Thursday, November 6, 2008
Obama Logo/Obama Hair
As I was reading bellhooks "Eating the Other" I found myself thinking about my (possibly shifting) position on the assertion that "meaningless commodification strips these signs of political integrity and meaning, denying the possibility that they can serve as a catalyst for concrete political action." (33) Throughout the primaries and the election, I have been oddly fascinated with the way in which Obama transcended political figure to the status of logo and brand. The countless cute Obama shirts is something that has made me uneasy, as my liberal minded education has firmly imbedded the notion that consumption and resistance do not always coexist (buying a t-shirt does not mean that you will turn out to vote), so my question is this...Did the Obama campaign figure out a brilliant model for turning consumption into active political participation? Lastly, I was looking for the Obama hairstyle that I saw on the news (somebody had Obama shaved into the back of his head), but while looking I found this blog (see link) that has collected a variety of articles on the Barak and Michelle's hair.
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2 comments:
kate, this is so random, but i just had to comment: i was reading "eating the other" this week too! is it that time of the semester (or election cycle) to consider how we fetishize, consume, and discard otherness to assuage or own liberal guilt, or what? and if it is that time, then why the hell werent more people reading it and then voting no on prop 8? i suppose we can only handle otherness in manageable portions. intersectionality is far too murky.
mmkay, just realized i was reading bell hooks for this class. got a little confused between all the theory classes this semester.
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