up. I’ve even lost a job due to a supervisor’s harassment. This behavior and bullying needs to end, one way forward is to continue to resist claims that women are too sensitive to oppression. These issues matter, your concerns should be heard, and the voices of designers and gamers deserve respect. It is atrocious that name calling and other forms of psychological harassment are still tolerated and that many are afraid to speak up. I applaud your efforts and stand with you in solidarity.
Thanks Anna.
I would know what to say to him now. But back then, I didn’t know how to respond and felt pathetic. I just know I didn’t like the attitude thrown at me. If it was today, I would have slugged it right back at him instead of just walking out without a word.
It’s not like one wants to take up a banner or anything, but it’s just there, these issues. It doesn’t matter to me so much if it was part of the story/setting of the game. For example, if the game setting is set in an age when women do not take equal role to men. But it’s not that. The most disturbing thing is that guys refuse to admit that there’s a problem when there is and when it is pointed out to them.
Very cleverly and beautifully done. Not an easy read by any means, but it works well, is a fine, strong poem.
What a lovely compliment, thank you.
Beautifully conceived and written, intellectually right up there – very well done, I feel.
I wrote it in 15 minutes but it comes from the depth of my life experience. Thank you for your wonderful compliments.
as always, your work is full of new information for me, in the form of fresh (to me) artists. I appreciate your ability to dig in to this topic with beauty and grace.
I am grateful for your kind words.
This issue of eye-centric culture seems to pervade western culture from the time of the Greeks at least. I’ve read hermeneutic tracts which suggest that this bias can somehow be short-circuited, more towards a wholistic, whole body, experiential language. Thisbwould perhaps begin to undermine the Cartesian objectivistic world-view. Seeing/being seen, sense perception focused on vision, is there a posdibility that this is “built in to” to the existential biology that humans take fir granted? As different physiologies, perhaps, one might imagine such a language taking shape. Having said this, I think that every effort towards erasing inequality, especially objectivizing idologies must be demolished and deconstructed and the nothingness and relativity of all cultural phenomena be exposec and overcome.
Those are fascinating ideas, thank you for your engaging comment.
your philosophic take on the feminine also brings to mind Claudine Hermann’s discussion in Tongue Snatchers–You’ve written an amazing poem–one that could be revisited again and again with new discoveries each time
How exciting, I haven’t read her so I’ll have to order that book. Thank you!
I know that much of this went over my head, not being at all familiar with cinema psychoanalysis (thank you so much for your translations and explanations), but there is much here that I can appreciate–the French lines working as a poem within the poem, the masculine/feminine archetypal tango, and this: ” the maker of meaning
whom I know is never she, never me”
Powerful stuff. Thank you.
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that you engaged the work, saw things that spoke to you, and shared your thoughts with me.
This is fabulous. I always learn so much from you…
And that last line was killer.
And I you :)…
an incredible blend Anna tackling some really powerful issues of entrapment and possession
‘objectified and exploited by possession and protection
filming my every move in art house cinematic style
encircled in an ouroboros of scopophilia
blinded to feminist themes, it traps what’s possible
entangling these hands, bloodied with struggle
incapable now of creating and preserving identity’
fantastic – Lib
Self possession is a frequent theme in all my work – poetry, painting, composition, photography, and digital art. I believe it is one path to empowerment. Thank you for your comment!
POW! Powerful breakdown of a process as old as history. And very timely, as it is working again! And, despite the false pre-determinism of the male-gaze “feminine artistry is required to remain comfortably incarcerated.” That takes lots of energy, like forever in costume and make-up and on the stage. Materialist Feminism–riding on Sartre, Du Beauvoir, Marx, and Lacan–exposed it, but did not end it. And I’ve heard said that this kind of scopic prison common to slaves women and children–the dis-empowered of all classes–leads directly to the FEAR that we are the most accomplished and devious tricksters, subterfuge the main technique left to us. Many thinking men have rejected the role of the male gaze which is also hard work. (In the USA, few of them are Republicans.) We gotta watch each others backs. This poem surely helps as it shows the entrapment and its “Doll House” results.
Yes, I think there are parts of me still entrapped and some parts that exist far beyond, liberated. I particularly enjoy your explication about the fear that we are the most accomplished and devious tricksters, another way to internalize disempowerment. I think this poem arose from the continued interaction/struggle I have with my father, a conscientious objector to Vietnam, an activist for social justice, but still a man deeply attached to the male gaze who recently said, ‘well, we knew you would make an excellent housewife, we just didn’t know for whom.’ He has mental health issues but I have trouble remembering my compassion around that when he cackles after particularly denigrating or sexualized statements toward me. Thank you for your comment Susan, it was very helpful.
With my dad it got worse with age and gets worse with anger. I live 5 hours away, limit what I am willing to talk about, keep visits short, and schedule shrink appointments after, and often before the visit. I do not try to fix it for mom who has lived with it for 65 years. Because of all this, we now have some good times together. But I am sure those are because of the restrictions, so I don’t soften the edges. And I am lucky that I have brothers who can carry the load.
I didn’t figure this all out until I was close to 50.
We’ve been estranged for up to three years at a time. I’m still finding the right amount of exposure (I usually only see him once a year). The situation was worse when I was younger and spent a year supporting him and my younger brother (between 16 & 17). Thank you so much for your understanding and sharing your wisdom.
Anyone who watches TV or goes to the movies or sits passively observing a baseball game or walks down the street with face buried in iphone or ipad or surfs the internet on their computer is a voyeur, and with the continuing exponential advances in technology, we now live in a world where the great majority of us fall into that category, regardless of gender.
That’s true, nice to meet you.
Anna,
I enjoyed the language and message of your poem, as well as the comments it prompted. I am in total support for the equal and respectful treatment of women, however, I have two responses which may seem contrary to this claim even though that is not my intent.
I found your comment about having compassion for your father’s remarks since he has mental health issues to be an interesting point. Could it be possible that most of those individuals who see women as sex objects are ill as well? I’d bet on it…definitely spiritually ill, as are the females who collaberate with them. But, in some way, shape or form, we are all spiritually ill, which brings me back to this idea of compassion that you mentioned with your father (noting that compassion does not mean condonement.) (an open-ended thought, I know, but that’s all I have to say about that 🙂 )
On to my second response:
“it traps what’s possible
entangling these hands, bloodied with struggle
incapable now of creating and preserving identity”
These lines are very intriguing to me. On the one hand, the claim that one’s identity need be dependent upon another human being’s ANYTHING is a fallacy, and in my humble opinion, a call to arms against the “male-gazers” only corroborates the very thing we are trying to expose – that no one can define us. If they can’t define us then why do we care if they try? Maybe for those that have yet to learn this fact….
I suppose it would take a great deal of good parenting, a nice pool of sane genes, and a whole lot of luck to naturally develop this belief. Therefore, for the sake of the young girls exposed to sex in the media, etc., I say, we have to fight for them.
Either way, I’d go so far as to state that while others can’t define us, we can’t entirely define ourselves either. Therefore, as adults, I think the energy spent on telling others how wrong they are might be better spent on self-discovery, so that we might know who we are and why, so that in turn, we may work towards healing and gaining greater spiritual health (and then teach others to do the same.)
In my experience, it is this very process that shattered the illusion you speak of so eloquently here. The point being: I changed, they didn’t.
One more quip I learned during my healing process – it’s not necessarily awe-inspiring, but seems to work for me, nonetheless: What other people think of me is none of my business.
Not sure if any of this makes sense to you, but I was inspired to give it a go.
What other people think of me is none of my business – quite true and helpful. Last night I dreamt about this, watching someone’s video work as they were dealing with self-doubt, which morphed into self-distortion, and then absence. I see your point about no one else defines us, yet others can wield power against us. In that situation, i.e. a harassing boss, death threats against a woman filmmaker who wants to examine gender stereotypes in gaming, or recruiting young girls into the sex trade I do think we need to fight. However, it’s a fine line as ‘helping’ can be ‘disempowering. It’s early and I’m not a morning person so I’ll give this more considered thought. I slept in, a rare occurrence, and find myself in a bit of a hypnopompic state :).
p.s. why can’t we be neighbors, so we get together and solve all the world’s problems over coffee everyday? – lol
That would be lovely, I guess virtual coffee will have to do :).
wow anna, so many layers and lines of meaning –
the images :
“feminine artistry is required to remain comfortably incarcerated
chaos churns with near indomitable force
why fight when you are forever outnumbered?”
the single line refrain of a line in french fenced ? fencing ? both ? the english text
that incredible ending,
“i am a dissociated, breathing pleasure toy, imaginary signifier,
an unintentional participant living in a heightened state of unreality” – which suggest, to me
that there is then “a reality” we might be intentional participants in
extremely intriguing, and, as many pointed out, quite sad regarding objectification; something that, i am guessing, from a very poor pool of experience, is bilateral –
with illusions on both sides –
like being in an atmosphere, and thinking the space above and the depths below, are so different from the air we live in…
really enjoyed and am still benefiting from this work, thank you much 😉
Sorry for the delayed response your comment ended up in spam but has been rescued! It’s very nice to meet you and I appreciate your thought provoking response to the work :).
no problem, found two from folk i know pretty well last week in my spam folder, who knows why 😉 thanks so much for letting me know anna 😉
Beautiful!
Thank you! BTW this was not linked to the dVerse best of prompt.
Totally on target for a visually addicted culture called ‘mainstream’. “Sweet” wordcraft.
Very nice to meet you!
Hullo Anna.The poem makes me cross at myself.Habits of thinking.Being without congruence,focus,momentum,clarity.Confronting,useful,beautiful writing.
“What other people think of me is none of my business” this idea is useful too.
It makes me cross with myself too :). I always appreciate your thoughtful comments, they give me something to ruminate upon.
I remember going through a phase of enjoying that type of attention and then being totally freaked by it…anxiety and fear…lots of anger around the way women are objectified. As of late I allow myself to have a blind eye to a point but I will keep a standard in my home and fro my children…but I can’t control what the world is doing. Sad really.