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.
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