lwacker's blog

Grobstein and Clare reflections

Submitted by lwacker on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 7:13pm

I was struck by Professor Grobstein's affirmation of Varenne and McDermott's theory that, "cultures provide individuals with a sense of motivation and achievement." This cross-cultural norm, however, has created a disabling effect in cultures "by setting standards of achievement which... [people] can't adequately satisfy."

Professor Grobstein acknowledges this continual practice of cultural disablement and then moves on to suggest what it would be like to create a "non-disabling culture." My first reaction to a non-disabling culture, at least an American culture that actively works to promote enablement and agency was, was that it was an absurd idea. Of course, it's not that I don't think that it would be splendid to live in union and identify with others based on the skills and abilities they do possess, but that I feel we, as humans, are so trained to identify what is different from us.

We spoke last class, when looking at the image of the women in pink dresses, of the voyeur, indentifiying and analyzing difference. I feel this act of voyeruism and practice of being the voyeur is so much a part of the unconscious shared human experience that to promote an abling culture that doesn't point out or identify difference would be near impossible.

Within Eli Clare's own book Exile and Pride he speaks of feeling at odds within his own crip community. He references he feelings of not being crippled enough, not being wheelchair bound or without sight.

Response to "Cripping Sex and Gender"

Submitted by lwacker on Sun, 09/11/2011 - 7:53pm

After reading "Cripping Sex and Gender": Expandng Forums of Representation in conjunction with Clare I've re-realized that many of the images I hold up as valid, beautiful, strong represenations of visual culture are exclusive, prejudiced representations of an ableist society looking to perpetuate the images of those who are normal bodied.

Reading Emily Bock's contribution to the panel reminded me of a very powerful, moving and poignant series by a famous American feminist artist Hannah Wilke. Wilke was often cited and claimed by the women's liberation movement of the 1960's while simultaneously rebuked by some feminists for using herself as a model for many of her works and glamorizing herself in order to attract male attention and sell more of her art pieces.

What intensified her conflicted past was her doubling or addition, as introduced by Kristin Lindgren, as a woman, a woman artist, as a feminist and as someone with an illness. The concept of doubling seems to be a serious double edged sword, something that could reduce individuals to simply their identifiers. But Wilke took on the academy of history of art, its entire legacy, her cancer and her career with her final series intra-venus (I think it was actually published post-humously too). I added the link below to see some of the photos and works in the series.

http://www.feldmangallery.com/pages/exhsolo/exhwil94.html

Response to "Cripping Sex and Gender"

Submitted by lwacker on Sun, 09/11/2011 - 7:49pm

After reading "Cripping Sex and Gender": Expandng Forums of Representation in conjunction with Clare I've re-realized that many of the images I hold up as valid, beautiful, strong represenations of visual culture are exclusive, prejudiced representations of an ableist society looking to perpetuate the images of those who are normal bodied.

Reading Emily Bock's contribution to the panel reminded me of a very powerful, moving and poignant series by a famous American feminist artist Hannah Wilke. Wilke was often cited and claimed by the women's liberation movement of the 1960's while simultaneously rebuked by some feminists for using herself as a model for many of her works and glamorizing herself in order to attract male attention and sell more of her art pieces.

What intensified her conflicted past was her doubling or addition, as introduced by Kristin Lindgren, as a woman, a woman artist, as a feminist and as someone with an illness. The concept of doubling seems to be a serious double edged sword, something that could reduce individuals to simply their identifiers. But Wilke took on the academy of history of art, its entire legacy, her cancer and her career with her final series intra-venus (I think it was actually published post-humously too). I added the link below to see some of the photos and works in the series.

http://www.feldmangallery.com/pages/exhsolo/exhwil94.html

Back on Serendip

Submitted by lwacker on Sun, 09/04/2011 - 4:17pm

Precarious and Performative Play

Hello classmates, I'm a Bryn Mawr senior History of Art major with a minor in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Last spring I was abroad in Florence, Italy where I took a class on Modern Italy and Gender Stereotypes within Italian culture from the Renaissance up to present day. This semester I am also taking two other Judith Butler flexner seminar courses so I am ready to theory it up! I really appreciate the use of "playful" as one of the "p's" for this course as I feel that play is extremely important when discussing gender, queering, and boundaries that interact with theater, dance, performance etc.