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Bell Hooks
“When I responded with rage at being denied a toy, I was taught as a girl in a patriarchal household that rage was not an appropriate feminine feeling, that it should be not only not be expressed but be eradicated.”
Firstly, this chapter from this book is insane! I’ve never read a Bell Hooks novel but I was immediately sucked in by her excellent storytelling abilities and easy-to-follow writing style. This quote stuck out to me because I was always taught the complete opposite in my household. While emotions weren’t always talked about from the men and women in my life, I was never taught to outright deny their existence. It’s interesting how there could be such a different side of the line yet I was still finding myself relating to some of the things she talked about in this chapter regarding growing up in her household.
“The recollection of this brutal whipping of a little-girl daughter by a big strong man, served as more than just a reminder to me of my gendered place, it was a reminder to everything watching/remembering, to all my siblings, male and female, and to our grown-woman mother that our patriarchal father was the ruler in our household.”
The punishment she received from her father was simply a power-play. He wanted to remind the women in the household that he holds all the cards. Whenever they recall the occurrence, it’s the same exact thing. It’s a harsh reminder of reality and I liked how she was, sort of, able to take the power away from the memory but writing about it and forever putting it into her artwork. This event has shaped her in one way or another but she put the memory into the novel as her choice, not her father talking about it to reassert dominance over her. Such a fantastic writer.
How Memes are Making Protest Art More Powerful
“In recent internet history, politicians have set themselves up for ridicule by providing the perfect conditions for their memeification.”
I can think of dozens of memes that are just politicians making fools out of themselves and the internet running with it. Honestly, if they didn’t want to be made into a meme, why be so funny-looking in the first place?? I’ve never read the word “memeification” in such a serious context in comparison to politicians, but I dig it.
“As a byproduct of social media, memes and protest art act as a way to gauge a country’s political temperature.
Each protest art is obviously different in each country. There are going to be pieces that the West might not agree with and vice versa. Different social media in different countries also happen to be banned, or heavily controlled. Though, social media and the internet in general definitely makes it easier for art to find the right people.
Memes are our generation’s protest art
Memes: they can communicate a stance of message at a glance and express the same feelings experts say are behind conventional protest art.
I find this quote to be an interesting definition of what a meme is. Most people just brush a meme off as a humorous image spread throughout the internet, but this definition gives more depth to memes. It talks about sending a message, not just something funny to laugh about and move on quickly. Activist memes are on the rise, as we’ve all read about, and I think it’s interesting to compare them to conventional protest art. Memes are a form of, nonconventional, art and so the comparison between the two is interesting. I’ve never thought of memes as a form of protest art, even when I do see activist memes, but I understand it. It’s easier for someone to see and connect with a meme rather than a piece of artwork in a museum, it’s less niche. Anyone can make and post them, anyone can be outraged at the current state of something and that accessibility is vital when making an “activist meme.”
“”The media [of protest art] have changed somewhat, but the purposes are similar: the blaming of villains, the identification of victims, as well as the outrage at the villains and compassion for those victims,” Jasper told VICE.
The article didn’t specify who “Jasper” is but I agree with him here. The media of protest art has changed massively throughout the years as we see an uprise of protest memes. I like how he specifies the purpose, and justifies the difference between the villains and victims.
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