Category Archives: Stereotype

Nikki S. Lee and polyculture

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In Cathy Covell Waegner’s “Performing Postmodernist Passing”, the photographer Nikki S. Lee is highlighted as an example of ‘passing’ in visual media. By ‘passing’, Waegner means the ability of an individual to appear as a different race and integrate into that particular racial society. Waegner focuses on one work in particular, in which the Asian American Lee passes and poses as a black woman. Lee has other works in this series which Waegner does not discuss, but which I think are notable: she poses as a white woman in front of a confederate flag, a female stripper, a lesbian, an old white woman, a Hispanic woman, and a few others.
In her work, Nikki S. Lee truly exemplifies what Waegner explains as “polyculture”. Lee’s ability to change from one race to another so easily demonstrates that “the stereotypes used to determine socioethnic groups are encoded and foregrounded” (Waegner 225). The idea of separate and distinct ethnicities is inherent in multiculturalism, while polyculture suggests the porousness of ethnicity. As Lee demonstrates, the aesthetic (what someone looks like, where they are, how they dress, how they act) as interpreted by the viewer determines race.

The Commercialization of Multiraciality

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“Performing Postmodernist Passing”, Cathy Covell Waegner: Artists’ exploitation of black face and yellow face create discourse on the connection between the African and Asian American culture.

“Biraciality and Nationhood in Contemporary American Art”, Kymberly N. Pinder: A multiracial individual is often used as a currency for moral redemption for white oppression over people of color.

Tiger Woods is more complex than you may think. No, I am not talking about his sex scandal or golf. I am referring to his multiracial identity in relation to his sports career. His ethnicity includes Caucasian, African American, and Asian American origins. This may not affect his golf performance. However, it affects how the global society sees the sports player. Because of his complex mix of racial identities, African Americans and Asian Americans can claim him as making progress in the sports world for their ethnicity. The celebrated athletic symbol can also serve to remedy racial issues and tensions from the past of America. The thought that parents of distinct and mixed races came together to produce such a magnificent golf player is thought to represent a truce between racial groups in a country that has struggled with its racist past. Such an exclusive thought of Woods and other prominent mixed raced individuals asserts multiracial individuals as “socio-political currency,” as Kymberly Pinder states in Race-ing Art History. They exist as symbols of redemption for past implications and consequences of colonialism and white supremacy. If the parents of Tiger Woods put aside past racial differences to produce him, can’t we all? But this view commercializes the identity as a form of currency and commodity to claim or cash in and ignores layers of socially constructed racial identities that they struggle with. It exploits their complex social reality as an item to claim for various ethnic groups and the system white supremacy, asserting that this system can do no wrong. But it has in the form of colonialism and still stalks the “other” identities of the present, such as multi-racial individuals.

A Legacy of Defining Oneself Against the Shortcomings of Another

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Waegner discusses how polycultural performances have become a contemporary art form enabling marginalized populations to construct hybrid identities free from the fixed cultural scripts that are commonly placed on them.

Pinder examines the onus we place on our contemporary and historical, multi-racial icons (like Tiger Woods or Sally Hemmings) to redeem our nation from its legacy of privileging white purity and superiority.

Readings like these inspire a question of how we might identify ourselves in a future world where everyone is multi-ethnic. Considering our tendency to use minority, non-white populations as the referent standard by which we give value and identity to ourselves, I can imagine how much a challenge a bi- or multi-racial individual poses to the world order.

Without fail, just about every topic we have covered has been laden with binaries; white/black, male/female, right/wrong, good/bad: these are the terms by which we make sense of the world. Binaries are put in place to maintain organizational clarity and to reject any opportunities for confusion. However with regards to the body, the living social and political being within which we all live our lives, the limitations of this structural framework becomes immediately apparent. It’s not simply a matter of embracing one’s multiple identities outside of the binary structure, seeing as each (racial) label is accompanied with a corresponding value within our societal hierarchy.  As Lorraine O’Grady alludes to in Pinder’s article these oppositions are “hierarchical, superior/inferior oppositions, so that male/female, black/white, good/evil, body/mind, nature/culture are not just different, one is always better than…”

All at once, the importance of having a visibly non-white population or an “underdeveloped”  “dark continent” like Africa becomes paramount in the establishment of a pure and superior race. Which brings us back to the question of how one goes about affirming one’s identity not at the expense of degrading another’s.

Biracial “Borrowing”

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Pinder: Pinder examines multiracial identities and representations in art, claiming that “transraciality” can be seen as a harbinger of unity and hope.

Waegner: In this piece from AfroAsian Encounters, Waegner argues that the “new” blackface/yellowface we see in art and pop culture alike constitutes a sort of polycultural borrowing and a “playful postmodernist passing”.

Though I found Waegner’s piece intellectually stimulating, I left it feeling uncomfortable and skeptical. Despite my valiant attempts to like her claims of “polycultural porousness” and of ethnicity as a Butler-esque performance, in the end I couldn’t stomach them. Even though Waegner claims that the examples she brings up are not minstrelsy, I had difficulty with some of them. She admitted that Tuff was a problematic example, but what of R. Kelly’s video? Waegner points to “an informal student survey” to claim that most students were not offended by the music video, saying, “It’s just an R. Kelly video.” But I must ask – does that make it OK? Even if these students do not find the video offensive as they view it with “a considerable amount of ironic distance”, should we simply stop there? Curious, I immediately turned to youtube to see R. Kelly’s video for Thoia Thoing, and was admittedly shocked that Waegner would defend this as “playful passing”. Despite her attempts to align this video and the other examples in her piece with postmodernist means of expression and innocent cultural swapping, I remain unconvinced. Underneath Waegner’s eloquent intellectualism, I can only see what I feel would otherwise be called cultural appropriation.

I see this not as an exemplar of ethnic porosity, but of the growing trend in contemporary pop culture towards a sometimes socially sanctioned cultural appropriation. Perhaps I simply don’t get it, but I fail to see how these examples are different from Gwen Stefani’s disturbing troupe of “Harajuku Girls” (If you are unfamiliar with Gwen Stefani’s penchant for East Asian women, you may refer refer to this video.). This piece from Racialicious entitled The Orientalism of Nicki Minaj outlines another example of what Waegner might consider “passing”. I see only the continuation of old stereotypes in these examples – Asian women as exotic, sexually available, and submissive. And while I would love to see Nikki S. Lee’s “Hip-Hop Project” as respectful porosity, it just feels like blackface to me. It makes me – along with all these other examples – feel uncomfortable and ultimately unconvinced of Waegner’s thesis. I look forward to discussing this with my classmates and perhaps deepening/changing my understanding of this work.

The Portrayal of Various Forms of Masculinity

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Golden: This reading explores the over interpreted representations and codifiable images of the Black male and Black masculinity in various forms of media that denies the truth of the black male identity.

Mercer: Kobena Mercer illustrates Rotimi Fani-Kayode’s use of erotic fantasy, ancestral spiritual values, and European elements to create cultural mixing and explains the influence that migration and separation from his Nigerian homeland had on his artistic production of photography.  

Looking for Langston: This black and white film portrays the collision of race and sexuality in the queer community.

This week’s film and readings explored the role that sexuality, gender, and race plays in reinforcing and reinventing the various types of Black masculinity, an identity that Ralph Ellison deems as “invisible and overinterpreted” in media. Considered as invisible in society, the Black male is fetishized and given visibility in art, films, and music.

Thelma Golden’s article was of particular interest to me because her exhibition serves as an umbrella to the Mercer article and the Langston film by portraying different stereotypes, cultural-defense mechanisms, and (mis)representations of the Black male as “ultra-violent [and] ultra-romanticized” (22). Golden’s project draws together artists that display the five signposts: 1) the transition from Civil Rights to the Black Power era; 2) blaxpoitation films; 3) the endangered Black male; 4) the death of rhythm and blues; and 5) real life drama. With the exception of the first signpost, the other categories signify the negative perceptions of the Black male and how they are used to create and circulate ill images of Black masculinity. Despite the artists’ attempt to negotiate identity and educate the audience of common racist assumptions, I am skeptical about the reception of outsiders, or non-Black audiences because instead of negating the negative generalizations, these images can reinforce and confirm them. With that being said, I would have liked to see positive images of Black men without the presence of stereotypes.

On a positive note, I do appreciate the diversity in the “Black Male” exhibit because it brings to light how Black culture is commodified through the portrayal of the Black experience both with and without the use of the body. For example, Mel Chin and David Hammons use objects, such as guns, sneakers, and the construction of basketball hoops to critique the commonly portrayed stereotypes of crime and sports within the Black community. Given the absence of the body in these pieces, the audience is still able to interpret the relationship between society’s ills and generalizations about Black masculinity. I wonder if the absence of the body in art offers a more critical critique of the pieces because the presence of the body can draw attention away from status detail, which is significant in identifying characteristics that are not as obvious.

The Problem with Simplifying Biraciality

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In “Biraciality and Nationhood in Contemporary American Art”, Kimberly Pinder highlights contemporary artists who explore the complexity of multi-racial identity in the US.

In “Eros and Diaspora”, Kobena Mercer explores the sexuality aesthetic in the works of Rotimi Fani-Kayode.

For me, “Biraciality and Nationhood in Contemporary American Art” explored the main focus of this course thus far: how contemporary society constructs racial bodies and the artists who challenge those constructions. The popularity of multi-racial celebrities Tiger Woods and Vin Diesel (and, I would add, Dwayne Johnson and Jessica Alba in more recent years) combined with the often-glorified inter-racial historical relationships are truly the most prominent discourse on bi and multi raciality in the US. This had created the idea that race as a construction in the US will one day cease to exist, as everyone will be an ethnic mix.
But, as Pinder points out, that is just not the case. Contemporary representations and narratives greatly oversimplify the complexity of bi and multi raciality, often ignoring America’s history of immigration, slavery, and genocide. Artists such as Adrian Piper (as we have discussed in class), Lorraine O’Grady, and others discussed by Pinder have used their own biraciality in their works to critique the conceptions/perceptions of race in the US. Rather than glossing over this country’s racial history, these artists address its effects to explore the complexities of multi-racial identities.

Black Female Body and Sexuality Part 2

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In the second half of the article Thompson explores the intersectionality of Black womanhood as it relates to the Black female body. Thompson challenges us to think about the compacted effect race, gender, and sexuality has on the Black female body in the section of her article entitled “”.Nandipha Mntambo and Berni Searle, both artists from South Africa, challenge pre-conceived notions of the Black female body by reclaiming the body and using it as a site of protest. In Berni Searle’s art she forces the viewer to be conscious of both her identity as a woman and as Black. I feel this intersect of identity is complex but is often over-simplified through the eyes of Western Viewers.
 

For this reason, I appreciated Stearle’s fight against the Western propensity to associate nude Black women with sexuality. She instead uses her nude body to counteract and criticize the Western perspective and to evoke the history of abuse and violence directed toward the Black female body, specifically violence against the Black female body in the various forms of sexual abuse (299). Zanele Muholi, also an artist from South Africa, takes it a step further through exploring the added layer of sexuality in relation to the Black female body. LGBTQI issues are not often discussed with in Black communities and I think Muholi’s intention to use this photograph to make a political statement is both awesome and admirable. Muholi’s piece Sex ID Crisis is one of my favorite pieces in this article because the image is able to capture the complexities of what it means to be a Black lesbian woman in a simplistic manner. Muholi’s image also evokes a history of violence against the LGBTQI community. For me the piece incites critical thinking about what it means to be a lesbian in an black society and the unique challenges accompanied by that multi-layered.
 

The final part of the article encompasses the component of transnationalism into the conversation on the intersectionality of Black female identities. This section of the article reminds me of W.E.B. Dubois’s concept of “double consciousness”. Dubois explains “double consciousness” as the dilemma of having to embody two distinctly different and contradicting identities into one identity. Thompson explores art from producers rooted in histories of forced migration and art from artists who were raised in the land of the colonizers. As an African-American woman I have struggled with defining my identity especially in relation to Africa. Consequently, I really enjoyed learning how artists from similar backgrounds,who struggle with identity crises too, express their sentiments on this issue through art. The fusion of both identities is really beautiful to me especially when conceptualized in art forms like Magdalena Campos-Pon’s piece When I am not Here.

Berni Searle and the Reclamation of the Black Female Body

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Pariah: Chronicles the coming-of-age of a 17 year African American girl as she experiences societal, communal, and familial pressure for her to conform to pre-established norms of Black womanhood.

Barbara Thompson: This article discusses the works of contemporary artists in their efforts to challenge our historical canon which has projected an image/perceived reality of Black women as savage, inferior, and immoral beings.

Barbara Thompson’s mention of Berni Searle’s (South African artist) campaign to “reconstruct a micro-history of the personal” resonates with my own desire to abandon and re-script the visual narrative and identity that has been “made for me,”as a Black woman. Her recognition of the black female body as a site of oppressive politics in the historical narrative is noteworthy; but it is her subsequent decision to re-appropriate her body in an effort challenge racialized stereotypes- despite the debilitating weight it carries- that I view as a brilliant act of courage. In our own class discussions, we have pondered this very question of how an individual who has been defined as a material object for centuries can then transform their identity into that of an intelligent human being. Searle uses her nude body, which is anything but a neutral palette, to interrogate our traditional understandings of non-White beings. With the ever-present risk of outsiders “recognizing” her pieces as ‘more of the same’ images of un-clothed black bodies, Searle embraces the opportunity to promote images of black females practicing self-love, acceptance and ownership of their politicized bodies.

Thompson digresses into instances in which the nude black female body has been used explicitly as a “tactic of resistance.” Though I support Searle’s campaign to re-appropriate  the identities already given to black women, I don’t know that I endorse the metaphor of “self-exploitation” that is mentioned later in the article. I look forward to discussing the implications behind and the utility of a concept  like “self-exploitation” in our efforts to abandon stereotypical narratives that continue to oppress women of color worldwide.

 

 

 

 

Pariah: An Alternative Representation of Black Femininity

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For this response I will focus on the film Pariah.  Pariah follows the tribulations that Alike, a young African American teenager who identifies as a lesbian, experiences as she becomes more comfortable with her sexuality in a predominately heteronormative society.  Pariah, defined as a rejected member of society or a person without status serves as the perfect word to depict the isolation that she experiences upon coming out to family and friends.  More importantly, the film’s depiction of Alike’s experience and its diverse representations of black femininity contests traditional views of black female sexuality.  This is done through Pariah’s relationships with other black women like her mother and sister who identify as heterosexual, and Abina and Laura who identify as homosexual.

With images of male dominance and female subordination pervading the African American community throughout the film, there is a sense of exclusion associated with identifying as queer.  The film also brings issues of the black female body to the forefront through Alike and her best friend Laura’s butch demeanors – something that was discussed in our reading from Black Womanhood.  Alike’s mother views this outward portrayal of masculinity as a disruption to social norms, and tries to impose heteronormative ideas of what a woman should look like upon her daughter.  Her refusal to acknowledge Alike’s lifestyle choices ultimately results in violence and leaves Alike in a state of homelessness after being rejected as a member of her own household.

Thompson:  Thompson contests distorted representations of the black female body through exploring and debunking the European stereotypes responsible for the misrepresentation of the black female body in art.

The Rejection of Nude Seduction and the Exploration of Sexuality in Malian Photography

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Pariah: This film explores the rocky relationships that Alike has with her family, best friend, and love interest as she struggles with coming out to her family and embracing her sexual identity as a lesbian.

Taylor: Documenta 11, an exhibition that included work from artists all over the globe, creates global awareness while questioning the meaning of globalization in an economic and political context.

Thompson: Artists from Africa and the Diaspora challenge Western representations of Black women as “beasts, nymphs, slaves, servants, and sexual commodities” by negotiating, reconstructing, and decolonizing these stereotypes.

In Decolonizing Black Bodies: Personal Journeys in the Contemporary Voice by Barbara Thompson, I was particularly intrigued by Malick Sidibe’s attempt to negotiate Black women’s sexuality and reject Western notions of nude seduction through photography. In Mali, where female nudity is not accepted, pagnes (wrappers) are worn by women to accentuate their figure and evoke male curiosity. While reading this section, I thought about Olympia, a painting by Edouard Manet that illustrates a Black female servant who is robbed of her sexuality by her worn drapery of fabric. Unlike the woman in Olympia, women in Sidibe’s photos are desirable and able to express their sexuality while being fully clothed. I view Sidibe’s photos as a compromise between being too modest and too sexual, while providing Black women agency and giving them the space to portray their desirability without feeding into the stereotype as “sexual commodities” or promiscuous nymphs.

In addition, I appreciated the freedom of expression and the reinvention of identity that Sidibe’s photography enabled, because it allowed Malian women to explore their desired modern image without risking their reputation and marriageability. His photo studio served as private, safe space of identity negotiation as opposed to the public space of traditional identity outside of the studio.

Lastly, I noticed that Sidibe’s photography focused on evoking male curiosity, instead of curiosity in general, which makes me question the recognition of homosexuality in Malian culture. How do lesbian and queer Malian artists express their sexuality through photography and other forms of media?