Cultures of Domination 
I came across this post a few weeks ago via I Blame the Patriarchy, and linked to it back then. But something about the combination of the words and images stuck with me.
I call this continuum, a culture of domination, a multi-threaded mix of custom and practice, close at hand, in us and around us, that makes the bullying, victimhood and damage of domination seem natural and inevitable.
As evidence of this naturalisation, to bring it into awareness, I collect images of my local cultures of domination. Take a look at the selection of them below. I’ve found, as I hope you will, that rather than seeming to be a given, like the weather, by bringing them out into the light of day they become more susceptible to choice, interruption and confrontation. And less undermining of ‘living from love’.
I couldn’t resist remixing it somehow, so picked some of the pictures and text and I created this video at Jumpcut. I’m not sure how well it works (thus the late night post) but here it is.
That, and the Chocolate Jesus video have me wondering what else I can do in Jumpcut.
12 Comments
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Posts
‘or if you look a bit foreign’ That blows me away.
[...] Hey, remember a blurb I wrote a while back referencing a photo-filled post at a dormant blog? The one called “Cultures of Domination,” which illustrated, with hideous eloquence, the alarming extent to which the paradigm of dominance and submission invisibly saturates human culture? But it took forever to load? So most of you never saw it? Well, Terrance at Republic of T did see it, was summarily moved, and could not resist the compulsion to execute an excellent Flash remix of the material, with ominous soundtrack complete. It’s a little jumpy at first, but stick with it until the whole thing loads. It’s supercool. In an it’s-horrible-yet-I-can’t-look-away way. [...]
Thanks for doing this. It’s hideously haunting.
That is a very good, chilling montage.
Also, I was in London when the latest tranche of terrorist bombs went off there, and the ‘or if you look a bit foreign’ photo/notice made the email rounds shortly after the events. I am 95% sure it was photoshopped and sent round as a disgusted reaction to the heavy-handed police tactics which resulted in the death of Jean Charles de Menezes. I would be very, very surprised if it were a genuine notice.
[...] Republic of T remixes some text and images [via I Blame Patriarch] As evidence of this naturalisation, to bring it into awareness, I collect images of my local cultures of domination. Take a look at the selection of them below. I’ve found, as I hope you will, that rather than seeming to be a given, like the weather, by bringing them out into the light of day they become more susceptible to choice, interruption and confrontation. And less undermining of ‘living from love’. [...]
Thank you for creating this video. I’ve not yet read Twisty’s original post, but I just discovered yours through her most recent one. I’m glad I saw your work - it captures the very real, and very awful truth.
1) Overall great compilation
2) But note that the Underground notice *is* a spoof, satire on the police cock-up
thank you for this. it left me speechless.
Excellent excellent.
Thanks very much. I was unable to view the photos when Twisty pointed us in that direction; I’m glad now to have seen them.
The very real, and very awful truth of the horror that IS…
…Warhammer minatures?
I know I’m ducking the prevailing wind, here, but this wasn’t what it could be. Some aspects of that old entry were great, T, but others were just, well, goofy, and threw out unexamined and highly dubious assertions willy-nilly in (what would appear to be) the hope that if there were enough of them, nobody would say “wait a second…” A few here had a similar effect on me, feeling like it was trying to boil down complex issues to implied arguments of childlike simplicity.
While I’m a great fan of the power of images, one has to demonstrate at least a little perspective and avoid stretching the truth beyond all recognition. Otherwise, you’re risking throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
(Horrors! Images of child abuse!)
Oh, my mistake: according to “I blame the patriarchy”, apparently all video games are detestable tools of patriarchical oppression. So at least now I know where that’s coming from.
I’d imagine that one might have a little trouble trying to back that up when discussing, say, Katamari Damashi, but I’m very sure that it’d be enormously entertaining to read someone try.
I’m not a big fan of the patriarchy either, but this sort of cartoonishly reflexive attacks by someone clearly arguing from a position of outraged ignorance does nobody any favors. Least of all those trying to actually unravel the patriarchal elements of modern society.