Massad

This is Sarah. I found the Joseph Massad reading, "Re-Orienting Gay Desire: The Gay International and the Arab World" to be fascinating and insightful. Massad argues that the efforts of the gay international are in turn causing an increased homophobic culture in the Middle East. The ILGA (International Lesbian Gay Association) was founded in 1978 as part of the universal human rights campaign. Its mission is to"create a platform for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people internationally, in their quest for recognition. equality, and liberation." The ILGA has placed much emphasis in Middle Eastern cultures and African countries such as Europe. Although its intentions are commendable, the ILGA has instilled fear in the civilians of these nations. According to Massad, a term was not given to "homosexality" until the 1950s. Homosexuality simply is not discussed in the main stream of the Middle East.

The recent attention to homosexuality has caused an unfortunate uproar in its opposition. Too add to the Middle Eastern naiiveness, homosexuality is still defined by sexual behavior. It is viewed as an act rather than a form of relationship and love. Men that escape to Egypt to meet other gay men are being punished. According to Massad, on May 11, 2001, police in Cairo raided a discotheque in the Nile and arrested fifty-five people. These men were not caught performing sexual act. They were arrested for the sole reason of being in the presence of a "gay event". This is truly outrageous.

The ILGA's has brought awareness to homosexuality in the Middle East, but in a negative notion. The people of the Middle East are scared of the idea of homosexuality and are now making the practice illegal. The naiiveness and ignorance of these people is truly disheartening.

Can spicy foods be pleasurable?

Photo: Webmd.com

 This is Nidhi

As a college student, I rarely find time to actually enjoy life beyond the world of studying, working, and attending a million meetings during the week. Usually, I try to make a habit of going to my favorite restaurants in the city at least once every few months during the year.

The last time I went to this restaurant was about five months ago. Even though the restaurant is quite small and always crowded, I do not let those things bother me. During the wintertime, it does get rather cold waiting outside in below freezing temperatures just for a table at this restaurant. Nevertheless,  I do not mind waiting because I usually anticipate eating a delicious meal at this restaurant even weeks prior to my planned visit.

Every time I visit this restaurant, some sporting event is usually showing on the flat screen television that is awkwardly placed in the far corner of the restaurant. The television is practically pointless to have in the restaurant because you can barely hear anything due to the commotion caused by the loud jazz-fusion music that has a hint of an oriental touch. And forget about expecting to catch a glimpse of the final inning of the World Series or the last minutes of the Super Bowl. It is nearly impossible to see anything on the screen, regardless of having the seats closest to the television.

Despite the chaotic atmosphere and poor lighting, I still make the two-hour commute to eat at this restaurant. For me, the pleasurable experience comes solely from the spicy food. Many people think I am crazy because I enjoy the spiciest of dishes that the world has to offer. I actually find my eating experience more pleasurable when the food is so spicy that I am forced to drink at least a pitcher of water.

While waiting for my food, I could just smell the ever so tantalizing combination of lemon grass, cilantro, galangal (used in Asian cooking and looks similar to ginger), lime leaves, lime juice, topped off with a spicy vegetarian broth that includes some of the hottest chili peppers one could imagine. As the first course was served, the scorching hot, spicy soup practically burnt off my taste buds. However, I was completely satisfied. My entire mouth was on fire and I could barely taste the soup after a few spoonfuls because my tongue was pretty much numb from the spices. As my friend watched me devour my first course, she asked me how could eating spicy food that made your forehead sweat be so enjoyable and not painful? 

Due to my Indian upbringing, I have been eating the spiciest of foods since I was in kindergarten. Overtime, my tolerance increased and I like to search for restaurants with the spiciest foods. Some people may find my pleasurable eating experience to be quite strange because I am not enjoying something decadent like a double-chocolate cake or French fries off of the McDonald’s menu. Personally, the long wait at this restaurant is worth it, only if I leave with a stomach full of water and a mild case of heartburn on the side. 

A Chocolate Experience!

       This weekend my boyfriend and I wanted to go for a nice meal in the city. Being the chocoholic that I am I wanted to take him to Max Brenner’s Chocolate Factory! I had only been there once before and remembered an amazing selection of desserts. We arrived there around 3:30 and it looked much different than I remembered. All the lights were on and it was rather loud. There was obviously a difference between lunch and dinner at this restaurant. We were seated at a table with two other tables about one foot away from us. It was apparent they were trying to seat everyone they could.

            Being in this class gave me a different view of this restaurant than I had before. The menu was full of entrees and desserts that were very indulgent. The names themselves made them more desirable, my mouth was watering just reading about them.

            I ordered Max’s Sunday Mood Pasta, which was as heavy as it sounds. Although quite delicious I was a little surprised by the small size of it for thirteen dollars. For the same price I received my dessert, which was humongous. It was called “The Euphoria Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge Sundae.” It included “deep chocolate peanut butter ice cream, dulce de leche ice cream, caramelized toffee bananas, pure chocolate chunks, milk chocolate sauce and warm peanut butter sauce, garnished with whipped cream and crunchy hazelnut bits, served with extra peanut butter sauce and very pure milk chocolate ganache.” Talk about the recipe for diabetes! I ate about half of it before I felt like I would throw up if I ate anymore. This euphoric experience quickly turned into sickly. This dessert was definitely made for two and had some false advertising! I tried and tried to eat more but could not. The first three bites were the most amazing thing in the world and then it was just gross. I felt awful for not being able to finish it.

            As we were finishing up dessert a waiter came around putting candles on the tables, obviously for dinner. I recalled what it was like to be here at night and how much different the atmosphere was. It was a celebration of the consummation of chocolate. Even in the menu it talked about the tradition of chocolate and the ceremony it was to drink or eat it. The afternoon it seemed to be mostly friends and was to get customers in and out. At night, however, there was an obvious shift to a romantic and seductive atmosphere, where there was only candlelight and chocolate. The menu screamed pleasure using words to name food like yummy, fingering, euphoric, melting, and deep. They have created a new world in this restaurant that keeps people coming back to try more. Their unique use of such a desirable food has only made customers yearning for more. Even now I am craving to go back.

Ashley Burger

Location! Location! Location!

Jennifer:

Photo courtesy of restaurant-publicity.com



“Will the table in the middle of the room be okay?”

“You don’t have anything else?”

“Well, we do, but it would be at least an hour wait.”

“That’s okay. We’ll take the one you have open."

The look was unmistakable. They weren’t trying to conceal their thoughts, not even for the trifling reason of maintaining social etiquette.  The older of the two leaned forward to get a good look at what she thought she saw walk in. She leaned back. The two whispered for a few seconds. The other turned completely around, eyes wide open. I began to twitch. She turned back around and the chitchatting resumed. The older leaned forward yet again. I felt the heat shoot up into my face. The other turned around. Breathe. I need to breathe. They began to look more and more irritated. Do I ask them if there is something wrong? Maybe I can help them understand something? I fought the urge to do so. They continued to watch the show with their perturbed faces for another few minutes and then got bored and returned to their meals.

I laughed when I wrote “show”. That’s the best part! There was NO show! We had just sat down like “normal” people. I hate to blame it all on the location, but that was definitely my immediate thought. We were in my neighborhood on the South Shore of Staten Island. There’s a particular way women should look over there, you know. I seemed to fit the part perfectly that night. However, it was very clear that the person I was there with did not. She possessed a much less feminine look than the locals could probably accept me sitting with. Or possibly I didn’t possess the right look to be out to dinner with her?

No worries! All of their questions were answered when the waiter brought the toaster oven over to the table. It’s been confirmed. She was recruiting.

Babette's Feast: The Fear of Pleasure

Jennifer:

Photo courtesy of images-amazon.com

The fear of pleasure that exists within some people never ceases to amaze me. Yes, I know. This is a bit ignorant of me to say, especially after everything covered thus far this semester. However, I still find I am bit taken back each time I witness it. In the film, Babette’s Feast, the concept of food as a source of great and even forbidden indulgence is quite prominent. The food eaten by the sisters and the disciples throughout most of the movie consisted of repressed, Protestant food such as dried fish. The purpose of food was just for nourishment and used as a means of survival.

As the film progresses, Babette, the servant that has been with the sisters for 14 years, wins the lottery and insists on preparing a feast for the sisters and the disciples. After a bit of persistence, the sisters agree. The sisters begin to watch as Babette prepares the French ingredients. They appear to be almost stunned when they see the wine. One even says, “Surely, that is not wine!”  Their initial response was to tell the rest of disciples and apologize for “the devil spirits they have exposed them to”.  Once again, we see the direct correlation between indulgence in pleasurable activities and the devil.

They went ahead with the dinner, but they attempted to keep strictly to a code of conduct during the meal. They dressed all in black, black symbolizing the devil. It looked as if they were in mourning. Each time the General would comment on how delicious the food was, the responses would be completely unrelated. They tried earnestly to “remember they lost their taste buds”. However, we watched their merriment increase as the meal progressed. By the end of the meal, they had abandoned all guilt associated with indulging in flavorful, rich foods and enjoyed with great intensity their dinner as a “love affair”.

Babette's Feast

By Hayley Turner

In class we have been made to watch another movie about a repressed Protestant town. This movie Babette's Feast, unlike The White Ribbon, included characters that were not directly related to the town and characters that were not even Protestant. This variation in movies, gives Babette’s Feast an interesting comparison between the Protestant life style and those outside the Protestant ethic.

The first comparison that can be made is between the military officer and the sisters from the Protestant town. The house that the officers is from is huge and nice, the life style shown is excess, extravagance and includes showing wealth. This house is drastically different than the house in which the girls’ live. The girls’ house is small, and grey. There life has no color, is dull and they live a simpleton life.

The next major comparison can be made between the singer and one of the sisters. The singer attempts to persuade the sister to leave and start a singing career. The singer believes that everyone wants fame and money and uses this, as well as love, to try and get the sister to leave the town. However, the sister is devote in her teaching and in the Protestant ethic that she refuses to leave and remains in the town.

The last and most important comparison can be the feast sequence at the end of the movie. At the feast there are several Protestant individuals and the Officer and his aunt. The meal is being prepared by Babette a French women and is not Protestant. The Protestant guest at the feast have agreed to eat the food with out comment, or show of pleasure or enjoyment. This is not the case for the officer who shows his pleasure with each of the different courses that are presented. The interesting aspect to this sequence is how the film is able to portray the inner conflict between the Protestant guest and there ability to enjoy the food.

End the War on Pot

Photo:Getty Images

This is Nidhi

Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill were two philosophers that helped introduce the basis for utilitarianism. Bentham believed in the notion human beings must avoid all pain and seek anything pleasurable. For Bentham, something was considered to be morally right if the majority of people believed that idea was beneficial and will help the general population seek more pleasure and avoid pain. He did not want human beings to use emotions or sympathy when making any decisions. Bentham firmly believed that is something is considered to be “intrinsically good,” it must be sought after especially if it helped avoid pain and gave the greatest amount of happiness.

Mill approached utilitarianism a little differently than Bentham. Mill believed that human beings should seek anything that provided them with more pleasure than pain, but he did not treat all types of pleasure equally like Bentham. Mill felt that there needed to be some distinction between “higher pleasures” and other pleasures. Higher pleasures included academic fields like art and literature. Mill believed that people would get the greatest amount of pleasure from these higher pleasures and there is nothing like gaining pleasure by expanding one’s knowledge.

Nicholas Kristof
Photo: NYTimes.com

In Nicholas Kristof’s article, End the War on Pot, he brings forth some interesting points about marijuana. In a utilitarian standpoint, he is only looking at marijuana’s benefits in an economic perspective and he completely neglects the pleasure aspect of marijuana. Many people who like to use marijuana simply use it as a form of pleasure and enjoyment. If Kristof was truly going to use utilitarian thinking, he should have included the principle of avoiding pain to seek more pleasure. Realistically, people who like to smoke marijuana are mainly seeking pleasure. It appears that Kristof was trying to advocate for making marijuana legal, but trying to do it without being controversial. If he had said that marijuana is a pleasurable substance in the majority of his opinion piece, he may have had fewer people agreeing with him. When Kristof spoke about the economical benefits, he was trying to avoid the most important part of marijuana: pleasure.

In an article in Time, the author cites Kristof and talks about how marijuana is always considered to be a gateway drug. Even Kristof suggests that legalizing marijuana could be problematic because some people will get addicted and then move on to even harder drugs. However, Maia Szalavitz, the author of Marijuana the Gateway Drug: The Myth That Will Not Die, claims that even researchers believe that there are no facts that show marijuana users will become addicted to harder drugs. She does point out that people who have tried marijuana may move on the harder drugs.  However, this is mainly due to the fact that drug dealers that supply marijuana often encourage users to try even harder drugs that they can offer. Many people that are drug abusers use harder drugs and the first substance that they have ever tried is usually marijuana, or more frequently alcohol.  I guess the country will have to wait until tomorrow night to see how voters view marijuana.