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That Ginger, Anna

That Ginger, Anna

Tag Archives: commentary

European and U.S. Populisms: Gender, Economy, and Society.

09 Sunday Apr 2017

Posted by That Ginger, Anna in Commentary

≈ 1 Comment

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Academia, american, anthropology, college, commentary, conference, constituents, europe, european, FN, France, French, french national front, french studies, history, le pen, left wing, leftist, New York City, new york university, NYC, NYU, peron, political, political science, political sociology, politics, populism, right wing, sociology, trump, United States, voters, voting

Let’s talk about European and U.S. populisms, shall we? Maybe you read my previous post about how one could equate Fascism and Communism as they relate to populism. Well, on Friday I went to a conference at NYU titled, “The French National Front and Beyond: A Global Populist Movement?” It was SO interesting. I was able to confirm several things I understand about populism, come up with some new questions, and widen my understanding of Right-wing political movements in both the United States and Europe. Unfortunately, I didn’t stay for the keynote speech because I arrived when the conference started and couldn’t stay until the evening, but the two panels I listened to,“Sexual Politics” and “Populism from Below: Ethnographers at Work”, were both amazing.

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DISCLAIMER: I have complex opinions (some lengthy and mature in their development, others new and ever changing) regarding topics each panelist spoke about. I am not prepared to write each of them out in this post. When I write about my disagreement with a panelist it does not mean that I agree with the alternative viewpoint, it only means that I don’t agree with their specific interpretation in the context of their presentation. If I write something that offends or confuses you, ask me to clarify what I mean and I will gladly do so!

The first panel was about Sexual Politics and three presenters spoke about their work: Kathleen M. Blee, Anika Keinz, and Cornelia Moser. Kathleen spoke about Right-wing movements in the United States as they relate to gender. Kathleen touched on something that I agreed with: the Right isn’t necessarily ignorant, but they use a different strategy of ideological bundling than the Left. Ethno-nationalism, masculinity, hierarchy, and anti-globalism are each ways the Right in the United States is able to appeal to different ideological bundles people hold. This directly confirmed my idea that one’s hierarchy of social identities determines if they will vote Left or Right. I did disagree with one assertion she seemed to make which was that politicians who develop or articulate their stances issue by issue rather than as a complete ideology are opportunistic. I am of the opinion that anyone (politician or not) can hold opposing views on different things without being a hypocrite or an opportunist so I would have liked to have heard more about her ideas on that.

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Cornelia spoke mainly about gender and the Right in France. I liked all of the presenters, but two points in Cornelia’s presentation struck me. She identified the Right as “familialist”. That is, promoting ideologies that emphasize families in tandem with oppressive sexual and gender norms. Had this been used solely as an adjective to describe the way the Right wishes to organize society, I may have agreed, but it wasn’t. I understand that it refers to the way in which a group hopes society organizes itself-that is in a familial structure-but the definition of a family has expanded considerably over the years. With the progressive changes in domestic partnership and adoption law (especially in France), the traditional husband and wife with two children is no longer the only form families take. What I mean to say is that familial organization of society is not as narrow as it once was and doesn’t not have to denote “oppressive sexual and gender norms”. Even historically, a familial organization of society has not always meant organizing around a nuclear family. I also do not know what one who is against familialist parties or societal organization would propose as an alternative. Cornelia mentioned that the Right is also anti-individualistic in some ways, so I am again curious what the alternative is, if anti-individualism and familial organization of society are both negative. Cornelia also spoke about something that was my biggest objection of the 6 presenters: “dediabolization” or the idea that “making stances discussable” makes them less negative. She specifically mentioned this regarding neo-nazi stances. I wish I could have asked her to explain what she meant more clearly but I vehemently disagree that talking about an idea or stance makes it less evil or negative.

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Anika spoke about the politicization of gender/sexuality in Germany. Her presentation was very interesting and she spoke about a topic that was the focus of many of my classes at NYU: othering. She specifically talked about German politicians bringing lesbian and gay citizens (all presenters were clear that politicians do not recognize TQIA* in Europe) into their constituencies in order to make Muslims the new, more other, other. She and Anika both explained homo-nationalism and gay-imperialism as ways in which the West is reinforcing the Orient-Occident colonial (and pre-colonial) divide in a neo-racist way. I’ve often thought about this topic, so I was glad that these two presenters discussed it and provided examples. That being said, I would love to hear more about gay-imperialism because it seems to be a poor way of describing the permeations of Western sexual culture outside of the West. I don’t agree with cultural imperialism (hence my firm belief in regionalism), but where is the line to be drawn? Speaking of gay-imperialism between the Occident and Orient seems to imply that there is a singular cultural idea about sexuality in the Occident, which is being forced onto the Orient . When, in fact, as each of these presenters showed, cultural ideas about sexuality and gender in the West are very different. It was also mentioned that many decolonial governments preserved sexist and homophobic legal systems, which in itself seems to contradict the idea of a contemporary gay-imperialism in many ways. Who constitutes a cultural group? Should all cultures be preserved and protected from ideological imperialism? Which cultures are to be made to embrace contemporary, progressive ideas of gender and sexuality? When is ideological imperialism “liberation” and when is it imperialism? Why? Anika also presented the Right on a spectrum, which I also thought was quite accurate and fitting (right conservative-right populist-right extremist). This panel was the most eye-opening and definitely sparked my curiosity and need for more research. If you have thoughts on these topics or want to recommend literature, feel free to drop a comment below and we will discuss!

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The second panel and my personal favorite featured Don Kalb, Christele Marchand-Lagier, and Rachel Meade. Don spoke about the Right as it relates to workers in Poland and race in Hungary. Rachel spoke about populisms on the Left and Right in Michigan, and Christele explained the intricacies of the social positions and views held by voters for the French National Front-the leading Right-wing party in France. Rachel’s presentation was an explanation of her field work in Traverse City, Michigan. She spent 4 months with an Occupy group, a group of Bernie Sanders supporters, and a 912 group. She explained that both the Left and Right populist groups situated themselves against the party establishment, felt their values were being undervalued, and distrusted the media. Her research also echoed something similar to Christele’s: there was a clear disconnect between people’s day-to-day life, their online persona, and their voting identity, especially among those on the Right. She explained the similarities and differences between populism on the Left and Right in each of these cases and also relayed her personal experiences as a researcher. She also focuses on Argentina and I was quite sad that she didn’t talk more about her work there because I have done some research about clientelism in Latin America as well as Italian Fascism in Argentina so I would have loved to have known more about populism there (she did explain that Argentina presents a perfect example of historical populism on the Left with Peronistas, while contemporary Leftists in Argentina reject the populist label).

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Don spoke in-depth about class and labor-share as it relates to voter turnout and the way people vote. He focused on the working poor and how the Right was able to capture their vote. His was the most historical of the 6 and he also explained the evolution of Left-wing Catholic, Trotskyist voters in post 1989-Poland. I was intrigued by this aspect of Polish labor history and will definitely be looking into it more. He also introduced an amazing idea that I felt was a great way of distinguishing populisms on the Left and Right. He characterizes populism on the Left as binary: “the people” against the elite with equality as their main goal and populism on the Right as tripartite: “the people” against the elite and against the undeserving classes in the promotion of a new elite made of the “deserving classes”. While I don’t necessarily agree completely, I do think this is a productive and helpful way to distinguish populisms. He also threw out an alarming statistic about the working poor and Roma in Hungary: many families in each group survive on 200 Euros ($212) a month, which I think is absolutely insane. He mentioned several other things including geography, nationalized welfare and public schooling (would love to see how it relates to the formation of French nationalism and public education—see The New Regime: Transformations of the French Civic Order, 1789-1820s by Isser Woloch) as they relate to the Magyar–Roma relationship in Hungary.

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Christele interviewed people in two southern French departments over many years and asked why they voted why they voted. She has also done extensive exit polling. She explained that the French National Front attracts a diversity of voters that often do not know or may not even agree with the party platform, but that feel they are choosing the best candidate out of many bad candidates…She explained that one’s interpersonal, social, and economic relationships to society and how they change over time (Dan also made a point to explain how one’s class identity changes over time and therefore often causes a change in voting) are the biggest factors in determining how a person votes. She also made a point to dispel the notion that any party speaks for the “silent” citizens or those that “don’t have a voice” because as she said, silent citizens or citizens who aren’t represented do not vote. I thought that was a great point. Another point that I agreed with and was glad to see her research support is that people’s votes do not necessarily translate to agreement. I thought this also played into one thing that Kathleen brought up which was the erasure of gender as a factor for the 53% of Caucasian women who voted for the Right in our most recent election. Christele also spoke about geographic differences in voting, as did Don, which I am also very much interested in.

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I liked that each panel had a presenter who showed how populism in the United States both aligns with and differs from European populism. I would have liked for any of them to relate their work to regionalism and Euroscepticism (one of the audience members asked about this but they ran out of time). It delighted me that most presenters agreed that populism was not a manifestation of only the Right or only the Left and that it can emerge from any political ideology. I was also happy to see presenters from different fields presenting their research (historians were under-represented though) and it was especially good that there were people who had done fieldwork on their topic. Historians don’t have the luxury of being able to prove things that aren’t available in primary or secondary documents (except oral historians), so it was great to see research that was based on living people. Christele focused on something I am most interested in: what makes people vote the way they do. She is a political sociologist; she said that it is an underrepresented field of Political Science and that there is only 1 other Ph.D. in France working on anything remotely similar to what she focuses on. I wonder if there are any political sociologists in Italy studying Lega Nord voters or secessionists in the south? What about the political sociology of members of organized crime syndicates? The political sociology of voters in the Southern U.S. or Hawaii? I could do it! Anyway, this was an amazing conference and I hope that I am able to attend other similar events in the future. I think next up will be another lecture at Columbia about Italian Renaissance drawing so come back soon!

 

Settis Lecture

If you’re near Columbia on the 20th, you should check it out!

 

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The Oscars 2016

28 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by That Ginger, Anna in Film Reviews

≈ 5 Comments

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ABC, best actor, best actress, best picture, commentary, film, films, live blog, live commentary, movies, moving pictures, opinion, oscars, oscars 2016, oscarsowhite, oscarssowhite, red carpet

As is tradition, here are my picks for this year’s Oscars. I’ll save my opinion about the diversity issues for another post. As usual, I’m going to list who I think the Academy will give the award to and who I think should win. I won’t lie and say I was up on my movie watching game this year. I did see a few on demand and a couple in theaters, but unfortunately, I never saw The Revenant so do with that what you will. Just like last year, I plan to live-blog the awards, so keep checking back for results and commentary from yours truly.What are your predictions this year? Are you watching with friends or solo? Print out a ballot or make your picks online!

Anyway, here we go…

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“Reality” TV and Our Hunger for Superiority

13 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by That Ginger, Anna in Commentary

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America, american, commentary, entertainment, inteligence, jersey shore, morals, reality shows, reality television, reality tv, society, television, the bachelor

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I’ve been meaning to write about this topic for years, but after a recent conversation, I decided today was the perfect time.

What is wrong with “reality” TV and why has it become a way to measure one’s superiority over others?

I could go into some deep philosophical analysis of what really constitutes reality and how reality isn’t an objective concept, but that’s for another post.

First, let me explain the quotation marks: very few of the shows classified as reality shows are really what one might consider reality-that is, a snapshot of a situation that has not been perverted by production. These shows are created and casted situations which are continuously molded by producers to elicit the maximum amount of drama, comedy, or tragedy. Therefore, “reality” TV is more of a play on the audience’s emotions, using real people rather than traditionally scripted characters, than it is a snapshot of true reality for the purposes of entertainment…that’s what documentary films are for!

I’ve been watching “reality” TV since I was a kid…yeah, my parents allowed me to watch whatever I wanted at any age (NYPD Blue, ER, The Practice, etc.). The first “reality” TV show I liked was Real World. I started watching it because they had a season in Hawaii while I lived there and I had a girl-crush on Ruthie. I watched a couple of seasons, but the first season I remember getting into was Paris. I watched Road Rules until it was cancelled and continued watching Real World until about two years ago. In the mean time, I also watched Survivor, Bad Girls Club, The Amazing Race, and The Bachelor, sporadically.

The first “reality” show I really got into was The Jersey Shore. I watched it from beginning to end. I got my mom into it, then we got my dad to watch it. We eventually all watched it every week as a family and would laugh and laugh. I loved it! I like the characters, I liked the relationships, I liked the slang, I liked the partying, and the drama!

So how does all of this connect to moral and intellectual superiority?

Well, in 2011 I started graduate school and almost immediately realized my television choices were not going to help me make any friends. By chance I also watch Korean dramas which a few other students also watched, but otherwise I knew better than to mention “reality” TV. Every time I quoted a line from Jersey Shore or used a slang word or mentioned the characters, I was laughed at and called an idiot or stupid and asked why I would watch such “trash”.

Eventually I just stopped talking about it and made sure only to talk about the show with my parents or friends from outside of school that also enjoyed it.

In the graduate school example there was a clear sense of intellectual superiority among my classmates because they were too smart to watch “reality” TV, while I was not.

I don’t understand how people arrive at this conclusion because I don’t understand how watching “reality” TV for entertainment purposes is any different than playing video games, going to the gym, partying, or any other hobby most people have. Of course, there are hobbies that require critical thinking, analysis, and problem solving, but not every hobby does. So why do people feel intellectually superior based on entertainment choices? If I am in the mood for a mentally stimulating hobby, I’ll do crosswords, play sudoku, play trivia or some other game that requires critical thinking. I don’t have the money, time, or mental energy to devote to video games, but that doesn’t mean I think gamers are idiots. Other times, when I don’t feel like engaging my brain in some complex activity, I can turn on a TV show for an hour or two and laugh, cry, cringe, and observe people.

While I will admit that I believe there is a hierarchy of quality and rachetness in the “reality” TV world (for instance, I don’t really care for Millionaire Matchmaker, Duck Dynasty or Basketball Wives), why would one’s like or dislike of “reality” TV correlate in any way to their academic or intellectual abilities?

Do you think people that watch “reality” TV are less intelligent than those that choose not to? Why or why not?

Then came the kicker. The moral superiority argument.

One day, after a trip to visit some friends that lived out of town (who also loved Jersey Shore), I shared a picture of Pauly D on my Facebook timeline and tagged them in it. Less than 5 minutes later, one of my Facebook friends, that used to work at the high school I attended in Oklahoma, posted a paragraph-long status about how Jersey Shore was trash, she wouldn’t let her children watch it, it was horrible for society, etc. Several of my classmates with children quickly jumped on the bandwagon and commented on her status explaining why they were morally superior because they didn’t watch the show and why their children were going to turn out to be better members of society because they didn’t allow them to watch such trash.

I was younger, and much more comfortable with confrontation and I knew that many of these women had criminal records, had become pregnant out of wedlock, and used drugs and alcohol to excess (none of which personally affect me, but all things they were making fun of others for watching on TV)! I replied with something along the lines of: “I do not party, go to clubs, sleep around, or any of the other activities that are ‘promoted’ on the show. On the contrary, I go to school, don’t have children, don’t have STDs, and don’t have a criminal record.” (all things they said the show was causing). “I find the characters endearing and funning and enjoy watching them live their lives. Just because I watch a show featuring characters who are following different life paths, does not mean I am going to do the same…and if I did want to move to New Jersey and party for a summer, how does that affect your life?”

I can think of many instances, despite the sex and drinking that everyone looked down upon, when characters on the show displayed admirable character traits. They built friendships, fell in love, watched out for each other, protected each other, etc.

I was blown away that a shared picture of a character from a “reality” show had caused multiple mothers to explain how they were morally superior to people that watched a show.

Do you think watching “reality” TV has a negative moral effect on society? How? Have you ever made a poor decision because you saw someone on a show do something similar?

This particular example relates to Jersey Shore, but I have encountered the exact same blowback for watching The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. This franchise isn’t my favorite, but I became hooked on it because it was a way to bond with my mom. She enjoys the show and we can both watch the show and judge the contestants while spending time together.

Most of all, this is the main reason I watch reality TV. I strongly believe that it is a great way to bond with people that you may otherwise have nothing in common with. People of all ages, income levels, races, and genders watch reality TV-it’s very much like sports in that capacity. Since I am a graduate student and many of my friends and relatives are not, it gives me something to talk about with them, other than rambling on about my studies. We can compare our analysis of the cast members and guess what we think will happen on future episodes. We can laugh together and cringe together, but most of all, we can share an experience despite distance or other obstacles.

Obviously, I understand that there are unhealthy habits that can damage your life and influence you to make poor decisions, but I do not think watching PG-13 entertainment is one of those habits. I’m equally blown away by those that think video games and gangster rap cause people to commit murder. It’s amazing how otherwise liberal individuals are so quick to explain why their choices of entertainment are better than others and how superior they are to other individuals.

This is not to say that everyone has to like or enjoy “reality” TV, but it is definitely important that people understand that “reality” TV is a form of entertainment just like any other. While some hobbies may be more intellectually stimulating than others, I do not believe that one is more intelligent or moral because they choose a different form of entertainment.

Thoughts?

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