Blog Paragraph #1 "The Overland Mail"

Blog Paragraph #1 "The Overland Mail"

         Imperialist nations are formed upon the basic understanding that there will always be a subject and master and through this order will be maintained and a prosperous, subservient nation will be born.  However, by giving knowledge to and molding a subject much like the "runner" in Kipling's "Overland Mail" those in power are creating what Bhabha refers to as "mimic-men"(66). When an imperial power chooses to transfuse power through their subjects, whether it be language, religion, education, they are empowering the colonized with the notion that they too can have the same access to power. To act in a desired manner elicits a positive response from those in power; this gives the colonized the impression that they too can subvert their masters power.  Fanon's idea concerning "black masks" are employed in Kipling's poem to that of the "runner" and his efforts to please the Empire and keep his "otherness" at bay.  The lines between the colonizer and colonized have become intertwined and the balance of power is threatened through evidence of the speaker's demanding tone, "He must ford it or swim/ He must climb the cliff" (13-14).  The colonizer now feels the effects of his doing and the fear that he could be losing control over his subject because the subject has subverted his authority through performances reified by his master.  Kipling affirms this threat for power in his last line with the ambiguity concerning the speaker, "in the name of the Empress, the Overland Mail" (30).  As expected, the subject has mimicked his speaker and has adopted the same ideologies; granting the subject access to the same power to those who enforced his mimicry, while highlighting his "otherness."  Empowering minds and producing a universal image one should expect these "mimic-men" to aspire to achieve the same means as their creator because they have been given only one path to follow, one universal vision.  

     
     Orientalist stereotypes regarding women depict Indian women as sexual beings.  Within Orientalist ideology women function in two ways: the role of wife and mother and the women who brings aesthetic and physical pleasure to men.  Like the 'runner' in Kipling's poem, "The Overland Mail," Westerners and colonizers fashion a specific image when describing the world in which Indian women embody.  Indian stereotypes aligns itself with words relating to sexuality, femininity  exoticism, and eroticism.  The sexualization of the culture allows for those like the British to invent images that parallels Indian culture with a barbaric, savage, and undeveloped country.  One associates the British with a prudish view relating to sexuality and men of the British culture found this lack of sexuality difficult to cope with. British women were mothers, not bed mates, during the period of colonialism in Britain.  Young, British men heard tales of the exotic nature of Indian women and their openness with sexuality and their 'knowledge' that their bodies function to serve men and are to be admired.
      The image above, artist unknown, affirms the views the West prescribe when imagining Indian women.  Her body is the focal point in a room comprised of men.  A woman's duty, as described in McLeod's text, was to meet the needs of their men, or any man (of an accepted background) seeking the pleasures that women provided. From the painting, one concludes that the dancer enjoys what she is doing, her expression does not hint of disgust or shame, but rather as a comfort to her duty, an enjoyment of her actions.  The painting depicts a world of prostitution, the selling of sex for economic gain, a business that colonizers partook of while in India and in their home country, England.  Indian women believed themselves to be a sharer of pleasures to their men, according to accounts of men returning from India.  One could interpret this painting as a tasting of the forbidden fruit.  A fantasy that men choose to indulge themselves.  According to Penzar, in Lawrence James' book Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India, "...to his British readers, one of those Hindu temples to which families brought daughters to be prepared for what they considered an honourable profession.  At the age of seven or eight the girl began training as a dancer and singer, and at the onset of puberty was initiated into sexual activity by the temple priests" (James 211).
     A girl was condemned to servitude and stereotypes the moment she was born.  Her duties resemble those of servant and in many instances, the job of a sexual servant.  Englishmen in India easily deduce the importance Indian culture places on women's sexual roles and it is through this that the stereotypes are born. Painter Theodore Chasseriau connects Indian women's sensuality, allure, and erotic stereotypes in his painting. (Below)  The women in the painting exist for pleasure and entices viewers to join in the celebration and excitement of her sexuality. Chasseriau emphasizes her physical qualities, like most do when representing Indian women.  Her brain and her needs are of no concern, her life is centered around her duties for men and the exploitation of her body.