The lecture by Professor Claycomb was very interesting on many accounts. One of the first things that sparked my attention was the fix for hypermediatized images after WWII. Claycomb quoted, "The map has replaced the landscape" which means images replace what we take as real and I think this is true. Even I, as a cynical, pseudo-nonconformist young adult, am guilty of it. I find myself expecting my life to turn out like what happens to characters in movies…always a happy ending. This must be why celebrities and Hollywood are such a big industry. We try to live our lives vicariously through movies and emulate celebrities.

It scares me that Claycomb mentioned identity as "constructable"…that identity is all an act. How we have one personality around our friends and another around our parents. It intrigues me that who we are is provided for us by gender, and that women used to be regarded as less developed men. It’s sad that we weren’t treated equally or given universal suffrage until the 19th amendment was ratified in 1920.

Claycomb said, "we think of freaks as ‘freaks’ and not as people suffering some kind of trauma". Which leads right into what he said about disability equaling de-masculation. This made me think of how much I struggle with perfection. Maybe this is why.

One last thought I had about this lecture was regarding the gender response. Do we do everything we do because we’re socially, culturally, and historically brought up to do it that way? Could be.