i miss when you could make political art without placing personal identity (and the self) at the center of everything
this piece (“artist bio” by anna daliza) sort of perfectly sums it up. the emphasis on identity politics and tokenization in art/music/performance spaces feels reductive and exploitative- like it offers a sort of racial tourism for the wealthy white patrons. none of what im saying are original thoughts btw go see White by james ijames
Lots of people arguing about this but I would say that while background and history can add interest and context to art, one also has to ask if you like a work of art, what does it matter if you know anything about the artist?
This is very modern conceit and it absolutely does influence galleries and patrons while saying nothing about the quality of the art itself. I don’t feel it is against anyone or their identity to point out that the identity is not the art itself.
Mark Rothko was over this by 1950, when he was asked to write two self-statements and said, “I have nothing to say in words which I would stand for. I am heartily ashamed of the things I have written in the past. This self-statement business has become a fad this season.”
In his case, Rothko trusted the communication between the art and the observer to do the job and worked hard to make sure there were no preconceived notions about the work at all, which is why he did not title his paintings.
I don’t generally reblog anything but I think whatever you think of this art itself, it’s good to ask question about what’s influencing you to like to dislike it.
Great news, SAG-AFTRA has created an influencer hub for anyone trying to figure out what they should or should not be doing as a person who makes things on the internet during the strike.
Bad news, I have already SEEN WITH MY OWN TWO EYES people in fandoms I talk about and participate in spreading misinformation that these guidelines are only for union influencers. This is not true, it’s for all of us.
Solidarity in this case looks like no organically talking about, cosplaying from, accepting brand deals to promote works from struck companies. I am begging, covered in blood and sweat, I have run all the way here I have been running for years, listen to the official union sources and act accordingly or be prepared for the people who make those things you love to view you quite differently.
to further clarify, influencer in this case (per sag aftras definition) is a person who makes money from ads/brand deals on social media
op is talking to those people. fans keep doing ur thing ✌
embracing the patterned ambiguity of gender and sex as more or less social constructs can grant you so much more precision in thinking about so many concepts in science.
like, if there was a study (and I’m just making this up as an example) showing women suffer from mosquito bites more than men do
you could do the ~“Gender Critical”~ thing and go “see!? mosquitoes get it!!”
OR
you could go “that’s interesting” and start asking more questions, like:
is this data self-reported? controlled?
were they studying the women or the mosquitoes?
did the study use methods that would let you tell the difference between “being bitten more often” and “noticing bites more often”?
did the study include any trans people and were their results any different? if yes were they on HRT or not?
how similar were the men and women in aspects other than gender? do we know their social class, jobs, diets, blood types?
because in fact the study i made up just then could lead to a huge variety of conclusions. from my description above you can’t tell the difference between studies that show:
mosquitoes are attracted to people with higher estrogen levels
mosquitoes are opportunistic and women spend more time near mosquito habitats for sociocultural reasons
every gender gets bitten about the same amount but men are socialised to pay less attention to physical discomfort so more of them don’t notice minor bites compared to women (and by more we mean like 60-40, this is a bell curve thing)
we accidentally got heaps of women in the study that have the mosquito’s favourite blood type and not so for the men, oops
mosquitoes are attracted to people with more x and y in their diets, which is currently mostly women for, again, largely sociocultural reasons
etc etc etc
you’re just not going to understand actual Gender Science, and therefore reality, if you can’t put “hmm, but what do they mean by woman this time” in your mental toolkit in a relatively neutral way.
Honestly this is a great way of presenting the kind of scientific literacy that is needed in an era of clickbait headlines and sound bites and facts that turn into memes; so much science “news” as reported by mass media distills nuanced studies into easily quotable and shocking one-liners that generally ignore the context behind the statistic.
Hehehehe I love themes of doubt and disbelief and ignorance and telling yourself everything is fine and the writing down of evidence to keep your mind steady.
