Writing about writing

We've reached another rough patch of the year. Believe it or not, academic libraries do get busy in the summer. But it's not the way it is busy during the school year, this is when we do projects that we can't do when students are here. 

Between attempting to juggle projects and now the additional work of being the interim co-director of the library, I've struggled to stay interested and involved with my writing projects. I'm feeling very much at capacity. However, the various projects I have (and now some new ideas!) are bumping around in the back of my head and I'm considering how they'll fit in the format of a blog post, with such a heavy emphasis on my opinion/experience integrated with research.

So, today, I'm thinking a little more about what this writing will be about. How will it fit in with my "professional" writing - about libraries, what about my personal journaling? Or is it some type of an effort to bring together a bit of everything - to work through my experiences in life and add in the research I've done related to gender studies. I feel a need to write about some of the bigotry I see in contemporary pop culture, and of course I see that all through the lens of my experience and interests. 

I realize that many of the non-fiction writing I read is in this vein. Anne Helen Peterson, Rebecca Solnit, and Roxane Gay; contemporary writers thinking about how our lived experiences are intersecting with the outside world. I'm not claiming this is anything new, but I'm finding it interesting to realize how much this has influenced my perspective on content. 

While I've been writing this and navigating a few supervisory type conversations, I've been thinking about libraries and racism. And how they're built for white people. This came up in a conversation about the Writing Center and making it more accessible for BIPOC folks. This stigma of accessing services is of course familiar and aligned with the research for libraries too. And that makes me wonder whether our architects have looked at newly constructed libraries at HBCUs, and I wonder if I can find any examples. I also want to make sure that we're doing better/our best to reach out to the cultural orgs directly. I feel a little bad that even the Provost was like, have Amy do it (instead of the project coordinator who is a woman of color - I believe she identifies as Black). And of course, this makes me consider a future paper with the Director of the Writing Center about all of this. 

I've also been thinking about the movie CODA and my identity as a CODA. It's rather unfortunate, ableist, and privileged to think that many people hailed CODA as a movie about/for the Deaf community. I still haven't went back to see how Deaf folks felt about it. I can't even remember whether my parents saw it. But now that it was brought back to my attention, I think it also needs to be addressed. Yes, it was incredibly good to see representation of one of my lesser identities on the big screen, handled fairly well. And I think the Deaf actors/characters were portrayed well (I would need to re-watch to see if there was anything problematic I can spot). But in the end, it's rather wild to think that this movie that is ostensibly about hearing people, but happens to include Deaf people, is celebrated as a "Deaf movie." Of course, I'm going to mostly chalk this up to people being completely clueless about what CODA means, but it's not that hard to do a quick search about a phrase/acronym like that. 

It's always funny to me how much writing will pull out thoughts and new ideas. I'm never surprised by this, but I still fight it tooth and nail!

Bringing this back 12 years later

What does it mean when a blog has gone silent for 12 years and suddenly comes back to life? It probably means an academic is trying to work through some writing and projects. I'm trying my hardest to not hide the older posts - I just finished grad school for the first time and trying to use writing to parse through all of the new things I was learning about. 

I'm hoping to use this space for a few projects, the main one will most likely be cultural commentary - specifically through the lens of intersectional feminism with a strong anti-racist leaning. I'm all over the place with my interests currently. I'll probably cover topics like pop culture, politics, environmental racism and climate change, and maybe some reviews or reflections of books I'm currently reading. I don't know where this will go or if I'll be able to maintain it, but here we go!

oryx and crake

homo sapiens doesn't seem able to cut himself off at the supply end. he's one of the few species that doesn't limit reproduction in the face of dwindling resources. in other words-and up to a point, of course- the less we eat, the more we fuck.

how do you account for that? said jimmy.

imagination, said crake. men can imagine their own deaths, they can see them coming, and the mere thought of impending death acts like an aphrodisiac. a dog or a rabbit doesn't behave like that. take birds- in a lean season they cut down on the eggs, or they won't mate at all. they put their energy into staying alive themselves until times get better. but human beings hope they can stick their souls into someone else, some new version of themselves, and live forever.

as a species we're doomed by hope, then?

you could call it hope. that, or desperation.

but we're doomed without hope, as well, said jimmy.

only as individuals, said crake cheerfully.

"oryx and crake" margaret atwood



also read her newest book "year of the flood"
great "speculative fiction" (she refuses to call them sci-fi/fantasy)

opening at woman made gallery

i am pleased to announce that i am a part of this years Her Mark 2010 publication and exhibition. the opening is this friday from 6-9. hope to see you there! below is more information from the gallery!

Her Mark 2010
Woman Made Gallery is proud to present Her Mark 2010, a publication with art and poetry by 48 women. Juror Maria Elena Buszek made the art selections, and Maureen Seaton juried the poetry entries. Designed by Karin Kuzniar and edited by Marty Bash, Her Mark 2010 includes a layout with color reproductions, poetry, and weekly calendar pages with holidays and moon cycles.
In addition to the publication, WMG hosts an exhibition featuring most of the Her Mark 2010 artworks. The Artist Reception is on July 31st from 6 to 9 p.m. The Release Party and Reading is on August 2 from 2 to 4 p.m. Her Mark 2010 copies are available at the Artist Reception and Release Party or may be ordered for $15 per copy plus shipping. Please contact WMG by phone, 312-738-0400, or by email, gallery@womanmade.org.
Visual Artists who have their work in Her Mark 2010: Grazyna Adamska-Jarecka, Adriana Baltazar, Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman, Crisanta de Guzman, Kathleen Elliot, Rebecca Rose Greene, Judithe Hernández, Anjani Khanna, Margaret LeJeune, Aliza Lelah, Suyeon Na, Bonnie Peterson, Shari Pettis, Tara Polansky, Melissa Shook, Alice Simpson, Sylvia Steen, Verna Todd, Kate True, Iris Vazquez, Amy Wainwright, Angilee Wilkerson, Beatrice Wolert, and Elizabeth Wuerffel.
Poets included in Her Mark 2010: Beverly Boyd, Rosemary Ann Davis, Kelley Evans, Veer-Tess Frost, Jane Ellen Glasser, Ona Gritz, H.K. Hummel, Kiki Vera Johnson, Laurie Junkins, Elizabeth Kerlikowske, Anna Leahy, Christine McKee, Coco Owen, Maureen Piggins, JC Reilly, Susan Richardson, cin salach, Mary Kolada Scott, Sheri Sorvillo, Judith Terzi, Judith Valente, Gale Renee Walden, Rachel Jamison Webster, and Andrena Zawinski.
Exhibition Dates: July 31 - August 27, 2009
Release Party: August 2, 2009 - 2-4 p.m.
Woman Made Gallery, 685 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60642

Our new President

I just wanted to sincerely congratulate the next President of the United States of America, Mr. Barack Obama. I am so proud of our country right now. I know that the country will not become perfect over night but I do think we are moving in the right direction with electing Obama president. Thank you to everyone who went out and voted.

Wear red on Thursday!

I am just reposting a repost! via the curvature as well as document the silence

In October 2007 people all over the United States gathered physically and in spirit to speak out against violence against women of color. Some of us wore red all day and explained that we were reclaiming and reframing our bodies as a challenge to the widespread acceptance of violence against women of color. Some of us wrote powerful essays about why we were wearing red and posted them on the internet. Some of us gathered with bold and like-minded folks and took pictures, shared poetry and expressed solidarity.

This year, on the first anniversary of the Be Bold Be Red Campaign, we invite you to make your bold stance against the violence enacted on women and girls of color in our society visible. In D.C., Chicago, Durham, Atlanta and Detroit women of color will be gathering to renew our commitment to creating a world free from racialized and gendered violence, and this time, we’ll be using a new technology called CyberQuilting to connect all of these gatherings in real time. To learn more about CyberQuilting, which is a women of color led project to stitch movements together using new web technologies and old traditions of love and nurturing, visit www.cyberquilt.wordpress.com.

This letter is an invitation for you and yours to participate in a gathering in your city on Thursday, October 30th that will be webcast to similar gatherings in other cities. We are calling on you because we recognize and appreciate the work that you and the organizations you work with are doing everyday to make this a more loving and less violent world for women and girls in oppressed communities. Please join us on October 30th so that other warriors in this struggle can be strengthened and affirmed by the energy of our collective ferocity!If you are not located in D.C., Chicago, Durham, Atlanta and Detroit for the webcast, you can still participate by wearing Red on October 30, 2008 and send us your pictures to beboldbered@gmail.com

Also we are asking once again that people wear Red on October 30, 2008 and send us your pictures to beboldbered@gmail.com

As we receive them we will upload your pictures under “Red Pictures Today.”

Also, as well as to share your stories of Red on this website under “Why are you wearing Red on October 30, 2008.”

i will be wearing red on thursday, will you?

target: women i love it!

two videos posted recently at my favorite blog: the curvature. they originally came from a different site but this is the way i found them. they are incredibly awesome and very appropriate!

wedding shows

yogurt


and just because: heres another one!

coda

here is the video i made for my final project!



This project was created to consider the differences in forms communication. I was raised in a family with two deaf parents and two other hearing sisters and I feel that this has formed my personal identity as well as my cultural identity. I learned from a young age to be the connection for my parents between their culture and the hearing world. The title of my video piece “C.O.D.A.,” stands for Children of Deaf Adults. C.O.D.A. is an international group for the culture of hearing children of deaf adults. These hearing children are in a similar situation to the children of immigrants, in both cases the children may have to negotiate between two very different ways of life.

Being the child of deaf adults has allowed me to be a part of two separate and distinct cultures. The deaf world, unlike other types of disabilities, is considered its own culture because it has it’s own language and form of social interaction (Filer). Although my parents never used sign language with our family, we have learned to communicate differently than other hearing families do. This video piece highlights one of the most important ways of communication within my family, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). While AIM is often associated with today’s tech savvy youth, my parents have quickly adapted to it, email and text-messaging.

According to Rex and Peggy Filer, in the article “Practical Considerations for Counselors Working With Hearing Children of Deaf Parents,” there is a set of shared characteristics for many children of deaf adults, although not all children have all of the characteristics. A brief summary of these characteristics, for example: the hearing children (most often the oldest daughter) become the parents link to the hearing world, these children often feel like they are neither part of the hearing nor the deaf world, the children are both interpreters and censors, they are protectors, of real threats like fire alarms, police sirens, and burglars, as well as perceived threats like discrimination.

The video starts off with a conversation between my partner and I. It is a fairly banal conversation, we acknowledge the camera and continue to talk in a normal fashion. The middle portion of the video focuses on two views of me sitting at my computer. I am talking to my mom on AIM, although this may not be immediately obvious. Unlike the conversation between my partner and I, while talking to my mom, I am checking my email, listening to music; my cat even jumps onto my desk at one point. These two conversations come in two very different forms, although they do tend to drift toward some of the same topics. The video ends with another clip of a conversation with my partner and I. We mainly focus on some of my everyday worries until my partner suddenly breaks into a description of what he sees as my “mothering” tendencies.

One of my personality traits that I have always thought of in a negative way and as a very gendered idea can be understood differently when looked at through the lens of C.O.D.A. “Mothering” turns into “protecting,” which comes across as more neutral. I am very protective with the people in my life I am close to, both hearing and not. This is the way that I have managed to bridge the two cultures that make up my identity.

white, whiteness, and white girls

Because I am in a class about Identity politics, I have been very aware of the way that identity is played out on T.V. I really do not like to think that I watch a lot of T.V. but lately I do feel I have been indulging in a little escapism. Thankfully I don’t actually have to watch many shows often to get a good sense of how identity is portrayed. The show that I have a big issue with currently is “Lipstick Jungle,” I have only watched an episode or two, (someone in my house secretly likes to watch it every week), but I was very disappointed. Lipstick Jungle descends from Sex in the City, which I really do/did love. I completely acknowledge that although Sex in the City managed to give a multifaceted view of (upper-middle-class, white, straight) women’s sexuality in the late 90s, it did nothing other than promote white as the norm. I had hopes that in the 21st century version of the “powerful and sexual women’s” show we would actually get to see a little bit of diversity. I’m sure this show is aimed at some specific target group, but this was a great opportunity that I think the show’s producers missed out on.
__________________

I was excited to read about the show titled “Whiteness: A Wayward Construction.” In my opinion, some of the other shows that have been breaking down identity are lacking the critical aspect of “outsiders.” In Freestyle, as far as I know, only African Americans commented on blackness. In Post-Jewish, although the curator seemed to expand the boundaries by showing work by Jews who could be considered controversial, the line was still drawn at those who are Jewish. Of all of the races “white” is the one that needs to be analyzed the most. When thinking about the museum shows we have talked about so far this semester, Bad Girls, Freestyle, Whiteness: A Wayward Construction, White! Whiteness and Race in Contemporary Art, Post-Jewish, I am glad that the art world is slowly trying to at least consider and critique stereotypes. The art world has always seemed to be a home for outsiders and yet it has historically been racist and sexist. I still feel that we have a long way to go but I think the first step towards a truly post-ethnic art world is to be aware and at least work to break stereotypes.
A quote from “From White to Whiteness,” by Tyler Stallings:

“The privilege conferred by whiteness is to be considered human and normal, to be viewed as a multifaceted, complex, and mutable individual, as opposed to being categorized, fixed, and kept in place. If we want to live in a society where others enjoy the same privilege, it will be necessary for whites to acknowledge both their nature as racial beings (even if we accept that race is largely a social construct) and the way that whiteness has operated, often by stealth, to maintain social and economic hierarchies.”

___________________

Wendy Ewald created a piece of art titled “White girl’s alphabet.” The piece consists of images combined with text to create an alphabet. Ewald worked with a specific group of high-school girls to create this alphabet, they helped choose images to pair with the letters and wrote statements for each one. Ewald “was interested in finding out how the girls’ choice of words and images reflected the ongoing campus debates about gender and race.”
Out of the letters in the alphabet, I felt that the letter “N-Normal” was the “whitest” of them all. The image paired with this letter is of young white woman standing straight in the middle of the frame. I strongly feel that this just reinforces the idea that white is normal and anything else is weird, bad, or other. The other letters that stood out as being very white were the letters “R- Rebel,” (white man smoking a cigar) and “W-Weight,” (two fairly thin white women comparing stomaches). I wish I had the images to show you but I can only find imagery from one of Ewald’s other alphabet series. After showing the girls the series all put together, the girls were “astounded at how revealing they were,” and they felt that it was "sad." Did they also see how well they were reinforcing myths about whiteness?

adrian piper-cornered

we watched this video in class last week. it has been bouncing around in my head since then, which is the purpose of the video. take 15 minutes to watch it. i know 15 minutes is long but i think its a very important topic.

my identity diagram

by the way this was photographed by my phone, sorry for the low quality. i think i will attempt to scan it in later in the week so it will look way cooler....

weekly nytimes

and because i have never noticed how appropriate nytimes is, here are a few articles i was reading this week:
when girls will be boys
black rabbi reaches out to mainstream of his faith

and an actual assigned reading:
ART/ARCHITECTURE; beyond multiculturalism, freedom?

sometimes..."post" isnt so bad

Reading about race and multiculturalism in art this week has made me consider once again how “others” are represented in the art world. For the most part, they aren’t. and the ideas of multiculturalism seem to have solidified boundaries between some of the minority groups. There are latin-american artists, African-americans, asian-americans, in this case I think that a gendered approach actually mixes up some of those boundaries a little. Because Asians do not show with latinos who do not show with blacks. With this separation comes the reinforcing of stereotypes, latino art is religious, asian art is orientalist, and black art cannot be anything but about race.

The show, “freestyle,” also known as the post-black show, attempted to break through some of the stereotypes associated with “black” art. These were artists who happened to be black who were very engaged with ideas about what it meant to be black. I think it is great that shows of this type break down common stereotypes and styles associated with certain groups of people…..but I think that I have a problem with only people from within the group being about to question/criticize the group. After seeing the post-jewish show and now reading about post-black I do see these movements as going forward but I still see them holding on to socially constructed categories. I think this complaint is aimed at the curators and other organizers of the art world, and not the artists themselves though. It seems, from the descriptions of both shows, that although the artists could not help but come from a certain perspective (because of their faith/skin color/heritage) they did not necessarily feel that they were making some kind of ethnically specific art. And another problem I have with even post-black/asain/latino(etc) is where people of mixed ethnicities fit in. the art world does not seem to have addressed hollingers idea of post-ethnicity. Is it because each of the 5 skin-colored pentagon are worried about losing part of their team? White skin doesn’t fit into this idea because white has always dominated, so inevitably we will have to stop seeing repetitive, often mediocre, white man art. But, and this applies outside of the art world, are blacks/Asians/latinos worried about losing some of their numbers to a mixed category? It is sad that the skin-color pentagon that has had such a mixed history, bringing both good (affirmative action) and (mainly) bad (racism), would need to be held on to, to the detriment of another minority group- mixed ethnicities.

i went to a lecture this week

I went to a lecture this week. The lecture was from author David Hollinger who wrote, among other things, the book we are reading titled “postethnic America.” His lecture was mainly broken own into 2 parts, with a small 3rd part. First he mainly talked about ethno-racial relations, with obama as an example. Many people have questioned whether obama is “black enough,” I never fully understood why that was even a question. Except possibly on the level that some people would say he doesn’t “act black” or “sound black” which I have always found incredibly offensive. According to Hollinger, there is a different part of the story I wasn’t aware of. In the united states, immigrants or children of immigrants from Africa or the carribean statistically do better economically, educationally, and intermarry more often than African-americans who have been here since the slave trade. So, because obama is the son of an immigrant, he is automatically set in a different category. I was curious about how many generations a family has to be here before this difference is no longer noticeable. If a family came to this country in the early 1900s, they would not have had to deal with being a part of the slave trade, but they would still have been heavily discriminated against and would have been part of the civil rights movement possibly…. During the lecture, someone asked if language was part of the problem. Hollinger did talk a little bit about language, he had a quote from colin powell about how having only a little African American in him made him black no matter what, but he didn’t sound black so that also set him apart. I think that was the gist of his quote, maybe I changed it a little bit to what I was thinking about, but either way, I thought colin powell was another great example of the situation that obama is in right now. the 2nd and 3rd parts werent as interesting to me, the 2nd part was about the jewish relationship to identity. the short 3rd part was about how hollinger was post-idaho when he finally met a jewish person when he was growing up.

All of this goes back to what our identities are made up of. We saw the “new authentics” show on Tuesday, what a great show, everyone should go see it. I believe its up until mid april. All of the artists in the show were jewish in some way although not all would have considered each other to be jewish. I know I already spoke a little about the show so I won’t go over it all again.

I don’t know if it is just because I am tired (again) or if I am just in an abnormally wistful mood, but I wish we could somehow comprehend a person’s identity always as an accumulation of their personal history- as well as understand that their identity can change at any minute in answer to that personal history or in response to a contemporary situation. But I think that would require us all to be mind readers. And if we were all mind readers I guess we probably wouldnt have the life experiences we end up having.

how appropriate

today's nytimes had so many great articles. or at least, nytimes.com did. i'm not even sure of the dates of the 3 articles that i thought were so great but here they are:
teaching boys and girls separately
as someone who went to a coed public school i really dont agree with separate sex teaching, but part of this argument was very convincing. dr. sax is taking a biological approach to why students should be separate. to me this sounds too much like how science has been used from so many wrongs in the past, the biggest one is the reason to enslave africans. on the other hand, ann tisch, who founded the "young women's leadership school of east harlem," feels that their are more social reasons for girls to be separated from boys, which i can appreciate but i'm still not sold on the idea. neither approach seems to deal with children who may not fit the "norm," what about boys who actually like to sit and chat or appreciate the warmth of feminine behavior that supposedly only girls want, or girls who want to get up and run around or like to talk loudly? or young homosexual or transgender boys or girls who may not feel comfortable around their own sex? and one of the reasons that i really feel that coed is the best way to go is that i think it is necessary to recognize that students may be a distraction toward each other (especially as they hit puberty) but learning to interact with each other regardless of differences is the only way to get through life.
how do you prove you're a jew?
after yesterday's post i wanted to make it clear that i view jewishness as a religion only, and not as a nationality. after reading this article, i think it helped me to see how jewishness is tangled up as a religion and a political idea.
and
the emerging minority
i am about to fall asleep on my keyboard from exhaustion, i cant say much more other than, people should stop assuming people are going to act/think/vote a certain way because of their gender/class/skin color/sexual preference/other.

the new authentics

This week I had readings from the catalogue of the show “The New Authentics,” by Staci Boris. Boris discusses how in this particular place in time much of our society is questioning what it means to have a certain identity, specifically in this case- the jewish identity. Boris feels that jews are able to choose what it looks like to be jewish, as opposed to in the past when jewishness was a very concrete category. Boris compares this exhibition to the exhibition titled “Freestyle,” where the term post-black was used in reference to the artists of that show. The artists in “Freestyle,” did not make what could have been called “black” art, although curator Thelma Golden felt that it was possible that race could have been an influence for the artists work. Similarly, Boris put this exhibition together to see how different degrees of jewish affiliation could be visually portrayed. The artists of “New Authentics” have a variety of backgrounds, not many identify themselves as mainly jewish and one is not American.
The work in the show seems to cover many different subjects, Collier Schorr’s work- “shatter[s] taboos on both sides, Schorr, as both insider and outsider, makes ‘work that Germans would make about Germany if they were American.’”

Shoshana Dentz uses imagery made near her home in Brooklyn as well as other pop culture sources to talk about the Israel/Palestine conflict, ideas of home, and the psychology of borders.

In the work of Shoshanna Weinberger, identity is the largest influence. Weinberger considers herself a “Jamaican Jew,” who actually uses a mixed media approach to represent the hybridity of her own affiliations.

Because I have also been reading Hollinger’s “Postethnic America,” I questioned the premise of this show. The closest way I can explain things is that it would be the same to me if there was a show put on about being catholic. I am glad that in the essay Boris speaks about post-jewishness as a way to really consider what it means to be jewish, both in comparison to postmodernism’s hybridity as well as Hollinger’s postethnic voluntary affliation to groups. I am trying to analyze my feelings about this and I think that my lack of understanding for this show comes from the fact that I am REALLY not a religious person. I have never understood institutionalized religions and I think religion is a very individual and personal idea. So I can’t comprehend having a religion (as a category or something) be part of my identity. But I am trying to not be hypocritical, I am sure other people take being jewish (or catholic or whatever) very seriously (and obviously that is what this show is about).

quick post....

im at work, i am listening to this podcast about race and identity. are identity politics dead? i think im tired of everything i am interested in dying (feminism, identity, art, painting, photo...). but the interview is pretty good at least. here's the link to the podcast page. which then has a link to the interview. i cant write more, i probably shouldnt even be doing this now.....

entitlement

Entitlement-for my generation (“Y?” or are we just unnamed?), there has been a lot of negative talk about how we feel entitled to everything. If I am part of the “Y” generation, my understanding of it has been that it is Y in a sense of the question- why? Or why not? Especially said in a whiny tone. We assume we should be handed things- jobs, money, happiness. In the readings this week entitlement was mentioned a few times in reference to the 3rd wave. I am thankfully part of a generation of women who grew up with a lot of overt feminist influence. Overt in a way that I can yell back at my harassers on the street, I can choose to flaunt my sexuality for my own pleasure or not-depending on who I am portraying that day. I do feel entitled to my rights as a woman, but I don’t see this as a negative thing. I don’t think that means that I passively accept my role as a woman and I do feel strongly about moving women’s rights forward. And if the things my foremothers fought for (voting, the right to choose, equality in the workplace) were threatened, I do think there would be a vocal outcry.
All of this was in mind while reading about the “Bad Girls” show(s) of 1994. Although, I don’t remember this show, the idea of “bad girls” and riot grrrls and even girl power all influenced the way I grew up. Some of the criticism for this show written by Jan Avgikos seemed to ring false to me. Avgikos has a problem with the idea of putting together art by mainly women artists that is funny. My understanding of this criticism is that Avgikos believes the art won’t be taken seriously if it is funny. I love the idea of funny art made by women, in our culture women are never considered (or allowed) to be funny the way that men are. In a recent pop-culture podcast I listen to, 2 female comedians started a group for women comics called “Offensive Women.” They felt they had to do this because there is a serious shortage of female comedians who are taken seriously. Another piece of criticism that Avgikos offers is that the didactic of good girl/bad girl doesn’t exist anymore, so the show is put together on a false premise. The idea that girls don’t have to worry about this didactic anymore is ridiculous. I realize that it may be better now than in 1950, but it is still an issue. Just last week an article in the NYTimes discussed how this topic is still relevant. The grown up version of this- whore/prude is still active too, why else would women who dress in a revealing manner get blamed for getting raped? But that leads to a whole different discussion….

identity affiliations and gender performance

The readings for this week were about identity and how it is formed. Specifically in art history, identity is a way to understand the motivation behind the work. As in, if art was made by a woman, then she probably made it a certain way because she was a woman and had certain life experiences. In the history of art history, this reliance on the identity of the artist has created many parallel art histories. Women’s art history, African American art history, and others are looked at as separate happenings instead of being interconnected. Even as more emphasis was being put on certain categories of people, women, African American, homosexual, there were some that were resisting the labels of identity. They wanted to be more than just a homosexual artist, they wanted to be artists who happened to be homosexual, African American, and/or women.
In the article “Performative acts and Gender Constitution,” Judith butler attempts to define what gender is and isn’t. Gender is a series of repeated acts that both the actor and the audience believe. This belief that the series of acts equals a certain gender has been repeated throughout history and because of this repetition many people believe that gender is natural. That there are certain ways each gender should act according to their sex. The interesting thing about this is that when a person does not “perform” their gender according to social norms they are punished, which implies that deep down society knows that gender is NOT a natural concrete set of rules, because if it were than all behavior would be natural. I’m not sure how much of that makes sense, but it was pivotal to me (see image). I began to draw parallels between how art has been thought of and how that thought process has changed. Initially art was thought to have this innate meaning that was universally understood by all, no matter what context it was put in or who the viewer was. There are definitely still people who believe this, but many contemporary practitioners and historians have come to understand and accept that the meaning of a piece of art lies somewhere between the viewer, the art, and the context in which it’s seen. And from this weeks reading, that is very similar to how I understand gender, that we perform in certain ways, depending on where we are and who our audience is; our audience understands our gender because we are acting in accordance with societal context and we are dressed in a certain way.
Another facet to identity is ethnicity. David Hollinger argues for the idea of “post-ethnicity.” The reason that Hollinger feels there is a need for a new way to look at ethnic identity is because past methods have failed. Multiculturalism does not go far enough to include the diverse array of people and although it worked well when it was growing in the 1980s and 1990s, it has failed to be updated since then. Post-ethnicity takes the cosmopolitanism that was prevalent in multiculturalism and pairs it with the idea that identity is voluntary. We choose to be affiliated with certain groups, as opposed to have a concrete identity that just IS. Hollinger feels there are three main groups that are affecting Americans thoughts about ethnicity. The business elite who don’t care much about actual Americans because they do most of their business overseas, a group that sees themselves as trans-national and therefore do not care much about a national community, and the third group is the “middle Americans,” the Evangelical Christians who feel strongly about America but believe that it belongs only to the people that look like them (white, middle class, and straight). After reading this section I am left wondering how I fit into America. I don’t affiliate myself with any of the 3 constituencies that Hollinger outlines, I do feel that I would identify with the idea of post-ethnic. I have always hated the idea that a label was going to be chosen for me by an outside force, and this label might fit some aspects of my personality and the rest must be flukes because they don’t fit a certain way.

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