onomatoblog

Please note: this is a translation repost of an entry from my Swedish blog. If the feel of the text seems somewhat off, it’s because I didn’t originally write it in English. Oh, and it’s from back in August, when the ad was just released.)

I wrote about racism against the roma a few weeks ago. About deportations, about molotov cocktails used against three-year-olds, about prejudice accepted by society. Today there’s more material in Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, but I don’t have the energy to read it, don’t have the strength to cry while at work.

But I hadn’t thought of ONE thing the roma are good enough for in Western society: exotification, preferably with hypersexual characteristics. “Gyspy” comes to mean passionate, alien, wild, beautiful… basically your standard Wednesday afternoon orientalism. Sweeping skirts, dark hair and firelight are used as signifiers of Otherness and Availability (which in itself a part of the same phenomenon that narrates African-American women in a sexualized manner, an extension of their previous position as sexual pray within the legalizing context of slavery.) You get it. You’d think we’ve got further than that in 2010, but culture fucks you right back in your place. The makeup brand Illamasqua released their fall collection The Art of Darkness in September, and one of the looks is called “Queen of the Gypsies.”

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WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. This is what the official image looks like, if you don’t have the energy or inclination, I can inform you that is  a somewhat dark-skinned woman with long black hair and silver highlights. She is wearing a red bikiniesque top and a semitransparent red and blue skirt. She’s also wearing golden earrings, many golden necklaces and at least one anklet. Her upper arm is sporting either a tattoo or a tight bracelet. The only light in the picture seems to come from a candelabra behind her. The look is marketed with the following text: “No one can resist the Queen of the Gypsyies. This alluring temptress, famed for her seductive veiled dancing, knows how to use her art to get what she wants…”

I can’t, a the moment of writing, think of any way I could be more disgusted by this. Exotification is gross enough on its own, any woman of color could tell you that, but imagine  the above text being about a nationality, say, Japanese women. It wouldn’t be any better, but there had been a number of organizations, Japanese and non-Japanese, who has put their foot down, but some pressure on Illamasqua, made sure this was talked about. Right now, there’s just silence. The particular exposed situation of the roma population makes this campaign a little bit more cowardly, a little stupider, a little bit more disgusting.

(on a sidenote, the werewolf-styled ad also trivializes rape. Nice one, Illamasqua. I’m on a lifetime boycot, btw.)

Time span since last update… eh.

Oscars: I didn’t see them. 1) I wasn’t too interested, at least not enough to stay up all night (time zones, baby) and 2) Couldn’t have anyway, the channel that has the rights this year was not one that my landlord has. However, everyone I have talked to said it was boring, in stark contrast to the movies that got prizes. I cannot say – I have only seen Brokeback Mountain and while it was fantastic, it’d be silly to compare it to things beyond my experience. Etc.

Well, and Wallace and Gromit. And while it was good, I can’t really imagine The Corpse Bridebeing less so.
Well, I saw the Narnia movie too. That doesn’t count…

To the point. I am not going to finish the Master’s Thesis (and thus won’t have a fil. mag. at the end of the year.) Why? Because the topic doesn’t fit the department, the adviser doesn’t fit the student, the student doesn’t fit the department, and Analytic doesn’t fit in my heart of brain. That, and Dewey is too hard to defend by a Master’s student in front of a bunch of PhDs. it just seemed easy when Erin did it because she was awesome. To my defense, I can say that since I have started taking classes outside of the Philosophy department, I have understood that many student feel the same thing – the general environment, the snobbery, the attitude that Continental isn’t real philosophy -it’s not just me. But I am off! I can spend this semester in Ethnology, taking my scheduled 20 credits, and not be in trouble with the money people!

And there was much rejoicing.

Fantasy Pharmacy will be given a face lift, an adrenalin shot, and a new guest book. Soon. After that, I will make a portfolio, Kevin. I promise. It’s only been a year and the half since you suggested it :)

See? No fish mentioned. I never lie.

I doubt anyone has missed the commotion in Europe right now. The topic is a few caricature drawings of the prophet Mohammed, which originally appeared in Danish newspaper (Jyllands-Posten) in September. A few days ago, Moslem groups voiced protests, and the drawings where then republicized, and later appeared in newspapers in a number of other countries, most notably France, with conflicts, flag burnings and export stops as consequences.

What I find interesting is that the focus is on freedom of speech; no Arab countries have the right to react, because journalists have the right to print whatever they want. And yes, they have that right. But to compare this to Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses is just… cheap. In the latter case, it is a conscious provocation, but one made from within a culture. It is also a book, and according to some a rather good one. In the former case, it is a small number cartoon-sized caricature drawings, made by Danish artists and publicized in a large, Danish magazine. There is a world of difference.

The main difference regards perspective; the drawings weren’t made to show disdain for Iran, Palestine or Saudi-Arabia. It was a big, fat fuck-you to all moslems living in Denmark. The last few years, xenophobia and racism has been growing in Denmark, both in culture and in politics (immigrations laws prevents non-European naturalized citizens from marrying non-Europeans and residing in Denmark, the xenophobic Dansk Folkeparti (The Danish People’s Party), the leader of which, Pia Kjärsgaard, has made several racist statements, is winning ground.) The publication of these pictures is really just a logical consequence of that development. While the editor in chief semi-apologized by saying that they “never intended to offend anyone,”
it is quite obvious that that was the original intent; “we will not only make fun of your prophet, we will further humiliate you by doing this in a manner forbidden by your religion; visual depiction of a holy person. Oh, and in the process, we’ll depict Islam as inherently terrorist.”

And France, that has the one of the longest histories of moslem citizens in Europe, and that already have a conflict with this population after the outlawing of head scarves in public schools, followed suit. What I am trying to understand is what the hell these idiots, sorry, editors, are thinking with. I am not saying it is right to burn Danish flags in Palestine, or to threaten Danish citizens. I am saying that it was incredibly insensitive and straight out dumb for anyone to public these pictures to begin with. This is not a matter of freedom of speech, it’s a matter of freedom of idiocy.

Swedish Newspaper Sydsvenskan‘s editor-in-chief Peter Melin defends his paper’s choice of not printing the drawings in this article: http://sydsvenskan.se/varlden/article140141.ece . He gives the following reasons:

1. I don’t see the publication -or not- as a matter of freedom of speech. Nothing prevents Sydsvenskan from displaying the depictions of Mohammed if we find reason to do so. This has happened and yesterday we printed the cover of the children’s book that is the cause of the last days’ commotion.

6. The drawings are in some cases so blunt that there is a risk that printing them is against Swedish law. They are dangerously close to a verbal hate crime (the law in questions is the law against hateful agitation against a specific ethnic or social group.)

I really couldn’t have said it better myself. I stay with my old position: people are dumb.

I wrote the stuff below for my eljay in April, but figured I’d share it here. It is obviously by Neil Gaiman’s book American Gods and the character Sam. Like she did, I list what I believe.

I decided to, like Lucas did a few months ago, do a Sam. It might be long, it might be short. Whatever.

I believe that there are no gods or ‘higher power’, I believe that there is nothing beyond the material, but that that isn’t as pitiful as it sounds, I believe that humanity will cause its own extinction in the near future, and that this isn’t a bad thing. I believe that we’ll also cause death of most other things on this planet, and that’s worse. I believe that with time, it will heal. I believe that time is relative and that we are small and pity creatures. I believe that this is somewhat precious, in an ironic way.

I believe that it is never true freedom to be able to enslave others. I believe that a woman’s body is her own and that a the father should never be able to overrule a (affirmative or negative) abortion decision because he is not the one doing the work, feeling the physical pain. I believe that there is no need for a ‘special (exclusive) connection’ between mother and child after birth if the father participates equally in nurturing. I believe that modern GYN exams and mammograms are the products of misogyny and will looks different if society changes. I believe that most people consider gender to be fixed because they don’t think or know enough about the world.

I believe that most ‘conservative’ opinions are caused by lack of information or misinformation. Or maybe lack of empathy.

I believe emotional empathy to be strong, but overrated as a ground for action, as people have different amounts of it. I believe that rationality is nonexistent. I believe there to be no good reason for decision making whatsoever. I find it amazing how some people still manage to make good decisions. I believe that relativism is morally unjustifiable, and that absolutism is an illusion.

I believe that love is simple, but not necessarily kind. I believe that the world has only formal qualities -it just is, not good or bad.

I believe that some things that are considered sexually deviant are just parts of sexuality most people suppress. I believe that other things considered sexually deviant are ills caused by the culture we live in. I believe ‘culture’ as source of qualities is underrated because it is underestimated. Everything we do other than eat, drink, sleep, talk and walk upright is culture.

I believe that every form of violence and oppression are interconnected systems and that unless we notice that we’ll get nowhere solving anything. I believe that it’s hard work but must be done. I believe that Aristotle and Paul respectively are more responsible for more of this development that any other individuals we know of.

I believe that stupidity and ignorance are unrelated but that one of them tend to invite the other. I believe that 98% of the world population are fundamentally stupid. I believe that there are equal amounts of stupid people in every culture, sexual orientation, sex, religion, and country.

I believe that although men are also oppressed by western patriarchy, they fundamentally gain from it and most of them will not let go unless forced to. I believe forcing them is a fundamental part of getting equality – not changing the inequality from one group to another. Privilege needs to go away. I believe that education can go far, but only so far.

I believe that the human world is a lot more plastic and capable of change than people think. I believe because humans think is is, it becomes static. I believe that if a time machine would ever be invented, so universe would in an instant become nothing; it never will have existed. I believe the universe to be impossible, and that exists anyway.

I believe that one day, people will worship David Bowie as a god. I believe that music has deteriorated in the west the last 15 years due to music videos. I believe that beauty ideals have always been unattainable by 95% of all people, that they are fundamentally bad but will never go away. I believe I will never be able to shop wishing I was 100 lbs.

I believe that sports and entertainment media are indeed a part of manufacturing consent.

I believe in the cuteness of kittens, the beauty of ravens and my own sense of melodrama