Walking on Eggshells: Gen Z & “Swept Away” by Shayna Sengstock

                                                        

I believe that the new generations are not taught to be prepared for what the world will throw at them. They are only told that people will change and that they should not have to face the problems that occur in the world.

— Kyle Thompson, “Are Millennials Too Sensitive?”

As a member of Generation Z growing up in the twenty-first century, I and many of my peers have encountered that famous saying, “I am a balloon, filled with emotions, in a world full of pins” (Unknown). This phrase has crippled the newer generations and caused us to act like fragile, overly sensitive humans who view everyone with different opinions as the enemy. As Kyle Thompson infers on the Millennial generation, born from 1980 through 1994, they have not been able to adapt to the real world. As well, my generation, 1995 through 2015, has also not been given the proper tools to solve problems; instead, we are coddled by our helicoptering parents who protect us from all harm. We expect others to walk to the same beat of the drum that we do, and when our homeostasis is upset, we curl up in a ball of self-pity. Barbara Lilley states in her article, “Why Are so Many Millennials Emotionally Fragile?,” “The world seems to be overrun with snowflakes whose fragile beauty dissolves as soon as they land on solid ground” (par. 1). We are so affected by everything we see and look at that when we have to view something difficult we break as easily as eggshells being walked on. I refer to our class discussion on who walked on more eggshells: deckhand Gennarino or the once shrewish but now subdued Raffaella in Swept Away?

Lena Wertmüller’s film evoked many emotions in me, some of which were most overwhelming. The way the characters treated one another made me feel indignant; the sexual harassment uneased me; the mistreatment disgusted me, and the abuse launched on both characters made me feel empathic. Unlike some of my peers, I was fortunate to be able to discuss the film with relevant people because I had built friendships with other students from last semester as well as with my peer teacher, Benny, and my coach, KP. In the basement of Axinn Library I discussed the film’s grotesque characteristics with Benny. I ranted to him about how the film trapped me and made me feel like I could not move forward into written self-expression. Through him I was able to calm down and I was able to see that by talking to someone it is easier to unpack the intensity in certain situations. I was used to watching fluff piece productions where everything ends in a happily ever after and Prince Charming rides off into the sunset. However, Wertmüller uses characters that really show what it is like to be a human being: Gennarino Carunchio, a short-tempered, lower-class man who was a leader of the communist party and Raffaella Pavone, a stuck up, highly opinionated lady of the upper class. These characters were meant to show the tension between Northern and Southern Italians during this time period and draw awareness to the corrupt political system that Italy was experiencing. “Swept Away observes a clash through two human manifestations of contrasting political systems who are in disagreement over the sexual politics of the time period” (Marking, par 3). The film shows how the main protagonist Gennarino sticks to a machoistic view of women, regarding them as “an object of pleasure for the working man” (Wertmüller, 1:24:34). Anger blinded Gennarino because Raffaella once held a higher position over him. He was someone whose views of the world did not permit women to have equal or higher rights than a man. He yearned to achieve the same level of respect and power that Raffaella evoked on a daily basis. Just like my generation, he was brainwashed by the cultural standards. Gennarino’s communistic views were challenged by Rafaella’s outspoken spirit; instead of humbling himself and realizing there are other ways of viewing life, he got wrathful and lashed out at her.

This brainwashed approach to life relates to Plato’s allegory of the cave. Gennarino was like the prisoners who just saw shadows of things and not the whole picture. When one of the prisoners was let go and saw what the world was really like, his eyes were opened to new ideas. The prisoner tried to go back to the others and tell them of his discovery. However, the other prisoners did not want to hear his point of view and therefore, ridiculed and abused him. Gennarino’s views were skewed by his pride just like the prisoners. When Gennarino finally had it with Raffaella’s constant nagging and criticism, he was seen chasing her around a deserted island abusing her for the “crimes” of the wealthy. “You are going to pay for everyone [. . .] that is for causing inflation and not paying taxes [. . .] and that is for the hospitals where the poor cannot even get in” (Wertmüller, 1:08:53). Raffaella struggled underneath him as he ripped her clothes off and whispered, “You are finally going to know a real man” (Wertmüller, 1:10:48).

This scene proved highly controversial among my classmates. We all were not used to watching films that made us uncomfortable and dared us to think too deeply about unsettling topics. Swept Away caused some of us to relive moments that we were trying hard to forget and caused others to be infuriated. Enraged, we argued about whether this film should have even been shown to us in the first place. In essence, we were all blinded by our anger. However, how are we supposed to stand up and make a difference if we are too afraid to watch something that shows us the corruption previous generations have experienced? How are we supposed to change the world if we cannot look at the problem head on? We all have been babied by the cultural climate we live in. “We know violent things are happening around the world, but we play a blind eye to them” (Thompson, par 3). We think that not showing these images will make them go away when in reality we are just sweeping everything under the rug creating more of a mound. “These problems will keep happening until we talk about them and bring awareness to the subject” (Solaimani).

So, what now? How are we supposed to open the eyes of our culture and make others realize the corruption that is happening around us? What we should not do is let our oppressors walk all over us like Rafaella did. She was afraid that if she spoke out against Gennarino that she was going to be harmed by him. This caused her to fall into silence. Gloria Anzaldua wrote in How to Tame a Wild Tongue, that we need to “Overcome the tradition of silence” (Anzaldua, page 40). “We are given tongues to be able to speak the truth and to stand up for what is right” (Schofield, par 5). We need not be scared or afraid to discuss these unsettling topics and show others our views on them. Rafaella was not allowed to voice her views on the island and was told by Gennarino to be submissive — women should be seen and not heard. “If that damn bitch doesn’t keep her mouth shut I’ll murder her” (Wertmüller, 7:15). Gloria Anzaldua was taught by her mother that, “Flies don’t enter a closed mouth.” Both of these women were forced into not using their voice. They were afraid that if they spoke they were either going to be deemed wrong or abused. It was only until both of these women realize that they “will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. [They] will have [a] voice” that they were truly freed from their oppressors (Anzaldua, page 40). That is why we need to learn to discuss these difficult topics instead of walking on eggshells and being afraid. If we keep our mouths closed nothing is going to change. “The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people” (Napoleon).

Works Cited

Anzaldua, Gloria. (2019). [online] Everettsd.org. Available at: https://www.everettsd.org/cms/lib07/WA01920133/Centricity/Domain/965/Anzaldua-Wild-Tongue.pdf [Accessed 6 April. 2019].

Lilley, Barbara. “Why Are so Many Millennials Emotionally Fragile?” Intellectual Takeout, 1 Dec. 2016, www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/why-are-so-many-millennials-emotionally-fragile

Marking, Alexis. “Boys Will Be Boys’ until They Turn into Abusive Men.” Taking Giant Steps, Kirpal Gordon, 4 Feb. 2019, http://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2019/02/boys-will-be-boys-until-they-turn-into.html

Plato, “The Allegory of the Cave,” PDF & https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=plato+allegory+of+the+cave+cartoon&view=detail&mid=C711AFC2F023B84F2320C711AFC2F023B84F2320&FORM=VIRE

Schofield, Sadie. “How Identity Works: Without Pain How Can We Know Joy?” Taking Giant Steps, Kirpal Gordon, 27 March 2019, http://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2019/03/how-identity-works-without-pain-how-can.html

 

Solaimani, Shadie. Class discussion. 1 April 2019

Thompson, Kyle. “Are Millennials Too Sensitive?” The Athenaeum, 9 Aug. 2017, theath.ca/opinions/are-millennials-too-sensitive/  

Wertmüller, Lena. Swept Away, Youtube, 19 Feb. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzAEF5g35uw

How Identity Works: Without Pain How Can We Know Joy? by Sadie Schofield

What is good without bad? In “The Story of the Chinese Farmer” by Alan Watts there was a man who had bad and good fortune happen to him at different times. His son broke his leg which seemed to be a bad fortune, but because of this, he was not drafted into the war. His neighbors gathered around him every time a different event occurred, and they would cry out “Oh, that’s too bad” or “Wow, that’s great!” However, each time the Chinese farmer would state, “Maybe” (Watts). The Chinese farmer realized something that all these town folks did not understand. You cannot have good without bad. They are inseparable. For “your joy is your sorrow unmasked” (Gibran, [On Joy and Sorrow]). Alan Watts gives a clearer picture of this in The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by stating:

. . . Just as the hour-hand of the watch goes up to twelve and down to six, so, too, there is day and night, waking and sleeping, living and dying, summer and winter. You can't have any one of these without the other, because you wouldn't be able to know what black is unless you had seen it side-by-side with white, or white unless side-by-side with black.

Everyone has their own experiences with black and white. One fails a test, but because of it, one wants to study harder. One gets thrown in jail; however, one learns not to make the same mistake again. One gets sexually assaulted, yet one walks away stronger with the knowledge that even though this happened, one might be able to help someone else who is going through the same thing. Whitman wrote in “Song of Myself,” section 4, “I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won” (Whitman, par. 18). I have had my own share of black and white which I had to deal with and my own identity to figure out. For me to tell what happened to me and to take ownership of the situation is going to be a hard thing, but in the end, it will help myself as well as others.

From the ages of three through sixteen, I was sexually assaulted by my grandfather. He was a man who I called Papa. I was supposed to trust him and have comfort knowing he would protect me, yet instead he betrayed me. This was something which pierced my soul and made me ashamed of who I was. I thought that it was me who did something wrong, that in some way I was the problem. Just like any other victim of a sexual assault, whether you are male or female, you know that a part of you is missing after the occurrence. There is that feeling missing from you; you know it was there, but now it is snatched away by the rapist.

Surprisingly, I never realized what was happening to me until I was sixteen. Because of my Baptist background, I was never taught what sexual assault was. My church thought it best to keep these things away from children not realizing that sexual assault could happen to anyone. The even sadder part was, when I eventually realized what was happening, my grandfather was admitted to a nursing home because he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and forgot his past. He might have forgotten what he did, but I did not. He eventually passed away in October of 2016; I watched him take his final breath as he laid there on a hospital cot. For a long time, I felt no justice was done for his actions. Instead, I curled up in a ball of negative emotions causing 2017 to be the worst year of my life. I tried counseling for a while with no avail. One cannot be helped by a counselor if one is not willing to heed their advice. For me, at least, I had to figure out for myself who I was. Was I just a victim of a crime or was I someone who might grow from this experience?  

Someone who helped me figure out my identity was my friend Robert. He went through a similar experience of feeling rejected and used, yet somehow he looked past all of that and found the beauty in life. He realized “the deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain” (Gibran, [On Joy and Sorrow]). It was him who got me out of my mental state of collapse. Through him, I learned to “unscrew the locks from the doors and to unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs” (Whitman, par. 24). Reflecting on my grandfather’s behavior, I took refuge in these words: “Whoever degrades another degrades me and whatever is said and done at last returns to me” (Whitman, par. 24). Because of Robert’s scarred past, he looked to alternative options to relieve his pain, causing him to have a run-in with the law. He did, however, learn that he would not be making the same mistake again, but he still had to pay for the consequence of his actions. This past November he was taken away to prison for a few months, where he is now. This was another major event in my life which could have caused me to slip into depression had I not looked at it from a healthy point of view. I saw this as a way for me to put into practice everything that he helped me with. I saw it as an opportunity for growth and to show the world that even though this is my past it does not define me. I do still struggle a bit with my past sometimes and “these thoughts come to me days and nights and go from me again, but they are not the Me myself” (Whitman, par. 4). 

I took my first steps into discovering my new self as I progressed throughout my first semester of college here at Hofstra University. I was not going to let these series of sexual assaults be the thing that took me down. Instead, I decided to surround myself with people who I knew had my best interest at heart, even though this story of sexual abuse might scare them. However, this story might also help them because “no matter who you are, we all have some sort of monster hiding in our closet” (Gottwald). This was my monster and is the monster of many other people. I have to say if I had not have gone through this experience I would not be at the same state of mental compacity as I am now. In a weird, twisted way I did grow from this experience. Because of this, I unlocked what Whitman was trying to say when he stated in his Preface to Leaves of Grass:

. . . hate tyrants . . . have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men. . .  read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.

Because of experiencing rape at a young age, I have learned to be more companionate and to take more time to invest in the lives of others. I also learned to re-examine my life as well as overcome whatever insults me. My job now as a thinker and learner is to use the Jewish philosophy תיקון עולם or tikkun olam, which roughly translates, “to heal the world.” I have to repair the tear in the world by showing people that “I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. . . I will overcome the tradition of silence” (Anzaldua, par. 40). We are given tongues to be able to speak the truth and to stand up for what is right. We should not feel like we have to hide our past or be too afraid to speak up when we are being abused. Gloria Anzaldua suffered with using her own voice. Every time she opened up her mouth she was deemed wrong. That is why we have to untame our tongues; we need to prevent the silence. There are many women and men alike that feel the need to keep silent; they do not feel like they are going to be taken seriously. Such is the case with many college students. Sarah Baum wrote it best in her essay, “Pulling That Weight: How Colleges Can Support Survivors of Sexual Assault,” especially the story of Emma Sulkowize (uses they/them pronoun). Emma was sexually assaulted while they attended Columbia University. “They reported it [the assault] to campus authorities but it fell on deaf ears. When that failed, they reported their assault to the NYPD. Their case was ridiculed and dismissed” (Baum, par. 1) Emma is just one of many who have suffered by being dismissed. It is a scary thought that “One in five women will be assaulted on a college campus” (RAINN). Yet, when a student is a victim of sexual assault on campus, they have no ally in their school. They only face blame and shame. “They are damned before they can even be victimized” (Baum, par. 2). We need to all bond together to stop this from happening. We need to lend a listening ear to victims. We also need to help heal the world of the victims whose lives have been torn apart. We need to jump out of the cave and look toward the light (Plato).

Looking back now, a semester after I wrote this, I can truly say that my life has changed. I have been able to use my voice as a writer to help others by stepping into peoples’ lives and being the listening ear, they were yearning for. Because of this I have been able to help victims gain a voice of their own. Sexual assault is a hard battle to overcome, but when we all join together to take it down little by little the mountain turns into a mole hill.

Works Cited

Watts, Alan. The Book; on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. New York: Pantheon, 1966.Menantol. Web. 06 Dec. 2018.

Plato, “The Allegory of the Cave,” https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=plato+allegory+of+the+cave+cartoon&view=detail&mid=C711AFC2F023B84F2320C711AFC2F023B84F2320&FORM=VIRE

Gibran, K. (2018). The Prophet by Khalil Gibran - free online ebook. [online] Wyzend.com. Available at: http://wyzend.com/prophet/ [Accessed 6 Dec. 2018].

Whitman, W. (2018). SONG OF MYSELF. (Leaves of Grass (1891-92)) - The Walt Whitman Archive. [online] Whitmanarchive.org. Available at: https://whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1891/poems/27 [Accessed 6 Dec. 2018].

Gottwald, Benjamin. Personal Encounter. 5 Dec. 2018

Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. 2018

Anzaldua, Gloria. (2018). [online] Everettsd.org. Available at: https://www.everettsd.org/cms/lib07/WA01920133/Centricity/Domain/965/Anzaldua-Wild-Tongue.pdf [Accessed 6 Dec. 2018].

RAINN | The Nation's Largest Anti-Sexual Violence Organization, www.rainn.org/statistics/campus-sexual-violence.

Baum, S. (2018). Pulling That Weight: How Colleges Can Support Survivors of Sexual Assault.

Watts, Alan. “Story of the Chinese Farmer.” YouTube, Wiara, 19 Nov. 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byQrdnq7_H0