Identity Remix








One thing that has been on my mind recently is the relationship of literacy to power. Since I was a small child, I loved books and read voraciously. I was teased about being a reader, but I didn’t really take it seriously until I was openly mocked in front of my classmates by my 5th grade teacher for picking a Mark Twain book from the library. “Rachel thinks she’ll look smart if she picks the biggest book!” she cackled. I had never considered trying to look smart, because I was smart. Later when I read Frederick Douglass, I understood better how threatening intellect and access to literacy could be to people who like having control. 

The power and threat of reading has been a problem for the marginalized throughout history. Recently I’ve learned more about how women in England were discouraged from reading novels, or the news, or anything political, during the 19th and early 20th century. Reading novels would cause women to lose touch with reality and neglect their family and house duties. Novels were also to blame for women who had loose morals, as their salacious plots encouraged women to abandon virtue. Women who read were likely to become suffragettes and turn the entire order of society on its head. As I was growing up in the 1980s/90s, women were openly mocked for reading romance novels for similar reasons. And caricatures of those darn feminists weren’t far from the satire cartoons on the “New Woman” of Edwardian times. 

In this project, I searched for photographs of women reading that typified some of these ideas: the reality-distanced reader, the sexy/loose-moralled reader, the New Woman who made her husband do the housework while she read the news. I remixed them with images of myself reading books/news in similar settings. I especially like the picture in my bathrobe and husband’s Yoda slippers. Rather than get dolled-up and read in a way pleasing to the male gaze, I recognize the  privilege it is to be relaxed - won by those foremothers of literacy. I don’t have to be something to look at to earn the pleasure of reading. 

This exploration helped me compare, contrast, and ultimately synthesize the different expectations, stereotypes, and fears about what it means to be a reader. In my mind, being a reader means learning about the human experience and seeking connection. I read because I want to know others and be known; I love to gaze from the windows of others’ experience, and be surprised by my own eyes looking back at me. 




Comments

Brynley Rozsa said…
I love what you have done with this assignment! I think that it is really cool that you touched upon your identity in more than way. These visuals are making a commentary on historic and current gender norms, but at the same time they are also revealing your interests to your audience. Also I love when you say "I never considered trying to look smart, because I was smart." That got a little giggle out of me.
February 15, 2022 at 1:21 PM
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