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living sexuality the ideological force of this statement is readily apparent men who have sex with more than one partner a categorization with the specter of the promiscuous gay male lurking in the background are less than human in their sexuality condom use is permissible in these cases because deviant and perverse sexual practices necessitate it whereas a healthy moral and fully human sexuality would have no need for such measures condom use is permissible by benedict only as long as use of the contraceptive is made to do the double work of both stopping the spread of disease and marking the condom user as practicing a sub human form of sexuality in this sense the condom serves as a double prophylactic preventing both biologic and moral diseases from spreading a similar strategy was employed by the vatican in the 1960s when nuns working in the congo were permitted to take birth control pills because they were at risk of being raped by revolution fighters as peter m j stravinskas explains in the catholic answer book the use of contraceptive technology was sanctioned by the vatican in this case because the act of rape is not one of true human intercourse 134 one can only wonder judging by history if the church should perhaps issue condoms to catholic priests as well in the case of the congo contraceptives were permitted so long as they provided the double prophylactic function of protecting the nuns from unwanted pregnancies and reinforcing western stereotypes that demonize the black male aggressors as sub human despite their perpetuation of repressive and homophobic sentiments benedict s recent statements are being lauded as contributing to the prevention of sexually transmitted disease given the cultural power that the catholic church still exerts these accolades are the equivalent of celebrating an abusive father for deciding to only beat his kids on the weekend the people breath a sigh or relief for the reprieve they have been ceded while overlooking the fact that the stick they are being abused with is still extremely long posted in uncategorized 2 comments the system loves subversion november 3 2010 in a recent interview in toronto s weekly entertainment paper the cult turned mainstream filmmaker john waters lauded the latest jackass film for its anarchic disregard for standards dirty waters in now magazine oct 21 27 2010 he is quoted as seeing in the success and wide distribution of the jackass movies a popularization of the type of transgression once limited to avant guard arthouse cinema last night i saw a blue collar audience sold out guys with their kids watch a pig eat an apple out of another man s asshole and i thought huh how do they get away with it and they do get away with it in a great way it s really anarchy the interviewer then asks whether this is not a lowering of standards to which waters replies there are no standards and that s the point apart from the standardized format of this exchange in which the media interviewer plays the role of the mildly scandalized voice of reason to which the outlandish interviewee replies with a diabolical rejoinder aimed at subverting his interlocutor s conservative sentiment the logic behind waters championing subversion actually works to uphold the very standards he dismisses the reason the producers of jackass can get away with it is because their films are not truly subversive but rather offer a cathartic release that serves to strengthen the standards they purport to overturn jackass style shock humour an early example of which can be found in tom green s public access cable show from the nineties works precisely because there are standards which these comedians can overturn and exploit the fun in tom green having a pornographic picture airbrushed on the hood of his parent s car lies in the fact that this act flaunts the staid workaday order of respectable society the audience can indulge an adolescent thrill in overturning social norms and expectations but the reason this kind of humour contains an affective charge that can have popular appeal is precisely because these norms and standards are so pervasive if there actually were no standards as waters suggests this form of humour simply would not work the question is whether or not these type of carnivalesque inversions actually support the very structures they pretend to subvert temporarily suspending them only to make them all the more entrenched when the momentary thrill of escaping the established order wears off the mutually supportive relationship between transgression and repressive order is the secret hinge that allows so much allegedly subversive popular culture to be tolerated and even encouraged by the modern culture industry as foucault s anti repressive hypothesis suggests modern systems of social control operate within a permissive and productive rather than a repressive framework the repressive element enters in when we try to consider the types of truly oppositional actions that the sensationalist pseudo subversions of popular culture effectively trivialize and preempt john waters is right to this extent the antics of the jackass crew are a popularized incorporation of the types of shock tactics developed by avant guard artists though i would look back to such innovators as the dadaists and surrealists rather than 70s trash films by lacing surreal interventionist imagery with a generous dose of sadomasochistic humiliation and macho fraternity antics the jackass films subvert subversion reclaiming it for a social order based on power and domination but can we locate the initial kernel of resistance that lies buried in the incorporated form of guerrilla humour exhibited by the jackass films the genius inherent in some of tom green s skits lies in his ability to use sensational disruptions of the everyday order to point out the urecognized absurdity of this order to this extent his best work is in the lineage of great modern art like the surrealists or the films of chaplin where a character s lack of fit with the social order brings out its inherent contradictions with this in mind i would offer one of my favourite tom green pieces tags pop culture posted in art films carnival pop culture leave a comment genocide as metaphor and the university as political space october 17 2010 the most recent canadian episode in the ongoing debate over the right of anti abortion groups to display graphic images on university campuses has been unfolding in ottawa at carlton university where five anti abortion activists were arrested on monday oct 4th for refusing to remove signage that compares abortion with acts of genocide banning the images claims the protesters is a violation of their freedom of expression they go further to argue that the images are not being banned because they are offensive but because of the anti abortion cause that they represent a similar claim was made by the youth protecting youth student organization at university of victoria b c who were denied club status by the student union and had to fight a legal battle to have their status and funding reinstated the university and club reached a settlement in july 2010 this controversy raises interesting questions about the university as a politicized space university students across ontario will be familiar with the poster vendor imanginus that sets up displays in student centres several times a year the incursion of these images which run the gambit from high art to popular film to commodified images of women and cars have yet to produce an outcry from students that such imagery infringes on their right to enjoy the common spaces of the universtiy the poster sales are largely accepted as part of the on going commercialization of common space on university campuses as is the selling of advertising spots in campus washrooms where cell phone companies pitch a better deal on text messages while male students return the liquid deposit on the last two pints of beer they just drank i agree with the anti abortionists that the reason they are discriminated against is that a large number of people disagree with the political position they are attempting to represent with their imagery abortion is an issue that triggers strong political divisions and emotional responses the psychology of which has not to my knowledge been adequately investigated groups like the protesters at carlton are no doubt aware of this and they have chosen to display imagery designed to provoke a strong response while one of the protesters claimed on cbc radio to be showing the reality of abortion what they have in fact produced with the 8 by 4 images is a visual metaphor to express the strong feelings they have against the practice of abortion these images are metaphoric rather than an accurate representation because abortion is not genocide the protesters use of this term can only be a polemic and non literal application genocide is the attempt to systematically kill an entire population due to their perceived ethnic racial or national affiliation and is motivated by complicated social political and psychological factors which a number of modern thinkers like hannah arendt and arjun appaduri have struggled to articulate while such campaigns do by definition include the youth and even the unborn in their targets age alone is not a determining factor in genocide depicting abortion practices in this way thus grossly misrepresents and distorts actual historical instance of genocide the protesters need to recognize this and to adjust how they represent their actions to the media a less generous interpretation of the protester s choice of imagery would read the posters as symptomatic as indicative of an unresolved contradiction within the psyche of the protesters themselves why despite clear historical evidence to the contrary do these individuals choose to understand abortion as genocide perhaps their setting upon this term reflects an apprehension of the dehumanizing aspects of modern medical systems of power and knowledge which in their most destructive aspects can reduce human beings to mere mechanical placeholders in an impersonal technical formula modern biopolitical models of power as hardt and negri argue infiltrate individuals to the level of drives and biological processes and tend to discount the actual subjective experience and agency of its subjects perhaps an intuition of this lack of recognition of sentience on the part of biopolitical society is being projected onto a suitable because mute subject by anit abortionists the unborn human fetus becomes a receptacle for the anxiety people feel over the incursion of biopolitical power into their own lives and subjectivity put simply the modern state in its most oppressive aspects refuses to recognize the agency of its subjects in a manner akin to the way anti abortionists claim society refuses to recognize the sentience and agency of the unborn child what needs to be investigated is the nature of the cathexis between abortion activists and the potential unformed human life with which they identify what projections identifications and possible disavowals are being hoisted upon the fetus in this discourse one response to the anti abortionist s use of metaphoric imagery would be to allow them to present these images but to set up alongside them auxiliary displays that educate the public as to the actual historical instances of genocide thus providing a historical context to balance the protesters distortion of the term the misrepresentation of history would then become an opportunity for introducing actual politics into the public space of university campuses for more arguments about how the genocide awareness project distorts the issues surrounding a woman s right to control her own body please follow this link posted in biopolitics political space representation leave a comment economic weather report from the dentist s chair september 10 2010 this morning as the dentist and i waited for the freezing to take effect on the left side of my mouth wherein two small cavities needed to be repaired we had a short conversation about the skateboarding project i am working on the life of a graduate student and other related matters as the hygienist and and dentist hovered over my reclined chair waiting for telltale signs of speech slurring that would indicate that the local anesthetic was taking effect i had a chance to ramble on about topics that are of interest to me we came eventually to the issue of dental benefits for graduate students and mention was made of the teaching assistant s strike that went on for about ten days last year at my university gladness was expressed by all that the strike hadn t run on as long as the one at york university in toronto which caused great setbacks in the educational process of so many undergraduate students and in the end accomplished very little in terms of improving the deal for the teachers and grad students who were on strike this sentiment in itself is an indication of the manner in which education has come to be seen more akin to job training to a regimented goal oriented set of proceedures the slightest interruption of which is cause for serious alarm even if it is an interruption designed to draw attention to issues which effect the very quality and nature of the education being provided but the lack of public sympathy and support for the york strike as well as for labour movement actions in other sectors such as the recent miner s strike in sudbury ontario was encapsulated by my dentist who in the most inoffensive manner possible pointed out that it is particularly difficult to elicit support for strike actions in the current economic hard times where most people feel lucky for just having a job this tack on the part of my dentist was an attempt to turn the conversation away from the political territory into which it had ventured to preempt my getting too excited over an issue for which i showed clear bias and interest and to keep to the primary goal of the conversation which was to provide a relaxing distraction while we waited for the anesthetic to take effect and so the old chestnut of economic hard times was evoked a trope which like the weather is designed to set the mind at ease by gesturing toward a larger all encompassing and autonomous system to which we puny humans must submit in resignation and humility yes it would be nice if collective labour movements could convince capitalists to share more of their profits with the workers to provide them with the minimal requirements to ensure their material comfort and survival but unfortunately the economy just won t permit those kinds of sentiments to sway public opinion into upholding any significant solidarity for striking workers we re all suffering and we all have to accept cutbacks and reductions in our expectations and standards of living maybe eventually things will get better and we will be able to petition for the...