Best of the Week: Male Brain VS Female Brain

In class this week, we talked about male brains versus female brains. Male brains are systematic and use mechanistic thinking, which means that they try to analyze, explore, and construct systems and figure things out systematically, while female brains are empathetic and mentalistic, which means that they attempt to identify the thoughts and emotions of others and try to respond the those thoughts and emotions with an appropriate reaction. To me, it's essentially figuring things out versus understanding things. If this is the case, then my brain is a dude. Seriously.

I've been a tomboy forever. I find most girly things unnecessary, painstaking, and annoying. It's always been this way. While other girls in Kindergarten were playing with dolls, I was building lego fortresses for my army men. While female classmates in second grade were jumping rope to nursery rhymes, I was acting as the leader of my "neighborhood army", a very menacing team of kids between the ages of two and nine who protected the neighborhood from demons, monsters, and evil invaders from other neighborhoods. In eighth grade when other girls were worrying about dresses and boys, I was worrying about trying to amass a knowledge of World War II so I could ace history class and talk with my brother about guns and weapons. Even now I'm out of touch with my "girly side". I have no interest in fashion, I despise wearing dresses; I'm not into really anything that girls find cool right now. Hell, I spend my time building things and getting covered in blood, sweat, sawdust, and paint everyday!

It's not just my interests that differ from most females, it's my behaviors. I hate showing emotions in public, I'm extremely bad at comforting and nurturing, and the closest I go to freaking out about something cute is when I see a picture of an adorable animal, or on occasion, a cute boy. Other than those times, I just give a nod of the head and comment, "Nice." That's as far as I go. 

So if everything about male brains versus female brains is true, I'm pretty damned sure that I have a male brain. However, there's an argument to be made here: Do I have a male brain because I don't like dresses, I used to build fortresses for army men out of legos, and I like to build things? Or do I think that I have a man's brain because the activities listed above are considered "manly" activities in our society? Based on the definition of a male brain, I'm have a male brain because I like to systematically figure things out, and I tend to lean towards activities that necessitate using machines and mechanical processes. I also have a male brain because I tend to keep emotions in check and have trouble connecting to peoples' emotions. Based on society's view, I have a male brain because of the way I act and what activities i enjoy.

It has been decided that male brain v.s. female brain is purely a way to judge how one thinks of things and reacts to them, as well as how they process that information. That's a very black-and-white concept. Society's view is much more complex.

In our society, males are given the model of being strong, protective, very physical, athletic, supportive of their family, and strong-willed. They are given toy cars and told to play baseball or football when they are younger because that's "what boys are supposed to do". Girls are given expectations of being smart, emotional, nurturing, caring, levelheaded, dependable, good wives and mothers. They are given dolls and told to play House because that's "what girls are supposed to do". These ideas are part of society's views of how men and women should act, and how they should treat each other. These views contribute immensely to peoples' ideas of how they should be, and how they should act. It's frowned upon when girls trade makeup and tea parties for over-alls and playing in the mud because it's too "masculine". It's frowned upon when boys trade monster trucks and basketball for dance and home-ec because it's too "feminine". Kids are forced to fit themselves into society's molds and choose one or the other. It's awful.

I identify as a female, and I know that I'm not the only other girl in the world with a hatred for dresses, or the only one who gets Sudden-Bolt-Syndrome when I see other peoples' emotions. I actually find it a bit easier to understand why I think and act the way I do now that I've learned the differences between the two brains. It's extremely interesting, and that is why I find to to be the best of the week.

- Emily de la Horvath

Captured Thought: Focusing Lights

Why is it that theatrical lighting seems so easy, but ends up being one of the most odious, meticulous, painstaking adventures in theatre? And why did it take me so long to understand it?

For the past week at Stage Crew, I have done almost nothing but focus lights. This is both an annoying and interesting job to do, especially for people like me, who have had little to no experience in the impressive field of stage lighting. I focused my first light about a week ago. I hadn't focused one before because I had been terrified of it. It seems incredibly complex and scary the first time you do it. I constantly wondered, "Holy crap, did I just break a $300 light because I loosened one screw too much?" It's absolutely nerve wracking! There are so many knobs, buttons, bolts, and screws that you almost can't wrap your head around it. I had tried for the entire year that I had done Crew to figure out how to use these lights, but it was to no avail. Rich, the head of Crew, had his "lighting team" last year, where everyone was already trained, and they were all fantastic at working with lights, so an itty-bitty Freshman like me had no chance of actually getting to work exclusively with them. I picked up bits and pieces of information from upperclassmen, but nothing very extensive. The "information", if I can even call it that, was more like, "To turn the light off, you have to unplug it" and "Don't touch that! You'll burn your hand!". So, I had no experience with these fixtures until this year rolled around.

This year, Rich had to make new teams because almost all his skilled workers were gone. However, we're all still trying to figure out our place in Crew, so Rich had to teach us all everything he could. There was so much to learn in four or five days! With the upperclassmen from last year gone, we had a whole new ballgame to learn, and not much time to do it. I was put in the category of "Knows just about as much as the Freshmen" when it comes to lighting and sound, two incredibly important parts of theatre, so Rich took me aside and taught me a little about it. He read it to me off the top of his head while I tried to take mental notes. There are tons of different types of stage lights, like PAR lights, floodlights, Fresnel lanterns, and Source Four ERS's just to name a few. Different kinds of lights are used to different jobs during a show--floodlights illuminate large areas, while Source Fours are used to profile, or highlight, one particular area or thing. He showed me the different knobs and what they were used for, and how to open and close the shutters and such. At that point, I thought that Rich was just showing me the lights to show me. I thought. Suddenly, I get a wrench and a harness thrust into my hands and am told to harness up and go in the catwalk. Rich shows me how to put on the harness, makes sure everything is okay, and shows me how to climb up the ladder safely. Then I'm on my own. My mind was racing. I had been waiting for a whole year to do this, but I was nearly shaking in my Vans when I was put on spot like that. I wasn't sure that I could do it. Thankfully, Rich is a somewhat-patient man, and was very good at explaining what I was supposed to be doing. I hung lights, focused them, messed them up, refocused them, took them down, put in gels or gobos, or did whatever Rich wanted me to do with them. Yet I was still confused. It was all entering my head so fast that it didn't process correctly.

I spent the next couple of days focusing and hanging lights for Rich, and doing exactly what I was told. This was all fine and dandy, but I still didn't understand what I was doing. I could focus them, but not without the help of Rich, or Bradley, or Cody. I wasn't self sufficient at all. This bothered me immensely. No matter how hard I tried, I would always have to run to one of the boys, or to Rich, or to one of the upperclassmen for help. I just couldn't process all the knobs and buttons and terminology that were dancing around in my head. That all changed during eighth period a couple days ago.

I reported to Rich during eighth because I'm his lab aid, and I have to check in with him to see if he needs any things done. He sent me on little errands around the auditorium. I got the podium out, cleaned up zip-ties, helped Caeli get the R-FU out, and set up a couple microphones. It was all busywork. Then came the moment of truth--Rich told me to head up to the catwalk to focus. My stomach dropped to my feet. I grabbed my wrench, harnessed up, clambered up the ladder, and waited for Rich's instructions just like always. We were focusing lights on the risers for the choir concert, so Rich had people "model" and told me where to point the light and how sharp I should make it. This time was different, however. Rich would bark instructions at me, and instead of asking, "How do you turn that?" or "How do I do that again?" I reacted quickly, almost mindlessly, and efficiently. I was pleasantly surprised. I had been struggling so hard to master the art of focusing lights over the past week, and even a little bit Freshman year, and I had finally figured it out! Rich also seemed pretty happy that he didn't have to explain where the yoke and the C-clamp were connected for the umpteenth time. I had no idea what had facilitated the transition from royally clueless to decently smart about lighting, but thinking back to it, I realize that I had over-analyzed the entire situation. I had paid so much attention to the terminology and the generally unimportant things that I had shunted the important knowledge out of my head. I thought that I relied upon Rich or Bradley to tell me how to focus these fixtures, while in the back of my head, I knew how to focus them all along. I just had been thinking about it the wrong way.

-Emily of the House of Horvath

A Source Four ERS [In case you were interested :)]