After taking a closer look at Speech Sounds I started to think more about the question posed in class about whether or not the author portrayed woman better then men in this story. You know what struck me most about this was when we started to discuss it we somewhat became defensive for Rye, but not for Obsidian. It was funny to me that there was such a reaction to the thought of Rye using him. Why couldn't she be using him more then he was using her. I mean look what he was getting if he was using her sex that's it really. On the other hand she was getting sex, protection, a ride, companionship and a way to forget. I 100% believe now that Rye was portrayed not better than a man but for some reason we still thought she was.
I wonder if we were to change Rye to being a man and obsidian to a woman how would we view the relationship then? I think the thought of a woman being the user is still hard for people to think. I think this story takes a look at those beliefs. I think taking a deeper look it makes us question the equal treatment of woman today. Why can't they be just as much of a user as a man? Thomas Moss (post 13)
You raise some very provocative points about the relationship between Rye and Obsidian. As I said in class, do we have to view their relationship through the idea that one must me using the other? Is it possible for us to view their relationship as more mutual? Is Butler trying to challenge conventional ideas about the roles of men and women? Are women who are strong inevitably "users"? Couldn't it be that Rye is a strong female character, yet she doesn't use Obsidian? That instead she cooperates with him? It's important to remember that just because a particular literary critic (in this case Hoda M. Zaki) stated he believes that Butler portrays women as superior to men doesn't mean that he is correct or that we have to agree with him.
ReplyDeleteWe can view her as a strong woman.
ReplyDeleteHowever let me ask you this why then does this make her a strong woman we ask about him is "is he using her?". Why does it make her strong and him a user? I think we can take a look at how men and women are looked at when put in similar situations.