​NOTES ON OLEANNA AND BLACKBIRD

There's an idea in both of these plays that part of what hurts the women and makes them feel violated is not any physical contact but rather this sense of a towering presence, a man who casts a shadow over them, who is in some way demeaning them just by looking at them. 

Oleanna is written by David Mamet
Black Bird is writen by David Harrower

It's sort an interesting problem, the idea that we can't really ignore gender. Like, in the Mamet play, how the professor interrupts her, and says he "likes her" and puts his arm around her and like... sure, it all feels innocuous but it's also happening because she's a woman. But how is he really supposed to help that? How are any of us supposed to change the fact that we treat genders differently? Or that there are artificial constructs that create power dynamics - age, status, gender, societal norms... It's like, the playing field is never even in these plays, in these situations... 

I think part of what's interesting, particularly in Oleanna, is the notion of privilege as being basically invisible to the privileged. Like, part of the problem with it is that people who have privilege never consider their own power or position or ability... they just accept that they're entitled to certain things and that feels normal. But to people without privilege, the exercise of someone else's privilege over them is terrifying and dehumanizing. 

Basically, if you're a man in a position of power (professor, say) dealing with a woman not in a position of power (student, say) it feels like plenty of inappropriate stuff could happen without you, the man, ever considering that you're exerting some sort of force. I'm not sure how much sense this is making but it's like... If a snack has venom that paralyzes its prey. The snake doesn't really think, WOW, I totally paralyzed that rat with my bite, the snake just acts because it can. And then it eats the prey, because that's just what's supposed to happen. 

It is also good to note that women in these plays are somewhat culpable. That women obviously have a knowledge that part of their power comes from attractiveness and flirting and playing on their charms. That's not really how things should be, but women know that and they use that, and it's part of what leads men to behave the way they do. It kind of humanizes the women too, to give them complexity and not just make them victims. Like, feminine wiles are a thing. For a woman to not realize that makes her seem 2D.