Angela Shelton Exposed
“If man operates under the threat of castration, if masculinity is culturally ordered by the castration complex, it might be said that the backlash, the return, on women of this castration anxiety is its displacement as decapitation, execution, of woman, as loss of her head. We are led to pose the woman question to history in quite elementary forms like, ‘Where is she? Is there any such thing as woman?’ At worst, many women wonder whether they even exist. They feel they don’t exist and wonder if there has ever been a place for them. I am speaking of woman’s place, from woman’s place, if she takes (a) place” (Helene Cixous 43).”
Men have, for a long time, questioned the ability and existence of women; but it is truly sad that women question their own existence. While watching Searching for Angela Shelton I noticed that from beginning to end the women kept saying that they were nothing, they were no one, or that they are invisible. The most shocking one was a woman that actually believed she was lower than a dog. These women have been mentally and physically abused by people that were supposed to be the ones protecting them. They have been abused so much that they are actually mentally torturing themselves years afterwards. I found that the road was there to intertwine women everywhere together. As Angela was traveling she was building a path that was never taken, and can now be taken by other “Angela Sheltons.” Angela used her camera power to her advantage because she was trying to find her, trying to patch her life together with the help of others who have had the same trauma. The one thing I would change would be to help the other women confront their past, so they have an opportunity to move on. I feel that since they helped her by telling their story, she should help them. I found this documentary very troubling, a big reality hit.