Bumble: Hooks

Bell Hooks discusses many issues pertaining to our secret wishes and desires. Whatever nationality you are (particularly from the perspective of an American) there is an egocentric identity that we can imperialize everything. If we can get our hands on something tangible, then we have claimed ownership over it. We have this interesting desire to separate ourselves from the cultural “Other,” however still gain control over it. By controlling “them, or these other people, we essentially take what is there’s or things that they have originated, and make it our own. As Bell says, we, “desire “a bit of the Other” to enhance the blank landscape of whiteness” (Hooks 372). Similar to Karl Marx and issues of ideologies created and controlled by the dominant powerful groups, the “white and superior” group claim what is considered eclectic and exotic. It is exotic because it is NOT them. We commodify these other people’s cultures. If we take something from their culture, we are not a part of that culture and therefore do not have a common understanding of that particular custom or clothing article etc. We try to pull in these cultural ways into our own culture, entirely changing the meaning and context of it. This is how we exploit these other cultures and imperialize them. We take what is theirs and claim ownership over it.
We want contact with the other in many different ways.
We take rituals, languages, restaurant foods, clothing, decoration, and more. We take it to tinker with and make the new popular or trendy item. Like we have learned from past theorists we do not like culturally other things. That is why when something deviates from the norm, we mass produce it. Hebdige talks about deviating from the norm and the only way to handle it is to mass produce it, as Adorno claims as well.

All of the latest trends and cultural phenomenon are these eclectic mixes from all different cultures. It could literally be taking someone else’s religion or religious practices and make it your own.
Madonna is the perfect example of this, taking yoga and kabbalah and all different mystical rituals and picking and choosing what she likes from them and then using them for her own person enjoyment. Of course, then these popular notions are solidified into culture.

Language, we borrow and use expressions from others and make it our own. Even terms like lingerie, or c’est la vie. We intermix languages all of the time. To add into our mundane vocabulary, we might throw in a little, “je ne sais quoi!”
Next comes restaurants, you may go to a restaurant, created by Jean-Georges, a famous French restaurant owner and chef, which specializes in Chinese food! But, it is not only Chinese food, but it is Thai food or Indian food. This is borrowing and using the “other” for our own good. In a sense, these intermingling of genres can help alleviate some boundaries and stereotypes which were originally set in stone.
http://www.jean-georges.com/

sample of a menu from Vong: the asian inspired fusian restaurant in NYC
“Chicken and Coconut Milk Soup galangal and shiitake mushrooms
Warm Asparagus Salad enoki mushrooms and thai hollandaise
Spicy Thai Beef Salad Raw Tuna and Vegetable Roll nam prik vinaigrette
Vietnamese Pork and Shrimp Spring Rolls nuoc cham sauce
Asian Vegetable Fritatta Vegetable Pad Thai Tofu Tempura,
Lily Bulb and Radish Salad white sesame and lavender
Crispy Basil Salt and Pepper Calamari thaitar sauce
Prawns thai herbs and bok choy
Grilled Tuna Burger bonito mayonnaise, shiso-yuzu marinated pickle”

People find more excitement from interracial and cultural restaurants, and it is accepted more as a cultural norm and so in a way it can help reduce some of the racial tensions. But, as Hooks says there are issues with racial identity and representation of racial identity. However, there still are norms and the hierarchy of desirables. The number of Jewish women I know who have gotten nose jobs to appear more hegemonically Christian etc… is countless!

Then there is the Bombay Co. a commercialized store that mass produces “authentic” and exotic goods to decorate your own house with. This relates to Benjamin’s issue of authenticity, we want the original, but we are mass producing these goods, drifting further from the origins. http://www.bombayco.com/

Among the most interesting of taking otherness is that of clothing and fashion. Celebrites all over the red carpet are taking the exotic look to the new level. The greatest example of this is a Youtube video I found which shows celebrities who are wearing the traditional Indian dress, the Sari.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrzmGu3qx1c

Elizabeth Hurley decided to have a wedding where every woman had to wear a Sari, and of course cut it up in every which way possible to make it their own!