bashoGWSS1

While contemplating Alice’s everyday life the observations that I made were how gender in relation to power and in relation to “doing gender� is not something that a person is born with. Doing gender and finding out what power you have in relation to gender is something that you learn from the society you live in. And sometimes knowing where you stand or how you should act in society is very confusing and frustrating to learn.
This relates specifically to Alice in the movie cusp. Alice is a young teenager trying to find out what power she has and who she is in society but is presented with many mixed singles that she has to sift through to understand society in relation to her. Alice’s neighbor lady who helps her mother bring her up is telling Alice to look pretty, wait for a man to come along and do whatever they say. In contrast to her neighbor lady’s suggestions and “life advice� Alice’s mother tells her to stay strong and to stick up for herself when men try to bully her. Specifically, her mother impounds this in her head with the vendor selling the jewelry gives Alice the incorrect amount of change.
According to Marx, power comes to those who have material things and posses a lot of money and objects. If you don’t have the material unfortunately you have less power and therefore have less say and respect in our culture. Alice encounters this in the everyday life and creates a great deal of stress on her. For example, Alice was yelling at her mom because of the stress of school and friends. Her friends decided to exclude her and treat her poorly because she did not have a sleeping bag or “the object� therefore she is less powerful.