What is Intimacy?
To me intimacy is where you feel comfortable with the other person/s, where you are never on edge, never unsure as to whether you can voice your opinions or not and most importantly intimacy with someone is when you can express you deepest and darkest hopes and fears without worrying how they will react. Can something as simple as holding hands with someone be intimate?
What does it mean to be intimate? Can intimacy be created by anyone, and for anyone?
Being intimate with someone will often begin with eye contact and move on to physical contact. Many people believe that being intimate with someone, normally results in a sexual relationship. However this is not necessarily the case. I believe that creating intimacy with someone is breaking the normal comfort zones and allowing this person to see more of you and your personality.
Do men and women view intimacy differently?
“When women want to draw closer, we face each other, lock eyes in what has been called the “anchoring gaze,” and proceed to reveal our hopes, our worries, our lives… Men, however, often regard intimacy as working or playing side-by-side.” (Helen Fisher, 2009). This suggests that there are different degrees of intimacy that can be explored. Men seem to be more comfortable without eye contact and women, the opposite.
The question for us to explore then, is which sort of intimacy would we like to develop in our performance? Do we focus on the side-by-side intimacy, or do we explore the intensity of eye to eye contact. One may be more comfortable for women and one for men.
After looking at this information and the way in which we are going to frame our performance, we are aware as a group that we needed to explore the ways in which we position the chairs and ourselves in relation to the spectator.
Are there different types of intimacy?
There are different types of intimacy that can be created when put in a box and framed correctly. Intimacy can be created through lovers, friends, family and we want to question whether you can create intimacy with a stranger. For example; if you had a one night stand with a random person you had only just met, it is likely that you would have created a new level of intimacy with them, however they would ultimately still be strangers. Is that still creating intimacy? Or should the term intimacy only be used when the people involved know each other both emotionally and physically? Or even just emotionally?
Works Cited
Fisher, Helen (2009) How to Build Intimacy in your Relationships. Online: www.oprah.com/relationships/Building-Intimacy-Gender-Differences-in-Intimacy ( accessed on 1st November 2012)