Session 1: Trajectories of
Subversion
Chair: Maria Way
Sofie van
Bauwel - Representing Gender Benders: Consumerism and the Muting
of Subversion
Dept. of Communication Studies, Working Group Film and Television Studies,
Ghent University, Universiteitstraat 8, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Both within contemporary academic and social discourses gender benders are almost always situated at the margins. From this position they subvert and reaffirm the hegemonisation of dichotomous gender roles. In both discourses gender bending is read as set of subversive practices. Largely based on the theories of Judith Butler, the academic discourse perceives the bending of gender as an act of resistance with the aim of re-ordering and re-conceptualising gender as a fluid concept. Gender benders do the play full gender-act and create ambiguity. By using different style characteristics gender benders are described as the bodily hybridisation of masculine and feminine stereotypes. The transgression of gender boundaries has been evaluated in cultural studies academic readings as preferably ‘resistance through pleasure’ and this resulted in a monolithic discourse. Meanwhile gender benders came out of the margins and are now commodified as mainstream and accepted within mainstream popular culture. Especially on the target group broadcasters MTV and TMF. Through commodification the 'resistance' was absorbed and incorporated into consumer capitalism. In this movement the subversive potential of gender was muted. In this paper I will account for the genealogy of a muted resistance in search of some logics of incorporation. More specifically, I will use a reception study of popular culture texts (case MTV and TMF) amongst young consumers: do they read the bending of genders as ‘resistance through pleasure’?
Karin Klenke
- Women Weaving Webs: The Transformative Powers of the Internet
Center for Leadership Studies, Regent University, 1000 Regent University
Drive, Virginia Beach, VA, USA
Advances in information and communication technologies
(ICT) are providing leadership opportunities for women both in upper
and middle management. ICT has the potential as a leveler of the corporate
playing field, facilitating entry of women into the ranks of upper management
and allowing those in middle management to emerge as leaders in decision-making
groups. As a result, women are actively engaged in cyber-dialogue creating
on the Internet strategic information links, lobbying, advocating for
change and building solidarity among groups that share similar goals.
Yet, working in the high-tech and e-business arena has become a story
of contrast for women: while Internet companies spotlight some of the
most successful women in American business and the Internet on all levels
is much more democratic and level playing field compared to traditional
brick-and-mortar organizations, many ICTs are designed and implemented
without regard for the demands and needs of women.
The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model that explicates
how individual (motivational, affective, cognitive) and contextual (speed,
flexibility, asynchronicity, anonymity) mediators combine to lead to
the development of cyber-cultures that reflect women’s Internet
behaviours, attitudes and proclivities. More specifically, the Internet
with its transformative potential enables women to create e-work environments
in which the dominion of the old boy’s network, the glass ceiling
and other vestiges of the machotorcracy give way to workplaces based
on merit, performance, and skills, i.e. workplaces that are more hospitable
to women and resemble meritocracies. The paper delineates three specific
cultures that women create on the Internet to include cultures of sense
making, trust and inclusion based on information sharing and empowerment.
These cultures provide the organizational context for the design of
women-friendly ICTs. The implications of these emerging cyber-cultures
for the future of work and women’s role in the new economy are
discussed.
Thomas Beischer
- The Struggle to be JJP Oud: A Trajectory History
Theory and Criticism of Art and Architecture, MIT, San Francisco, CA
94123 USA
Today, complex systems exist to canonize architects
and their buildings. These structures emerged in Europe and America
in the 1920s and 1930s in the form of: architectural journals, exhibitions,
schools, and supporting institutions. Understanding the dynamic between
these “fields” and the individual actor/architect is key
to appreciating the power these structures have over the choices for
promoting an individual’s message.
My paper investigates the trajectory of J.J.P. Oud (1890-1963), a Dutch
modern architect, in order to demonstrate how these fields influenced
his reception, his message and ultimately his historical legacy. Oud
provides a potent case study since his architecture and theory remained
constant during the twenties and thirties, but his reception differed
in America and Germany. This variation can be traced to specific interactions
with existing power structures within each country.
In Germany, modern architects took up the mantle of socialism and promoted
the ideal of economical and functional architecture to benefit the masses.
Due to his successful social housing projects in Holland, Oud was invited
to Germany with the support of influential architects and critics, such
as Walter Gropius and Adolf Behne, and was involved in significant exhibitions
including the Bauhaus Exhibition of 1923 and the Weissenhof Seidlung
of 1927. In addition, he participated directly in the spread of his
ideas through a series of lectures throughout Germany.
Largely due to his fame in Germany, American architectural tastemakers
promoted his architecture, but abstracted the socialistic intentions
into an aesthetic devoid of politics. Actors, like Henry Russell Hitchcock
and Philip Johnson of the Museum of Modern Art, named Oud one of the
leaders of their “international style” in an attempt to
secure the profile of their new institution as much as to promote his
architecture. Although Oud was well received in the popular exhibition,
Johnson controlled the message of Oud’s architecture. Only after
the war did Oud appreciate the limits of this arrangement. Oud provides
one of many cases studies that encourage a continued investigation into
the interactions between the artist and cultural institutions in producing
an interpretation of his work.