When we looked at the 1907 World’s Fair Catalog with its declining series of humans trailing down to the ‘Negro’ and ‘Prehistoric Man’ at the bottom, many of us visibly cringed; the politics were obvious and harsh.
But we’re making a stronger claim: that all representations of the body do political / cultural work, and the operations of that work are not always obvious at all. And worse: if Richard Dyer is right (and he is), the racial, class and other attributes of white bodies are invisible. White is natural, normal—and anchors that ‘hegemony’ we talk about.
This image was circulated by the Associated Press in a story that appeared across the world about ‘riots’ in Kenya. Robin got it from his good friend Wahutu Siguru, a Kenyan who hold a law degree and is a doctoral student in our Sociology Department. Wahutu said it simply reproduced the West’s view of Africans—and that the ‘riots’ were not the way the press reported. He knew; he talked with his family and friends. Wahutu corrected things (a bit) on his Facebook page.
This is ‘Politics of Representation.’ And also the politics of the news.
Wahutu’s body responded very differently from Robin’s. How bodies respond—going ‘OK,’ or cringing, or saying ‘yeah, that looks right,’ or whatever—are data for cultural analysis.
And we can read the image: a black man in scanty dress is jumping (‘dancing’?) on the roof of a rusted burned-out car. An oily fire burns in the background. A broken telephone pole in the background is perfectly aligned with the man’s hand—and looks like a spear.
- Find an image of a raced, classed, gendered,… (whatever) body.
- Post it to the Blog and Read it, using our materials and methods
- Read (or otherwise use) your body’s reaction (maybe letting Dyer’s account guide you)
and use all of this to:
Use any format that works for you.
With all due respect, I hate to disagree with you, Robin, but I feel that white people can be "classed" rather easily. Just last Monday I was leaving campus. I saw a woman pushing a baby stroller. The first thing I noticed was that the head of the sleeping baby was not being supported and he looked as if his head was on sideways. As a mom, I wanted to fix it. I stopped to say hi and comment on how cute her little boy was. She was smoking a cigarette. I "classified" her immediately as a young, single mom who was uneducated and poor. She said she was trying to figure out how to catch the number 2 with all of the construction confusing things. I commented that it was too bad that she would have to wake her baby up to fold the stroller (which was packed with bags and things) in order to ride the bus. She said that she hopes they will make an exception because she was pregnant (one month) and wasn't supposed to lift anything. I know the rules about strollers on a bus and I knew they would not make an exception. I told her I would just give her a ride to where she was going since her son is the same age as mine and I had his car seat in the car. On the way to drop her at south Minneapolis, we talked. She had just left her boyfriend (the father of the baby and baby-to-be). She was staying with a friend of his for the time being until she found a two bedroom to rent. She said that this guy expects her to have sex with him since she was staying with him and that she was very uncomfortable and wanted to leave. I wanted to cry. Although I made different choices in my life,I come from a poor family and could relate to her hardship. She said that she gets money every month from an inheritance and that she grew up in foster care in Anoka county. She said she had some bad experiences. When I was helping her to unload her belongings at her destination, I noticed that her cigarettes were menthol. I told her that I knew she was stressed out and all but that she really should quit smoking so she would not have her baby premature with nobody to care for her one year-old. We exchanged numbers. The last time I spoke to her she was going to follow up on a lead for a three bedroom. She was sweet, but as soon as I saw her with a baby and a cigarette, I could surmise a basic framework of who she was. I was right. I grew up around women like her. I just knew. Maybe it would not have been obvious to people who were not familiar with impoverished single teenage mothers. Since my brothers were great at impregnating teenagers (they themselves young), I could just tell. I hope this long comment made my point. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteEconomic class has many cultural stereotypes associated with it, which classifies and categorizes white bodies. Edgar from men in black, an example we looked at many times, he was depicted as scruffy, unshaven, he wore grungy overalls and carried a shotgun. The depiction of his white body was tailor-made to get the viewer to accept him as a poor lower-class redneck. if functions in much the same way as the image from the Associated Press does.
ReplyDelete