Devising Journal #3

Week 3, 23rd August 2022:

The presentation topic this week was on Body Politics, and I was fascinated by the way our presenters linked the body to the various possible states of being: The female body, the disabled body and other identities linked to physicality. Being quite the mover (I sincerely apologize to everyone who keeps telling me that I'm a dancer), I was really intrigued by the idea of Corporeal Feminism by Elizabeth Grosz, and the various approaches that culminates in the unified body where physiognomy and psychology share a fundamental connection. That body-mind relationship really spoke to my understanding of how the actor's body shapes the mind and self, and vice versa.

Dance or movement, then, is the sharing of one's identity - the many little social and historical patterns that make up the unique fingerprint of a person's movement, as I might paraphrase from Lloyd Newson. Controversial topics such as abortion, anorexia and homosexuality may influence the ways some people hide or show themselves in everyday life and in performance, and control mechanisms exerted by the government and other non-government organizations too influence the way we move and express ourselves, whether or not we are conscious of that fact. We were even asked to consider if industrialization was too a means to which body politics could invade into the realm of movement - in a society where everyone must work to earn a living, are bodies nothing more than machines of production?

Finally, the presentation concluded with the linking question: Now that we understand how the body can affect performance, politics and every aspect of life, is it true that the body of a female must therefore impose certain restrictions on the characters of Lady White Snake?

The activity this week was about a courtroom scene in which we argue for the rights of Lady White Snake on the basis that she was pregnant with Xu Mengjiao. Frankly, I felt uncomfortable with the direction of the game as it did not feel right to argue for the rights of a woman on the sole basis that she is carrying another human. As a feminist, the idea of restricting the image of a good woman to a pregnant mother, as if Lady White Snake needed to be that before she could be redeemed from her "sins" of being demonic by nature, was inherently disconcerting.

However, the topic being body politics, it was impossible to avoid mention of her state, but I definitely thought that if I were given the time, I would construct a more thoughtful argument that strikes down both sides, because to me, Bai Su Zhen is neither the Madonna nor the Whore. She simply is an individual who exists as is, without any of the labels that others pin on her to ascertain her worth. That, perhaps, is my main takeaway for the day.