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.

"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.

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.

Guy Bourdin

Speaking of the Male Gaze, these are some photos from Guy Bourdin. He was a French photographer who shot for Vogue as well as Charles Joudan's shoes. Notice how the legs are completely disembodied. I believe that these two are from his shoe campaigns, which would seem to strip these female appendages of even more meaning. The legs are simply exhibited so to sell the comodity which they display. I love the bright colors.

And this one below is a very interesting take on the question of blood. Highly styalized - almost cosmetic.

The Drive Through Strip-Club

This is actually in Pittsburgh. You drive up to a little diamond window (see below) and apparently watch whatever stripper is performing on stage inside.

Last week I was trying to articulate to Michael why I'm so interested in stripclubs and peepshows - I think it has something to do with the male gaze that Kendra posted about. The peepshow both heightens and demonstrates the act of viewing, makes it more illicit. It is not voyeurism because the object of desire is aware of the viewer. It is a complicit relationship between the object and the observer. How can we make our audience feel complicit in the action, yet alienated from it?

Also, think about Act Three, in which there are several layers of observation. Alwa oogles Lulu during their tryst. Rodrigo and Geschwitz spy on Lulu and Alwa. Schoning watches Rodrigo and Geschwitz spying. And we as the audiece watch Schoning watch Rodrigo and Geschwits watch Lulu and Alwa.

Glee's Lea Michele in Marie Claire UK

http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/celebrity/pictures/29545/14/lea-michele-glee-marie-claire-november-cover-shoot.html#stop

This photo in particular:

Is a little bit of what I imagine the painting of Lulu could be. Dr Goll is into Lulu's dancing and also likes the little girl thing- just flatten the boots and make them, the tutu and the hot pants pink. The whole spread reads, to me, uncomfortably little-girl-playing-at-sexy. Maybe that's me putting my "Rachel from Glee" baggage on the adult actress? I'm also a little distressed at how thin she looks. She lost a lot of weight between the first and second season of Glee, presumably to fit in in Hollywood. It's just another way women- real actual human women- need to work really hard to appear as the idealized image of woman.

The 4th image in the slide show also strikes me. Her face, the high angle, the rope in the background, and her pose all put us, the viewer, in a position of power. We, the viewer, are about to do violence to her. Sexy, sexy violence. It plays into the old tropes of sex as something that harms women, how hot it is to degrade women and "take" them sexually, and that penetration = domination.

Kohei Yoshiyuki - 公園/ Park

This 1979 series by Kohei Yoshiyuki is brilliantly disturbing, capturing (with an infrared flashbulb) various couples making love in two Tokyo parks while surrounded by numerous, sometimes intrusive, strangers/gawkers. The original exhibit was presented in a dark gallery with patrons holding flashlights to see the photographs. I love the ghost-like quality of the men; it reminds me of Lulu's line about Dr. Goll's ghost:

• I dream that his burial was a misunderstanding. That he’s here, as if he’d never left. Only now he walks very softly, in stocking feet. The fact I married Schwarz doesn’t anger him in the least. Just a bit sad. But then he’s easily frightened, as if he were here without permission.

Anyway, I like what Wikipedia says: "the photographs raise questions about the boundaries between spectator, voyeur and participant."

Lucinda Devlin - Photos

These are photographs from Lucinda Devlin's two series "Pleasure Grounds" and "The Omega Suites". Her work deals with empty spaces that reveal the culture of it's use. "Pleasure Grounds" focuses on discos, tanning salons and fantasy hotel rooms, while "The Omega Suites" is a survey of execution chambers and other associated interiors. I am extremely interested in the voyeurism inherent in these death-rooms - especially the similarities between these observation rooms and the peep show.

Visual Pleasure and the Narrative Cinema

Here's a link to the PDF of the original.

Laura Mulvey wrote the article in 1975 and it's where the idea of the "male gaze" comes from.

Analysis/simplification coming soon, but for now, read it and ask me questions.