This course explores the ways in which objects and material culture embody personal narrative. Moving back and forth from ephemeral traces of events and experiences to the culturally invested luxury goods that create legacy to the objects that facilitate daily life, this class will use, as its primary references, examples that draw from queer and African American cultures to underscore the potential of objects to tell the stories that not only reflect majority traditions and experiences but those of the disenfranchised, the details of whose lives are often obscured. In addition to readings that will provide background for class discussion, student will be asked to play the roles of detectives, archeologists, and curators at various sites around New York City. Each student will also be asked to create an annotated material record that reveals the public and private lives of one individual. That record may consist of texts, objects or any variety of media chosen or designed by the student. This blogs serves as an archive for the work done in the context of this course and related materials that become relevant to this exploration.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

He, She, They

"Dear Facebook: This is why your new ‘real name’ policy hurts queers like me"

"I know, we queers talk about identity all the time. The thing is, identity is at the forefront of our lives because for most of us, there has always been someone in power trying to punish us for ours, invalidate ours, or take ours away. Not everyone who exists with separate identities wants, as I did, tobecome their AKA. I know people whose gender identity, name and pronoun preferences change based on their situation, or simply based on what they feel like that day."

 After reading about this article, I was immediately taken back to the first class session when we were all doing our self-introduction. We were asked what gender pronoun we would prefer to be called. Initially, it was quite strange to me since no other professors have asked such a question before, however thinking back alongside the article, it became clear.

 Article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/09/22/dear-facebook-this-is-why-your-new-real-name-policy-hurts-queers-like-me/
-Nova
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)