Aff: UTSA NR
Round #1
Tournament: The Shirley Classic 2011
vs: Kansas KK
Judge: Ricky Garner
Plan Text:
Advocacy: “We affirm a (re)presentation of the Topic. Spivak argues, there are multiple ways to (re)present the resolution: either through representation (through plans and policy) re-presentation (in the realm of art and philosophy). M. Butterfly is a critical starting point for the deconstruction of identities ascribed onto the nations in the resolution. Seduction as Song’s strategy illuminates the possibility for reversals of power and domination.
1ac Advantages:
*New AFF* (Text of 1AC follows; it is read like a play, and the 2A participates in part of it).
I assume if I were honest I would tell you this was just a story… but who’s honest now a days?
I met him at a party
Scene 1: Opening night, 1960.
The night was cold. I was dressed, ready for the stage. I saw him in the front row.
He was…. Repulsive. I watched him stare at me like I was already his mistress. Someone to play with, hold, and fuck. It was like I was on the opposite side of the Earth. Through a TV screen he watched me sing. He stiffened with my Oriental facade,
His eyes danced with me. Like eyes glued to pornography, I became his new playboy.
After the show he greeted me. Offered me compassion and desire; A democratic form of friendship. Something I had no intentions of upholding… I felt abused, like this was a product of historical construction. He thought he was reading me like a piece of American history… I laughed.
And so we begin the story of M. Butterfly…
The scene begins with a young Eastern wo(man) in traditional Eastern garments. She controls the proxemics of the stage and the eyes of the audience. Much like a butterfly floating in your peripheral vision you become hypnotized. We’ve become fixated on the dancing chaotic spring of our Song. We watch her as she floats on the stage of international politics and wait for her light eyes to meet ours… an obvious call to be captured and displayed for her beauty.
Gallimard is our son of the American Revolution; A constructed gentleman with a keen taste for opposition. A masculine figure with a dirty exterior, he longs for the love of a native woman; a naïve oriental with a small figure, pre-disposed to domination, willing to sacrifice her life in the name of his love.
Our two main characters play the East and the West, Mirroring our desire to control and dominate the nations of Syria, Yemen, Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain, and Egypt.
Li 03 (The State and Subject of Asian American Criticism: Psychoanalysis, Transnational Discourse, and Democratic Ideals David Leiwei Li, American Literary History 15.3 (2003) 603-624 http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_literary_history/v015/15.3li.html, Project Muse)
The case in point
And
—in this play
Scene 2: Falling in love
As the days continued, so did his love. His reality served him well. In his eyes I was trapped. A woman in need of Western salvation.
This is the same mentality that policy makers in the U.S. use to make the East an object.
America views the Middle East and North Africa as it’s feminine counter part: a region to control, colonize, and dominate. Mirroring Gallimard, in his state of hyper masculinity, he feels… strong. Feeling the “absolute power of man” but only in contrast to Song’s constructed femininity.
Kondo 90 (Dorinne K. Kondo, “M.Butterfly: Orientalism, Gender, And a Critique of Essentialist Identity” Cultural Critique, No. 16, Autumn, 1990 Published by: University of Minnesota Press)
When Song first entertains
And
, masculine" identity.
Like Gallimard, we fantasize about the future of Middle East and North Africa politics; we chase it hoping that one day it will complete our dream of having the perfect female figure bow to our strong masculinity. Democracy assistance becomes the catalyst not for liberation, but for the intensification of domination. The United States offers assistance to countries desiring nothing more than for our perfect, virginal, democratic revolutions will one day get on their knees and submit to our created identity of dominate masculine power.
U.S. Foreign policy dictates pragmatic praxis. We foreclose the possibility for revolutionary actions, in the name of democracy assistance, because coded laws and regulations have become ingrained. This continuation of domination in the status quo leads the Masculinized violence towards women. By regulating it to State action and ignoring the sociological aspects that cultured hegemonic violence to begin with.
Carapico 2011 (Patronizing Women: Democracy Promotion, Feminist Empowerment, and Mixed Messages in the Middle East, Sheila Carapico/ U. of Richmond, APSA 2011 Annual Meeting Paper)
One subset of the
And
experts and their audiences.
Scene 3: The reversal.
And so the game began, unknowing of who I was he loved me, just like a westerner would. It was as if he had fought wars to control me… I let him. We laughed and made jokes about how he would save me from my Eastern way of life, I felt like he found him self to be Christ. A dirty man who thinks he’s here to be my savior. I let him engage me. I needed him to love me, not for desire but revenge. I liked that he thought he controlled me. I mirrored my actions to what his constructed reality demanded. Giving him his unspoken request he began to embody my opposition. The opposed ying to my yang, he became dominating, controlling, hyper-masculine, and abusive. His lever of power only went so far. Unknowingly, I controlled the setting… the scene…
He is now a prisoner to his own constructed reality.
Kondo 90 (Dorinne K. Kondo, “M.Butterfly: Orientalism, Gender, And a Critique of Essentialist Identity” Cultural Critique, No. 16, Autumn, 1990 Published by: University of Minnesota Press)
The play opens with ex-diplomat
And
"Con- sider it this way:
In a systemic coding of identity, production, and power I used the tools he gave me against him. I am a man playing a woman playing a man. A game of signifiers created to elude him. His words ringing in my ears
Gallimard (1A) speaking: “Are you my butterfly?”
Song (2A speaking): “Yes, I am. I am your Butterfly.”
He begins attempting to undress me. After… persuasion I remain hidden.
“I am your treasure. Though inexperienced I am not… Ignorant. They teach us things, our mothers, about pleasing a man. “
Gallimard (1A): “Yes?
Song (2A): “I’ll do my best to make you happy. Turn off the lights.”
I illuminate to him his desire for perfection. Seduction overcomes and blinds us regardless of the truth that may exist in reality.
Hwang and DiGaetani 89’ (“M. Butterfly": An Interview with David Henry Hwang David Henry Hwang and John Louis DiGaetani Page 141 of 141-153, Jstor)
The play is
And
themselves they're in love.
Song Liling, as a colonized and gendered subject, is empowered though the art of seduction. As a man, playing a woman, playing a man, taking the power out of the hands of the colonizer and becoming the director that has the upper hand of engaging or disengaging at will.
Shimakawa 93 (Karen Shimakawa, "Who's to Say?" or, Making Space for Gender and Ethnicity in "M. Butterfly" Theatre Journal, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Oct., 1993), pp. 349-362 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press)
As a colonized subject
And
see through my act"
Song’s power though seduction reveals the reversal of the status quo political realm. With every dominant discourse comes its opposite side. Song shows us how seduction serves as an action against production. Ultimately illuminating to us the unknowable and unidentifiable aspects of dominate political action.
Grace 2000 (Baudrillard’s Challenge: a feminist reading. Chp.5 pg. 141)
The word ‘seduction’
And
by feminist theory.
Thus, We Affirm a (re)presentation of the Topic. Spivak argues, there are multiple ways to (re)present the resolution: either through representation (through plans and policy) or re-presentation (in the realm of art and philosophy).
M.Butterfly is a critical starting point for the deconstruction of identities ascribed onto the nations in the resolution. Seduction as Song’s strategy illuminates the possibilities for reversals of power and domination.
Spivak ’99 Gayatri Chakravorty, Columbia, A critique of postcolonial reason: toward a history of the vanishing present
An important point
And
subaltern must unfold.
Seduction challenges the domination of the deemed positivity of the law, transforming it into a unit of resistance that is unknowable or identifiable, thus making it a force that is beyond the ability to be assimilated and controlled.
Grace 2000 (Baudrillard’s Challenge: a feminist reading. Chp.5 pg. 141)
Baudrillard’s theoretical
And
non-reversible ontology.
Metaphors, like M. Butterfly, grant us a lens in which we can question the rhetorical politics of politically essentialised binaries. Allowing us to resist power as domination whenever we find it.
Callahan 98 (Visions of Gender and Democracy: Revolutionary Photo Albums in Asia. http://mil.sagepub.com/content/27/4/1031.full.pdf, William A. Callahan)
Hence, this essay
And
whenever we find it
2ac Offense
-T-
(1) Wm- Spivak says we constitute politics
(2) Ci: Re-Presentation & politics w/an end basis.
-Can’t do policy making in the real world.
-It’s the only way to divide to achieve political engagement.
-Ci is key to avoid violent politics towards the other Spivak ‘93
-It’s key to being future policymakers Gersky ‘99
(3) Ci: Resolved means being open, engage @ the starting point. * ‘06
-Can’t be ethical otherwise
-They’ve got plenty of ground; can run heg/sq good, can read their aff
(4) No risk of external impact—People have run non-traditional affs for decades.
(5) Reasonability
(6) Turn-Forcing us to play by the rules is worse than not playing at all
(7) Their view of politics forces us to be unethical butler ‘94
(8) Education outweighs all other standards ‘01
-Capitalism K-
(1) The aff engages in the struggle against cap Bleiker ‘00
(2) Constructed link scenario = they don’t solve the aff.
(3) TURN- They à imperialism. Spanos ‘08
(4) Their K ignores the use value of gender identity.
(5) PERM—E.g.—destruction of gender, violence against womyn, 9/11, war on terror = capitalism Donovan ‘02
-Case-
Overview: So you want me to strip? Spivak—Re-presentation is a form of politics to those who don’t have any voice. The East/West, Masculine/Feminine divide recreates the problems of domination. Representation à a new model of democracy assistance.
-we’ere about how identity construction has occurred; ideologically West ’97
1ar Strategy
-T-
-We have limits; we talk about the Arab Spring
-The only way to do a topical version of our aff is what we do.
-We talk about the SQ problems with democracy assistance.
-They don’t answer our internal link to making good policies (Spivak)
-They are a way to silence the subaltern; we are the only way to solve for this exclusion.
-They have ground—They can read cards about our methods or run their aff.
-We’re the starting point; this answers their Shively ev.
-Neg had ground.
-Like what’s happening in the Arab Spring, we = resistance.
-Deliberation/Deliberative aff checks back the risk of Nazism.
-Obligation to re-present.
-XT-Butler and Gersky—They don’t answer them—proves we meet their form of politics.
-Case-
-XT the Role of the ballot—Take issue with the problems of the dominating sq; so we do the best job.
-Our role of the ballor arg proves their concept of agency is misdirected.
-We aren’t racially homogenizing
-We use the East/West binaries to deconstruct that notion.
-We solve those binaries.
-Re-presentations solve “.
-We break down binaries—XT Grey ‘00
-Capitalism-
-No double turn, b/c we’re talking about different uses of the word.
-Perm solves best.
-We are different in terms of the concept of fluid identity.
-The Perm is a link turn to their Klein evidence; means alt can’t solve alone.
-They ignore the material aspects of gender.
-XT-Reese ev-Seduction specifically solves the K.
-Their own Lazarus card proves the Alt doesn’t solve.
2ar Strategy
-2AR Overview-
-Our form of democracy assistance does engage nations of the resolution; this is our advocacy; it’s an endpoint. That’s the Capricio evidence from the 1AC.
-We’re net beneficial to the concept of production; xt-Grey ‘00
-They miss the ? of the idea of seduction
-We have the biggest impact—Engaging SQ policies à violence
-Role of the ballot is conceded.
-Representations are the most violent things in the round.
-Case-
-We don’t appropriate; our ev. says you can still speak about those divides without creating the East/West binary.
-Questioning, we meet; pref our counter interp (Yes, this is a T argument but was on the case debate).
-Turn-The Role of the Ballot proves their agency arguments are misdirected.
-Their ev doesn’t mean we assume the East/West binary.
-T-
-We don’t explode limits; there are other ways to engage political spheres.
-USFG action=representational violence.
-Our CI is net beneficial b/c of our Gersky card & we can only solve with this aff (it’s the only way to be topical and address the impact of violent representations in the sq).
-XT Butler- it’s a reason to reject their interp.
-XT our ev that the sq = violence against womyn.
-XT-Spivak-They exclude the subaltern.
-No ground loss-They can run imperialism good.
-XT our internal link turn—they force us to defend unethical affs.
- We = a specific endpoint & strategy; we don’t eliminate the ability to be negative.
-We engage politically, so they can still negate/we meet.
- XT-Berlin Wall example.
Judge voted neg on T.
