EXPLORATIONS
2024 / MIDJOURNEY AND STABLE DIFFUSIUON
TASTE HAS NO SYSTEM AND NO PROOFS. BUT THERE IS SOMETHING LIKE A LOGIC OF TASTE: A CONSISTENT SENSIBILITY WHICH UNDERLIES AND GIVES RISE TO A CERTAIN TASTE. A SENSIBILITY IS ALMOST, BUT NOT QUITE, INEFFABLE. ANY SENSIBILITY WHICH CAN BE CRAMMED INTO THE MOLD OF A SYSTEM, OR HANDLED WITH THE ROUGH TOOLS OF PROOF, IS NO LONGER A SENSIBILITY AT ALL. IT HAS HARDENED INTO AN IDEA.
SONTAG, S. (1964). Notes on "Camp".
THE MOST DISTINCTIVE QUALITY OF THE DISNEY FAIRY TALE ADAPTATION IS HOW THE DOMESTIC SPHERE IS SPECIFICALLY GENDERED, AND THE CHEERFUL ACCEPTANCE OF TASKS SUCH AS HOUSEKEEPING, CARE OF THE SELF, AND CARE OF OTHERS, ALONG WITH ASSOCIATED VIRTUES OF PATIENCE AND TOLERANCE, IS REWARDED.
MIRRORING OTHER ASPECTS OF AMERICAN IDEOLOGY, DISNEY’S CINDERELLA OFFERS THE QUASI-RELIGIOUS REASSURANCE THAT HARD WORK, CLEAN LIVING, SELF-CONTROL, AND ADHERENCE TO THE IDEAL WILL PRODUCE THE DESIRED RESULT. IN THIS CASE, APPROPRIATE TO THE AMERICAN DREAM FOR GIRLS: RICH AND HANDSOME MR. RIGHT.
IN OTHER WORDS, BY CONFORMING TO A RIGID SET OF PATRIARCHAL GENDER NORMS — NAMELY PASSIVITY AND SELF-REGULATION — THE AMERICAN GIRL CAN CONSTRUCT AN IMAGE OF DOMESTICITY DESIRABLE TO THE ALL-AMERICAN MALE. BY SUCH ADJUSTMENTS, PATRIARCHAL GENDER NORMS ARE STRICTLY ADHERED TO WITHIN DISNEY’S CONSERVATIVE, AMERICAN FRAMEWORK FOR THE FAIRY TALE.
THE DISNEY FAIRY TALE THUS OFFERS A HETERONORMATIVE, CONSERVATIVE RECONSTRUCTION OF ROMANCE FOR GIRLS: CULTIVATE YOURSELF IN THE IMAGE OF THE DISNEY PRINCESS, AND YOU CAN ACHIEVE THE ULTIMATE GOAL — MARRIAGEABILITY.
HEATWOLE, A. (YEAR). Disney Girlhood: Princess Generations and Once Upon a Time.
MEN HAVE LONG BEEN FASCINATED BY THE IDEA OF CREATING A SIMULATED WOMAN THAT MIRACULOUSLY COMES ALIVE, A BEAUTIFUL FACSIMILE FEMALE WHO IS THE ANSWER TO ALL THEIR DREAMS AND DESIRES. THE IDEA OF A SIMULATED WOMAN WHO COMES ALIVE ORIGINATES FROM THE MYTH OF PYGMALION, AND THIS SHAPING STORY HAS BEEN ECHOED OVER CENTURIES IN CULTURAL IMAGES, REVEALING MEN’S ENDURING FANTASY OF FABRICATING AN IDEAL FEMALE.
THIS "IDEAL" IS A BEAUTIFUL CREATURE HE LOVINGLY CLOTHES AND ADORNS—A WOMAN WHO IS PLIANT, COMPLIANT, AND MEETS ALL HIS NEEDS—AN ARTIFICIAL FEMALE WHO SERVES AS A SUPERIOR SUBSTITUTE FOR THE REAL THING. THESE SIMULATED WOMEN WERE OFTEN SHAPED BY MEN’S FANTASIES AS WELL AS THEIR BELIEFS ABOUT WOMEN’S INHERENT TRAITS, BEHAVIOURS, AND CULTURALLY ASSIGNED SOCIAL ROLES.
STARTING IN THE 1950S, WITH THE POPULARITY OF TELEVISION, PRODUCERS AND WRITERS FEATURED A RANGE OF ARTIFICIAL WOMEN IN THEIR PROGRAMMING: FEMALE ANDROIDS AND ROBOTS, DOLL-LIKE WOMEN, AND FEMALE MANNEQUINS THAT SEEMED ALIVE.
LOOKING AT DOLL PATENTS FROM 1850 TO 1930, INVENTORS OFTEN “SPECIALISED” IN PARTS OF DOLLS WITH MACHINE-LIKE FUNCTIONS. MALE INVENTORS FREQUENTLY PATENTED PARTS OF DOLLS RATHER THAN COMPLETE ONES. WOMEN’S BODIES WERE “FRACTIONALISED IN THE HANDS OF MALE INVENTORS,” AND IT HAS BEEN SPECULATED THAT MEN PERHAPS FELT MORE COMFORTABLE WITH PARTS OF WOMEN’S BODIES THAN THE WHOLE PERSON. IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, THE OBJECTIFICATION AND SEGMENTATION OF WOMEN’S BODIES—SEEING THEM AS DOLL-LIKE, TO BE MANIPULATED AND PLAYED WITH—CONTINUED TO BE A CENTRAL FEATURE IN MEN’S CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN AS DOLLS.
WOSK, J. (2015). My Fair Ladies: Female Robots, Androids, and Other Artificial Eves.
WHAT IS TRUTH? A MOBILE ARMY OF METAPHORS, METONYMS, AND ANTHROPOMORPHISMS: IN SHORT, A SUM OF HUMAN RELATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN POETICALLY AND RHETORICALLY INTENSIFIED, TRANSFERRED, AND EMBELLISHED, AND WHICH, AFTER LONG USAGE, SEEM TO PEOPLE TO BE FIXED, CANONICAL, AND BINDING. TRUTHS ARE ILLUSIONS THAT HAVE FORGOTTEN THEY ARE AN ILLUSION—THEY ARE METAPHORS THAT HAVE BECOME WORN OUT AND DRAINED OF SENSUOUS FORCE, LIKE COINS THAT HAVE LOST THEIR EMBOSSING AND ARE NOW CONSIDERED AS METAL AND NO LONGER AS COINS.
NIETZSCHE, F. (1873). On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense.
LYING AND LOVE ARE CONNECTED STRUCTURALLY IN THE REALM OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. CAPITALISM SYSTEMATICALLY RESORTS TO LYING TO COVER UP ITS STRUCTURAL CONTRADICTIONS THAT CAUSE SUFFERING OF THE MASSES. GIVEN THE WIDESPREAD SUFFERING, CONDITIONS FOR GENUINE LOVE ARE SEVERELY UNDERMINED.
THE STATE, AS A SOCIAL MACHINE TO SUPPRESS—BY VIOLENT AND IDEOLOGICAL MEASURES—THE ACTIONS AND THOUGHTS OF THE POPULAR MASSES AGAINST THE EXPLOITING CLASS, CANNOT BE AN OBJECT OF GENUINE LOVE IN THE EVERYDAY LIFE OF THE MASSES.
FURTHERMORE, THE RIGHT-WING POLITICS OF POST-TRUTH (=LYING), ARISING AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THE CRISIS-RIDDEN CAPITALIST SYSTEM, IS ALSO A POLITICS OF ANTI-LOVE, I.E., HATRED. THIS HATRED TARGETS RELIGIOUS, RACIAL, OR ETHNIC MINORITIES, IMMIGRANTS, AS WELL AS DEMOCRATS AND SOCIALISTS WHO OPPOSE RIGHT-WING POLITICS.
THE POLITICS OF ANTI-LOVE (=HATRED)—WHICH ONE MIGHT EVEN CALL THE POLITICS OF ‘POST-LOVE’—REQUIRES AND IS BASED ON A POLITICS OF LYING (=POST-TRUTH).
DAS, R.J. (YEAR). Contradictions of Capitalist Society and Culture: Dialectics of Love and Lying.
LOVE, BOTH AS A FORM OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND AS A FORM OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS, IS IMPACTED BY CLASS RELATIONS AND, IN TURN, IS UTILIZED IN THE REPRODUCTION OF SPECIFIC FORMS OF CLASS SOCIETY.
IN PARTICULAR, CAPITALIST ALIENATION AND OTHER MATERIAL CONDITIONS, ALONG WITH CERTAIN FORMS OF POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND OPPRESSION PROMOTED BY CAPITALISM, GIVE RISE TO SPECIFIC CONCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES OF LOVE UNDER CAPITALISM.
FURTHERMORE, LOVE WITHIN CAPITALISM NOT ONLY REFLECTS THESE CONDITIONS BUT ALSO HELPS REPRODUCE LOVE THAT IS COMPATIBLE WITH CAPITALISM.
DAS, R.J. (YEAR). Contradictions of Capitalist Society and Culture: Dialectics of Love and Lying.