Here is a great example of what we discussed in class today. These girls have a more platonic relationship than Seth and Evan do in Superbad (not to say that they had a sexually charged relationship, but there was, as Nick said, a "bromance"), but they still treat each other with absurd affection. Although this is a gross exaggeration of how best friends actually act, there certainly is an element of truth to it...
LOL this was hilarious! The relationship between the two girls was definitely a lot more exaggerated than Seth and Evan from Superbad. I remember in class we mentioned if two girls were as open with each other as Seth and Evan, it wouldn't be quite so queer...but I honestly felt like the relationship demonstrated in the clip was beyond strange and unusual, to the point of unhealthy. There's a definite difference between Seth/Evan and the two chicks in that Seth and Evan were so close to each other BECAUSE they couldn't attract girls and weren't comfortable with the opposite sex. These two chicks are still so into each other, despite the fact that there is a reasonably attractive guy trying to spend time with the chick in the green shirt. Although the two are comparable situations, I think they're very different and the relationship between the chicks is more odd to me than Seth/Evan's relationship.
ReplyDeleteStudents, you have disappointed me. We must remember that Saturday Night Live is satire. As such, it would seem to be critical of this kind of behavior, wouldn't it?
ReplyDeleteI recognize that this is satire: but if SNL went through the trouble of writing a script about the way girls behave with one another, then is it not based on the reality of girls' observable interactions? Isn't the point of satire to make fun of something real and recognizable? Obviously the show displays this behavior as obnoxious, but my point is that it recognizes the behavior in the first place. Many girls do act strangely obsessive with each other in a way that boys do not. You can observe it in the streets as they walk arm-in-arm, or hear it in their phone calls when they say "Love you!" before hanging up.
ReplyDeleteMy goal in posting the video was not for its content to be taken literally, but for it to be a lighthearted way to consider the same questions we've been posing about inter and intra gender relations.
Obviously the show displays this behavior as obnoxious, but my point is that it recognizes the behavior in the first place.
ReplyDelete. . . which recalls Stuart Hall and Sean Nixon's claims that our understanding of ourselves is predicated on our understanings of other people's behavior--and their identites. In a way, all of this reaffirms Butler, too: If we act in accordance to what we see--if there is some kind of symbiotic relationship between socially constructed conceptions of behavior and the way that we behave--then everything is a performance, right?