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While I am not absolutely convinced by the apparent resemblance between Greg Wallace and Foucault, I thought that you made a very good job of the presentation. All of the theoretical perspectives that the various groups were given have their own particular challenge, but the discursive construction of sexuality is hard thing to apply to a film such as Avatar. Howver, as your research has pointed out, the film is saturated with phantasy and desire, perhaps even to the extent that we can say that it is the most salient aspect of how the film engages us as an audience. Perhaps, rather than being primarily a parable about corporate greed and imperialism it can be read in terms of our contemporary anxieties about the construction of sex and gender. You presented confidently, and between the various group members you obviously did a fair amount of research and analysis, all of which contributed to a good presentation. A willingness to take some risks and research in innovative directions paid of very well!

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edited my part and has jacks new part on!!!

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edited my part and has jacks new part on!!!

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I polished it up and also wrote a conclusion. Jack
p.s if nobody likes the ending let me know or feel free to edit it! :)

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“It’s also a love story about an awakening of perception through the other person. That person must teach him something and there has to be a greater reason for him to be in love with her other than she’s a hot blue alien chick.”James Cameron on Avatar Foucault and Discourse Foucault argues that the discourse of sex- by which he means the classification and analysis of sexuality, is a means of control by society. 19th century- bourgeois society produced true discourses concerning sex. By which heterosexual sex in married relationship true discourse, any other sexual relationships thought to be taboo. However this truth about sex is an illusion.  Talks about ‘two great procedures for producing the truth of sex’ ars erotica and scienta sexualis’  Ars erotica practice used in countries such as Rome, China, Japan. Concerned with sex as an object of pleasure.  Learned .Scienta sexualis, used in west, concerned with confession Avatar as sexual fantasy? Involves relationship that would be seen as deviant Na’vi a more ‘primal’ culture to the earth invaders  not concerned with sexualities, laes. Right or wrong dictated by eywaRelationship between the human Jake Sully and the Na’vi Neytiri is not what would be a ‘normal’ relationship, is deviant. However by becoming one of them in his Avatar body is it now acceptable? Is this the norm? Avatar body is a mix between human and na’vi DNA, is not normal, deviates from norm as it is an artificial body. Audience encouraged to identify with the characters and their relationship together, and root for them to be together. Plot even kills any opposers in the narrative. “The essential point is that sex was not only a matter of sensation and pleasure, of law and taboo, but also of truth and falsehood, that the truth of sex became something fundamental, useful, dangerous, precious or formidable” (56)Jake Sully is the 5authoritative voice in the film at the end, can decide what is the norm and what is not as far as sex? 

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“It’s also a love story about an awakening of perception through the other person. That person must teach him something and there has to be a greater reason for him to be in love with her other than she’s a hot blue alien chick.”James Cameron on Avatar Foucault and Discourse Foucault argues that the discourse of sex- by which he means the classification and analysis of sexuality, is a means of control by society. 19th century- bourgeois society produced true discourses concerning sex. By which heterosexual sex in married relationship true discourse, any other sexual relationships thought to be taboo. However this truth about sex is an illusion.  Talks about ‘two great procedures for producing the truth of sex’ ars erotica and scienta sexualis’  Ars erotica practice used in countries such as Rome, China, Japan. Concerned with sex as an object of pleasure.  Learned .Scienta sexualis, used in west, concerned with confession Avatar as sexual fantasy? Involves relationship that would be seen as deviant Na’vi a more ‘primal’ culture to the earth invaders  not concerned with sexualities, laes. Right or wrong dictated by eywaRelationship between the human Jake Sully and the Na’vi Neytiri is not what would be a ‘normal’ relationship, is deviant. However by becoming one of them in his Avatar body is it now acceptable? Is this the norm? Avatar body is a mix between human and na’vi DNA, is not normal, deviates from norm as it is an artificial body. Audience encouraged to identify with the characters and their relationship together, and root for them to be together. Plot even kills any opposers in the narrative. “The essential point is that sex was not only a matter of sensation and pleasure, of law and taboo, but also of truth and falsehood, that the truth of sex became something fundamental, useful, dangerous, precious or formidable” (56)Jake Sully is the 5authoritative voice in the film at the end, can decide what is the norm and what is not as far as sex? 

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Foucault- The history of sexuality.

We supported a Victorian regime, and we continue to be dominated by it even today.
So the image of the “imperial prude” becomes a part of our restrained, mute and hypocritical sexuality.

Beginning of the 17thcentury- Frankness was still common, sexual practices were not secretive – the obscene and the indecent were quite lax compared to those of the 19th century. It was a time where people could be quite open.
a period when bodies “made a display of themselves”

This ended, following the monotonous nights of the Victorian bourgeoisie. Sexuality became confined and was moved to the home. It became absorbed into the serious function of reproduction.

Everything became sanitized. Children didn’t have sex so they couldn’t talk about it. These are characteristic features attributed to repression. Repression operated as a sentence to disappear but also as an injunction to silence, an affirmation of nonexistence and by implication, an admission that were was nothing to say about such things, nothing to see and nothing to know.

Felt that it was necessary to make room for illegitimate sexualities, the bourgeoisie tried to reason and decided to “let them take their infernal mischief elsewhere: to a place where they could be reintegrated, if not in the circuits of production, at least in those of profit” – Brothels and mental hospitals became the places of tolerance. The prostitute, the priest and the pimp all in the same place – they were seen as the “other” Victorians along with the “hysterics”.

These were places where anything could happen within a strict puritan society which posed its “triple edict of taboo, nonexistence and silence”.

But we are still not liberated – some progress was made by Freud.

If we have been informed that repression is the fundamental link between power, knowledge and sexuality since the classical age, it stands to reason that we will not be able to free ourselves from it except at a considerable cost: nothing less than a transgression of laws, a lifting of prohibitions, an irruption of speech, a reinstating of pleasure within reality and a whole new economy in the mechanisms of power will be required.

The repression of sexuality seems to coincide with the development of capitalism: it becomes an integral part of the bourgeois order.
Sex is so rigorously repressed because it is incompatible with a general and intensive work imperative.

This was a time when labour capacity was being systematically exploited. – how could this capacity be able to indulge in pleasurable pursuits, except in those reduced to a minimum.

There was a demand for sexual freedom, but also for the knowledge to be gained from sex and the right to speak about it- it becomes legitimately associated with the honour of a political cause: sex is too placed on the agenda for the future.

There may be another reason that makes it so gratifying for us to define the relationship between sex and power in terms of repression: if sex is repressed- condemned to prohibition, nonexistence and silence, then the mere fact is that one is speaking about it has the appearance of a deliberate transgression. – makes you place yourself to a certain extent outside the reach of power. – upsets the established law and somehow anticipates the coming freedom.

The notion of repressed sex is not, therefore, only a theoretical matter. The affirmation of a sexuality that has never been more rigorously subjugated than during the age of hypocritical, busting and responsible bourgeoisie is coupled with the grandiloquence of a discourse purporting to reveal the truth about sex.

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The Film Reader's Guide to James Cameron's Avatar

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Director of The Terminator, Aliens and Titanic, James Cameron's latest movie, Avatar, is the most viewed cinema release of all time, yet to date receives little academic attention. Filling the gap, editor of www.DeepFocusFilm.com, Bryn V. Young-Roberts, researches Avatar's historical and cultural relevance with its first in-depth examination while simultaneously discussing the Cameron oeuvre.

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The Na'vi are monogamous creatures who mate for life. The mechanics of reproduction are similar to that of humans and other Terran mammals. However, their unique physiology provides the Na'vi with a level of intimacy unknown on Earth. Cultural anthropologists believe that when an appropriate mate has been selected (which can take many years), the male and female Na'vi will connect queues in an act called tsaheylu to create an emotional bond that lasts a lifetime. The intertwining of queues is both highly erotic and profoundly spiritual, but is not the actual act of sexual reproduction. The tsaheylu bond between Na'vi during mating should not be confused with the non-erotic tsaheylu bonds Na'vi make with animals and plants, like the "mental reining" that Na'vi use to control animals or the use of the queue to access the Pandoran Neural Network.

Traditionally, once a Na'vi male has passed the tests on the path to manhood and has been accepted into the clan as an adult, he is not only allowed to make his bow from the wood of the Hometree, but he is also expected to choose his woman. After the woman has been chosen, the new couple are mated before Eywa. Jake Sully chooses Neytiri to become his mate, and she accepts and mates with him under the Tree of Voices following his acceptance into the Omaticaya clan as 'One of the People'.

Once tsaheylu is made between the couple, the ultimate in intimacy, pleasure that is unfathomable to humans, causes the somewhat unwillful sharing of the couple's good memories, and is a sign of Eywa's acceptance. If a couple can be foreseen to not have a pleasant or happy future, Eywa has been known to reverse the feeling produced by making tsaheylu, a sign to the couple that mating would only, in simple words, ruin their lives together, and therefore prevents the mating, because of its lifelong span. After the resulting embracing and kissing, the couple is sent to sleep by Eywa, and the two dream hintings of their future together. The couple will experience the pleasure of tsaheylu from the moment of connection, until they awaken and have completed mating, and when they disconnect and return to their clan, they are mated for life.

A Na'vi female will typically produce from one to ten offspring, often spaced widely apart in time. Na'vi females have two breasts, and nurse their infants for up to four months. Some Na'vi elect to abstain from reproduction, despite being sexually active. It is not known how contraception is accomplished in this case, although the Na'vi appear to be quite sophisticated in this regard. Sexual activity outside of the bonded pair is not uncommon, but is almost always associated with fertility rituals and other rites, and has never been reported to lead to a disruption of the pair bond. Na'vi males are typically pair bonded with females, but male-male and female-female permanent bonds are not uncommon.

References Edit

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james cameron's avatar: an activist survival guide

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The Na'vi are monogamous creatures who mate for life. The mechanics of reproduction are similar to that of humans and other Terran mammals. However, their unique physiology provides the Na'vi with a level of intimacy unknown on Earth.

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Na'vi Mating Practices | Pandorapedia: The Official Guide to Pandora | Own AVATAR on Blu-ray & DVD Now!

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Sexual activity outside of the bonded pair is not uncommon, but is almost always associated with fertility rituals and other rites, and has never been reported to lead to a disruption of the pair bond. Though the mechanics of reproduction are similar to humans and other earth mammals, the Na'vi's unique physiology provides them with a level of intimacy unknown on Earth.

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Abbi and Ellie's notes on how Foucaults theory can be seen in Avatar.

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Abbi and Ellie's notes on how Foucaults theory can be seen in Avatar.

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Foucault – the history of sexuality

Sexual activity outside bonded pair that mate for life and is their ‘norm’ in Na’vi society - According to Foucault’s ‘Repressive Hypothesis’ things like sex being purely pleasurable are not acceptable in bourgeoisie society. In ‘Avatar’ there is no strict class system and so the institution doesn’t claim discourse on sexuality and cause of this has no power over what’s said or done concerning sex. Cause of that, Na’vi aren’t sexually repressed and haven’t come up with a certain way of talking about sex like we have – the only reason we do is because of larger political rebellion against bourgeois society.

Na’vi having no jobs. No repressive system in place. No need to revolt against the system because there isn’t a (strict) system in place and they’re quite liberated. In Victorian society bourgeois class saw sex as objects of disapproval and unproductive waste of time and energy cause of the strong work ethic. Also don’t need a strict hierarchy, they’re all able to talk openly with each other about sex and do what they want – Foucault says discourse is important because to him language and knowledge is closely linked to power. Whoever determines what can be talked about can determine what can be known and what they can do or think and what they want, there’s no repression. Cause of this they’re able to determine what they think/do/ who they are.

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This is looking very promising. You are really coming to terms with Foucault and also taking the time to analyse the film

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Mollys notes on relating Foucault to Avatar

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Mollys notes on relating Foucault to Avatar

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A new idea of sex? A new creature/ genitalia

Californian spirituality - love each other. Is this what sexual liberation is and is that the reason he wants to become one of them? Sex = a fuller, freer life

Animal like sexuality, ideas similar to a pre-Freudian society. Less psychological reasoning into sexuality. Relates to erotic art from Japan and Ancient Greece that sex was a spiritual thing and fully about giving and receiving 'pleasure' where drive isn't questioned.

Similar sexual ideas to how Foucault believed prostitution and psychiatry release sexual desires safely. This type of sexuality was deemed as 'mad' or 'the other' a long time ago people who had mental health isssues were seen as important or gifted. Now they are below society and seen as 'the other' similar to the way they are perceived in avatar.

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Repressive hypothesis - prostitution and psychiatry are the only places where sexual feelings can be released safely? The people who did this during the 19th century are referred to 'other victorians' known as 'the other' expressive sexuality is deemed 'mad' - the discourse of sex.

Theory (such as post Freudian theories) cannot stop the repression of sexuality, even if it is over talked about through psychology. An attempt to give revolutionary importance to discourse on sexuality.

Discourse on sexuality promises a fuller, freer life. Such as magazine articles (cosmo) advertising uses sexuality to persuade us, as the only thing we need is to be better at sex, to be fully fufilled. we feel repressed as we desperately want to find out more about sex, creating a sexually confused society. If we are repressed, why as a society, do we talk about it so much?

Have we really moved on and progressed or are we part of the same history?

Foucault isn't so much interested in sex but in our drive for a certain kind of knowledge.

Language and knowledge are linked to power. Power exercises the repression of sexuality? The bourgeoisie decide how we talk about sex as they have the power. They want to control and confine sex - a desire to control power - the will to a certain kind of knowledge and a certain kind of power.

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I've done a bit of analysis on a bunch of stuff i spotted in Avatar. Hopefully we can make up a couple of slides with some of it.

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Here's some notes I made on Sara Mills work on Foucault- just some basic things I thought we could include in the presentation like his approach to sexuality through history.