06 ethics paper

8/3/2019 06 Ethics Paper

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Running head: COMMUNICATION ETHICS VIOLATIONS 1

Communication Ethics Violations Between Verse and Prose

in the film Hedwig and the Angry Inch

David Owens-Hill

Queens University of Charlotte

December 9, 2010


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COMMUNICATION ETHICS VIOLATIONS 2

A glam-rock musical focusing on identity and ethics violations

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is, first and foremost, a film about identity and an

exploration of the consequences of a loss of authentic self. In this paper I will explore the

ethic violations in the film as manifested in the differences between verse and prosethe

disparities between the main character (Hedwig) in performative acts and in

communicative acts. I use the term performative both figuratively and literally. This is a

glam-rock musical, and the characters communicative acts are contrasted by her stage

performance of emotive songs. The development of ethical issues stem from the

characters interplay with one another and differing grounds of good based on their

divergent backgrounds.

We meet Hedwig (John Cameron Mitchell) working with her band in a local

restaurant near the salad bar as she exclaims that shes the internationally

ignored rock singer who has traveled from Communist Berlin. As we travel with

the band we travel into Hedwigs own memories as she shares the stories of how

he was a young boy named Hansel, raised by a single mother in Germany before

being wooed by an American GI Sergeant who agrees to marry Hansel and takehim to America if he follows through with a sex change operation in order to

become a complete woman. When the operation fails leaving Hedwig with neither

male nor female genitalia, her GI husband abandons her in Kansas and Hedwig is

left to fend for herself by doing a series of side gigs and odd jobs where she meets

young Tommy Gnosis (Michael Pitt). The two consider one another soul mates

until Tommy steals Hedwigs songs and becomes a successful rock star leaving

Hedwig pathetically playing in the shadows. Hedwig marries Itzak, a drag queen,

and the two profess their love until a falling out at the end of the movie. As

Hedwig performs we learn how her ultimate desire is to become a whole person

by meeting her other half, someone she can bond with in every way (IMDB, Plotsynopsis)

We will examine the differing grounds of good in Hedwigs life, Tommys life, and

Itzaks life. To look into each of these private areas is to observe the epistemological


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foundation of each characters actions throughout the film. Though the characters are

flawed, their actions are (generally speaking) not intended to be hurtful. To understand

the reasoning behind their divergent grounds of good is to legitimize their expressions of

situational ethics.

Literature review

This paper does not attempt to describe new and unique communication ethics

violations. Rather this paper attempts to humanize these violations by exploring them in

the context of Hedwigs attempt to find a meaningful and authentic interpersonal

connection. She makes the same mistakes we all do, and we can learn from her example.

To identify the violations and the stage on which they appear, we will turn to

work by Jrgen Habermas as he writes on normative theory. Additionally, the writings on

differing grounds of the good and public/private accountability of Ronald C. Arnett, Janie

M. Harden Fritz, and Leanne M. Bell in Communication ethics literacy: Dialogue and

difference will frame the discussion as the examples from the film relate to discernable

ethics violations. Pablo Freires notion of dialogic suppression appears when examining

Hedwig and Itzaks relationship, and we will turn to the soundtrack of the film itselfas

contrasted to the characters spoken wordto explore the violations that occur between

act and authentic performance.

Convergent and divergent grounds of the good


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To understand communication ethics in an age defined by postmodernism, we

must agree that differing, occasionally contrasting, notions of good are all valid. The

characters inHedwig and the Angry Inch build their independent goods on their

background experience and contextualize their ethical foundations on the experiences that

form their socially constructed reality.

Hedwigs good is the easiest to define: she needs to find her other half to

complete her authentic self. Because of her botched sex-change operation, she feels that

she is neither a man nor a woman and, because of this, has an urgent need to complete her

identity with a compliment that she believes can only be found externally. She explains in

a monologue:

It is clear that I must find my other half. But is it a he or a she? Is this person

identical to me or somehow complimentary? Does my other half have what I

dont? Did he get the looks? The luck? The love? Were we really separated

forcibly or did he just run off with the good stuff? Or did I? What about sex? Is

that how we put ourselves back together, or can two people actually become one

again?

Hedwig explores her quest for her individual good at all costsincluding at the expense of

the interpersonal relationships she has formed as evidenced by her cruelty to Itzak, a

character we are lead to believe initially fulfilled her quest to find her other half.

Tommy Gnosis began his role sharing Hedwigs good. He led a troubled life at

home, often disagreeing with his father. He saw in Hedwig an opportunity to transcend

his banality through creationcreation of music, creation of meaningful relationships. He

explains at one point that he too believes in the other half and draws a parallel to Adam

and Eve, who he explains were one until a vengeful God split them in two for his own


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amusement. He feels that Adam, a representation of the general populous, went from task

to task doing as he was told by a higher power but Eve, representing the creative class,

refused to do as she was told; she tasted the fruit from the forbidden tree of knowledge,

not to spite the almighty, but because she wanted to know shit. As his relationship with

Hedwig declines, Tommys good becomes less clear. Its evident that he believes the key

to his personal good is still through creation (as he continues to perform as a musical

artist) but he rejects the notion of creation, instead stealing Hedwigs songs to become

rich and increasingly powerful.

Itzak, a minor character, met Hedwig in a night-club in Europe and the two fell in

love. Again, the good of this character began in agreement with Hedwigs, but because of

Hedwigs overwhelming cruelty in the face of love, the two began to diverge. Itzak also

believes in the redeeming value of communication through creation, and longs to be a

performing artist with a voice instead of a back-up singer to Hedwigs increasingly

paranoid and hostile performances. Itzak wants to be loved, and wants to love Hedwig,

but understands the importance of expression as a component of his constructed identity.

We see the three characters begin in the same placesearching for a connection

either to another person or to their craft in order to complete a part that feels vacant. They

sense a need for something greater, some connection that they are not making.

Ultimately, the three characters sense of good become divergent to the point of

irreconciliation as time and emotion wear on the identities that are dependent on a

contextual sense of good.

None of the three senses of good are invalid, though all three turn out to be less-

than-flattering. To discuss ethics in context to dialogue and these three characters, we


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must agree that Bubers notion of dialogue as response to emergent insight between

persons (as cited in Arnett, Fritz, & Bell, 2009, p. 82) is valid and applicable. This is

where we find our first communication ethics violation. Ethics in a postmodern age

should depend on dialogue as a meeting place for learning in an age of difference

(Arnett, Fritz, & Bell, 2009, p. 81). The film does not allow for a meeting place for the

three divergent goods of these characters. The three, instead of engaging in meaningful

dialogue, scurry away from one another and retreat to their own thoughts, shutting out the

possibility for discourse.

The irony of Hedwigs lament

As mentioned, this film is a musical, and the disparity between the songs

performed and the communicative acts of the performers is at once telling and unsettling.

A touchstone musical number is The Origin of Love which relays the story of

Aristophanes speech from Platos Symposium where Aristophanes speculates that the

gods exercised their control over the beasts of earth wherein both sexes were once one

until Zeus says:

I have a plan which will enfeeble their strength and so extinguish their turbulence;

men shall continue to exist, but I will cut them in two and then they will be

diminished in strength and increased in numbers; this will have the advantage of

making them more profitable to us. They shall walk upright on two legs, and if

they continue insolent and will not be quiet, I will split them again and they shall

hop about on a single leg. (Plato, 385 BCE/1953)

Or, in Hedwigs lyrics:

but I could swear by your expression that

the pain down in your sould was the same


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as the one down in mine.

Thats the pain, cuts a straight line down

Through the heart; we called it love.

It was a cold dark evening, such a long time ago,

When by the mighty hand of Jove,

It was the sad story of how we became lonely

Two-legged creatures,

Its the story of the origin of love.

The origin of love.

The Origin of Love (Mitchell, 2001, track 2)

Paulo Freire tells us dialogue is the encounter between men, mediated by the world, in

order to name the world (Freire, 1972, p. 88). Hedwig is projecting dialogic acts by

singing of the history of longing she feels in looking for her other half. Whats missing is

the dialogic response from her co-communicators. Itzak specifically, and Tommy to some

degree, both attempt to maintain meaningful relationships and thus dialogic common-

ground with Hedwig, but as she is all consumed with her quest for the preordained other

half, she shuts them out. Freire goes on to say dialogue cannot occur between those

who want to name the world and those who do not wish to do this namingbetween those

who deny others the right to speak their world and those whose right to speak has been

denied them (Freire, 1972, p. 88). At this point, we see an ethics violation between

Hedwigs performative actsshe sings longingly of the search for her other halfand her

performative acts as she denies both Itzak and Tommy the opportunity to contribute to

the dialogue necessary to frame their interpersonal relationship in a meaningful way.


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What drives Hedwig to commit these ethics violations between her actions and

her songs? It could be the act of performing itself. Public opinions exert a kind of soft

pressure on the malleable shape of minds (Habermas, 2006, p. 417) and few opinions

are more public than those of fans to a celebrity. Hedwigs performative acts are

supported and validated by a group of traveling fans and, though it is not implied that she

exercises suspension of belief, it is possible that she interprets the fans reactions as

supportive enough that she values the performance more than the authenticity of the

supporting narrative. Additionally, if we assume that theories emergent in liberal

democracy (a key component of the film as contrasted with Communist East Berlin)

express a demanding ought that faces the sobering is of evermore complex societies

(Habermas, 2006) we come to understand that Hedwigs performance is driven by

normative theory. She ought to search authentically for her other half. Tommy ought to

love her. Hedwig ought to cease her cruelty towards Itzak. Her communicative acts are

driven by emotionprimarily disappointment and despairthat defy the logical constraint

of acts defined by theory.

Dialogic ethics and the coming together of two halves

Dialogic ethics begins with one basic assumption: respect whatever is before you

and take it seriously (Arnett, Fritz, & Bell, 2009, p. 91). This is the point at which the

ethics breakdown between Hedwig, Tommy, and Itzak reaches critical mass. Tommy

does not respect Hedwigs contribution to discourse in the creative arenathe only space

in which Hedwig is truthfully communicating. By stealing her songs and claiming them

as his own, he usurps her ability to use them as her unique and authentic vessel for


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communicative. By denying Itzaks voice as he gradually grows tired of their abusive

relationship, Hedwig eliminates the opportunity to create dialogue that could save their

relationship. In the end of the film Itzak has had enough and decides to leave Hedwig and

join the cast of Rent, the musical, on a cruise line steaming to Guam. Hedwig looses

control and rips Itzaks passport to pieces, forcing him to stay behind in America and to

forfeit his dream of performing independently of Hedwig. This final act of brutality costs

Hedwig her band and her troupe of friends. As her life spirals out of control, she

reconnects with Tommy only long enough to slander his name in the press and effectively

ruin his career.

As the film closes, and Hedwig performs one final frenzied song, we see the

effects of compounding ethics violations. She collapses on stage and awakes in a dream-

like room full of the people she has harmed. As Tommy serenades her, we see her slowly

let go of the notion that love is preassigned from on high and watch as she comes to

understand that her other half has been a part of her all along. By symbolically handing

Itzak her microphone and allowing Itzak to perform as a soloist, Hedwig stands aside as

Itzak regains her voice in their relationship. Finally, as she strolls naked into the night, we

realize that she is finally cognizant of her communication ethics violations as they have

impacted the interpersonal relationships she has formed and as they have altered and

damaged her sense of identity. Arnett, Fritz, & Bell tell us dialogic ethics listen to what

is before one, attends to the historical moment, and seeks to negotiate new possibilities

(2009, p. 91). In the final moments of the film, as Hedwig frees Itzak and Tommy frees

Hedwig from their dysfunctional intertwined identities, we see a temporal suspension of

communication ethics violations. All parties have negotiated the pitfalls of their ethical


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violations and allow one another to begin to repair the damage they have caused. Each

character addresses their sense of the good, and each character ends up in a very different

place than where they began. Their goods were ultimately divergent, which each now

understands to be a valid and sustaining in an era of postmodern understanding.


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References

Arnett, R., Fritz, J., Bell L. (2009). Communication ethics literacy: Dialogue and

difference. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans.). New York: Herder

& Herder

Habermas, J. (2006). Political communication in media society: Does democracy stillenjoy an epistemic dimension? The impact of normative theory on empirical

research. Communication Theory, 16. 411-426.

IMDB Plot synopsis/Hedwig and the angry inch. (n.d.) Retrieved from:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0248845

Koffler, P., Roumel, K. & Vachon, C. (Producers), & Mitchell, J. C. (Director). (2001).

Hedwig and the angry inch [Motion Picture]. USA: Killer Films/New LineCinema.

Mitchell, J.C. (2001). Origin of love. OnHedwig and the angry inch cast original motion

picture soundtrack[CD]: New York, NY: Hybrid Recordings.

Plato. (1953). Symposium (B. Jowett, Trans.). In Collected works of Plato (pp. 520-525).

Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 385 BCE).

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