The Effects of Post-Modernism on the ‘Raced Bodies’
Post-Modernism is the counterpart of the modernist ideals both in the philosophy and aesthetic preferences. Modernism existed before the beginning of the Second World War and this period primarily focused on the preservation of one’s culture through rejection of outside influences that might alter the cultural values. For instance, Sandler argued that there is a greater contrast between post-modernism and modernism in a sense that can be viewed from a philosophical point-of-view and aesthetic tastes. “Post-modernism has rejected modernism’s purity and has instead welcomed impurity” (Sandler 1980, p. 346). Another scholar named Irvine (2004/2014) also supported this analysis through examination of cultural patterns that existed from both periods. He concluded that modernism brought the world a much simpler inventions and presented people with minimal options of mass information wherein much of it were acquired through printed materials and the knowledge gathered from them are “centralized” wherein there was a group authorized to distribute information to the majority such as the mass media. Wherein art was simpler and the persistence to originality became the demand of the day. In contrast with this, post-modernism brought a concoction of mixed-cultures borrowed from other societies and the images, thoughts, and traditions are incorporated to one’s own culture to generate a rather bastardized form of cultural imitation which eventually triggered the loss of identity and the constant influx of foreign cultures which became so dominant that it threatened to destroy the traditional-modernist culture of the past century. The side-effects of modernity according to scholars had created loopholes in mass societies and resulted to the obsession with radical change that they abandoned their own identity in search of the sense of belongingness, diversity, and more cultural interaction with other societies. As Macionis et al. (1994, pp.656-657) noted: “Mass societies, with their characteristic diversity and rapid change, provide only shifting sands on which to build a personal identity. Left to make their own life decisions, people confront a bewildering range of optionsNot surprisingly, many people shuttle from one identity to another, changing their lifestyle in search of an elusive true self.” Therefore, post-modernism meant the death of the old system of modernity based on the structured hierarchy of the society and this period paved the way for the reformation of old rules as well as expansion of boundaries of tastes both in fashion, art, and culture. In other words, this meant liberating the society from the traditionalist perception to accept the influx of new cultures which somehow offer a better solution for the lives of the people. Post-modernism persisted in terms of arts, fashion, and culture. As a result, the coagulation of all the traits borrowed from other cultures became the norm that the societies follow today as ‘popular culture’ which is mixed-up, complicated, and not original. Popular culture has been dominant for many years and still continues to influence the field of visual arts. With the help of the mass media, the popular culture became so diffused that every country in the whole world now knew the history and culture of other countries; the internet also helped stabilized this connection by opening a platform that allowed people to interact and communicate with other nationalities around the world. However, the repercussions of the popular culture are the loss of one’s identity as well as the establishment of racial division; an issue that still lingers even in the 21st century. Borrowed ideas and icons from different cultures sparked a continuous and ridiculous battle on the internet: the ‘cultural appropriation’ phenomenon which posits that there should be a distinct line that one cannot imitate another culture because it can lead to racism issues. Post-modernity helped established the cultural appropriation since the former approved of the influx of foreign studies as opposed to the modernist philosophy. Cultural appropriation persists and in the next pages, I will connect this to the issues of racial segregation.
Branded Bodies, Divided Societies
“Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs – all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured” (Morrison 1970, The Bluest Eye, p. 20).
The Bluest Eye was a novel set after the Great Depression. It narrated the quest for beauty by an African-American girl named Pecola and yet, because of her color, she was often bullied and isolated by the society whose beauty preferences centered only to white skin and blue-eyed people. Although the characters were purely fiction, the issues and the setting from this book were real. Why does ‘race’ remain a sensitive topic? Do styles of body presentation play a part in excluding and marginalizing people? How does the popular culture and visual arts represent the ‘raced body’? Told from the perspective of Claudia McTeer, Morrison explained her own feelings about the Americans’ preference on the ‘white beauty’ and wondered the lack of dolls marketed specifically for colored people. In the 1930s up until the 1940s, the society was never diverse as it is now and the majority of the population still revered to the old colonialist idealism that the White race was supreme above all. Even now, the topic of race still remains a sensitive topic for the fact that it needs an elaborate discourse as to why the issue still persists in modern age. For instance, Alan Hyde (1997, p. 226) explained in his book Bodies of Law the context of the word ‘race’ is synonymous to the establishment of division in which every society lives in accordance to their ethnicity. This word also embodies negative connotations since the ones who created the racial divide came from the major culture rather than the minority; thus, the nature of ‘race’ became associated with the ultimate “domination of a casteto create a purified dominant group and an excluded outside.”
In terms of visual presentation, it is important for advertisers, manufacturing companies, and fashion models to portray themselves as beautiful as possible in order to attract potential buyers. Therefore, in regards to what Morrison’s novel, the lack of black dolls marketed specifically for the public meant that there is a less demand for the black dolls in the market. In the 1940s, the researchers Kenneth and Mamie Clark conducted a test to determine the influence of White culture on the psyche of the African-American children. The study was important because it showed the staggering effects of racial divide on the self-esteem of the children. The subjects’ age ranged from three to seven years old; the Clarks presented four dolls of different color: two white dolls and two black dolls in an attempt to expose the attitudes of the children towards the toys. The results of the study showed that 94% of the African-American children chose to play with the White dolls; when the researchers asked which of the two dolls looked bad, there were 59% of children chose the Black doll because it looked ugly and dark. In addition, the research also showed that only 38% of the subjects stated that black doll had a nice color compared to the 60% who negated and chose the White doll because of its whiteness and pinkish color (Clark and Clark1947, pp. 169-178). The significance of this research explains why doll designs are marketed the way they are: blonde hair, blue eyes, and white rosy cheeks simply because the consumers preferred the traditional dolls based on Western ideals of beauty and never on the standards of the colored people. Hook (1992, pp. 16-19) reiterated that even the African-Americans themselves never showed any interest in loving their own color and instead of defending it, the majority of them associated the black with helplessness, weakness of mind, and isolation from the majority. This rejection of color explains that there is already an on-going crisis in African-American identity which favored mostly to the White culture. One icon of the popular culture from the 1950s is the Barbie and Shani dolls. These dolls dominated the market because they portray the ideal beauty that captivated the public. The difference between Barbie and Shani is their color. Barbie is the typical blonde haired white beauty while Shani is the black beauty. Yet despite the fact that these dolls are made up of plastic and seem innocent enough to handle the racist issues, Chin (2001) and Ducille (2004) argued that even though the Shani dolls are marketed for the colored people, their features still follow the Westernized ideal beauty which makes them unnatural since no African-American girl would have Shani’s Westernized features.
Cultural Appropriation as the New Racism
The discourse about raced bodies starts with the ‘body’ itself. Scholars have concluded that human bodies may be defined as “a biochemical reality, a physical, material substance that navigates the world and engages with other bodies; and as a social discursive body; the body as it is “created and defined using language” (Pinn 2010, p. 5 cited in The CERCL Writing Collective 2014, p. 40). Also, Perry (2011 cited in Feagin 2012, pp. 98-99) explained that the notion of race is only a man-made term that helps in distinguishing different groups of people in the society either for the benefit of political and social organization of the people. Both Hyde (1997, pp. 237-240) and Inda (2000, pp. 96-97) argued that race has been used by the government as a method of branding different people from a different culture, and that the concept of ‘raced bodies’ only exists under the laws of the land. Once lifted, raced bodies do not exist simply because these racial categories only function to metaphorically represent a person with different physiognomy from the majority. One of the effects of having advanced technologies nowadays is the ability to interact, communicate, and learn the history and social issues of all the countries around the world. For instance, fashion has been the current trend worldwide and the majority of the people are interested to learn the latest styles that will elevate their appearance to the next level. Throughout the years, fashion has been corrupted with post-modernist ideals making it a confusing style of borrowed elements from other cultures put in together to form a new style that is assumed to be unique, yet do not exhibit originality. Cultural appropriation occurs when the fashion industry commits a faux pas of borrowing designs from other cultures and incorporating them with the mainstream fashion without remorse of offending people belonging to that culture. In the social media helps people to view the latest news as well as criticize those people who commit racism towards another culture. The debate about culture appropriation in relation to fashion has been existent for a while now because the borrowed elements from other cultures. In other words, cultural appropriation is something reserved only to Westerners who dress up mimicking the styles of other societies in hopes of gaining favor from them, enhancing uniqueness, and promoting equality or so they thought. The problem with the fashion houses and the models who wear the mixed-up dress styles was the fact that the borrowed may have a great cultural significance from its society of origin and its usage in fashion may not be appropriate to reflect its real history and meaning. Twigg (2009) posits that clothing and identity are synonymous in recognition of a culture. In some cultures, clothes are not meant only to dress the body and serve on its aesthetic purpose. It is also a way of establishing social hierarchies which visually explains the person’s position in the society. An example of cultural appropriation was Lady Gaga’s pink burqa that immediately sparked an attention amongst Muslim netizens who commented that the singer’s over sexualized portrayal of the burqa was a disgrace to the entire Muslim community. Lady Gaga had been criticized in 2013 for her erotic portrayal of the burqa in the public. The pink gauzy fabric revealed more of her almost naked body instead of covering it which is the very contrast of the real purpose of the apparel. In Muslim societies, wearing a burqa has been associated with modesty and submission (Mahdawi 2013). Pham (2011) explained that aside from its purpose to cover the woman’s body, feminists battled towards the Islamic garment citing it as an oppression against the women’s rights because it does not promote liberation of movement. In other words, wearing burqa has a deeper meaning for Islamic societies. Pham cited the report of The U.S. State Department’s Report on the Taliban’s War against Women which features the burqa as a tool of oppression for the women wherein in accordance of preserving their purity and morality, they were required by the Taliban to don heavy and thick black burqas which greatly hindered their visual, breathing, and walking abilities.
“The burqa is not only a physical and psychological burden on some Afghan women; it is a significant economic burden as well. Many women cannot afford the cost of one. In some cases, whole neighborhoods share a single garment, and women must wait days for their turn to go out” (Pham 2011, p. 389).
Another example of cultural appropriation was the continuous usage of traditional American-Indian native headdress. This headdress is commonly used by chieftains as a symbol of respect and bravery they showed in their tribe. Even today, the traditional American-Indian culture of the United States and Canada still value these headdresses as sacred adornments essential for the survival of their culture. However, in 2014, Pharell modeled the traditional headdress for the cover page of Elle UK and the photograph had earned numerous criticisms stating that the models as well as the producers of the magazines did not studied the importance of the headdress in their culture; thus, the picture was considered to be an example of cultural appropriation amongst American-Indians (Fashion and Style 2015). Although for the majority, the notion of cultural appropriation may seem dubious, Anderson (1983) explained that there is a thin line between patriotism and racism. For instance, cultures who had been long dominated by the Anglo-Saxon influences find it hard to accept the traditions and beliefs imposed to them by foreigners. As a result, they became isolated and marginalized in the society to preserve their own culture. The traditional Native Americans who once inhabited the US and Canadian mainland became strangers to their own lands. As Anderson noted, this reaction is typical of the cultures that experienced rigidity and colonialism under foreign influences. In other words, to use whatever items associated with them meant mockery and belittling of their highly revered traditions. People tend to exclude the art and design from the discussions of racism because those people who use the borrowed arts from other cultures belong to the colonialists or from the major cultures who once contributed to their oppression, that instead of appreciating the aesthetic value of their item on other people, they view it negatively either because the items were used in a wrong way and the users do not have a single idea of the meaning of it in the culture that is being represented.
As a conclusion, the effect of post-modernism of the raced bodies is negative in a way that it allowed cultural interaction so much up to the point of oppression of other cultures by a dominant one. Despite the struggle towards equality, the racism still contributes to the marginalization of other submissive cultures in the form of cultural appropriation or the lack of understanding and remorse to use the items derived from another culture for the sake of getting approvals from the majority and at the same time getting into the hipster crowd. There is a thin line between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation and the best way to demonstrate one’s love for their own culture as well as for another is to use the borrowed elements effectively and according to its original purpose from another cultures.
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