Identity: Mixing Up the Salad Bowl!

While visiting a dear friend in Oakland, California, I had one of the most eye-opening experiences of my culinary life. Watermelon and I have had a bit of a love affair since my parents gave me my own patch of garden and asked me what I wanted to grow, and melon balls had been an exciting specialty of my next door neighbor growing up. To see watermelon melon balls in a salad was beyond belief. I expected the watermelon to make the salad sweet. Instead, it kept the salad moist, and kept the saltier and more acidic elements of the salad from overwhelming the palate.

Ingredients:
½ head of cabbage
1 small red onion
1 small seedless watermelon
1 container of feta cheese
Italian dressing to taste

Start by chopping or shredding your cabbage. My friend had a mandoline, so this went very easily for me. If you don’t have a mandoline, here’s a strategy for getting your cabbage fine enough. Once finished, dress your cabbage with the Italian dressing and set it aside to marinate. The volume of your cabbage will also lessen during this time, so don’t worry if the bowl seems full! Next, grab your melon baller and ball up half of your watermelon. Set the melon balls aside in a separate bowl. We won’t be adding them until just before the salad is served. Cut your onion in half, then thinly slice each half. Separate the onion layers over your cabbage bowl and mix. At this point, all of your prep is done. When you’re ready to serve the salad, mix your melon balls in and top the salad with a generous helping of crumbled feta cheese. You’ll be surprised at how well this unlikely combination balances in your mouth.

Speaking of things that are greater than the sum of their parts, let’s talk about Ghost in the Shell—specifically the animated movie that started it all, not the white-washed travesty currently in theaters. An oldy, but a goody, Ghost in the Shell has inspired a lot of different reactions. Understandable, since there have been many adaptations and additions to the franchise. Besides the original Ghost in the Shell movie, there’s the sequel Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. There’s a manga that predates both the movies, an anime series that seems to be set after the events of the movies but almost covers a different continuity than the movies could have allowed for, and the new prequel anime Ghost in the Shell: Arise. The Arise series finishes with a new movie that feeds directly into the beginning of the first movie, bringing Ghost in the Shell fans full circle by indisputably connecting the Arise series to the original movie continuity. Despite its many forms and themes, there is one theme I believe remains constant through the Ghost in the Shell franchise. Ghost in the Shell was always a story of identity.

Here, Motoko Kusanagi—sometimes known as “the Major” and always known as the commanding officer of Japanese government clean-up squad, Section 9—questions what makes up identity, and what makes that identity “real.” That conversation continues throughout the movie, as a digital life form known as the Puppet Master makes itself known.

What’s interesting about the Puppet Master is that there are two versions of their voice. Although male pronouns are always used for the Puppet Master in the English sub and dub of both the original movie and the updated release of the original movie, in the updated release the Puppet Master uses a female voice instead of the male voice heard in the above clip. Both versions are interesting, because in the original there is a discrepancy between the perceived gender of the voice heard and the perceived gender of the body the Puppet Master possesses, and in the updated release there is a discrepancy between the pronoun used and the perceived gender of both the Puppet Master’s voice and body.

In this scene from the anime, when Motoko’s gender is questioned by her team member Batou, she refutes the idea that her gender is only skin deep and that women are weaker by hacking his synthetic body and overpowering him. Combined with the different voices of the Puppet Master, Ghost in the Shell would seem to be implying that gender has less to do with an outward appearance, and more to do with what gender the life form inside the body feels themselves to be.

Which makes sense, considering the commercial quality of synthetic cyborg bodies. During a particular sequence in the original movie, Motoko sees a woman in a cafe that looks just like her. That’s like walking into a party to see another girl wearing the same dress you are—disconcerting. In an age where identity can be bought, sold, and hacked, the only place it could come from is within.