I can't sleep. The way I remembered your face -that image - seems to be holding me hostage and pulling my eyelids open in opposite directions. While I want and need to rest, part of me doesn't want to allow that image to disintegrate, to dissolve into tiny dust particles for me to piece together when we meet again. I don't want that. I want the real thing - the real you. Perfect imperfections and all. So, until I can feel the warmth of your being, the permeating waves of your voice, the earth's movement when you walk, I will lay here, walk here, be here, scream and think here... sad, quiet, incomplete and awake.
It's been a while since I've blogged (as my readers may have noticed). I tell myself that things like school, family and relationships are more important - but blogging and writing are and always have been the axle, on which those other aspects of my identity are able rotate and ultimately, flourish. My craft - it centers me and enables me to prioritize the activities that pull on my emotional, physical and intellectual abilities. No longer can I blame my lack of writing on school, family or life's unbridled nature. To keep it all under control, I HAVE to write.
So, this morning, I sat listening to Max Richter's "On The Nature of Daylight" and began to remember what it used to feel like cranking out 4-5 poems a day. It felt good and I've lost sight of that, partially because when one writes from a place of necessity, there's an incredible amount of truth, and ultimately hurt, ready to ambush the perfect little lies guarding those remnants of happiness and goodness we hold onto. No one wants to revisit hurt, but I've found that we need to embrace our pasts and so-called mistakes to be critically-thinking beings. I wrote this in my journal today:
"It's been a while since I've written. I tell myself I'm too busy, but really...I'm too scared to face the truth that arises out of necessary and critical writing and thinking. I'm terrified to "soul search" because I don't want to awake the skeletons from their respective deep, dark and hidden places. What if my skeletons find those light switched I used to be so good at hiding - and reveal themselves through windows of disclosure and public humiliation?
The truth is...I need to embrace them, love them and wear them proudly, like I do Marni and Robert Clergerie...like I do, love. They are part of me and I am a product of their birth and maturation. So, in reconciliation, I call to all my skeletons! Come out and join me for drinks! Let's talk about the moment in time each of you came to be, came to me and watched as I folded you tightly into the back pockets of the two-size-too-small jeans I still keep and glare at with naivety and child-like hope. You were there when I rolled those jeans up and threw them in the bottom drawer of my dresser and buried the entire unit in my yard. Shortly thereafter, I dug it all up and threw you over the George Washington Bridge, along with any notion of wanting to see your stupid, ugly, but necessary face again. Skeletons, join me for dinner and let's hug, watch the game and eat good. Let us become reacquainted and find those delicate places of similarity. We know they exist -so, it's time to acknowledge them. It's time for me to acknowledge you. I promise, we'll settle our issues over Sorrel and drink to the ending of one chapter, the beginning of another and the convergence of every "mistake" I've ever made into part of the woman I'm destined to become."
Will you acknowledge your skeletons, your past in order to become a more whole person? I challenge you.
R. Lloyd Ming is the conceptual artist responsible for the destroying of 12 G's worth of Louis Vuitton Alma handbags (left). Yes, you read correctly. Ming had an assistant purchase a dozen of the $1,000 Alma bags over the holidays at Manhattan's flagship store. He cut the bags in half to begin constructing a sculpture for his solo exhibit, "I Am Not Chinese." The show will focus on what Ming calls the tenuous relationship between American and Japan, while artistically addressing issues like censorship, human rights and capitalism under communist rule.
"The work is called Vuitton Crucifix and it is a commentary on the new wealth and materialism that has been created in China," Ming told the press. "However it can also refer to America and many other societies. As a result of China's capitalist revolution the ranks of the rich and middle class are growing. However, capitalism often produces a culture of insecurity, were people can only find a sense of self worth or salvation through possessions and materialism. The Vuitton Crucifix sculpture is a reaction to this culture."
Ming uses photography, video art, installation and sculpture to, not only make political statements, but to open political and cultural discourse about issues of importance. Also in the works is a statue of the late Cultural Revolution leader Mao Zedong standing on a box of Dom Perignon Champagne with an the American Express Black Card - the most exclusive credit card in the world. Is it a coincidence that both Louis Vuitton and Dom Perignon champagne are both owned by LVMH?? This should be very interesting. And Ming, did buying counterfeit ones cross your mind? No. We'll I guess treating $12,000 worth of highly-coveted purses like an arts and crafts project is all worth it. Not to trivialize your art. Because I will be there.
Ming's art show runs from March 3, 2009 to April 3, 2009 at Studio C. (55 West 74th Street New York NY, 10023). Note: The show is by appointment, so call (212)362.3093.
This rendition of the famous "Let It Be" comes from Across The Universe, a movie I have never really been interested in seeing. I sat down with my boyfriend last year to watch it and wound up turning it off within 20 minutes. Don't get me wrong, I love the Beatles - they are one of my favorite bands of ALL TIME, but this movie was a little too whimsical, but in all the wrong ways. Or maybe it's because the music sucked. Except for this song.
The older woman singing literally has one of the strongest voices I've ever heard. And don't get me started on the young boy. If you're not crying by the time this is over, you are an alien. Seriously.
Website, Feministing.com featured an advertisement for a skin-whitening tablet which ran in Singapore. In case you can't read the copy, it says, "My secret to beautiful skin? I swallow." One glance a the picture and its print, and one can immediately detect traces of racism, classism and sexism. However, I think it's important to examine this particular ad in its geographical and cultural context.
Beauty standards in Singapore and East Asian countries like China and Japan are similar to those of America, except America's beauty standards are somewhat of an intricate lattice - a jumbled up paradox. The paler your skin, the better - which is different from how America views skin pigmentation.
Pale? Gross. Dark? Even gross-er.
So, that's why there's an abundance of those stupid tanning salons and media messages about the hot blonde, tan girl at Belmar Beach. We should be tan, but not that tan. We should look like we laid in the sun, not worked in it. But, back to Singapore.
One problem is that skin-lightening creams and pills have dangerous ingredients. A few years ago, many women died because of the unhealthy levels of mercury and lead in a popular skin cream line in Guangzhou and Hong Kong. And for those of us who know, these treatments are also very popular in different parts of Africa particularily Cameroon.
The sexual connotations of "I swallow" are definitely Western, which leads me to believe that this may just be an innocent double entendre. The eroticism of the woman in the ad isn't specific to just this one - it's not a trend anymore, it's the foundation for a successful advertisement. So contextually, the producers of this image most likely didn't perceive these words to incite sexual thought - nor is this actually sexist. Remember context. Maybe it stems from the lack of cultural encouragements for men to swallow or bask in ejaculate. This is typically a woman's issue, which ultimately encourages and perpetuates patriarchal phallocentrism.
So, yes there is more about this image than we may see at first glance. Like an intricate lattice, there are a number of issues that both complicate and add dimensions to how we should digest the many meanings behind this. I hope I unveiled a few for you.
Internationally-renowned Civil Rights activist, singer, and scholar Bernice Johnson Reagon recently visited Rutgers University- The State University of New Jersey in conjunction with the English department's ongoing "Writers At Rutgers Reading Series". Students of various academic concentrations gathered in the Rutgers Student Center to hear the self-proclaimed, "song talker" expound on her history as a member of SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee), as well as offer life-altering advice on how to navigate through a world engulfed by capitalism, racism and sexism.
"It was important for me to be there and witness what this living legend has to say. After all these years, she remains relevant to social, political and artistic issues. I'm honored to be here," said Rutgers Junior and Women's and Gender Studies major, Christine Awe. Bernice Reagon is also the founder of an all-African American a cappella ensemble, established in 1973, called, Sweet Honey in the Rock. The Grammy award-winning troupe has traveled the world over the past three decades, spreading awareness of the importance of singing in oral traditions. "The songs are only a vehicle to get to the singing," professed Reagon. She later added, "Singing is not an organizing element, it's an organizing experience.”
Reagon began her lecture, "Notes from the Cultural Autobiography of a Freedom Singer: 1961..." with a song which originated during American slavery, called, "Come and Go With Me To That Land". Students and faculty in attendance listened to her sing the traditional Negro Spiritual, soon catching on that they were supposed to join her. By the end of her lecture, the audience sang in harmony, confident in the, for some, newly-learned lyrics. Rutgers sophomore and Africana Studies minor, Therese Eggleston told reporters, "This was a truly liberating experience - To begin singing in a room with people you don’t know, and not care. It was moving and unlike anything I've ever experienced.”
Reagon not only sang. She focused her lecture around several formative moments in her life - being thrown in jail during college for protesting the arrest of five African American Albany State College students for buying train tickets at a “Whites Only“ teller, finding her identity and passion in a world that continuously imposed its own demands on her, as well as her discovery of music as a political and social statement used to incite change. “The very first time I experienced music as a means to articulate the needs of our community was during the Civil Rights Movement,” she told her audience. “I knew that as students, we could bring about the transformation of a culture. So, I decided to move myself against racism.”
Students were not the only attendees who expressed gratitude for the scholarship Reagon has performed throughout her lifetime. Adjunct Professor Bill Davis teaches courses in the Africana Studies department, and told The Raritan Journal, “Bernice Johnson Reagon asked some very difficult questions tonight. Not only did she question social and political institutions, known for perpetuating racism, but she asked of the individual as well. This lecture, I’m sure, was the catalyst for change in someone. I don’t know who, but, someone.” Reagon did in fact ask thought provoking questions, which left many students and faculty questioning the very fabric of their identity. Edward Steele, a Rutgers freshman and Biology major recalled her suggestion “that one will lose themself if they don’t do something catastrophic to find themself. This is just want students need to hear, as motivation during rough times.”
Female genital mutilation is internationally recognized as a human rights violation of women and girls, as it includes a number of procedures that intentionally alter and injure female genital organs for various cultural and historical reasons. An estimated 100-200 million girls and women worldwide are living with the consequences of genital mutilation today. Rape camps, in a historical and global context are known to subjugate women of a particular ethnicity or race to sexual violence, torture and murder. Todd A. Salzman, author of “Rape Camps as a Means of Ethnic Cleansing: Religious, Cultural, and Ethnic Responses to Rape Victims in the Former Yugoslavia”, discusses the estimated 20,000 women who endured sexual assaults during the Bosnia-Herzegovina war. There are many similarities between Salzman’s observances and Nahid Toubia’s “What Is FGM”, which expounds on the different types of genital mutilation and the ways in which they are culturally and historically perpetuated. In both socially-constructed institutions, women bear the brunt of an ignorant patriarchal society that functions to silence women and kill them physically, emotionally, spiritually and politically.
Culture and regional traditions are too often used to bolster masculine hegemony’s subjection of women to violent acts. “What Is FGM” reserves female genital mutilation “to describe ritualistic practices where actual cutting and removal of sexual organs takes place”, emphasizing terms like, “ritual”, “tradition” and “practice of culture” to debunk its level of acceptance in certain spaces in the world. It’s important not to judge cultural practices through a superior-subordinate sphere, but rather to ask questions about why these practices emerged, what it is about women that makes their society feel the need to suppress their agency, and how these practices relate to the establishment of rape camps. “Keeping tradition alive” is a pervasive excuse for practices like FGM. Women, because of their ability to carry and birth children, are viewed by the male gaze as carriers of culture and tradition. This has advantages as well as disadvantages. Because of this widely-held view, men and the governments in control of a particular society clamp down on women’s agency, depriving them of options and a voice. In this same token, they expect women to want to engage in these acts, holding her to a paradoxical plateau and standard. They value her because they see her as the bearer of children, and ultimately a source of money, but ironically, oppress her because through their eyes, she is incapable of being smart, independent and innovative. Toubia points out that “Africans now face the struggle to save the positive aspects of initiation rites, while eliminating damaging practices that subjugate women”. People are now trying to figure out how to “keep cultural traditions alive” without having to resort to gendered violence.
This is a decision the establishers of rape camps either never thought about or completely disregarded. The way male soldiers “kept their tradition alive” fell along the lines of ethnic cleansing or genocide. Salzman hones in on rape being used as a tool to further the political, social and economic agendas of Serbian men. During the Bosnia-Herzegovina war, genocide was executed through methods very different - yet equally destructive– from our historical understanding of what actually constitutes genocide. Most think of mass killings, guns and other forms of aggressive, male-dominated violence. However, genocide during this particular war was achieved through raping and hopefully, inseminating non-Serbian women - then, killing them. By impregnating women, they could cease the reproduction of a race or ethnicity, while undermining the men who are “supposed” to be able to take care of their women. “Genocide is further accomplished through rejection of the victim by her husband because of the disgrace that the rape brings to him and his family,” says Salzman, which coincides with what occurs in the lives of FGM victims, post-assault.
Analyzing these two concepts through a comparative framework means, not only addressing the similarities, but the differences as well. Shame, embarrassment, disgrace and uncleanliness are all feelings embodied by victims of rape camps and FGM alike – but for different reasons. In the previous quote lies the history of victim-blaming within the context of rape. Women are viewed as “tainted and unworthy for reproduction”, according to Salzman (328) and are humiliated by the experience they may/may not have had any control over. Not to mention, some endure injuries that leave them unable to ever conceive. Women in some African countries, as well as in America are also blamed for their rape, and endure continued social humiliation as a result. Female genital mutilation, because it is perpetuated as a rite of passage, doesn’t attach the same stigmas to a woman as rape does. According to Toubia, “in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, a woman is considered unclean if she is not circumcised, and many priests refuse to let such women enter their church” (423). So, the decisions of women in these spaces is still critically analyzed by male hegemony, forcing her to conform to these abusive norms, just to be accepted into her society. Through the emotions listed above, men can continue to control women by instilling fear – this is terrorism.
In both spheres, women are overtly objectified. They serve as military and economic tools to further a violent, male agenda. They serve as vessels of tradition and culture, forced to participate in rituals and practices that bring them no physical or emotional fulfillment – or maybe they do? Maybe just for that moment where a young Ethiopian woman is asked whether or not she is circumcised, and in fear of being ostracized she can, sort of, proudly reply, “yes”. But after that last remnant of pride leaves her, she will being overcome with shame when she remembers exactly what that action entailed. What about the woman who has been a victim of systematic rape in Africa’s Congo? Maybe at a treatment center she walked to for seven days, she can be proud to tell the tale of her attack – but the minute she steps in the real world - the world that inflicted her with her pain in the first place - she retreats to her humiliated and lonesome self. These practices are much more than one-time acts that are executed for the momentary satisfaction of some man or agenda. They are long-lasting emotional, physical and psychological roller coasters that deprive women of the opportunities to choose, to say or to be themselves. They steal from women. In the case of FGM, the clitoris is stolen, symbolizing not only the woman’s sexual pleasure, but her agency - her choices. Within the context of rape, there’s a lot being stolen from the victim- including her voice, agency and bodily integrity. To prevent these practices from occurring in the future, people must firstly, want to engage in discourse and secondly, become more educated about biology, possible flaws in what they’ve been taught, and other ethnicities. Then again, it wouldn’t help for them to tap in their compassion and humanity either.
Some have been calling our newly-inaugurated president, Barack Obama, the star of Tuesday’s early morning ceremony, but for many, the spotlight rests on Revered Joseph E. Lowery, who delivered a controversial, yet fitting benediction.
Joseph E. Lowery founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957 with Martin Luther King, Jr., and crusaded for civil rights and voting rights in the '50s and '60s. Former president of SCLS, Lowery is remembered most for his leadership during the Montgomery bus boycotts, as well as his public spat with Alabama Governor George Wallace during the violent Selma Bridge march of 1965. The Methodist Minister has also been known as an outspoken supporter of gay rights since 2004, when he declared his opposition to state-based initiatives to ban, both, gay marriage and civil unions. “When you talk about the law discriminating, the law granting a privilege here, and a right here and denying it there, that's a civil rights issue, and I can't take that away from anybody." During the benediction at the end of Obama’s inauguration, the 87 year-old Methodist Minister prayed for an end to “exploitation” of the weak and poor, and “favoritism toward the rich”. Ending his prayer with a touch of humor, he added:
“We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right,” Lowery stated to an uproar of laughter from the crowd.
Controversy has stirred as a result of Lowery’s humorous, yet racially charged rhetoric and many are questioning Obama’s notions of a “Post-Racial America”. Glenn Beck, conservative political commentator at FOX News thrashed, “Is this how the post-racial Obama administration begins? That someday the brown can stick around, the yellow can remain mellow, and the white will embrace what's right? Even at the inauguration of a black president, we are being called racist. Mr. President — I want to believe. I want to trust. I want to hope for change — but I am really failing to see how this is any different.”
Critics are calling Reverend Lowery’s racial glib, irresponsible and out of place for a Presidential Inauguration, referencing his speech at Coretta Scott King’s 2006 funeral, where he, in similar fashion, rebuked President Bush’s conduct in Iraq. “We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew, and we know, that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more, but no more for the poor,” he said.
Despite the backlash that has emerged over the comments of the long-time supporter of Barack Obama, Lowery certainly got the last word, followed by a sea of “Amen, Amen and Amen.”
Medusa, a symbol of femininity gone awry, is referenced as an extremely complex, intriguing and multi-faceted figure of Ancient Greek mythology. Turned into a frightening monster, after having been found sleeping with - or raped by - Poseidon in Athena's temple, the mortal Gorgon, with snakes for hair, developed as a muse for visual artists, poets, psychoanalysts and those interested in feminist theory. Her complexities stem from a clear dichotomy Garber and Vickers illustrate in their introduction to an excerpt from Euripides' Ion, stating, "'the two drops of Gorgon's blood' are an early manifestation of Medusa's simultaneous destructive and restorative powers." Medusa, in the eyes of both men and women represents a monster, as well as beauty, death and life, and fear and excitement, all of which lay the foundation for the scope through which present-day males view women in positions of power. Garber and Vickers mention in the introduction to The Medusa Reader that because of the various interpretations and versions of the myth of Medusa, it remains unclear whether or not Medusa was actually raped by Poseidon in Athena's temple. According to some texts, the two engaged in consensual intercourse. If Medusa was raped that night, then Athena punishing her by depriving her of her most alluring attributes and transforming her into the epitome of masculinity and evil certainly laid the groundwork for the long history of society blaming the victim of rape. This remains true today. For example, the Just-World Hypothesis, or Phenomenon is a popular tendency for people to believe so strongly that the world is a just place. As a result of their conditioning, when these same people bear witness to an injustice or crime, they begin to rationalize the action, searching for mistakes made on the victims part, ultimately showing that they deserved what happened to them, As mentioned, this is an extremely popular way of thinking about rape victims, who are too often depicted as sexually promiscuous, irresponsible, stupid or naïve. As a result, too many rapes go unreported around the world.
There is much symbolism in Medusa's physical attributes alone, which offer some insight to issues of gender stereotyping today. Medusa, pre-transformation, was considered very beautiful, especially for her long, flowing hair, which could be considered a symbol of her supremely feminine beauty. Today, long locks are almost analogous with notions of Western beauty, virginity and ethereality, as it lies at the heart of the feminine identity. Post-transformation, her hair, was transformed into snakes, which are usually symbols of deception, trickery, evil. We see this in a book that emerges centuries after, The Holy Bible. Satan, which is referred to as a serpent, personifies all that is evil and deceptive. She completely morphed into a creature of ultimate horror. In most artwork, what resonates with viewers most, aside from her snake-coiled hair, are her tormented, almost possessed eyes. Her mouth is typically open, conjuring images of wrath, fury and fright. We learn in Homer's The Iliad, that Athena wore the decapitated head of Medusa on her aegis to ward off all enemies or evil practices. " And across her shoulders she threw the be stalled, terrible aegis, all about which Terror hangs like a garland, and Hatred is there, and Battle Strength, and heart-freezing Onslaught". The head of Medusa, in a sense, acted as a protective totem, while maintaining its evil connotations. This irony certainly exists in the ways men view women today. Medusa, in true femme fatale fashion, used her looks to trap men and destroy them. So, Medusa could be seen as a symbol of ultimate feminine rage, after having lost her beauty because of rape.
However, the transformation of Medusa by Athena could also be viewed as an act of empowering a woman, who was taken advantage of, as well as deprived of her bodily integrity. In a sense, Athena's anger was directed towards the man who did this in her temple, so she removed Medusa's weakness, her beauty, which men perceive as the only asset a woman has and simultaneously uses as a sword to destroy. Instead of Athena blaming Medusa for being raped, Athena empowered her, maybe to the extreme, and endowed her the gift of destroying men - rendering them fit only to use for pleasure and not procreation.
As mentioned, Medusa's identity is plagued by a dichotomy many powerful women still embody today. In Euripides' Ion, Creusa plots to kill a child with "two drops of Gorgon's blood". She says to an old man she is trying to persuade to help her, "one is poisonous, the other cures disease", later adding that one, "fosters life and keeps disease away", while the other "kills". Medusa herself, after the damage inflicted by Athena represented this schism, where good and evil, and beauty and terror lay peacefully beside one another. Powerful women are living this very dichotomy under the pressure of gender normalcy and expectations. Women in politics, for example, Hilary Clinton, encounter a Catch-22 when, both, running for political office and asserting themselves and their opinions in corporate settings. Women who are positioned is socio-cultural and political spotlights are examined and most often scrutinized, while trying to relay an image for the public balancing femininity and glamour with competency and intellect. What's interesting remains the omnipresent notion that a woman can not embody all four characteristics without becoming a walking oxymoron. Not only female candidates running for office, but women in power and positions of leadership face the conundrum of having to appear strong and confident without looking unfeminine. We are living Medusa's fate and multi-faceted identity in more ways than one.
Lastly, the fate of Medusa, having her head cut off by Perseus, a male figure, represents much more than a violent slaying. The head of Medusa was and still is the personification of female rage, female power, female wisdom and the male fear of death. She represents the stereotypical, socially-constructed feminist - the woman, enslaved by rage and male-centered hate, as she was extremely powerful and dangerous. In the larger context of male-female relationships, the beheading of Medusa symbolizes the silencing of female wisdom, female creativity and female productivity. This mythological account is the forefather of modern methods of silencing the voice, power and expression of women around the world, which manifest through rape and sexual terrorism, domestic abuse, patronization, institutional sexism and economic depravity.
Women today are, without a doubt, living the fate of Medusa. Women face a relentless struggle for economic empowerment, while the disparity in access women have to quality health care versus their male counterparts is quite outstanding and widely unnoticed. Our culture has been condition to blame victims of rape and reward rampant misogyny. The legend doesn't seem so much like a metaphor anymore, but through its countless parallels with present-day gender rules is actually quite realistic. Medusa represents more than good and evil or beautiful and ugly. She truly represents the roots of the feminist struggle and the foundations of what makes women, women and what makes men, men. I think we all carry a piece of Medusa in our daily routine and should continue to explore what that piece is in the context of human identity.
