Conquest

Conquest...of man, of land, of mind, of life. What I find most intriguing about Cortes is his intelligence. He was, by my standards, a monster, however he was very smart about his tactics in taking over land. Obviously he had no problem killing and pillaging a village or town, however because he knew he was outnumbered by Montezuma and his men... he choose to treat Montezuma with respect. This respect is discussed on page 46 and 47. Diaz tells of the first meeting between Cortes and Montezuma, "he (Cortes) dismounted from his horse, and when he came near to Montezuma each bowed deeply to the other"(47). I think this speaks volumes for the military finesse of Cortes. However Cortes was no different than any other explorer or settler. He believed it was his God given right to take over the land from people he viewed as savages. This writing really shows the dark side of conquest. One example was the description of the men who were sacrificed to the "idols". Men whose chest was cut open and hearts taken from their chests. Their arms and legs cut off and eaten. The text states, "They they ate their flesh with a sauce of peppers and tomatoes" (51). This description supports Cortes' belief that Montezuma and his culture was truly savage. Diaz paints a very graphic picture of what war and conquest is really like. He continues to give the reader distinctive descriptions of the death that engulfed them during the war and conquest, the death of the cities, "We could not walk without treading on the bodies and heads of dead Indians..the dry land and the stockades were piled with corpse. Indeed, the stench was so bad that no one could endure it" (pg53). This detail was thoroughly disgusting and disturbing. As I have reread this blog I began to think about what conquest looks like in the 21st century. Are we still spreading disease and murdering each other because we view the other as a savage? There is the technology conquest. Technology is used to destroy people all of the time. We here of cyber bullying or videos that are released online that exposes people and the private moments of their lives. I just read in the New York Times today about a man who took a picture of a dead woman in New York and posted it on his facebook. Now his account was closed but the damage was done. And I do think that we still enter villages of the middle east and because America views the people and the villages as less than cultured...America feels free to destroy the homes of people who are human just like you and me. Another example is the treatment of prisoners of war that has been recently exposed in the media. In class we discussed the idea of conquest and what can be seized. How conquest can take on varied forms in our lives. This was demonstrated when we documented, on the board, the parallel between The Wedding Crashers and the Cortez text. We watched a portion of the movie Wedding Crashers. We discussed the conquest of sex and women and how this was similar to or paralleled to the conquest of Cortes. In the movie we see male domination through charisma, lies, and drinking. We see women treated as trophies, mere objects to be won and displayed to other men. We see that the conquest of female with be met in anyway, whatever it takes to get the woman. Women in this movie are seen as expendable and non-essential except for as a trophy. Women are present for the entertainment and enjoyment of the men in the movie. Vince Vaughn's character portrays this ideology when he is on the stairs at the country house after being fondled by the young lady with red hair. He is advising his friend to close the deal and to not get personally involved. He also belittles the mother who had exposed her breasts just moments earlier. We finished the week off with watching a documentary on professional wrestling. I found this film to be absolutely offensive and disgusting. Honestly I was sick to my stomach when I left the class. The underlying or maybe not so underlying ideologies in this media exposes the truly deep seed of sexism in this country. The actions of this profession supports every stereotypical belief about masculinity that can be thought of from homo-phobia to woman as sex toys. The documentary explains that professional wrestling supports the notion of male dominance and conquest. Women of professional wrestling are belittle and degraded. There is a hyper-sexuality that runs throughout the business. This is obvious by the dress of the women and men. I found it amazing that whole scenarios and scripts are created to expose homo-sexuality in order to destroy it to continue to prove the extreme masculinity of the male wrestlers. Honestly I think this type of entertainment truly supports and perpetuates the cycle of abuse within the American culture. Professional wrestling is saying that it is ok to hurt others and to establish your manhood at the expense of women and those weaker than you. I believe that this sub-culture is normalizing bullying and violence. I would think that in 2011, America would have moved beyond this type of entertainment to a more enlightened form. But since wrestling is so popular with America's youth, it is a definite indicator of where this country stands on it's views of masculinity, conquest, women, and homo-sexuality.