Othello 4

The transcription discusses how gender is portrayed in the play Othello. Women are treated unfairly, seen as property, and objectified. The character Iago manipulates and controls women, and men are viewed as superior. The discussion highlights the dehumanizing treatment of women and the lack of agency they have. The group also mentions a song that reflects the theme of the play. Overall, the transcription explores the unequal treatment and objectification of women in Othello. Hey guys, welcome to... Today we're going to be talking about how gender is portrayed throughout Othello. Specifically, we're going to be looking into how throughout Othello women are treated unfairly versus their male counterparts. But first, we're going to introduce ourselves. I'm Dani. I'm Daisley. I'm Nadelia. I'm Tony. Throughout Othello, women are treated like property, treated less than, and seen as objects. So throughout Othello, just to give a brief overview so that people can be reminded, Othello is a story about a black man who they call Amor, and he married a woman named Desdemona. He had to pick a lieutenant, a head lieutenant, like his right-hand man, and instead of picking a man named Iago who thought he was going to get the promotion because he had a bunch of experience, he picked someone who had like no battlefield experience named Cassio. And so Iago got really angry at this, and so he created a whole plan in order to basically overthrow Cassio and Othello. And in the end, there was just a lot of tragic deaths, and it led to Iago's own demise anyway. But what's interesting is the way that Iago and all the other men talk about women throughout Othello. Specifically in the first act where he was trying to get Desdemona's father to get angry with Othello because he wanted to basically discredit them, or discredit Othello specifically, because he wanted to make it seem like, oh, Othello's like this thief, like he stole your daughter, he bewitched her, and he got Rodrigo's help, who was another soldier. And basically when they're talking about what he did to Desdemona, he acts like she's like his property. So in act one, scene three, Brabantio is the father of Desdemona, and he's arguing and he says that he basically stole his daughter, that Othello stole his daughter. And Othello says, for such proceedings, I am charged with all, I won his daughter, which the way he talks about Desdemona basically makes it seem like she's a prize to be won, which doesn't really sit right with me. I feel like talking about a woman as if she's an object, like a prize to be won, is really dehumanizing, because it makes it seem like she's nothing but a prize. She's not a human being, she doesn't have emotions, she doesn't have any sort of value past that. Like she's just there to make him look good, because, oh, she's so pretty, because she's so that. And so I don't like that, because a woman is more than just a prize and to make a man look good. A woman is her own being and she has her own thoughts. Another quote that shows how women are treated differently is, Sometimes it is true or not, why has a breast so pure? Act 3, scene 3, line 138. This shows how women are sexualized in Othello and how they treat women as if they are objects that they own. Beautiful. Oh my god, okay. Act 2, scene 3, page 85, line 358. She repels him for her body's lust. Again, they are hyper-sexualizing women, pretty much dehumanizing them, treating them as if they don't have a choice but to be sexualized. They're like objects to be sexualized by men. In Act 3, scene 3, line 476. Othello yells in anger, damn her, dude means damn her. I believe that Othello views Desdemona as a lustful prostitute. Alright, on the topic of how women are hyper-sexualized, we're going to do a group discussion. Starting with Dani. So we're not starting with Dani. I'm low-key blaming Iago for all of this. He has so much beef with women for no reason and the way he spits lies to everyone to make women seem worse than they actually are is just really not sexy, sweet, or yummy and Iago... I look at him and I read what he says and he has absolutely no shame. He has no shame. When he's talking about how women are this, women are that, he's like, you guys pretend like you're all innocent, and then when you guys are the ones doing it, and then when you guys get hurt, you guys get all upset, and I'm like, gross. Didn't Iago target him? He doesn't care about that. He will do anything to bring down women. Didn't at the end of the book, he pretty much told his wife to shut the fuck up? Like, does no one else remember that? At the very end, she was like, no, I'm going to continue speaking. He was like, stop. Immediately. Yeah, he was telling her to stop talking. And then also there was a time where he was introducing her to Desdemona, and they were talking, and she was like, so you're just not going to compliment me at all, huh? And he was like, nope. He was like, I'm just going to talk smack about you the whole time, because women suck. And I was like, okay, I hate you. Especially someone like that. He controls her. I feel like he feels the need to control women as if they're his puppets. Yeah, he doesn't think that they have the right to do what they want. He's like, no, you have to do what I say, because I'm a man and you're a woman. And that also brings us to our second point, our second evidence, and even more quotes, how women are seen as property or an add-on to man. End the clip. End it. So, Tenzin, what do you think about all of this? And, you know, seeing it from a man's perspective, what's interesting about it to you? I noticed in the play that Iago believes that the purpose of women is to relieve their husband and tie their hair. Oh. It's like he's almost just controlling them. Yeah, it's like he believes that, you know, for sexual relief and to get children. Which is not only sexualizing, but it's like, oh, I'm not a person. I'm just using you, like you're a tool to make my life better. Objectifying. Yeah. He's like objectifying a woman. Gives me a sense of her usefulness, pretty much. Basically. So clean, give me babies. So, like, it actually reminds me a lot of this one song on the internet. Well, you look for that on Spotify. You guys keep talking. I'm going to look for that. Well, you look for that song on Spotify. I think we should also talk about the other rags. I want to know how Iago failed to manipulate his wife in the end, but he continues again and again to manipulate the men and the women all at once. Like, how are you going to convince with words alone that someone's wife is cheating on them? With nothing but a rag. With nothing but a rag. And the fact that, what's her name, she knew about the fact that he was, like, it was all like a plan that he'd made to get Desimona and Estella to break up. Oh, he got his wife. He got his wife, made the plan, and then supported, like, was talking to Desimona as if she didn't know anything had happened. And, like, kind of trying to, like, he's, she's following her husband. Like, she's just following him. Like, she's like a lost puppy dog to him. And not even, because she woke him, like, when she found out she was dead dead, even though that she knew she was going to die, she was like, no, I hate you, Iago, I'm going to, I'm going to. And then Iago was just like, shut up, woman. Like, and she, she literally hoped. She knew what was going to happen to you. She knew what was happening and she hoped what happened. But I feel like at the same time with this time, like, she didn't have a choice. Or she felt like she didn't have a choice. I have to think about, like, this is not only the way Iago treated women. Like, this is just the way women were thought of during that time. But she could have spoken up, though. She could have been like, oh, like, yeah, that was, like, a whole thing that I never would have done. But she would have written everything. And I think once she saw that everything was falling apart at the end anyway, she was like, yeah, I can't just sit here and say nothing if it's all going to go downhill anyway. I might as well tell the truth. This story was so wild. It's the way everyone ended up dying in the end. Didn't Iago die? Yeah, they condemned him to, like, he was going to die. Also, I found this song. It was Labor by Paris Paloma. And it's, like, all day, every day, therapist, mother maid, nymph, then a virgin, nurse, then a servant. Just an appendage, live to attend to him so that he never lifts a finger. And then the next line is a 24-7 baby machine so he can blip out his picket fence dream. It's not an act of love if you make her, you make me do too much later. It literally fits perfectly, in my opinion. It does. It does. Because it explains how they view women. Because that's, like, exactly what they thought of women, like, especially of Desimona and, um, what is her name? Amelia. Amelia. Who wrote the whole thing for Othello. Like, they were just like, yeah, you're just here for us to help us make our lives better. Your lives don't matter. Your lives don't matter. You don't have your own life. And that is our thought on how women are treated. Hello. Yep. Yeah. Not to mention the way men are treated. Men are treated like they're, like, gods. And it's like, oh my god, he's a man. Like, he could never do something like that. He has balls. What a great thing. Yeah. It's like, oh, he's a man. Like, he's obviously, like, so powerful. Like, oh, what do you think, dude? Like, you're a guy. Like, what do you see? Like, um, women have opinions about this too, you know?