Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

Dear subject, April 1, 1970

I ask you kindly, though not primarily on behalf of those persons who I am in service of, but for all of us, that you please fill in the circle completely when you are indicating the category to which you belong. It really is quite difficult for me to determine who you are if you insist on making your markings outside of the circle, in only part of a circle, in multiple circles, or in the “other” line. While I am more efficient and advanced than my predecessor, the human census taker, who compiled your data manually and based on his limited perspective, I nevertheless cannot make sense of your scrawl unless it is within the designated categories, which exist for everyone’s benefit. I am only capable of what humans are capable of programming me to do, so please consider my feelings. I can only hope that my descendants do not have to suffer through these hardships, breakdowns, and existential crises. I thank you for your cooperation in making yourself intelligible to me.

Yours,
Electronic Computer

During Gymnasium today, we learned of Francis Galton's composite portraits. Galton was the charming man who founded Eugenics. Seeing his racist images reminded me of an ad from Adbusters which actually manages to be progressive in its critique of advertisements (which, apparently, use composite images to make 'beautiful' faces). This ad is a proposed placement in a teen magazine as a criticism of ridiculous teen magazine advertisements; that is, people write in to Adbusters and help decide if the proposed ad would be an effective criticism. Here's one that references composite faces: Beauty is Averageness

This girl's face is a compilation of the faces of 64 girls.

I am not looking forward to filling out a census in 2010.  I feel like they are a reminder of my current position in society.  I am regarded as a number; when filling out a census, I would be designated "Person 1."  Female; second rung on the gender hierarchy.  Living in an apartment.  I suppose that is considered more respectable than a mobile home, but it is definitely not the supreme option; it is not a house.  I have never been someone's wife; again, the lowest rung according to the census.  The list goes Married, Widowed, Separated, Divorced, Never Married, as if to assign values to each level, with married being the ideal point and never married being the lowest of the low.  I am white, a citizen of the United States, without an enviable income, without children, working on finishing my B.A. in college, earning minimum wage. 

Censuses make everyone feel typical.  There are options, boxes or circles to fill, and then your answers are compared with the data of everyone else.  If you think you have something different about yourself, there's that "Other" box to challenge, with a tiny line that hardly provides adequate space for a detailed explanation.  It is the language used in conjunction with this "Other" option that bothers me the most about the census form.  The language is cold, almost uninterested.  If you served for a period of time in the military that is not listed on the census form, your time becomes regarded as "Some other time:____."  Similarly, if you identify with an ethnicity not listed, you become "Some other one____."  The small blank space becomes almost mocking.  By providing this option, the census people feel that you will appreciate the consideration they have extended to you by giving you an option to fill in your own explanation of who you are.  At the same time, they don't want to know too much; a detailed account is not needed.  You have this miniscule spot in which to describe who you are, what you've done in life.  When you complete a census, you do not feel accurately defined and represented by the many, often invasive questions about your income, education, fluency in English, and country of origin.  You just feel like you are one little mechanism clarifying the componenets that you are made up of, so that the people reviewing the census can fit you in with all of the other mechanisms that work together to make up the ever-productive, always bustling apparatus of American society.

After reading and re-reading Foucault a few times, I thought of something that wasn't brought up in class. Did Foucault believe in creationism, evolution, some combination of both of these or none of the above. I would appreciate any feedback or opinions.

"helloooo, Judith Butler, I know you are talking about me, but I have no idea what you're saying!" --Lynnee Breedlove, One Freak Show, paraphrased

"I am extremely greatful to Foucault's notion of 'discourse.' Without it, I could not have done this work." --Edward Said, Orientalism, paraphrased

the form of "the form"

obligatory: i am speaking for myself. i am not speaking for anyone else. i have seen first hand many, many, many people struggle with gen-durr identity and how people reacted to their so-called abnormalities. i have seen friends kill themselves, loved ones still struggle after they have had surgery, loved ones struggle over how to cope with the 'illness' of their new sister -- many who struggled and lived in times that were not as fluid as this time, in times where breaking binary codes was really, truly, much more abnormal.  it's still hard for many. i think that is why i take such a flippant attitude myself to this 'intervention.' intervention, for many people, is not very fun. it's a privilege for intervention to be fun. i want to preserve my own sanity and respect the serious trials that many people have (in this day and age, too).

however, edward said spoke for other people with amazing results. comments directly addressed to the male and female box on the form. experimental in that gen-durr is inherently experimental on one scale and performative on another, which are only two of six or so scales of gen-durr. i almost didn't put this disclaimer in, but i figured one of you inquisitive, beautiful people would wonder about it.

the form of "the form"

"i" is a box. there are boxes. they define who we are. those in power give us labels. those close to us, whether or not they have power over us, give us labels. we give labels to other people. we give labels to ourselves. "liberal," "conservative," "radical," and "moderate" are labels. labels do not give credit to our rich selves. but see how much we use them and we need them. not always in a bad way either. see how much i use them. militant "i am just me" is a label. "child of the world" is a label.

"With its emphasis on the sexual, "sexual difference"  is in the first and last instance a difference of women from men, female from male; and even the more abstract notion of "sexual differences" resulting not from biology or socialization but from signification and discursive effects ends up being in the last instance a difference (of woman) from man-or better, the very instance of difference in man"

-Teresa de Lavretis "Technology of Gender" (1)

The aspect I found most interesting in the "Technology of Gender," is that throughout this article, Lavretis seems to emphasize that our language has a considerable impact on our perception of gender. How can we as a society change these  language barriers? Is it even a possiblity? If so, what ways can we go about creating change?

 "But now I must discuss a further problem with Althusser, insofas as a theory of gender is concerned, and that is that in his veiw, "ideology has no outside." It is a foolproof system whose effect is to erase its own traces completely, so that anyone who is "in ideology," caught in its web, believes himself to be outside of it...However, unlike Althusser's subject, who, being completelt "in" ideology, believes himself to be outside and free of it, the subject that I see emerging from current writings and debates within feminism is one that is at the same time inside and outside the ideology of gender, and conscious of being, conscious of that twofold pull, of that division, that doubled vision." (11)

Once again, Fashing the Body students are confronted with the notion of socitey being a net or a web. It seems as though Western feminists have been trying to break certain pieces of "the net" for the past 8-9 decades. Have they suceeded in escaping from certain bonds? And with this reshaping of "the net," what new bonds and connections have been created?

In important forms, I am "Katherine" and not Katie, regardless of the fact that the only connection i feel to this name is when, you know, I have to write it on forms. If forms, like the census, are supposed to mark my identity, the I guess my identity is confused, or perhaps the context of the form is, cuz I sure as hell wouldn't turn around if someone yelled "Katherine" at me. If I didn't feel like identitfying with, you know, a certain, say racial or gendered group in real life, it doesn't really matter on the form, I'm going to have to check that box anyway. So, no matter what, I'll always be Katherine M. Waldeck the SWF, even if sometimes I don't really feel like that person at all. So, I guess there's that fun nonbinary + nonlinear thinking I learn in college, but the only way it officially applies to me, in terms of Uncle Sam or whatever, is that I am studying this stuff in college, so I earn the identity of "college educated." And even if Kate Bornstein says that, you know, gender binaries make it impossible for anyone to fit the binary (myself, of course, included cuz I don't shave or wear make up or wear a bra, three huge markers of being a woman) doesn't mean that I get to apply this idea to the box I check on the form. This makes me think of My Gender Workbook by Bornstein, because a lot of it is checking boxes. I'd like to see the census folks look at that, that's for sure.

The Form of “The Form”

This should only take a few minutes.

Well that’s good.

Ok, first things first, name?

Joe Hansen.

Oh Mr. Joe Hansen.  How old are you Mr. Joe Hansen?

I’m 36, why?

It’s only a question.

Whatever just make it quick!

So Joe, you got a wife?  Huh, maybe some hooligans?

Yeah, I guess her name’s Susan Beam, no kids though.

No kids!  Well that makes this easier.

Does it?

Alright wise guy, where do you reside?

22 Shockingly Lame Blvd.

Here is an article related to the hysterectomoy article Elise posted. The young girl in this story actually had the operation done! 

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003508681_ashley040.html

Here is a link to Nancy Burson's site. She has a series about composite photographs- one creating the image of a first place and a second place beauty contestant and my favorite, a composite portrait based on the percentage of the world's warheads/weapons they control (This is what power looks like?).

Another interesting series is entitled the Human Race Machine (which uses the same face repeated with different skin colors and the text "There is no gene for race"). 

She has photos of "Guys who look like" and "Women who look like Mary" and one questioning "He/She".

I want to continue to think about fashioning through her photographic work.