Thursday, June 07, 2007

I need to write this somewhere, so why not here?

I was reading about something called "Structured Procrastination," where you put off doing something important, but you do something else instead. Eventually something will come along that will be more important than that thing that you didn't want to do, so you will put off doing that really important thing and then do what you originally put off. I'm not sure I buy that, since I'm really good at just putting everything off.

Anyway, here's what I need to write, so why not get it on here. If anyone has any comments whatsoever, please feel free to add them. Back to my doctoral dissertation material:

It is true that the underlying issues that are made clear through Morrissey's presentation of his star image--his ambiguity in terms of gender presentation, his performance of masculinity, his expression of an enigmatic persona (in other words, his music, lyrics, media presentation and so forth)--are caused by a hegemonic value system, which prompts those in charge of said hegemonic system to classify Morrissey as problematic or enigmatic, and thus oblige Morrissey to present himself according to these norms (what I think might be considered a "meta-identity").

That was a long sentence, but it gets to one of the ways that I can rethink some of my doctoral work to perhaps make it more attractive and, in fact, more effective. Now I need to flesh out what I mean with this and perhaps try to taylor some of my chapters with this in mind. It shifts the focus away from Morrissey and onto what makes Morrissey what he is. Instead of presenting Morrissey as an enigmatic genius (although I think he is this, to a point), it makes Morrissey into a more "passive" figure (no pun intended - but I don't want to use passive/active in any gender sense here) affected by the "norms" of society, or the hegemonic forces elsewhere.

No comments: