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PYGMALION WARS
by
George Bernard Shaw wrote a play turned into
a movie turned into a musical
about a sculptor, Pygmalion (of Crete) who created a female statue, Galatea, so
beautiful he
fell in love with it...and prayed Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, to make her a real
woman. In
the play, the movie and the musical, there was a happy ending...a 'squashed
cabbage leaf' from the gutters of London was turned into a lovely lady.
Henry Higgins was a teacher and wanted to use knowledge as a liberating
force...so he accepted Liza Doolittle as a student and taught her upper
class ways to talk, to walk, to dress, and to eat. Symbolic Interactions,
of the depoliticized sort, find the movie most helpful to their
classes...indeed, I do a movie lab using My Fair Lady...but then I critique
it for its mindless sexism...as well.
Successful re-socialization was defined in the musical, My Fair Lady, when
Liza became as a sort of companion for Higgins...not quite a wife; a bit more
than a servant. The movie ended with Higgins demanding Liza Doolittle fetch
him his slippers...a wifely thing to do in Shaw's world.
Shaw, something of a socialist, thought that class distinctions based upon
birth, dialect and dress should be eliminated...gender should, of course,
be continued as a natural and holy social differentiation...in the play,
movie and musical.
But human emancipation requires more of the
teacher than improved skills in
symbolic interaction. Human emancipation requires systematic dismantling of
almost all forms of social inequality. Reproduction of Race, class,
gender, ethnic, international and religious inequalities in classroom,
media, politics, church and work as well as market place are the larger
concerns of the radical teacher.
It is most helpful to the human project that students be aware of the great
differences in symbolic interaction...especially those which reproduce
racist, sexist and class inequality but that is just a first step...a
second step it to be found in treatment of studies such as that by
Rosenthal and Jacobson.
'Pygmalion in the Classroom' is a classic. In this study,
Robert Rosenthal
and Lenore Jacobson told teachers that some 20% of their students were
'spurters' and were expected to show considerable intellectual growth the
academic year. This 20% were picked at random...and Lo and Behold, they
did show marked improvement on intelligence tests.
A remarkable Pygmalion Study, this kind of research helps interactionists
and other teachers to show the endemic effects of racism, class and gender
inequality in the classroom...pernicious effects which cripple the students
of teachers everywhere...not just in Oakland, California.
Another, less well considered finding of the study was that all children in
the six grades showed improvement...not just the experimental group...all
students gained...teachers in the study did not 'rob Peter' to 'help Paul.'
Those who oppose Affirmative Action on the grounds that special help to
some robs others of their chance may have cause to pause in their critique.
It well may be the case that helping destroy racism, gender oppressions
and class privileges creates a situation in which we all benefit...maybe.
If you would like to read the whole study, it can be found in an excellent
book of readings by Peter Kollock and Jodi O'Brien entitled The Production
of Reality...published by Pine Forge, a Sage Publication...1993.
There are a lot of movies which lend
themselves to the Pygmalion Wars against
racism, sexism and class privilege. The the Radical, Emancipatory Teacher will
consider using some of all of those provided by the Red Feather Institute.
Below are a few. Students like movie labs
and, set well within the logic of lectures
and readings, movie labs can be wondrous teaching tools. Below is a link to some
on the Red Feather Website.
******
Some movies you may want to use.
My Fair Lady is a very long movie lab...I allow three hours for it...20
minutes or so for a tutorial over the sociological terms to be illuminated
in the movie and 2 1/2 hours for the movie itself...I usually book a room
for the entire semester...usually Thursday afternoon...
The Movie itself is a delight...a lot of great songs, good graphics and
entrancing characters...it embodies the most famous Pygmalion Story of them
all...a flower girl is taught the interactional skills of an upper class
lady. I will add that movie lab to those already on the Red Feather website.
Casablanca is one of the rare movies in which a male, Rick, transforms from
a cynical, self-serving survivor into a compassionate and courageous human
being able to put self aside for a larger, more human cause. Set in North
Africa during the early years of WWII, Rick is confronted with an old love
who needs help. In helping her, he helps her husband...in helping the
husband, he helps the larger cause and finds himself in the process. A
touching romantic story in which two people come to an honest love in the
belief the husband had been murdered by Nazis, both, reluctantly, accept
the end of the romance. Again, the female in this Pygmalion story fits
well within the logics of patriachy...'Oh, Rick, you must decide for both
of us...' Ingrid Bergman says to Humphrey Bogart.
Dead Poets Society is also a Pygmalion
Story...Neal is destroyed by his
parents who reject his dreams to be an actor/poet: the other young men are
transformed into agents of their own morality by the death of Neal and by
the firing of their teacher...another poignant story of transformation in
spite of the monopoly of power over the symbolic interactional process by
parents and by school administrators...not true in real life very often but
still helps students understand that which could be rather than accepting
that which is.
The
Wizard of Oz is a timeless Pygmalion Story in which four characters
come into the fullness of their morality with the help of an old Fraud, the
Wizard of Oz. Dorothy embodies the quest for community and family; the
Strawman embodies the brainless farmers who could learn to think for
themselves. The Tinman is the exploited factory worker whose heart is
destroyed by its oppressor, Eastern capitalists, in the form of the Wicked
Witch from the East. The Tinman wants to be able to love again...he once
had a girlfriend but lost the capacity to love when the WWWEast tore his
heart from his chest... The Cowardly Lion learns to be brave in the many
dangers which beset the foursome on their way to help destroy Western
Capitalists, in the form of the WWWest.
Another Pygmalion movie of recent vintage is Good Will Hunting...who, much
as Liza Doolittle, is taken from the slums of New Jersey and into the Halls
of MIT...but education is not enough to do the job of transforming Will
Hunting...he needs to embody the capacity to love...and with the help of a
strong woman, Skylar, he does just that.
Both class and gender inequalities are targetted in this film...students
like it...our job is to tell them why they like it.
There are other movies labs which try to
emancipate students in other ways.
And more will be added this semester for those of you who teach and who
want to use movie labs in the quest for emancipatory knowledge on behalf of
your students.
TR Young, Director
The Red Feather Institute
TR Young, 8085 Essex
Weidman, Mi., 48893
Email: tr@tryoung.com