V. Life beneath the snow cover
Time is suspended as Emélie steps forward swiftly, confidently and proudly to the edge of the platform and swings around abruptly, back to the water, as if unconscious of her position 10 metres above the pool’s surface. She closes her eyes for a couple of long seconds, then stares ahead at a neutral mark on the wall in front of her. In a sudden burst, she springs up and back to unfold arrow-like with hands forming the tip. She is in her element in flight and visualizes her body’s motion before her as it should perform, the seconds seeming to last minutes. Here, like this, she is a perfect and majestic projectile. She breaks the water smoothly and perpendicularly so that a small elegant and dignified splash, like a short and discreet fountain bursting from Rome’s finest sculpture, follows the disappearance of her feet. Dive completed, Emélie does not have to think about pumping her arms and legs correctly for a quick surfacing. She re-emerges from the plunge a little dizzy, mostly from a combination of elation and fierce concentration. She cannot help but smile even before she gets a glance at the scores for her feelings tell her that the dive was excellent.
“Most teenaged girls admire pop stars, like singers and movie stars,” remarks Ms. Malinsky.
“Pop-tarts!” corrects Winona.
“Why do you say that?”
“I have to say that the media criticism class has been worthwhile,” is the reply. “You’d think that the media should make aware, but we have to be aware of how the media can manipulate our heads.”
“Explain.”
“Why? Haven’t you heard of that before? Do you think I’m a weirdo just because I choose different kinds of role models?”
“The criticism is familiar. It’s just that this is interesting because this sports figure a less common choice. I’m here to help you know yourself, right? So let’s follow this vein of thought and find out more about what it—your choice of role models—means to you.”
Ms. Malinsky is the social worker who counsels Winona, at Winona’s mother’s insistence. Her mother wants to have her monitored while she’s at this “sensitive” age, especially since she’s been living away from the family at the Christian boarding school. “My mother is the one mixed up,” was Winona’s comment at hearing her mother’s decision about counseling. “She wanted me to move away then thinks it might make me mental.”
Now she offers a bold opinion. “The media is mostly run by corporate interests who want to get rich by what they can do to you, like making you buy stuff you don’t really want or need. The media can be useful but we have to be alert to this motivation—that’s what the teacher says. She’s all right, you know. ‘Pop-tarts’ are the stage-hogs and golddiggers, the wanna-be’s and their teams of agents, managers and promoters, et cetera, who also want to profit from the media and the gullible consumers. They do a lot of stuff to get noticed by the public. Take Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton and Miley Cyrus—could we please have a day without seeing their images or reading about them?! They never let up! They probably invent dirt about themselves just to get attention and keep up the ratings so as to keep up their market value. They say Miley is one of the top grossing female stars in the world. I say she’s the top gross female star. Why would anyone donate to her cause, anyway? What are people thinking?—they’re not, much. Why hand over money to them? I’d rather support more deserving people, thank you very much!”
“This is what your class discussed?”
“Yep. So we spent some time doing internet searches for alternative role models. You see, the media can serve people well. You just have to be sophisticated about using it. It’s a great course.”
“I see. Sounds like it. So you heard about Emélie Heymans?”
“Everybody did during the Beijing Olympics. We talked about the Olympics and all the media hype about it, while we talked about the benefits of competitive sports and the hard work and skill of top athletes. I don’t usually follow sports a lot. But it got me thinking. People like Emélie deserve a lot of support, but they have trouble getting it because the Canadian media doesn’t say much about them until the Olympics are on.”
“Right. Are you just focusing on her?”
“No. But I like diving in particular. It’s like flying. But I think about others, too. Hardly anybody thinks about the Paralympics. All the hype about the regular Olympics but near silence about the Paralympics. Why? They are top athletes too. Did you know that the Canadian Paralympic team got 50 medals with lots of golds while the regular Olympics only brought a total of 19 medals for Canada, with only three gold medals?”
“I heard that the Canadian Paralympic team did well. Wasn’t there a multiple medalist in track?”
“Yeah. Chantal Petitclerc. She won five golds and set three world records. Valérie Grandmaison did great, too, in swimming with the visually impaired swimmers. She got six medals, three of them golds, and she set two world records. But who talked about it?”
“The disabled are ignored by society, to a great extent. I also noticed that you’ve been mentioning Quebec, or at least French-Canadian sports heroines. Any particular reason why?”
“Well, I used to go to French immersion school in Ontario before I started going to this private girls’ highschool in Abbotsford. So I heard of some of these women before. Besides, Mrs. Malinsky, our media teacher says that Quebec has spent a lot of money on sports and culture in building Quebec nationalism. Nationalism can give you pride and determination. Look at how the Chinese, the US and, say, the Koreans, did at the Summer Olympics? The more you care, the more support you have, the better you’re bound to do.”
“So you’re just interested in sports figures these days?”
“No. One of the people I look up to is Julie Payette. We studied her in school before. She’s the astronaut. And she’s a mom with little kids. She went to the Space Station in 2009, in her forties! She’s special.”
“Oh, yes. I know about her. Yes, indeed, quite remarkable. Another flyer, then.”
“Can you imagine? Going into space and seeing the Earth from way up there—twice! Just think of sitting in the cockpit with the roar and heat and shaking of the Shuttle. Then floating around.”
“Well, hey. Maybe it’s kind of like giving birth. It’s terrifying and takes all a woman’s physical strength in hours of labour. But many woman do it again and again.”
“Come on. I don’t know if you can compare that with space travel. Julie’s surrounded by guys in the Space program. She went up in space twice, and had kids—well, not while she was up there. She’s a scientist who studied and trained for years. Anybody can have kids. Don’t you have kids?”
“Like I said earlier: yes, I have had a child. I was just speaking in relation to the physical strain of space travel…Okay. You like a space mom. Anybody else? Any non-Quebeckers?”
“Don’t get irritated or anything. It’s just that French-Canadians pay attention to the successes of other French-Canadians. They were discussed in that other school a lot. Well, I like to support Canadians, generally speaking, because we hear so much about Americans. I guess I like the underdog. I like Sarah Polley. She’s world famous. Everybody knows about the Anne of Green Gables story and people all over the world watched that TV show. She’s super. She’s not a pop-tart, yet she could be. She chose to get involved in film-making for Canada, and she’s an activist. Then there’s that English poet we learned about in English class. She was disabled. She was brought up on a plantation in the Caribbean but she went against her father in opposing slavery. She left and went to England and started writing poetry, a lot of political stuff, and she led a campaign to abolish slavery. She got married to her soul-mate, another poet. Yeah. His name is Robert Browning. He’s a man so more people know about him. She married him in secret, against her family’s will. Oh, yeah—her name was Elizabeth Browning.”
“Ah, yes. I recognize the name. I didn’t study literature, myself, though. Hm. There are some rebels on your list.”
“Well, I guess so. Artists are. Anyway, it’s just that I like people who stand up for their principles, and don’t care about popularity and money so much, I mean who put their principle ahead of popularity and wealth. You know—nobody trusts politicians and we can’t count on the government because there’s been a lot of corruption and greed. Look at all the scandals, like the Bromley Inquiry. Even a sports star got mixed up in that. Not Bromley—that’s the Ontario scientist who worked for George Bush, I think. I mean Gomery, that is the sponsorship scandal. Remember? Then there’s the Mulroney Airbus thing, and the APEC pepper spray thing.”
“Okay, (back to the main topic) so you’re choosing positive models from among negative ones, with an emphasis on morals and ethics.”
“Uh, okay, right. Well, this Christian school talks about morals all the time. It’s tiresome. I guess I’m getting indoctrinated there too. I’m not a big Christian believer, you know—they said that didn’t matter, though. Right, if the parents fork over the bucks! But I think I’m making some good choices. Don’t you like my role models?”
“Oh, they’re fine. Yes, I think I even approve. I just didn’t want to say I approved and interfere with your choices. I don’t want you to think this is a process of getting official approval to satisfy your parents.”
“My mom’s nervous. She wants reassurance. I’m fine.”
“You seem fine. That isn’t the question here. Your mother wants some kind of assessment and, as you discussed with her, she wants you to have someone trustworthy to talk to. Girls can find peers to discuss intimate matters with, but they don’t make the best consultants, wouldn’t you say?”
“Yeah.”
“Parents feel that teens are getting very sophisticated and they worry they can’t handle all that’s on a young person’s mind these days, especially, as you point out, with the wide influence of the media. It’s harder to control and filter out all the influences. And, as you say, there are many socially detrimental influences around. Parents want their children to have assistance in making choices, reflecting on everything that’s coming at them. It’s too much for teachers, too. Schools don’t always have counselors, and when they do, the focus is usually career counseling. Though, it does sound like you have some good teachers there who are helping you watch out.”
“It’s not like I’m scared or anything but my mom is. Fear. We, in school, talk about how the media can generate fear and make people afraid of each other.”
“You don’t feel afraid?” Mrs. Malinsky looks at Winona’s presentation. It is after school hours and the young woman came dressed casually. That’s what she, the counselor, prefers anyway, so as to get a better idea who the teen is and how she thinks. Winona’s wearing black and boasts a tattoo on her shoulder, which the school uniform wouldn’t expose but the doubled tank tops above the black jeans do. She’s wearing deep purple nail polish and lipstick. No piercings, however. Canvas black sneakers. Her brownish gelled hair, tinted with auburn streaks, is kept mid length and layered, with long bangs swept aside and held in place by the gel. Winona wears a bit of eye make-up to highlight her red-brown eyes. The pseudo green khaki army jacket and sloppy wool pullover have been tossed along with a hand knitted red scarf onto a nearby chair. Mrs. Malinsky can see the tops of grey wool work socks owing to the ragged jeans leg hems being hiked up by the crooked legs that lay sideways on the couch, shoed feet hanging over the cushion’s edge. Maybe the girl went to some trouble to appear defiantly dressed before her, but her style of appearance has become quite commonplace in this day and age and does not necessarily signal rebellion. She is not goth, but grungy. However, it does signal identification with the lower income classes and their related youth culture, and therefore, on the other hand, some conformity. The counselor knows that looking “bad” is in, and it is a way for the youth to cover up their feeling s of fear and insecurity. They like to appear cool and wise. Winona no doubt prefers indy music, and her language would certainly support that probability. The presentation belies an effort to look tough and suppress emotions and frailty, as far as she and the social science literature she’s read can tell. For young women of 15 or so years, Winona’s style of dress probably indicated an interest in gender equality in its desire to appear gender neutral. This was one of those youths seeking truth, justice and empowerment with fire and pride. All very healthy. While this sort of presentation is designed to challenge the mainstream, the establishment, it nonetheless is a sign of conformity to a certain youthful perspective, a certain subculture based on ideals opposed to commercialism but for “reality.” Everything the girl has stated reflects this likelihood.
Indeed, Winona’s mother had expressly sought counseling with a feminist bias. Whereas some mothers express doubt about the children in recommending counseling and end up projecting their own sense of doubt and inferiority and affecting self-doubt and lack of confidence in the child by doing so, Mrs. Malinsky felt praise for a mother who shopped around and clearly looked for a socially constructive and responsible point of view in the interest of facilitating the child’s growth and all-round health. What is more, Winona’s mother had carefully listened to Mrs. Malinsky’s explanation of the narrative approach, which lets the client talk and try to find answers to their questions with prompting and encouragement rather than imposing an analysis and trying to “figure out” a person. She appeared to be won over and liked the de-emphasis on understanding in favour of a possible interpretation of meaning intended to help guide the young person on a winding journey of life.
Mrs. Malinsky didn’t really need an answer to her last question. However, getting the client to voice something assisted in furthering self-actuality.
Winona was only slightly defensive to the question. “I’m careful about what I eat, how I cross a road, that sort of thing. I’m not obsessed, or anything. I have concerns about the state of the world. That’s normal.”
“Quite.”
“I used to dream I could fly. Is that bad?”
“On the contrary. The literature suggests that dreams like that are positive. The power to fly may represent personal empowerment, courage, will, self-confidence.”
“Oh, good. You know, I think my mom was influenced by the media when she chose my name. My dad didn’t decide on the name. I think there were a few individuals named Winona in the eye of the media, like Ryder, Judd…Did you see Girl Interrupted? I bet you did. Do you think I have borderline personality disorder?”
“I did see that movie. It’s good. I’m not a psychiatrist, and my job isn’t to find something wrong with you. Your parents didn’t send you to me because they suspect you’re mentally ill. We discussed all that together, right? You seem healthy to me. I’m supposed to assess your personal growth and identity, for you and your parents to better understand yourselves and each other. That’s all.”
“I get it,” nodding with a crooked half-smile while staring at the carpet. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“You do not appear to be mentally ill, to me. You don’t like your name?”
“Not particularly. I ask them to call me ‘Nona.’ I hate ‘Winnie,’ too. God, a pooh-bear?! So ‘Nona’s best. It’s different too. My friends and classmates go along with that. The teachers forget it sometimes, but they use it when they’re reminded.”
Pause. “Say, what do you think of Angelina Jolie?” asks the counselor.
“Most people don’t have any clue that her mother is half French Canadian and half Iroquois. But I think that explains a lot about her personality, her statuesque appearance, and her roles as an actress. I mean, she must be quite a strong personality. I know she’s famous, and has a famous acting father, and is loaded. I heard she’s the richest and most powerful female actor in the world now. Did you know she doesn’t like her father and was estranged for awhile? Yeah, he’s a right wing pig of some sort.”
“Is that right?”
“Apparently, but then I’m trusting the corporate media in saying so. To answer your question, I guess I admire her somewhat. I mean, she’s athletic and strong, she won an academy award at a young age and I don’t believe that it was from just being herself. I think she worked hard to earn it. That role was not easy. She’s good-looking and talented besides. I think her problem is a desire for power. Now she’s directing war movies. I don’t think she’s always honest when she’s talking to interviewers. Winona Ryder did okay, but she’s more of the confused and nervous type anyway, by all accounts.”
“Do you like Brad Pitt?”
“Oh, he’s good looking enough. Strong but vulnerable looking, and very fit and energetic. Troy was impressive. Well, he looked fantastic! I don’t know about his mind, though. He played a Nazi once, you know, in that one about Tibet. Then he played one again in that comedy, satire. Then he played the psycho self-destructive brother in A River Runs Through It. I mean besides his role as a sophisticated thief Oceans 11, and the other fluff but if he impressed her, there must be something to him. I think he’s been a media tart, but he doesn’t need it now. Anyway, he’s getting old. He’s over 40 now.”
Mrs. Malinsky tries to hide a smile. “Strong opinions and a willingness, especially with ability, to question norms and ideas is the sign of a well-defined personality in my books. You’re voicing objections and opinions without attacking. Therefore, far from showing signs of a personality disorder, in my humble and unofficial opinion, I think your personality is developing just fine.”
“Thanks,” with an acknowledging jerky nod of the head and look of satisfaction. “What do you think of the Laura Croft character? Is that a positive female role model? Even if they digitally enhanced her boobs and stuff?”
“Well, the character is shallow. It’s a caricature taken from a computer game, after all, which is a male dominated industry. I think Laura Croft is a male fantasy—and fear—of an empowered woman. It’s a fantasy figure that can inspire lust coupled with fear while it can eliminate the threats to man, the demons that pursue mankind. It’s a male fantasy and fear. Angelina gets used in the Hollywood blockbusters. I think Jolie is quite aware of it. She works with it. I guess she really likes fame and money enough. Lara Croft’s a figure that conveys loyalty to patriarchy, namely loyalty to the father. Laura Croft disdains other men in her life. Now that’s sick. Morbid preoccupation with her dead father, possibly. At the same time, and perhaps because of that, she engenders fear. Similar to the character Signourney Weaver played in the Aliens movies. Which is more terrifying, the giant insect aliens or the woman who can endure and overpower them while the human males are succumbing to the monsters all around her?”
“Check. In the end, though, it’s the women who have to be strong and must rescue society. There’s something good about female action figures getting popularity, no?”
“Check. There’s that….But think about the movie, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It features a female action hero. It has depth because it questions how women are to use the power they’re acquiring. The hero is an anti-hero who leads herself into tragedy. She attacks indiscriminately and destroys her life in doing so….Going back to Girl Interrupted, the character Angelina Jolie plays is tragic because she is so socially destructive that she must be confined. She’s powerful because she can influence people around her and use the influence to wreak destruction over them. She’s socially destructive because she’s sociopathic, that is, she does not have feelings for people. She only thinks about herself and not society. She’s deluded in that respect. She appears strong but is fundamentally flawed and therefore weak. In the end, she is exposed and the exposure collapses her façade so that she’s reduced to a helpless screaming lump. It takes her years to correct herself well enough to get out of the institution. The Winona Ryder figure, however, appears weaker because she’s very emotional but proves to be stronger precisely because she can emote. She understands that she is in a relationship with society and must find a place in it, decide what kind of relationship to embark upon. For example, she wants to please her parents but she cannot live the way they want her to because it effaces her true self. But she languishes in indecision for awhile, neglecting to take control of her life and leaving it for others, like her parents and the doctors. We meet her when she’s confused, probably by the conservative upbringing that conflicts with her own artistic drive. She opts to take time out, indefinitely. She interrupts herself. Her emotions lead her somewhere healthy, though, and she uses them and her experience in the mental health institution to build her life. Her crisis then is not tragic. It is an opportunity for resolution. The period of crisis in fact serves to lift her up. In short, she refuses to grow for a short while but allows herself to in the end. Her cocooned life is interrupted by time, the need to grow up and take intiative to join society on her own terms.”
“Wow. You’re good!”
“Think I’m earning my fees, in an honest way?”
“Maybe,” with a wide grin.
“It’s hard to blame her, though—the girl who’s interrupted. Growing up is difficult in this day and age. Some think that adolescence, by the way, is a modern phenomenon specific to industrial societies, that it happens because of the complexity of society, the stages of life created by the industrial production line and the clock of business and commerce, and the amount of information one has to absorb in order to mature. I think the nature of this reality facing young people is the reason why audiences come to sympathize with the character, even though we don’t generally like her lameness to begin with. The knowledge, responsibilities, works and social nuances of present-day society are mounting and hard to make sense of and learn thoroughly. It’s hard to make conscious choices. Indeed, many choices, not by tradition today in Western society but largely through the media as you so rightly point out, are foisted upon us. We’re losing traditions and the efforts to create new ones can’t keep up or compete with the big media. So, we have to choose but the choosing is very complicated.”
Pensive, Winona stirs again to remark on the fashion industry. “And it’s so deceptive. Like, it’s hard to figure out what’s phony and what isn’t. Take clothes. It used to be cool for teens to wear ripped jeans, second hand stuff in a certain way. But the marketers go around investigating teen behaviour and take the stuff on the streets into the stores. Now, people pay big bucks for new jeans that are ripped up and made to look faded. Ridiculous! They take our—the youth’s culture and commercialize it so it becomes mainstream. We saw a documentary about it.”
“ I see. Well, Nona, we’ve gone for well over an hour, so we can finish the second hour and you can skip the next scheduled session, unless you still want to come and see me.”
“What about the holidays? Aren’t you taking a Christmas break?
“Yes, a shortish one but only for the days between Christmas and New Year’s Day. You going to be around too?”
“Ah, my mom wants me to stay with my aunt and great-aunt in Victoria for about a week. My dad is going on a ski trip with the boys in the family, and my mom wants to take time out to see her sister in Toronto to help her sister, my other aunt, who has a son with a chronic illness. So my mom and dad want me to go with my aunt, my dad’s sister. She needs to take care of her mom, my great aunt because she’s alone and hard of hearing and stuff. Sounds boring and dumb.”
“Well, they’ll be in the region. It’d be nice for your aunts, and you never know, you might get something out of it in the end. You’ll like Victoria. It’s mild in the winter.”
“We’re supposed to stay together in the same room and I’ll have to sleep on the floor along with my little girl-cousin. Like camping. The guys’ll have fun and stay in a nice cabin. It sucks.”
“Huh-huh. So come one more time, in two weeks before the holidays. Would that work out? Of course, call anytime you want to talk.”
“Yeah, all right. Thanks, Mrs. Malinsky.”