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Attending A Full Nude Production

Decent Essays
Attending a full nude production often comes with guilty anticipation in American culture. Even the most modest of attendees enter the space with bold-boundary-breaking, fuck-rules-on-purpose kind of swagger. In the case of Untitled Feminist Show this “swagger” is no match for counter-cultural performance that addresses naked truth of what public feminist space can be.
While some of the play is quite literally bottoms up, Untitled Feminist Show does not hold to typical a bottom-up model of community work which feminists are known for (Hyde 2005). Theatrical performances by nature are public spaces, and use the public sphere as its arena to communicate stories and messages to a greater community. Young Jean Lee uses theater in a unique way
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However, does Ms. Lee have the power to remove patriarchy from a space? No I don’t believe she can or did, she does not wipe away the structure of male tyranny rather spotlights its fallibility. While empowering and engaging patriarchy still “ran the show” so to speak. By being a production that required payment and a physical ticket to enter uses economic hierarchy, an economic model male driven and historically oppressive to women and those without disposable income. Referencing the roots of community organizing and the work of Jane Addams, “involvement of people ... focused on issues related to adult education, community based planning and research, and social and political action” (Weil, Gamble, Williams 1998), should be at the center of organizing. Addressing Feminism in a highly sophisticated and academically oriented way, does not draw in women seeking validation, education, or solutions to issues faced by women, regardless of the topics present in the Play’s content. Furthermore, the irony of a male majority audience, speaks to the cultural acceptance of males viewing female nudity, entitlement in entering public spaces, and the powerlessness and inability to create an “all female space”. One male audience member commented, “this play is answer to all that is wrong with the vagina monologues” and implied that this conclusion was
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