SOS: ComAlt, Seminar Pre-Writing Week 4
7 February 2017
Word Count: 250
Passages:
“This is what I find: The average American consumes more than his own weight in daily stuff.” (LaDuke 2016: 107)
“The butter-and-egger was seen as nouveau riche, a philanderer with a taste for naive bottle-blondes.” (Newman 2013: 71)
“Here, the line from human object to food object become clear; further, Eliza’s commodification allows Stowe to play on the connections between sexual and alimentary desire.” (Tompkins 2012: 105)
News Media Context:
Ruth Negga Is This Award Season’s Fashion Darling
“Ms. Negga, 35, tends to favor higher necklines, fitted waists and shoulder details, like the Hawaiian-print belted Rosie Assoulin gown with little puffed sleeves she wore to the ‘Loving’ premiere in Washington, D.C. For fashion fans, though, Ms. Negga is particular catnip.”
Discussion:
During this week’s readings of LaDuke, Tompkins, and Newman, I found a conversation (sometimes unbeknownst to the author) discussing the white/American history of and tendency towards consumption: both literally through food and personal possessions, and figuratively through the desire to consume women – particularly women of color.
While the idea of black bodies being consumed by white people either literally as food, such as a “Jim Crow cookie,” or figuratively as a subject of desire was the specific theme of Tompkins’ Chapter 3: “Everything ‘Cept Eat Us,” I found congruency within the other readings. After reading Tompkins I was more privy to the subconscious behavior of consuming the female or black body through American English vernacular.
Specifically, for example, the phrase “taste” in the context of sexual desire casually used in Newman’s description of a “butter-and-egg man” implies the subliminal cultural relationship between the consumption of tasty food, and the consumption of a woman’s body.
I found this in harmony with the Times’ depiction of black actress Ruth Negga, who is literally described as “catnip” to the fashion world, a world which has historically white-washed and appropriated, and therefore consumed, trends and styles from foreign or “exotic” cultures.
As I read LaDuke’s writings about the American culture of consumption, inextricably tied to our measure of national happiness, GDP, I could not help but wonder how this behavior has continued to either inspire, or be inspired by our more subliminal and abstract desire for, and ingestion of marginalized and exploited communities.
Citations:
LaDuke, Winona. (2016). The Winona LaDuke Chronicles: Stories from the Front Lines in the Battle for Environmental Justice. Ponsford: Spotted Horse Press.
Newman, Kara. (2013). The Secret Financial Life of Food: From Commodities Markets to Supermarkets. New York: Columbia University Press.
Tompkins, Kyla Wazana. (2012). Racial Indigestion: Eating Bodies in the 19th Century. NewYork: New York University Press.
Shapiro, Bee. (2017, February 3). Ruth Negga Is This Award Season’s Fashion Darling. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/03/fashion/ruth-negga-red-carpet-academy-awards.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ffashion&action=click&contentCollection=fashion®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=10&pgtype=sectionfront
Leave a Reply