Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Talkback!

The post-show audience talkback will take place immediately after the show on Wednesday evening in the Rauh theater.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

"Don't kill me!"

I personally think that Shwarz is the creepiest fucker in the show. When I read the text for the first time, he stuck out to me as the most scary.

Remember George Sodini? He was from around here, in Pittsburgh, and one summer day about two years ago he went to an LA Fitness with a duffel bag full of guns and shot up a women's aerobics class. His journals were full of racist and deeply misogynistic ramblings. He had rage and entitlement issues. And his whole life, women would say he was a "nice guy" while they rejected him.

And, yes, he was well groomed and polite on the surface, but obviously had some problems. The women he hit universally stayed away for a reason.

Read this article about it by Kate Harding. Here's a taste: 
Telling a guy the real reasons you're not interested -- you don't find him attractive, he's way too old for you, you get a distinctly creepy vibe off him, whatever -- or offering no explanation at all, because you just met this guy and owe him nothing, would be "rude." And thanks to the conditioning Harriet describes, exhibiting the slightest hint of "rudeness" to any stranger who approaches you with sex on his mind makes you feel not like a normal human being with healthy boundaries, but a mean, frigid, stuck-up bitch. Worse yet, sometimes, the same man who called you beautiful and offered to buy you a drink ten seconds ago will turn aggressive when you say you're not interested; he'll tell you flat out you're a bitch, or a whore, or less printable things. He'll reject your rejection by getting in your face and losing his temper. So really, it's a lot safer and simpler to say, "Look, you're a nice guy, but no thanks/I have a boyfriend/I can't." Most guys will walk away calmly after that -- and hey, it's none of your concern what they go home and write in their diaries.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Jokes to tell over the act four card game?

What is the difference between a drug dealer and a hooker?
A hooker can wash her crack and sell it again.

What do a woman and a condom have in common?
They're both either in your wallet or on your d!ck.

What's the best thing about a blow job?
Ten minutes silence.

How is a woman different from a toilet?
A toilet doesn't follow you around once you've used it.

Why do women fake their orgasms?
Because they think we care.

Why do men have penises?
So we'd always have a way to shut women up.

More here, here and here.

Our characters are at least as awful as these people.

Any woman writing on the internet, especially if she writes as a feminist, will get disgusting/rapey/terrifying/nonsensical/hateful comments from dudes like the ones I've linked to below (ask me about mine!). They're out there. I've dredged the bottom of the barrel and found some disturbing stuff. Here's a sample:

This article was written by a man but published in a women's magazine, about why men prefer "innocent girls" to "bad girls." He literally compares women who aren't virgins to dirty black snow on the side of the road. That's definitely what Shwarz thinks sex does to people (especially women). It's also why Shöning would rather marry the Baron's pretty schoolgirl daughter than "whore" Lulu (though he doesn't mind fucking her). They put women into "buckets" of good girl you can take home to mom and bad girl you can fuck but not really care about. He also doesn't like women who know more than he does. Yikes.

This guy hates women so much, when he sees a hot girl, he starts to look at her as if she's a dangerous animal in the zoo to stop himself from wanting to have sex with her. (There's also a weird furry porn image of a tiger in a dress at that link.)


"When saying that you want to rape and cut up a woman with a band saw is met with the exact same reaction as saying you want to want to buy them a drink, what ... is the incentive to not be hateful and violent?" (Yeah, that's a direct quote.) This article links to a thread on a Men's Rights forum in which men just rant about their misogyny. One guy seriously traces his ladyrage to a time in the 7th grade when a girl said he had cooties. 

Here's an email some douchebro in a frat at USC sent out to his brothers. In it he talks about  "how to be an effective 'cocksman'" and says that "females are targets, not actual people like us." I get total frat-boy vibes from Rodrigo, maybe this guy is him.

I've posted all this here to show that there are people at least as awful as the Lulu characters in the real world today. All of the posts I've linked are only about a month old. Seriously! The anonymous message board is the place these creeps feel free to let their freak flags fly. Maybe treat the Lulu space like it's your internet. Lose your pants and drop a proverbial dump all over the damn place.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

FL GOP Rep. Says 11-Year-Old Was Gang Raped ‘Because She Was Dressed Like A 21 Year-Old Prostitute’

Quote from the congresswoman:
There was an article about an 11 year old girl who was gangraped in Texas by 18 young men because she was dressed up like a 21-year-old prostitute. And her parents let her attend school like that. And I think it’s incumbent upon us to create some areas where students can be safe in school and show up in proper attire so what happened in Texas doesn’t happen to our students.

To recap: to remain safe, girls must not dress in a way that doesn't remind this woman of a sex worker.

No word to men not to gang-rape children.

Read the article here.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Syphilis

As it turns out, there's a specific type of "tertiary syphilis" called Late Neurosyphilis which develops a few years after initial infection and can affect the central nervous system. Symptoms include seizures, "lightening pain the lower extremities," poor balance (so it makes sense that Act V Alva can't remain standing for long), and dementia (so it makes sense that he's a little loopy).

A person in this stage of syphilis isn't contagious. So Alwa and Lulu could still be doin' it and Lulu could remain healthy.

Alvin and the Chipmunks - Bicycle Built For Two



I was just looking for the song, but this is hilarious and perfect and creepy!

The one below creepy too, but not in an interesting useful way. It's much easier to hear the song, though, without the chipmunkey harmonies.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Sex for Sale in Pittsburgh

I hope some of you can find the time to come to this talk if you're interested at all in human trafficking. At least read the text of the poster- that on the map is some guy's review of a sex worker.
Seriously.

Eighteen Men Gang-Rape an Eleven-year-old Girl.

And this article about it in the New York Times:
  • reminds us that the incident "destroyed" the small Texas town in which the crime took place.
  • reminds us that it is tragic that the men will "have to live with this for the rest of their lives."
  • asks the question, "where was her mother?"
  • tells us that the victim wore makeup, dressed "like a woman in her 20s," and hung out with teenage boys on the playground in a bad neighborhood.
Maybe another terrible thing to turn into small talk- how these poor rapists now have to live with with this, and how an eleven-year-old girl was too tempting and deserved it, and how her mother should have been with her 24/7.

Basically, blame men's crimes on women, then feel pity for the consequences men face.

This is mainstream, respected journalism, not some wack-o misogynists in a message board somewhere.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Charlie Sheen's "Disposable Women"

Here's a New York Times op-ed putting forth a theory as to why Charlie Sheen has been able to get away with all the scary violence he's done to women in his long career and is only just now feeling any flak for it. Anna Holmes thinks that the women Sheen has chosen to spend his time with, the women he's chosen to victimize, are what our culture deems "disposable women." Some are sex workers, but all are young, attractive women who trade on their sexuality. Golddiggers, sluts, whores. The thought is that women who use their sexuality for financial gain deserve violence, that violence against this kind of woman is inevitable, the women are just collateral damage when a rich white guy wants to have some "boys will be boys"-style fun.

Read the article!

Lulu comics by John Linton Roberson!

Amazing. Check it out online.

One more Guy Bourdin


Food!!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Eric Prydz - Call On Me



This is probably how Rodrigo works out.

"Who knows, you might even be cured."

In South Africa, lesbians live in fear of "corrective" rape. Groups of men gang-rape and murder lesbians to "cure" them and the government largely ignores the hate crimes.

Video and news article here. And it's from 2009, so this is really recent and relevent.

Everyone's so mean to Geschwitz! And in the real world, lesbians do face quite a lot of harassment.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Morphine

Pharmacist giving basic drug facts. It's pretty dry, image of the yucky scary leg injury notwithstanding:


Symptoms of an overdose: click here.

General information: click here. (Check out the "Effects" and "Addiction" sections, especially.)

and here's a huuuuuuge list of signs of a morphine addiction.

The videos I've found of people high on morphine have been of really poor quality. They're usually in hospital a hospital bed dealing with a traumatic injury or cancer and are using the drug properly, to relieve their extreme pain. I would think that morphine effects a person not in pain a little differently.

I'll be on the lookout for something more visual to show, but I hope this is a useful start for you.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Lara Logan

Lara Logan is a reporter for "60 Minutes." She was reporting from Tahrir Square in Cairo when Mubarak announced he would step down. In the ensuing chaos, she was separated from her camera crew and sexually assaulted by a group of men.

The news coverage of her assault has been, well, problematic. The news stories tend to take the angle "Muslims are terrible" or "Rape is sexy/she deserved it."

If you're improvising small talk in Act I, it might be fun to get really, really racist and sexist.

Read up on the coverage here.

Lilith

In Jewish folklore, Lilith was Adam's first wife. She refused to be on the bottom during sex, so God cast her out of Eden and she became a demon figure, a sign of disobedience and promiscuity.

A fleshed-out summary here.

"a guarantee of survival is de rigueur for a happy affair"

(pronunciation of de rigueur here)

I've been reading about sex work in regards to Lulu, but I think there's a lot there for Rodrigo, too. He sells his sexual services for money after all.

Safety is the #1 consideration for any sex worker. They want to make a buck, sure, but first they want to not die. The more desperate a worker is for money, the more risks they'll take, in the clients they choose to see, the places they'll go, and the kind of work they'll participate in.

I think all the suitors coming in and out and the threats of violence Rodrigo faces in Lulu's "posh place" is way more than he bargained for, and he's telling Lulu that she's pushing his safety boundary with all of the shenanigans.

Though Rodrigo is physically much stronger than Lulu and a man, he's still the only character she really has any power over. I mean, she exerts a kind of "male gaze" on him for a change. She doesn't have the kind of power that comes from being pretty, the superficial "power" she feels on her pedestal, but Rodrigo depends on her for payment and is therefore at her will. Does he even think she's that hot? He has to do what she says regardless of how he thinks she looks.

Interesting power relationships to play with there.

"Guys on Immodesty, Lust, and the Violence of Women's Bodies"

on Sociological Images

A survey designed by Christian "girls" asking the opinions of Christian "guys" on the topic of modest dress for women: What is modest, why modesty is important.

Here's one guy explaining modesty:
"Immodest: Screams that her body is different than mine. Attempts to manipulate me. Forcefully offers to trade what I want (in the flesh) for what she wants: attention (male, age 30)."

Check out his strong language! Female bodies "scream at," "manipulate," and "force" him. Michael Kimmel quoted in the linked article: "Women's beauty is defined as violence to men."

But check it- it's up to women to make sure they dress modestly, but it's up to men to define what modesty even means.

Anyway, it's interesting to think about the violence that the men feel Lulu's beauty does to them, as opposed to the actual real physical violence our characters enact.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Fuck the Pain Away - Peaches



This song is perfect. There's no music video unfortunately (or maybe fortunately)

"All white. What does it mean, I wonder?"

Everything I'm finding says that white flowers mean purity, humility, innocence, new beginnings. Pretty much the same thing a white wedding dress means.

Hmmm.

Simian Mobile Disco - Hustler

Friday, February 18, 2011

Thursday, February 17, 2011

The Youthful Buddha Dance

They're bendy, like in the Salome dance!

Chloral Hydrate

...is not for killing yourself, it's for falling asleep. Just fyi. Shoning's saying the opera would put him to sleep, but chloral hydrate works better.

Benny Benassi - Satisfaction

From a flyer I found at Pittsburgh Action Against Rape

Things You Will Learn in the Healing Process

- Responsibility and blame for the assault/abuse always and forever belongs to only one person: the perpetrator.

- Nothing that you did (or did not do) provides adequate justification for sexual assault/abuse.

- The assault/abuse happened because the perpetrator chose to seek out or create a situation where he/she could attack without being caught. Sometimes he/she will set it up so that the victim feels safe and then takes advantage of the victim lowering his or her guard.


- Whatever you did in response to an assault or abuse, you did it to survive and to get through.

- The fight, flight or freeze response is something that happens automatically. All are instincts that we use to survive.

- Fight is when we get geared up to react; flight is when we try to get away; freeze is when we shut down, become frozen and immobilized.


- You must trust that whatever you did or did not do, served that instinct for survival.


- You are here; whatever you did or did not do helped to make sure of that.

My Self Control Amazes Me.


via Gabbysplayhouse.com

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Men's and Women's Differing Reactions to Male and Female Nudity

Read the whole thing on Sociological Images!

Short summary:
When men see images of female nudity, they either offer praise or disapproval. The image is clearly made for them, and men express whether or not it lives up to their standards.
When women see female nudity, they compare themselves to the image they see and usually (according to the study) feel negative about it, whether the model conformed to standards of beauty or not. Men have internalized their role as active, consuming gazer, women have internalized their role as passive gazed-upon object.

Oddly enough, both men and women reported feeling uncomfortable at images of male nudity. Men did not compare themselves to the male nudes (the way women did with female nudes). Some expressed disgust or extreme disinterest and worked pretty hard to reject the "advance" of the lustful male model. Women sometimes felt aroused by the male figures, but the lust was mixed with guilt or shame.

Interesting ways to navigate the relationships once you're all down to your underpants.

Awesome/Scary Vintage Valentine's Cards

Instant panty-droppers to keep in mind for next year.

via Sociological Images

Pagliacci

1892 opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo.
Pagliacci is a tragedy that takes place among the actors in a Commedia dell'arte troupe.

The commedia plot plays out in real life. The leader of the troupe, Canio, plays the "foolish husband" Pagliaccio. His wife, Nedda, plays the slutty wife Columbina. Before the performance begins, Pagliaccio leaves to go drinking. While he's gone, his wife Nedda sees her lover and they plot to elope later that night. Canio comes back and sees her lover run away, but doesn't see his face. He begs Nedda to tell her who, but she refuses.

In Act II, they perform the commedia plot, which pretty much mirrors what just happened. When Pagliaccio returns home and hears Columbina tell her love goodbye, Canio breaks character and demands that Nedda tell him the name of her lover. She tries to put him back on track for the performance, but he's distraught. Finally, he stabs her. As she dies she calls out her lover's name and Canio kills him too. The play ends when Canio announces "La Commedia è finita!" (the play is finished).

Infidelity! Jealousy! Rage! Murder! Performance! Costumes! Clowns!

Relevent!

Go read a more detailed plot summary on Wikipedia if you're interested.

Artists Referenced in the Show: Rembrandt

Dutch Renaissance painter.
Bathing Bathsheba. 1654.
The Jewish Bride. 1666.

Artists Referenced in the Show: Raphael

Renaissance Italian painter.
The Three Graces. 1504.
The Triumph of Galatea. 1511.
The Entombment of Christ. 1507.

Artists Referenced in the Show: Velazquez

Late Renaissance Spanish painter.
The Toilet of Venus ("The Rokeby Venus") 1647-1651
Las Meniñas, 1656
Fun Fact! The mirror in The Rokeby Venus is actually pointing at her lower stomach/crotch.

Artists Referenced in the Show: Caravaggio

Italian Renaissance painter.

 
Boy Bitten by Lizard. 1594-1596
Medusa. 1590-ish


St Jerome. 1600.
Fun fact! Steak carpaccio, which is raw tenderloin sliced extremely thin, was named after Caravaggio because of the rich reds he used.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Fear. Sexy, Sexy Fear.


This is a sidebar ad I found on a porn site.

This ad presumes that men are comparing themselves to the unrealistic, manufactured images they see in pornography. That’s also how Lulu comes to be idolized by the men in our play- they worship the image of her that each of them has in his own head.

But that’s not the best reason why this ad is so relevant. The selling point for a bigger dick isn’t to please your partner, but to make her afraid. Women’s fear is sexy. Unless you can threaten a woman with your penis, you need a scarier penis.

This ad suggests that despite how afraid women supposedly are of his penis, Ron Jeremy has a ton of sex with a ton of women. It suggests to whomever is consuming the ad that women like sex that is violent. Violence is sexy.

An ad like this works because men have a lot of unrealistic expectations and preconceived notions to deal with, and it's tough to navigate the world with a unique identity when society is telling you there's only one "correct" way for you to be. There is a lot of pressure on men as well as women to look and behave in a certain way- women are supposed to be skinny and passive while men are supposed to be big, muscular and active.  Men are "supposed" to be the persuers, not the persued. Men are supposed to be the one who humiliates, not the humiliated and not an equal. They're supposed to be the provider, not the provided-for, the keeper not the kept, the one penetrating his partner and never the penetrated. Men can tolerate it (but not actually care) when women get emotional but men should never express their own emotions to their female partners.

When someone takes all of those messages to heart, the final product is the aggressive, violent, horny guy with terrifying genitals. No one can live up to that, and really, who wants to? Mainstream porny culture shoves men and women into certain roles that people can enjoy, but no one really picks for themselves. 

The Game

This is the cover for The Game by Neil Strauss, a book that explains all about the contemporary dating/pickup scene. It’s a sort of exposé, sort of how-to manual. I just want to point your attention to some things about the cover specifically, without even getting into how creepy the text of the book actually is.
For one thing, the male figure is about three times as big as any one of the female figures. He’s a person, the women are toys.
There’s only one of him and lots of women. He’s entitled to collect ‘em all.
He’s standing upright, cool, composed, a person in a suit with shit to do. Each of the female figures is in a different kind of porny pose and/or costume. They don’t wear suits. They don’t have shit to do, other than contort their bodies into aesthetically pleasing though uncomfortable shapes, wear 7-inch platform heels, cling to phallic objects, and touch themselves.
The fact that there are several of them with the same body but different poses/costumes implicitly states that though the man is an individual, the women are all the same, despite the differences in their outer appearances.
One of the female silhouettes has her hands tied behind her back and her legs placed in a spreader bar, clear BDSM imagery. When actual BDSM practitioners play with actual BDSM rules, both partners talk beforehand about their limits and both partners are free to stop the action at any time, immediately and with no questions asked. When BDSM imagery is brought up in the mainstream with none of the BDSM rules, all we see is a woman as a bound victim, a series of holes to be taken by force. In actual BDSM the submissive is an equal partner, a full human being with limits to be respected and desires to be fulfilled. In mainstream images of BDSM, she absolutely is not.
The word “Penetrating” is there right underneath a lineup of ladybodies. That one’s pretty obviously gross.
In “The Game,” women aren’t players, and they’re not really the prize. They’re the obstacle standing between men- the real players- and “sex,” the prize (please refer to the Thomas MacAulay Miller article from Yes Means Yes, in the packets I gave you all).
I love Lulu in lots of really different costumes to illustrate the desires of the different men she’s with. The book cover implies that the man who buys it can pick up his favorite “type” of woman, no matter what type that is. The men in our play see a female body and automatically project their favorite “type” onto her. The woman’s own identity isn’t what’s important- the man’s desire is.
I also like the idea of seeing Lulu in silhouette a lot. The details of her person aren’t as important as the mere fact that she’s female.

This is the cover for The Game by Neil Strauss, a book that explains the contemporary dating/pickup scene. It’s a sort of exposé, sort of how-to manual. I just want to point your attention to some things about the cover specifically, without even getting into how creepy the text of the book actually is.
For one thing, the male figure is about three times as big as any one of the female figures. He’s a person, the women are toys.

There’s only one of him and lots of women. He’s entitled to collect ‘em all.

He’s standing upright, cool, composed, a person in a suit with shit to do. Each of the female figures is in a different kind of porny pose and/or costume. They don’t wear suits. They don’t have shit to do, other than contort their bodies into aesthetically pleasing though uncomfortable shapes, wear 7-inch platform heels, cling to phallic objects, and touch themselves.

The fact that there are several of them with the same body but different poses/costumes implicitly states that though the man is an individual, the women are all the same, despite the differences in their outer appearances.
One of the female silhouettes has her hands tied behind her back and her legs placed in a spreader bar, clear BDSM imagery. When actual BDSM practitioners play with actual BDSM rules, both partners talk beforehand about their limits and both partners are free to stop the action at any time, immediately and with no questions asked. When BDSM imagery is brought up in the mainstream with none of the BDSM rules, all we see is a woman as a bound victim, a series of holes to be taken by force. In actual BDSM the submissive is an equal partner, a full human being with limits to be respected and desires to be fulfilled. In mainstream images of BDSM, she absolutely is not.

The word “Penetrating” is there right underneath a lineup of ladybodies. That one’s pretty obviously gross.

In “The Game,” women aren’t players, and they’re not really the prize. They’re the obstacle standing between men- the real players- and “sex,” the prize (please refer to the Thomas MacAulay Miller article from Yes Means Yes, in the packets I gave you all).

I love Lulu in lots of really different costumes to illustrate the desires of the different men she’s with. The book cover implies that the man who buys it can pick up his favorite “type” of woman, no matter what type that is. The men in our play see a female body and automatically project their favorite “type” onto her. The woman’s own identity isn’t what’s important- the man’s desire is.

I also like the idea of seeing Lulu in silhouette a lot. The details of her person aren’t as important as the mere fact that she’s female.