Feeling nostalgic for my Feminism and Visual Culture days
There is a professor here who likes to proclaim that he is guided in all he does by Katie Grace ****'s breasts.
This professor is male, white, straight, able-bodied and tenured. Katie Grace **** is a graduate student who put on a performance piece where she read from sheets of paper which she would then discard one by one onto the floor. During this process of reading and discarding she seamlessly removed both her shirt and bra and finished the piece bare-chested.
This professor now claims it is Katie Grace ****'s lack of inhibition in her art which inspires him to live his life without feeling the need to fear or censor himself. (See, it's like all his thoughts and ideas are like a woman's breasts, you know, oppressed.)
Unfortunately, this manifests itself as a frequently repeated proclamation that "I am guided in all I do by Katie Grace ****'s breasts."
Seriously.
Though I never saw the performance piece, I can imagine it probably has nothing to do with a white male's liberation of ...something?, thus leading this professor to believe that his own fixation on a younger woman's breasts is all in the name of Art (capital A) and should be both applauded and frequently discussed.
To which my gut reaction is: No. Ugh, no.
And upon further discussion, my reaction remains the same.
Also, to irritate me further, I've never met this artist before, but now Katie Grace *****'s name will forever be linked to her breasts. When I hear her name, I (and you) will think of her breasts. When I meet her I will first be thinking about her breast. And thus Katie Grace **** is reduced to her breasts. Somehow I doubt the point of her piece was to be forever identified this way. Just a hunch.
1 comment:
I agree and disagree. It is base of the professor to reduce both his appreciation and influence of this girl's work to how she literally shows her body. Realizing his higher (paid) position, he should probably try and show a little more class when discussing a student's work. I will say he has probably helped a few dumb boys realize why feminist productions are universally important, though obviously at the cost of offending more open minded students (talk about irony!).
What I like about your entry is you keep mentioning her and her breasts. You're not really telling me anything I don't know. Most people named Karen have 'em. Of course now I have a more direct association between her and her... whats another nice word for breasts? I digress. What's important is that you used her name and not his. She exists as a person and he's just some P-Bag (since everyone pees!) who giggles when he hears that "what did the ghost say to the bee" joke.
Although I don't know much, from what I've read (and I think i'm actually a couple entries behind) you're no longer pursuing your masters in film. (Er was it something more precise in film?) That's cool if you're happy, and I do hope this comment finds you in good spirits, but what I do know is you get film better then most, so don't let those P-bags keep you from the medium!
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