In our Drama course at GCE we had to create a Civility Dialogue. The question for this dialogue was should men and women be treated differently. We had to have three people talking in our dialogue. One required person in our dialogue was Kate from the Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare. My other two actors were from the teen poetry slam competition LTAB also known as Louder Than A Bomb; Tova Benjamin and AJ Tran. I choose them because LTAB is something that I think is really cool. Also I think these two particular poets have really strong diverse opinions that I thought I could advocate well for in my writing. If I could insert myself into the dialogue and have the last word I would say: I don’t know if men and women should be treated differently because what matters to me is what other people think. They are the ones who have to receive my actions and I would never be able to know how every person would feel. After reflecting on the first two milestones: one being a monologue and one a dialogue, I like writing a monologue better. I like writing a monologue better for two simple reasons. One I find it easier to write creatively. Two I don’t like milestones that involve acting because I don’t like depending on other people to present.
Kate: Thanks for joining me for coffee after the poetry slam. I can’t begin to relay my pleasure in meeting with talented poets like yourselves.
Tova: Thank you
AJ: Thanks.
Kate: During the competition I noticed that both of you have felt like you had to fight the stereotypes of society. Even though your reasons are completely different I can’t help but wonder what your thoughts are on this question: What is the difference between a man and a women?
AJ: I don’t think there is a difference. I have an inexplicable strife with society. Growing up in school with the forced stereotypes of what a girl and boy should be has prepared me for the standards of what being a man or women would mean in this society. “Once I told a teacher my darkest secrets and desires; and she said to me they’re impossible because anatomically I am not a boy. But I questioned her thoughts and ideas and said to myself: under that mask and suit of armor what difference would it make?”
Tova: It is interesting that you say that. Society to begin with has such paltry ideas. I believe that differences are in the eye of the beholder and that for some people, the differences are miniscule. But as small as they might they be, they aren’t small enough to be non-existent. Just like not all the people in a society contribute to the stereotypes; but there still are stereotypes in societies.
Kate: Society is full of stereotypes and standards. Do you think society uses them to control the people?
Tova: Of course. Society is like a dictator; rigid, powerful, selective and irresistible. You can’t escape a dictator. You can only choose how you respond to one.
Kate: Society to me is nothing more than a name; I feel that it’s the people in society who are controling. How do you choose the way you respond to either one of them?
Tova: Well think of all the things you can be to society. A slave, servant, associate, teacher follower, rebel or an outsider. The only goal that was preached to me was to be a peat. I grew up in a society where the standards were set by god. And he shaped those standards into cookie cutters. “I pictured him in heaven making cookie cutters and I realized that my ideas were too big to fit inside. I would say i’m a rebel to society because I always knew I was more than just another cookie.
Kate: In society I feel that one of the biggest controversies is deciding whether women should be treated differently than men. Also what it means to be treated different. I once felt that women are just as strong, powerful and bold as men. I was incensed at the idea that women were any less and thus should be treated as such. It wasn’t until recently that I found a new light. Perhaps being treated different isn’t being treated as less. Maybe they are honoring us and with their honor comes with the expectation of obedience. “Such duty as the subject owes the prince”. (170)
AJ: Kate, the reverence I have for you and your ideas. To say that the moment you are born a female is the moment you are inevitably indebted to a man in is ludicrous and diabolical. It is such a choleric idea. I think society is either afraid of the unknown or “sacrifices peoples’ identities for their sake of simplicity. Society has “planted seeds in our minds and tries to destroy the ones we try to cultivate on our own”. There is no balanced scale to judge the differences between a man and a women thus neither should be treated differently at all.