"You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." C.S. Lewis.That is one of my favorite literary quotes. I have never really bought into religion or at least nothing organized, but I have never doubted the existence of a soul. A person can be broken down into their smallest pieces, down to the last ingredient. However, pouring all of that into a bowl and pre-heating the oven to 150 is not going to get you a baby. There is something else that starts it all up. Call it whatever you want: soul, chi, spirit, 'the force'. I have to believe it's there. And, as presented in "Mrs. Ogilvy Finds Herself", I believe it is separate. Also, apparently, recyclable.
The story seemed to go right into questions I ask myself on a daily basis. How much does your soul have to do with your body, anyway? How is it that a soul has to match up with a body at all? Its only the physical packaging. My shoes don't always go back into the same type of box that I bought them in and when I put them into a different box, they are still vans. Like Miss Ogilvy, switching up the packaging has no effect on what's inside.
At least not until somebody gets pissed that these weren't the shoes they meant to get. Then they toss them back, and that produces a little wear n' tare. Not getting what's expected always seems to tick people off.
After reading the story, I can't help but wonder why we expect anything. We all seem to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again, always forgetting that flesh never serves to present as a concrete detail for who a person is. Sex is just another physical characteristic. I'll admit, being born female has produced some complications that I am not too happy with. I can do certain things others can't. I have the ability to produce offspring, and my friend Wesley doesn't. But he's double jointed. I think he got the better deal.
Miss Ogilvy's soul wasn't a prisoner in his body. He did what he felt was right: he found companionship with men, admired women, and fought like a warrior. If a person is meant to do or be something, a water-logged flesh suit isn't going to stop them. Compared to 'life force', what is 20 kilograms of carbon and a couple liters of ammonia going to do?
I loved this passage and Shannon has made some wonderful points. I believe everyone deals with these questions at some point in their life, if not day to day. And who are we all, anyways?
ReplyDeleteThis story is probably one of my favorites so far. I'm an anthropology major, but I'm focusing in archaeology. These are the stories my friends and I create all the time in the wilderness, when we get to hold a precious statuette, or when we have to go through the same pictures again and again trying to figure out what a rock might be. We ask who held them, why they were special, what was this person's life? Were they noble, were they a hero, or did they murder someone? Were they a person of the perpetually mundane? Were they important to someone? And it is no small secret that we all create dramas and comedies about the artifacts we find because...well...they may not have been special to whoever owned them, but they create a connection through the ages.
But Miss Ogilvy took it a step further and that's what I love. What if this person was reborn now, and what if they were born in a form that didn't suit them? That culture deemed wrong on some level for themselves?
I think this has more to do with culture than is originally pointed out. Gender and sex are just features, not a defining factor, despite how many people, how many societies treat it. What if Miss Ogilvy had been born in a culture that accepted women and men to be capable of the same tasks? Was it really the biological sex that was the issue, or was it how people treated him because of that sex? And though you may have already thought all this and I may be making a useless point, I think it is very important to see the distinction.
I love how all my classes are relating back to this same message of "who are we" and what we are. Gender and sex are two completely opposite things and how you choose to express the both of them shouldn't matter. The story of Miss Ogilvy again reminds me of what I am also discussing in another class of mine which the topic is of transmen and transwomen. How does society identify them? At what point did they decide to make the decision to be apart or become the other sex? The question of "why" is one that everyone asks on a daily basis and what the story of Misses Ogilvy I believe ultimately encompasses.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I thoroughly enjoyed reading the story, I can't help but feel anger towards people who question others ability to express themselves. Who deemed these particular people KINGS and QUEENS OF THE WORLD, to have an issue with whether or not you look or act the par. But I guess in reality that is the world's way of tossing us back the middle finger and reinforcing hegemonic order as we know it. We all have different ways of identifying our uniqueness and agreeing with what Moriarty said, I too think that this has more to do with culture than anything.
I feel really conflicted on how I view what really defines one’s gender. I’d like to think that most people have been socialized into behaving a certain way according to their sex and that gender really has no real meaning because it’s not something that you are born with but rather just a social expectation. However, in my child psychology class, I saw a documentary that really made me second guess whether females and males really do have a “gender”. In this film, there were two male twin babies that went to get a circumcision. One of the surgeries went horribly wrong, and the doctors suggested that instead of having a deformed penis, that the penis be changed into a vagina and have the baby be socialized as any girl would be. The mother accepted and the boy was brought up as a girl. With age, they noticed that girl was very “masculine” and didn't enjoy doing stereotypical things little girls do such as playing with dolls, wearing dresses, etc. Anyways, the story has a tragic end. The transgender girl decided to live his life as a male but too much confusion had caused a big toll on his self-esteem and he ending up committing suicide. I bring this up, because I think that gender is very hard to analyze. It could be that for the most part, it is just a social norm. But there could be some truth and connection to one's sex.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this reading. I was glued to every page and I'm not sure why; possibly because I have never read any fictional or non fictional texts pertaining to transgenderism. The fact that Shannon uses the term recyclable to describe the soul is so fitting. The past life sequence at the end of the story really ties that concept together and supports Shannon's point.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting how Wilhelmina (William) was judged based on attributes, mannerisms, pastimes, etc.. because to an extent, and correct me if I am wrong, but I do believe that at least half of the people who consider themselves a part of the GLBTQ community have faced this same type of judgment from peers, family, even strangers. I found it relative in the sense that I too have faced this 'judgment' from people I both know and do not know, but I for one, have never been a strict follower of societal norms.
At least with my experiences, Transgenderism is a foreign concept to me and I enjoyed reading what it was like to be a transgender person through William. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was sad and unacceptable what William had to go throughout the course of the story, that was not enjoyable, but I did find it interesting that the story took on such a role, since this probably was not a topic most discussed when the story was published.
It's interesting that Miss Ogilvy's feelings of queerness and masculinity also coincided with her feelings of responsibility to support her family. Once again it seems that predetermined gender roles are very influential on most of our thoughts, feelings and decisions, even if we aren't aware of it. I am very glad we are addressing more than just "Gay and Lesbian" literature, as I have heard the many frustrations of friends who feel that other queer identities (such as bisexuality and transgender identities) are not as well represented. The word queer is also used a remarkable number or times in the first few pages, as Miss Ogilvy describes her awkward feelings towards her body. This seems to give the term a negative connotation, which brings up the question of: what the bloody heck does queer mean exactly??"
ReplyDeleteThis particular reading was so unconventional are artistic that it kept m whole attention, as I see it did for a number of my classmates, as well. I'm so intrigued, I think, by the text do not only to its transgender subject matter, but because the subject of transgenderism is explored using a woman as a case study. So often, in our patriarchal society, even LGBT issues tend to have a male focus. Admittedly, this trend has lessened as feminism takes it's own unique hold on the gay community, but it was still very refreshing to read such an interesting take on a female-to-male transgender experience--though we do then run into the question of whether this story is really about a women or a man, potentially making my intrigue moot.
ReplyDeleteAs to Shannon's post, and the concepts of recyclable souls, reincarnation, and past lives add a whole new depth to the idea of transgenderism, lending an new, almost spiritual aspect to the state (or affliction) of being born into a body that contradicts the gender of the soul. I think, for this reason, there is a kind of afintity among the gay community for transcendent eastern religions, like Buddhism. There is comfort in the idea that in the next life cycle, the struggle of being born into the wrong body may be lifted, the soul absolved of the contradiction in the same way the the soul, through good works, might be spared being born into the body of a cockroach.
This is such a late post, but here I go...
ReplyDeleteI was not expecting this story to have such an underlying spiritual aspect to it. The whole idea of reincarnation and body v. soul (as was further explained in Shannon's post) was woven into Miss Oglivy's life. The idea of trans-identity, in terms of what you're born as versus who you're born as, was interwoven into the story in an expertly subtle way. It presented me with a concept that I did not know too much about already.
As for your post, Shannon, I enjoyed your perspective. Maybe it's just the way you write, but I had a fun time reading your post. Especially your last line, "Compared to 'life force', what is 20 kilograms of carbon and a couple liters of ammonia going to do?" A truly insight and entertaining read.