Gossip and Media
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The literature of Jessica Hagedorn, a Philippine American who emigrated to the U.S. in 1961 at age twelve, often illustr`tes the difficulty in forging individual identity in a culture whose mainstream images often disenfranchise based on ethnicity, sex, and sexuality. The media and other social institutions often provide an ôofficialö definition or label of events, categories that seldom portray the whole story when pitted against reality. In a culture where oppression and patriarchal power serve to define identity and expression, Hagedorn demonstrates in novels like Dogeaters that ôgossip,ö (tsismis in Tagalog) is often the only form of valid discourse open to disenfranchised groups like Filipina women. As Pucha describes it in Dogeaters, gossip serves as ôthe center of our livesö (Hagedorn 66). This analysis will explore how media and gossip serve as a means of identity and voice for disenfranchised women in the works of Jessica Hagedorn. In Jessica HagedornÆs City Lights, the author reminds us that, as a Filipina-American, ôThere is a border / One cannot cross / Although the guards are not visibleö (Scharf 52). The invisible guards referred to by Hagedorn are present in her other works as well. For these invisible guards are the ruling elite who, through social institutions like the media, convey images and myths that typically serve to define reality and disenfranchise other groups like women or minorities. Both Philippine and A
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ue of local grass-roots organizations that allow marginalized creative writers of color to recover, reconcile, reconfigure and unite emergent racialized communities.ö
The borders that women cannot cross are often artificial constructions designed by primarily male elites who use such demarcations to reinforce their own power and interests at the expense of marginalized groups. The existence of such social constructions tends to perpetuate myths, stereotypes and other forms of misinformation that serve to undermine the worth and expression of others. In Black: Her Story, Hagedorn (173) uses sarcasm to illustrate the misguided way in which others form ideas or definitions of those subjected to such limiting constructions, ôYou speak English so well. How did you learn so much, swimming from island to island?ö
Racial and ethnic stereotypes are but one outcome of such arbitrarily shaped impressions. They also serve to increased female vulnerability and subjugation. Gossip is often associated with women in a negative manner. However, Hagedorn demonstrates in her works that gossip often serves as one of the few methods of discourse open to women that is free of male definition and control. As one female character says to another
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Approximate Word count = 1687
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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