Category Archives: representation

November 26, 2011 · 9:03 pm

Double down objectification: turkey bowling

Thanks to national geographic for the photo of a living turkey

An advertisement for Turkey bowling jumped out at me today.  I said the words aloud to see if they made any more sense: “Turkey bowling.  Turkey bowling.”  Hmm, not really.

A local casino is offering a promotion where punters attempt to throw a frozen turkey down a makeshift bowling alley.  Huh?

Easy enough to explain: animals become objects when killed.  To insulate reflection against the ethics of the dead animal erupting, humans are encouraged to treat the newly-deceased animal as a stand-in for some other object.   Reflection about the mass slaughter of turkeys is less likely when the turkey becomes the bowling ball.

 

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November 24, 2011 · 7:54 pm

Shopping for native american appropriation

Who is buying the cultural hijack this season?  Here are four excerpts from my buddy Zack’s reflection on cheesy selling of Native American identity.

Seeing as how this week is that special time of the year when Americans young and old come together in order to collectively indulge in enough food, mirth, and myth to sanitize the brutal genocide upon which America country was founded, I thought it would be nice to provide some shopping advice for this Friday’s consume-a-thon, and to pay tribute to the corporate tribe that has been gracious enough to supply the world with Eskimo Redneck Ice Chisels and 50 round rifle magazines.

via Cabela’s Hearts Indians | Souciant.

Who calls it colonialism?  I just see some king-of-the-hill type wisdom.

Contrary to the logic of sane people, the British arbitrarily decided that this vast expanse of land was ‘theirs’, since the ancient law of man asserts the right for pigmentally-challenged people to claim anything and everything as their own private property, as long as they arrive at said destination by boat (FACT: Even today, if a white guy can technically sail a boat right up to your house and dismount on your property, then it’s totally his for the taking.)

via Cabela’s Hearts Indians | Souciant.

And of course the real question about shopping is WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT ME?

Whether seen as a tools, weapons, or tweapons gifted directly from the Great Spirit to the neoprene’d hands of man, there are three models from which consumers can choose, including the Stone Club (pictured above), which is the ideal choice for (a) those wishing to add masculine nuance to their existing ‘Indians-were-majestic-but-I’m-not-giving-back-this-mountain’ chalet decor, or perhaps (b) the smaller niche market shopper who simply wants to add Blunt Force Trauma to his or her resume.

via Cabela’s Hearts Indians | Souciant.

Selling the certificate-to-justify-genocide along with the offensive weapons — capitalism at the most savvy!

This item is also “100% Navajo-crafted with a certificate of authenticity,” and this means that you’re actually getting a second guarantee for free, which is Cabela’s certificate of assurance that, if necessary, any critique of their gross commodification of Native history can be deflected with the proverbial Navaho human shield whose name appears on the certificate.

via Cabela’s Hearts Indians | Souciant.

Cheers to Souciant!   Add Zack’s new blog “Dudes against ‘dudes’” to your RSS feed.

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November 24, 2011 · 6:41 pm

Martha Stewart, pepper spray and a dead bird

Looks like jail time gave Martha a good sense of humor.

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November 23, 2011 · 6:56 pm

Thinkin’ Turkey

I’m a vegetarian.  Don’t eat the thanksgiving bird.  It’s easy.  If a being had a mom and has a face — don’t eat it.

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November 17, 2011 · 5:04 pm

How do you know if it’s propaganda: Iran edition

I guess a large explosion has erupted in Tehran.  Iran proclaims that it had nothing to do with the United States or Israel.  No news here right?  Wrong!  Check out the last paragraph in this L.A. Times write up:

Exonerating archenemies Israel and the United States from any foul deed seems to some a peculiar turn of events, likely deserving further inquiry. An uneasy Iranian populace, steeped in intrigue and conspiracy theories, sometimes assumes the opposite of what its leaders say.

via Iran, again: No U.S. or Israeli mischief in explosion – latimes.com.

Huh, that’s interesting.  I wonder if that kind of criticism happens in the United States?

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November 16, 2011 · 5:30 pm

Mario, raccoons and suicide food

Nintendo’s new Mario video game apparently contains some animal violence.   Humans, playing the game can kill a tanooki raccoon dog and wear it’s skin to get special powers.  I’ll probably skip playing the game.

I thought the defensive reaction was pretty interesting.

While it is true that at points in the game, Mario dons a raccoon-ish looking “Tanooki” suit that enables him to float in the air and swat bad guys with his tail, he never slaughters an animal to get it.

Instead, as MSNBC’s In-Game blog points out, “the magical Tanooki suits that [Mario] wears in the game typically spring from magical squares that magically hover in the air. These squares magically give up the suits, (which at first look like magical leaves), when Mario bumps his head into them.”

via PETA takes on Nintendo’s Mario and his Tanooki suit – latimes.com.

This is an interesting take on the notion of suicide food.  I’m not buying the argument that abstract violence against animals in the fictional world is any less significant because the realism has been distorted.  In particular this is the slaughterhouse-as-magic-box theme.   I think this idea only fuels the disconnect between eating meat (or wearing fur) and the killing of the animal.

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November 11, 2011 · 10:56 pm

Juxtaposition: camping

Artifact one: Camping before the Twilight premier

Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters/Landov

Artifact 2: Camping at #occupy oakland

Thanks to #occupy contra costa for the photo

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November 10, 2011 · 7:03 pm

Violence against animals to frame killing humans

I think Carol J. Adams is one of the most important thinkers of this century.

Her work as a feminist vegetarian ethicist has helped me better understand how violence against animals is a fruitful comparison available for those who hurt humans.

Consider the US soldiers who killed Afghani civilians and then took parts of their bodies as souvenirs.

In his testimony, Gibbs denied responsibility for the killings, but did admit to slicing off body parts from Afghans, including the fingers of a man, and keeping them or giving them to other soldiers as trophies.

“In my mind, I was there to take the antlers off the deer. You have to come to terms with what you’re doing. Shooting people is not an easy thing to do,” said Gibbs.

via US ‘kill team’ trial: jury considers Calvin Gibbs verdict | World news | guardian.co.uk.

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November 10, 2011 · 4:20 pm

Looking at objectification of women from the side

The process of objectification — to take a living, complex 3-dimensional person and render them into two-dimensions –  is a significant part of modern communication.  Advertising and television helping to constitute our very desires.  Reflecting on previous invitations of objectification can help us to understand how we are being organized.

Fray magazine has twenty images of playboy playmate lips juxtaposed with the causes of their deaths. The artist is Jennifer Daniel.

There are some obvious problems with this project.  Using previously objectified people runs the risk that the reader will simply re-create the old pattern of knowledge.  But something about this obscuring of the sexy bodies and the bringing forward of the deaths gets at the realness of humans who have been pushed aside for their body images.

For instance Miss November 1969 who’s turnoffs include: “people who are always late,” dies in an auto accident.  Was she rushing to an appointment?  Was she killed by someone drunk driving?  Was she driving?

I find the piece sad and lonely.  Perhaps in that way it can be a restorative to help respond to the relentless pressures of bodily discipline.

 

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November 9, 2011 · 10:00 pm

Mortality ring

thanks to thehairpin.com for the image.

Jewelry as art.  Nice write up on an exhibit of wild art you can wear from thehairpin.com.

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