Passionate Irreverence: The Cultural Politics of Identity
Article Response
It is interesting how society sets up these walls and barriers against different groups of society, because each group or person is trying to accomplish the same goals; we are all trying to express our personal identity and the attributes that make up our heritage. However, so many get shot down because other not responding well to the ways in which that person wants to express themselves. In Coco Fusco’s article, Passionate Irreverence:The Cultural Politics of Identity, she writes on the difficulties non-white Anglo-Saxon men have with getting into and gaining respect in the fine art community.
There is a history of white Anglo Saxon men having to dominate and conquer. It has been going on for thousands of years, and much of it can be traced back to fighting for God to help people save them from eternal damnation. Furthermore, however much, at least, the American society has grown from so much control from/ in a governing stand point, there are certain groups who still face trouble getting across the line that keeps the groups from fully enhancing their cultural identity and moving forward, “From the perspective of those who have been geographically, politically, culturally, and economically marginalized in a by the United States, these celebrations and the curiosity that drives them are not necessarily disinterested or inherently progressive phenomena. They are, instead, potentially double-edged swords , signaling both the exercising of control over cultural differences through the presentation of static models of diversity and the potential opportunity to transform the stereotypes that emerge with the imposition of control,” (28). For people in society to culturally identity others then tend to look toward stereotypes to help guide their thoughts. It is the stereotypes of the Indian figure, the black man, the American teenager, because people in one culture can vary so extremely. Just because Suzie is an American teenager, does not mean that she will go to parties and drink, nor may she be this over emotional a little teenage girl who cries about every little thing that bothers her.
Another example of the white male having all of the control is when women protested for a Latina actress to play the leaning role of Frida Kahlo, in the summer of 1992, because, “there weren’t any big names,” that a white-man had a choice to pick from, they were seen as, “the latest in a line of politically correct feminists to appear on the horizon, “but, had it been the 1960’s, and had the protesters been male, they might have been lauded as the leaders of a new lobby group in Hollywood and protagonists of a chapter on Chicano history,” (30). This simple act and comparison further sets our society’s double standards, men can do the same thing as a group of women, try it, they get thrown into the majority, but are still treated as less than equal to men. How unnerving.
What is over representation? For this phrase to be used in a negative connotation about the coverage of the black/cultural minority. This annoys me. For years the black and under-represented people of the artist community have kicked and scratched to get into museums and are through their art work, but now white-males are getting upset because they are stealing the spotlight away? “Another indicator of this changing tide is that recent complaints in New York City over reorientations of blacks and Latinos in public art by white artists have met with unprecedented willingness to pay them heed,” (31). However, there is a good reason for this since for years on end it has only been about Euro ethnic Christian, heterosexual males that have gotten their work repeatedly into galleries, and have told the public what is art and what is not art. This constant being told how to act and who to be has gotten down to the core of the people of society. As much as people want to think that they are different from others, society knows otherwise, especially if that person thinks that they are different, but they are just following whatever trend is the coolest and newest but trying to be the first ones to get to it. Very few people actually do follow their own belief system, the others just follow the prescient.
If one is not following their own belief system, then where is the resistance and how will society ever move forward? “Cultural and communal self-expression are perhaps most important sites of resistance, the signs in everyday life of an ongoing political struggle. Yet, resistance within a colonial context is rarely direct overt, or literal; rather, it articulates itself through semantic reversals, and through the process of infusing icons, objects, and symbols with different meanings,” (35). Appropriation and oppression come to mind here, because infusing others with a certain belief system that was not originally their own, is what white men have been doing for ages and it has not stopped. Indians and African American are the two groups who were the most targeted though out American history, other groups have been targeted by the Nazi regime in Germany. The images of those targeted have been appropriated and twisted in such a way that others could use it against them. The image appropriated might speak poorly of that group of persons, and the ignorant will believe them despite, all of the protest that the group goes through to not be looked at in that way.
Coco Fusco has taken the topic of cultural politics of identity into her own. She has given new light to a subject matter that is constantly being talked about. Her absolute argument is, “…these criticisms would be more convincing if they were more systematic, more clearly directed at perceived misrepresentations in the commercial media, and not only the arts. Nonetheless, the protests offer a critical opportunity to reconsider relationships among culture, art making, community, and public space,” (31). Basically, wanting artist to “play the game” and fall into the culture of mass media, which is a whole new argument in itself. It is almost as if the only answer is falling into systems and using the system to get the point across clearly enough or to just get in or get by. It is a no-win situation for those who are different, because either they get booted out of the system, or they get pulled into the system, because they have to use the system in order to make it to the top.
