Notes Towards Day 22 (Thurs, Apr. 5): On the Shame of Watching (?)

MC and mbeale "setting the scene" with Janelle Monáe, "Tightrope"



I. Coursekeeping

don't forget to go on-line by Sunday night,
to carry our conversation forward ...

sekang and melal will set Tuesday's "scene"

on Tuesday, we are looking @ the representation of Sarah Palin:

Stephen K. Bannon's 2012 documentary,
The Undefeated, is on reserve

Game Change, dir. Jay Roach. HBO. March 10, 2012 (a clip)-->
how to access this? see dear.abby's sources:
http://www.1channel.ch/watch-2732264-Game-Change
http://www.putlocker.com/file/93F4339F5A831C83

Sarah Palin on BitchMedia --per MC

II. Live Nude Girls Unite!
sekang's afterthoughts: Before watching this film, I was
strongly against the idea of sex work, because I thought it
objectifies women....But, after watching this film, I am not
really sure where I stand anymore....it is the women's rights
to do whatever they want to do with their bodies.... the sex
industry is actually helping women become more independet
(financially). But still...it still objectifies women...Where do you
stand? Did watching this film change your view of sex work industry?

w0m_n's video post responding to the film:
sex work is about selling fantasies:
what sort of fantasies are we buying?
what gets sold and why? (cf.
carole vance's book on the pleasure and danger 
of sexual expression)--sex workers are being
compensated for the shaming

what does it mean for us to view someone viewing someone else stripping?
or talking about organizing for better working conditions for stripping?
where/how are we positioned in this dynamic of pleasure and danger?
what fantasies are we enacting/buying when we watch such a documentary?

what about the "next" generational divide--
not between the mother/daughter in the film
(imagined as you and me),
but between you and the filmmaker's generation?

III. Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics (2000)
hooks' work has always been about access
--on writing without footnotes
--on "third world" reading practices, letting the dirty water go..
[her feminist critique of Freire: flawed, powerful gift =
water that contains some dirt (to extract, and be nourished);
cf. luxurious 1st world waste of the impure]

On Tuesday (and earlier)...I had you follow Kate
Bornstein's model and write a series of questions...

Today I want us to follow Alex Juhasz's counter-impulse to "manifest"--
--and get you to write some declarative sentences!

Unlike questions, which "keep things open,"
the Italian word manifesto is derived from the
Latin manifestum, meaning clear or conspicuous
(= "making manifest").

In her "mantrafesto," Alex melds "manifesto" with "mantra":
a chanted/sung incantation/prayer;
a repeated word, formula, phrase, often a truism ("less is more").
Here's what she wrote:

Access begs literacy.
Literacy initiates production.
Mass production fosters popularity.
Popularity produces virality.
Virality forecloses context, shared interests and vocabulary, and local community.
Community is built upon safety.
Safety fosters the sharing of voice and responsibility.
Shared responsibility is necessary for democracy.
Democracy protects vulnerability.
Vulnerability forecloses visibility.
Visibility demands a safe space.
Safe spaces need rules and hierarchies.
Rules and hierarchies require transparency and process.
Process is built upon equal voices.
All voices want a body.
A body needs to be visible.
Visibility allows for warranting.
Warranting insures civility and positionality.
Positionality fosters political community.
Political communities demand spaces, both virtual and real.
Spaces demand access.

IV. Get into groups of 3-4
(we need a computer operator in each group)
and begin writing a mantrafesto with this line:
"Feminist pornography is possible."

PLEASE POST THESE ON-LINE!
...to be continued....