kaymac 4.17.08

I love how some of my classes always happen to overlap at the exact same time. In art history we're studying Romanticism and the concept of The Other came up in class when we looked at this extremely exoticized piece by Delacroix called Death of Sardanapolus. Based on a romanticized poem by Byron, the picture illustrates the story of Sardanapolus, an Assyrian king who, when he realized that he could not defend himself when he heard that his enemies were coming to attack him, killed and burn all of his possessions, including himself, his concubines, and horses, so that his enemies would not own his possessions. Despite the obvious materialistic message in this painting, it also correctly portrays Orientalism and the image of The Other. It's showing this foreign king as a savage, amoral, and materialistic, willing to kill women and horses for his own ego. This painting also exoticizes concepts like death and murder through the women and the setting they are in. Also, the women, despite the exotic setting they are in, are definitely not foreign with their pasty-white skin. However, because they are naked and in this exotic setting, they themselves become The Other as well.



I think the quote from bell hooks that completely illustrates this concept and that we received from class is:

“When race and ethnicity become commodified as resources for pleasure, the culture of specific groups, as well as the bodies of individuals, can be seen as constituting an alternative playground where members of dominating races, genders, sexual practices affirm their power-over in intimate relationships with the Other.” (367)

Going back to the women, you have Assyrian men murdering extremely pale and very naked women. Even in this gruesome act, these "exotic" women still offer sex appeal with their pale skin, hefty figures, and submissive body positions and they are still offered as a commodity.

sawsaw 4/20

I found Thursday's class discussion of bell hooks ideas to be very interesting. I had never really taken the time to consider what it would be like to be considered “exotic”. Being born in the US I never consider my self to be an “exotic woman” because everyone around me looks just like me. It was only until I traveled to Europe two summers ago that I realized what it felt like to be considered “Different” or “Exotic”. When I was in Norway, I went to the a farmer’s market in the middle of the small town. Everyone I came encounter with immediately knew I was American. They knew by the way I looked, how I talked and by what I was wearing. It was a very interesting feeling being considered “exotic” and being looked at in a different way.

The quote that stood out to me the most from bell hooks is: “Within commodity culture, ethnicity becomes spice, seasoning that can liven up the dull dish that is mainstream white cultures” (366). This quote really made me think how important “exotic” people are to the mainstream hegemonic culture. They liven up and add excitement to out society. I know that when I was in Norway people were constantly coming up to me to talk to me or look at me because I was so different. I made their small town more exciting. Just like people from other cultures or with different skin types make our society more interesting. I am going to Germany and Poland this summer on a missions trip and am excited to see how different and ”exotic” I will be to them!

Starfish 04/17

The panopticon is a very interesting concept to me, because I agree with Foucault when he says that we are all slaves to the panopticon. We do things and act certain ways because we believe that someone is watching us. There is this higher power that controls our every move. For some reason the first thing I thought about was the idea of religion. In all different types of religion, there is a higher being/beings or God/Gods who are always watching you. There are rules of how to live your life and punishments for those who do not do what they are supposed to. Religion works as its own panopticon. People who are religious cannot see this higher power, but they believe it to be there and powerful. They believe they are constantly under surveillance. I also wonder if we can be our own panopticons. I thought about my personal conscience. I would never steal or do something wrong because of the law, which is a panopticon, and because of how it would make me feel. It would not settle well with my conscience. Therefore, am I watching and surveying myself? Am I my own panopticon?

Another thing in class that I found interesting was Foucault’s quote, “Our society is one not of spectacle, but of surveillance.” (101) At first, I could not comprehend the appeal of being watched. I didn’t agree that we are a society of surveillance. Then, the minute when Dr. Casey put up facebook on the screen, it clicked. Why are we, myself being included, obsessed with facebook? I put pictures up on my profile, I update my status, and I change my profile picture frequently. The only answer I can come up with is I want to share these things with other people. I want to let them know what I am doing and I want them to see my pictures of my weekend. Thinking about it some more, I cannot understand WHY! This actually is a bit frightening but I figure I am not the only one who does not understand why they love facebook so much.

bumble: post class 4/17

It is such a bizarre phenomenon that we love to put ourselves out in the public sphere, yet at the same time cringe when people want to look out our profiled in public. It is strange that we love to watch, and love to be watched… but only if we do not know about it!

At work, every key stroke is recorded, every thing is watched. Even more importantly though, once something is written and sent out in e-mails… it is forever there. For a country that is so image conscious, there is surprisingly little analysis of how we present ourselves on sites like facebook.

It is amazing how under surveillance we are. I had applied for an internship last summer, and when I went in for an interview, every single person in the office knew who I was because my facebook picture had circulated around the office! I could not believe it. In one way it was great because it had exposed me, and put me out there, which could be one of the reasons that I got the job, but if I was not meticulous in how I presented myself, it could have backfired

The idea of the Panopticon, is completely interrelated with Marx’s ideas of ideology and hierarchy of power. We have a conception of class hierarchy because of these ideologies we have placed in our culture. Automatically, these affect how we fear the greater powers. Fear is definitely the KEY!

Sgt. Pepper, hooks

In Bell Hooks's essay, "Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance," the author discusses the way we are trained to see other people. He focuses specifically on the way white males are trained to see Black and minority females. Hegemony does seem to be suggesting an end to racism as many advertisements and media today features women of minority. However, as the sources are more carefully examined, one will find that racism is being promoted now more than ever. "They [white boys] believe their desire for contact repreesents a progressive change in white attitudes toward non-whites" (hooks 369). A common theme that promotes it is portraying colored women as exotic, animalistic, and as a thrill. By portraying them in this way, it is suggesting they are less than human. Rather than deserving the same respect society tells men to use with white females (which is still a struggle), the same respect is not even a suggestion for minority females. One clear example of this Virginia Slims ad I found online (see above this post). While it's a little dated, it provides a perfect example of the dehumanization of women. In this ad for cigarettes, a female of color is clearly being shown as animalistic. She wears a leopard print outfit. Also, her head is pointed down and her body language suggests her submissive status. But if that doesn't do it for you, her dehumanization could not be more clear in the ad's text, which reads: "Tame and Timid? That Goes Against My Instincts." This text is obviously referring to the qualities of an animal, thus it is saying she is an animal. She is less than human, and it is OK for men (and women) to treat her that way. Hooks ends his essay with a notion that fear is getting in the way of any kind of reform. With hegemony drilling these thoughts of racism into people's heads, it is not just promoting racism, but it is promoting fear to challenge it.

Elizabeth Daigh - Hooks

In Hooks article, the first sentence "within current debates about race and difference, mass culture is the contemporary location that both publicly declares and perpetuates the idea that there is pleasure to be found in the acknowledgment of racial different" really stood out to me.While reading this essay I immediately thought of fashion. I think that everywhere in fashion designers are using "the other" race to make them different or more exotic from the other. I really like what Cuckoo says about America's Next Top Model, as "the other" is very prevalent in the show. On the runway designers are always using black people to make the clothes appear a different way and show them in a different light. It changes the appeal and make the clothes seem as though they are different- it makes them more appealing. At the same, I also think that high fashion magazines will use African setting with white women to advertise. In a controversial Vogue spread it was telling how "cultured" Keira Knightly was. The picture of her with Masaai Tribes in Tanzania and she was modeling with them but at the same time she was wearing a 3,000 dollar dress. Another picture was of her with an elephant which had a Louis Vuiton cashmere blanket thrown over its back. To me, this seemed crazy. The idea that wealthy America's could/ would go into an extremely impoverished country and take pictures with them with all of this high class very expensive stuff. I think the quote "when race and ethnicity become commodified as resources for pleasure, the culture of specific groups, as well as the bodies of individuals, can be seen as constituting an alternative playground where members of dominating races, genders, sexual practices affirm their power-over in intimate relations with the Other" can be applied to what I am trying to say. In the sense that Vogue used rural Tanzania as its "playground" for visual pleasure. This spread raised controversy because people thought it was crazy to go into their tribe and put all this money in front of their eye and see how we have so much technology - and I agreed. I agreed until I read an interview with my favorite photography, Peter Beard, (who has done lots of fashion Photography in Africa) and he looked at it differently. The tribes are not upset at all more so they are happy to offer their art, their land, and culture as we are embracing it by taking pictures and wanting to show it off to America society and showing it in high fashion magazines. The tribes also have no idea what an L and V all over a blanket mean. Its not like they are thinking "Oh My God how could they bring all this designer clothing in here". Peter Beard thinks of using their tribe as further embracing the art of fashion, photography, and other cultures.

Cuckoo hooks

When reading Belle Hooks, Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance, I started to think about the show Americas Next Top Model. They are always using ‘ethnicity…. to liven up the dull dish” rather their show. The models are often placed in situation where they have to mimic another culture in their photo shoot, and then are judge on how well they embodied what they were taught. People find pleasure…. in the acknowledgement and enjoyment of racial difference” (366). The judges are often talking about how certain models have something exotic about them and that it sells. During one of the challenges the girls learned about the aboriginal Australian Culture way of story telling through dance and body art. Later the girls have to incorporate what they learned into their photo shoot. Here are some examples…

This is only one of many examples through out the show that have used different cultures to sell an image. Hooks writes, “The world of fashion has also come to understand that selling products is heightened by the exploration of Otherness” and these image confirm this. (371)

When I was younger there was this billboard that had these two hands shaking, one was black and one was white. While reading this article and thinking about how media use the Other to sell products this image kept coming back to me. This image has always been a popular way to show difference. If these image were of two hands of the same race it would not be powerful, but because of the contrast of the two it stands out more. Hooks talks about the Tweeds catalogue and how they choose the model they use for the images based on contrast. Having a dark-skinned model used while in Egypt would not work because of the “play on contrast”.