Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde : A Paradigm for Animal Liberation [1 ed.] 9789401207072, 9789042034235

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Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

Critical Animal Studies 1 General Editors: Helena Pedersen, Malmö University (Sweden) Vasile Stănescu, Stanford University (U.S.) Editorial Board: Stephen R.L. Clark, University of Liverpool (U.K.) Amy J. Fitzgerald, University of Windsor (Canada) Anthony J. Nocella, II, Hamline University (U.S.) John Sorenson, Brock University (Canada) Richard Twine, Lancaster University (U.K.) Richard J. White, Sheffield Hallam University (U.K.)

Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde A Paradigm for Animal Liberation

Kim Socha

Amsterdam - New York, NY 2012

Cover photo: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Cover design: Inge Baeten, Senti Media The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ISO 9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents - Requirements for permanence”. ISBN: 978-90-420-3423-5 E-Book ISBN: 978-94-012-0707-2 © Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam – New York, NY 2012 Printed in The Netherlands

For Mom and Dad: I love you & For the nonhuman animals I made disappear before I woke up: I am so sorry

CONTENTS SERIES E',7256¶ INTRODUCTION: :KDWLV³&ULWLFDO´DERXW$QLPDO6WXGLHV")URPWKH$QLPDO ³4XHVWLRQ´WRWKH$QLPDO³&RQGLWLRQ´ +HOHQD3HGHUVHQDQG9DVLOH6WăQHVFX ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii INTRODUCTION: Rooting for the Avant-Garde 1 CHAPTER 1: Avant-Garde Women Writers and Destruction in the Flesh 61 CHAPTER 2: Staring Back in the Flesh: Avant-Garde Performance as an ALM Paradigm 115 CHAPTER 3: Convulsive Beauty, Infinite Spheres and Irrational Reasons: Reverie on a New Consciousness 179 CONCLUSION: Love and Laughter Now: Plucking at Stems or Uprooting Oppression? 237 WORKS CITED 241 INDEX 255

SERIES E',7256¶ INTRODUCTION: :KDWiV³&ULWLFDO´$ERXW$QLPDO6WXGLHV" From the $QLPDO³4XHVWLRQ´WRWKH$QLPDO³&RQGLWLRQ´ While animal studies is dynamically expanding and proliferating throughout academia, global institutionalized animal use and abuse shows no sign of decline. With ever-expanding markets for animal-derived products, aggressive biotechnological advancements, and the animal-industrial complex becoming increasingly incorporated with all possible forms of capital, one must ask into what circuits of the knowledge economy animal studies scholarship actually feeds. ³'HVSLWH´ZLGHVSUHDGFHOHEUDWLRQE\DQLPDOVWXGLHVRIKXPDQDQLPDO relationalities, zoontologies and zooethnographies, commodification of animals ceaselessly takes on new and creatively oppressive forms. ³'HVSLWH´ LQFUHDVLQJ VHQVLWLYLW\ WR DQLPDO PLQGV DQG VXEMHFWLYLWLHV animal industries keep strengthening their profit margins by co-opting precisely this knowledge and putting it to effective use for corporate LQWHUHVWV ³'HVSLWH´ LQ-depth scholarly engagement with the animal ³TXHVWLRQ´DQGLWVHWKLFDOLPSOLFDWLRQVPDVVSURGXFWLRQDQGVODXJKWHU of nonhuman animals as material building blocks for economic accumulation and growth sees no limits. It does seem as if animal studies has failed to provide effective tools of resistance, as well as sufficient spaces of counter-hegemonic work, in response to these developments. This book begins to carve out such a space. In so doing, we are convinced that it will inspire and mobilize the numerous other books, voices, and actions to come. If recent developments of animal studies have focused on the DQLPDO³TXHVWLRQ´critical animal studies shifts the perspective to the DQLPDO ³condition´: the actual life situation of most nonhuman animals in human society and culture, as physically and emotionally experienced with its routine repertoire of violence, deprivation, desperation, agony, apathy, suffering, and death. (As this book graphically describes, the animal condition may rub off on certain categories of people as well.) This condition, along with the systems, processes, technologies, inscriptions, spaces and institutions that produce, organize, and administrate it, is the obvious target of inquiry

x

6HULHV(GLWRUV¶,QWURGXFWLRQ

and invasive intervention of the Critical Animal Studies book series: How can we track the multiple modalities of animal oppression? How to undo their complexities, their genealogies, their morphologies? How do they work together, at what points do they converge? Where are their dependencies, their dissonances, their fears, dysfunctions and instabilities? What are the specific synergy effects of these instabilities that ultimately may render impossible the future of animal oppression as institution? More importantly: What diverse forms and sites of resistance emerge from expected or unexpected alliances and assemblages of movements, actants, populations, and knowledges? How can their social, political, and affective dynamics be amplified and calibrated to a vital, destructive and creative force? With its focus on the animal liberation movement and avant-garde art, the present book explores one specific intersection from where this work can begin. It is indeed a mild irony that so much of animal studies is LQYHVWHG LQ KXPDQDQLPDO LQWHUVXEMHFWLYLWLHV DQG ³HQFRXQWHUV´ ZKHQ most nonhuman animals, at least those we have not yet tamed, coerced, or domesticated into docility and dependence, are likely to flee as far away from us as possible if they had a chance. We wish to render problematic the assumption of relationality and sociality as unquestioned and dominant markers of animal studies research and EULQJ IRUWK WKH LGHD RI D ³QHJDWLYH VSDFH´ LQ FULWLFDO DQLPDO VWXGLHV constituted by an abolitionist, hands-off approach to animals that FRQQHFWV ZLWK WKH ODUJHU SURMHFW RI ³VXEODWLRQ´ aufheben) worked through in this book. In art, negative space refers to the part of an image that is literally absent, yet still a dimension of the image. Negative space gets its color from the background onto which the image is projected and its shape, contours and meaning from the surface enclosing it. It rests on a visual paradox: the non-image as an inverted component of the image; by definition denying the very meaning of an image, but still weaving together its different parts. To craft a negative space in critical animal studies would mean, for instance, questioning the taken-for-granted validity of the encounter between humans and animals as the central unit of analysis, and explore what impact an absence of encounters with humans may have RQ DQLPDOV¶ OLYHV 6XFK D QHJDWLYH VSDFH PD\ QRW RQO\ EH PRUH beneficial to a great number of animals, but may also bring us closer WR WKH DQLPDOV¶ SHUVSHFWLYH 1HJDWLYH VSDce, understood in this way, would require that we let go of our pervasive obsession with FRQWUROOLQJDQLPDOV¶OLYHVGHDWKVDQGUHSUHVHQWDWLRQVDQGMXVWOHWWKHP

6HULHV(GLWRUV¶,QWURGXFWLRQxi

be. Quite simply, to leave them alone. This might be one of the least investigated perspectives in animal studies generally, and also perhaps the most radical since it subverts the very idea that human-animal relationships can be studied at all in any meaningful manner when the component of animal liberation is missing. A negative space in critical animal studies is thus a space for destruction of one of the most fundamental ideas in animal studies and at the same time a creative potential for new directions in critical animal theory. As such, and as suggested in the beginning of this introduction, negative space is a space for counter-hegemonic work, as clearly exemplified by this book. Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde: A Paradigm for Animal Liberation can be read in many ways. It can be read as a feminist manifesto for the destruction of cultural conceptions and politics of female beauty as a way of ending oppressive and commodified subject-object relationships. It can also be read as an educative account of the implications of the legacy of avant-garde art for the contemporary animal liberation movement. Or it can be read as a deconstruction of rationality as an oppressive force driving both sexism and speciesism alike. We, however, prefer to read the book as a passionately and sharply composed collage of negative spaces which, like a surrealist artwork, generate new and unthought critical connections for animal liberation in the destructive-creative VSLULWRI³ORYHDQGODXJKWHU´ With this work, we launch the Critical Animal Studies book series. Our hope is that the series will work as an incubator, an experimental laboratory of ideas where provocative and sometimes inconvenient clusters of knowledge may unleash and form new bonds in pursuit of the urgent liberation objective outlined above. It should serve as a catalyst for innovative blending and metamorphosing of theoretical positions, confronting them with the political experience and knowledge produced by activists and social movements, and offer the results as a toolbox for concrete change. -Helena Pedersen, Malmö University -Vasile StăQHVFX, Stanford University

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The pages below tell only part of the story that culminates herein. Through this process, I have had an emotional and intellectual support system that made this book possible. Above all others, I thank my parents Edward and Lois Socha, those to whom I could never be grateful enough. Further appreciation goes to Albert Socha and to the new family he has introduced me to: Chantell, Keira and Taylor. I am also indebted with love and thankfulness to the family I have chosen. My partner Patrick McAleer has helped me in all ways intellectual, emotional and comical, and he fostered my faith in something that I did not believe existed. His comments and edits were LQWHJUDO GXULQJ WKH ILQDO VWDJHV RI WKLV ERRN¶V SURGXFWLRQ And Siouxsie²the individual through whom I have learned to break the restrictions of consideration beyond my own species. I failed others before her, but she has taught me to cultivate something new; although she has not asked to be here, I hope that I am giving her a life of which she is worthy. This project began in SpriQJLQ'U0LNH6HOO¶VCritical Vanguard Studies class, and since that time, he has been my mentor, supporter and an exemplar of what it means to be a superior scholar, teacher and human being. It is no exaggeration to say that this book would not exist without the benefit of his brilliance. Dr. Susan Comfort further assisted me by offering her expertise in the many manifestations of feminism, helping me to understand what it means, what it has been, and what it should be. And special thanks goes to Dr. sj Miller for agreeing to work with a virtual stranger on a seemingly strange premise and for showing me that justice must lay the foundation for all the things we do. In addition, I owe much appreciation to the Institute for Critical Animal Studies and their book series editors Helena Pedersen and Vasile 6WăQHVFX. It is truly an honor to publish through an organization with such a noble objective²development of an academic field aimed at ending the domination and exploitation of nonhuman animals and the environment. The academy has been a founding place for other liberational movements, so it is with great hope that I see the same thing happening with animal liberation.

xiv

Acknowledgments

Helena, Vasile and the bRRN VHULHV¶ UHYLHZHUV KDYH KHOSHG PH question and polish key theoretical concepts and contexts that have rendered this text more richly and substantively developed. Final recognition is saved for those within the animal liberation movement, both the activists with which I work at the Animal Rights Coalition in Minneapolis, Minnesota and those I do not know but with whom I share an objective: empty cages, not bigger ones. Like the Surrealists, you are brave enough to see the madness, violence and abuse and dedicated enough to turn what you see into compassion and love. Your acts of courage²big and small, safe and perilous, lawful and forbidden²bring an unrivaled radiance into this world.

INTRODUCTION Rooting for the Avant-Garde We also play with endless shinbones and skulls; everywhere animal and human blood flows all around us. ²Georges Bataille

From 1929 to 1930, the project of the avant-garde found footing in DOCUMENTS, a short-lived ethnography and arts journal published by Georges Bataille, l'enfant terrible of surrealism and their self-GHFODUHG³old enemy from within.´1 ,VVXHFRQWDLQHG(OL/RWDU¶V photographic documentation of his tour of abattoirs on the outskirts of Paris. One in particular shows approximately seventeen severed cow legs leaning against a stone wall within a narrow street passage. A recent retrospective on DOCUMENTS elicited the observation that the OHJV UHVHPEOH ³UHJLPHQWHG VROGLHUV LQ OLQH >«@ D WKHPH OLQNHG WR %DWDLOOH¶V LGHDV RI ULWXDO VDFULILFH DV D IRUP RI VH[XDO GHVLUH DQG WUDQVJUHVVLRQ´ 5XVVHOO 2 This observation, an apt metaphor for the atrocities of war, is as valid as the one that sees female prostitutes aligned in an alley, denizens in the darkest corners of commerce. Through this analysis, the seventeen women are of uniform size with hourglass figures perched atop unnaturally high arches. With no details to individuate them (no eyes to see, no arms to touch), they are flesh for a price. These are just two possible interpretations RI/RWDU¶V image, but despite what the photograph symbolizes, in truth it is an image of death. La Villette Abattoir represents the outcome of animalas-product, the result of creatures born and bred to be slain and butchered, once alive and whole, now dead and fragmented. Construe as you may, the photo is of severed cow feet on a Parisian street, and neither of the previous comments regarding decay of human dignity could be made without the lingering back-story of animal slaughter. 1

7KRXJK 6LPRQ %DNHU UHIHUV WR %DWDLOOH¶V ³QRPLQDO IHOORZ WUDYHOOHU VWDWXV´ ZLWKLQ surrealism, I defer to Dawn $GHV DQG )LRQD %UDGOH\¶V VXUUHDOLVW FDWHJRUL]DWLRQ DV sanctioned by Michel Leiris, former Surrealist and friend of Bataille. 2 Citations that do not provide page numbers both here and throughout the text indicate material accessed through Internet resources without pagination.

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Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

/RWDU¶VSKRWRJUDSKLVMXVWRQHLQDSURFHVVLRQRIDYDQW-garde pieces that emphasize the import of using artistic media to encourage audiences to revisualize their conceptions of the world. Surrealism was the most vigilant of avant-gardes within this project of revisioning; they did not simply want to make us see, but to make us see differently. This too is the goal of the avant-garde in its most complex and unexpected form yet, the animal liberation movement (ALM). In The Pornography of Meat, Carol J. Adams reports Sandra %DUWN\¶V REVHUYDWLRQ WKDW ³IHPLQLVWV GRQ¶W VHH GLIIHUHQW WKLQJV IURP other people, they see the same thingVGLIIHUHQWO\´ $QGWKLVLVD PDQWUDWKDW$GDPVDGRSWVZLWKLQKHURZQWUDYHOLQJVOLGHVKRZ³7KH 6H[XDO 3ROLWLFV RI 0HDW´ DOWHULQJ LW WR WKH JRDOV RI IHPLQLVW YHJDQV For Adams and others within the feminist ALM, one method of seeing differently entails restoring the absent referent of animal slaughter, as LW LV ³>W@KURXJK EXWFKHULQJ >WKDW@ DQLPDOV EHFRPH DEVHQW UHIHUHQWV´ literally (as food), figuratively (through symbolism), and verbally ZRPHQ¶VERG\SDUWVDVFXWVRIPHDW $GDPV, Sexual Politics 51). Reading the ALM through this surreal lens complicates but also explicates the goals and obstacles of two movements that intersect at key moments. First, both were founded in response to mass animal slaughter²animal meaning both human animals and those one might see as real animals such as cows, chickens, and pigs²and in rebellion against the use of animals as thoughtless, witless machines to be consumed either on the battlefield or dinner plate. For the Surrealists, the slaughter was manifested in the FDVXDOWLHVRIWKHDOOHJHG³:DUWR(QG$OO:DUV´ZKLOHWKH ALM is responding to the HVWLPDWHG ³ILIW\-ILYH ELOOLRQ DQLPDOV´ slaughtered across the globe HDFK\HDU³IRUWKHLUIOHVK,´ not factoring in animals used for experimentation, hunting, clothing, sport, and entertainment (United States Justice Dept. and Hawthorne 14, respectively). The Surrealists and factions of the ALM refuse(d) what others accept as historical and cultural givens: there has always been war, so there will always be war; humans have always consumed animals, so humans will always consume animals. While these things may have been true for the past five million years, the avant-garde and the ALM do not accept WKH³DOZD\V´RIWKRVHVWDWHPHQWVDQGWKHZD\ to end thH ³DOZD\V´ LV Wo uproot conventional FRQFHSWV RI ³FRPPRQ VHQVH´DQGWRUHWKLQNFXOWXUDODVVXPSWLRQV My objective within this introduction and ensuing study is to concretize these links further. At times, the connections will need little defending. In DOCUMENTS ,VVXHWKHHQWU\³0DQ´DSSHDUVLQWKH

Introduction: Rooting for the Avant-Garde

3

MRXUQDO¶V³&ULWLFDO'LFWLRQDU\´H[SODLQLQJWKDWWKHFKHPLFDOPDNH-up of human beings can be broken down for its use value as FRPPRGLWLHV ³7KH ERGLO\ IDW RI D QRUPDOO\ FRQVWLWXWHG PDQ ZRXOG suffice to make seven cakes of soap. Enough iron is found in the organism to make a medium sized nail. And sugar to sweeten a cup of FRIIHH´ HWF TWG LQ Simon Baker 186). Although Bataille and company were by no means an animal rights group per se, the meaning in their publication is relevant to the cause. The previous citation LVRQHRIWZRHQWULHV>«@7KHVHFRQGHQWU\DOVRDTXRWHPDNHVD direct equation between the human body and the consumption of the flesh of other animals. Having suggested, rather controversially, that ³QRW RQH RI WKH PLOOLRQV RI DQLPDOV PDQ PDVVDFUHV HDFK \HDU LV QHFHVVDU\ IRU KLV QRXULVKPHQW´ >«@ 7KH alarming link between slaughterhouse carcasses and human forms occurs elsewhere in the magazine. (Baker 186)

In as much as avant-garde means forward thinking and in advance of cultural perception, DOCUMENTS¶ FRPPHQWDU\ RQ SRWHQWLDO KXPDQ market values and animal consumption was radically revolutionary eighty years ago in a way that still matters to animal liberationists. Yet there is a more sinister side to these shared moments, most specifically in that the Surrealists were and the ALM is in the vise of patriarchy, most especially via their blind acceptance of the heteronormative Western myths of femininity and beauty. A select group of avant-garde women writers and performers have begun to address these myths, fortuitously recapitulating the shared histories of women and animals. I bring these concepts²avant-garde history and theory, ALM contradictions, the work of female artists, and the cultural politics of beauty²into contemporary commodity culture to explore a cycle mandating a trans-species addiction to beauty and fashion, two industries that rely on the labor of human and nonhuman animals to achieve an ideal that the avant-garde ALM both opposes and SURSDJDWHV 7KLV FRQWUDGLFWLRQ JLYHV ZHLJKW WR %DWDLOOH¶V IXUWKHU DVVHUWLRQ WKDW ³K\SRFULV\ LV XQGRXEWHGO\ D YLWDO DVSHFW >RI KXPDQ QDWXUH@MXVWDVWKHVNHOHWRQLVWKHPRVWYLWDOSDUWRIWKHERG\´  To study the avant-garde and the ALM, both separately and concurrently, is to hack through a morass of paradox infused with questions of identity, methodology, and political and critical quarrels (along with the subtle sense that intercourse with the avant-garde is a form of necrophilia). But as I argue, I am rooting for the avantgarde²³URRWLQJ´ DV LQ WU\LQJ WR ILQG DQG DV LQ FKHHULQJ LW RQ² because once retrieved from this morass it can provide an approach

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Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

for challenging power that has considerable implications for feminists, animal rights activists, and for seeing the world differently. Even when not being specifically addressed, this book is always about animal liberation, making ALM the dominate acronym RIWKLVWH[W$WWLPHVIRUVLPSOLFLW\¶VVDNH,PD\KDYHFDXVHWRXVHLW while referencing groups that do not pursue liberation per se; rather, their goals are welfare and/or incremental protection. However, the faction I interweave into the histories and studies that follow are abolitionist activists: those who know that any human use of nonhumans is misuse of nonhumans. There is no compromise, as animals cannot simultaneously be liberated from human use and exploited by humans. Within the introductory material below, I deliver a relatively brief definition of the avant-garde, thereby also creating a theory of the avant-garde ALM, with spotlight on issues of sublation and anarchy. Next, I outline the ways in which surrealism and the radical ALM similarly seek freedom through a collusion against dominant forms of power through a critique of reason and a process of reconceptualization implemented through collage, through a focus on childhood, and through strategic use of terror. The final parallel I explore, however, is one that I critically assess for its misogyny and failure to successfully engage with the challenges of desire. The point of this comparison is to argue the ALM into the legacy of avant-garde surrealism theoretically, politically, and aesthetically, and this argument will set the stage for the road that I attempt to traverse within the remainder of this project, a road whose end lies at moments of immaculate reconception.

The Animal Liberation Movement and the Legacy of the AvantGarde The hardening and congealing of a metaphor guarantees absolutely nothing concerning its necessity and exclusive justification. ²Friedrich Nietzsche

In one of the most recent additions to critical vanguard studies, Avant-Garde: Race Religion War, Mike Sell comments on a FROOHDJXH¶V DVVHUWLRQ WKDW ³DQ\RQH ZKR ZULWHV DERXW WKH DYDQW-garde GHILQHVLWLQDIDVKLRQWKDWSHUIHFWO\ILWVWKHPDWHULDOWKH\¶YHFKRVHQWR ZULWHDERXW´WKLVLVDQREVHUYDWLRQWKDWKHILQGVERWK³LQVSLULQJ´DQG

Introduction: Rooting for the Avant-Garde

5

³GHSUHVVLQJ´4). I agree with his reactions, especially the former. It is the malleability of the avant-garde that continues to make it attractive and that ensures its survival against intellectual hegemony. In keeping with the surreal goal of questioning regulations for discourse, decorum, and criticism, the avant-garde is communal property, much like the exquisite corpse of the Surrealists, in that everyone can add his/her own words, images, ideas, and visions. Continued exploration of the avant-garde, with all of its possibilities, is in itself an avant-garde act endorsed by the founder of surrealism. In the First Manifesto of Surrealism$QGUp%UHWRQGHFODUHV³,EHOLHYHLQ the pure Surrealist joy of the man who, forewarned that all others before him have failed, refXVHV WR DGPLW GHIHDW´   6XFK VSLULW comes from a group that had quite a task before it: deracinate the cultural myths that most had come to see as truths beyond doubt. This too is the task of the ALM, starting with the myth that animals exist for human use. Herein, both avant-gardes²surreal and liberational² are inherently political and ahead of their times. At the very least, they see themselves as part of such a legacy. Explaining the avant-garde is a slippery prospect, as the meaning itself is perpetually shifting. That said, below I borrow definitions from a number of theorists, historians, and artists to come to a meaning of the term as I will use it throughout this study. Acknowledgement of a sociopolitical and aestheticallyLQFOLQHG ³DYDQW-JDUGH´ a term literally meaning the front lines of battle, is found as early as the seventeenth-century in the writing of humanist historian Etienne Pasquier. He refers to a trio of French SRHWV DV KDYLQJ ³FRQVWLWXWHG WKH DYDQW-garde; or, if you prefer, they were WKH IRUHUXQQHUV RI WKH RWKHU SRHWV´ TWG LQ &DOLQHVFX   Subsequently, around the period of the 1848 French Revolution, Gabriel-Désiré Laverdant declared that [a]rt, the expression of society, manifests, in the highest soaring, the most advanced social tendencies: it is the forerunner and the revealer. Therefore, to know whether art worthily fulfills its proper mission as an initiator, whether the artist is truly of the avant-garde, one must know where humanity is going, know what the destiny of the human race is. (qtd. in Poggioli 9, emphasis added)

This commentary includes a mystical aura, a sense of foreshadowing and of foreboding if the avant-JDUGH¶VPHVVDJHLVQRWKHHGHG-UJHQ +DEHUPDV¶VGHILQLWLRQRIWKHDYDQW-garde effectively summarizes this forward-ORRNLQJ DVSHFW VWDWLQJ WKDW LW ³H[SORUHV KLWKHUWR XQNQRZQ territory, exposes itself to the risk of sudden and shocking encounters, conquers an as yet undetermined future, and must therefore find a path

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Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

IRU LWVHOI LQ SUHYLRXVO\ XQFKDUWHG GRPDLQV´ ³0RGHUQLW\´   7KXV the avant-gardist is painted as seer who can observe the future so that others can see the present differently. This transcendent quality of avant-gardism is evident amongst the politically radical British romantics, as they blatantly posed the artist²poet, in particular²as modern-day prophet. In sum, the ³SURJUHVVLYH-minded romantics upheld the belief in the avant-garde UROH RI SRHWU\ HYHQ LI WKH\ GLG QRW XVH WKH WHUP µDYDQW-JDUGH¶´ (Calinescu 105). When contemplating the marriage of political affairs DQG DUWLVWLF PRYHPHQWV LW LV GLIILFXOW QRW WR WURW RXW 3HUF\ 6KHOOH\¶V over-TXRWHG GHFODUDWLRQ WKDW WKH SRHW LV WKH ³XQDFNQRZOHGJHG OHJLVODWRU RI WKH ZRUOG´ 6LJQLILFDQWO\ SDUW DQG SDUFHO WR WKLV ³SURJUHVVLYH-PLQGHG´ UHEHOOLRQ ZDV 6KHOOH\¶V ZULWLQJ DERXW DQG adopting a meatless diet. Although a seemingly private choice, both in WKHQLQHWHHQWKFHQWXU\DQGWRGD\DQLQGLYLGXDO¶VIRRGFKRLFHVGRKDYH broader political ramifications. Timothy Morton notes that for Shelley and other romantiFV YHJHWDULDQLVP ³XQGHUPLQHG WKH QRUPDWLYH hierarchy between humans and other sentient beings: the eater and the HDWHQ >«@ 7R HDW D GLHW RI YHJHWDEOHV ZDV D IRUP RI VROLGDULW\ DQ HVFKHZDORIFODVVGLVWLQFWLRQVDVZHOODVVSHFLHVRQHV´  Morton also aligns the rhetoric of vegetarianism with that of the suffragettes and abolitionists. Nineteenth-century British suffragette and anti-vivisectionist Anna Kingsford contended that freedom advocates who do not abstain from flesh-eating have ³XQVWDEOH JURXQG XQGHU WKHLU IHHW´ FRQFOXGLQJ ³WKDW WKH 9HJHWDULDQ movement is the bottom and basis of all other movements towards 3XULW\ )UHHGRP -XVWLFH DQG +DSSLQHVV´ TWG LQ $GDPV Sexual Politics 162). Although not at the forefront of the political and artistic vanguard movements of Europe and the United States, animal concerns have been a component of avant-gardism from some of its earliest manifestations. .LQJVIRUG¶V supposition is relevant today as a new garde of animal rights activists begins to position itself against subjugation in the most general WHUPVZKLOHVHHLQJDQLPDORSSUHVVLRQDVWKH³ERWWRP DQG EDVLV´ RI DOO RWKHU RSSUHVVLRQV $OWKRXJK VWLOO D PDUJLQDO movement, and all too often a cultural joke (much like the Surrealists3), the ALM in all of its guises is very real, and it is making inroads into mainstream culture. Their liberational goals are 3 &RFR)XVFRQRWHVWKDW³SHUIRUPDQFHDUWVXFKDV'DGDDQG6XUUHDOLVWDFWLRQVZHUHWKH REMHFWV RI SXEOLF VFDQGDO DQG ULGLFXOH LQ WKH ILUVW KDOI RI WKH WZHQWLHWK FHQWXU\´ ³%RGLHV´ 

Introduction: Rooting for the Avant-Garde

7

compared, admittedly within their own circles, to those of the slavery abolitionists, suffragettes, child labor reformers, and Civil Rights leaders of past eras. Animal activist Bruce Friedrich envisions the twenty-ILUVWFHQWXU\WREHWKH³FHQWXU\RIDQLPDOULJKWV´ ,VWKLV possible? In 1792, Thomas Taylor, Platonist philosopher, penned A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes, DSDURG\RI0DU\:ROOVWRQHFUDIW¶V A Vindication of the Rights of Women. He jokingly proposes to ³HVWDEOLVK WKH HTXDOLW\ RI DOO WKLQJV DV WR WKHLU LQWULQVLF GLJQLW\ DQG ZRUWK´ HQGLQJ ZLWK WKH VHHPLQJO\ DEVXUG DVVHUWLRQ WKDW ³EUXWHV DUH HTXDO WR PHQ´ LLL DQG   :KLOH WKLV VDWLUH RI ZRPHQ¶V OLEHUDWLRQ certainly does not prove that animal liberation is possible, it shows WKDW ZKDW ZDV XQIDWKRPDEOH MXVW RYHU  \HDUV DJR D ZRPHQ¶V liberation movement, is now a cultural certainty.4 The ALM is also a world-wide movement that is significant and serious enough to make WKH)%,¶VPRVWFXUUHQWWHUURULVPUHSRUWV,5 and this is a movement that still has about eight-nine years worth of work to do in the twenty-first century. Shelley, Kingsford, and others saw the present differently. To paraphrase Laverdant, they knew where humanity was going, while Thomas Taylor did not. This radical aspect of the avant-garde emphasizes the role of the artist in society, and many other artists have similarly seen themselves as having a mission that can change the world and elevate humanity. %XWGHVSLWHWKHSKUDVH¶VFRQWHPSRUDU\DVVRFLDWLRQZLWKWKH arts, to study the avant-garde is to go beyond study of art and literature, as it forces scholars to consider the culture from which the term arose, along with the cultures that transform and redefine it. 5HQDWR 3RJJLROL¶V GHFLVLYH VWXG\ The Theory of the Avant-Garde admits as much when he declares his theory to be sociological and SV\FKRORJLFDO QRW DHVWKHWLF WKRXJK GLVPDOO\ DVVHUWLQJ WKDW ³WKH identification of artistic revolution with the social revolution is now no PRUH WKDQ SXUHO\ UKHWRULFDO DQ HPSW\ FRPPRQSODFH´   Consideration of these identity issues is valuable, as failure to address such concerns has resulted in ruptures within various avant-garde movements. Surrealism lost members to quandaries of how to best combine Communism (the political) with surrealism (the artistic), and 4

3HWHU6LQJHU¶VVHPLQDOAnimal Liberation begins with this very historical footnote. As recently as April 21, 2009, it was reported that animal rights activist Daniel $QGUHDV6DQ'LHJRZDVSXWRQWKH)%,¶V³0RVW:DQWHG7HUURULVW´OLVWIRUXVHRIDQ explosive device. 5

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Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

in some FDVHV³WKHSXUVXLWRIWKH>VXUUHDOLVW@GUHDPKDGWREHVHWDVLGH IRU WKH GHPDQGV RI UHDOLW\´ *DOH   )XWXULVP IRXQGHU )LOLSSR 0DULQHWWL¶VDYDQW-gardism decreased the more comfortably he became HQVFRQFHGLQ%HQLWR0XVVROLQL¶VVW\OHRI)DVFLVWSROLWLFVThe ongoing debate as to how Modernist scholars should categorize the avant-garde problematizes things, but it also opens room for consideration of movements such as the ALM within those ambiguous parameters. In fact, such considerations can begin to address the aesthetics/politics divide that has plagued the avant-garde since its inception, while also positioning the ALM as truth tellers within the vein of their vanguard predecessors. In her study of women and the avant-garde, Susan Suleiman DYHUVWKDW ³the hallmark of an avant-JDUGH SUDFWLFHRU SURMHFW>«@LV the attempt to effect radical change and innovation both in the V\PEROLF ILHOG >«@ DQG LQ WKH VRFLDO DQG SROLWLFDO ILHOG RI HYHU\GD\ OLIH´[Y 7KH$/0LVXQGHQLDEO\DSROLWLFDOPRYHPHQWLQVRIDUDs it opposes governmental and legal policies regarding the use of nonhuman animals. As a social movement, it attempts to integrate consideration of nonhumans into the personal choices that human beings make on a daily basis (i.e. what to eat, what to wear, what medicine to take). But what of aesthetics? Even I would argue that all other connections between the historical avant-garde and animal liberators can be exposed as quite shallow were it not for the performative aspects of the ALM. While easily recognized as a political and social movement, not as much examination has been JLYHQWRWKH$/0¶VUROHDVDQDHVWKHWLFJURXSDVZHOO Certain factions of modern justice movements rely on symbolism to enact political and social change, as do avant-garde artists. Timothy Ingalsbee, as a member and observer, published a study of the Earth First! (EF) activist association that clearly paints them as performance artists who rely on symbolism to make their messages clear, and these are messages sent out in public forums to make observers see the world in a different way. Although not exclusively concerned with animal liberation, EF!, whose motto is ³1R&RPSURPLVHLQ'HIHQVHRI0RWKHU(DUWK´LVDUDGLFDOHFRORJLFDO defense movement in the vein of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), one of the more radical blocs of the ALM. Ingalsbee emphasizes EF! DVSDUWLFXODUO\VLJQLILFDQWZLWKLQ³ODWHFDSLWDOLVWVRFLHW\´IRUWKH\³GR not emphasize the mobilization of monetary or material resources from external sources,´ as do more mainstream organizations such as the Environmental Defense Fund (264). Their primary symbolic

Introduction: Rooting for the Avant-Garde

9

resource lies in collective action, in the unity that naturally arises during an EF! performance. They revision the world and overturn traditional concepts of humDQNLQG¶V VXSUHPDF\ RYHU QDWXUH ZLWK figurative weaponry. Ingalsbee explores this symbolism in action, what the EF! FDOOV ³:LOG :LWKLQ´ DQG ³(FRORJLFDO 6HOI´ DFWLRQV WKDW DWWHPSW D ³GHFRQVWUXFWLRQ RI WKH H[WHUQDOLW\ RI 1DWXUH´    7KHVH DUH WKHLU most avant-garde performances, as they both precisely meld the political and the symbolic while also breaking down the culture/nature binary (to be discussed later in this introduction). EF! actors dress in DQLPDO FRVWXPHV DQG PXJ IRU QHZV FDPHUDV WKXV ³WKH Xtility of µPHUHO\¶V\PEROLFFROOHFWLYHDFWLRQVLVWKDWWKH\UDLVHFRQVFLRXVQHVVLQ ERWKSXEOLFDQGSULYDWHUHDOPV´ ,ZLOOTXRWHRQHRI,QJDOVEHH¶V ³:LOG :LWKLQ´ UHSRUWV in detail because it so perfectly demonstrates the radically performative spectacle evident in the most effective of avant-garde ALM performances. Here, EF!ers protest a dam project that will result in mass caribou drowning: The demonstrators [wearing antlers] waded through the long reflecting pools in the [Albany, NY] Plaza until they reached a V\PEROLFGDPPDGHIURPFDQYDVSDQHOV>«@7KHFDULERX-people, blocked by the dam, floated still in the water and became deadbloated-caribou before the lunchtime crowd of government office ZRUNHUV7KHQ>«WKHFDQYDVGDP ZDVFUDFNHGDQGWKH@FDUibou suddenly came back to life, stampeded out of the pool, and danced wildly to a polka band that, coincidentally, was also performing in WKH 3OD]D 7KH DFWLYLVWV FKDQWHG ³3ROND +ROH LQ WKH 'DP´ DQG later moved on to the Governor's Mansion, where, in a wild, swirling mob-scene of howling, drumming demonstrators, a small WHUULHUZDVKHOGDORIWDQGGHFODUHGWREH³2XU/HDGHU´

This action goes beyond classic demonstrative strategies of holding up signs, blocking doorways, and spitting in the eye of the oppressor, though those strategies are not without merit. The EF! performers are using representational apparatuses of the performative avant-garde, including a surrealist touch of spectacle and absurdity, to make meaning. There is an abundance of similar examples from the ALM, though all of them are certainly not as effective and extravagant as the ³:LOG :LWKLQ´ GHVFULEHG DERYH 6XFK LQVWDQFHV UDQJH IURP DFWLYLVWV GUHVVLQJ XS LQ EORRG\ FRZ FRVWXPHV RXWVLGH RI 0F'RQDOG¶V WR WKH plowshares movement which ³FDUULHV RXW V\PEROLF GLVDUPDPHQW´ E\ OLWHUDOO\ JLYLQJ ³ZHDSRQV D SRXQGLQJ´ LQ SXEOLF IRUXPV 6WULQGOXQG 169). In activist Dan Mathews¶VPHPRLU Committed, he lists a range of performances he has engaged in to bring awareness to pervasive animal suffering, LQFOXGLQJ ³EHLQJ FDUULHG RII E\ SROLFH LQ >KLV@

10

Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

underwear at a fur expo in Hong Kong, impersonating a priest to crash a fashion show in Milan, and donning a coZFRVWXPHLQ'HQYHU´  QXLWH LQWHUHVWLQJO\ KH QRWHV D ZRPDQ¶V PLVWDNH LQ WKLQNLQJ WKDW KLV organization was called People for the Theatrical Treatment of Animals, as opposed to Ethical (75). In light of the argument I am making for the radical ALM as an avant-garde, this is quite a fortuitous and reasonable error. ,Q ³1HYHU (QRXJK LV Something Else´ DYDQW-garde scholar .ULVWLQH 6WLOHV VLPSO\ DQG SURIRXQGO\ VWDWHV WKDW ³successive avantgarde >«@ acts of observation are expected to remake the world´ (265). The actions described above are innately avant-garde in precisely the way that Stiles defines the term. Despite these different manifestations, all of these performances share two common elements: 1.) a recontextualization of reality to derive deeper meaning, 2.) and an audience, of one or one thousand, to observe and undergo their own mental transformation and eventual revisioning of the ³WUXWK´7KLVLVKRZWKHZRUOGLVUHPDGH (OLQ 'LDPRQG¶V Performance and Cultural Politics acknowledges performance as a cultural venue through which issues RI³JHQGHUFRQYHQWLRQVUDFLDOKLVWRULHV>DQG@DHVWKHWLFWUDGLWLRQV´DUH SOD\HGRXWSRVLQJWKHVHWKHPHVDVLQWULQVLFDOO\WLHGWR³SROLWLFDODQG cultural pressures that are consciously and unconsciously DFNQRZOHGJHG´ 1). While not concerned with animal and HQYLURQPHQWDO DFWLYLVWV LQ SDUWLFXODU 'LDPRQG¶V DFFRXQW RI performance is indivisible from the symbolic acts of the avant-garde ALM. Diamond goes on to open up consideration of the very question that the avant-garde ALM is asking. Who has control over what bodies, be they human bodies, animal bodies, bodies of land, or bodies of water? Their symbolic/aesthetic acts pose the same questions that avant-garde performance asks, questions of subjectivity, audience, commodification, conventionality, location, and politics (Diamond 4). Of course, actors such as those within the EF! movement would not readily call themselves performance artists within avant-garde tradition, but it is just this lack of self-reflexivity through which such acts become fused with everyday life²this prospect of sublation has been a constant goal of many historical avant-garde movements. In IDFW0DXULFH1DGHDXDVVHUWVWKDW%UHWRQ¶VGHFODULQJKLPVHOIDQDUWLVW is the self-reflexive moment at which the surrealist project failed (202). Scholars make frequent note of the proposed failure of the avant-garde to successfully infuse art into life, at least to the extent

Introduction: Rooting for the Avant-Garde

11

that they hoped.6 Instead of fusing, avant-gardes created objects that became institutionalized within commodity culture. Peter Bürger GHILQHV ³DUW DV DQ LQVWLWXWLRQ´ LQ UHIHUHQFH WR ³WKH SURGXFWLYH DQG distributive apparatus and also to the ideas about art that prevail at a JLYHQWLPHDQGWKDWGHWHUPLQHWKHUHFHSWLRQRIZRUNV´ :LWKWKH institution in mind, it has been the ambition of many avant-gardes to blur and ultimately eradicate those lines between art and the rest of society, to do away with autonomous art and fuse it with life. In particular, the Surrealists planned to do this by declaring that writing should be more spontaneous, that the rules of making art are an illusion, and that, paradoxically, art does not exist, but yet it is everywhere and everyone is an artist. Habermas encapsulates this ³VXUUHDOLVWUHEHOOLRQ´DVDQDWWHPpt to bridge the disjunction between art and life, fiction and praxis, illusion and reality, and to eliminate the distinction between artistic product and objects of utility, between something produced and something found, between premeditated configuration and spontaneous impulse, the attempt to declare everything art and everyone an artist, to abolish all criteria and to equate aesthetic judgments with the expression of subjective H[SHULHQFH³0RGHUQLW\´

Yet as noble as the SurrealistV¶ goals may have been, Habermas XOWLPDWHO\VHHVWKHPDV³QRQVHQVHH[SHULPHQWV´DFRQFOXVLRQHFKRHG by Theodor Adorno, who declares the collapse of the mission by DVVHUWLQJ WKDW ³VXUUHDOLVW VXFFHVVRUV RI 'DGDLVP UHMHFWHG DUW ZLWKRXW being able to shake it off completely´  However, Habermas and Adorno come to these conclusions based upon the assumption that the project of surrealism has ended. In contrast, the surreal agenda has unexpectedly migrated to, among other places, the radical ALM, a movement plagued by similar concerns of sublation and questions of when the revolution will occur and even if there should be one. ,Q³/LWHUDWXUHDQG5HYROXWLRQ´/HRQ Trotsky addresses these concerns and questions of failure in terms of patience and optimism that are best adopted by the new avant-garde I SURSRVH ³%XW RQH PXVW KDYH D OLWWOH KLVWRULF YLVLRQ DW OHDVW WR understand that between our present-day economic and cultural SRYHUW\DQGWKHWLPHRIWKHIXVLRQRIDUWZLWKOLIH>«@PRUHWKDQRQH generation will have come and gone. Whether for good or for bad, the µODWKH-OLNH¶ DUW ZLOO UHPDLQ IRU PDQ\ \HDUV PRUH´   7URWVN\¶V admonishment echoes into the world of the contemporary radical, one 6

These notes of failure are so frequent, in fact, that Sell has termed it the Eulogist School of Avant-Garde Studies (Avant-Garde Performance 13).

12

Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

who faces the seeming impossibility of animal liberation with a sense of patience fueled by anger and compassion that confounds binary conceptions of winners and losers. This emotional stance is ably expressed by .DUHQ'DYLV³0\DWWLWXGHLVQRWµ,I,GLGQ¶WWKLQNZH¶G ZLQ,¶GTXLW¶WRZKLFK,ZRXOGVD\µ7KHQTXLW¶:RUNLQJIRUDQLPal ULJKWVLVQ¶WDIRRWEDOOJDPHRUDEHDXW\FRQWHVW,W¶VZRUNLQJWRPRGLI\ RXU VSHFLHV¶ DWWLWXGHV DQG EHKDYLRU DW D GHHS OHYHO WR GHYHORS D GLIIHUHQWVHWRIJHQHV´TWGLQ+DZWKRUQH  When referring to the ALM, %UJHU¶VFRQFHSWRI³VXEODWLRQ´ can be reconfigured as a process of invisibility, negation or selfinitiated entropy. Just as the Surrealists dreamed of sublating art into the praxis of life, the goal of the radical ALM can be nothing less than its own demise, a demise rooted in the collapse of the human/nonhuman binary. In The Postmodern Animal, Steve Baker DUJXHVWKDWWKHSRVWPRGHUQDUWLVW¶VXVHRIWKHDQLPDOFDQEUHDNGRZQ ³WKHFODVVLFDOGXDOLVPRIKXPDQDQGDQLPDO´VRWKDWLW³LVQRWVRPXFK erased as rendered uninteresting as a way of thinking about the ZRUOG´ 7KLVtoo is the goal of ALM activists, to render animals uninteresting to humans, for mainstream interest in nonhumans normally results in their continued confinement, torture and death. However, much like other avant-gardes, the $/0¶V SRSXODU VXFFHVV may be indicative of its proposed collapse. Breton himself affirmed WKDW WKH ³DSSURYDO RI WKH SXEOLF LV WR EH DYRLGHG OLNH WKH SODJXH´ (Second Surrealist Manifesto 177). For Breton, approval signified the commoditization of artistic production. For the radical animal activist, public sanction, when not attended to properly, signifies maintenance of the human/animal binary through the fetishization of animals, while also creating products for public consumption that allow consumers to ³EX\´ DQLPDO OLEHUDWLRQ. The problem with animal liberation becoming a fad is that fads, by their very nature, end quickly. The radical ALM goal must be to end human use of animals, with all agreeing that nonhumans exist for their own purposes. This is sublation as defined by the ALM. However, current trends show animal liberation being packaged as a product for purchase. One such product is the sex appeal of groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), that solicits membership for a price, along with pins, bumper stickers, t-shirts, and the knowledge that \RX¶YHMRLQHGWKHUDQNVRIFKRLFHFHOHEULWLHs. Then there is the vegan lifestyle sold in magazines such as VegNews ZKLFKGHWDLOV ³WZHQW\thousand dollar vegan weddings [and] vegan vacations in Tahiti and RWKHU H[RWLF ORFDOHV´ 7RUUHV   -XVW DV WKH DQWL-capitalist artist

Introduction: Rooting for the Avant-Garde

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disdains the system that ZRXOG ³SDFNDJH´ DQG VHOO KHU DUW WKHUHE\ making it a part of the institutional apparatus, the radical animal liberator disdains the commodification of his rebellion, effectively making it a part of the system he opposes. Anarchist vegan Bob Torres is most concerned with the corporate-style branding of veganism as a piece of merchandise that, once bought, promises liberation from guilt and for animals, but delivers neither. Thus, social PRYHPHQWV DV ZHOO DV DUW FDQ EHFRPH FDXJKW XS ZLWKLQ WKH ³WKH producWLYHDQGGLVWULEXWLYHDSSDUDWXV´WKDW%UJHUGHVFULEHV With justice as a commercial product, the project of selfinitiated entropy will not come to fruition. Those truly concerned with animals want to see the obliteration of any organization that exists to abjure animal abuse, for in such a world humans no longer rely on animals, and thus there is no cruelty to indict. In this sense, true radicals, either artistic, political, or both, do not act with an underlying desire for the fame and power that can result from radicalism. Rather, they want to be unnecessary. It was these issues of (in)visibility and public reception that splintered the Surrealists. Matthew Gale sees 6DOYDGRU 'DOt¶V  RQH-PDQ VKRZ DV VLJQDOLQJ ³WKH institutionalization of surrealism iQ$PHULFD>«@,WZDVWRHVWDEOLVKD pattern, which Breton was unable to reverse, of aesthetic and commercial appreciation which divorced the paintings from their WKHRUHWLFDO DQG H[SHULPHQWDO URRWV´   ,Q FRQWUDVW WR WKLV ³VXFFHVV´6WLOHVJLYHVKHURZQ spin on radicalism that exemplifies my revisioning of sublation into invisibility and negation: To be radical means to envision and produce in a way that alters observation, changing perception at the root >«@ 2QH PD\ become radical by simply going about RQH¶V EXVLQHVV DV XVXDO >«@ $V D UHVXOW RQH RI WKH PRVW LQWHUHVWLQJ FRQGLWLRQV RI WKH cultural position of the radical is that s/he often²although not always²UHPDLQVQHDUO\LQYLVLEOH>«@'RHVLWQRWVWDQGWRUHDVRQ thus, that to be authentically radical or avant-garde one must² more or less²be invisible? (275)

In terms of the contemporary ALM, the so-FDOOHG³UDGLFDOV´DUHKLJKO\ visible, making self-initiated entropy impossible. Radicalism is currently LQWKHKDQGVRIDQHOLWHZKRP7RUUHVWHUPV³DFWLYLVPLVWV´RU WKRVH ZKR GHULYH ³ULJKWHRXVQHVV IURP DFWLYLVP IRU WKH VDNH RI DFWLYLVP LWVHOI >« ZLWKLQ@ D VHW RI RVVLILHG DFWLYLVW EXUHDXFUDFLHV´ (90). This results in an elitist hierarchy of power indicating those who can change the world, and those who give money to those who change the world. The problem is that the world is not changing. Activismists in the ALM may see to it that animals are treated more ³humanely´ during government- and corporate-sanctioned medical experiments

14

Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

and food production, but they are not ending human dependency on animals, and they are not helping society to see animals differently enough. They are merely becoming part of the institutional apparatus that created the problem to begin with. There are exceptions to the activismists trends within the ALM. Groups such as the ALF embrace invisibility in the mode that Stiles describes, but their illegal activities leave other activists, even radical activists, disgruntled. While often accused of being terrorists, particularly by the FBI, ALF guidelines explicitly state that ALF DFWRUV PXVW ³WDNH DOO QHFHVVDU\ SUHFDXWLRQV DJDLQVW KDUPLQJ DQ\ animal, human anG QRQKXPDQ´ ³$/) *XLGHOLQHV´  ALF is controversial because while they claim to be a nonviolent movement, others see their use of property destruction as fairly violent. Yet from an avant-garde perspective, it is also fairly symbolic for it targets private property ownership as a cause of animal subjugation (animals are, after all, considered property), making them heirs to the avantgarde destructivism that will be explored in the first chapter. ,Q ³'LUHFW $FWLRQ´ HDUO\ WZHQWLHWK-century anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre offers a paradigm for this system of nonKLHUDUFKLFDO XQGHWHFWDEOH VXEYHUVLYH DFWLRQ ³7KHUHIRUH WKRVH WKDW know best [not to advertise their acts of rebellion] must keep silent and sneer in their sleeves, while those that know little prate. Events, QRWWRQJXHVPXVWPDNHWKHLUSRVLWLRQFOHDU´5HJDUGOHVVRIWKH$/0¶V many methodological philosophies, ALF embraces their invisibility in that there is no formal organization and no power structure. ALF is PDGH XS RI LQGLYLGXDOV DQGRU VPDOO ³GR-it-\RXUVHOI´ liberational JURXSVZKRGRQRWYLHIRUSRZHU,IRQHDFFHSWV6WLOHV¶VDVVHVVPHQWRI the invisible radical, then ALF truly is avant-garde. In fact, these balaclava-wearing actors claim not to even exist (Behind the Mask). Thus, there are no privileged few who, with enough donations, earn WKH WLWOH RI ³UDGLFDO´ ,VVXHV RI HOLWLVP KDYH VLPLODUO\ DIIOLFWHG WKH historical avant-garde. Matei Calinescu argues that to be avant-garde is to be a part of the elite, which is very much opposed to their supposed anti-elitist program (104). He echoes Poggioli, who contends that avant-JDUGHV DUH ³HPLQHQWO\ DULVWRFUDWLF´   7KLV aristocratic elitism exists in paradoxical defiance within movements that presume to abolish hierarchy and subjugation. To review, I have presented the avant-garde as a radical, forward-looking movement intent on changing the world by fusing art and politics with everyday life, leading to the question: What are its politics? There is no definitive answer, but part of the response lies

Introduction: Rooting for the Avant-Garde

15

within the point toward which the historical avant-gardes were always heading, and the point to which the radical ALM heads as well² anarchy. Although anarchy may sound more like an outcome of revolution rather than a tool within a revolution, the foundations of social anarchism can assist with forming a collective identity within the process of change that Trotsky describes. As equal parts aesthetic and political, the historical avantJDUGHV GHPRQVWUDWH WKDW ³WKH RQO\ RPQLSUHVHQW RU UHFXUULQJ SROLWLFDO ideology within the avant-garde is the least political or the most DQWLSROLWLFDO RI DOO OLEHUWDULDQLVP DQG DQDUFKLVP´ 3RJJLROL   Anarchism offers an avenue for upsetting society, while keeping the germ of society²individuals living collaboratively²intact. Anarchy and the politico-aesthetic avant-garde start at a point that is fundamentally the same. Calinescu qualifies this similarity by noting that the main difference between the political and the artistic avant-gardes RIWKHODVWRQHKXQGUHG\HDUVFRQVLVWVLQWKHODWWHU¶VLQVLVWHQFHRQ the independently revolutionary potential of art, while the former tend to justify the opposite idea, namely, that art should submit itself to the requirements and needs of the political revolutionists. But both start from the same premise: life should be radically changed. And the goal of both is the same utopian anarchy (even Marx was an anarchist at heart, and when he polemicized against [Mikhail] Bakunin and his followers he disagreed not with their goal²the destruction of the state²but only with the practical means they recommend for its attainment). (104-05, latter emphasis added)

The differences amongst anarchists are here presented as ones of method, not outcome. Ideologies, philosophies, and politics aside, this outcome means direct non-governmental democracy in which individuals live and participate within cooperative municipalities. It is not a perfect society free from violence, hierarchy, and oppression; rather, it is an evolved society whose abiding objective is freedom from violence and oppression, not capital gain. Can a society such as this exist if it appropriates, consumes, and slaughters for its own VXVWHQDQFH" $QDUFKLVWV LQDOO RI WKHLU PDQLIHVWDWLRQV ZRXOGQ¶W VHHP to think so, yet within the body of anarchist writing, consideration of nonhuman animals has received scant attention. However, proper contemplation of anarchist traditions leads to concern for animals. Can a society whose abiding objective is freedom from violence, hierarchy, and oppression confine, slaughter, dominate, eat and wear other sentient creatures? Social anarchist vegans of the avant-garde $/0PXVWVD\³QR´ZLWKRXt compromise.

16

Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

The anarchy of the revolutionary ALM calls upon those political philosophies pondered within the projects of the historical avant-garde even though the theorists themselves were unconcerned with nonhumans. Currently, there is a crisis in anarchy (and veganism) that mirrors the crisis of the commodified ALM. Murray Bookchin argues that our contemporary reactionary social context greatly explains the emergence of a phenomenon in Euro-American anarchism that cannot be ignored: the spread of individualist anarchism. In a time when even respectable forms of socialism are in pell-mell retreat from principles that might in any way be construed as radical, issues of lifestyle are once again supplanting social action and revolutionary politics in anarchism. In the traditionally individualist-liberal United States and Britain, the 1990s are awash in self-styled anarchists who²their flamboyant radical rhetoric aside²are cultivating a latter-day anarcho-individualism that I will call lifestyle anarchism.7

The individualist anarchism that Bookchin critiques is bogged down in an intellectualism and theorizing that promotes ego evolution above social revolution, ignores human need for human contact, and pretends that a society based on each individual pursuing his/her needs and desires is possible without serious encroachment upon another LQGLYLGXDO¶V QHHGV DQG GHVLUHV 7KLV FRQFHSW ³DUURJDQWO\ GHULGHV structure, organization, and public involvement; and [it is] a SOD\JURXQG IRU MXYHQLOH DQWLFV´ %RRNFKLQ  7KHVH ³MXYHQLOH DQWLFV´ lead to theorizing oneself into a vegetative state, one of dynamic ZRUGV SULQWHG LQ ³UDGLFDO´ DQDUFKLVW MRXUQDOV EXW VXVSHQGHG animation. In contrast to this passive, autonomous anarchy, de Cleyre supports an anarchism that uses communal direct action in opposition to capitalism (which is also what Bookchin poses as the great social ill).8 DH &OH\UH¶V DQDUFKLVP QHFHVVLWDWHV GLUHFW DFWLRQ ZKLFK LV LQGLYLVLEOHIURPFROOHFWLYHDFWLRQ³(YHU\SHUVRQZKRHYHUKDGDSODQ to do anything, and went and did it, or who laid his plan before others, and won their co-operation to do it with him, without going to external authorities to please do the thing for them, was a direct actionist. All co-operative experiments are essential direct action.´ Bookchin pronounces social anarchism as heir to the Enlightenment, but with novel consideration of and allowance for 7

$OODWWULEXWLRQVWR%RRNFKLQLQWKLVFKDSWHUDUHWDNHQIURP³6RFLDO$QDUFKLVPRU /LIHVW\OH$QDUFKLVP$Q8QEULGJHDEOH&KDVP´ 8 Although other historical avant-gardes may have been responding to a range of ideological power structures, I am focusing on bourgeois-capitalism for just the reason that Bookchin proposes.

Introduction: Rooting for the Avant-Garde

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HPRWLRQDQGSDVVLRQ³VRFLDODQDUFKLVPFHOHEUDWHVWKHWKLQNLQJKXPDQ mind [reason] without in any way denying passion, ecstasy, imagination, play, and art´ )DU from eradicating reason, Bookchin opens up room for the many possibilities of humankind, a point highly apposite to the surrealist response to logic within the history of rationalist Western discourse. In Making a Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights, Torres introduces a new social anarchism that takes animals into consideration, while acknowledging that the theorists he most often cites, Karl Marx and Bookchin, were not concerned with nonhumans. Anarchy, being as it is oSSRVHGWRWKHPDQ\³LVPV´WKDWNHHSJURXSV under the dominion of a ruling class or organization (sexism, racism, nationalism) seems a logical place to ideologically position oneself as an opponent to speciesism: the belief that human needs and desires trump those of other species7RUUHV¶VERWWRP-OLQHWKHVLVLVWKLV³LIZH are serious about social and economic justice and reject a worldview ZKHUH µPLJKW PDNHV ULJKW¶ WKHQ ZH PXVW H[SDQG RXU YLHZ WR everyone²HVSHFLDOO\WKHZHDNHVWDPRQJXV´ $QLPDOV have been rendered the weakest and most exploited among us. They are commoditized more than any other subjugated persons. Torres urges his readers to live critically by living as DQDUFKLVWV +H UHVRXQGV WKH UHEHO¶V FDOO WR TXHVWLRQ HYHU\WKLQJ HYHQ the anarchists themselves. In particular, he encourages those who wish to end oppression to adopt a vegan diet and life, meaning that one abstains from using animal products as much as is within the realm of possibility. This stance echoes dH &OH\UH¶V FRQFHSWLRQ of negative direct action, which is the refusal to participate in commonly accepted cultural practices. She cites UHIXVDO WR SOHGJH DOOHJLDQFH WR RQH¶V government as an example. A refusal to purchase and consume unethically manufactured animal products²which is all of them, from EHH¶V KRQH\ WR FRZ¶V KLGHV WR ³IUHH-range´ DQG ³FUXHOW\-IUHH´ chickens and eggs²is a method of negative direct action as well. From an avant-garde perspective, negative direct action is also decidedly symbolic. De Cleyre, who wroWH³'LUHFW$FWLRQ´LQLQVXSSRUWRI industrial and land workers¶ rights, makes accidental reference to the ZHOIDUH RI DQLPDOV 6KH EHPRDQV WKH JRRG PDQ¶V EHLQJ IRUFHG LQWR violent action in opposition to capitalism, stating it as the awful alternative that the workers are facing; and this is what makes the most kindly disposed human beings²men who would go out of their way to help a wounded dog, or bring home a stray

18

Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

kitten and nurse it, or step aside to avoid walking on a worm² resort to violence against their fellow men.

While her commentary on animals is a mere aside to what she sees as the greater cause of freeing exploited human workers, the mention is still significant. De Cleyre, whether intentionally or otherwise, is effectively describing the ideal man who strives for, who would die or kill for, the liberational vision of the anarchist. This good man, to use KHUJHQGHUHGYHUQDFXODULVSURYHQJRRGEHFDXVHKHFDUHVDERXW³WKH ZHDNHVWDPRQJXV´²nonhuman animals. Torres would seem to agree, but he would make the connection between kindness to animals and the anarchist vision more concrete, arguing that without care and respect for all lives, we are forever bound, regardless of professed ideology, to the cycle of exploitation that underlies capitalism. Torres widens the frame from animal liberation within the capitalist state, an impossibility, to animal liberation as an subsidiary of antioppressionism²the definitive call for justice and a constituent of DQDUFKLVP¶VFRQWLQXHGUHOHYDQF\. This short detour into anarchism is offered to solidify the avant-JDUGH$/0¶VSDUDOOHOWUDMHFWRU\ZLWKWKDWRIWKHKLVWRULFDODYDQWgarde, but also to explore possible steps within the goal of ³IRUJLQJD SDWK>«ZLWKLQ@SUHYLRXVO\XQFKDUWHGGRPDLQV´WRERUURZDJDLQIURP Habermas. Thus, consideration of the avant-garde must include foray into the political. Sell conceives of this political component as one that is political not just because it is a force within artworld and EURDGHUFXOWXUDOLQVWLWXWLRQV>«@EXWEHFDXVHLWUHIRUPVWKHKXPDQ sensorium, directs our attention to aspects of experience that we normally ignore or discount, or intrudes into aesthetic realm forms of knowledge or experience normally understood as belonging to other, putatively non-aesthetic realms. (The Avant-Garde: Race Religion War 52)

Sell stresses a key element of the avant-garde addressed in this book: the vanguard tendency to encroach into areas that seem outside of its purview. In contemporary culture, one that is segmented into political life, personal life, arts, leisure, etc., I will argue that is a necessity that WRGD\¶VDYDQW-gardes continue that intrusion, often in some of the most direct ways possible. These intrusions, as will be explored, are political and symbolic, and for some, even spiritual. And it is with all of the above concepts and designations in mind that I here offer my own definition of the avant-garde, one that I will integrate into the following investigation of surrealism and the radical ALM. Avant-garde (n., adj., maybe even a verb): any individual or collective who questions cultural assumptions and opposes social, intellectual, and political standards to the extent that he, she, or

Introduction: Rooting for the Avant-Garde

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they challenge those standards through direct aesthetic, symbolic and/or political means in an effort to integrate change into daily life practice and, in effect, to ultimately become self-negated and irrelevant.

The Animal Liberation Movement and the Legacy of Surrealism The true artistic genius, who will not cater to accepted notions, who exercises originality, and strives to be true to life, leads an obscure and wretched existence. ²Emma Goldman How do we see for a second time? ²Rebecca Schneider

Surrealism is a wonderfully ambiguous movement about which it is unwise to make definitive statements. As an example, take something as seemingly straightforward as an historical timeline. According to Maurice Nadeau, surrealism began in 1885 and lasted until 1939, finding its defining moment in post-WWI France. +RZHYHUPRVWVRXUFHVUHSRUWWKDWLWGLGQRWEHJLQXQWLOWKHµVZLWK the 1924 publication of The First Manifesto of Surrealism. As to its demise, some propose that surrealism ended with André BretRQ¶V death in 1966, though there are many²including me²who argue that it has not ended. When defined as an arts movement, the following is a suitable, albeit routine, encapsulation of surrealism as offered through the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Using Freudian methods of free association, [surrealist] poetry and prose drew upon the private world of the mind, traditionally restricted by reason and societal limitations, to produce surprising, unexpected imagery. The cerebral and irrational tenets of Surrealism find their ancestry in the clever and whimsical disregard for tradition fostered by Dadaism a decade earlier. (Voorhies)

Although focused on the written word, this overview can certainly apply to much of VXUUHDOLVP¶V visual production as well. However, surrealism is more than just a cultural phenomenon of arts and letters, and it encompasses so much more than the Salvador Dalí images that have become culturally fashionable. For all the whimsy and meaning to be found in lobster telephones and melting clocks, the Surrealists were/are of great import as social critics and theorists as well, and it is in those areas that I focus, with only passing exploration of their artistic works.

20

Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

The ambiguity of surrealism as an aesthetic movement and philosophy opens it up to the objectives of other liberational causes. $UW FXUDWRU )LRQD %UDGOH\ FLWHV $QWRQLQ $UWDXG¶V GHFODUDWLRQ WKDW ³VXUUHDOLVPLVQRWDVW\OH´DVMXVWLILFDWLRQIRULWVJHQHULFDGDSWDELOLW\ HQFRPSDVVLQJ ³SRHWU\ SDLQWLQJ SURVH VFXOSWXUH SKRWRJUDSK\ ILOPPDNLQJ DQG LQWHUYHQWLRQLVW DFWLYLW\´   ,W is that final generic specification²interventionist activity²that I have pursued thus far, UHODWLQJ LW WR 6HOO¶V FRPPHQW WKDW DYDQW-JDUGHV WUDYHUVH ³SXWDWLYHO\ non-DHVWKHWLFUHDOPV´:KLOH%UDGOH\GRHVQRWPHQWLRQWKHDWHULQKHU list of surreal genres, theater is an aspect of the interventionist activity that I highlighted with examples from the ALM and environmental defense movements. Theirs is a theater that attempts what Antonin Artaud himself wanted: ³DWKHDWHUWKDWZDNHVXVXSQHUYHVDQGKHDUW´ (84). And theirs is a theater that attempts to challenge and change Western myths of hierarchy through a revisioning of the world, as H[SUHVVHGE\&DURO$GDPV³,WLVDWUXLVPWKDW\RXFDQQRWDUJXHZLWK SHRSOH¶V P\WKRORJ\ 7@KRVH DUWLVWV DQG ZULWHUV VXFFHHGHG LQ holding open for love and for laughter a wide space in our lives that might otherwise have been closed over or have been filled with the KDWUHG WKDW EHJDQ VHHSLQJ DFURVV (XURSH LQ WKH VDPH SHULRG´   Although often accused of nihilism²and satanism, according to philosopher Ferdinand Alquié²the Surrealists had a purpose. They ³DVSLUH>G@WRDQXSKHDYDOZhich as it transformed the world would at the same time chDQJH OLIH´ 33). Those tools²love and laughter² were the perfect anti-weapons within the upheaval, within the surreal anti-war, anti-imperialist, anti-oppression arsenal because they showed the group¶VUHIXVDOWRDGRSWWKHLGHRORJLHVRIWKHYHU\V\VWHP of rationalist Western thought that it was attempting to usurp. The projects of surrealism and the ALM correspondingly conspire against domination in the following distinct ways: they question Western myths and rational traditions in the name of

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freedom; they recontextualize reality through the symbolic power of collage; they focus on the importance of childhood within their plans for a better world; finally, both movements use terror within their liberational schemas, and²though it may seem paradoxical in light of contemporary conceptions of terror, terrorists and terrorism²they do so with the tools of love and laughter always at the ready. I will distinctly address these four points of complicity in the sections below and, when relevant, comment upon the ways in which they grow from and inform each other.

Reason and Liberation, Liberation From Reason Breton, founder of surrealism and its most prolific voice, wanted others to see the world differently by destroying the myths that for so long had been supposed fact. In Surrealism and Painting, he H[SODLQV³7KHH\HH[LVWVLQLWVVDYDJHVWDWH´DOOXGLQJWo the potential for its cultivation (qtd. in Bradley 6). In the Second Surrealist Manifesto KH FRQWHQGV WKDW DOO VKRXOG ³VWLJPDWL]H WKH EDVHQHVV RI :HVWHUQ WKRXJKW´ DQG ³WDNH XS DUPV DJDLQVW ORJLF´   0RVW importantly, he attempts to overturn the cultural norms that are most often taken for granted. In that same text, he ponders how to ³arrest the spread of this cancer of the mind which consists of thinking all too VDGO\WKDWFHUWDLQWKLQJVµDUH¶ZKLOHRWKHUVZKLFKPLJKWZHOOEHµDUH QRW¶´ (187, emphasis added). If the platform of the rebel is to question everything, then the Surrealists were rebels extraordinaire, and they UHYROWHGDJDLQVWWKHUDWLRQDODQGWKH³UHDO´ Consequently, with the broad range of Western philosophies to choose from, and springing from the Romantic legacy, the Surrealists were most commonly critical of continental rationalist philosophers who attempted to use reason to explicate the truth, much to the detriment of other human capabilities such as imagination, fantasy and emotion. Their call was not so much an eradication of UDWLRQDOLW\ EXW RI ³absolute rationalism´ PDGH SRSXODULQ )UDQFH YLD the ³&ODVVLFDOO\- and Platonically-RULHQWHG DUWLVWV DQG ZULWHUV´ ZKRP Breton called his contemporaries (Batchelor 50). David Batchelor describes %UHWRQ¶V attitude in a manner that fittingly, though XQZLWWLQJO\FRQMXUHVXSWKH$/0³%UHWRQSURMHFWVDVHULHVRILPDJHV of the human imagination as a caged animal pacing back and forth EHKLQG WKH EDUV RI FRQWHPSRUDU\ UDWLRQDOLVP´   7KH $/0¶V criticism of rationalism simply replaces the figurative with the factual.

22

Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

7KH\DUHDWWHPSWLQJWROLEHUDWH³FDJHGDQLPDOV>OLWHUDOO\@SDFLQJEDFN DQG IRUWK EHKLQG WKH EDUV´ RI FRQWHPSRUDU\ UDWLRQDOLVP DQG capitalism. Certainly, much of value has sprung from the very traditions that Breton and company critiqued. Indeed, it is in the reason-based philosophical realm that animal liberation has found many powerful allies. However, when placed in the historical context of post WWI Europe, the Surrealists saw rationalist Western traditions being used to develop a hierarchy of rights and to justify the oppression of the poor and ³SULPLWLYH´ FXOWXUHV Some philosophers such as Saint Thomas Aquinas and René Descartes were theologically driven to explain the prominence of God, country, and family²three concepts that the Surrealists eschewed. When reason and science could not illuminate in exact terms or via precise formulae, philosophers regularly deferred to an almighty deity whose actions one dare not question. In sum, rationalist philosophy, both on the continent and in the New World, constructed a reality that the Surrealists saw as latently dangerous to human dignity and limiting to human potential. Here Breton rails against this effect in the First Manifesto: [T]he realistic attitude, inspired by positivism, from Saint Thomas Aquinas to Anatole France, clearly seems to me to be hostile to DQ\LQWHOOHFWXDORUPRUDODGYDQFHPHQW>«@2XUEUDLQVDUHGXOOHG by the incurable mania of wanting to make the unknown known, classifiable. The desire for analysis wins out over sentiment. (6; 9)

Within these avant-garde expressions, Enlightenment rationalism, complemented by scientific empiricism, was potentially hostile to the revolutionary synthesis (or re-synthesis) of imagination and reason. In Second Manifesto, Breton specifically targets dualistic thinking as EHLQJ IXUWKHU ³KRVWLOH WR DQ\ >«@ DGYDQFHPHQW´ DQG KH H[SUHVVHV D ³GHVLUH WR SURFHHG EH\RQG >«@ WKH GLVWLQFWLRQ EHWZHHQ WKH EHDXWLIXO and the ugly, true and IDOVHJRRGDQGHYLO´  To be fair, %UHWRQ¶V LGHDV ZHUH QRW FRPSOHWHO\ at odds with Enlightenment thought, as JUHDWWKLQNHUVRIWKDWSHULRG³criticized all such simple minded extremes, because they were, above all, critics, aiming to put human intellLJHQFHWRXVH´3RUWHU . However, a germ of decay lay within the liberational prose and manifestations of human distinction that arose during the Enlightenment: %UHWRQ¶VVWDQFH>RQUDWLRQDOPHQWDWLRQDQGXUEDQL]DWLRQ@LQ had a certain oneness with notions being elaborated VLPXOWDQHRXVO\>«@E\WZRH[LOHG*HUPDQSKLORVRSKHUV7KHRGRU Adorno and Max Horkheimer. Global war, they argued, represented the implacable working through of the ³dialectic of Enlightenment.´ Nourished as it was with militant positivism that ³disenchanted´ nature, the better to profit from her in the name of

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reason and justice, the objectivizing dynamic of Enlightenment thinking was irredeemably shot through with a regressive propensity for the totalitarian solution. (Hammond 98)

In post WWI Europe and America, WKLV ³UHJUHVVLYH SURSHQVLW\´ ZDV firmly registered in the minds of Breton and his fellow critics. After all, it was binarism via ³XV YV WKHP´ WKLQNLQJ WKDW OHG WR WKH QHDUO\ 40,000,000 casualties on the battlefield, an arena where love and laughter would seem to have no part. Rationalist philosophy was, and still is, treacherous because it often ignores human ability to utilize emotion, sensitivity, and pathos as a viable means of negotiating and understanding the world. Of course, the Surrealists sprang from the very European institutions that they critiqued, and they were unquestionably influenced by the traditions and economic and social theories that they found most troubling. However, their critiques GLVWLQJXLVK WKHP IURP WKRVH WUDGLWLRQV DV WKH ³EDVLV RI VXUUHDOLVW procedure is not Hegelian reason [i.e. the dialectic] or Marxist labor; it LVOLEHUW\´$OTXLp 4XHVWLRQVRIOLEHUW\ZHUHQRWEHLQJVXIILFLHQWO\ answered by dominant philosophical discourses. Even worse, these TXHVWLRQV ZHUH ³ORJLFDOO\´ OHDGLQJ WR DWURFLWLHV OLNH ::, VR WKH 6XUUHDOLVWVLGHQWLILHGDQGUHEHOOHGDJDLQVWWKHLUFXOWXUH¶VP\WKV The ALM also has cause to question the conventions that the Surrealists critiqued. The first of these questionable myths is the notion that animals exist to serve humankind, and some see this myth as the basis of other oppressions. In Beyond Beef, Jeremy Rifkin summarizes human and nonhuman animal interdependency (although, for the most part, it is a one-sided dependency): We have prayed to these animals, sacrificed them to the gods, and used them to provide food, clothing, shelter, traction, and fuel. They have enriched our spiritual lives and fed our appetites. We have elevated them to divine status, yoked them to the plow to turn the soil, milked them to provide nourishment for our young, and eaten them to gain strength and energy. (2)

Human dependency on animals is so ingrained in Western culture that many do not question the ethics of it. Contemporary philosopher David De *UD]LDVXFFLQFWO\H[SOLFDWHVWKLV³PRUDOWUDGLWLRQ´LQDZD\ WKDWUHVRXQGV%UHWRQ¶VHYDOXDWLRQRIGLFKRWRPRXVWKLQNLQJ'H*UD]LD notes that human perception of animals is part of dualistic constructions wiWK URRWV LQ DQFLHQW *UHHN DQG 5RPDQ VRFLHWLHV ³  persons have the exclusive or at least radically superior moral status; (2) nonpersons have radically inferior moral status; (3) there are no beings in between those two categories; and (4) no nonhuman animals DUH SHUVRQV >DQG WKXV ZH FDQ XVH WKHP DV ZH SOHDVH@´   1RW surprisingly, strains of reason-based thought has justified animal

24

Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

utilization on the premise that since animals cannot reason as men, their use by men is reasonable. Thus, a further dichotomy that plagues mainstream EuroAmerican constructions of reality is the assumption that humans are distinct from Nature. As an illustration, consider the work of Christian philosopher Saint Thomas Aquinas. Writing in the thirteenth-century, Aquinas states the following in Summa Theologica: Now the most necessary use would seem to consist in the fact that animals use plants, and men use animals, for food, and this cannot be done unless these be deprived of life: wherefore it is lawful both to take life from plants for the use of animals, and from DQLPDOV IRU WKH XVH RI PHQ >«@ 'XPE DQLPDOV DQG SODQWV DUH devoid of the life of reason whereby to set themselves in motion; they are moved, as it were by another, by a kind of natural impulse, a sign of which is that they are naturally enslaved and accommodated to the uses of others.

Again, reason is proposed as the capability that distinguishes higher beings from lower beings, from those with rights to those without rights, from those who rely on reason and those who rely on passion or instinct, from those who think and those who are dumb. In years to come, it was just this type of logic that would justify the colonial expansion and imperialism that prompted the SurrealistV¶ dissent against their French homeland during confrontations such as the Algerian War and the Rif War in Morocco. /LNH QRQKXPDQV ³SULPLWLYH´ SHRple have been classified under Nature, as opposed to the lofty category of Culture, and it is ³WKLVVDPHNLQGRIµUHDVRQLQJ¶WKDWOHG>$TXLQDV@WRWHDFKWKDWµZRPDQ LV >D@ GHIHFWLYH DQG PLVEHJRWWHQ¶ PDOH DQG WR WKHQ SURSRVH WKDW WKLV PLJKW EH GXH WR µVRPH H[WHUQDO IRUFH VXFK DV WKDW RI D VRXWK ZLQG which is mRLVW¶´ +\ODQG  This rhetoric of reason is still used as justification for consuming nonhumans. Although most people today readily admit that animals feel pain, those who continue to eat them often cite the Lion King-HVTXH ³&LUFOH RI /LIH´ YHUELDJH WKDW HDVes their consciences. Therefore, humans are conflictingly posed as part of Nature²thus we HQJDJH LQ WKH ³FLUFOH RI OLIH´ WKDW LQFOXGHV DQLPDO eating²while also stubbornly declaring ourselves to be unwaveringly distinct from that world, thereby giving us the right to eat animals but not to be eaten by them. This is a contradiction of global proportions that is certainly worthy of critique in the surreal tradition. In sum, the logic used by positivist philosophers such as Aquinas were targets for the Surrealists (though certainly not in terms of animal liberation and rights). Discourse such as AquLQDV¶VZDVVWLOOVHWWLQJWKHWRQHIRUKRZ humans navigated through the world during the early twentieth

Introduction: Rooting for the Avant-Garde

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century, still determining the idea of Truth and the cause of derision amongst the radical Surrealists. There have been and continue to be significant challenges to the binary thinking that allows for oppression and cruelty, and quite often it is radical animal liberators who are leading the charge against such antiquated mindsets. While rationalist philosophers such as Baruch Spinoza averred that animals do have feelings (Hatfield 48), his contemporary René 'HVFDUWHV¶V SHUVSHFWLYH RQ QRQKXPDQV ZDV quite different. Peter Singer summarizes that perception: They [animals] are, he said, mere machines, automata. They experience neither pleasure nor pain, nor anything else. Although they may squeal when cut with a knife, or writhe in their efforts to escape contact with a hot iron, this does not, Descartes said, mean they feel pain in these situations. They are governed by the same principles as a clock, and if their actions are more complex than those of a clock, it is because the clock is a machine made by humans, while animals are infinitely more complex machines, made by God. (200)

Singer next points RXWDQLQFRQJUXLW\LQ'HVFDUWHV¶VORJLF,IDQLPDOV are nothing like human beings, as he proposes, then why study their physiologies to learn how human beings work? Despite the precision RI6LQJHU¶VFULWLTXH'HVFDUWHV¶VORJLFUHDVRQHGDZD\WKHEHDWLQJXS the tying down, and the slicing open of animals crying in agony. To DSSURSULDWH %UHWRQ¶V ZRUGLQJ DQLPDO H[SHULPHQWDWLRQ LV DQ H[DPSOH RI³WKHGHVLUHIRUDQDO\VLV ZLQ>QLQJ@RXWRYHUVHQWLPHQW´Descartes in particular deserves revisiting EHFDXVHKLVVW\OHRI³ORJLF´FRQWLQXHVWR DOORZIRUDQLPDOWRUWXUH6LQJHU¶VLQFOXVLRQRIDQH\HZLWQHVVDFFRXQW from an experimentation room in the late seventeenth century, one in which dogs are beaten, laughed at, and nailed up by their paws before being cut open, is eerily reminiscent of undercover video footage of scientists at Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) punching, shaking and laughing at beagles that are resisting the tubes being forced down their throats for cholesterol experiments. This latter incident occurred in 1997, and HLS is still actively performing animal experiments in 2011. Concurrently, activists sit in jail cells for waging a campaign against HLS. As I asked in my discussion on anarchy: Can a society whose abiding objective is freedom from violence, hierarchy, and oppression confine, torture, slaughter, dominate, eat, and wear other sentient creatures, even in the name of progress? While I cannot pretend to know what Breton, et al. would answer, their liberational vision is relevant to answers posed by the avant-garde ALM. Although the battle-cry ³IUHHGRP´ LV FHUWDLQO\ QRW FRQILQHG WR WKH 6XUUHDOLVWV DQG

26

Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

$/0LWLVWKHLUUHVSRQVHVWRWKHTXHVWLRQ³IUHHGRPIURPZKDW"´WKDW are important. What sets the Surrealists apart is that their goal was not liberty from something in particular, but just liberty. Yes, they had institutions to protest, but initially their call for liberty was one that embraced the immediate need for liberation without another bureaucracy to take its place (the Communist track that many Surrealists took DOWHUHGWKLVSHUVSHFWLYH ,GHIHUDJDLQWR%UHWRQ³7KH PHUHZRUGµIUHHGRP¶LVWKHRQO\RQHWKDWH[FLWHVPH´First Manifesto 4). The surreal emphasis on love, laughter, and the subconscious mind should not signify a disengagement with reality or with the JURXS¶V UHYROXWLRQDU\ VSLULW DV ³love is inseparable from revolt; it expresses our fundamental freedom´$OTXLpHPSKDVLVDGded). In the decades since its formation, surrealism has become simplified through association with anything that is irrational and absurd, but while such elements are surely a part of the surreal repertoire, these poets and artists were social critics and revolutionaries as well. Though entranced by Freudianism, automatic writing, and the VXEFRQVFLRXVWKH6XUUHDOLVWVGLGQRWJLYHXSRQZKDWZHFDOOWKH³UHDO ZRUOG´DQGWKHLPSOLFDWLRQVRIWKHLr actions within it. Neither has the ALM, although they have been painted as tree-hugging throw-backs with unrealistic ideas and their heads in the stratosphere. In contrast, animal liberationists are like the Surrealists who asserted that the real can be found in places where most people do not usually look² ³VXUUHDOLVPLVQRWIOLJKWLQWRWKHXQUHal or into dream, but an attempt to penetrate what has more reality than the logical and objective XQLYHUVH´ $OTXLp   $OTXLp SHUIHFWO\ HQFDSVXODWHV WKH UHDOLW\ WKDW the avant-garde ALM is attempting to unmask²the reality of our commodities. For the ALM and the Surrealists, subversion leads to OLEHUDWLRQDQGWR³OLEHUDWHLVWRIUHHDQGWRPDNHIUHH>«@LVODUJHO\D measure of allowing a group of individuals to behave in conformity with their natural instincts and accordance with their desires and preferHQFHV´  :KLOHWKLV TXRWDWLRQ PD\ VHHP FXVWRP-written by André Breton, in truth it comes from Mark Bernstein, animal liberationist philosopher. The radical ALM continues a legacy of surrealism that acknowledges the limits of liberation through the means of the oppressor (i.e. courts of law, hierarchical organizations, capitalist ideology). Their idea of liberation is very much allied to their critiques of human assumptions about animals. It is not freedom

Introduction: Rooting for the Avant-Garde

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from something in particular that they want, but freedom from everything, starting with mindlessness. ,Q³$WWKH*DWHVRI+HOO´DFRPSDULVRQRIWKHDQLPDOLQGXVWU\ and the Holocaust,9 Maxwell Schnurer emphasizes that liberationists PXVW UHPDNH WKH ZRUOG E\ ³FKDOOHQJLQJ WKH WHFKQRORJLFDO infrastructure YLWDOIRUDQLPDORSSUHVVLRQ´DQGFDOOLQJIRUD³liberation from mindlessness´WKDWLVQRWDFKLHYHG only by educating people on the truth behind animal consumption (106 and 108, emphasis added). To wit, when a child learns that his dinner was once like the animal he just fed at a petting zoo, that knowledge may not make him mindful enough to stop eating chicken, at least not for long. When a grown up learns that her veal comes from an animal taken from his mother and put in a dark crate in which he cannot turn around, that may not make her mindful enough to stop eating all baby animals. Animal liberation is about exposing the lines and mechanisms of power to liberate all beings, human and nonhuman. Once again, this is a liberation intertwined with the destruction of cultural myths à la surrealism: [W]hatever legitimate reasons humans had for using animals to survive in past hunting and gathering societies, subsistence economies, and other low-tech cultures, these rationales are now obsolete in a modern world ULIH ZLWK DOWHUQDWLYHV >«@ 0RUDO progress occurs in the process of demystifying and deconstructing all myths²from ancient patriarchy and the divine right of kings to Social Darwinism and speciesism²that attempt to legitimate the domination of one group over another. (Swift)

Animal liberation is not just about liberating apes, cows, chickens, pigs, mice, and bees; it is also about liberating human animals from PLQGOHVVQHVV %XW VLPSOH HGXFDWLRQ ³GRVHV RI UHDOLW\´ GRHV QRW always alter mindlessness, for knowing is different than seeing. Most people over the age of five know they are consuming a dead animal when they eat a steak dinner. However, they do not see a slaughtered, butchered fragment of a sentient creature on their plate because their eyes exist in WKH ³VDYDJH´ VWDWHWKDW %UHWRQ ZULWHV RI 7KHSURMHFW RI the ALM, therefore, can, and unwittingly does, use the power of avant-garde collage to revision animal commodities and refine the primitive eye.

9

This is not a new comparison, and it continues to be both troubling and provocative. See Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust by Charles 3DWWHUVRQDQGWKH$QLPDO/LEHUDWLRQ)URQW¶VUHIHUHQFHWRDQLPDOFRQFHUQVDVD³JOREDO holocauVW´ZLWKLQWKHLUPDQLIHVWR

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Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

Collage Collage, or montage, is the quintessential avant-garde product, as it assembles elements from seemingly disparate origins that are cohesively arranged to create a finished product charged with new meaning. However, since each of the original elements is there, it forces the attentive viewer to consider each element differently, both on its own and as a whole as it works with other constituent parts. Montage/collage is used in a variety of artistic genres²painting, photography, and film, to name a few. Marjorie Perloff poses collage DV ³SHUKDSV WKH FHQWUDO DUWLVWLF LQYHQWLRQ RI WKH avant-guerre >«@ [that] incorporates directly into the work an actual fragment of the referent, thus forcing the reader or viewer to consider interplay between preexisting message or material and the new artistic FRPSRVLWLRQ WKDW UHVXOWV IURP WKH JUDIW´ [YLLL  6KH emphasizes that although there is a recontextualization, the vestiges of that original context are always present. In Aesthetic Theory, Theodor Adorno notes that the Surrealists mastered montage, a re-YLVLRQLQJRI³HOHPHQWVRIUHDOLW\DV seen by healthy common sense so as to wrest from them a change in GLUHFWLRQRUDWEHVWWRDZDNHQWKHLUODWHQWODQJXDJH´ /LNHPXFK of surrealism, collage/montage is rife with contradiction, for it at once ³GLVDYRZV XQLW\´ E\ XVLQJ GLYHUVH HOHPHQWV ZKLOH VLPXOWDQHRXVO\ ³DIILUPLQJ XQLW\ DV D SULQFLSOH RI IRUP´ $GRUQR   &OHPHQW *UHHQEHUJ¶V FRPPHQWDU\ RQ &XELVW FROODJH LQ SDUWLFXODU trompeO¶RHLO10 SDLQWLQJV SURFODLPV VXFK ZRUNV WR EH ³LQWUXVLRQV >«@ [that] VWRSSHGWKHH\HDWWKHOLWHUDOSK\VLFDOVXUIDFHRIWKHFDQYDV>«@EXWDW this point the declaration of the surface became so vehement and so extensive as to endow its flatness with far greDWHUSRZHURIDWWUDFWLRQ´ (105-6). When the eye is stopped, the brain can decelerate, and the seemingly flat surface of the new composition can become charged with new meaning. Both Perloff and Peter Bürger also stress the politically compelling authority of collage. Perloff defines iWDVD³VKRUWOLYHGEXW remarkable rapprochement between avant-garde aesthetic, radical SROLWLFV DQG SRSXODU FXOWXUH´ [YLL  %UJHU DVVHUWV WKDW PRQWDJH ³SHUPLWVDPRUHSUHFLVHGHILQLWLRQ>«@RIWKHFRQFHSWRIDOOHJRU\>RU FUXGHO\V\PEROLVP@´ 1RW only is collage/montage precise, but it can also deliver messages both quickly and/or slowly if one takes the 10

/LWHUDOO\DQGUHOHYDQWO\PHDQLQJ³IRROWKHH\H´

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time to consider each of the rearranged parts. %UJHU¶VDVVHVVPHQWRI -RKQ +HDUWILHOG¶V Adolph²The Superman²Who Swallows Gold and Spouts Junk is an apt example of the political power of collage.) In sum, what makes collage particularly avant-garde in the political sense is its forcing the viewer to remake expectations of the world, to consider things outside of their original context and within a new one, to explore alternate views of reality and possibility, to analyze symbols specifically chosen by the artist, to make meaning based on the arrangement of those symbols, and, most importantly, to consider what is absent. The purpose of collage, insofar as it considers negation and absence, finds correlation with the ALM. Perloff affirms that in Cubist FROODJH ³WKH VLJQLILHUV UHIHU WR D SUHVHQFH WKDW LV FRQVLVWHQWO\ DEVHQW >«@ ,Q WKH DEVHQFH RI VXFK DQ RUGHULQJ V\VWHP WKH ZRUN DFWV DV DQ intellectual challenge to the viewer; it raises the issue of code and PHVVDJH LQ D VWULNLQJ ZD\´ -64). In The Sexual Politics of Meat, &DURO $GDPV GHILQHV WKH FRQFHSW RI WKH ³DEVHQW UHIHUHQW´ ZLWK verbiage similar to that of collage/montage: Through butchering, animals become absent referents. Animals in name and body are made absent as animals IRUPHDWWRH[LVW>«@ Animals are made absent through language that renames dead ERGLHV>«@:KLOHWKHFXOWXUDOPHDQLQJVRIPHDWDQGPHDWHDWLQJ shift historically, one essenWLDO SDUW RI PHDW¶V PHDQLQJ LV VWDWLF 2QH GRHV QRW HDW PHDW ZLWKRXW WKH GHDWK RI DQ DQLPDO >«@ 7KH absent referent permits us to forget about the animal as an independent entity. (51)

If the purpose of collage is to take seemingly disparate elements and rearrange them so that each of those elements is still referenced by their absence, yet working within a new, symbolically-charged totality, then collage is a viable tool for the ALM. In fact, it is one that is already used within ALM performance that demoQVWUDWHVWKH³VKRFN YDOXH´*UHHQEHUJILQGVLQKHUHQWLQ&XELVWFROODJH  As a brief example, PETA produced a short film FDOOHG³)XULV 'HDG´ that shows a woman being clubbed on a city street by a man who then takes her fur coat, asking in the margins, ³:KDWLI\RXZHUH NLOOHGIRU\RXUFRDW"´. This exemplifies collage (although problematic for its depiction of women, a case to be explored below). In effect, the video makes meaning by protesting animal slaughter without the overt use of animal imagery. RDWKHUWRXVH3HUORII¶VZRUGVWKHILOPUHOLHV RQD³IUDJPHQWRIWKHUHIHUHQW>WKHOLWHUDODQLPDOUHSUHVHQWHGQRWDVD live being but as a piece of clothing], thus forcing the reader or viewer to consider interplay between preexisting message or material [animals are killed for their coats and people wear animal furs] and the

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new artistic composition that results from the graft [humans are usually QRWNLOOHGIRUWKHLUFRDWV@´[YLLL 7KHSROLWLFDOPHDQLQJLVWKDW it is equally unethical to bludgeon an animal for its fur as it is to bludgeon a woman for hers. Adams, who solidified the concept of vegetarian-IHPLQLVWWKHRU\QRWHVWKDWWKH³DEVHQWUHIHUHQWLVERWKWKHUH DQG QRW WKHUH´ ZKHQ PHDW HDWLQJ DQG IXU ZHDULQJ  RFFXUV   Similarly, the animal is botK WKHUH DQG QRW WKHUH ZLWKLQ 3(7$¶V montage film. As Adams further explores, sometimes the very presence of a vegetarian at a dinner table serves as a partial referent that can summon reactions ranging from genuine interest to outright hostility. The point, however, even during such contentious meals, is that latent meaning is evoked, and the absent element (the live animal) of a new WRWDOLW\ WKH 7KDQNVJLYLQJ PHDO OHW¶V VD\  LV symbolically made SUHVHQWWKURXJKDGLQQHUJXHVW¶VUHIXVDOWRHDWPHDW7KLVrefusal calls upon the animal slaughtered to make the meal possible, with the vegetarian as WKH WXUNH\¶V UHSUHVHQWDWLYH E\ SUR[\. In effect, vegans and radical animal liberators can themselves serve as examples of collage at work, as quite often (too oftenLI,¶PWREHKRQHVW VLPSOH PHQWLRQ RI RQH¶V YHJDQLVP, or the implication that others should go vegan, is met with unfounded vitriol. $GRUQRVWDWHVRIPRQWDJH³:RUNVRIDUWWKDWQHJDWHPHDQLQJ PXVWDOVREHDEOHWRDUWLFXODWHGLVFRQWLQXLW\´ I@rom FKLOGKRRG PHPRULHV >«@ WKHUH HPDQDWHV D VHQWLPHQt of being unintegrated, and then later of having gone astray, which I hold to be the most fertile that exists. It is perhaps childhood that comes closest WRRQH¶VµUHDOOLIH¶´First Manifesto 49). It is often during this stage of ³UHDO OLIH´ WKDW FKLOGUHn express shock and dismay at learning where their meat comes from. $QLPDO DFWLYLVW %ULDQ /XNH GHFULHV WKH ³SUDFWLFH RI IRUFLQJ FKLOGUHQ WR HDW PHDW´ QRWLQJ KRZ FKLOGUHQ ³RIWHQ UHIXVH WR HDW PHDW ZKHQWKH\GLVFRYHULWVRULJLQ´³7DPLQJ2XUVHOYHV´ 6inger finds this cultural force-feeding significant in that by the time children begin to question meat eating (around four to six years old) they have already become fully enmeshed in meat-eating culture, and their dismay regularly gives way to acceptance. The cultural mandate to consume meat exists in opposition to what Singer sees WREHFKLOGUHQ¶V ³QDWXUDOORYHRIDQLPDOV´VKRZQWKURXJKWKHLUHQFRXUDJHPHQW³WREH affectionate toward animals such as dogs and cats and toward cuddly, stuffed toy aQLPDOV´Animal Liberation  'DQ0DWKHZV¶VPHPRLU begins with his tale of dressing up like a carrot to open school FKLOGUHQ¶V H\HV WR WKH UHDOLW\ RI WKHLU GLHWV +H H[SODLQV ³.LGV ORYH animals so much that many meat companies deceive them with nonsensical commercials, like the one with Charlie the Tuna, the FDUWRRQILVKZKRGHFODUHVWKDWKHWDVWHVVRJRRGKHFDQ¶WZDLWWRJHW FDXJKWDQGHDWHQ´ $QLPDOVDUHVHUYHGWRFKLOGUHQRQGLQQHUSODWHV but also in story books, moral lessons, games, as toys, and through the media. Thus, human dependency on animals, both literally and figuratively, is instituted at birth. )URP$HVRS¶VIDEOHVWRGoodnight Moon, animals are shown doing human things²wearing clothes, making tea, going to market, learning moral lessons²and they serve as extensions of human animals within these fictitious realms. However, these benevolent images belie a dark reality. WKHQ TXHVWLRQV DULVH DV WR ZKHUH RQH¶V dinner comes from, children are given books like the ones Singer describes. ChiOGUHQ¶V OLWHUDWXUH VXFK DV Farm Animals and The Farm SUHVHQW LG\OOLF LPDJHV RI ³UXUDO VLPSOLFLW\´ ZKLFK LV YHU\ PXFK LQ opposition to the de-beaked chickens, mastitis-ridden cows, and fecescovered slaughterhouses of real world factory farms (Singer Animal Liberation 215). Parents take their children to zoos and farms to see and touch animals, but only the most sadistic would plan a trip to the nearest slaughterhouse (which would not let them in anyway). In an DQDO\VLVRI%ULWLVKFKLOGUHQ¶VOLWHUDWXUH7HVs Cosslett notes that works

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Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

such as the ones described by Singer ostensibly exists to cultivate ³VHQVLELOLW\ DQG EHQHYROHQFH´ WRZDUG DQLPDOV WKRVH FUHDWXUHV ZKR ³SURYLGH >FKLOGUHQ@ D WHVWLQJ JURXQG IRU EHQHYROHQFH DQG KXPDQLW\´ (16; 10). In the process, they also obscure the facts. $GPLWWHGO\ FKLOGUHQ¶V VXSSRVHG QDWXUDO DIIHFWLRQ IRU WKHLU furry friends may be more complex than is presented above, a point that needs some reflection. Children are not a homogenous group with no cues of individuation, and their affection for animals is problematized by consideration of factors such as gender and environment. For instanceVRPHVWXGLHVSRLQWWRFKLOGUHQ¶VVXSSRVHG ³QDWXUDOORYHRIDQLPDOV´DVEHLQJJHQGHUVSHFLILF'DGGVHWDOUHSRUW that when cruelty toward animals manifests in children, it is higher DPRQJVWER\VWKDQJLUOVFLWLQJ5RVWDQG+DUWPDQQ¶VFRQFOXVLRQ ³WKDW JLUOV UHSRUWHG D FORVHU HPRWLRQDO ERQG ZLWK WKHLU DQLPDOV WKDQ boys and that they rated the interaction with their pet as more important WKDQWKHER\VGLG´ 2IFRXUVHWKLVILQGLQJEULQJVXS key questions of nature and nurture in terms of gendered behavior, along with issues of essentialism that I will briefly speak to in the next main section. Further, children living in abusive environments, whether as victims or observers of abuse, are more likely to contradict the assumption that children have natural affection for nonhumans. In one of the first studies of its kind, Frank R. Ascione went beyond anecdotal evidence to show high rates of animal abuse by children growing up in situations of domestic violence, noting that of the battered women who had children, 32% reported that one or more of her children had abused or killed a domestic pet (119). He further notes that while children who witness or undergo extreme violence may identify with pets more readily, those same children are also apt to be cruel toward the creatures with whom they identify (128). These issues of gender and environment²and the effect of environment on what we perceive as gender²show that the world of childhood is quite multifaceted, and attention to children and animals should be tended to with these variables in mind. +RZHYHU WKHVH FRPSOH[ UHDOLWLHV GR QRW GLPLQLVK %UHWRQ¶V vision of childhood as one where the imagination is free and where perception is not skewed by culturally-VDQFWLRQHG ³WUXWKV´ +LV LV D YLVLRQ VLPSO\ DQG HORTXHQWO\ RIIHUHG LQ KLV SRHP ³&KRRVH /LIH´ ³&KRRVHOLIHFKRRVHOLIHYHQHUDEOH&KLOGKRRG7KHULEERQFRPLQJRXW of a fakir/Resembles the pOD\JURXQG VOLGH RI WKH ZRUOG´ -17). He lauds youth as a time when reality was not a fixed commodity, when a

Introduction: Rooting for the Avant-Garde

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thing perceived (D IDNLU¶V ULEERQ) can slip effortlessly into a thing perceived differently (a playground slide).11 'XULQJRQH¶V³UHDOOLIH´ indoctrination into one of the most violent beliefs begins: humans are superior to animals, and we must consume them to live. Assumption becomes truth, and this is a truth that forms the basis of the American capitalist system by way of the animal consumption industry. Quite factually, the American economy would likely collapse if nonhuman animals were no longer used as free bodies; as activists, we must have something of value to articulate in response to this perplexing reality, as I attempted to do above through serious (re)consideration of an anarchist agenda DVSDUWDQGSDUFHOWRWKH$/0¶V The awesome task of the ALM is to offer alternative constitutions of truth. However, this goal should not be corrupted through the assertion that the ALM has newly constituted reality in SKLORVRSKLFDOWHUPVRI³XOWLPDWHWUXWK´; there is danger in absolutes, as argued previously. As Michel )RXFDXOWDVVHUWVLQ³7UXWKDQG3RZHU´ LW LV QRW VR PXFK WUXWK EXW WUXWK¶V consequences that we commonly accept as reality, and these are the consequences of discourses which DUHWKHPVHOYHV³QHLWKHUWUXHQRUIDOVH´ 6RLIXOWLPDWHWUXWKLVDQ illusion, where does this leave the revolutionary? First, although truth is indefinite, elements of objective reality are not. Consider this statement: Animals are killed for human beings to eat. While individuals respond to this reality with varying levels of interest and concern, no one, as far as I know, is arguing that this statement is not a fact (except, perhaps, to children, a point to which I will soon return). Next: Animals can be consumed by humans. For some time, human beings have consumed animals, and though there is medical testimony supporting that vegetarians and vegans live longer, healthier lives than meat eaters, the reality is that many people who eat animals and their byproducts live protracted lives in optimal health. Almost everyone who deals in objective reality accepts this as a given. However, in their own rights, those statements do not explain and explore what counts as ethical action in terms of what we should do, focused as they are on what we can do or what is done. Questions of what we should do, therefore, are not bound to ultimate truth as PXFKDVWKH\DUHSURGXFWVRID³UpJLPHRIWUXWK >«@>RU@the circular 11

As a one-time medical student, Breton also saw the insane as having this same sense of the imaginary. Yet that comparison is more troubling, as those who suffer from mental illness are often tormented by their conditions and sometimes violent toward others. Thus, I focus on childhood for it is both a period of life that all humans experience, while also garnering frequent comment by animal liberators.

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relations with systems of power ZKLFK SURGXFH DQG VXVWDLQ LW´ (Foucault, ³7UXWK DQG 3RZHU´   7KH fact that humans can eat animals and stay alive is the catalyst, in a crudely scientific sense of the term, in that it remains always the same. Religious, scientific, medical, governmental, familial and other discourse are the ³chemical reactions´ that take hold of the catalyst so that when it comes out on the other side, the fact remains unaltered, EXW ZLWK LW FRPHV ³WUXWKV´ VXFK DV ³*RG FUHDWHG PDQ WR XVH DQLPDOV DV KH ZLOO´ ³KXPDQV FDQ RQO\ JHW DGHTXDWH SURWHLQ WKURXJK PHDW´ ³LI \RX GR QRW GULQN PLON \RXZLOOJHWRVWHRSRURVLV´³WKH1DWLRQDO6FKRRO/XQFKSURJUDPZLOO VHH WR LW WKDW FKLOGUHQ UHFHLYH WKH EHVW SRVVLEOH QXWULWLRQ´ ³JUDQGPD ZLOOEHXSVHWLI\RXGRQ¶WHDWKHUSRUNFKRSV´ etc. These truths work coterminously with economic and political interests in a broad sense, but also with very individualized, base interests, as animals and their various secretions taste good to many people. When asked about the role of the revolutionary within this perspective of truth and power, Foucault, rather than seeing that role as obsolete, notes that WUXWK LVQ¶W WKH UHZDUG RI IUHH VSLULWV WKH FKLOG RI SURWUDFWHG solitude, nor the privilege of those who have succeeded in liberating themselves. 7UXWK LV D WKLQJ RI WKH ZRUOG >«@ Each sociHW\KDVLWVUpJLPHRIWUXWK>«@ ³7UXWK´LVWREHXQGHUVWRRGDV a system of ordered procedures for the production, regulation, GLVWULEXWLRQFLUFXODWLRQDQGRSHUDWLRQRIVWDWHPHQWV>«@,W¶VQRWD PDWWHURIHPDQFLSDWLQJWUXWKIURPHYHU\V\VWHPRISRZHU>«@Eut of detaching the power of truth from the forms of hegemony, social, economic, and cultural, within which it operates at the present time. (207-208)

The ALM works to disengage ³WKH SRZHU RI WUXWK´ IURP social, economic and cultural hegemony, further supporting the contention that, by its very nature, it is not a one-track movement. In its own right, being vegan is a disengagement from social, economic and cultural power relations, while being a vegan activist ups the ante even more. ,Q ³2Q 7UXWh and Lies LQ D 1RQPRUDO 6HQVH´ an essay that LQVSLUHG )RXFDXOW¶V YLHZV Rf truth and power, Friedrich Nietzsche VWDWHV ³:KDW LV WUXWK" $ PRYDEOH KRVW RI PHWDSKRUV PHWRQ\PLHV and; anthropomorphisms: in short, a sum of human relations which have been poetically and rhetorically intensified, transferred, and embellished, and which, after long usage, seem to a people to be fixed, FDQRQLFDODQGELQGLQJ´$VWRZKLFKWUXWKVJHWFDQRQL]HGIL[HGDQG bound to the human condition, I borrow 1LHW]VFKH¶V metaphor to paint LWDVD³FRQFHSWXDOFUDSJDPH´H[WHQGLQJWKHPHWDSKRUZLWKKRSHWKDW

Introduction: Rooting for the Avant-Garde

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the ALM gets a hold of the dice more regularly. And this returns the conversation to children. Foucault clarifies that the State works jointly with other ³SRZHU QHWZRUNV´ RQH RI ZKLFK LV ³NLQVKLS,´ and this includes the parent/child relationship (205). In fact, it was the prospect of his impending fatherhood that caused novelist-turned-journalist Jonathan Safran Foer to explore and expose the speciesist discourses that allow for the consumption of other sentient beings. Early in Eating Animals, he ponders that having a child presents the opportunity to tell the same ROGVWRULHVDERXWIRRGRU³ZHFRXOGFKRRVHWRWHOOGLIIHUHQWVWRULHV´VR WKDWWKHZRUOGFRXOGKDYH³DQRWKHUFKDQFH´DWVRPHWKLQJGLIIHUHQWDQG something better (11). Although Foer did not set out to write his book with a radical agenda in mind, what he found could not help but render Eating Animals an accusation against an exploitative and YLROHQW HFRQRPLF DQG SROLWLFDO V\VWHP 7KXV )RHU DQG WKH $/0¶VLV ³QRWDEDWWOHµRQEHKDOI¶RIWUXWKEXWDEDWWOHDERXWWKHVWDWXVRIWUXWK DQGWKHHFRQRPLFDQGSROLWLFDOUROHLWSOD\V´)RXFDXOW Foer did not start out as an activist, but he is still attempting to amend the ³FKHPLFDO UHDFWLRQV´ (circulating, institutionalized discourses) and repose the catalyst (humans can eat animals) so that his child, one who KDV QRW EHHQ H[SRVHG WR FXUUHQW ³WUXWKV´ about the worth of nonhumans, will be given the opportunity to accept something different. These challenges to truth and power should not be cast aside as a shell game in which one so-called truth replaces another. Rather, it is a challenge to all systems of truth and power that, if triumphant, can lead to cessation of the needless suffering and slaughter of billions upon billions of sentient creatures. Accepting a Foucauldian view of truth and power should not lead to ethical relativism. In Childhood&KULV-HQNVGLVFXVVHVWKHFRQFHSWRIFKLOGUHQ¶s ULJKWV ZLWK D FRPSDULVRQ WR DQLPDOV ³$IWHU DOO RQH FDQ GHQ\ WKDW animals have rights and yet hold that they should not be treated cruelly. The thought is that children lack the capacity, as do animals, to possess and exercises rights in their own regardV´ -HQNVWKHQ goes on to discuss the limits of this perspective, and I agree that there are limits from an animal liberation viewpoint as well. First and foremost, human children are born with a socially-mandated legal and natural right to consume animals, so the validity of comparisons between children and nonhumans is severely limited. The Western ³UHJLPHRIWUXWK´GRHVQRWQHFHVVDULO\FRQVWLWXWHFKLOGUHQDQGDQLPDOV similarly as much as it naturally integrates children into a system (Foucault paints the system as a wheel) that is fundamentally

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tyrannical toward nonhumans. There is zero to very little space given for children to nurture alternative conceptions of the relationships between humans and animals. In contrast, the system is structured to provide more reasons for children not to defy or reassess the placement of animals within our hierarchy of rights. So as not to be outcasts, children will grow into adults who eat and wear animals. Animals may also be their entertainment and their sport. To be good parents, they will see to it that their children eat animals as well. The KRQHVW ³UHDOOLIH´TXHVWLRQV RIWKRVH FKLOGUHQ DUH too often met with outright lies (cows are not killed to make hamburger), manipulation (cows like to help people stay healthy by giving us their milk and meat) and storybooks (cows live happy, long lives on farm), and the cycle continues. Certainly, one could argue that the trans-cultural proliferation of animal eating and wearing proves that it is natural for humans to do so, that human beings are born knowing they are superior to nonhumans, making their use of animals innate rather than learned. However, there is evidence to the contrary. The University of &DOLIRUQLD QRWLQJ WKDW FKLOGUHQ¶V ³UHODWionships with animals are FUXFLDOWRWKHLUHPRWLRQDODQGVRFLDOGHYHORSPHQW´FRQGXFWHGDVWXG\ in which one group of urban elementary school students were exposed to wildlife through non-direct means (plaster tooth and body molds, faux fur) while the otheU JURXS ZDV QRW ³$QLPDOV DQG &KLOGUHQ´  The former group of children was shown that animals have real lives, ERGLHVDQGLQWHUHVWVDVGRKXPDQV&RQVHTXHQWO\³WKLVVWXG\VKRZHG that children who participated in the Animal Ambassadors curriculum intervention program moved from more negative, neutral, and indirect relationships toward animals to relationships that were more positive DQGGLUHFWLQQDWXUH´³$QLPDOVDQG&KLOGUHQ´ 7KHVHFKLOGUHQZHUH given the opportunity to renegotiate and recreate their notions of nonhumans, and the results were encouraging. While it is unfortunate that opportunities such as this are not afforded to children more regularly, the results still tender some promise in offering youth a wider berth for formulating ideas about animals. As previously noted, children who grow up in a world of violence are more apt to be violent toward animals and, eventually, toward other humans. In this situation, the family unit itself becomes a microcosm of the power relations that make up our social order. In the stories Ascione reports, the husband abuses the wife, children, and/or family pets. As a result, the wife may report abusing her children or the family pets and/or that her children abused and/or killed their

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domestic animals as well. OQH GRPHVWLF DEXVH YLFWLP¶V FRPPHQW encapsulates this pattern of brutality in a chillingly significant way, ³:HZHUHDOOFRQFHUQHGDERXWWKHFDWDQGWKHGRJEXW,ILJXUHGLWZDV better that the animals were dealing with his hostility instead of the kids or P\VHOI WKH VSRXVH´ TWG in Ascione 127). TKLV ZRPDQ¶V honest, albeit disturbing, comment epitomizes the view of animals taught to children: bH NLQG WRDQLPDOV EXWLI \RXDUHQ¶W LW¶V QRWWKDW big a deal, as there are more important things to worry about. Herein, the relationship between the violent familial dynamic and the violence that animals regularly undergo in Western culture is ignored. 2I FRXUVH WKH ZRPDQ¶V FRPPHQW DERYH UHIHUV WR domestic animals. Generally, when investigating or discussing cruelty to animals, relatively little thought is ever given to the animals our culture has designated as food. If that was the case, then all meat and dairy producers and eaters could be accused of cruelty. No matter how one paints the image of animal husbandry, the imprisonment, slaughter and consumption of another living creature combine to form the harshest brutality, but it is one that even the best of families may practice on a daily basis. And this brutality is a norm that children are regularly integrated into, with those who fight to stop the carnage painted as terrorists.

Terror The indoctrination of children into meat-eating culture is, from a radical point of view, brainwashing that results in continued reign of terror over nonhumans. The view of the child as tabula rasa is always followed by questions of conditioning, and these questions exert stronger power since 9/11. In 2008, video footage of children being trained in Al-4DHGDFDPSVVXUIDFHGVKRZLQJ³ER\VDSSDUHQWO\ as young as nine wearing balaclava masks and European football jerseys and brandishing pistols, machine guns and rocket launchers GXULQJ D VHULHV RI WUDLQLQJ H[HUFLVHV´ ³$O-4DHGD 7UDLQLQJ´  7KH image itself is terrifying and heart-wrenching, but all terrorists were once children, and their destructive paths started somewhere. Similarly, all meat eaters were once children, and their destructive paths started somewhere as well. And as tenuous as the connection may be to organizations such as Al-Qaeda, the Surrealists and the ALM use(d) terror to enforce a point as did the 9/11 suicide pilots. However, the terror wielded by the Surrealists and ALM is hardly Al-

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Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

4DHGD¶V EUDQG RI IHDU WKRXJK ERWK JURXSV KDYH EHHQ DVVRFLDWHG however questionably, with violent Muslim extremists, though neither surrealism nor the ALM has ever been directly accused of taking a life. ,Q³'HILQLQJ7HUURULVP´6WHYHQ%HVWDQG$QWKRQ\-1RFHOOD, II note a recent study on terrorism that found 109 different definitions of the word ³WHUURU´ :LWKLQWKHPDQ\ZD\VRQHFDQGHILQHWKDW term, they identify DFRQWLQXDOH[FOXVLRQRI³VWDWHDQGVWDWH-sponsored WHUURULVP DQG VSHFLHV WHUURULVP´   7KLV VHQWLPHQW HFKRHs in *pUDUG &KDOLDQG DQG $UQDXG %OLQ¶V introduction to History of Terrorism ³7RGD\¶V WHUURULVP LV ZKDW VSHFLDOLVWV FDOO JURXS RU bottom-up terrorism, but top-down (state) terrorism has been far more SUHYDOHQWWKURXJKRXWKLVWRU\>«@:HVWHUQWUDGLWLRQFRQVLGHUVYLROHQFH OHJLWLPDWHRQO\ZKHQLWLVSUDFWLFHGE\WKHVWDWH´6). Popularly, terror is associated with outsiders, with the state serving the role of protector from terrorist activities. With 9/11 just ten years in our past, terror is newly significant. Best and Nocella confirm that the state has the ability to use the word terror as a weapon to be wielded against any person, group, or ideology not in keeping with the status quo. Famed activist turned reality T.V. star Paul Watson describes this dynamic in an exceptionally powerful way: ³7KURZ D 0RORWRY FRFNWDLO RQWR D WDQNDQG\RX¶UHDWHUURULVW'URSDQDSDOPERPERQDVFKRROEXVIURP D  PLOOLRQ DLUFUDIW DQG \RX¶UH VWULNLQJ D PLOLWDU\ WDUJHW ,W¶V DOO DERXW WKH SULFH RI WKH KDUGZDUH´   $OWKRXJK WKH SUHFLVH characterization remains ambiguous, a commonality amongst those definitions is that terror works to instill fear into the mass of people in the name of a supposed higher cause. Whether that cause is justified or not is up to the individual to decide. Factions of the radical ALM are seen as domestic terrorists, and even other radical factions condemn their extreme methods. The )HGHUDO %XUHDX RI ,QYHVWLJDWLRQ¶V -2005 unclassified report defines the term: Domestic terrorism is the unlawful use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual based and operating entirely within the United States or Puerto Rico without foreign direction committed against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives. (v)

These guidelines, purposely and frighteningly vague, are continually used against environmental and animal activists. Although property is an open target, no ALF action has resulted in the death or injury of a human being; despite this, ALF agents share pages with Osama bin

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/DGHQDQG$O4DHGDLQWKH)%,¶VUHSRUW3ULVRQHUDQGDFWLYLVW.HYLQ -RQDV FDOOV LW ³DQ LQVXOW WR WKRVH ZKR ORVW ORYHG RQHV LQ UHDO DFWV RI terrorism to diminish cataclysmic events like 9/11 with comparisons to liberated dogs and paint-covHUHG GRRUVWHSV´   7KH )%,¶V definition does nothing to ease the problem of defining of terrorism, and it is just that hazy meaning that has allowed agencies of the state to stifle free speech. In 2003, oft-jailed environmental activist Rod Coronado was DUUHVWHGDVSDUWRIWKH)%,¶V³2SHUDWLRQ%DFNILUH´IRUUHVSRQGLQJWRDQ DXGLHQFHPHPEHU¶VTXHVWLRQ7KHTXHU\UHVXOWHGLQ&RURQDGR¶VYHUEDO explanation of how to build a non-explosive incendiary device. The FBI, with its definition of terrorism in hand HTXDWHG &RURQDGR¶V speech with the literal acts of arson committed by ³eco-warriors.´ Of VXFKHYHQWV)%,'LUHFWRU5REHUW)0XHOOHUUHVSRQGV³3HUVRQVZKR conduct this kind of activity are going to spend a long time in jail, UHJDUGOHVVRIWKHLUPRWLYH´TWGLQ³(FR-7HUURU,QGLFWPHQWV´ ,QWKH post-9/11 cultural arena, dissention equals terrorism. Consequently, radical activists cannot be anything other than terrorists. By governmental standards, they are always already terrorists. Governmental agencies and statutes such as the Patriot Act have DEXVHGWKHWHUP³WHUURU´DVDZHDSRQLQWKHwar against terror. At its core, terror is about inducing fear, which is a common reaction to most anything that is outside the margins of the expected. The Surrealists produced a terroristic art as well, but one that leads to redefinitions of terror that also apply to the ALM. Surreal art ³LQWHQGHGWRSURYRNHDQGIUXVWUDWH´DQGLQWUXHWRSDUDGR[LFDOIRUPLW ³PRFN>HG@ WKH DXGLHQFH ZKLFK LW QHYHUWKHOHVV QHHG>HG@ LQ RUGHU WR IXQFWLRQDVDQDOWHUQDWLYHUDGLFDODUWIRUP´%UDGOH\ +HUEHUW5HDG poses surUHDOLVPDV³DQHJDWLYHDUW>«@DGHVWUXFWLYHDUW´WKDWH[LVWHG WR SRNH KROHV LQ WKH ROG ³VRFLDO UHDOLW\´ WKDW KH GHVFULEHV KHUH, the same reality that the avant-garde ALM is still attempting to destroy: ³The logic of the facts²the economic facts: war, poverty amidst plenty, social injustice²that logic cannot be denied. But so long as the bourgeois mind has its bourgeois ideology, it will deny the facts; it will construct an elaborate rationalisation which effectively ignores WKHP´(126). Within the literary and visual arts, surreal terror was essentially linked to new ways of seeing, much as it is with the ALM. 6XUUHDODUWDWWHPSWHG³WRGLVFUHGLWDQGGHVWDELOL]HSHUFHLYHGQRUPDOLW\ Surrealist artists manipulated recognisable objects, blurring the boundary EHWZHHQ WKH UHDO DQG WKH LPDJLQDU\´ %UDGOH\   Fiona

40

Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

%UDGOH\XVHV5HQp0DJULWWH¶VIDPRXVThe Treachery of Images as an example of this destruction.12 His realistic painting of a pipe is underwritten with the denial that one is seeing a pipe. Of course, this is true; the observer is seeing a representation of a pipe, not the thing LWVHOI 7KH LPDJH WKHUHIRUH LV WUHDFKHURXV LQ WKDW LW LV ³PDNLQJ XV µVHH¶VRPHWKLQJDUHDOSLSH WKDWLVQRWUHDOO\WKHUH3HUKDSVHYHQUHDO pipes are treacherous. The painting makes us doubt that we can rely RQRXUSHUFHSWLRQRIWKLQJV´%UDGOH\ 0HUHW2SSHQKHLP¶VObject (Fur Breakfast) provides another example of this revisioning that is even more directly relevant to the cause of the ALM (though she likely did not have animal liberation in mind when she constructed the piece in 1936). Her fur-covered tea cup, saucer, and spoon become vaginal as the viewer, by habit, considers bringing the object to his/her OLSV WKXV D ³IDPLOLDU REMHFW [becomes an] erotic fantasy of oral and vaginal VH[XDO SOHDVXUH´ %UDGOH\   When applying feministvegetarian theory to this object, however, we see the animal behind the representation of woman. The vaginal metaphor could not exist without the fur of a dead animal and perhaps without the animal bone used in the production of the tea cup china (the extent to which animal bodies underlie avant-garde art will be explored in Chapter Two). Other examples of awakening perception abound within surreal art, but this is just one element of surreal terror. Their work was shocking, obscene, irreverent, grotesque, weird, and terrifying, but terroristic? Yes, though not in the sense that modern audiences define terror, which is clouded by the events of 9/11. One must recall that surrealism was more than just an arts movement. Surrealism was a life force that extended beyond paper and canvas, and it was in the realm of interventionist activity that it most directly considered the UROH RI WHUURU LQ WKH YHLQ RI WRGD\¶V GRPHVWLF VRFLDO DFWLYLVWV 7KH Surrealists were terrorists in the same way as the radical ALM in that their leftist politics, often augmented by brilliant but angry rhetoric, did not meet the criteria of the status quo. In the 1950s, surrealism shifted, dredging up questions of revolutionary approach and the use of violence that continue to cause ideological ruptures in the ALM through welfare/abolitionism and violence/non-violence disputes. The first of those questions, relevant then as now, is tersely phrased by Maurice Merleau-Ponty LQ KLV UHVSRQVH WR 5XVVLD¶V 5HG 2FWREHU: ³&DQWKH5HYROXWLRQHPHUJHIURP7HUURU"´ 

12

Pelle Strindlund, animal liberator and political prisoner, keeps a picture of 0DJULWWH¶VSLSHLQKLVMDLOFHOO

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,Q ³$QWLKXPDQLVP DQG 7HUURU 6XUUHDOLVP 7KHRU\ DQG WKH 3RVWZDU/HIW´-RQDWKDQ3(EXrne summarizes the plight of the midtwentieth century Surrealists, a plight grounded within Merleau3RQW\¶VTXHVWLRQ The surrealist movement¶V SROLWLFDO WKLQNLQJ RI WKH V >«@ confronted the ethical and epistemological stakes of contemplating violence as a political weapon. Surrealist thinking >«@ VKDUHG ZLWK H[LVWHQWLDOLVP DQG DQWLFRORQLDOLVP D theoretical project that strove to assimilate the spiritual or intellectual liberation promised by avant-gardism with the practical liberation of insurrectional politics. Yet it sought to do this in ways that avoided the formalism, and thus the systematic YLROHQFH RI ³WRWDOLWDULDQ´ LGHRORJLFDO SODWIRUPV ZKHWKHU communist, fascist, or even humanist. (43, emphasis added)

The 1950s marked a key moment for the Surrealists, for they had already become disillusioned with Communism/Stalinism and were metaphorically remembering the socio-historical events that lead to their formation in the 1920s.13 (EXUQH¶V SDVVDJH RQ ³DYDQW-JDUGLVP´ DQG ³LQVXUUHFWLRQDO SROLWLFV´ OHJLWimates the political and practical power of the aesthetic avant-garde, while also stressing why Breton and company were fearful of becoming part of the institutional apparatus of art. Once academized within the institution, the eyeopening potential of art becomes confined to that world only; thus, the meaning and its impact are confined as well. Bombing a café and killing civilians is one thing, but V\VWHPDWLFDOO\ FKDQJLQJ SHRSOH¶V SHUFHSWLRQV RI WKH ZRUOG²of their government, religion, mores, food, and commodities²is infinitely more powerful and terrifying than isolated, though devastating and eye-FDWFKLQJ LQVWDQFHV RI YLROHQFH +DEHUPDV GHFODUHV ³VKRUWVLJKWHG´WKRVH³ZKROLQNWKHSURMHFWRIPRGHUQLW\ZLWKWKHFRQVFLRXV DWWLWXGHVDQGVSHFWDFXODUSXEOLFGHHGVRILQGLYLGXDOWHUURULVWV´DQGKH ZDUQV WKDW ³WHUURULVW DFWLYLWLHV PD\ EH FRQQHFWHG >«@ with the inclination to aestheticize politics, to replace politics with moral ULJRULVPRUWRVXEMXJDWHSROLWLFVWRGRJPDWLFGRFWULQHV´³0RGHUQLW\´ 50). Though symbolic, the terrorist activities that Habermas refers to are but a mirror of the oppressive systems the terrorist protests. This is why the reconceptualizing power of art is important for social change, IRUDUW³LWLVVDLGLVnot a mirror, but a hammer: it does not reflect, it shapes´7URWVN\ 

13

Along with WWI, Eburne notes that the Surrealists were also critical of French colonialism and the suppression of anti-colonial uprisings in Morocco.

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Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

Symbolic acts²of writing, art, or performance²can change PLQGVDQGWKHW\UDQW¶VZRUVWIHDULVWKDWWKHPDVVRIKLVDGKHUHQWVZLOO perceive him differently, perhaps as a tyrant. The Surrealists acted on this truth in a potent way, leading not just to calls for a bloody UHYROXWLRQEXWWR³DQLQVXUUHFWLRQZLWKLQWKRXJKW´(EXUQH 0DQ\ Surrealists defected to the Communist rebellion, only to learn that it would be violent. Merleau-3RQW\ VWDWHV ³,Q UHVXPLQJ WKH GHEDWH between right, left, and center Communists, we have placed ourselves in the unfinished world of the revolutionary, which as we have seen is D ZRUOG RI 7HUURU IRU HYHU\RQH´   $V DQ DYDQW-garde, the 1950s Surrealists rejected the logic of the ignoble terrorist, and their perspectives on the violent revolution has been adopted by factions of the anarchist ALM: We cannot force people to make moral and ethical choices while WKH\¶UH VWDULQJ GRZQ WKH EDUUHO RI D JXQ²metaphorical or otherwise. Instead, as Lee Hall writes, we must do the hard work RI ³FXOWLYDWLQJ DQ DOWHUQDWLYH YLHZSRLQW´ DERXt how animals are treated in our society, with the ultimate goal of creating a societal paradigm shift. (Torres 142).

7KH³KDUGZRUN´LVWRH[HFXWHDn insurrection within the human mind, OHDGLQJWRWKHWHUULI\LQJPRPHQWVWKDW$GDPVGHVFULEHVZKHQ³DIDFW EHFRPHVDFRQWUDGLFWLRQ´7KLVOHJDF\RIVXUUHDOLVPLVZKDWPDNHVLW so exceptional within the history of Western discourse. Eburne IRUFHIXOO\ FRQFOXGHV WKDW ³VXUUHDOLVP¶s essential contribution to WZHQWLHWK FHQWXU\ WKRXJKW >ZDV@ QRW >«@ LQ µSUHSDULQJ WKH PLQG¶ IRU the atrocities of terrorism and the Holocaust, but in preparing the mind to defend itself against the forms of ideological closure that guarantee WKHFRQWLQXDWLRQRIVXFKDWURFLWLHV´ 14 Similarly, the ALM works WR GHIHQG DQLPDOV DJDLQVW WKH ³LGHRORJLFDO FORVXUH´ WKDW ZLOO ³JXDUDQWHH WKH FRQWLQXDWLRQ RI >«@ DWURFLWLHV´ DJDLQVW WKHP Surrealism offered the world a bizarre beauty through its art and poetry, as much scholarship has noted, but their interventionist activities and (a)political philosophies are also beautiful, aweinspiring, eye-opening, and a necessary legacy for the project of the avant-JDUGH$/07KH³KDUGZRUN´RIFXOWLYDWLQJWKH³VDYDJH´H\HLV the responsibility of the noble terrorist, as opposed to an accounting of monetary damage or, at worst, a body count.

14

This FRQFOXVLRQ FRPHV DIWHU (EXUQH¶V DUJXLQJ DJDLQVW -HDQ &ODLU¶V VWDWHPHQW WKDW VXUUHDOLVP¶V VW\OH RI ³DYDQW JDUGH UKHWRULF >« LWV@ LQVXOWV DQG YLROHQW SROHPLFV´ DUH complicit in catastrophes such as 9/11 (42).

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Surrealism, the Animal Liberation Movement, and the Unmet Challenges of Desire For desire is violence, it transforms others into means. ²Ferdinand Alquié

,Q ¶V Un Cadavre, the Surrealists list the obstacles against ZKLFKOLEHUDWLRQVWUXJJOHV³/HWWKHGD\EHDKROLGD\ZKHQZH bury cunning, traditionalism, patriotism, opportunism, skepticism, UHDOLVP DQG ODFN RI KHDUW´ TWG LQ *DOH   I@RU desire is violence, it transforms others into PHDQV´²is a reality that, if not attended to, leads to perpetuation of the exploitive use of all animal bodies, human and nonhuman. At this point in critical history, it would be much more remarkable to prove that the Surrealists were not misogynists, as acceptance of the opposite is fairly commonplace and possibly passé. That said, I must briefly comment on their misogyny for its relevance to the ALM, as the Surrealists used women as the ALM uses women and as the world uses animals. Surreal sexism is of particular note for, as mentioned, they were very astute at tracing and decrying cultural assumptions, so their omission of women is suspect. There were women in surrealism, especially beginning in the 1930s. But, to ERUURZ D WHUP IURP 6XOHLPDQ WKH\ H[LVWHG ZLWKLQ WKH ³PDUJLQV´ RI VXUUHDOLVP DQG EHWZHHQ  DQG  WKH 6XUUHDOLVWV¶ ³PRVW G\QDPLF DQG µDVFHQGDQW¶ SHULRG´ WKHUH ZDV QR IHPDOH PHPEHUVKLS  1RZRPHQ³KDGEHHQOLVWHGDVRIILFLDOPHPEHUVRIWKHRULJLQDO VXUUHDOLVWPRYHPHQWQRUKDGWKH\VLJQHGWKHPDQLIHVWRHV>«@>:@KHQ the women were included by Breton and the male Surrealists, a full recognition of their conceptual and creative force seems ODFNLQJ´ (Raaberg 2). When women were allowed into the inner sanctum, it was most often as younger lovers and mates of the traditional Surrealists. Youth and sexual attachment to other members of the group were assuredly not prerequisites for male membership HVSHFLDOO\FRQVLGHULQJ%UHWRQ¶VZLGHO\DFNQRZOHGJHGKRPRSKRELD .

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Women were objects for the Surrealists, whether fragmented in a painting or worshiped in a poem. Gwen Raaberg contends that in surreal poetry women are lauded and in surreal art they are objectified; either action circumscribes woman and takes away the wide range of human capabilities at her disposal. In poetry, the surreal woman is praised for her youth and beauty, but then cast aside. For BretRQLQSDUWLFXODUZRPDQZDVDPHUH³UpVXPpRIWKHP\VWHULHVRI 1DWXUH´ $OTXLp   )ORZHU\ YHUELDJH DVLGH 0DU\ $QQ &DZV EOXQWO\DVVHUWV³1RZ,DFWXDOO\WKLQN%UHWRQKDGVRPHSUREOHPVZLWK WKHIHPDOHJHQGHU+HUHDOO\GLG´ :RPHQZHUHHVVHQWLDOWR the philosophies of surrealism, as were children, because they seemed closer to a natural state of wonder and naiveté. They symbolized the irrational and were seen as unburdened by sophisticated intellects. For WKH6XUUHDOLVWVZRPHQH[LVWHGDWD³VLWHRI exchange between dream DQGUHDOLW\´%UDGOH\  ,Q ³6XUUHDOLVP DQG 0LVRJ\Q\´ 5XGROSK .XHQ]OL FULWLTXHV D contemporary retrospective of surrealist art arranged by avant-garde art theorist Rosalind Krauss. His critiques of both the Surrealists and .UDXVV¶VDEVROXWLRQRIWKHLUVH[LVPDUHVRZHOO-stated that I quote him at length: The Surrealists lived in their own masculine world, with their eyes closed,16 the better to construct their male phantasms of the IHPLQLQH >«@ 7KHVH PDVFXOLQH GUHDPV SOD\ DQ active part in SDWULDUFK\¶VPLVRJ\QLVWLFSRVLWLRQLQJRIZRPHQ>«@6XUUHDOLVWDUW and poetry is addressed to men; women are only means to bring DERXWWKHVHZRUNV>«@:RPHQDUHWRWKHPDOH6XUUHDOLVWVDVLQ the longstanding traditions of patriarchy, servants, helpers in the forms of child muse, virgin, femme-enfant, angel, celestial creature which is their salvation, or erotic object, model doll²she may be the threat of castration in the forms of ubiquitous praying mantis and other devouring female animals [«@ 7KHVH SRZHU relations are not natural but social constructs, and the male 6XUUHDOLVWV¶ EODWDQW UHLQIRUFHPHQW RI SDWULDUFKDO SRZHU UHODWLRQV should not be theorized away in order to redeem surrealism. (18; 19; 25)

.XHQ]OL¶Vdelineation of surreal misogyny leads to the question: Why not women? In the surreal zeal to clear the smoky haze that had blurred the vision of humankind for centuries, how could they miss women as an oppressed people? How could they not see that in order to fuse art with life, they needed to be more inclusive? During the 16

0DQ\ FULWLFV FLWH 0DJULWWH¶V The Hidden Woman to exemplify their blindness to women. In a reproduction of it that was published in La Révolution Surréaliste in 0DJULWWH¶VQDNHGZRPDQFRYHUVKHUEUHDVWDQGORRNVDZD\ZKLOHVXUURXQGHGE\ photographs of closed-eyed Surrealists.

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Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

salad days of surrealism, women still did not have the right to vote in France, a right that would not be extended until 1944. In their quest for cultural emancipation and intellectual freedom, how could women not be invited en masse to hop on the surrealist liberation train? How could they not see how much they needed women? In short, they GLGQ¶WZDQWWR7RDFNQRZOHGJHWKHreality of women was to give up the pleasure that woman brought them as her superiors. In kind, to acknowledge the reality of animals is to give up the pleasure that comes from eating them. The existence of women within the movement does not excuse surreal misogyny. Therefore, I will not gynocritically tender names of female Surrealists. To offer those names is to fall into the trap of attempting to redeem the Surrealists from their misogyny. Yes, WKHUHZHUHZRPHQLQVXUUHDOLVPEXWWKH\³ZHUHDOPRVWWRWDOO\DEVHQW [from major discussions,] just as they were absent from wider DFWLYLW\´ *DOH   In a recent analysis of the avant-garde, Sell DIILUPVWKDW³>V@LQFHWKHV>VFKRODUVKDYH@VKRZQWKDWWKHDYDQWJDUGH LV (XURFHQWULF VH[LVW UDFLVW DQG KRPRSKRELF >«@ $QG LW V disturbingly similar to colonialist models of expansive power. Feminist thHRU\ KDV EHHQ HVSHFLDOO\ LPSRUWDQW LQ WKLV FULWLTXH´ The Avant-Garde: Race Religion War 2). Surrealism was no exception, being as it was a bastion of male privilege, power, and desire. To interrogate surreal desire is to interrogate their idol, leading to problems of desire that resound the plight of animals in contemporary culture. For the Surrealists, the infamous Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) was the emblem of liberation in their goal to GHVWUR\ WKRVH ³ERQGV LPSRVHG E\ IDPLO\ PRUDOLW\ DQG UHOLJLRQ´ (Nadeau 50). Sade represents pure desire over all else, but desire is not magnanimous. While it can take altruistic forms, it can just as easily result in violence and oppression. Desire does not necessitate respect or compassion, and it is often based in loathing or complete indifference to the fate of that which is sought, leading to mottos such as 6DGH¶V ³$Q\ HQMR\PHQW LV ZHDNHQHG ZKHQ VKDUHG´ qtd. in Wainhouse and Seaver 22). Alquié, noting the surreal adoration of 6DGHVWDWHV³)RUGHVLUHLVYLROHQFHLt transforms others into means. It PD\ LQGLIIHUHQWO\ >«@ ILQG DQ H[FLWHPHQW LQ WKHLU VXIIHULQJ >«@ 1R one has revealed more clearly than Sade the ambivalence of sentiment DQG WKH DPELJXLW\ RI WKLV LGHD RI KXPDQ QDWXUH´   $OTXLp unwittingly defines the animal hunt, an activity based in desire for flesh and an enjoyment in the hunt and slaughter of the creature being VRXJKW ,Q ³3RHWLF (YLGHQFH´ 6XUUHDOLVW 3DXO eOXDUG H[SODLQV 6DGH¶V

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VLJQLILFDQFH DVVHUWLQJ WKDW KH ³ZLVKHG WR JLYH EDFN WR FLYLOLVHG PDQ the force of his primitive instincts, he wished to liberate the amorous imagination from its fixations. He believed that in this way, and only LQWKLVZD\ZRXOGWUXHHTXDOLW\EHERUQ´ However, the concept of equality seems misplaced in discussion of a man who raped women, by a member of a movement that forgot women, and by a group of men who often desired without integrity. Within the same WUDFWeOXDUGVWDWHV³0DQKDVFRQVWDQWO\WREHDZDUHRIKLVVXSUHPDF\ over nature in order to guard himself agDLQVWLWDQGFRQTXHULW´  Women and animals were connected to eOXDUG¶VFRQFHSWRIWKHQDWXUH RYHU ZKLFK PHQ UXOHG ,Q WKH \HDUV DIWHU 6DGH¶V GHDWK LQWHOOHFWXDOV KDYHWRDSSURSULDWH.XHQ]OL³WKHRUL]HGDZD\´6DGH¶VDFWLRQVDJDLQVW women, and they have subsequently re-visioned him as a liberated individual victimized by a repressed society unable to realize his brilliance. If the difference between a maniac and an eccentric is money, to paraphrase an old joke, then it would further seem that the difference between a paragon and a fiend is time, the time it takes for historians, scholars, and intellectuals to decide on vilification or adoration. The Marquis de Sade was adored by the Surrealists and by other intellectuals, even feminist writers such as Simone de Beauvoir. ,QFRQWUDVWUDGLFDOIHPLQLVW$QGUHD'ZRUNLQSDLQWVKLPDV³UDSLVWDQG ZULWHUWZLVWHGLQWRRQHVFXUY\NQRW´DV³SUHFXUVRUWR$UWDXG¶VWKHDWHU RIFUXHOW\´DQGDVDPDQIRUZKRP³UDSHLVIRUHSOD\´Pornography 70; 71; 92). Sade was an elitist who depended on his class standing to remain unpunished for his crimes against women. By encasing his violence in eloquent revolutionary prose, his actions became justifiable. Accordingly, his rapes and brutal actions against women are forgiven and the women themselves are forgotten. Dworkin writes, ³:KDWKDSSHQVWRPHQLVSRUWUD\HGDVDXWKHQWLFVLJQLILFDQWDQGZKDW happens to women is left out or shown not to matter [consequently, «@ 6DGH WKH 9LFWLP >RI UHSUHVVLRQ@ LV ZULW ODUJH 6DGH¶V YLFWLPV >Rf VH[XDOYLROHQFH@DUHZULWWHQRXW´; 83). 7KLVZDVWKH³FHQWUDOILJXUH [of the surreal] SDQWKHRQ´1DGHDX  To look at surreal visions of women is to confirm the presence RIWKHLUPDVWHU*DOHQRWHVWKDWWKHLUXVHRIZRPHQLV³6DGHDQ´ZLWK Kuenzli asserting that the Surrealists (and Sade by association) ³IHWLVKL]HVWKHIHPDOHILJXUHKHGHIRUPVGLVILJXUHVPDQLSXODWHVKHU KHOLWHUDOO\PDQKDQGOHVKHULQRUGHUWRUHHVWDEOLVKKLVRZQHJR´  7KHZRPHQWKHPVHOYHV6DGH¶VYLFWLPVDUHIRUJRWWHQDQd when one removes history from living creatures, human or nonhuman, ³WKHUHLV

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Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

nothing more to be said about them; any comment about them EHFRPHV SXUHO\ WDXWRORJLFDO´ Barthes 101). From the surreal catalogue, photographs such as Man 5D\¶VElectricity confirm this: a IDPLOLDULPDJHRIDZRPDQ¶VWRUVRZLWKKHDGDQGOLPEVRPLWWHGIURP the frame. Caws summarizes this take on women in the surreal arts: ³+HDGOHVV$QGDOVRIRRWOHVV2IWHQDUPOHVVWRRDQGDOZD\VXQDUPHG H[FHSWZLWKSRHWU\DQGSDVVLRQ´ . This is violence. Taking away a OLYLQJ FUHDWXUH¶V KLVWRU\ is violence. The Surrealists and Sade DSSURSULDWHG WKH IHPDOH ERG\ ZKHQ ZRPHQ ZDQWHG  ³FRQWURO RYHU WKHLUERGLHVDQGDYRLFHZLWKZKLFKWRVSHDNDERXWLW´6XOHLPDQ  If the legacy of surrealism is to continue to have meaning, this dilemma of desire is best exposed and seen differently. To see anew is to accept that fulfillment of desire, for metaphorical female flesh or literal animal flesh, is not a human right. The above may read as heavy accusations, heavy enough to cause one to ponder what surrealism as a philosophical, artistic, and political movement even has to offer women.17 First, the avant-garde as a whole has something to offer because women are always already avant-garde, insofar as avant-garde signifies marginalization. 6XOHLPDQGHFODUHV³WKDWDYDQW-garde movements have willfully chosen their marginal position, the better to launch attacks at the center, whereas women have more often than not been relegated to the PDUJLQV´   6Hcondly, surrealist thought was diligent and revolutionary in a way that is still of profound significance in the new millennium. As cultural gardeners, the Surrealists focused on weeds in the Western world, ignoring the insidious growths within their own dRPDLQV 6R ZKLOH WKH 6XUUHDOLVWV ZHUHQ¶W DOZD\V VR JUHDW WKHLU platforms very often were: Perhaps the greatest advantage [of surrealism] [«@LVWKDWZLWKLQ the context of the avant-garde, women writers and artists have been able actively to assert their marginality and their difference, and self-consciously to enlist their position as Other in Western culture in a direct confrontation of oppressive bourgeois society >«@ 0RUHRYHU VXUUHDOLVW SULQFLSOHV ZHUH GHGLFDWHG WR EUHDNLQJ down the binary positions of mind/body, rational/irrational, and art/nature that had functioned to identify women with the rejected terms²body, irrationality, nature²and situate her in an inferior position. (Raaberg 8)

Gwen Raaberg identifies the importance of surrealism for women, and for the ALM, within the deconstruction of binaries, to which I add 17 This is especially true for surrealism, as opposed to other avant-gardes, as Suleiman notes this French movement was more sexist and exclusionary than their counterparts from other regions of Europe and America.

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KXPDQDQLPDOeOXDUGGHFODUHVVXUUHDOLVPWREH³DVWDWHRIPLQG´WKDW VWULYHV ³WR OLEHUDWH WKH YLVLRQ´ DQG WKHUHin to liberate the whole self (222), but the Surrealists also acknowledged that the individual is not DQ LVRODWHG EHLQJ ,Q  %UHWRQ SURQRXQFHG WKDW ³PDQ EHORQJV WR KLPVHOIOHVVWKDQHYHU>«] [and] is held responsible for the totality of KLV DFWV QR ORQJHU EHIRUH D VLQJOH FRQVFLHQFH >«@ EXW EHIRUH WKH collective conscience of all those who want to have no more to do ZLWKDPRQVWURXVV\VWHPRIVODYHU\DQGKXQJHU´³3ROLWLFDO3RVLWLRQ´ 212). Thus, within the body of surreal texts, the very problems of desire that the Surrealists raise they can also begin to answer. Ultimately, the Surrealists proper, for all of their revolutionary spunk, enjoyed using women too much to disengage from patriarchy and the dispensations that ensue from it. Paradoxically, while they understood and critiqued the use of the female body as a convention of Western academized art, their revisioned woman was not sufficient because she was still without voice or bodily control. They responded to the traditional representations of the female form by cutting off her head and limbs, leaving the usable parts behind, echoing the proclamation of American serial killer Edmund Kemper, III: ³With a girl, there¶s a lot left in the girl¶s body without a head. Of course, the SHUVRQDOLW\ LV JRQH´ TWG LQ 6FRWW  $JDLQ desire is not respect, compassion, or consideration, and it most certainly does not lead to liberation. In the United States, meat is most often brought to the dinner table as portions of an animal whose head was discarded before its parts were packaged for sale. To paraphrase Kemper, there is a lot leIWRIDQDQLPDO¶VERG\RQFHWKHKHDGLVJRQH As Surrealists forgot women, those who decry oppression of women have forgotten animals, and groups who decry oppression of animals have forgotten women. This forgetting ignores that oppressions are not cordoned off from each other, hatching from completely distinct cultural and ideological places and discourses. Feminists, specifically Marxist/socialist/anti-capitalist feminists, have continued to ignore the animal question without thought to the barbarity that precedes animal consumption or the ways in which said barbarity is part and parcel to the patriarchal economic structures they disavow. Why? Because those who want to change the world have to be willing to give up what they enjoy of that world. Animal products are enjoyable, and many are not willing to give them up. Western FXOWXUH HQMR\V FRQVXPLQJ ERGLHV DQG DV 6DGH VDLG ³7R ORYH DQG WR HQMR\DUHWZRYHU\GLIIHUHQWWKLQJV´TWGLQeOXDUG +DPEXUJHUV taste good, so we ignore where the meat comes from. Women look

50

Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

good²of course, there is a specific image of beauty that is prized over others²VRZHYLVXDOO\FRQVXPHWKHP³IRUJHWWLQJ´WKHUHDOOLIHEHKLQG the objectified body. Feminists who ignore the animal question are no different than any other human animal who gets pleasure from consuming nonhuman animals because they are supposedly delicious. 'RD*RRJOHVHDUFKIRU³YHJDQSRUQ´DQG\RXZLOOJHWD:HE VLWH FDOOHG MXVW WKDW IROORZHG E\ WKH FDYHDW ³1HZV DQG LQIRUPDWLRQ for vegans. This iVQRWDQDFWXDOSRUQVLWH´+HUHLVDQH[DPSOHRIWKH ALM attempting change by any means necessary, aware that the promise of the naked female form will get mouse clicks. Organizations such as PETA skip the trickery, however, offering titillating, though conventional, images of women to get attention. They bind, gag, cage, and strip women. Unlike nonhuman animals, women have a choice to be stripped, bound, and put in cages, but that is just the polemic I am getting at²why that choice? With 80% female membership, why are the most famous men of the ALM superintellects while the most famous women of the ALM are supermodels? More importantly, do these images of women even work to make one go vegan? Will this reliance on pornographic images of supermodels masturbating with vegetables get a hard core meat eater to go vegan²or will this just make him hard? Feminists and factions of the ALM are often failing to make these connections. The ALM attempts to meet the challenge of desire for animals by replacing it with DGHVLUHIRUZRPHQEXWWKH³GHVLUHLV>VWLOO@YLROHQFH LWWUDQVIRUPVRWKHUVLQWRPHDQV´ When PETA launches a campaign that uses female flesh to protest consumption of animal flesh, they maintain the same hope of the Surrealists. What will you see wheQ\RXORRNDW/RWDU¶VLa Villette Abattoir RU 2SSHQKHLP¶V Object (Fur Breakfast), and how will what you see assist you in seeing a new reality? Will you see, as Alex Russell does, BatailleDQ³ULWXDOVDFULILFHDVDIRUPRIVH[XDOGHVLUHDQG WUDQVJUHVVLRQ´ZKHQ\RXORRNDW/RWDU¶VSKRWR":LOO\RXVHHDV)LRQD %UDGOH\ GRHV WKH IHWLVKL]HG YDJLQD ZKHQ \RX ORRN DW 2SSHQKHLP¶V object? Or will you see, as the animal activist does, fragments of an animal appropriated in life and in death? I began section two with a question by Rebecca Schneider, as posed in her study of ZRPHQ¶V SHUIRUPDQFH DUW ³+RZ GR ZH VHH IRU D VHFRQG WLPH"´   6KH proposes that seeing for a second time means finally giving women agency in a culture that has objectified and commodified them. Does this mean that animal activists see for a third time? Yes, further meaning that groups such as PETA are hardly seeing anything at all,

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wrapped up as they are in the mainstream conventions of the beauty myth as a way to sell the product of animal liberation. While PETA maintains the hope of the Surrealists, they are bound to fail in that their second sight is myopic, and they are something that the Surrealists never were²boring. PETA, much like WKH6XUUHDOLVWVQHJOHFWVWRDGGUHVVZKDW$GDPVFDOOV³LQWerconnected RSSUHVVLRQV´DQGWKH\EX\LQWRWKHDGYHUWLVLQJVWUDWHJLHVRIWKHYHU\ corporate America that is funded by the slaughter of animals.18 In ³)HPLQLVP DQG )XU´ 7KHUHVD 3ODWW D VSLQ GRFWRU IRU WKH 86 )XU Commission of all things, appraises PETA as a capitalist FRQJORPHUDWH ³$V D FRUSRUDWLRQ 3(7$ FDQ SD\ SHRSOH WR GR whatever is legal to sell its product. Most corporations use goodlooking people to hawk cars, cigarettes, and, yes, fur coats, so there is QR UHDVRQ WR OLPLW FRUSRUDWH 3(7$´ 2QFH again, PETA may get attention by relying on the beauty myth, but getting a man or woman to look at a nearly naked gorgeous woman does not lead to seeing animals, human or nonhuman, differently. Seeing for a third time, seeing animals behind our commodities, is not done to the exclusion of other subjugated groups. 5DWKHULWLVDFNQRZOHGJLQJWKDWWKH$/0LVWKH³ERWWRPDQGEDVLV´RI other liberational movements. The Surrealists too attempted to be holistic activists who, to paraphrase André Breton, found the highest SHDN RI H[FLWHPHQW LQ WKH ZRUG ³IUHHGRP´ 7KH\ ZDQWHG OLEHUDWLRQ from political tyranny and Western logic. Reason-based binary WKRXJKWKDG³SURYLGHGDWHPSODWHIRURSSUHVVLRQLQJHQHUDOHVSHFLDOO\ DW D WLPH RI JURZLQJ :HVWHUQ FRORQLDOLVP >«@ 7KH animalization of FHUWDLQSHRSOHV>ZDV@PDGHµORJLFDO¶E\WKHYHU\YHUWLFDOPDWFKLQJVRI :HVWHUQ GXDOLVPV´ 7ZLQH  . The Surrealists abhorred colonialism as an outcome of the Enlightenment dialectic, and they used collage as an art form to recontextualize this reality and make seeable those things that had been negated. Their unusual methods and perspectives were viewed with suspicion and terror, but still gave them the forums they craved; and they were, though stymied by what to do with Communism, anarchiVWVDWWKHLUFRUH,IRQO\WKH\KDGQ¶WEHHQVH[LVW Heirs to the holistic activism of the Surrealists is the new avant-garde, in both the political and aesthetic senses. The difference is that the new garde extends freedom to all, even nonhuman animals. If only the new avant-JDUGHZDVQ¶WVWLOOVH[LVWKROLVWLFDFWLYLVP PD\ 18

Use of capitalist techniques is intentional. SHH %UXFH )ULHGULFK¶V ³(IIHFWLYH $GYRFDF\6WHDOLQJIURPWKH&RUSRUDWH3OD\ERRN´DQG³7KH&(2DV$QLPDO$FWLYLVW -RKQ0DFNH\DQG:KROH)RRGV´E\0DFNH\.DUHQ'DZQDQG/DXUHQ2UQHODV.

52

Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

KDYHDEHWWHUFKDQFH,Q³6SHFLHVLVP5DFLVP1DWLRQDOLVP«RUWKH 3RZHU RI 6FLHQWLILF 6XEMHFWLYLW\´ 6XVDQQH .DSSHOHU explains what holistic activists contend against: We need to understand how masculinity, capitalism, white supremacy, speciesism, Western nationalisms and Western internationalisms, science, professionalism, educationalism and culturalism, eugenics, reproductive technology and population control, etc. combine to build a formidable power pyramid, a megapower system of interlocking forms of oppression and exploitation, which requires our combined resistance if we really mean to dismantle it rather than just reshuffle a few positions for some on the oppression ladder. (324)

Kappeler breaks down the usual binaries of oppression: white/black, man/woman, adult/child, Western/Third World, human/animal. Rather, oppression is a pyramid; the powerful elite are on top, and the oppression trickles down to the weakest. Adams declares that we ³KDYH WR VWRS IUDJPHQWLQJ DFWLYLVP ZH FDQQRW SRODUL]H KXPDQ DQG DQLPDOVXIIHULQJVLQFHWKH\DUHLQWHUUHODWHG´Sexual Politics 16). Bob Torres agrees, noting how groups such as PETA have fetishized animal suffering to the exclusion of other oppressions, concluding that LI³ZHDUHWRFKDOOHQJHKLHUDUFK\DQGGRPLQDWLRQDFURVVWKHVSHFWUXP of society, we must question all hierarchy, including the hierarchy of KXPDQVRYHURWKHUKXPDQV´06). The distinctions that Kappeler, Adams and Torres make should not be underestimated, for they begin to answer the accusations of essentialism often leveled against ecofeminists and female animal rights activists. ,Q 'RQQD +DUDZD\¶V ³&\ERUJ 0DQLIHVWR´ she proposes not a biological essentialism, but a sort of trans-cultural essentialism: 7KHUH LV QRWKLQJ DERXW EHLQJ ³IHPDOH´ WKDW QDWXUDOO\ ELQGV ZRPHQ7KHUHLVQRWHYHQVXFKDVWDWHDV³EHLQJ´IHPDOHLWVHOID highly complex category constructed in contested sexual scientific discourses and other social practices. Gender, race, or class consciousness is an achievement forced on us by the terrible historical experience of the contradictory social realities of patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism. (Simians 155)

$GGLWLRQDOO\ WKHUH LV QR SURRI RI DQ\WKLQJ ³WKDW QDWXUDOO\ ELQGV ZRPHQ´ WR DQLPDOV , DP QRW interested in explaining exactly why 80% of those within the ALM are women, but I can take as guess as to why the voices of the ALM are predominately male²the cultural assumption that reason has supremacy over emotion. Tradition argues that men are reasonable and women HPRWLRQDO 7KXV ZRPHQ¶V laboring ERGLHVDUHDFFRXWUHPHQWVWRPHQ¶Vphilosophical minds in the mainstream ALM.

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Brian Luke notes that Peter Singer and Tom Regan² utilitarian and rights-based philosophers, respectively²³FKDUDFWHUL]H HPRWLRQDVDQXQUHOLDEOHEDVLVIRUHWKLFDOGHFLVLRQV´DQGKHZDUQVWKDW until sympathy, emotion, and compassion are given footing equal to or greater than reason, ZH DUH IRUHYHU ³GUDZQ WRZDUG DXWKRULWDULDQ VWUXFWXUHV´DQG³SDWULDUFKDOHWKLFV´³*RLQJ)HUDO´ 7KHERWWRP line is that the heartache and rage one feels at knowing that bacon can only exist if a pig has been slaughtered (and they are all slaughtered, HYHQ WKRVH ³KXPDQHO\´ UDLVHG) is more difficult to express on paper than the finely-honed philosophical discourses that Singer and Regan offer. Reason is not the enemy, but it can too easily become the tyrant. Lynda Birke, biologist and feminist, cautions that scientific reason can ODSVH LQWR D SDWKRORJLFDO REMHFWLYLVP WKDW ³GHQLHV IHHOLQJV LQFOXGLQJ the possibility of feelings of sympathy toward the objects of study²to the nonhumans, the environPHQW JHQHUDOO\ RU ZRPHQ´   +HUHLQ surreal critique of rationalist philosophy and scientific empiricism is summoned once again, and we can return to René Descartes and his skill at using logic to reason away the empirical, common sense evidence that animals feel pain. Joan Dunayer, in a linguistic study of the woman/animal UHODWLRQ GHFODUHV VXFK ORJLF HPLQHQWO\ ³VHOI-VHUYLQJ´ DQG D fundamental component of colonialism and imperialism. She sums up the Western attitude of domination in one brief VHQWHQFH ³µ, KDYH greater physical strength, so physLFDO VWUHQJWK VLJQLILHV VXSHULRULW\¶´   ,Q WKH FDVH RI DQLPDOV ZKR DUH ELJJHU DQGRU ³ILHUFHU´ WKDQ men²an elephant killed for her ivory, a tiger killed so his penis can be consumed as an aphrodisiac²their lack of reason suffices as proof of their general inferiority, despite physical superiority. We can begin to challenge the patriarchy, violence, and capitalism triumvirate by challenging the influence of unconstrained reason, a project of the Surrealists. Rather than supporting the human/animal binary, antioppressionists will ideally begin to think holistically about how deeply those patriarchal roots are embedded in Western soil. IQ³7KLQNLQJ/LNHD&KLFNHQ´Karen Davis encourages deep HFRORJ\ D SKLORVRSK\ ZLWK ³HPSKDVLV RQ WKH HFRVSKHUH DV D ZKROe, including both sentient and non-sentient beings [i.e. plants], >«@ >as presenting a] salutary challenge to the reductionist logic and KRPRFHQWULF PRUDOLW\ RI :HVWHUQ FXOWXUH´   Consequently, women are not bound to speak for animals because they are somehow more animalistic, although that is not necessarily a bad thing, nor are they animal spokespeople because they have cornered the market on

54

Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde

emotion, although that would not be a bad thing either. Women are bound to speak for animals because history has treated them the same way animals are treated, the same way slaves were treated, the same way industrial workers were treated, the same way Third World workers are treated, the same way that every group who could be used as a means to an end has been treated throughout recorded history. The links between women and animals lay the foundation of this study, but while I will be exploring them throughout, I will not attempt to prove them. It is not my goal to provide evidence that women and animals are oppressed or that they share a similarly impotent cultural position, as this is work that has been and continues to be adequately accomplished by other scholars. Indeed, I could not even attempt to establish this any better than Adams has in The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory, in which she shows that KLVWRU\LWVHOIKDVSURYHQWKHFRQQHFWLRQ$GDPV¶VWKHVLVLV part of the foundation upon which I base this project, and it is one that I accept without reservation: My endeavor >«@ LV WR PDNH WKH FRYHUW DVVRFLDWLRQV >EHWZHHQ women and animals] overt by explaining how our patriarchal culture authorizes the eating of animals and in this to identify the FURVV PDSSLQJ EHWZHHQ IHPLQLVP DQG YHJHWDULDQLVP >«@ $ feminist-vegetarian critical theory begins, as we have seen, with the perception that women and animals are similarly positioned in a patriarchal world, as objects rather than subjects. (23; 180)

The new garde²the avant-garde²of the radical ALM have not completely ignored the association that Adams establishes in Sexual Politics ,Q ³%HKLQG WKH 0DVN´ D UHIHUHQFH WR WKH EDODFODYDV WKDW animal rights actors wear during illegal direct actions, Best and 1RFHOOD SURSRVH WKDW VDLG DFWLRQV KDYH DQ ³HPSRZHULQJ DELOLW\´ IRU women because WKH\VHUYHDVD³SRWHQWYHKLFOHWRVXEYHUWWUDGLWLRQDO JHQGHU UROHV´ WKHUHE\ ³FUHDWLQJ QHZ FRQFHSWV RI JHQGHU´  19 Queer eco/anarcha~feminist pattrice jones puts things a bit less contentiously, both reiterating the need for holistic activism and making profound connections between patriarchy and pastoralism. Most notably, she emphasizes the need to put emotion back on the playing field. jones does not shy away from being the angry activist or IURPWKHUDGLFDOIHPLQLVWVZKRDUHQRWDIUDLGWR³VKRXWDQG stomp [and ZKR@ >«@ GRQ¶W WKLQN LW LV D FULPH WR IHHO DQGH[SUHVV DQJHU´   19

Though I have included this statement, it is not without its problems, and interesting debates could arise from the assumption that taking on traditionally male roles could be liberating for women. Unfortunately, that conversation is outside the purview of this project.

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Emotions, from grief to compassion to rage, are necessary tools for the holistic activist.20 Compassion and fury are often prompts to action, as opposed to theorizing, writing, and rationalizing oneself into oblivion. Once again, this aspect of the ALM finds precedent in VXUUHDOLVP ³)DU PRUH VHULRXV LQ P\ RSLQLRQ²I have intimated it often enough²DUH WKH DSSOLFDWLRQV RI VXUUHDOLVP WR DFWLRQ´ %UHWRQ, First Manifesto 44). There is room for both action and theorizing within the avant-garde ALM, what Adams calls ³HQJDJHG scholarship´ Female beauty and sexuality are premier commodities, as shown through their being used to sell everything from hunting gear to animal liberation. A nearly naked female beauty never seems to become obsolete, so it is not surprising that those out to make a buck (or to kill a buck) use such images as marketing tools, yet blame goes to those who should know better, groups such as PETA. Their disturbing use of pedestrian female imagery is continued cause for critique, and Adams has methodically critiqued such cultural norms in The Pornography of Meat VKRZLQJ KRZ WKRVH ³QRUPV´ DUH VR ³QRUPDO´ WKDW ZH DUH JHQHUDOO\ LPPXQH WR WKHP ,Q Pornography, Adams demonstrates how women and animals are fragmented and then resold to the public, figuratively and literally, showing how the end products are both mass produced and life-effacing: What is on the plate [or T.V. screen, magazine, and billboard, in the case of ZRPHQ@ LQ IURQW RI XV >«@LV WKHGHDG IOHVK RI ZKDW was once a living, feeling being. The crucial point here is that we make someone who is a unique being into something that is the appropriate referent of a mass term. Mass terms signal the thingification of beings. (22)

Adams and other feminist vegans have verified that the historical, verbal, and visual affiliations between women and animals run deep, and these links speak to how female beauty obstructs liberation. The shared dilemma between women and animals is the lack of commentary about who they are/were in their original forms. The FRPPHQWV UHIHU WR WKHLU SDUWV DV LQ ³VKH¶V JRWD QLFH DVV´ RU³WKLVLV JRRG UXPS URDVW´ $GDPV IXUWKHU DVVHUWV LQ Sexual Politics of Meat WKDWWKURXJKMXVWWKLVW\SHRI³Iragmentation the object is severed from its ontological meaning. Finally, consumed, it exists only through ZKDWLWUHSUHVHQWV´ 7KXV³ZRPHQQRWRQO\have µFXQWV¶WKH\are 20

In fact, my activism is fueled by anger and an inability to see the rationale behind WKH EUXWDOLW\ DJDLQVW DQLPDOV WKDW LV SHGGOHG DV ³MXVW WKH ZD\ WKLQJV DUH´ ,I , FRXOG SURFHVVRUDFFHSWWKHVHFXOWXUDOWUXWKVLQDQ\ZD\,ZRXOGOLNHO\QRWEHDQDFWLYLVW« and have a lot more free time.

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FXQWV WKDW H[LVW IRU PDOH PDVWXUEDWLRQ´ $GDPV, Pornography 77). Animals not onO\ KDYH ³UXPSV´ WKH\ DUH UXPS URDVW WKDW H[LVW IRU human satiation. The objective of the noble terrorist, heir to the surreal legacy, is to put the fragments back together and offer them up for inspection. Unless otherwise noted, I am associating beauty more specifically with desire for beauty. Beauty, much like any other natural resource, is a glorious thing, but problems arise when it is used improperly, when it is manipulated, and when it becomes addictive. Beauty is like coca, a naturally occurring plant that has much to offer humankind within its natural state. Coca was beneficial to the past survival of South American peoples, who masticated the leaf for its ability to stave off hunger and thirst, while allowing them to work longer hours at high altitudes. But when coca is harvested, manipulated into cocaine, and sold at an exorbitant profit, it is highly addictive and leads to obsession and violence.21 Female beauty has been appropriated by profit makers, manipulated with whiteners and darkeners, by surgeries that take away from the body and surgeries that add to it, and used to sell products at exorbitant costs. More JHQHUDOO\ WKLV GHVLUH IRU EHDXW\¶V SOHDVXUHV OHDGV WR KDWUHG DQG vilification. That is why the Surrealists are accused of misogyny, and not adoration, for their images of women, images of fragmented parts or impossible ideals, not of aesthetically pleasing and realistic wholes. That is why Hugh Hefner, publisher of Playboy, is not extolled as founding father of the feminist movement. That is why contemporary SRUQ DGGLFWLRQ GRHV QRW UHVXOW LQ ZRPHQ¶V HOHYDWHG VRFLDO VWDWXV 7R ³ORYH´VRPHWKLQJRQO\IRULWVSDUWVDQGRQO\IRUWKHSOHDVXUHLWEULQJV the one who desires is a form of violent domination. To refer to something only by its parts²EHWKDWDFKLFNHQ¶VEUHDVWRUDZRPDQ¶V breasts²is a form of verbal domination. That is one reason why the Surrealists fell short and a reason why the ALM could follow that OHDG7KXV ZKHQ , GLVFXVV ³EHDXW\´ , GR QRW GR VR ZLWK DQ\ KLJKO\ theoretical aesthetic concept in mind. My definition of beauty, as it will be used in this study, is fairly mundane: beauty is whatever standard of aesthetic qualities give pleasure to the majority of a culture at any given time. True to form, beauty within contemporary Western culture is also rooted in hierarchy. Richard Twine notes WKDW³>P@uch capital is 21

And the fact that this manipulation occurred after Western (Spanish) colonization (indeed, they used appropriation of the coca plant to control the native people) is very telling in its own right.

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PDGH IURP WKH :HVWHUQ FRQVWUXFWLRQ RI WKH µEHDXWLIXO ERG\¶ WKDW LV necessarily selective. Aesthetic markings not only devalue many bodies, but also provide a VLJQLILFDQW VRXUFH RI SURILW´   7ZLQH SLQSRLQWVDPDMRUPRGHUQGLOHPPD)RUODFNRIDEHWWHUSKUDVH³XJO\´ women will be devalued for not having the culturally-mandated beautiful body, and beautiful women will be devalued through objectification for having that beautiful body. This is why, to return to the anti-fur PETA film, feminist-vegetarians oppose such representations. As powerful and potentially mind-opening as that film is, there is an underlying sense that the woman in the fur coat has it coming, that the ³bitch is getting what she deserves.´ Again, however, if oppression is to end, then no one gets clubbed to death for his or her coat, not figuratively or literally. Western culture enjoys meat, women, and domination. In turn, women and animals are consumed for what others want from them. Their lives²sentience, histories, all of it²are put aside for the greater purpose of individual personal pleasure. Their needs, and this is especially true in the case of animals, are inconsequential because someone desires. It is as simple and as complicated as that, and it is with this complexly simple concept in mind that I turn more completely to women, the avant-garde, animal liberation and the SURMHFWRIFXOWLYDWLQJWKH³VDYDJH´H\H TKH ILUVW FKDSWHU ³$vant-Garde Women Writers and 'HVWUXFWLRQLQWKH)OHVK´explores three works that have spoken to the dilemmas wrought by desire through violent contemplation of the GHVWUXFWLRQ RI ZRPHQ¶V FXOWXUDO FDSLWDO EHDXW\ DQG VH[XDOLW\ 0LQD Loy, Valerie Solanas, and Katherine Dunn have offered unique ways to beat the pleasure-seekers to the punch by destroying what it is they seek, all the while recapitulating the woman/animal connection, and they do so within the legacy of another avant-garde: destructivism (but one that is still founded in surrealism, what Herbert Read calls a ³QHJDWLYH DQG GHVWUXFWLYH´ DUW LQ LWV RZQ ULJKW  7KH IUDPH , SODFH around this literary discussion is taken from a literal and horrific twentieth-century crime through which the themes that arise in their works can be understood and clarified through the ache of their veracity. The intrinsic violence within a resulting theory of aesthetic destruction is not practically and ethically viable, but the premises that Loy, Solanas, and Dunn offer are possible. They all acknowledge the myth of heteronormative female beauty, or the correlation of beauty with objective worth resulting from objectification and desire, as an

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obstacle to liberation. These myths form the basis of Chapter Two as ZHOO ³6WDring Back in the Flesh: Avant-Garde Performance as an $/0 3DUDGLJP´ investigates how women have, can, and if they should use their bodies as sites of radical protest, giving specific attention to how these answers can impact the emancipation of nonhumans. This overview is broad, factoring in both traditional performance artists and animal liberation campaigns as art to come to final conclusions about women in the ALM. Therein, avant-garde performance serves as a paradigm for performance within the radical spheres of animal liberation. I give specific attention and judicious critique to the work of Carolee Schneemann and Coco Fusco, for they have consistently and forcefully exposed cultural myths while maintaining the corporeal integrity that Kristine Stiles argues is necessary for, but lacking in, the avant-garde. Schneemann and Fusco are further significant for consideration of how their physical beauty has given them access into the privileged role of the cultural accuser. Avant-garde women performers have used their very beings in the project of staring back LQWR WKH JD]HU¶V H\HV ZLWK WKH JRDO RI ERGLO\ DXWRQRP\ DQG VRFLDO agency. This staring back is also paramount within the project of revisioning as ALM agents grapple with how to stare back by proxy for nonhumans. Although I do attentively focus on women of color through analysis of Latina artists Coco Fusco and Nao Bustamante, much of P\DQDO\VLVRIZRPHQ¶VSHUIRUPDQFHDUWLVUHOHJDWHGWRWKDWSURGXFHG by white women LQ WKH V DQG µV 8QLWHG 6WDWHV, and this is by design. These boundaries are not set to diminish the import of contemporary performance, especially that of other performers of color and gay, lesbian and transgendered arts/artists. I have chosen to focus on a time during which the naked female body was new, at least in the sense that it was being exposed with agency (though some would disagree on the amount of agency these performers actually had). My reason for this focus is that the white, thin, young, heterosexual22 female body continues to be the most privileged yet also the most objectified body in contemporary media culture, especially within various ALM contexts. And, as most know, animal rights activists are preponderantly white (Gaarder 15). Further analysis of these themes within the frame of critical race theory needs to occur, but it was simply outside the capacity of this current project. 22

Heterosexual, but willing to perform sexually with other women (more on that in Chapter Two).

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That said, when appropriate, I attempt to start a dialogue that includes issues of race within the broader theses of this book. ³&RQYXOVLYH%HDXW\,QILQLWH6SKHUHVDQG,UUDWLRQDO5HDVRQV 5HYHULH RQ D 1HZ &RQVFLRXVQHVV´ the final chapter, moves the discussion from the margins to the center, from the avant-garde to the world at large. However, I continue to use the destructivist aesthetic philosophy developed in Chapter One and conclusions on the body argued in Chapter Two as theoretical foundations for exploring an obsession with beauty that prevents women, the avant-garde, and the radical ALM from uprooting Western philosophies of the rationalist tradition, thus liberating humans from mindlessness and nonhumans from captivity. My premise is that the myth of beauty has taken a troubling but telling turn with the rise of animal aesthetics. The animal fashion and beauty industries are proof that desire for beauty has become a dangerous and destructive distraction, especially for women. The fetishization of animal aesthetics is the latest branch of the beauty imperative, as well as an example of consumption unbound. Most importantly, it illuminates the parallel lives of women and animals through the use of pets as extensions of female desirability. In turn, I offer a new theory of surrealist convulsive beauty to potentially combat the myths. My assumptions regarding missteps within the avant-garde $/0 DUH URRWHG LQ +DEHUPDV¶V FRQFHSWLRQ RI WKH SXEOLF VSKHUH DQG %UJHU¶VDUJXPHQWVRQVXEODWLRQRIWKHDUWVERWKRIZKLFKFRQWLQXHWR RIIHUSURPLVHIRUOLEHUDWLRQ)LUVW,H[SDQG+DEHUPDV¶VSXEOLFVSKHUH beyond the speciesist critiques of it proposed by Nancy Fraser and others. With a foundation in the social ecology of Murray Bookchin, this expanded view of the public demands consideration of animals and the natural world, and from this comes consideration of the radical ALM as activist artists. I argue that performance is still relevant within the public arena and as a method of opening eyes to interlocked oppressions. Finally, I return to the holistic activism of Torres and Adams, reiterating and building upon their opposition to animal fetishization. Here, I contend with reason through a continuation of the critiques offered by feminist animal activists, but rather than debase reason completely, it is exposed for its limits, for what it has pretended to be, and IRU KRZ WKH ³FDQFHU´ FDQ EH VWRSSHG IURP VSUHDGLQJDQ\IXUWKHU$QLPDORSSUHVVLRQLVWKH³ERWWRPDQGEDVLV´RI all other oppressions, and it cannot be fairly addressed through the plague of patriarchal language alone. Thus, I suggest other avenues for

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productive discourse, including brief consideration of a revised concept of justice for animals. ³/RYH DQG /DXJKWHU 1RZ 3OXFNLQJ DW 6WHPV or Uprooting 2SSUHVVLRQ"´brings thLVERRN¶Vmajor themes back to the mission of surrealism in all of its guises²aesthetics, philosophy, interventionism, and life force. The ALM must continue to take the best from surrealism, as well as learn from the worst of it, especially its unchecked sexism. As long as the avant-garde and the ALM continue to succumb to the same misogyny and hierarchy of a power structure they ostensibly oppose, they will not be able to offer something different to the worlds they hope to remake. They will be forever bound to pluck at the stems from which oppression grows, while the roots of that oppression grow deeper.

CHAPTER 1 Avant-Garde Women Writers and Destruction in the Flesh I want to be old and undesired²I want my body back. I want my personhood back. ²Karen Finley

This chapter is about anger, flesh, destruction as protest, and embodiment. Although my focus is female human animals, I will reinforce the trans-species connection when appropriate. Herein, I also EHJLQ WR UHVWRUH WKH ³DEVHQW UHIHUHQW´ DV GHILQHG E\ &DURO $GDPV D feat accomplished by discussing realities that are necessarily dark, morbid, and terrifying. Through an exploration of cultural shadowlands, I presume to expose underlying truths, for it is often purposeful ignorance of the violence that underlines our commodities that prevents consumers from taking negative direct action (think of the common contention that if you visited a slaughterhouse you would VWRS HDWLQJ PHDW  7KLV FKDSWHU LQWHUURJDWHV 6XVDQ 6XOHLPDQ¶V assertion that women want ³FRQWURORYHUWKHLUERGLHVDQGDYRLFHZLWK ZKLFK WR VSHDN DERXW LW´   ,W DOVR FRQILUPV SDWWULFH MRQHV¶V contention that it is not DFULPHIRUZRPHQWR³IHHODQGH[SUHVVDQJHU´ (145). Indeed, this is an angry chapter written by and about angry women. It discusses women who have literally done awful, violent, and destructive deeds; in some cases, to each other. There are victims in this chapter, but it is more about survival, empowerment, and triumph than victimization. The women writers I discuss²Mina Loy, Valerie Solanas, and Katherine Dunn²have sought answers to TXHVWLRQVRIZRPHQ¶VOLEHUDWLRQas to how they can survive in and/or usurp patriarchal culture. Susanne Kappeler emphasizes that feminism is strongest when it supports survivors, as opposed to ³FKDPSLRQLQJ´YLFWLPV, and VKHRIIHUV³DSROLWLFVWKDWFKDOOHQJHVWKH structures of oppression without revictimizing the oppressed, that is, without making them the clientele of our benevolent protection and UHSUHVHQWDWLRQ´ 7KDWVDLGWKHYLFWLPL]HGLQWKLVVXUYLYDOVWXG\ are presented in an attempt to get new answers as to how one and/or many can best stop the consistent appropriation of female and animal

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flesh in contemporary culture. The answers that Loy, Solanas, and Dunn offer are not literally viable, but they illuminate an element of the female condition that deserves further consideration, a condition embodied by a young woman who did not have corporal control or a voice with which to speak of it. Rather, she had her body appropriated and destroyed, her mouth clamped down so tightly that she nearly severed her own lips²Sylvia Marie Likens. In turn, this chapter is part of a continued attempt to find PHDQLQJ LQ 6\OYLD¶V GHDWK within a radical feminist context. As recently as 2007, two film versions of the unforgettable Likens case were released, An American Crime and -DFN.HWFKXP¶V7KH*LUO1H[W Door, and I will integrate critique of those films into this chapter. At the end of An American Crime, the spirit of Sylvia Likens is HQYLVLRQHG VWDWLQJ ³5HYHUHQG %LOO XVHG WR VD\ ZLWK HYHU\ VLWXDWLRQ *RGDOZD\VKDVDSODQ,JXHVV,¶PVWLOOWU\LQJWRILJXUHRXWZKDWWKDW plan was´,LQFOXGH6\OYLDKHUHEHFDXVH,DPVWLOOWU\LQJWRILJXUHRXW that plan as well. If it is true that one can never forget her visit to a slaughterhouse, then it is further true that, once heard, one cannot IRUJHW 6\OYLD¶V WDOH 6LQFH VKH GLHG RQ 2FWREHU 26, 1965, those who hear her story try to fathom what happened in an Indiana basement, including Kate Millett, who offers a feminist analysis turn stream-ofothers-consciousness in The Basement: Meditations on a Human Sacrifice (1979). Sylvia haunts those who listen to her. Her story is about the female condition in patriarchal, capitalist society, a story DERXW SRYHUW\ FODVV PHQ VH[LVP ZRPHQ¶V IUDJPHQWDWLRQ ERG\ ownership, virginity, sexuality, woman-hating/battering, animalhating, destruction, scarLILFDWLRQ ZRPHQ¶V FXOSDELOLW\ LQ WKH RSSUHVVLRQ RI ZRPHQ FKLOGUHQ¶V PRUDOLW\ DQG LQ MXVWLFH 0RVW frighteningly, she offers a paradigm for modern day perceptions of women and animals that will inform the destructivist aesthetic later proposed in this chapter. Meeting Sylvia is stepping into a house of slaughter. (This statement is not as metaphorical as you might initially think.) In 1965, Sylvia Likens and her younger sister Jenny were sent by their parents²roving carnival workers²to briefly live with a woman they had just met: Gertrude Baniszewski, a 37-year-old divorcée with a history of being battered by men. She was financially destitute with seven children of her own, ranging from ages 17 to 3. Gertrude was offered $20 a week to take care of the girls. For the RVWHQVLEOH DQG XQIRXQGHG UHDVRQ WKDW 6\OYLD ZDV D ³ORRVH ZRPDQ´

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Gertrude, six of her children (most especially her pregnant daughter Paula), and seven neighborhood children systematically tortured her to death over a period of approximately two months in the basement of WKH%DQLV]HZVNLKRPH:KHQKHUERG\ZDVUHPRYHGIURP*HUWUXGH¶V house, Sylvia was emaciated and malnourished, having once been force-IHGXULQHDQGIHFHVWKHZRUGV³,DPDSURVWLWXWHDQGSURXGRILW´ had been burned into her stomach with a heated pin; she had nearly chewed off her lower lip from biting it in pain; her pubic region was swollen from repeated kicks, and Gertrude had once forced her to insert a soda bottle inside her vagina to the enjoyment of the neighborhood children; finally, she was covered with a mosaic of cigarette burns and bruises. She died of a brain hemorrhage resulting from innumerable thrashings, pushings down stairs, and judo flips. Gertrude would ultimately spend twenty years of a life sentence in jail, her daughter Paula spent two years in jail for her part, and the three boys who were eventually tried for 6\OYLD¶VPXUGHUVHUYHGWZR years each of two-to-twenty-one year terms. The other children were let go, and the neighbors who heard her screams were never tried. In 2007, Millett again commented on the case ³It is the story of the suppression of women. Gertrude seems to have wanted to administer some terrible truthful justice to this girl: that this was what it was to be a woman´TWGLQ%URHVNH  6\OYLD¶V VWRU\ LV DERXW ZRPHQ¶V RSSUHVVLRQ SRZHU DQG WKH appropriation of flesh. Gertrude²aging, eternally pregnant, angry about her poverty, furious at men²took out her rage on the pretty young girl in her charge. Her seventeen-year-old daughter Paula² SUHJQDQW DEDQGRQHG E\ ERWK WKH FKLOG¶V IDWKHU DQG KHU RZQ IDWKHU frustrated by familial poverty, unattractive, fat1²similarly took out KHU IXU\ RQ KHU PRWKHU¶V SUHWW\ slender charge. The other children, powerless by nature of their youth, became masters over the girl in the basement by sanction of the adult overseer. This powerless crew had authority over Sylvia, and her pain gave them pleasure. She became their pet in the crudest sense, and she shared the basement with the two neglected Baniszewski dogs. The Basement is peppered with 0LOOHWW¶V UHIHUHQFHV WR 6\OYLD¶V DQLPDO-OLNH VWDWH VKH LV ³NHQQHOHG down there OLNHDGRJ´³DGRJUROOLQJRQLWVEDFN´D³ZLOGDQLPDO´ ³a dog pulled apart,´ ³WKH DQLPDO WKH\ DUH JRQQD NLOO´ ZKR WULHV WR HVFDSH³VZLIWDVDGRJ´HWF. (20; 70; 198; 226; 229; 325). 1

3DXOD¶V JURWHVTXH DSSHDUDQFH LV PDGH VRPHWKLQJ RI D FHQWHUSLHFH E\ ERWK 0LOOHWW and John Dean, the latter of whom wrote the popular true crime account of the Likens murder.

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Millett unconsciously restores the absent referent of animal abuse by engaging in such figurative play. Adams identifies this type RIUKHWRULFDVDWLUHGWUHQGLQIHPLQLVWGLVFRXUVH³&XOWXUDOLPDJHVRI VH[XDOYLROHQFH>«@RIWHQUHO\RQRXUNQRZOHGJHRIKRZDQLPDOVDUH EXWFKHUHG DQG HDWHQ >«@ 7KH VWUXFWXUH RI WKH DEVHQW UHferent in patriarchal culture strengthens individual oppressions by always UHFDOOLQJ RWKHU RSSUHVVHG JURXSV´ Sexual Politics 54). Gertrude and her young torture-killers learned to mirror the society that bred them, a society that dominates and owns the flesh of others, with flesh EHFRPLQJ³PHDW´LQWKHFDVHRIDQLPDOV$VIRU6\OYLD³[i]t was not only the body that must have been broken, but the spirit. And that is WKHZKROHPHDQLQJRIVKDPH,Q.DIND¶V3HQDO&RORQ\WKHVHQWHQFHLV carried out upon the flesh, written thereon so that it will enter the soul. +HUH WRR´ 0LOOHWW   6\OYLD FRXOG QRW KDYH EHHQ WUHDWHG ³OLNH D GRJ´DQG0LOOHWWZRXOGQRWKDYHXVHIRU the similes, if she did not live in a world where dogs are treated cruelly to the extent that readers will immediately know that EHLQJ WUHDWHG ³OLNH D GRJ´ LV QR JRRG WKLQJ And considering WKH FDQLQH¶V elevated placement within the human hierarchy of animals in Western society, the comment covertly speaks to the atrocities that other nonhumans regularly endure. Sylvia is still important over forty years later because the violence enacted upon her is a violence that contemporary women enact upon themselves in record numbers through voluntary starvation and self-mutilation. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, estimates for American women who suffer from anorexia nervosa within their lifetime may be as high as 3.7%, with bulimia statistics rHDFKLQJ  ³7KH 1XPEHUV´  ,Q Cutting, Steven Levenkron reports that although precise numbers are difficult to assess because self-mutilation is not often reported ³WKH SHUFHQWDJH RI cutters in our society is similar to those who have anorexia, one in HYHU\ WZR KXQGUHG DQG ILIW\ JLUOV´   *HUWUXGH¶V VDGLVWLF DFWLRQV foretell the destruction of female selves that unmasks an epidemic of self-doubt and self-loathing fostered through the sexualized images with which modern culture abounds. Sylvia remains important because she was the victim of a woman. She died in a household of mostly women, but rather than sisterhood and camaraderie, she faced competition, jealousy, and betrayal.2 Millett compares Gertrude to the women who, in acquiescence to patriarchy, perform genital mutilation ULWXDOVLQ$IULFD³+RZFXQQLQJWKDWWKHPDOHVRFLDOZLOORIFDVtrating 2

Issues of competition among women will be addressed again in Chapter Three.

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the female should be played out with female agents as its instrument; females already mutilated in their youth, already bitter and eager to ensure that the young never know the joys they themselves have IRUJRQH´ *HUWUXGHDFTXLHVFHGWRWKHSDWULDUFKDOQRWLRQ³WKDWWKH \RXQJIHPDOHPXVWEHEURNHQWDNHQDQGKDUPHGDQGEURNHQ>«@6R VKHZDVEUDQGHGPXWLODWHGZLWKWKHPDJLFDOVH[XDOZRUGµSURVWLWXWH¶´ (Millett 47). In An American Crime, Gertrude punishes Sylvia for having slandered her daughter Paula by spreading rumors of her pregnancy, explaining, ³F@DSLWDOLVW LQVWLWXWLRQV´ 0HW]JHU DGGUHVVHV DUW FULWLFV DV ³\RX VWLQNLQJ IXFNLQJ FLJDU VPRNLQJ EDVWDUGV DQG \RX VFHQWHGIDVKLRQDEOHFRZVZKRGHDOLQZRUNVRIDUW´  In a nod to my critique of surreal misogyny, I should note that both of the SHMRUDWLYHWHUPVXVHGKHUHUHIHUWRZRPHQ7KH³EDVWDUG´LVWKHPDQ ERUQRXWRIZHGORFNEHFDXVHKLVPRWKHUZDVSURPLVFXRXV7KH³FRZ´ is the dairy farm dweller exploited for her reproductive capacity.

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Despite his seething critique of Western commodity culture, Metzger further goes the way of the Surrealists in that he relies on patriarchal dualisms and sexist imagery within his destructive theory. He recalls a time when art was successfully sublated into life and, true to misogynist and patriarchal dualistic form, he speaks to the life of PHQRQO\DQGGLVWLQFWIURPDQLPDOVDWWKDW³7KHUHZDVDWLPHZKHQ WKHUH ZHUH PHQ DQG DQLPDOV $QG PHQ SDLQWHG PHQ DQG DQLPDOV´ (403). This idealistic, primitive state was, according to Metzger, destroyed by gods, kings, machines of transport, and war. Insightful, but still reliant on the human/animal and man/woman divides. Metzger, although still enmeshed in patriarchal thinking, mirrors the Surrealists in that elements of his theory are useful and applicable to those groups who have been forgotten in the avant-garGH¶V PDQ\ historical manifestations 7R ZLW PXFK OLNH *HUWUXGH XVHG 6\OYLD¶V body to re-enact female oppression, each instance of auto-destructive art is but a re-HQDFWPHQW RI WKH ³REVHVVLRQ ZLWK GHstruction, the pummeling WR ZKLFK LQGLYLGXDOV DQG PDVVHV DUH VXEMHFWHG´ ³0DQLIHVWR´   7KHVH ³LQGLYLGXDOV DQG PDVVHV´ LQFOXGH ZRPHQ and animals as well as men. Jean-Jacques Lebel refigures MetzgHU¶V GHVWUXFWLRQ DV D GHVHFUDWLRQ ,Q KLV  ³2Q WKH 1HFHVVLW\ RI 9LRODWLRQ´ /HEHO echoes the surreal and radical ALM calls for a destruction of Western P\WKVDVDPHWKRGRIHQGLQJRSSUHVVLRQ³1RRQHLVSUHSDUHGWRDGPLW that if there is still a chance of changing life it resides in the transformation of the human being; humans cling to their old ways of VHHLQJRIIHHOLQJRIEHLQJ´  /HEHO¶VPDQLIHVWRLVSUHGHFHVVRU to the literal destruction of private property that some activists practice in protest of animal exploitation and environmental devastation. 'HVWUXFWLRQ DQG YLRODWLRQDUH WKH ³IRUELGGHQWHUULWRULHV´ WKDW GHPDQG exploration to the ultimate end of abolishing concepts of rights, privilege, and patriarchal dualisms. Of this final point, Lebel declares WKH³QHFHVVLW\RIJRLQJEH\RQGWKHDEHUUDQWVXEMHFW-object relationship (looker/looked-DWH[SORLWHUH[SORLWHGVSHFWDWRUDFWRU>«@ ZKLFKKDV XQWLOQRZGRPLQDWHGDQGFRQGLWLRQHGPRGHUQDUW´  Both Lebel and Metzger find Happenings, part planned and SDUW LPSURYLVDWLRQDO SHUIRUPDQFHV DV DQ LGHDO ³PDUULDJH EHWZHHQ WKHRU\DQGSUD[LV´LQZKLFK³>W@UDQVIRUPDWLRQRIWKRXJKWRIWKHGUHDP EHFRPH$FWLRQ´/HEHO +DSSHQLQJVZHUH and still are significant for their ability to envelope unsuspecting observers into the performance itself, an aspect of avant-garde art that mirrors the ALM performance detailed in the Introduction. Happenings are thus both

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collective, in that there are multiple actors, and individual, in that the ³SHUIRUPDQFH HQDEOe[s] a radical individualization of art by empowering the spectator as an active maker of the art event and by calling into question the ability of any one spectator to create sensible, FRKHUHQW DFFRXQWV RI LW´ 6HOO, Avant-Garde Performance 17). Much like collage, Happenings are avant-garde initiatives appropriated by the radical ALM for the purpose of restoring absent referents, recontextualizing seemingly disparate elements, and remaking individual and collective views of the world, starting with animals. Consequently, Destructivism, despite the connotations of the word itself, is ultimately about remaking and rebirth, both literally and within the mind of each spectator. Most importantly, it is a rejection of WKH FXOWXUDO JLYHQV WKDW SODJXH WKH ³UHDVRQDEOH´ PLQG &RFR )XVFR SDLQWV 5DSKDHO 0RQWDxH] 2UWL]¶V WKHRU\ RI GHVWUXFWLRQ DV ³D TXDVLritualistic sacrificial process in which artifacts and human beings FRXOGEHUHOHDVHGIURPWKHORJLFDOIRUPDQGVHOIRI:HVWHUQFXOWXUH´ (Corpus Delecti  ,Q³'HVtruFWLYLVP$0DQLIHVWR´2UWL]explains further: There are today throughout the world a handful of artists working in a way which is truly unique in art history. Theirs is an art which VHSDUDWHV WKH PDNHUV IURP WKH XQPDNHUV >«@ WKH FRQVWUXFWRUV form the destructors. These artists are destroyers, materialists, and sensualists dealing with process directly. These artists are GHVWUXFWLYLVWVDQGGRQRWSUHWHQGWRSOD\DW*RG¶VKDSS\JDPHRI creation; on the contrary, theirs is a response to the pervading will to NLOO>«@2IWKLVVWXIIRXUDUWZLOOEHWKDWZKLFKLVPDGHZLOOEH unmade, that which is assembled will be disassembled, that which LV FRQVWUXFWHG ZLOO EH GHVWUXFWHG >«@ The art that utilizes the destructive process will purge, for as it gives death, so it will give life. (722, emphasis added)

:RPHQ¶V EHDXW\ DQG VH[XDO XVHIXOQHVV DV DWWHVWDWLRQ RI ZRUWK DUH myths of Western culture and social constructions.3 $QG³WKDWZKLFKLV FRQVWUXFWHG ZLOO EH GHVWUXFWHG´ $ FRQWHPSODWLRQ RI GHVWUR\LQJ WKDW which makes ZRPHQ GHVLUDEOH ³XWLOL]HV WKH GHVWUXFWLYH SURFHVV >«@ IRU DV LW JLYHV GHDWK VR LW ZLOO JLYH OLIH´ 7KH GHVWUXFWLYLVW DHVWKHWLF WKHRU\LVDERXWUHJDLQLQJFRQWURORIRQH¶VVHOIMXVWDVWKHUH³DUHIRUPV of auto-destructive art where the artist has a tight control over the QDWXUH DQG WLPLQJ RI WKH GLVLQWHJUDWLYH SURFHVV´ 0HW]JHU, ³$XWR'HVWUXFWLYH $UW´   $Q DHVWKHWLF WKHRU\ WKDW FRQWHPSODWHV GLVLQWHJUDWLRQ UHPRYHV IHPDOH EHDXW\ IURP WKH SXEOLF¶V JD]H VR WKDW 3

That there may be a biological disposition toward certain perceptions of beauty will be addressed in Chapter Three. Ultimately, I do not see how biological considerations excuse the use of beauty and sex as implements of oppression.

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woman can be autonomous. If I may interpolate questions of femininity into this destructivist rhetoric, the destroyed woman is the ³DUWLVW ZKR GRHV QRW ZDQW KLV ZRUN >KHU IHPLQLQLW\@ WR EH LQ WKH possession of the stinking people. He [she] does not want to be indirectly polluted through his [her] work [face and body] being stared DW E\ SHRSOH KH >VKH@ GHWHVWV´ 0HW]JHU, ³$XWR-Destructive Art, 0DFKLQH $UW´   6KH ZDQWV ³WR KDYH GRQH ZLWK WKLV H[SORLWLQJ society, with its slave-RZQLQJPHQWDOLW\DQGLWVLUUHPHGLDEOHFXOWXUH´ (Lebel 719). Those who theorize a destructivist aesthetic are angry, DQG RXU ³VFUHDPV RI DQJXLVK DQG DQJHU ZLOO >OLWHUDOO\@ FRQWRUW RXU IDFHV DQG ERGLHV RXU VKRXWV ZLOO EHµWR KHOO ZLWK GHDWK¶RXUDFWLRQV ZLOOPDNHDQRLVHWKDWZLOOVKDNHKHDYHQDQGKHOO´2UWL]  Gertrude Baniszewski was not a Destructivist. She was a PXUGHUHU 6KH ODFNHG WKH ³XQFRQVFLRXV LQWHJULW\´ 2UWL] GHHPV QHFHVVDU\ZLWKLQWKH³VDFULILFLDOSURFHVV´RIGHVWUXFWLRQStill, she was acting on an impulse that speaks to this theory, an impulse that can be beneficent if attended to with integrity. It is an impulse that fuels destruction of the trappings of capitalist culture in the name of liberation²destroy what keeps you oppressed, and you will be free. Sylvia represented all that Gertrude no longer could be, but that, as a woman, she was supposed to always be: young, pretty, and a virgin who secretly wants to be a whore. How impossible! Gertrude was DJLQJ EXW PHQ KDG FRQWURO RI WKDW ³GLVLQWHJUDWLRQ´ Whrough their negative responses to the process. The theory of destroying cultural concepts of beauty is only ethical when the devastation is self-inflicted and/or desired. To destroy is to refute logic, for contemporary culture sanctions destruction only when and if it can lead to greater accumulation (i.e. animal husbandry, deforestation, war). The destructivist aesthetic theory is more liberation than annihilation: It is therefore not difficult to comprehend how as a mattress or other man-made object is released from and transcends its logically determined form through destruction, an artist, led by associations and experiences resulting from his destructions of the man-made objects, is also released from and transcends his logical self. (Ortiz 723)

Thus, the theory of destruction posits that female beauty, once FRPPRGLILHG RU XVHG WR GHWHUPLQH ZRUWK EHFRPHV D ³PDQ-made object,´ DQG WKURXJK WKH REMHFW¶V destruction, the woman is released and transcends her logical self. I set forth this destructivist aesthetic as prelude to my analysis RI0LQD/R\9DOHULH6RODQDVDQG.DWKHULQH'XQQ¶VFRQWHPSODWLRQRI just this type of demolition. Although the genres vary²Loy and

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Solanas employ the manifesto form, Dunn the novel²each of these avant-garde writers has contemplated the statement posed above: destroy what keeps you oppressed, and you will be free. Accordingly, Loy contemplates the destruction of virginity and the desire to be loved; for Solanas, freedom comes at the end of a gun by way of the literal annihilation of the male gender, starting with the patriarchal LFRQ RI WKH ¶V DYDQW-JDUGH ILQDOO\ .DWKHULQH 'XQQ¶V FKDUDFWHUV Arturo the Aqua boy and Miss Mary Lick find freedom in the obliteration of the physical attributes that lead to desire. Direct focus on these works necessitates that I leave nonhuman animals in the margins for a while, though being sure to note the ways in which Loy, Solanas, and Dunn inadvertently recapitulate the woman/animal relationship. As for Sylvia, she is always here as reminder of the cultural violence to and through which these writers speak. When appropriate, I will summon her up with the other nonhumans and integrate her legacy within the works studied herein. 0LQD/R\DQGD7KHRU\RI'HVWUXFWLRQLQ³)HPLQLVW0DQLIHVWR´ Woman is not born: she is made. In the making, her humanity is destroyed. She becomes symbol of this, symbol of that: mother of the earth, slut of the universe; but she never becomes herself because it is forbidden for her to do so. ²Andrea Dworkin

To study Mina Loy is to read tales of a talented and beautiful artist whose life was steeped in contradiction. Roger Conover notes WKDWZKHQ:LOOLDP&DUORV:LOOLDPVFRPPHQWHGRQKHU³KHVWLOOFRXOG not discuss her intelligence and character without first mentioning her EHDXW\µ7KLVLVDUHFRUGRIDbeautiful woman who fearlessly did her SDUWLQDGLVWXUELQJZRUOGDURXQGKHU¶´ 7KHWLWOHRI&RQRYHU¶V HVVD\ ³5H  ,QWURGXFLQJ 0LQD /R\´ VSHDNV WR KHU UROOHUFRDVWHU ULGH through literary history. She was the grand dame of experimental poetry and the arts during her life, but almost disappeared from readership and scholarship in the years after her death. Yet her success in life belies the derision she faced as a female poet writing about sexual themes. In a 1965 interview with Paul Blackburn and Robert Vas Dias, she commented ³>6@RPH IHPDOH SRHW VDLG WKDW , ZDV WKH PRVWLPPRUDOFUHDWXUHWKDWHYHUOLYHG>«@,WZDVQ¶WSXWLQWRSULQWEXW, ZDV WROG SULYDWHO\ DOO WKH WLPH VR , JDYH XS ZULWLQJ SRHWU\´  

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That such a bold, innovative, and dynamic woman could be silenced E\DQRWKHU¶VSHUFHSWLRQRIKHULVMXVWRQHRI/R\¶VPDQ\LQFRQJUXLWLHV The 1980s saw a resurgence in Loy studies, likely inspired by 9LUJLQLD.RXLGLV¶VMina Loy: American Modernist Poetry, which has only gained momentum in the last thirty years. In much Loy scholarship, her beauty is frequently mentioned, if only as an historical aside. For example, Conover asserts that her contemporaries such as Williams, Marianne Moore and Carl Van Vechten reacted to her physical appearance as much as to her poetry (247; 249). Quite possibly, it was her beauty that opened doors into the avant-garde worlds of which she became a part (this aspect of women and the avant-garde forms the basis of the next chaptHU /R\¶VDWWUDFWLYHQHVV allowed passage into the worlds of surrealism, Dada, and, most especially, futurism2IWKHPDQ\KDWVWKDW/R\ZRUHWKDWRI³ORYHURI «´JDUQHUVIUHTXHQWPHQWLRQ6KHZDVORYHURIILUVWKXVEDQG6WHSKHQ Haweis, Italian Futurists Filippo Marinetti and Giovanni Papini, and Dada poet and boxer Arthur Cravan, the final being her great love. Like the women of surrealism, contemporary scholars can only guess if Loy would have been given the opportunities she was within the misogynist avant-garde if she had been plain or ugly. Similarly, one can only guess the other roads she could have taken had she access to male privilege. For example, would a male poet have ceased writing EHFDXVH KH ZDV VHHQ DV ³LPPRUDO´" +HU ZRUN VXJJHVWV WKDW VKH labored with these questions as well. For all of the doors she could open, Loy remained stymied by those soldered shut by patriarchy. She was bold enough to write as a Futurist, for there were women in the movement, though she was forever barred from the group officially because of her femininity. Marinetti and crew maintained a disdain for womanhood that was not mere bravado, as it was endemic to the very goals of an artistic and political movement founded on action, speed, dynamism, machinery, war, and, eventually, racial purity and fDVFLVP,Q³7KHFounding and Manifesto of Futurism´ 0DULQHWWL LQcludes the following among the )XWXULVWV¶ GHPDQGV ³:H ZDQW WR JORULI\ ZDU²the only cure for the world²militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman >«@ :H ZDQW WR GHPROLVK PXVHXPV DQG OLEUDULHV ILJKW PRUDOLW\ feminism DQG DOO RSSRUWXQLVW DQG XWLOLWDULDQ FRZDUGLFH´ HPSKDVLV added). Once contextualized 0DULQHWWL¶V FRQFHSWV RI ³ZRPDQ´ DQG ³IHPLQLVP´ UHIHUHQFH the stereotypes of femininity that even some later feminists would decry. The romantic ideals, docility, domesticity,

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and sentiments that women represented had no part in futurism¶VQHZ world visions. Harsh rhetoric notwithstanding, the Futurists were more undecided about women than violent toward them, though they were still undoubtedly and unmistakably sexist. Janet Lyon affirms WKDW 0DULQHWWL KDG DQ ³DPELYDOHQW DQG apparently rudderless stance toward women, which embraces VXIIUDJLVP EXW GHSORUHV IHPLQLVP´   %XW ZKDW DW ILUVW JODQFH appears progressive is revealed to be something different upon further investiJDWLRQ &ODUD 2UEDQ H[SODLQV WKDW LQ KLV HVVD\ ³$JDLQVW /RYH DQG 3DUOLDPHQWDU\ *RYHUQPHQW´ 0DULQHWWL ³SURSRVHV WKH YRWH IRU ZRPHQ>«@RQO\EHFDXVHRIZRPHQ¶VLQIHULRUFKDUDFWHUDQGLQWHOOHFW If women are allowed to vote, their stupid choices will certainly bring GRZQ WKH SDUOLDPHQW´   7KRXJK WKHLU HQG JRDOV DUH WKH VDPH giving women the vote, Marinetti hardly echoed the platforms of twentieth-century suffragettes. In that same essay he declared that ZRPDQ ³as a mother, as a wife, and as a lover, [is] a closed circle, purely animal and wholly without usefulness´ TWG LQ .RXLGLV   From an historical perspective, the latter citation indicates a scorn for femininity that was deeply entrenched in an anti-bourgeois point of YLHZ,WZDVWKHVXSSRVHG³VRIWQHVV´RIWKHIHminine that had no place in futurisP¶V schema. Women were not completely ignored by the Futurists, for they had the potential to be as good as men. $V 2UEDQ DUJXHV 0DULQHWWL¶V PDQLIHVWRHV VHHPHG WR ERWK ³OLEHUDWHZRPHQDQGFRQYHUVHO\WRrelegate them to their stereotypical UROHRIZRPESURGXFHU´ 2QRQHKDQG0DULQHWWLZDQWHGWRRSHQ up new possibilities for women. On the other, each futurist vision of womanhood was just another example of a few men in power declaring what femininity, what womanhood, is or should be. Their scorn for emotion and sentiment is especially problematic for it kowtows to the rules of the Western rationalist tradition that has not served women, animals, and other oppressed groups very well. In the end, futurism ZDVQRWDZRPDQ¶VPRYHPHQWLWVDPELYDOHQFHZDVQRW an embrace. FRUDZKLOH/R\FKRVHWROLYHLQWKLVZRUOGDVDUWLVWDQG³ORYHU RI ´ DQG WKRXJK VKH DGRSWHG WKH SKLORVRSKLHV DQG MDUJRQ RI futurism, she always resided in the margins, as skillfully depicted in WKLV H[FHUSW IURP SDUW RQH RI KHU SRHWLF WULORJ\ ³7KUHH 0RPHQWV LQ 3DULV´³2QH2¶&ORFNDW1LJKW´ And sleepily I sat on your chair beside you Leaning against your shoulder And your careless arm across my back gesticulated As your indisputable male voice roared

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Through my brain and my body Arguing dynamic decomposition 4 Of which I was understanding nothing (3-9)

Like hell, Mina Loy did not understand futurist FRQFHSWVRI³G\QDPLF GHFRPSRVLWLRQ´+RZHYHUWKHSRZHURIWKH³LQGLVSXWDEOHPDOHYRLFH´ dominates hers, rendering her the sleepy, silent woman who drifts off to the sounds of male intellect. The repeated use of the pronoun ³\RXU´VKRZVKHUDVRFFXS\LQJDPDQ¶VZRUOGZKLOHVKH can only lay claim to herself (³my brain and my body´), but even this selfreclamation is tenuous when one considers the first two lines of the SRHP ³7KRXJK \RX KDG QHYHU SRVVHVVHG PH , KDG EHORQJHG WR \RX VLQFH WKH EHJLQQLQJ RI WLPH´ 6KH ILQGV VRODFH LQ KHU GUHDP VWDWH during which she becomes KHUWUXHVHOIDQ³DQLPDOZRPDQ´ (21) who SDWURQL]LQJO\ YLHZV PDOH GLVFRXUVH ³DV WKH Velf-indulgent play of FKLOGUHQ´ (25). In turn, the man returns once again to dominate, waking her up, claiming the flesh (meat) that is his by right of his masculinity 2QFH IXOO\ OXFLG WKH ³DQLPDO ZRPDQ´ LV DJDLQ WKH acculturated lady who, albeit sarcastically, expresses feelings of stupidity for daring to criticize men, even within her dreams: ³$Q\KRZ who am I that I should criticize your theories of plastic velocity´   7KH SDWURQL]HU of the dreamscape becomes the patronized in reality. Her lover tells his host, as if speaking of a child, ³µ/HW XV JR KRPH she is tired DQG ZDQWV WR JR WR EHG¶´   /R\ becomes the girl who acts dumb to ³get the guy´ because she fears WKDW KHU LQWHOOHFW ZLOO UHSHO KLP 6KH LV WR TXRWH 5DFKHO 'X3OHVVLV¶V commentary on /R\¶V Love Songs to Joannes³DWRQFHH[KLODUDWHGE\ KHUSDVVLRQ>IRUPHQ@DQGGHEDVHGE\LW´  7KH IUXVWUDWLRQ DQG LQFRQVLVWHQFLHV HYLGHQW LQ ³2QH 2¶&ORFN at NigKW´ H[LVWHG ZLWKLQ KHU UHODWLRQVKLSV DV ZHOO 2I /R\¶V ILHUFHO\ liberational ³)HPLQLVW 0DQLIHVWR´ &DURO\Q %XUNH QRWHV WKDW LWV ³VSLULWHGLQGHSHQGHQFH>«@FRXOGEHPDLQWDLQHGDVORQJDVVKHGLGQRW KDYH WR WHVW LW´   %XUNH IXUWKHU FRQWHQGV WKDW WKLV Giscrepancy between art and life was played out with Loy as a pawn in the game between Marinetti and his adversary Giovanni Papini, neither of whom did, or could, fully realize Loy as a complete being. The independence that Loy calls for in her work is contradicted by her authentic self. The woman who declares that women must negate their desire to be loved is a pawn of love itself, as shown in a letter to her IULHQG³I am rather blue²,¶YHVHHQ3>DSLQL@DJDLQ  ,¶PIULJKWIXOO\ in love²& he hates me with voluptuous and exotic frigidity´qtd. in 4

7KHXQFRQYHQWLRQDOVSDFLQJKHUHLVLQNHHSLQJZLWK/R\¶VRULJLQDOWH[WIRUPDWV

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Burke 181). Loy is the girl who loves the guy not just even though he rebukes her, but because he rebukes her. Loy used poetry to address these internal problems and their roots in patriarchal culture. The content of her poetic legacy attempts to rewrite the myths of Western femininity and love, even if she never actually bought the messages she was selling. In tandem, she used LQQRYDWLYHIRUPV³WRUHMHFWFRQYHQWLRQVDQGRYHUWXUQWKHGRPLQDWLQJ all-WRR FRPIRUWLQJ µDSSURSULDWH¶ SRHWLF VWUXFWXUH´ 3R]RUVNL   (ULF 0XUSK\6HOLQJHUSURSRVHVWKDW/R\¶VYLHZVRQORYHPDUNKHU³HQWU\ into a longstanding misogynist critique of love as a feminine and VHQWLPHQWDOL]LQJ FXOWXUDO IDoDGH´   %XW LW LV HUURQHRXV WR DVVXPH that her anti-love communiqués are merely in keeping with 0DULQHWWL¶V³DJDLQVWamore´VWDQFH,QFRQWUDVWVKHEHOLHYHGLQORYH but was furious at the emotional hold it had on her, angry that Papini FRXOG³PDNHORYH´WRKHUDQGretreat, while she was left heartsick. Her GHFODUDWLRQWKDWZRPHQVKRXOG³OHDYHRIIORRNLQJWRPHQ´WRILQGRXW what they are is contrasted by her life-long devotion to Arthur Cravan, a man who disappeared from her life, and in whom she found the pinnacle of joy. In a 1929 interview in Little Review, she was asked of the happiest and unhappiest moments of her life; she responded, ³Every momHQW , VSHQW ZLWK $UWKXU &UDYDQ´ DQG ³7KH UHVW RI WKH time,´UHVSHFWLYHO\TWGLQ.RXLGLV $ORQJZLWKP\WKVRIEHDXW\ and purity, Loy exposed the myth of love, or the contention that a man will come along some day, enrapture the woman, take care of her for the rest of her life, and she will be happy (Gertrude thought this as well)³WKHYDOXHRIZRPDQGHSHQGVHQWLUHO\RQchance,5 her success or insuccess in manoeuvering a man into taking the life-long UHVSRQVLELOLW\ RI KHU >«@ DV D WKDQN RIIHULQJ IRU KHU YLUJLQLW\´ ³)HPLQLVW0DQLIHVWR´  If this is love, then Loy certainly never found it. Her Love Songs to Joannes expose love for what it is: a frustrating and XQDWWDLQDEOHSURPLVHDPHUH³6SDZQRI)DQWDVLHV´LQZKLFKWKH³3LJ &XSLG´6 URRWV³HURWLFJDUEDJH´ZLWKKLV³URV\VQRXW´OHDGLQJWRWKRVH ³µ2QFHXSRQDWLPH¶´IDLU\WDOHVXSRQZKLFKOLWWOHJLUOVDUHUDLVHG; 3-5). But what for women is a psychological and emotional outpouring, for men is a measly outpouring of HMDFXODWH³3XOOVDZHHG white star-topped/ Among wild oats sown in mucous-PHPEUDQH´5

Please note that all use of italics within quotes from Mina Loy are used as a substitute for her original formatting in which she underlined particular words for emphasis. 6 Pardon the speciesist language.

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  +HU ILQDO SRHP LQ WKLV FROOHFWLRQ VD\V LW DOO ³/RYH ² ² ² the SUHHPLQHQW OLWWHUDWHXU´ (1). Heterosexist ideas of romantic love have dominated Western literary traditions and deluded its followers in the SURFHVV 0DDHUD 6KUHLEHU VWDWHV ³/R\¶V Love Songs responds to the modernist view of the love lyric as culturally dysfunctional. With these poems, Loy in effect diagnoses an end to love poetry in the light RIKLVWRULFDOFLUFXPVWDQFH´ )RUDOORIKHUQREOHLQWHQWLRQV/R\¶V desire to end love poetry came not from her opposition to love, as much as it was that she wanted to not want to be loved. It is from this place of paradox and craving that Loy wrote ³)HPLQLVW0DQLIHVWR´7 a text written in futurist-style prose, calling for a disturbingly futurist-style racial purity. In the tellingly-titled ³(XJHQLFLVW 0LVWUHVV DQG (WKQLF 0RWKHU´ $Lmee Pozorksi addresses /R\¶VIDVFLVWYHUELDJH: ³,QIDFWLQXQPDVNLQJ/R\¶s own illusions, her rhetoric of liberation appears as paradoxically entangled with the discourse of racial purification that informs her radical H[SHULPHQWDWLRQDVDSRHW´ 2QH of these great paradoxes is that Loy herself, though categorized as an American poet, was not racially ³SXUH´ EHLQJ ERWK -HZLVK DQG %ULWLVK8 My glossing over of these polemical lines is not done to excuse Loy¶VGLVTXLHWLQJFRQWHQWLRQWKDW HYHU\ ³ZRPDQ Rf superior intelligence should realize her raceresponsibility, in producing children in adequate proportion to the unfit or degenerate members of her sex² Each child of a superior woman should be the result of a definite period of psychic development in her life´(155). Loy was undoubtedly still caught up in the futurist furor when she wrote the manifesto in 1914, although the text was hostile to its members. In fact, she severed ties with the movement the same year the tract was written. From an intellectual perspective, she was critical of some of their most troubling aspects, including their misogyny, war mongering, and identification as a political, as opposed to aesthetic, movement (Stauder 370). From a biographical perspective, she wrote the manifesto ³DIWHUVKHKDGEHHQ through her sexually and emotionally disappointing affairs with Marinetti and Papini >«@ >which lead to those] probing analyses of IXWXULVP¶V SODWIRUPV FRQFHUQLQJ ZRPHQ DQG KHWHURVH[XDOLW\´ /\RQ 153-154). Explanations considered, the eugenicist lines are 7 8QOHVVRWKHUZLVHQRWHGDOO/R\FLWDWLRQVIURPWKLVSDUWIRUZDUGDUHIURP³)HPLQLVW 0DQLIHVWR´ 8 ,Q³(QJOLVKDVDµ6HFRQG¶/DQJXDJH0LQD/R\¶VµAnglo-Mongrels and the Rose¶´ 0DUMRULH 3HUORII RIIHUV D FRQFLVH RYHUYLHZ RI WKH FRQWURYHUVLHV VXUURXQGLQJ /R\¶V placement within a geographical generic category.

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problematic, but not enough to discredit this revolutionary work in its entirety, for they are important to acknowledge for the same reason WKDW5XGROSK.XHQ]OLWDNHV5RVDOLQG.UDXVVWRWDVNIRU³WKHRU>L]LQJ@ DZD\´VXUUHDOLVWPLVRJ\Q\ DVSUHYLRXVO\GHWDLOHG/R\¶VWURXEOHVRPH views on race can also be viewed in light of a general critique of the avant-JDUGH¶VSURSHQVLW\IRUDGRSWLQJWKHYHU\SHUVSHFWLYHVWKDWZRXOG seem to oppose their cries for liberation. In all ways, Mina Loy was truly avant-garde. Faults aside, but not excused, Loy offers a plan of action that impressively forecasts future critiques of Western liberal feminism: ³3URIHVVLRQDO  FRPPHUFLDO FDUHHUVDUHRSHQLQJ XS IRU \RX²Is that all you want"´ 6KHGHFULHVIHPLQist focus on the typical areas of reform²suffrage, education, and professional development²and VKH ZULWHV LQ D YRLFH WKDW LV ³XQVXERUGLQDWH VH[XDOO\ EOXQW >DQG@ HDJHUWRWUDQVFHQGDQGHUDGLFDWH>«@DQ\SULRUZRUOGKLVWRU\RIIHPDOH sHUYLOLW\´'X3OHVVLV51). Most importantly, she resounds repeated and varied calls for destruction. The theory of destruction that Loy offers exists on two planes. First, there is the destruction that comes from her being enmeshed in futurism DWWKHWLPHRIWKHPDQLIHVWR¶VZULWLQJ7KH Futurists reveled in demolition and annihilation, hence their war PRQJHULQJ )URP WKLV SODFH FDPH /R\¶V ³$SKRULVPV RQ Futurism´ with their emphasis on deformation, deconstruction, and, ultimately, reformation: IN pressing the material to derive its essence, matter becomes deformed. *** OPEN your arms to the dilapidated, to rehabilitate them. *** LIFE is only limited by our prejudices. Destroy them, and you cease to be at the mercy of yourself. (149-150)

Though disillusioned with aspects of the futurist project, Loy remained drawn to their core philosophies of rebirth through disintegration. In regard to her SRHP ³%UDQFXVL¶V *ROGHQ %LUG´ LQVSLUHG E\ &RQVWDQWLQ %UDQFXVL¶V VFXOSWXUH (OOHQ .HFN 6Wauder analyzes the elements of futurist dynamism that appealed to Loy: like WKH3KRHQL[³WKHVFXOSWXUHELUGLQWKHSRHPLVLQWKHFRQVWDQWSURFHVV of a self-generated dissolution, resulting in the irreducible surplus that EHFRPHV WKH PDWHULDO RI QHZ FUHDWLRQ´   :LWK Whe artist in control, a destruction can begin that will lead to regeneration, and this is a rebirth that mirrors that of the woman who has been silenced for millennia; she is also the woman who sleepily dreams in the arms of her lover as he expounds on futurist theory:

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The immaculate conception of the inaudible bird occurs LQJRUJHRXVUHWLFHQFH«/R\³%UDQFXVL¶V*ROGHQ%LUG´31-35)

The second style of destruction, however, is more personal to Loy as a woman in a culture that values her beauty and sexuality above all else. Rather than patiently wait for slow social change, Loy declares need for direct and immediate action through the annihilation RIFXOWXUDOLQVWLWXWLRQV(QRXJKZLWK³VFUDWFKLQJRQWKHVXUIDFHRIWKH UXEELVK KHDS RI WUDGLWLRQ >«@ WKH Rnly method is Absolute Demolition´ It is patently ironic that Loy is using male/futurist discourse to denounce tradition and the Futurists themselves. However, there is also innovation in her proposal that women are not PHQ¶V HTXDOV DQG WKDW PHQ DQG ZRPHQ DUH DFWXDOO\ ³HQHPLHV ZLWK WKH HQPLW\ RI WKH H[SORLWHG DQG WKH SDUDVLWH´ ZKR RQO\ IHHG RII RQH DQRWKHUGXHWR³VH[XDOGHSHQGHQFH´ . Loy was counteracting the then common view of women and sexuality, as effectively summarized by William Acton, a preeminent Victorian doctor: ³I should say that the majority of women (happily for them) are not very much troubled with sexual feeling of any kind. What men are habitually, women are only exceptionally´TWGLQS. Marcus 31). This was also the perspective scorned by the Futurists/R\¶VXQDEDVKHGly anti-Victorian and pro-sex supposition that women enjoy intercourse is one of the reasons she wDV GHHPHG ³LPPRUDO´ DQG VKH HQGV KHU PDQLIHVWRZLWKWKHEROGDVVHUWLRQWKDWLQRUGHUWRJDLQ³self respect´ women and men must relinquish the idea that sex is unclean for what LW LV D ³VXSHUVWLWLRQ´ ³WKHUH LV nothing impure in sex²except the mental attitude to it²´ 7KHWKUHHRSWLRQVFXUUHQWO\DWZRPHQ¶V GLVSRVDO DUH ³Parasitism, & Prostitution²or Negation´   7KH married woman is the parasite, while the prostitute is both she who sells her body for money and she who enjoys sexual intercourse either within or outside of the confines of matrimony²every other woman is simply forgotten, her history erased. Quite possibly, certain women could be all three at once. Loy proposes that reconsideration of female capability begins with demolishing the division of the two classes of ZRPHQ ³WKH PLVWUHVV  WKH PRWKHU´   6KH EHJLQV WR VKDWWHU binary thinking ZLWK WKH DVVHUWLRQ WKDW ZRPDQ FDQ H[SUHVV ³KHUVHOI through all her functions²there are no restrictions´ 7KXVVKH literally and figuratively speaks of breaking boundaries that have no basis in definitive truth5DWKHUWUXWK¶Vauthority lies in arbitrary social codes developed by men with everything to gain from them.

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At about the midpoint of the manifesto, Loy begins to offer an aesthetic theory of destruction. Writing in 1914 and in a Western world still very much Victorian, VKH LGHQWLILHV YLUJLQLW\ DV ZRPHQ¶V premier cultural capital, possibly even more so than beauty: ³7KH fictitious value of woPDQLVLGHQWLILHGZLWKKHUSK\VLFDOSXULW\´  The obsession with maintaining that thing which makes one desired, EHLWEHDXW\RUYLUJLQLW\UHQGHUVZRPDQ³OHWKDUJLFLQWKHDFTXLVLWLRQ of intrinsic merits of character by which she could obtain concrete YDOXH´ $ZRPDQ¶VYLUJLQLW\VLJQLILHVWKDWVKHLVFKDVWHERWKLQ the spiritual sense and in the sense that she can heighten the male ego through DPDQ¶V claiming of her chastity. Purity makes her valuable, and no one else can have it except her husband. The man who marries the undamaged woman will be the only one to lay claim to her. It will PDNH KHU DWWUDFWLYH DV ORQJ DV VKH KDV LW EXW ³>R@QFH SRVVHVVHG VKH ORVHVWKHYHU\VWDWXVZKLFKPDNHKHUGHVLUDEOH´6KUHLEHU Like the animal slaughtered and eaten, that thing which makes her desirable is consumed, and the creature is of no further consequence. Andrea 'ZRUNLQ SRVHV WKH K\PHQ¶V GHVWUXFWLRQ DQG YDJLQD¶V RFFXSDWLRQ DV worse than any other colonialist, imperialist, oppressive appropriation of land, cultures, peoples, and dignity. She states that )RUZRPHQ>«@YLUJLQLW\LVWKHKLJKHVWVWDWHDQLGHDODQGDIDOO from virginity is a fall into trivialization, into being used as a WKLQJ>«@>&@DQDQRFFXSLHGSHRSOH²physically occupied inside, internally invaded²be free; can those with a metaphysically compromised privacy have self-determination; can those without a biologically based physical integrity have self-respect? (Intercourse 14; 124)

Loy would not say so, and her solution LVWRGHVWUR\ZRPHQ¶VYLUJLQLW\ at the point at which it starts to acquire value SURSRVLQJ ³WKH unconditional surgical destruction of virginity through-out the female SRSXODWLRQ DW SXEHUW\´   ,W LV IURP WKLV GHVWUXFWLRQ WKDW \RXQJ women will become middle-aged and elderly women who have ³PHULWV RI FKDUDFWHU´ DQG ³FRQFUHWH YDOXH´ DV RSSRVHG WR WKH YDOXH determined by their vaginas and vaginal capacity. And what will be constructed²the cultural capital of the hymen²will be destructed, but while the rejHFWLRQRIWKHK\PHQDVSURSHUW\LVFRPSHOOLQJ³RQWKH RWKHUKDQGWKLVSUHVFULEHGµXQFRQGLWLRQDOVXUJLFDO¶K\PHQUHPRYDOLV XQLPDJLQDEO\ LQYDVLYH DQG DXWKRULWDULDQ´ 3R]RUVNL   $JDLQ /R\ adopts the very language of dominance and force to which she presumably writes in opposition. /R\¶V SODQ WR surgically ³UXLQ´ ZRPHQ EHIRUH they become ³UXLQHG´ by a penis is significant not as a literal plan of action, but as a symbolic one. In reality, there is no reason to believe that Loy meant

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this destruction in any genuine way, a fact which does not make the SURFODPDWLRQ DQ\ OHVV UHOHYDQW ³)HPLQLVW 0DQLIHVWR´ FODLPV WKDW ZRPHQ¶V OLEHUDWLRQ ZLOO FRPH ZKHQ WKH\ DUH QR ORQJHU GHVLUHG IRU their flesh in a gender unbalanced world, a contention that resonates with manifestos of the ALM in regard to animal flesh. The premise is that if each woman has her virginity taken away, the emphasis on, one might say obsession with, that flap of membrane will subside and she can explore being a whole woman (of course, her beauty will be left, an issue to be taken up in the section on Dunn). Polemically, the nature of /R\¶V language, that of force and mutilation, also resonates with modes of oppression such as the genital mutilation rituals that Kate Millett references, a point on which the discussion can return to Sylvia. In -DFN .HWFKXP¶V 7KH *LUO 1H[W 'RRU, a fictionalized film account of the Likens murder, Gertrude Baniszewski is presented as 5XWK&KDQGOHUJXDUGLDQRIKHUQLHFH0HJ5XWKXVHV0HJ¶VERG\WR re-enact the oppressLRQ RI ZRPHQ WR GHOLYHU KRPH WKDW ³WHUULEOH WUXWKIXOMXVWLFH´WKDW0LOOHWWFRPPHQWVRQWREUDQGLQWRWKHIOHVKWKH ³REVHVVLRQ ZLWK GHVWUXFWLRQ >RI WKH ZKROH ZRPDQ and animal into parts], the pummelling to which individuals [woman and animal] and masses [women and animals@ DUH VXEMHFWHG´ 0HW]JHU, ³0DQLIHVWR´ 402). So, what is the truth about women? Women are valued for their beauty and sexuality, and until they are freed from the cultural obsession with those things, until they are no longer desired by men and/or desire men within patriarchal contexts, they will remain subjugated. The same holds true for animals. They will not be liberated until desire for their meat ceases, a goal that can only be instituted through a project of reconceptualization in which nonhumans are no longer seen as food. Loy, though not concerned with animals, was cognizant of these truths. With a similar certainty in PLQGDQGLQWZLVWHGUHVSRQVHWRLW5XWK³IUHHV´0HJE\DOORZLQJKHU son to rape his cousin (destroy virginity), by branding her flesh with a declaration of promiscuity (destroy beauty), and by taking a blow torch to her clitoris (destroy desire for men). (This final travesty did not happen to Sylvia, but as noted, her pelvic region was the site of much abuse.) Ruth Chandler thus represents the darkest corner of the theory of destruction, and it is from this corner that she explains the alleged logic of her actions: 1RZLW¶VWKHUHIRUHYHU>VLJQVRI0HJ¶VGHVWUXFWLRQ@«@ >as such acts were reserved for] decent, cleanliving male women, highly trained in submerging themselves in the VSHFLHV´   ,Q FRQWUDVW VKH GHPDQGHG D FRPSOHWH FKDQJH DQG immediate upheaval of the current structure, not slow legal change within its subsystems. Solanas begins her manifesto with a list of GHPDQGV WKDW DOO ³FLYLF-minded, responsible, thrill-VHHNLQJ IHPDOHV´ VKRXOG DWWHQG WR D OLVW WKDW HQGV ZLWK /R\¶V HXJHQLFLVW LPSOLFDWLRQV ³RYHUWKURZ WKH JRYHUQPHQW HOLPLQDWH WKH PRQHy system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex´HPSKDVLVDGGHG  9 Dworkin is assuredly onto something here, though, within the parameters of this study, the epigraph would beVW EHJLQ ZLWK WKH ZRUG ³6SHFLHVLVP´ DQG HQG ZLWK ³KXPDQ-over-DQLPDOGRPLQDWLRQ´

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In other words, anything other than ³Absolute Demolition´ ZDV QRW revolution, but merely another instance of ³VFUDWFKLQJRQWKHVXUIDFH of the rubbish heap of tradition´/R\ ³)HPLQLVW0DQLIHVWR´ 153). 6RODQDV¶V SCUM Manifesto is easy to cast aside as over-thetop rhetoric written by a mad woman, placing her within the category of Theodore ³The 8QDERPEHU´ Kaczynski.10 In her study of the manifesto as a literary genre, Janet Lyon fittingly declares that 6RODQDV ³VWUHWFKHV WKH PDQLIHVWR IRUP WR LWV OLPLWV´   +RZHYHU the violent and palpable rage that she expresses was no mere literary flourish, as she acted on that anger through her attempted murder of Pop Art icon Andy Warhol, an act for which she never apologized. In fact, she declared her negligence in kLOOLQJ KLP DV WKH UHDO FULPH ³I FRQVLGHU LW LPPRUDO WKDW , PLVVHG >«@ , Vhould have done target practice´TWGLQ+HOOHU $VIRUPDGQHVV$YLWDO5RQHOODVVHUWV tongXHLQFKHHN³2XU9DOHULH>«@ZDVDSV\FKR%XWFK-dykey angry, SRRU DQG IXFNHG XS ZKR FRXOG DVN IRU PRUH"´   I@HPLQLVWV DUH GHVSHUDWHO\ DQ[LRXV WR SURYH WKDW ZRPHQ DUH DV VWURQJ DQG DV FDSDEOH DV PHQ´ hence their focus on success within a system created and dominated by men ³,QGXVWULDO6RFLHW\DQGLWV)XWXUH´  11 Although SCUM is often explained as an acronym for Society for Cutting Up Men, there was no such society. In fact, all sources concur that the use of S.C.U.M. as an DFURQ\PZDVWKHLGHDRI6RODQDV¶VILUVWSXEOLVKHU0DXULFH*LRUGLDV

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or cultural. Regrettably, Solanas could not see possible compatriots within radical feminist and social reform projects that ran from 1967 WR  %ODFN DQG ZRPHQ¶V ULJKWV SLRQHHU $QJHOD 'DYLV describes the intellectual vibe of that time period in terms that resonate 6RODQDV¶V DQWL-capitalist philosophies, although Solanas is not mentioned therein. In her autoELRJUDSK\'DYLVH[SORUHVWKH³QDWXUDO inclination to identify the enemy as the white mDQ´EXWVKHXOWLPDWHO\ argues that the real enemy was/is the few capitalists who hold the PDVVRISRZHU )XUWKHU6RODQDV¶VFULHVIRUFRPSOHWHGHVWUXFWLRQ RIWKHPDOHVH[SDUDOOHOV³DQHZOLIHVW\OHDPRQJ%ODFNSHRSOH>RIWKH ODWH µV] [«@ ZKR IHOW that only the most drastic measure² elimination of all white people²would give Black people the RSSRUWXQLW\WROLYHXQKDPSHUHGE\UDFLVP´'DYLV :KHWKHUVKH knew it or not, whether she cared or not, Solanas was not alone in the late 1960s. 6RODQDV¶V Irustration with feminism as she saw it was the VDPHIUXVWUDWLRQRIWKHUDGLFDOIHPLQLVWVZKRVRXJKW³WRGHP\VWLI\DQG discredit the old morality of good girls and bad girls, conquest and VXUUHQGHUPDQWKHYLUWXRVRDQGZRPDQWKHYLROLQ´:LOOLV[LLL /LNH 6RODQDVUDGLFDOIHPLQLVWVZDQWHGWRHOLPLQDWHWKH³VH[-FODVVV\VWHP´ and, as expressively VWDWHG E\ $OLFH (FKROV ³:KHUHDV OLEHUDO feminism sought to include women in the mainstream, radical feminism embodied a rejection of the mainstream itself´HPphasis added). SCUM articulates just such a rejection, and Solanas too had a no-compromise stance that would relegate her to the margins much as liberal and cultural feminism stampeded over the revolutionary position of the radical feminist bloc. Her refusal to join the radical brigade may speak to whatever mental deficiency compelled Solanas to be an outsider and to attempt to destroy another human life. In WUXWK 6RODQDV¶V FDXVH ZDV LJQRUHG E\ WKH OLEHUDO IHPLQLVWV RI organizations such as the National Organization for Women (NOW), but there were those women who, though not necessarily condoning WKH DFW RI YLROHQFH XQGHUVWRRG WKH UHDVRQ IRU WKH ORQH JXQZRPDQ¶V simmering rage, and they tried to support her in the aftermath. Valerie rejected them all. $OWKRXJKDFDVHFDQEHPDGHLQVXSSRUWRI6RODQDV¶VUDGLFDO feminist roots, she also springs from an earlier legacy that began during the suffragette movement. Her aggressive anti-male stance, ZKLFK VKH EODPHV RQ PHQ¶V XQFRQWUROODEOH VH[XDO XUJHV ILQGV D FRPSDQLRQ SLHFH LQ &KULVWDEHO 3DQNKXUVW¶V  WRPH RQ ³PDOH erections and nocturnal HPLVVLRQV´HQWLWOHd The Scourge and How to

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End It (Lyon 174). Additionally, Emily Stoper and Roberta Ann Johnson discuss SCUM within the historical context of a mode of American feminist discourse that argues for female superiority, rather than equality: ³Women¶s superiority presumably was manifested in a host of virtues: wholesomeness, altruism, purity, compassion, nurturance, authenticity²as opposed to the corresponding allegedly male qualities of debauchery, selfishness, corruption, coldness, aggressivenHVV HPRWLRQDO UHSUHVVLRQ´ (193). On this point, Solanas forges her own path as well, noting that women should be selfish and most certainly aggressive within the context of the revolution she proposes. But hers is not a manifesto in the style of the war-hungry Futurists DV VKH DOVR FRQWHQGV WKDW ZRPDQ ³NQRZV LQVWLQFWLYHO\ WKDW WKHRQO\ZURQJLVWRKXUWRWKHUVDQGWKDWWKHPHDQLQJRIOLIHLVORYH´ (53). She cannot foresee a society in which men and love mutually H[LVW DQG VKH EODPHV WKH IRUPHU IRU ³>K@DYLQJ VWULSSHG WKe world of FRQYHUVDWLRQIULHQGVKLSDQGORYH´ /RYHLVDOOWKHPRUDOFRGHVKH needs, so to hell with Western philosophy and religion. She also UHLQIRUFHV WKH DFFHSWDELOLW\ RI HPRWLRQ FRQWHQGLQJ WKDW PHQ¶V DORRIQHVVOHDGVWRDXQLYHUVDO³IHDURIVWURQJHPRWLRQ´WKDWWKHQOHDGV WR³DODFNRIVHOI-FRQILGHQFHLQRQH¶VDELOLW\WRFRSHZLWKDQGFKDQJH WKHZRUOG´ However, Solanas is not simply a stereotypical manhater, as she skewers women as well, explaining that the FRQIOLFW >«@ LV QRW EHWZHHQ IHPDOHV DQG PDOHV EXW EHWZHHQ SCUM²dominant, secure, self-confident, nasty, violent, selfish, independent, proud, thrill-seeking, free-wheeling, arrogant IHPDOHV >«@ DQG QLFH SDVVLYH DFFHSWLQJ ³FXOWLYDWHG´ SROLWH dignified, subdued, dependent, scared, mindless, insecure, approval-VHHNLQJ'DGG\¶V*LUOV 

7KH³'DGG\¶V*LUO>LV@SDVVLYHDGDSWDEOHUHVSHFWIXORIDQGLQDZHRI the male, [who] allows him to impose his hideously dull chatter on KHU´ Solanas 55). At its core, KRZHYHU 6RODQDV¶V PDQLIHVWR GLVWULEXWHGRQ1HZ«@VKRZLQJKRZ carnival fails to invert norms and in fact reinforces them, especially in WKH DUHQD RI WUDGLWLRQDO JHQGHU UHODWLRQV´  DQG   Much like :DUKRO¶V )DFWRU\ WKH %LQHZVNL )DEXORQ of Geek Love promises VRPHWKLQJQHZEXWPHUHO\GHOLYHUVLWVSDWULDUFK¶VUHSDFNDJHGYHUVLRQ of old myths of embodiment to a congregation of loyal followers. $OWKRXJKWKH³IUHDNV´RIGeek Love feel revulsion toward and/or pity for the so-FDOOHG³QRUPDO´SHRSOHWKHDYDQW-garde would refer to them as the bourgeois), they are as entangled in the cycle of commodification, exploitation, and fetishization as the most whitebread citizens. The tales that surround the main narrative of Geek Love SHUVRQDOL]HWKHQRYHO¶s comments on human aesthetics and consider the role of destruction as the path to rebirth. The first theory RI GHVWUXFWLRQ UHFDOOV 9DOHULH 6RODQDV¶s demand for complete revolution and the second resounds the bodily destruction that Mina /R\FRQWHPSODWHVLQ³)HPLQLVW0DQLIHVWR´$QGDVZLOOEHVKRZQWKH complete annihilation of the patriarchal, hierarchical, capitalistic Fabulon, a metaphor for contemporary commodity culture (and the avant-garde), occurs at the hands and through the mind of a gentle, unassuming vegetarian. Thus, the outcomes and characterizations in the novel mirror the vanguard promise of liberation that comes from the radical ALM. Geek Love is the story of the Binewski family and their WUDYHOOLQJ FDUQLYDO %LQHZVNL¶V )DEXORQ 3DSD $O ³D VWDQGDUG-issue E@\XVLQJWKHLQFRQJUXRXVMX[WDSRVLWLRQ of such a bizarre family with wholly conventional nuclear and SDWULDUFKDOIDPLO\SUDFWLFHV'XQQGHIDPLOLDUL]HVSDWULDUFK\>«@WKXV KHLJKWHQLQJWKHVKRFNYDOXHRIWKHSDWULDUFKDOSUDFWLFHVVKHGHVFULEHV´   ,Q HIIHFW 'XQQ XVHV WKH WHFKQLTXHV RI FROODJH WR PDNH ³WKH readHURUYLHZHU>«@FRQVLGHULQWHUSOD\EHWZHHQSUHH[LVWLQJPHVVDJH or material and the new artistic composition that results from the JUDIW´ 3HUORII Futurist Moment xviii). In fact, what makes the Binewskis so frightening to normal people is how much, appearance aside, they are just like us. The rules of the carnival, much like those of the avant-garde and seemingly every culture everywhere, are made by men who fetishize and profit from the embodiment of others. Papa Al manufactures mutated children to put on display, even down to the fetal mishaps that are jarred and presented for a $1 admission fee. Although Crystal Lil joins him in these mutations, Al is very much in charge. He does not use his body for profit, though he does use his ZLIH DQG FKLOGUHQ¶V There are no useful bodies rejected by the Fabulon, human, animal, or insect (there is even a fly roping display), DQG DOWKRXJK 2O\PSLD¶V DIIOLFWLRQV DUH ³WRR KXPGUum to be PDUNHWDEOHRQWKHVDPHVFDOH´DVKHUVLEOLQJVVKHLVGHIRUPHGenough to be kept on as a barker (8). If a seemingly ordinary child is born into the Binewski clan, it is abandoned because he/she cannot bring in profit. In this fashion, Geek Love does begin to dissolve the human/animal binary, thus reinforcing the link between human and DQLPDOERG\FRPPRGLILFDWLRQ7KHIDPLO\¶VPRYHPHQWIURPRQHWRZQ WRWKHQH[WLVGHVFULEHGDV³WKHPLGQLJKWGHIHFWLRQRIDQHQWLUHIDPLO\ 13 For classic examples, see The Twilight Zone¶V³(\HRIWKH%HKROGHU´ RUDQ\ 7KH0XQVWHU¶V episode where the lovely cousin Marilyn is seen as ugly by the freakish family.

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of animal eroticists, taking their donkey, goat, and Great Dane with WKHP´  7KH IUHDNV DQG JHHNV RI WKH FDUQLYDO ³DUH H[FHOOHQW interpreters of the capitalist system that constructs the body as FRPPRGLW\ >«@ >)@UHDNV DUH DEOH WR PDQLSXODWH WKHLU H[FHVV embodiment for the purposes RI SURILW DQG SHUVRQDO HPSRZHUPHQW´ (R. $GDPV 5DFKHO$GDPV¶s commentary is best exemplified in the character Arturo the Aquaboy, the first born son who usurps power from Papa Al and becomes de facto patriarch of the Binewski clan, as well as leader of the Arturian cult. Arty, star attraction within his giant fish tank, measures the worth of his siblings by the money they bring inZKLFKLIPRUHWKDQKLPUHVXOWVLQRQHRIKLV³SULPDGRQQD´ILWV. 2O\PSLD UHSRUWV³7KH UHDO WURXEOH DV XVXDO ZDV $UW\ +H¶G DOZD\V EHHQ MHDORXV +H GLGQ¶W PLQG PH VR PXFK EHFDXVH PRQH\ ZDV WKH JDXJHRIKLVHQY\DQG,GLGQ¶WPDNHDQ\´ $UW\LVDVHOI-loathing megalomaniac who demands control of the family empire, and everyone within it, by right of primogeniture: ,¶Pjust an industrial accident! But I made it into something²me! ,KDYHWRZRUNDQGWKLQNWRGRLW$QGGRQ¶WIRUJHW,ZDVWKHILUVW NHHSHU ,¶P WKH ROGHVW VRQ WKH Binewski! This whole show is mine, the total family. Papa was the oldest and he got the show DQG *UDQGSD¶V DVKHV %HIRUH PH WKH ZKROH SODFH ZDV IDOOLQJ DSDUW,¶PWKHRQHZKRJRWXVEDFNRQWKHURDG:KHQ3DSDJRHV LW¶OOEHPH

Dr. Norval Sanderson, an embedded reporter within the cult, confirms WKDW GHVSLWH KLVLQLWLDOVXVSLFLRQV ³Arty is in complete control of the cult, of the carnival, of his parents, and apparently of his sisters and brother´-190). $UW\¶VOXVWIRUFRQWUROUHVXOWVLQKLVIRXQGLQJDFXOWFRPSULVHG of individuals who undergo surgical amputations starting with fingers and toes, then onto limbs and erogenous zones, finally ending with a lobotomy. ,Q³)XQGDPHQWDOO\)UHDN\´+DUGLQDQDO\]HVWKHFXOWDVWKH literalization of Protestant Pentecostalism that completely renounces WKH ³HDUWKl\ ERG\ LQ IDYRU RI WKH LPPRUWDO VRXO´ WKHUHE\ YLHZLQJ Geek Love DV 'XQQ¶V SDURG\ RI ³WKLV UHMHFWLRQ E\ PDNLQJ LW OLWHUDO´ (341; 342). Through this interpretation, Dunn further condemns the ultimate of patriarchal institutions: organized religion. Notably, the first of many converts to Arturism is Alma Witherspoon, a woman burdened by her embodiment in a culture that sees her excessive girth as proof of worthlessness. She comes to Arty pained because she has duped her prison pen pal, a man she is to marry, into thinking she is a SUHWW\VOHQGHUEORQGHFKHHUOHDGHU$UW\¶VDQVZHU WR$OPD¶VGLOHPPD

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lies in the destruction of the body that keeps her subjugated. He counsels and consoles her by declaring the following: $OO\RXUHDOO\ZDQWLVWRNQRZWKDW\RX¶UH all right7KDW¶VZKDW FDQ JLYH \RX SHDFH >«@ ,I , KDG DUPV DQG OHJV DQG KDLU OLNH HYHU\ERG\ HOVH GR \RX WKLQN ,¶G EH KDSS\" 12 >«@ %HFDXVH WKHQ ,¶G ZRUU\ GLG VRPHERG\ ORYH PH ,¶G KDYH WR ORRN RXWVLGH P\VHOIWRILQGRXWZKDWWRWKLQNRIP\VHOI>«@&DQyou be happy with the movies and the ads and the clothes in the stores and the doctors and the eyes as you walk down the street all telling you there is something wrong with you? (178)

Alma cannot be happy in the culture that Arty describes, so she declareV WR KLP ³I want to be like you are!´ 2WKHUV GR DV ZHOO DQG they line up in droves to be methodically butchered by a character named Dr. Phyllis, their pain alleviated by the telekinetic Chick. They buy into the notion that through annihilation and deformation one can experience regeneration and reformation. This aesthetic theory leads to a mass of limbless, brainless, drooling converts who are subsequently stowed away until they die. As Gustav Metzger explains LQ ³$XWR-'HVWUXFWLYH $UW´ ZKHQ ³WKH GLVLQWHgrative process is FRPSOHWH WKH ZRUN LV WR EH UHPRYHG IURP WKH VLWH DQG VFUDSSHG´ (401). However, what may seem weirdly shocking and far removed from supposed normal society is in fact very much in keeping with the status quo outside of the carnival tent. Rachel Adams shows that, DOWKRXJK WKH FXOW RIIHUV ³WKH SULYLOHJH RI disembodiment through OLWHUDO PHDQV >«@ LW DFWXDOO\ DSSUR[LPDWHV QXPHURXV FRQWHPSRUDU\ cultural institutions that fetishize the body, such as cosmetic surgery, ERG\EXLOGLQJ DQG WKH GLHW LQGXVWU\´   7R ZLW WKH ZRPDQ ZKR seeks a plastic surgeon for breast enlargement (very popular these days) literally wants him/her to deform her body and reform it to take away the pain that comes with not meeting cultural expectations of the large-breasted woman.14 Arty controls the bodies in his power and feeds off their fear RIEHLQJDYHUDJH+HFRPPHQWVWR6DQGHUVRQWKDWWKH³LQQRFHQWV´LQ his congregDWLRQDUH³HQJXOIHGE\WKHWHUURURIWKHLURZQRUGLQDULQHVV 7KH\ ZRXOG GR DQ\WKLQJ WR EH XQLTXH´   -XVW DV 6FKQHHPDQQ UHSRUWVWKDWWKH)DFWRU\FKXUQHGRXW³$QG\¶VYHUVLRQRIIHPLQLQH´VR WRR GRHV $UWXUR FUHDWH ³FRSLHV RI KLPVHOI LQ 'U 3K\OOLV¶V VXUgery WUDLOHUGHVFULEHGDVDNLQGRIDVVHPEO\OLQH´:HHVH ,QWKLVZD\ KXPDQ DQLPDOV EHFRPH YHU\ PXFK OLNH WKH DQLPDOV WKDW KXPDQ¶V 14

Solanas ends SCUM ZLWKWKLVZDUQLQJ³7KHVLFNLUUDWLRQDOPHQ>«@ZLOOFOLQJLQ WHUURU WR %LJ 0DPD ZLWK KHU %LJ %RXQF\ %RRELHV EXW %RRELHV ZRQ¶W SURWHFW WKHP DJDLQVW6&80´

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consume. They enter the factory as one thing²a unified whole²and come out the other end reformulated as parts that will meet the market and $UW\¶VH[SHFWDWLRQV ,Q ³3RVWPRGHUQ 3DUDWD[LV (PERGLHG 7H[WV :HLJKWOHVV ,QIRUPDWLRQ´ 1 .DWKHULQH +D\OHV H[SOLFDWHV Geek Love as commentary on our contemporary fascination with genetic engineering, a type of science viewed with equal parts intrigue and WHUURU 6KH UHFDOOV &6 /HZLV¶V DUJXPHQW WKDW DUWLILFLDO OLIH IRUPV LI ever constructed, would never have rights, as we would see them as creations and property, as opposed as to our equals (413). That, of course, is exactly how Arty sees his followers and his family. Similarly, it is how humans see animals, as our property, and it alludes to the argument that humans have a right to eat animals because those animals would not have had the opportunity to experience life if humans had not taken part in their creation. Hayles goes on to describe this dynamic in terms of the right to use animals in the name of scientific discovery: The human is the subject who designs the experiment and exercises the power; the animal is the object who LVGHVLJQHG>«@ The reasoning one might use to justify [animal use in experiments LV «@ WKDW KXPDQ NQRZOHGJH LV ZRUWK PRUH WKDQ D PRXVH¶V OLIH for example²[it] depends on a subject object distinction that negates whatever subjectivity the mouse may have. In this view, the mouse is not an other; it is an object to be manipulated. (416; 417)

Accordingly, scientism can be added to the list of dominant institutions that Dunn both parodies and exposes within the metaphor of the carnival. And, either intentionally or not, she conjures up the absent referent of animal exploitation through over-the-top representation of humans as things to be manipulated and fragmented. Her description of what happens to the GHYRWHHV¶ severed limbs is particularly evocative of the slaughterhouse. Sanderson collects ³DPSXWDWHGSDUWV [and cuts] them into small chunks, one chunk in each half-SLQW MDU >«@ +H¶G KDQJ ILQJHUOHVV RU WRHOHVV KDQGV RU IHHW RQ KRRNV EHKLQG KLV WUDLOHU´ DQG ZDLW Ior maggots to form, which, naturally, he would then sell (200). While this image is shocking through its referencing of the human body, it is actually a quite mundane truth to be regularly found in butcher shops and meat markets. Arturo the Aqua Boy, patriarch, is a master manipulator of both the minds and bodies of others, and he pays special attention to women. Charlotte M. Wright argues that his experiences as a freak KDYH DOORZHG IRU DQ XQGHUVWDQGLQJ RI WKH XJO\ ZRPDQ¶V SOLJKW that

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PRVW PHQFRXOGQRWIDWKRP6KHFDOOVKLP³DUDULW\´LQWKDWKHLV³D PDOHFKDUDFWHUZKRVHHVWKDWWKHVHFUHWWRDQXJO\ZRPDQ¶VKDSSLQHVV does not lie in changing her hairstyle or blouse color to deceive others LQWRWKLQNLQJVKHLVEHWWHUORRNLQJ´9). While the sentiment is valid, however, Wright asserts that he abuses this insight. Arty simply replaces one obsession with another²deformation in place of beauty. Most interestingly, he teaches his followers to, in the words of Mina /R\³GHVWUR\LQWKHPVHOYHVWKHGHVLUHWREHORYHG´$ZRPDQLVKLV first convert to this philosophy, Olympia waits on him slavishly, and he obsessively controls his conjoined twin sisters in every facet of their lives, leading to more than covert incestuous undertones within the text. ,Q IDFW 2O\ XVHV KHU EURWKHU &KLFN¶V WHOHNLQHWLF DELOLWLHV WR VXUUHSWLWLRXVO\ PRYH $UW\¶V VSHUP LQWR KHU XWHUXV ZKLch is how Miranda is conceived. However, Arty, and later Miss Lick, makes the erroneous assumption that the freakish female body will be beyond desire, instituting questions of the fetishization and reification of deformed and destructed beauty. Arty appears to make the assumption that acts of bodily destruction will render the body undesirable, thereby freeing the mind from an obsession with being both attractive and lovable.15 Only then can one be liberated. In contrast, his theory is continuously proven false within Geek Love, thereby shedding further light on the eroticization and exploitation of human abnormalities. Arty himself is an exception to his own hypothesis, for he is desired by women who come to the carnival. They seek him out, wishing to spend one night with the charismatic fish-man. Wright explains that beauty is not nearly as relevant in the construction of male literary characters as it is ZLWKIHPDOHFRQWHQGLQJWKDWPHQZLWK³KDOI-inch wide scars running down the length of their bodies will be seen as heroic, successful, and HYHQ GHVLUDEOH DQG VH[\´ x). While this is inarguably true both in literature and reality, Arty is more than just scarred, he is grotesque: ³+LVKDQGVDQGIHHWZHUHLQWKHIRUPRIIOLSSHUVWKDWVSURXWHGGLUHFWO\ IURPKLVWRUVRZLWKRXWLQWHUYHQLQJDUPVDQGOHJV´-8). However, he is desirable because he is in control; in fact, he maintains god-like status amongst his followers, both the natural born freaks and the outsiders who deform themselves. Through Arturism, he seems to construct a reality that is accepted as truth. He creates fear in his citizenry, but his authority also ³LQGXFHV SOHDVXUHV IRUPV NQRZOHGJH DQG SURGXFHV GLVFRXUVH´ 15

,VD\³DSSHDUV´EHFDXVH$UW\GRHVQRWEHOLHYHKLVRZQWKHRULHVEXWKHXVHVWKHPWR gain power and revenge for being born a freak.

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()RXFDXOW ³7UXWK DQG 3RZHU´   7his allows Fabulon citizens to EHQHILW IURP $UW\¶V DXWKRULW\ )RU H[DPSOH KH RIIHUV KLV VLVWHUV sexually to the hideous Bag Man and proposes a new vision of the EHDXWLIXO WKDW HQWLFHV ³XJO\´ RXWVLGHUV RI PDLQVWUHDP FXOWXUH WR MRLQ his cult. In Foucauldian terms, the carnival manifests its own UpJLPH RI WUXWK >«@ WKDW LV WKH W\SHV RI GLVFRXUVH ZKLFK LW >D society] accepts and makes function as true; the mechanisms and instances which enable one to distinguish true and false statements, the means by which each is sanctioned; the techniques and procedures accorded value in the acquisition of truth; the status of those who are charged with saying what counts as true. ³7UXWKDQG3RZHU´

In Geek Love$UW\LV³FKDUJHGZLWKVD\LQJZKDWFRXQWVDVWUXH´+H plays the role of despot, concentrating power solely in himself and making himself the lone authority in terms of the political, economic, gender, scientific, aesthetic, and even hygienic standards of the Fabulon. Yet again, one sees that the Binewski Carnival Fabulon is but a microcosm of the hegemonic societies of which it claims to want no part. Arty attempts to wield absolute power, but this proves to be an impossibility. In Discipline and Punish, Foucault observes that it was often at the peaks of the 6RYHUHLJQ¶V demonstrations of VXSUHPDF\ WKDW ³UHMHFWLRQ RI >KLV@ SXQLWLYH SRZHU DQG VRPHWLPHV UHYROW´ ZRXOG RFFXU   6R WRR LQ WKH )DEXORQ ILUVW WKRXJK KLV VLVWHUV¶VPDOODFWVRIUHEHOOLRQ and then on a much grander scale. As explained, Arty is desired because of his power and in spite of his defects. In contrast, his conjoined sisters Iphy and Elly are lusted after because of their defects and their lack of power as DXWRQRPRXVEHLQJV0XFKWRWKHLUEURWKHU¶VUDJH,SK\DQG(OO\GHFLGH to market their sexuality and their abnormalities ZLWKRXW $UW\¶V knowledge. Elly explains: «@JUDEKHUDVVDQGSXPSML]]LQWRKHU´ 

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0LUDQGD¶V RGGLW\ DQG KHU OLQN WR KHU IUHDNLVK KHULWDJH LV D ³WKLQ FXUOLQJ WDLO WKDW MXWW>V@ RXW IURP WKH HQG RI KHU VSLQH´   6WUDQJH yes, but to Oly it is a welcomed reminder of the family she is so proud RI WKRVH VKH ORVW LQWKH FDUQLYDO¶V GHVWUXFWLRQ ,W LV also what makes Miranda uniquely who she is. To most, aside from Oly and guests at the Glass House, the tail is a deformity, something ugly on an otherwise attractive woman. In Plain and Ugly Janes: The Rise of the Ugly Woman in Contemporary American Fiction, Charlotte M. Wright defines just ZKDWLVPHDQWE\³XJO\´DWHUPWKDWVKHEROGO\XVHVDOWKRXJKWRGRVR is to break the code of political correctness. Through a thorough DQDO\VLV RI ZRPHQ¶VDHVWKHWLF FDWHJRUL]DWLRQV LQ $PHULFDQOLWHUDWXUH :ULJKW GHWHUPLQHV WKDW WR EH XJO\ LV WR ³EH GHVFULEHG LQ WHUPV RUGLQDULO\ LGHQWLILHG ZLWK PDOHV´ IXUWKHU EXW QRW H[FOXVLYHO\ WR EH XJO\ LV WR EH ³IDW´ D ³EX]]ZRUG WR FRPPXQLFDWH XJOLQHVV´ ³ROG´ LV ³DQRWKHUZRUGJXDUDQWHHGWRFRQMXUHXSWKHLPDJHRIXJOLQHVV´QH[W ³LOO´ LV RIWHQ D HXSKHPLVP IRU D VLFNO\ WKLQ ³VFDUUHG RU GHIRUPHG´ ZRPDQDQGILQDOO\³$PHULFDQDXWKRUVRIWHQXWLOL]HDQLPDOLPDJHU\ to distinguish women froP WKHLU PRUH µQRUPDO¶ LH EHDXWLIXO  FRXQWHUSDUWV´-19). This means that to be an ugly woman is to be masculine, fat, old, sickly and/or manifest choice animalistic attributes. Young Miranda is described in very feminine terms, and she is slender, but not so much as to be seen as unhealthy. All that is left to make her ugly, therefore, is her animal-like tail. Of course, animalistic adjectives can be used as pseudocompliments as well, but usually within the context of objectification. For instance, WRFDOODZRPDQD³SLJ´RU³FRZ´LVWRVD\VKHLVIDWDQG therefore undesirable by heterosexist standards, which is not to say that no men find larger ZRPHQ DWWUDFWLYH &DOOLQJ D ZRPDQ ³IR[´ ³PLQ[´ RU³ZLOGFDW´ ZKLOH VHHPLQJO\ IODWWHULQJ LVMXVWDQRWKer way of fragmenting the whole being into something to pump jizz into, and, XQOLNH ³FRZ´ DQG ³SLJ´ WKHVH ODWWHU WHUPV GR QRW UHIHU WR ZKDW D woman looks like but to her sexuality. Inside the Glass House, 0LUDQGD¶V WDLO PDNHV KHU VRPHWKLQJ WKDW PHQ ZDQW Wo ³SXPS jizz LQWR´EXWRXWVLGHRILWWKHWDLOPDNHVKHUXJO\5DFKHO$GDPVVHHVWKH WDLODVD³YHVWLJLDOUHPQDQWWKDWUHFDOOVWKHKXPDQERG\¶VDUWLFXODWLRQ ZLWKWKHQDWXUDODQGDQLPDOZRUOGV´ 7KLVUHPQDQWRUUHPLQGHU of human animality, is declared ugly because of all the implications contained therein. This is highly significant, as humans have gone to great pains to raise human beings, usually male beings, out of the muck and mire of animality and into the God-like realm. The presence

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of a tail on a human brings us right back down, with a crashing thud, into our animalistic heritage. According to Richard Twine, this association between oppressed groups and animalization has justified their subjugation throughout history: It is the symbolic presence of the absent animal in particular, ZKLFKKDVPDUNHG³ERG\-SHRSOH´DVLQIHULRU>«@7KXVIRUKXPDQ RWKHUVWREHVLPLODUO\UHQGHUHGDV³MXVW´ERG\HQWDLOVDSURFHVVRI agency-stripping which is comparative with that experienced by nonhuman animals. This operates as the crossover point VSHFLILFDOO\ EHWZHHQ WKH RSSUHVVLRQ RI ³ERG\ DQG QDWXUHDVVRFLDWHGKXPDQV´DQGQRQKXPDQDQLPDOV 17

In Geek Love0LUDQGD¶VWDLOUHPLQGVKXPDQVWKDWWKH\WKHPVHOYHVDUH DQLPDOV HYHQ WKH ³XQPDUNHG´ ZKLWH PDOHV ZKR ZRXOG RWKerwise be attracted to her. So, she is ugly, but to call her so brings up additional questions of aesthetic appeal. First, discussions of what makes a woman ugly or pretty almost always, covertly or overtly, comes down to this question: What traits do men find attractive in women? Thus, the questions of beauty that arise here, as well as in the work of Loy and Solanas, arise from heteronormative aesthetic standards (even in regard to the homosexual Andy Warhol). In truth, Miranda is not ugly, she simply has one presumed ugly attribute that can be removed if she chooses. In contrast, her mother Oly is irredeemably unattractive and, in a sense, this gives her a power that Miranda will never have, unless she gets really fat or until she gets really old. Consideration of these aesthetic questions is best accomplished through analysis of the character Miss Mary Lick. Miss Lick literalizes the theory of a destructivist aesthetic² destroy what makes you desired and be free. A convert to Arturism, she wields her money and feminism as weapons against patriarchy. Early in the novel, Miranda explains that Miss Lick, who pays young women to disfigure and mutilate themselves for vast sums of money, KDVVLPLODUO\DSSURDFKHGKHUWRUHPRYHKHUWDLO6KH¶VDOUHDG\JRWWHQ to Denise, she of the luxurious pubic tresses, who had her head set aflame to destroy her hair. 0LUDQGD WHOOV 2O\ ³7KH URRWV ZHUH destroyed and the hair will never grow back. There are a lot of scars RQKHUIDFH6KH¶VQRWDOORZHGWRKDYHDQ\SODVWLFVXUJHU\7KDWZDVLQ the contract she sigQHG´ 6he concludes by explaining that Denise is actually happy. Through destruction came rebirth.

17

8QVXUSULVLQJO\7ZLQHSUHIDFHVWKLVFRPPHQWDU\E\QRWLQJ5HQp'HVFDUWHV¶VSDUWLQ instituting this world view.

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In two key ways, physically and ideologically, Mary Lick is a parody of the stereotypical feminist. She is an unattractive man-hater, and she sees equality only in terms of making as much money as men. .DWKHULQH :HHVH FDOOV WKLV KHU ³PLVJXLGHG IHPLQLVP´ RQH WKDW LV FDXJKWXSLQSDWULDUFKDOGXDOLVWLFWKLQNLQJ³,Q/LFN¶VZRUOGRQHFDQ be either a norm or a freak, beautiful or brainy, sexual or smart, but QHYHUERWKDWWKHVDPHWLPH>«] [6KHUHGXFHV@SHRSOH¶VLQQHUEHLQJV WRWKHVWHUHRW\SHVDWWDFKHGWRWKHLURXWHUDSSHDUDQFH´ 0LVV/LFN is presented as a woman who was dominated by her powerful father, so she views success in terms of fierce personal and financial independence from men. Like Solanas, she is perceived to be a lesbian, but in IDFWLVDVH[XDOH[SODLQLQJ³3HRSOHDOZD\VDVVXPH,¶P DOHVELDQ,¶PQRW,KDYHQRVH[DWDOOWKDW,NQRZRI1RLQWHUHst. No inclination. Never have´  2O\ H[SRXQGV XSRQ /LFN¶V GHVWUXFWLYLVW DHVWKHWLF ZKLFK 5DFKHO$GDPVUHIHUVWRDVD³KRUULI\LQJDQWLGRWHWRWKHEHDXW\P\WK´ (286): 0LVV /LFN¶V SXUSRVH LV WR OLEHUDWH ZRPHQ ZKR DUH OLDEOH WR EH H[SORLWHG E\ PDOH KXQJHUV >«@ WKH SUHWW\ RQHV >«@ ,I DOO WKHVH pretty women could shed the traits that made men want them (their prettiness) then they would no longer depend on their own exploitability but would use their talents and intelligence to EHFRPH SRZHUIXO >«@ 6KH KHUVHOI LV DQ H[DPSOH RI ZKDW can be accomplished by one unencumbered by natural beauty. So am I. (162)

Miss Lick has already been destroyed by nature, and she is described LQWKHPDVFXOLQHWHUPVWKDW:ULJKWDVVHUWVDUHLQGLFDWLYHRIDZRPDQ¶V ugliness: ³>6KH@LVVL[IHHWWZRDQGDKHavyweight athlete. She is not quite 40 years old and has 20-LQFKELFHSV´ %XWZKLOHXQVLJKWO\ in the commonplace sense, she is not grotesque in the way that she recreates other women. She is unattractive, but not so much so that passersby will gaze in horror RUVKLHOGWKHLUFKLOGUHQ¶VH\HVIURPWKH PRQVWHU LQ WKHLU PLGVW $V :ULJKW FRUUHFWO\ DYHUV GHIRUPLW\ LV ³WKH supreme form of ugliness,´ PDNLQJ /LFN¶V PDVFXOLQLW\ SDOH LQ comparison to her creations (110). Further, ZKLOH 0LVV /LFN¶V VHOIdeclared ³SURMHFWV´ DUH XVXDOO\ VXFFHVVIXO LQ WKDW WKH ZRPHQ VKH deforms become intellectual and financial powerhouses, they also live lives of isolation. Lick keeps a collection of videos through which she can YR\HXULVWLFDOO\ZDWFKKHU³SURMHFWV´DWZRUN,QRQHLnstance, Carina, who started as a mixed race prostitute, is seen on her college graduation day. A barrage of excited girls rush through the doors of a FKDSHO ³WKHLU PRUWDUV SUHFDULRXV RQ VRIW KDLU´ WUDLOHG E\ WKH ORQH

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&DULQDD³SXUSOHIDFH´VFDUUHGZLWK acid (160). Carina finds success as an Intelligence Bureau translator, but she is alone, working in a ³GUDERIILFH>«@7KHVFDU-IDFHGJLUOLVDWRQHRIWKHWKUHHGHVNV>«@ )OXHQWLQILYHODQJXDJHV´DQGSUHVXPDEO\IRUHYHULVRODWHG 0LVV Lick, for the professed purpose of freeing women, in fact scars them both physically and emotionally. Mentally traumatized by the disfiguration procedures, they find no companions in either men or women. 7KHUHLVQRFRPSDVVLRQLQ0LVV/LFN¶VWKHRU\RIGHVWUXFWLRQ Like the men at the Glass House, women are her entertainment, her ³SURMHFWV´ DQG KHU ³IOLFNV´ 6KH VHWV RXW WR PDQXIDFWXUH ³D UDFH RI professional superwomen who would live alone, caring only for WKHPVHOYHV DQG WKH IXUWKHULQJ RI WKHLU KLJKSRZHUHG FDUHHUV´ R. Adams 286). Her theory of destruction is not altruistic, but it is done to enact some kind of revenge on both society and the father who dominated her. In this way, she is much like Gertrude Baniszewski, the woman who used the body of a teenage girl to re-enact the RSSUHVVLRQRIZRPHQDQGWR³OLEHUDWH´KHUIURPWKDWRSSUHVVLRQ In The Basement .DWH 0LOOHWW HQYLVLRQV *HUWUXGH¶V WZLVWHG reasoning. After having one of her minions scar Sylvia with the words ³,DPDSURVWLWXWHDQGSURXGRILW´VKHVWDWHV³No one will ever marry \RX QRZ «@:LGHmouthHG 0LUDQGD D GDQFHU RQ ORQJ OHJV´ ZLWK DOPRQG-shaped eyes (12; 17). Wright observes that she has ³VOLJKWO\ IODZHG EHDXW\ « [and@KDVOHDUQHG>«@WRWUDGHRQWKHEHDXW\RIWKHUHVWRIKHUERG\´ ZKLOH 2O\ JDLQV ³SHUVRQDO SRZHU´ E\ OLYLQJ ZLWK LI QHYHU IXOly accepting, a deformity that cannot be hidden or traded (111). Like heroines throughout literature, Miranda is beautiful, and she can easily slip into the world that shuns her mother. Her financial freedom results from pecuniary patronage in much the same way as Miss /LFN¶V SURMHFWV In contrast, Oly successfully supports herself by working as a popular radio personality. As a cultural product, Rachel Adams sees Oly DVD³ZRUWKOHVV FRPPRGLW\´DWHUPWKDWZKLOHVHHPLQJO\GHURJDWRU\FRQWDLQVZLWKLQ it a promise of freedom: ³2O\PSLD¶V H[WUHPH XJOLQHVV KRZHYHU excludes her from the patriarchal system of exchange within the novel >«] [WKHUHE\JUDQWLQJ@KHUDQDJHQF\XQDYDLODEOHWRRWKHUZRPHQ>«@ Similar to the fat woman, the dwarf is an obstacle in the exchange of commodities and bodies´(285). Oly is outside the system, and though WKLV JLYHV KHU D XQLTXH NLQG RI ³DJHQF\´ VKH LV VWLOOYHU\ ORQHO\ 6R while Oly may be a more positive female figure than Miranda, that should not indicate some nebulous concept of perfection. Oly consistently bows down to Arty/patriarchy throughout the text, and she can be jealous and selfish. Ultimately, she can also be violent. While her reasons for killing Miss Lick are seemingly noble²she wants to stop her from removing 0LUDQGD¶V WDLO²they are eerily reminiscent of the patriarchal logic that condones the ownership of bodies through domination and death. Of course, there is no fundamental reason that there has to be a most positive female character. Indeed, from the prettiest to the most hideous, all of the women in Geek Love are trying to navigate a world that determines WKHLU ZRUWK E\ WKHLU IDFHV DQG ERGLHV ,Q HDFK FKDUDFWHU¶V FDVH

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³IHPLQLQLW\ HPHUJHV DV DQ RSSUHVVLYH GLVFRXUVH WKDW PXVW EH understood and rescriSWHG´R. Adams 277). If they live long enough to become old, they will all experience ugliness anyway. They are all the same. The women in Geek Love, as well as all those outside the WH[W IURP WKH VWDWXHVTXH 0LUDQGD¶V WR WKH GLPLQXWLYH 2O\ DUH casualties of the beauty myth. The women I have introduced above, Gertrude Baniszewski, Mina Loy, Valerie Solanas, Olympia Binewski, and Mary Lick, have pondered and acted on²albeit in vastly different ways and to widely different ends²a theory of destruction. Along the way, they have recapitulated the bond between woman and animals. Within these combined works, every cultural institution imaginable has been exposed as but a diorama of the hierarchical, patriarchal, misogynistic, and speciesist world the women reside in. Each woman has responded with explosive rage and a wail of destruction, but none have reclaimed the body, nor a voice with which to speak of it. An aesthetics of destruction, therefore, is only appropriate on a metaphorical level. Thus, the following questions, which will lead into the next chapter, are asked hesitantly, as there may be no definitive answers to them: How do/can women control their bodies? Is such control possible in a capitalistic, patriarchal culture? Since literal destruction of beauty and sexuality is unfeasible and unethical, how do we destroy the myths abRXWWKHP"+RZLQ5DFKHO$GDPV¶s words, dRZH³UHVFULSWEHDXW\´" Is liberation possible in a culture whose veins pulse with the blood of subjugated animals? What role does exposing linked oppressions of women and animals play within liberation? Self-GHFODUHG³black, lesbian, feminist, mother, warrior poet´ $XGUH /RUGH IDPRXVO\ VWDWHG WKDW ³WKH 0DVWHU¶V WRROV ZLOO QHYHU GLVPDQWOHWKH0DVWHU¶VKRXVH´LQKHUDWWDFNRQOLEHUDOIHPLQLVPIRU its racist use of the very discourse and attitudes of the oppressor²the patriarchal white male (qtd. in De Veaux 179; 249). And it is with this powerful pronouncement in mind that I will begin to address a further query: How do we destroy hierarchy, patriarchy, misogyny, racism, and speciesism without using the tools of the oppressor; in particular, the favored tool of the exposed female body?

CHAPTER 2 Staring Back in the Flesh: Avant-Garde Performance as an ALM Paradigm A man is sharpening a razor by the balcony >«@ Then a young ZRPDQ¶s head, her eyes wide open with staring eyes. A razor-blade moves toward RQH RI WKH H\HV >«@ The razor-blade cuts through the eye of the young woman, slicing it. ²From Un Chien Andalou, Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñel

The real and imagined women in the previous chapter were more looked at than looking. Attractive or unattractive, feminine or butch, acquiescent or rebellious, perceptive or sightless, and everything in between, they were fixed within a system that categorized them upon the moment of visual contact. Each of them, no matter where they fell on the desirability spectrum, was usable. Even Solanas, for all of her asexuality, became a desired commodity through prostitution and through her new-found fame as a would-be assassin. And though I painted Oly as beyond desire, in truth there is someone who would desire her either in spite of or because of her freakish appearance, at which point she would become a fetish. The women in Chapter One violently acknowledged and reacted to male domination, showing that by controlling perception patriarchy controls the world. Thus, I begin this section with a moment from a surreal cinematic production for it represents this misogynistic control over perception. Women are to be looked at, and to be lookers, but they are not allowed to look back. Their eyes are sliced in two, effectively, violently, and figuratively blinding them. Once again, animals suffer a fate worse than this, as the eye that was literally sliced in Un Chien Andalou was that of a dead calf, its body controlled in life, killed, fragmented, and sliced apart after death, becoming a symbol for ZRPHQ¶V FXOWXUDOO\-sanctioned lack of sight. Even though Dalí and Buñel were exposing hidden realities and desires, they did not do so in WKHQDPHRIZRPHQDQGDQLPDO¶VOLEHUDWLRQLQFRQWUDVWWKH\XVHGWKH

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woman¶V DQG calf¶V eyes as metaphors. Women, animals, and metaphor are everywhere and all around us, in the margins and at the center, especially in the avant-garde. Laura Mulvey contends that while there is pleasure in looking and LQEHLQJORRNHGDWWKHSOHDVXUHLVGLVWRUWHGLQ³DZRUOGRUGHUHGE\ VH[XDO LPEDODQFH´ ZLWK PHQ WKH DFWLYH ORRNHUV DQG ZRPHQ WKe SDVVLYHDEVRUEHUVRIWKHJD]HWKDW³SURMHFWVLWVIDQWDV\RQWRWKHIHPDOH ILJXUH ZKLFK LV VW\OHG DFFRUGLQJO\´   7KLV SDWULDUFKDO SRZHU allows men to write the scripts of desire. Although Mulvey is writing of cinema, this dynamic takes place in all DUHDVRIOLIH&DURO$GDPV¶s DGDSWDWLRQRI-RKQ%HUJHU¶VWays of Seeing is relevant here insofar as KH ³LGHQWLILHV KRZ Men look at women >«] [and] Women watch themselves being looked at´ Pornography 33).1 Women have attempted a project of looking/staring back through performance of the body,2 a project that continues to explore the ways that women have attempted to gain ³FRQWURO RYHU WKHLU ERGLHV DQG D YRLFH ZLWK which to speak about LW´ 6XOHLPDQ   :RPHQ want to mend the eyes that patriarchy slices. ,QWKLVFKDSWHU(OLQ'LDPRQG¶VTXHVWLRQV, as posed in Performance and Cultural Politics, are more fully addressed. She first poses ³TXHVWLRQV RI VXEMHFWLYLW\ ZKR LV VSHDNLQJDFWLQJ" ´ DQG WKLV LV D TXHVWLRQ WLHG LQWR FRQVLGHUDWLRQ RI ³DXGLHQFH ZKR LV ZDWFKLQJ" ´ (4). Amelia Jones asks the same questions in Body Art/Performing the Subject³$P,DQREMHFW"$P, a subject"´ (8). I attempt to answer these questions through consideration of the fine line that often divides art and pornography, adapting the meaning of this response to animal rights campaigns that employ the female body. Examination of those points unavoidably begins to address 'LDPRQG¶V IXUWKHU PHQWLRQ RI ³SROLWLFV ZKDW LGHRORJLFDO RU VRFLDO SRVLWLRQVDUHEHLQJUHLQIRUFHGRUFRQWHVWHG" ´ (4). Indeed, I argue that female body art, though meant to contest cultural norms, is always in danger of reinforcing them, especially on issues of gender. Next, 'LDPRQG SRVHV WKH TXHVWLRQ RI ³ORFDWLRQ´ SRQGHULQJ WKH ³VLWHVVSDFHV´ LQ ZKLFK ZRPHQ XVH WKHLU bodies to regain control of their bodies. Once again, this question is best answered through investigations of both the avant-garde and ALM. In particular, I 1

Unless otherwise noted, all references to Carol Adams in this chapter are from The Pornography of Meat. 2 A distinction can be and is often made between performance art and body art (see Amelia Jones 14 - DQG 2¶'HOO -8). I use the terms interchangeably to signify performances using the body as a site of social protest.

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H[DPLQH VHOHFWLRQV IURP &DUROHH 6FKQHHPDQQ¶V SHUIRUPDQFHV DQG 3(7$¶V SURWHVWV 7KLV FRPSDULVRQ OHDds to the issues of beauty and desire that continually both plague and profit women within the avantgarde, including both Schneemann and Coco Fusco. My analysis of their work is done in consideration of the queries posed above and as reiteration of the shared places of women and animals within patriarchal hierarchies. While I cannot promise to provide final DQVZHUV WR 'LDPRQG DQG -RQHV¶V TXHVWLRQV the end of this chapter realigns my responses with the goals of the radical ALM, considering how the human body can (or if it should) be used as a locus of protest against the consumption of nonhuman animal bodies. Before addressing those points, however, consideration must be given to 'LDPRQG¶V TXHVWLRQ RI FRQYHQWLRQDOLW\: ³+RZ DUH PHDQLQJV SURGXFHG"´ (4). In the introduction to this project, I GLVFXVVHG WKH SODFHPHQW RI DQLPDOV LQ FKLOGUHQ¶V OLWHUDWXUH DV underpinning later adult acceptance of human supremacy over animals, leading to an ambivalent relationship with nonhumans. Within the projects of the avant-garde, the balancing acts continue as artists take up what Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno identify as a recurring motif in fairy tales: ³WKH PHWDPRUSKRVLV RI men into animals [as a form of punishment@´ (247). In the Dialectic of Enlightenment, they noWHWKDWWR³EHcondemned to inhabit an animal ERG\ ZDV WR EH GDPQHG´ (247). The avant-garde continues to play with this fairy tale. However, little thought is given to the role that humans play within creating the hellish existences of animals. How are meanings produced in the avant-garde? Quite often, such is produced with animal flesh and with the assumption that to be animal is to be punished, as Adorno and Horkheimer infer. Thus, below is a brief exploration of how animals fare within contemporary avant-garde performance, thereby both providing context and reinforcing the alignment of female and nonhuman animal bodies. Within this short overview of meat as metaphor, I will also attempt to restore the missing animal referents, so that you, the reader, can really meet the metaphors.

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Meet Your Metaphor, or Meat²Your Metaphor Ham, pigs, tongues, sides of beef seen in the butcher's window, all that death, I find it very beautiful. And it's all for sale-how unbelievably surrealistic! >«@ I imagine men hanging in butcher's shops for hyenas, who would be dressed in fur coats. The men would be hung by their feet, or cut up for stew or kebabs. ²Francis Bacon At the other extreme, the practices of abject art ZKLFK >«@ UHGXFH WKH DQLPDO WR D PDVV RI bloody meat are also deeply melancholic. ²Steve Baker

Over and again, avant-garde performers, especially women, have used animals as a prop, as a convention, but in a much more selfreflexive way than Dalí and Buñel. They use animals as a symbol for their treatment in society to the extent that it has become somewhat passé to do so. 6WHYH %DNHU FRQILUPV WKDW ³LW ZRXOG EH TXLWH ZURQJ automatically to associate animal imagery in postmodern art with any overtly pro-DQLPDO VWDQFH´   Although animal concerns have certainly been voiced in the artistic realm (Sue Coe¶VVODXJKWHUKRXVH documentation immediately comes to mind), quite often animal imagery LV PHUHO\ DQ LQVWUXPHQW RI WKH KXPDQ¶V VHDUFK IRU PHDQLQJ about being human. Thus, I am most interested in art that uses animals consciously, but with a seeming lack of interest in animal interests and consciousness. In fact, even seemingly pro-animal art can be suspect. For example, in 1993, Mark Dion staged an installation that included the use of eighteen live African finches flying around the museum space. $PRQJRWKHUUHVSRQVHV%DNHULQWHUSUHWVWKHSLHFHDV³FRPPHQWDU\RQ EURDGHUHFRORJLFDOLVVXHVVXFKDVWKHH[WLQFWLRQRIELUGVSHFLHV´  However, from an animal liberation or environmental perspective, the use of live animals confined to a museum space is unethical, even if the artist, audience and theorists are in awe of these creatures from the natural world and of the artist who made their lives into his art (similar dilemmas played out LQ WKH 6XUUHDOLVWV¶ DSSURSULDWLRQ RI ³SULPLWLYH´ DUW DV WKHLU RZQ). This is, again, where the avant-garde $/0VHHVIRUDWKLUGWLPHIRUWKURXJKWKHEHDXW\RI'LRQ¶VLPDJHDQG message are subjugated creatures forced to fly indoors, with the radical among us possibly feeling relieved that at least this time the DQLPDOVDUHQ¶WGHDGIRUGHDGDQLPDOVpopulate the avant-garde much

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more frequently than the live ones. Ultimately, using meat as metaphor is different than using animals as metaphor, and the ethical questions that arise from this usage are the focus of this section. In The Sexual Politics of Meat, Adams explores the secondwave feminist propensity to rely on animal metaphor to linguistically FRPPXQLFDWHZRPHQ¶VSRVLWLRQXQGHUSDWULDUFK\,QThe Pornography of Meat, she catalogues the animalization of women and the feminization of animals in popular culture, from advertisements to campaigns for animal liberation. Within the margins of these feminist and popular cultures, one can find more of the same. 'DOtDQG%XxHO¶V calf eye was just a prop because propriety precluded them from slicing DIHPDOHKXPDQ¶V eye. Female performers use the lifeless, butchered animal body as a prop for their metaphorical status as women, but quite often the self-reflexivity ends there with no real sense of concern for how easy it was for them to purchase a corpse for use within the performative sphere. These performers are making connections between women and animals, and they ask their audiences to see them differently in light of their recontextualization of the destroyed animal body. The problem is that they are not asking their audiences to see the animal differently, nor are they seeing the true extent to which women and DQLPDO¶VRSSUHVVLRQVDOORSSUHVVLRQVDUHDOOLHG Traditionally, artists used women as their visual foci in paintings and sculpture, but women ZHUH GHQLHG DJHQF\ LQHUW RQ WKH SDLQWHU¶V FDQYDV )HPDOH performance artists have used animals in the same way, as visual tropes, inert on the stage. Performance pieces that use animals in this way are beyond concentrated analysis because most of them are saying the same thing²I am allied with animals in this culture, and that is a bad thing because being an animal is a bad thing. They perpetuate the fairy tale that animals are misbegotten humans. $QQ 0DJQXVRQ¶V ³)UHH 5DQJH 3XVV\´ VXJJHVWV ³WKDW WR EH D µZRPDQ¶ RU WR UHPDLQ D ZRPDQ LV WR EH D FKLFNHQ²too chicken to FKDOOHQJHWKHFRGLQJVPDUNLQJµZRPDQ¶LQWKHKHWHURVH[XDOSDUDGLJP RI SDWULDUFKDO FXOWXUH´ 6FKQHLGer 109). What about real chickens? They are highly social creatures, ³PXFK PRUH LQWHOOLJHQW WKDQ PRVW people acknowledge [and mother] hens will teach their chicks lessons DERXW OLIH DQG KRZ WR QDYLJDWH LQ WKH ZRUOG´ $GDPV   6X]DQQH /DF\¶V performances There Are Voices in the Desert and She Who Would Fly use ³VNLQQHG ODPE FDGDYHUV >«@ DJDLQVW D EDFNGURS RI ZRPHQ¶V WHVWDPHQWV DERXW UDSH´ 6FKQHLGHU   %XW ZKDW RI WKH

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realities of lamb slaughter, as described in these technical instructions of the field? Gently drive or push the lamb into the stunning chute. Immobilization may be accomplished by administering electrical FXUUHQWWRERWKWHPSOHVRUWRWKHFHQWHURIWKHIRUHKHDG>«@,IWKH shackle is used, it is placed around the right hind leg between the dewclaws and the hock. When the lamb is suspended, steady it by placing the flat of the hand on the shoulder (do not grasp the leg), then grasp the ear and insert the knife posterior to the mandible at its juncture with the base of the ear. Stab completely through the QHFN³/DPE6ODXJKWHU´

7KDWKLVWRU\WKHVWRU\RIWKHODPEVODXJKWHUHGDQGVNLQQHGIRU/DF\¶V performance, is erased in the name of metaphor. Karen Finley also uses the baby animal metaphor to express the state of women in FRQWHPSRUDU\ FXOWXUH DVNLQJ ³:K\ FDQ¶t this veal calf walk? cause [sic] she¶s kept in a wooden box that she can¶t turn around in. She¶s fed some anti-biotic laced formula²and she sleeps in her own diarrhea chained in a darkened building²immobilized and sick and WKHQZHNLOOKHUDQGHDWKHU´:KLOH)LQOH\¶VVHHPLQJFRQFHUQ for the veal calf exposes the reality of a FDOI¶VOLIHWKDWLVQRWKer objective, as SURYHQE\XVHRIWKHSURQRXQ³VKH´)HPDOHFDOYHVDUHusually raised into cows that will provide milk, a nasty business in its own right. +RZHYHULWLVPRVWRIWHQWKHGDLU\FRZ¶Vmale offspring, who are taken from their mothers shortly DIWHU ELUWK >«@ 0RVW DUH GHVWLQHGIRUWKHYHDOFUDWH>«@DZRRGHQUHVWUDLQLQJGHYLFHWKDWLV the veal calf¶s permanent home. It is so small (22´ x 54´) that the calves cannot turn around or even lie down and stretch and is the ultimate in high-profit, confinement animal agriculture. Designed to prevent movement (exercise), the crate does its job of atrophying the calves¶ PXVFOHVWKXVSURGXFLQJWHQGHU³JRXUPHW´ YHDO³9HDO$&UXHO0HDO´

If the avant-garde is in the margins, and women are in the margins of the avant-JDUGHWKHQDQLPDOVDUHLQWKH´[´PDUJLQVDOPRVWWRR marginal to be fully recognized. In The Pornography of Meat, Adams QRWHV .ULVW\ /LWWOH¶V performance Average White Girl, in which she KXQJ KHUVHOI XSVLGH GRZQ LQ D PHDW ORFNHU ZLWK ³dead eviscerated SLJV´$GDPVDVNV³:KHUHGLGVKHVHDUFKIRUDZKLWHJLUO¶VLGHQWLW\" ,QDPHDWORFNHUDPRQJGHDGSLJV´ 7KHGLIIHUHQFHRIFRXUVHLV that Little will be unhung and go about the business of metaphorizing, while the pigs will be unhung, cut apart, prepared, and then wind up amongst the detritus that falls from the human anus. But that is what RXUFXOWXUHGRHVWR³DIIHFWLRQDWHLQTXLVLWLYHDQLPDOV´ZKRLQD study, were shown to be capable of expressing preferences (Singer and Mason 44-45). To that end, why would they prefer to have their

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throats slit? Despite the similarities between women and animals, culturally and otherwise, in key ways women are nothing like nonhuman animals, most especially at moments of death. Other examples of the present/absent animal referent abound in the art world DQG LW FHUWDLQO\ LVQ¶W RQO\ D IHPDOH or performative phenomenon. )UDQFLV %DFRQ¶V SDLQWLQJV RI DQLPDO FDUFDVVHV ³FRQYH\HG D VHQVH RI WKH SUHFDULRXVQHVV RI KXPDQ H[LVWHQFH´ LQVWDOODWLRQLVW'DPLHQ+LUVWLVIDVFLQDWHGZLWK³WKHEHDXW\RIWKHRSHQ ERG\´DQG-DQD6WHUEDNXVHVmeat DVDZD\RI³FRQWHVWLQJPHDQLQJ´ (Steve Baker 86-88). Regardless of their specific reasons, all artists use those materials to shock and terrorize their audiences, and this is an interesting point in its own right, as someone who feels no compunction in eating an animal may be shaken by the use of animal flesh described herein. In 1964, Robert Delford Brown constructed the sexuality suggestive Bataillean Meat Show in which a meat market ZDVWXUQHGLQWR³EURWKHO-like rooms out of tons of blood and raw meat VWUHZQ ZLWK \DUGV DQG \DUGV RI VKHHU IDEULF VXJJHVWLYH RI OLQJHULH´ (Mallett). 7KDW VDPH \HDU &DUROHH 6FKQHHPDQQ¶V Meat Joy was RIIHUHG DV ³DQHURWLF rite: excessive, indulgent; a celebration of flesh DVPDWHULDO´6KHXVHG³UDZILVKFKLFNHQVVDXVDJHV´DORQJZLWKRWKHU SURSVRI³ZHWSDLQWWUDQVSDUHQWSODVWLFURSHEUXVKHVSDSHUVFUDS´WR augment the conflux of live heterosexual human bodies perched just at WKH ³WUDQVLWLRQ EHWZHHQ GUHDP DQG ZDNLQJ´ 6FKQHHPDQQ Imaging   $ UDGLFDO µV UH-appropriation of the body and sexuality with appropriated animal flesh as a contrivance. Gina Pane consumed and regurgitated raw ground beef in a 1971 performance to substitute the ³GHDG IOHVK IRU D OLYLQJ ERG\ WKH PRWKHULQJ ILJXUH ZKR SURYLGHV bodily support, sometimes lactatiRQDO ´2¶'HOO ,QSterbak made a dress comprised of fifty pounds of steak. In 2005, Gabriela Rivera Lucero covered herself in raw meat in the film Efímero. To look at her image is frightening, as she appears to be stripped of all flesh, showing what lies just underneath human skin. Attentive YLHZHUVZLOOJHWKHU³PHWDSKRUIRUWKHUHODWLRQVKLSSHRSOHKDYHZLWK WKHLUPLUURULPDJH´(Mallett). Others may wonder how many animals have to be slaughtered to meet the avant-JDUGH¶VLQVDWLDEOHGHVLUHIRU shock value.3 3

Mea culpa. Several years ago, before knowing better, I used deli meats in an artistic LQVWDOOPHQWWKDWZDVPHDQWWREH³SUR-DQLPDO´7KHGUDZRIPHDWLVDVWURQJRQHZKHQ RQHZDQWVWRDVWRXQG,QGHHGSRSVLQJHU/DG\*DJD¶VUHFHQWIRUD\LQWRPHDWFORWKLQJ shocked modern audiences, although to those ³LQ WKH NQRZ´ LW ZDV D KDFNQH\HG attempt to get attention.

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Though I am obviously critical of any use of animal flesh, the avant-garde is still the site of radical transformation, for it is within this sphere that the human/animal binary has also been known to GLVVLSDWH -XVW DV *HRUJHV %DWDLOOH¶V DOCUMENTS broke down the human body for its market value, contemporary performance has reinforced that tKHERG\³LVPXWDEOHLQLWVDSSHDUDQFHVPHDQLQJVDQG effects, but inexorably meat´-RQHV :HDUHRXURZQPHWDSKRUs, a frightening prospect for both artist and audience. The fairy tale that Adorno and Horkheimer allude to is, in fact, a very real nightmare for some. Amelia Jones notes how Orlan has filmed her various plastic VXUJHULHV LQ FRQIRUPDQFH ZLWK ³:HVWHUQ LGHDOV RI IHPLQLQH EHDXW\´ DQG VKHDQDO\]HV %RE )ODQDJDQ¶V SRXQGLQJ D QDLOLQWR KLV SHQLV WKH ³PHDW´EHWZHHQKLVOHJV DVH[DPSOHVRI³WXUQLQJWKHERG\LQVLGHRXW´ (226). Artists such as Orlan and Flanagan show the ways in which the YHU\FRQFHSWRIPHDW³H[SRVHVXVWRZKDWLVEHORZWKHVNLQ¶VVXUIDFH We are often disconnected from our own insides; for whatever reason, we are revolted when confronted with a suggestion of the body turned inside-RXW´0DOOHWW 6XFKH[SRVXUHPDNHVXVPHDW Surrealist writer Michel Leiris tells the story of a woman in a EXWFKHU VKRS VZRRQLQJ DW WKH VLJKW RI D ³GLVHPERZHOOHG FDUFDVV DVNLQJµ>'@RZHKDYHQRWKLQg but vileness inside our ERGLHV"¶´7KLV incident lHG WR KLV UHSRUWLQJ WKDW VXFK ³representations of the human body, which offer to show us its secret workings, [are] at the same time fascinating and fearsome´ TWG LQ Simon Baker 186). DOCUMENTS¶V HGLWRUV UHOLHG RQ WKLV IHDU ZLWKLQ WKH SXEOLFDWLRQ KHQFH (OL /RWDU¶V Villette Abattoir and images of disembodied heads from ³SULPLWLYH´ cultures. Here, Steve Baker summarizes the revolutionary potential of the art that makes us animal: ³It is the figure of the animal²that new botched thing which is somehow still recognizably animal, or at least not wholly and complacently human²which forces both artist and viewer from their intelligence, their expertise, and their defensive self-concern´   Seeing ourselves as meat, ideally without the use of meat, can obliterate the mythical dichotomy between human flesh/valuable vs. animal flesh/consumable and human flesh/mine vs. animal flesh/also mine. Baker goes on to state that WKH³DQLPDOUHGXFHGWRPHDWLVno longer an animal²LW LV PHUH PDWHULDO´   And herein lies the glory and the promise of the avant-garde. As visual consumers made to see ourselves as meat through performance of the human body, we may be able to make the connection that both renders us potential meat and restores the absent

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animal referent that has been appropriated as metaphor. The QRQKXPDQ¶VULJKWWRZKROHQHVVPD\WKHQEHUHVWRUHG The work of Australian performance artist STELARC has been especially successful in obliterating the assumption of voluntary performance and human supremacy over other living creatures. His WKHRU\ RI KXPDQ LQGLYLGXDWLRQ FDQ EH HQFDSVXODWHG DV IROORZV ³%XW we fear what we have always been and what we have already become²Zombies and Cyborgs.´ 67(/$5& GRHV LQWHUHVWLQJ WKLQJV with his body, recently having a cellular human ear grafted onto his forearm. For purposes of this study, however, his early suspension acts are most relevant, for they demonstrate the malleability of the human body as a piece of meat while also summoning forth images of human handling of nonhuman animals without actually using destroyed animal bodies. Rather, his body becomes the metaphor. To wit, in 1984 he suspended himself on meat hooks above New York City, his arms and legs splayed out in what theater and performance critic Baz Kershaw cDOOVDQ³LURQLFVXSHUPDQ´VW\OH 2IFRXUVH SXWWLQJPHDWKRRNVWKURXJKRQH¶VVNLQDQGVXVSHQGLQJWKHERG\LVDQ extreme modification practice that others perform as well, along the same lines as tattooing and scarification. Shannon Bell notes that for VRPH ERG\ PRGLILFDWLRQ SUDFWLFHV DUH ³primitive, natural and universal [and they are] constantly associated with deep personal meaning, rites of passage and as a key to spiritual enlightenment WKURXJKSDLQ´ 7KXVVXFKSUDFWLFHVFDQEHVHHQDVSDWKZD\VWR human divinity, but the practices that Bell writes of are intensely personal VKRZV RI RQH¶V WUDQVFHQGHQW TXDOLWLHV DQG WKH\ DUH RIWHn performed privately via cultural rituals or through the intimacy of the tattoo/piercing parlor as one entrusts another with the awesome task of SHUPDQHQWO\ PDUNLQJ KHU ERG\ VR WKDW VKH PD\ ³OLYH LQ WUXWK IRU HWHUQLW\´%HOO  In contrast, body modification practices hold vastly different meanings when they are publically performed, whether that is the DUWLVW¶V LQWHQWLRQ RU QRW By depersonalL]LQJ RQH¶V VHOI LQ an open arena, the human body momentarily becomes property of the viewing audience. In the case of STELARC, it is an audience who will be hard pressed not to think of the pliability of the supposed divine human form. .HUVKDZ FRQWLQXHV E\ QRWLQJ WKDW WKH ³KRRNV WKURXJK >67(/$5&¶V@ skin allude to butchery and torture, processes through which WKH VHQWLHQW EHLQJ EHFRPHV PHUH PHDW´   $OWKRXJK STELARC was not protesting animal consumption per se, avant-garde performances such as his use shock and the body as implements of

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recontextualization that are far more powerful than the use of dead animal flesh purchased at the grocery store. Rather than pointing at a lump of animal IOHVK DQG VD\LQJ ³7KDW¶V PH LQ VRFLHW\ D SLHFH RI PHDW´DUWLVWVVXFKDV67(/$5&2UODQDQG)ODQDJDQSXWWhemselves on the ³chopping block,´ and they open a wider berth for the binary to dissolve. In sum, they trouble the concept of human divinity²a common cause for the subjugation of other sentient beings²even as they possibly strive for it. To see ourselves as animals is terrorinducing, which is why metaphor has been a more moderate way to make the comparison. However, when pointing at the meat metaphor and decrying female oppression, the performer LVVD\LQJ³,VKRXOGQRW EH WUHDWHG OLNH WKLV ,¶P human DIWHU DOO´ %XW LW LV MXVW WKLV W\SH RI binary and hierarchical thinking²man/woman, white/black, human/animal²that leads to tyranny and oppression. STELARC, et DO DUH VD\LQJ ³, DP PHDW FDSDEOH RI EHLQJ KXQJ RQ KRRNV VOLFHG RSHQ IUDJPHQWHG DQG SRXQGHG LQWR D QHZ SURGXFW´ And if there is divinity contained therein, LW FRPHV IURP WKH KXPDQ¶V DELOLW\ WR control the practices that lead to his/her spiritual enlightenment through pain. In the case of nonhumans made into meat, there is no connection to the sublime because control is being exerted upon them. These performances, when read through a critical animal studies lens, offer a powerful new way of seeing the human body in relation to other sentient bodies. But WKHUH¶VDSUREOHP In Contract with the Skin.DWK\2¶'HOOQRWHV/HR%HUVDQL¶V view that such performances ³UHPLQGWKHYLHZHUVRIWKHLUUHODWLRQWR YLROHQFH LQ WKH HYHU\GD\ ZRUOG´ EXW WKDW WKH\ FDQ DOVR EH VR distracting that the message is never resolved (4-5). Each of the masochistic artists I have mentioned is a literal destructivist, a position explored in the previous chapter, but ultimately found problematic. Use of self-mutilation is too closely allied with female self-mutilation, the new age anorexia amongst women in the Western world. Orlan is especially problematic for her attempts to mutilate herself into an ideal that she admits is constructed by man, acknowledging that cosmetic VXUJHU\LV³RQHRIWKRVHDUHDVLQZKLFKPDQ¶VSRZHURYHUWKHERG\RI woman can inscribe itself most strongly´ TWG LQ -HIIUH\V   Fortunately, there are less masochistic and contentious avant-garde works through which binaries can dissolve and questions of corporeal integrity can be asked in a continued search for viable and ethical answers.

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&RFR)XVFR¶VThe Incredible Disappearing Woman: A Play in One Act is not performance art in the sense discussed thus far in this chapter. However, its critique of avant-garde performance, among other institutions, penned by an esteemed performance artist, is relevant for its commentary on questions of ethics and bodies. More importantly )XVFR¶V SLHFH XQLQWHQWLRQDOO\ UHFDSLWXODWHV WKH OLQN between women and animals, further problematizing the animal metaphor through dissolution of the human/animal binary. To contextualize, )XVFR GHGLFDWHV WKLV SLHFH ³WR WKH PHPRU\ of the 220 women, most of whom were maquiladora workers, who GLVDSSHDUHG IURP WKH FLW\ RI -XDUH] EHWZHHQ  DQG ´ ³$W «] [They] were working in twenty-first-century conditions >«] [and living] in seventeenth-century conditions, confronting life without plumbing and electricity in cardboard and tar-paper hovels with no floors or foundations. (138)

An ancillary consequence of these maquiladoras, and the roving lifestyles they create, is the persistent disappearance of female workers, many of whose bodies are later found raped, mutilated and burned )XVFR QRWHV WKDW ³PRUH WKDQ  \RXQJ ZRPHQ YDQLVKHG [from the Mexican/American border region outside the factories] between 1993 and 1998 (the toll in 2000 KDGULVHQWR ´³$W«@WRSSHG WKUHHKXQGUHG´5RGULJXH]HWDO  Sometimes, mysteries surround who these women were²prostitutes, factory workers, or perhaps both²but authorities rarely pursue investigations because ultimately the death of an unnamed Mexican woman is not a high priority. Women in Mexico have subsequently rallied together to demand

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answers to these mysteries and to end police corruption and possible cover ups. It is just this disposability of the (Mexican) female body that caused Fusco to consider the deaths in light of a performance piece from 1980 in which an artist videotaped his vasectomy after sexual intercourse with a corpse, thereby spending the last of his potent semen into the vaginal cavity of a dead Mexican woman whose body he rented at $80 for one hour. Ironically, this is probably more money than a low-HQG OLYH SURVWLWXWH ZRXOG JHW IRU RQH KRXU¶V ZRUN especially when giving a fair amount of that pay to her pimp. 6LPLODUO\DQDQLPDO¶VIOHVKEHFRPHVLQILQLWHO\PRUHYDOXDEOHRQFHLW is dead. Although Fusco never mentions his name directly, calling him Donald Horton in The Incredible Disappearing Woman, the artist is John Duncan. Duncan was not allowed to videotape the necrophilic act, but he did make an audiotape of the event. While this story had long been seen as avant-garde legend, Fusco found that every detail is true, even conversing with the artist over email. But try as she did to get details about the woman, the artist refused to comment. Fusco could not put the dead woman back together again. Like nameless factory workers DQG FRXQWOHVV ³IRRG´ DQLPDOV WKH GHDG ZRPDQ¶V history has been completely erased. As noted, performance artists can purchase an animal corpse for metaphor construction with uncommented upon ease. However, in ERWK )XVFR¶V FULWLFLsm and in the avant-garde act that prompted it, there is no metaphor. Woman is no longer an oppressed being whose subjugation is symbolized by a dead animal body purchased as commodity. Rather, woman is the dead animal body purchased as commodity (although KDUGHUWRSURFXUH 'XQFDQ¶VSLHFHBlind Date, was met with scorn when first publicized. One performance magazine editor refused to publish material on Blind Date, commenting that the ³LQFLGHQW ZDV µUDSH¶ IURP D ERG\ ZKRVH µVSLULW¶ Pay not have yet µJRQH IURP KHU ERG\¶´ 'XQFDQ¶V UHVSRQVH" ,W ZDV OLNH ³KDYLQJ VH[ with meat´TWGLQ6WLOHV³8QFRUUXSWHG-R\´HPSKDVLVDGGHG Truth be told, it was not like having sex with meat, it was having sex with meat, and his act was a desecration meant to shock, which, of course, it did. Interestingly, the figurative constructions seen within female avant-garde performance are obliterated in Blind Date, as is the wall that divides the human and the animal. This negation leads to the questions: Can one be a metaphor for oneself? Can you symbolize what you already are, an animal and potential meat? Answers to these questions offer promise for both seeing the connection amongst all

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sentient beings, thereby erasing the need for the conventions of animal metaphor, which most often involves the use of destroyed animal flesh. In The Incredible Disappearing Woman, Fusco contemplates Blind Date for what it says about avant-garde ethics and women. However, she does not rely on the metaphor of destroyed animal flesh. Rather, she uses woman²one in particular: a dead, raped corpse²as a symbol for women, specifically for those lost amongst the ERUGHUODQGVRI0H[LFRDQGWKH86,Q$GDPV¶VWHUPV)XVFRDWWHPSWV to restore the absent referent of woman within the avant-garde. The main characters in the play are Magaly Valdes, a Chilean woman, &KHOD)ORUHV³DZRUNLQJFODVV1RUWHxD´DQG'RORUHV=HSHGDZKRLV Salvadoran. These three women work as custodians in a museum ZKHUHDUHWURVSHFWLYHRQ'RQDOG+RUWRQ¶VLQIDPRXVSHUIRUPDQFHZLOO occur. Despite initial repulsion, Duncan/Horton was eventually reembraced by the avant-JDUGH DUW ZRUOG 6DQGUD %HOWUDQ WKH SOD\¶V PXVHXPFXUDWRUGHVFULEHGDV³DQXSSHU-FODVV0H[LFDQ´LQ³DEODFN$OLQHVNLUW´H[SODLQV³:HDWWKHPXVHXPKDYHGHFLGHGWKDW it is not our SRVLWLRQ WR MXGJH DQ\ ZRUN RU WKH DUWLVW RQ PRUDO JURXQGV´   Horton then explains his odyssey through California sex shops with the goal of finding a dead woman into which he could ejaculate. Although Duncan refused to give Fusco details about the corpse, Fusco attempts to restore her history with a surmised physical description, as spoken by Horton: ³6KH PXVW KDYH EHHQ LQ KHU V dark curly hair, fleshy but not fat, no visible wounds. Her body was cold, so you know it was²difficult, aWILUVW´ )XVFRWDNHVDZD\ whatever metaphor Duncan was attempting in Blind Date by realL]LQJ KLV YLFWLP 7KXV ZKLOH LQ ³8QFRUUXSWHG -R\´ .ULVWLQH 6WLOHV VHHV 'XQFDQ H[SUHVVLQJ ³KLV RZQ H[FUXFLDWLQJ ODFN D SV\FKLF SDLQ WKDW LV SDOSDEOH´ )XVFR VHes that to secure a dead body for sex, Duncan had to travel to Tijuana, to a country that has continually shown disregard for dead female bodies. Magaly, Chela, and Dolores contemplate the mannequin that the museum has set up to represent the corpse, each lying down where the mannequin had been, in turn telling her story about being dead while alive. In each case, the women had to pretend they were dead to survive patriarchal institutions. Marriage and religion: Dolores was abused by her husband and raped by a priest. Industry: Chela was drugged by her boss in a bizarre transvestite escapade. Government: Magaly was abducted and left for dead when state officials thought her guilty of insurrectionism. Having played dead before, they

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consider having one of the live women replace the replica. Chela asks, ³2K,¶GOLNHWRVHHLIDQ\RQHQRWLFHV´UHODWLQJKHULQYLVLELOLW\WRWKH museum visitors¶ continued refusals to make eye contact with her   7KLVLV )XVFR¶V FRPPHQWDU\ RQ ZRPHQ ZLWKLQ WKH PLVRJ\QLVW avant-garde, but it also signifies a general refusal to look our commodities in the eye, a refusal to consider where our computers, clean bathrooms, and food come from, a point on which she aligns with the avant-garde ALM. Dolores echoes Chela in observing that people who work in and visit the museum go to great pains to avoid her: ³,W¶VOLNHWKH\JHWVDGZKHQWKH\VHHPH´ 7KLVLVDSRLQW to which Magaly responds with a supposition that forms the implication RI )XVFR¶V SOD\: ³«@WKUHDWHQV to belie the naturalness of the heterogendered systeP´   -XVW DV mere mention of animal rights can upset Western concepts of truth while destroying the human/animal dualism, homosexual, bisexual, and transgendered bodies upset the tidy binary of man/woman couplings. So-called alternative sexual identities offer something different from the order upon which commodity culture is based. In fact, Hennessy continues by arguing that although capitalism has allowed room for less mainstream sexual identities, it still relies on ³FRPSXOVRU\ KHWHURVH[XDOLW\´ LQ LWV VWUXFWXULQJ RI VH[Xality, desire, and gender (107). Does this mean that homosexuality is following a different script? Not necessarily.

5

Ng Yi-Sheng wrote a play about Chong entitled 251.

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The homosexual and transgendered communities are no less Others than women, animals, and minorities, and they navigate through a world that, as Wittig asserts, ³DVVXPHV WKDW WKH EDVLV RI society or the beginning of society lies in heterosexualLW\´ &DVH notes that in the 1960s and µ70s, avant-JDUGH SHUIRUPDQFH ³VKRU>HG@ up the gender binary [and] reproduced the signs of normative heteroVH[XDOGHVLUH´ 7KHDYDQW-garde has absolutely provided a forum for alternative sexualities in much greater numbers than the mainstream, but it has also preserved the myth of heteronormativity. -RQHVDUJXHVWKDW ³>S@HUIRUPDWLYH PDVFXOLQLW\ LQ PDOH ERdy art often continues to work under the assumption of a bipolar, heterosexist JHQGHU UROH >«@ ZKHQ LW LV H[SRVHG >«@ WKH PDOH ERG\ LV DOPRVW DOZD\VDJJUHVVLYHO\VLJQLILHGDVµYLULOH¶µKHWHURVH[XDO¶DQGRWKHUZLVH QRUPDWLYHO\PDVFXOLQH>«@DQGDOPRVWH[Flusively practiced by white PHQ´   $ SURPLQHQW H[DPSOH ZRXOG EH WKH ZRUN RI 5REHUW Mapplethorpe. His photographs, while visually stunning and often extraordinarily homoerotic, are just as often filled with virile stereotypes of masculinity, perfectly sculpted visions of femininity, and scenes of erotic heterosexual acts. (I defy you to find an ounce of body fat anywhere in his oeuvre.) He only retreats from such bodily forms when engaging in the cult of celebrity and photographing artists such as Andy Warhol and Patti Smith. Female homosexuality, however, presents a unique state of DIIDLUV:LWWLJDUJXHVWKDWOHVELDQLVPLV³WKHRQO\VRFLDOIRUPLQZKLFK >ZRPHQ@FDQOLYHIUHHO\´ . However, this is not (or at least it is no longer) necessarily true. LHVELDQLVPLVDQ³DOWHUQDWLYH´LGHQWLW\WKDW has been appropriated by the male gaze and forced into the script of heteronormativity based on male desire. In contemporary patriarchal culture, the heterosexual woman is expected to be ready for sex, though she may claim otherwise, and ideally prepared to augment bedroom play with the presence of another woman in deference to the male. This heteronormative desire goes beyond the interactive ³WKUHHVRPH´ RU IRUFHG IHPDOH KRPRVH[XDOLW\ DV WKH PDOH JD]H KDV become fixated on lesbian sexual intercourse²as if that is all lesbianism is²whether as an active participant or voyeur, whether that gaze is wanted or not. This is not an isolated occurrence. In regard to both lesbians and other marginal groups, Amy Robinson argues that WKH FHQWHU KDV ³SDUDVLWLF LQIDWXDWLRQV ZLWK WKH PDUJLQV >«@ RIWHQ WDN>LQJ@ WKH IRUP RI D FODLP WR µRZQ¶ [these alternative identities as they slip into the mainstream@´ (238). Lesbianism has slipped into the mainstream and been worked into the VFULSWRIPHQ¶VVH[XDOSOHDVXUH

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Lesbian performance is not immune to the considerations SRVHG DERYH ,Q ³'RLQJ LW $Q\ZD\´ DQ DQDO\VLV RI OHVELDQ VDGRmasochistic performance, Lynda Hart asserts that dildos and other phallic-shaped sex toys, both in and outside of performance, are HVSHFLDOO\ SUREOHPDWLF IRU JD\ ZRPHQ ³LQVWLJDW>LQJ@ D UHSUHVHQWDWLRQDO FULVLV´ WKDW OHDGV WR UHSUHVHQWDWLRQDO TXHVWLRQV or what Judith Butler calls a sad and ineffective attempt to mirror sexual intercourse with a man (58). As Hennessy contends, desire is structured and played out on real and figurative stages according to a ³JHQGHUHG DV\PPHWU\´ WKDW VKH WHUPV ³heteropolarity,´ DQG LW LV always in danger of equating sex and sexuality with the myths of JHQGHU   7KXV ZH DUH OHIW ZLWK 0DSSOHWKRUSH¶V VWHUHRW\SH RI manhood meaning rippling muscles, leather chaps, and violent intrusions upon the body, or lesbian intimacy and performance that relies on the presence of a penis. In effect, all of these critics are asking the same questions: Who is writing these scripts? Who is responsible for the scripts used by Sprinkle, Krystufek, Chong, and Mapplethorpe as they search for liberation? Who is Cosby, Stiles, and Adams questioning? Who is scripting perception from the center to the margins? Hennessy argues that a commodity culture arising from patriarchy is the scribe, profoundly confirming that ³WKH KHWHURQRUPDWLYH SDUDGLJP VHW WKH WHUPVHYHQIRUTXHHUGHVLUH´(102). The heterosexual laughing White Man appears to be the script writer through uncontested patriarchy, an authoritarian system that determines truth. As Case argues, the SHUIRUPDQFHVGHVFULEHGDERYHHQGXS³>X@QLYHUVDOL]LQJXUJHV>«] [as] PDVFXOLQH DQG KHWHURQRUPDWLYH SURFHVVHV´   7KRVH ZKR UHSHDW the scripts without self awareness reinforce, rather than contest, the power of the script writers. %XWOHUGHILQHVJHQGHUDV³DQLGHQWLW\WHQXRXVO\FRQVWLWXWHGLQ time²an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts´ (402). Traditional gender assumptions are dangerous because they lead to the same types of tyranny that result from a binary view of the UHDO%XWOHUFRQILUPVWKLVE\DUJXLQJWKDW³JHQGHULVPDGHWRFomply with a model of truth and falsity which not only contradicts its own performative fluidity, but serves a social policy of gender regulation DQG FRQWURO´   7KH GHVWUXFWLRQ RI ³ZRPDQ´²as well as the presumed binaries of man/woman, human/animal, white/non-white² must be made a part of the avant-JDUGH$/0¶VGHVWUXFWLRQRI:HVWHUQ myths :LWWLJ SRVHV WKDW IUHHGRP OLHV DIWHU ³WKH GHVWUXFWLRQ RI heterosexuality as a social system which is based on the oppression of

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women by men and which produces the doctrine of the difference EHWZHHQ WKH VH[HV WR MXVWLI\ WKLV RSSUHVVLRQ´   )RU DOO RI LWV radical shock-inducing candor, much performance art, especially that ZLWKLQ ZRPHQ¶V SHUIRUPDQFH RI WKH ERG\ GRHV QRW re-present; it merely winds up re-producing a doctrine of difference. So too in the ALM, especially via People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). It is always with a certain sense of ambivalence that I critique PETA, partly because so many others have done it before, but mainly because PETA has brought the concerns of animals into the international spotlight like no other animal welfare organization in modern times. Alas, their power is also a menace. In keeping with the nature metaphor that I occasionally interweave into this study, a study that roots for the avant-garde, and one that painted the Surrealists as gardeners, PETA is a mere florist. They arrange pretty flowers to get SHRSOH¶V DWWHQWLRQ 7KH ZRPHQ ZKR SRVH for PETA are not consciously performance artists, but they seek liberation through performance of the body, posing themselves continually as beautiful pieces of flesh, much as avant-garde performers have used meat to promote their own metaphors. And if these arguments thus far carry any merit, then PETA is especially dangerous, for they consistently and without any self-reflexivity reinforce the human/animal binary, the man/woman binary, and the beauty myth, while also ignoring the entangled nature of oppression(s). To borrow Amy Robinson¶V terminology3(7$KDVD³SDUDVLWLFLQIDWXDWLRQ´ZLWKZKDWZDVRQFHD much more marginalized cultural movement²animal liberation. In the process, they have claimed animal rights as their property, and they ³VOLS >LW@ LQWR WKH PDLQVWUHDP´ YLD WKHLU IXUWKHU ³SDUDVLWLF LQIDWXDWLRQ´ ZLWK FHOHEULWLHV and the beauty myth. Accompany their LJQRUDQFH DQG ³VWDU IXFNLQJ´ ZLWK D SURSHQVLW\ IRU ZRUNLQJ RXW FRPSURPLVHV ZLWK LQ %RE 7RUUHV¶V ZRUGV WKH ³EORRG\ FDSLWDOLVW PDFKLQH´DQGZH have a problem. Like Stiles, animal rights proponents such as Adams and 7RUUHV DUJXH WKDW ZLHOGLQJ WKH PDVWHU¶V WRROV DJDLQVW WKH PDVWHU¶V house is a futile endeavor. Quite often, such tool wielding leads to cooperation rather than transformation, and this result has consequences beyond those of the compromised body. Case in point, in 2004 PETA bestowed a Proggy (Progress) Award to Dr. Temple *UDQGLQD&RORUDGR6WDWH8QLYHUVLW\SURIHVVRUZKR³FRQVXOWVZLWKWKH livestock industry and the American Meat Institute on the design of VODXJKWHUKRXVHV´ ³ 3(7$ 3URJJ\ $ZDUGV´  *UDQGLQ¶V ZRUN

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KDV OHG WR PRUH ³KXPDQH´²a relative word²treatment of ³food´ animals, but it VWLOO VXSSRUWV WKHLU PDVV VODXJKWHU 3(7$¶V XVH RI DQ exclamation point at the end of the above passage shows that even they are surprised by their applause for Grandin. That same year, $EHUFURPELH )LWFKUHFHLYHGD3URJJ\IRU³&RXUDJHLQ&RPPHUFH´ for reIXVLQJ WR XVH ZRROIURP $XVWUDOLDQ VKHHS GXH WR WKDW FRXQWU\¶V particularly cruel shearing methods. Abercrombie & Fitch is a notoriously racist company through exclusion of minorities in both ad campaigns and store hiring practices, leading to a number of lawsuits. However, as Torres has stated, PETA fetishizes animal suffering above all else, refusing to see the interlocked oppressions of animals, women, minorities, etc. Further, they and other organizations such as the Humane Society of the United States +686  ³PDNH )DXVWLDQ bargains with industry[ies] that condemn animals to maintain their VWDWXV DV SURSHUW\ DQG FRPPRGLWLHV RI D EORRG\ FDSLWDOLVW PDFKLQH´ (Torres 92). To steal the metaphor from Stiles, PETA and HSUS have become the handmaids of the system of animal abuse, and the consequences equal compromise. PETA is ripe for comparison with the avant-garde because they too promise radical liberation and cultural revisioning, yet they are often critiqued for pumping out images from the ³QRUPDO´ZRUOG. They are accused of rousing male desire rather than applauded for reconceptualizing reality and instituting social revolution. Their ad campaigns are numerous, but regularly involve nearly naked women. Indeed, one could make a game of trying to guess if the erotic image of the spaced out, slack jawed woman comes from PETA, Playboy, or Maxim$FWUHVV6KHU\O/HHZDVSKRWRJUDSKHGIRU3(7$¶V³,ZRXOGQ¶W EHFDXJKWGHDGLQIXU´FDPSDLJQ³)DPRXV)XU)RHV´ ,QKRPDJHWR her famous dead girl character from David LynFK¶V WHOHYLVLRQ VKRZ Twin Peaks /HH LV VSOD\HG RXW RQ D FRURQHU¶V WDEOH KHU H\HV ZLGH mouth partially open, one arm covering her breasts, the other hanging down toward the floor. One of her legs is on the table, the other falls to the floor as well, her foot sporting a toe tag. The parting of her legs sexually suggests that women even want it when they are dead. 7KLV LPDJH RI /HH LV HHULO\ UHPLQLVFHQW RI -RKQ 'XQFDQ¶V Blind Date. Further, it summons up the very questions of corporeal hierarchy that Fusco DGGUHVVHV LQ ³$W «@2IDQ\ women you remember receiving a substantial amount of press and the primetime minutes, how many were black or Latino or poor or what could be considered unattractive?

$V GR DUWLVWV VXFK DV 6SULQNOH DQG .U\VWXIHN DGV VXFK DV 3(7$¶V reinforce a politics of difference that has social ramifications. Whether FRQVFLRXVO\ RU QRW 3(7$ LV KRPLQJ LQ RQ RQH RI :HVWHUQ FXOWXUH¶V greatest desires²the flesh of young, thin, white girls²and one of their greatest fears²the disappearance of young, thin, white girls. Meanwhile, those knowledgeable of fur production may be wondering where mention of neck breaking and anal electrocution comes in, as these are both common ways of killing the mink that leads to the fur WKDW OHDGV WR WKH SKRWR RI /HH RQ WKH FRURQHU¶V WDEOH Somewhere therein, there is a disconnection that cannot be mended. This analysis is not meant as a call for censorship. As Lucy Lippard argues, a ³ZRPDQXVLQJKHU own face and body has a right to do what she will with them,´but as she further asserts, ³LWLVDVXEWOH DE\VV WKDW VHSDUDWHV PHQ¶V XVH RI ZRPHQ IRU VH[XDO WLWLOODWLRQ IURP ZRPHQ¶V XVH RI ZRPHQ WR H[SRVH WKDW LQVXOW >RU WR H[SRVH DQLPDO DEXVH@´ 3(7$¶Vprincipal HUURULVLQWKLQNLQJWKDW³QRQKXPDQV¶ RSSUHVVLRQFDQEHXQPRRUHGIURPEHLQJDSDUWRIPHQ¶VSULYLOHJHRYHU RWKHUV´ $GDPV   7KH\ fixate on animal suffering rather than RIIHULQJD³EURDG-based critique of hierarchy at all levels of the social order, [ignoring the] V\VWHPLFQDWXUHRIGRPLQDWLRQDQGH[SORLWDWLRQ´ (Torres 87). Similarly, when a performance artist uses meat as a metaphor for her oppression or self-loathing, her error is in thinking that it is only her oppression being represented. While presumably selling animal liberation, Adams contends that PETA is selling ZRPHQ¶V GLIIHUHQFH DQG LQequality, thereby echoing Stiles¶V critique of the avant-garde. Butler and Wittig argue that human liberation

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cannot be proposed in a society of gender restrictions, and so too for nonhuman animals. The realm of the nonhuman is by no means a heterosexual one, but as commodity, animals are bifurcated into what their genders can do for humans. Adams affirms WKDW³>L@f animals are burdened by gender, by gender associations, by oppression that is gender, then they FDQ¶W EH OLEHUDWHG WKURXJK UHSUHVHQWDWLRQV RI JHQGHU RSSUHVVLRQ´ (169). Binary terror arises when binaries collapse, but much female body art and many PETA performances wind up perpetuating the binary. Does this mean no woman should ever use her exposed body as a liberational declaration within avant-garde and ALM contexts? No. In fact, just the opposite is true. The reproduction of objectifying images within a feminist critical context is a valuable tool for reshaping perception of female and animal bodies. However, the task is not an easy one, and the viability of successfully contesting oppression through such imagery must be tended to with careful thought, and this is a task effectively seen through by critics and artists such as Carol Adams, Coco Fusco and Nao Bustamante. The remainder of this chapter will explore this response further, starting with the work of Carolee Schneemann and through consideration of location, or what Diamond terms WKH ³VLWHVVSDFHV´ LQ ZKLFK performative acts occur.

Case Study One: Location, Location, Location , UHDOO\ ZDQWHG WR VHH ZKDW µWKH IXFN¶ LV DQG locate that in terms of a lived sense of equity. ²Carolee Schneemann

In the epigraph above, avant-garde artist Carolee Schneemann, whom -D\ 0XUSK\ WHUPV D ³SUREOHPDWLF SLRQHHU´ H[SODLQV WKH UHDVRQLQJ behind her 1965 film Fuses, a short erotic film of passionate lovemaking starring Schneemann, James Tenney, the man with ³ZKRP>VKH@OLYHGDQGZRUNHGDVDQHTXDO´IRUWHQ\HDUVDQGWKHLUFDW Kitsch, whose perspective she visualizes within the film (Schneemann 45).6 In Fuses and other performances of the 19V DQG µV 6FKQHHPDQQ ³XVHG KHU ERG\ DV WKH SULPDU\ PDWHULDO UHDOL]LQJ KHU concepts in every media from assemblage, environments, happenings, 6

Unless otherwise noted, all citations by Schneemann in this section are from Imaging Her Erotics, a comprehensive collection of her art, essays, and interviews.

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and performance to kinetic sculpture, multimedia installations, film, YLGHRDQGSKRWRJUDSK\´6WLOHV, ³3DLQWHUDVDQ,QVWUXPHQW´ ,QWKLV section, selections of her work²Eye/Body (1963) and Up to and Including Her Limits (1973-77)²are investigated to discover the importance of environment within the project of staring back in the flesh and just how often such considerations can make all the difference between woman as subject and woman as object, between woman as creator and woman as created. Finally, these conclusions expose relevant techniques within the revisioning project of the avantgarde ALM in light of arguments posed in the previous section. 6FKQHHPDQQZKRUHIHUUHGWRKHUVHOIDVD³JLUOSRUQRJUDSKHU´ is an artist whose cultural function can never be replicated because her success as an accuser of culture is innately bound to a moment and place in time²the U.S. of the 1960s and 1970s.7 This was an especially chaotic time for pornography as well, as definitions of and laws regulating it were being refined during that period, and tension over its legalization was palpable across the U.S. Although Case DVVHUWVWKDWWKHQDNHGERG\KDVEHFRPHDQ³DQWLTXHQRWLRQ´LWZDVQ¶W when Schneemann and RWKHUV GLVUREHG DV DQ DWWHPSW ³WR EULGJH WKH FRQYHQWLRQDOO\SXEOLFSULYDWHDUHDVRIH[SHULHQFH´6FKQHHPDQQ 137). While Schneemann presumably used Fuses to, in phallic terms, ³SHQHWUDWH WKH FXOWXUH¶V VXSSUHVVLRQV ZLWK >KHU@ ERG\´ WKDW ZDV QRW the intention of mainstream pornography (35). In Hard Core, Linda Williams explains the history of conventional porn as one that moved from the ³meat shot´ to the ³money shot.´ ,QWKHIRUPHU³DFORVH-up RISHQHWUDWLRQ>«@VKRZVWKDWKDUG-core sexual activity is taking place [while the latter uses] the new convention of external penile HMDFXODWLRQ´ (72-  %RWK ³VKRWV´ DUH IRFXVHG RQ PDQLIHVWDWLRQV RI PHQ¶V pleasure, with man as subject and woman as object, but in Fuses³WKHVHHQ[sic] is not organized around the operative imperative RIWKHSKDOOXV´6FKQHLGHU 6FKQHHPDQQDFFXVHGWKHDUWZRUOGRI the same sexist tendencies that play out in pornography, and she FULWLFL]HG LQ %UHWRQLDQ WHUPV WKH ³GLVHDVH DQG PDQLD ZKLFK compelled patriarchal man to attribute to himself and his masculine forebears every invention and artifact by which civilization was IRUPHG IRU RYHU IRXU PLOOHQQLD´   6FKQHHPDQQ¶V YHQWXUHV

7

Historical timing is, in fact, why I am most interested in Schneemann and her contemporary Hannah Wilke, for they were artists during a time in which, to paraphrase Sue-Ellen Case, the naked female form still held the power of shock, originality and bravery within the avant-garde.

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returned the male gaze and rescripted the myth of male ownership of the world, female body included. Considering her explicit repertoire, Schneemann is not immune to criticism, and she was often accused of being an exhibitionist and narcissist. In an interview with Carl Heyward, she explains the theory behind this criticism: For strict constructivist femLQLVWKLVWRULDQVD³VH[SRVLWLYH´ERG\ LV QRW VXIILFLHQWO\ ³SUREOHPDWLF´ $FFRUGLQJ WR WKHLU DQDO\VLV female sexuality is inhabited and constructed by male need, desire, control, and therefore cannot escape internalizing the phallicized projection of femininity as the place of absence, void, and the abject. (197)

Stiles, however, disagrees with this perspective, and she puts Schneemann an echelon above performers such as Elke Krystufek and Annie Sprinkle. So, why does Stiles scrutinize the work of some female artists who use their bodies, but extol Schneemann? When 6FKQHHPDQQ ILOPHG KHU ORYHPDNLQJ ZDVQ¶W VKH H[HPSOLI\LQJ a female sexuality inhabited and constructed by men? Any answer to this question is still debatable. However, a strong case can be made for ³1R´ EXW RQO\ DIWHU FDUHIXO FRQWHPSODWLRQ RI ERWK KHU HGLWLQJ VW\OH and her use of environment. In fact, setting is a highly significant DVSHFWRIPXFKRI6FKQHHPDQQ¶VZRUN)RUH[DPSOHEye/Body takes place in her loft apartment, Fuses was filmed in her home and she controlled the editing, those final cuts through which meaning is made. Up to and Including Her Limits was performed in a museum space as reclamation of a male-dominated institution. In the cases explored below, Schneemann is in control as both looker and looked DW WKH IDFW WKDW VKH ZDV D ³ORRNHU´ LQ WKH DHVWKHWLF VHQVH ZLOO EH addressed later). More importantly, Schneemann actively returns the gaze. 6WLOHV QRWHV WKDW 6FKQHHPDQQ ³FUHDWHG DFWV RI SULPDU\ observation. She reconstructed the ways in which we see and interpret the world. Observation that reconstructs interpretation is radical and original´ ³1HYHU (QRXJK´   ,Q  WKH UDGLFDO UHFRQVWUXFWLRQ WKDW 6FKQHHPDQQ RIIHUHG ZDV DQ LPDJH RI ZRPHQ¶V SOHDVXUH DQG parity in heterosexual intercourse. She VWDWHV³3OHDVXUH,KDYHDERG\ WKDW¶V QRW FRQIOLFWHG DERXW LWV SOHDVXUH´   -RQHV DUJXHV WKDW 6FKQHHPDQQ¶V ZRUN GLIIHUV IURP WKDW RI RWKHU DUWLVWV LQ WKDW VKH LV ³DOZD\V LQ DFWLRQ´ DV RSSRVHG WR DOZD\V SRVLQJ   Schneemann knew that the slope of body art was slippery, so she considered each aspect of those performances in which she used her naked body. Such

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considerations are needed within performative activist contexts as well. In an interview with Carol Adams, I asked how feministYHJDQV FDQ TXHVWLRQ REMHFWLILFDWLRQ RI ZRPHQ¶V ERGLHV DV SURWHVW against animal consumption without relying on those same images. In other words, PETA will use a hyper-sexualized image of a female ERG\ WR JHW DWWHQWLRQ DQG WR VHQG RXW WKH PHVVDJH ³/RRN DW WKLV JRUJHRXVWKLQZKLWHZRPDQ$QLPDOFRPPRGLILFDWLRQLVEDG´1H[W critics such as Adams will take that 3(7$ LPDJH DQG VD\ ³7KLV hyper-sexualized image of a woman is a bad way to protest animal FRPPRGLILFDWLRQ ZKLFK LV EDG LQ LWV RZQ ULJKW´ ,Q both cases, the body is object, and it is used to draw audiences into the site of protest. $GDPV¶V UHVSRQVH LV LQtegral to my effort to interpret works such as 6FKQHHPDQQ¶V 6KH H[SODLQHG WKDW FRQVLGHUDWLRQ VKRXOG JR EH\RQG just the image, leading to questions of environment and setting. For example: Where/how is the body positioned in regard to other elements of the image? How large is the body in proportion to those other elements? What words surround the image visually, orally, or aurally? Where does the photographic, performative, or cinematic event take place? By way of reflecting on these questions, I will first compare two photographic images from female performance art and then two from the world of animal liberation. The first image is a still from 6FKQHHPDQQ¶VEye/Body: 36 Transformative Actions for Camera DQG(ONH.U\VWXINH¶VSatisfaction, a work Stiles critiqued above. In Eye/BodyDVPDOOJURXSRIYLHZHUVZHUHLQYLWHGWR6FKQHHPDQQ¶V domestic space, her terrain, to view her work. She had turned her loft DSDUWPHQWLQWRDDQ³HQYLURQPHQWEXLOWRIODUJHSDQHOVLQWHUORFNHGE\ rhythmic color units, broken mirrors and glass, lights, moving XPEUHOODV DQG PRWRUL]HG SDUWV´ 6FKQHHPDQQ   ,Q RQH SDUWLFXODU black and white frame, her naked body appears to be emerging from a wall that is painted in a way that she herself, her physical body, is painted. Her living space became her art space and she became her art within that space. As she explains things, by painting her body as an H[WHQVLRQRIKHUDUWVKHFKDOOHQJHG³WKHSV\FKLFWHUULWRULDOSRZHUOLQHV by which women, in 1963, were admitted into the Art StXG &OXE´ (55). Most significantly, in this and other frames, Schneemann stares directly and unflinchingly at the camera. She is powerful, in control and not afraid to look. She was offering something different in 1960s America.

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In Satisfaction, Krystufek offers a much different view of femininity.8 She is lying on a towel in a sterile public performance space under fluorescent lights, roped off from a fairly large crowd and protected by what looks to be three male guards. She is naked except for black thigh-high stockings and high-heel black shoes, those trappings of contemporary pornography. She digitally masturbates herself, though a dildo is nearby for support. Significantly, her eyes are covered, so she cannot return the many gazes focused upon her. She is in control only insofar as the men can prevent the crowd from rushing the stage. While Schneemann melded into her space, .U\VWXIHN¶V VH[XDO GLVSOD\ RYHUWDNHs any sense of environment, and her body is the only space. While Schneemann looks back with a FRQILGHQW VWDUH .U\VWXIHN LV EOLQG DQG ³KHU VDWLVIDFWLRQ LV RQH RI ORQHO\H[KLELWLRQLVP´6WLOHV :KLOH6FKQHHPDQQ¶VJXHVWVKDGWR be invited into her space, Krystufek is public property and ready to perform for all comers. In plainest terms6FKQHHPDQQ¶VSLece makes a viewer think. She offers something that observers can mentally process in an endeavor to articulate meaning and value. While critic Elizabeth Janus VWDWHV WKDW .U\VWXIHN¶V ZRUN ³OD\V EDUH KHU DQJVW DERXW KHU RZQ sexuality with an unflinching eye and brutal self-VFUXWLQ\´ VKH GRHV VRWKURXJKUHSHWLWLRQRIDV6WLOHVDUJXHGDERYH³DVWDJHGYHUVLRQRI DQ\ VWRFN PDOH IDQWDVLHV´ $lthough undoubtedly irreverent and attention-grabbing, Satisfaction is not offering something different, and it reinforces some always suspect, and often downright IULJKWHQLQJSUHVXSSRVLWLRQVDERXWZRPHQ¶VZRUWK Similar themes of representation arose during my interview with Carol Adams. Therein, she relayed a run-in with the law in which a shipment of her book The Sexual Politics of Meat: A FeministVegetarian Critical Theory was briefly held at the Canadian border, for it was initially assumed to be pornographic. ThHERRN¶VFRYHUKDV D FDUWRRQ LPDJH RI D ZRPDQ¶V EDFN DV VKH SHHUV EHKLQG WR VPLOH seductively at the viewer. She is on her knees, on which her hands rest as well. The woman is naked except for a cowboy hat. Lines intersect her body indicating different cuts of meat: rump, loin, rib, etc. The 8

.U\VWXIHN¶V OLIHWLPH work, thus far, goes much deeper and is more varied than is presented here. However, I focus on her use of exhibitionism as a case study for a GHHSHU XQGHUVWDQGLQJ RI WKH UROH RI ZRPHQ¶V ERGLHV LQ WKH DYDQW-garde ALM. It is EHFDXVH RI .U\VWXIHN¶V FRQWLQXHG XVH RI ³SRVHV VXJJHVWLYH RI DPDWHXU SRUQRJUDSK\ [and] MDUULQJWKHDWULFDOH[FHVV´WKDW,LQYHVWLJDWHZKDWLVquite a very small piece of a larger oeuvre (Janus).

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TXHVWLRQSRVHGWRWKHULJKWLV³:KDW¶V\RXUFXW"´LQRWKHUZRUGVDUH you a breast man or leg man?). The back of Sexual Politics reveals that this image is from a beach towel circa 1969 created by an unknown artist. Adams obviously used it because it perfectly epitomizes her thesis. This is an interesting case for a couple of reasons. First, it shows the extent to which the eye stops when it sees a naked female body, often going no further than the sexually charged image. The &DQDGLDQREVHUYHULQ$GDPV¶VFDVHPD\QRWKDYHGHOD\HGVKLSPHQW if he/she had really seen the huge font to the left of the image stating The Sexual Politics of Meat, and the only slightly smaller font declaring the book to be a A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory. This is not the typical verbiage of erotica! And, of course, it is a cartoon image, as opposed to real female flesh (Adams similarly uses a cartoon from popular culture on the cover of The Pornography of Meat). Further, the observer could have saved him/herself time by simply looking at the back of the book to learn that it is an antiSRUQRJUDSK\VWXG\DPRQJRWKHUWKLQJV,I$GDPV¶VERRNFDQEHWDNHQ for pornography, although she took the time to consider issues such as spatial layout, location of words and images, and context, what does that say for PETA ads that rely on images like the one on the towel, but with less consideration of space and textual location? A few years ago, PETA created an ad campaign taken right fURP WKH FRYHU RI $GDPV¶V ERRN XVLQJ 7UDFL %LQJKDP ³WKH FXUYDFHRXVYHJHWDULDQDFWRU´DVDPRGHO³$OO$QLPDOV´ %LQJKDPLV in a near exact pose to the one on the beach towel, and her body is sectioned off as cuts of meat. PETA explains that tKH ³VH[\ DG encourages people to view animals as something other than walking HQWUpHV´7KLV D QREOH PHVVDJH EXW LV 3(7$ KXPDQL]LQJ DQLPDOV or animalizing women? Either way, they are ignoring other non-binary options for revisualization. Does the ad show animals as human, or does it show female humans as animalistic? Either way, they are reinforcing patriarchal dualisms, along with all of the culturally imposed negative characteristics of nonhuman animals. As Adorno and Horkheimer state, one of the worst punishments in the Western psyche is to be made animal. The goal of the radical ALM is to dissolve the wall between humans and animals so that all can be seen as sentient creatures who have an innate right to bodily integrity. The nonhuman and human animal envisioned as parts denies them that right to wholeness. Like Krysufek, instead of offering a different truth, PETA liberally borrows from current perceptions of the truth, as

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opposed to seeking ways to disrupt the discourses that determine certainty. Their use of Bingham is especially problematic because she is seen as an African American actress, although she is also Native and Italian American. Regardless of her heritage, Bingham is noted as an African American woman, and in this ad, PETA uses a racist trope RI SRUQRJUDSK\ DV GHVFULEHG E\ $GDPV ³>3RUQRJUDSKHUV@ SRVLW WKDW black women [African American and Latina] have an animalistic VH[XDOLW\ WKDW PXVW EH FRQWUROOHG RWKHUZLVH WKH\ DUH GDQJHURXV >«@ Showing women with nonhumans or showing them as animals is one way to convey that women are animal-like, less than human, unruly, QHHGLQJ WR EH FRQWUROOHG´   (IIHFWLYHO\ 3(7$ LV FDUU\LQJ RQ D violent tradition of body commodification that has more literal implications for women of color. bell hooks argues that representations of Black femininity in ³FRQWHPSRUDU\ SRSXODU FXOWXUH UDUHO\ VXEYHUW RU FULWLTXH LPDJHV RI black sexuality which were part of the cultural apparatus of nineteenth-century racism and which still shape perceptions WRGD\´ (114). 3DWULFLD+LOO&ROOLQVPDNHVVSHFLILFPHQWLRQRI³UHGXFLQJ%ODFN ZRPHQ WR EXWWV´ DV an example from popular culture, and this is, in fact, what PETA is doing²fragmenting a Black woman into parts. In this case, her buttocks are literally exposeGZLWKWKHZRUGV³UXPS´DQG ³URXQG´SURPLQHQWO\ZULWWHQWKHUHRQ. Collins further argues that white supremacy was and continues to be founded upon a presumption of differentiation that is, quite often, a difference of sexualities as well as skin color (133). From the earliest days of imperialist domination of Black bodies, it was White men who were in control. To wit, they declared that Black men would not have access to White women (and YLFHYHUVD EXW³%ODFNZRPHQ¶VVH[XDOLW\IRXQGQRSURWHFWLRQV [and could be seen as] SXEOLF SURSHUW\´ &ROOLQV   :KLWH PHQ consequently, had access to all bodies. :KHQ D ZRPDQ¶V H[SRVHG body is put on display within public spaces, men can once again own her through visual consumption. Collins concludes that sexuality is the ³conceptual glue that binds intersecting oppressions together´ , emphasis added). PETA completely ignores this intesectionality, and whether consciously or not, they are reinforcing the cultural norms that allow for the subjugation of nonhuman animals, especially those who are exploited for their reproductive capacity. A. Breeze Harper expresses FRQFHUQ³DERXWKRZYHJDQLVPLVDGYRFDWHG>DV@LILWVWLOOLV founded upon white Eurocentric middle-class standards of morality, KHDOWK DQG EHDXW\´   PETA liberally borrows from the same

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cultural apparatuses, views on sexuality and social norms that hooks, Collins and Harper describe. 6SDWLDOO\%LQJKDP¶VERG\ takes up the whole left side of the PETA poster. She is the reason to look at this image. She glances to WKH ULJKW EXW GRHV QRW ORRN DW WKH YLHZHU ³$OO $QLPDOV +DYH WKH 6DPH3DUWV´LVZULWWHQWRKHUULJKW,QVLJQLILFDQWO\VPDOOHUIRQW³+DYH D+HDUW*R9HJHWDULDQ´HQFLUFOHVDVLOKRXHWWHRIDFRZZLWKD little ZKLWH KHDUW LQ WKH PLGGOH $JDLQ UHFDOOLQJ $GDPV¶V FRPPHQWV RQ ORFDWLRQ WKH YLHZHU ILUVW VHHV %LQJKDP¶V ERG\ LQ D VHGXFWLYH SRVH The fact that she is marked for parts does not negate the familiarity of that type of image from countless advertisements for other commodities. Next, PETA declares Bingham to be an animal, along with all the negative connotations that go along with that word in Western FXOWXUH 3(7$ UHIXVHV WR JHW WR WKH URRWV RI DQLPDO DQG ZRPHQ¶V oppression. If they dug more deeply, they would see that patriarchal culture has already declared that women and animals are on the same inferior plane and significant primarily for their use as fragments. They do not offer something new, and they reinforce the dangerous myths that allow for human and animal oppression. It is finally upon reaching even smaller font on the page that PETA asks the observer to ³*R9HJHWDULDQ´WHOOLQJWKHPZKHUHWRRUGHU³YHJHWDULDQVWDUWHUNLWV´ in the smallest text in the ad. The problem with PETA and some of the other performers critiqued thus far is that they missed a step. They attempt to reclaim bodies before the challenging project of mythic overhaul has even begun. Without any introspection or sense of the absurd to speak of, they assume that by repeating and miming those myths back to the power structure that created them, somehow liberation will miraculously manifest. Thus, the dilemmas within the avant-garde are the same within the ALM and the same during the early- to midtwentieth century when the Surrealists pondered how to effect radical political change. How do we enact a mutiny over Western myth and cultivate the savage eye? Time and again, the most fulfilling answer KDV OLHG LQ D UHIXVDO WR ZLHOG WKH PDVWHU¶V WRROs DJDLQVW WKH PDVWHU¶V house. The answer is not, and has never been, to cease using the body as an avenue of protest. Rather, the answer has always been to do something different with that body while allowing its owner to retain integrity. Carolee Schneemann, though certainly not an animal rights activist, is a vital model for the ALM because of the integrity with

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which she used her body to reclaim her body. She used her corporeal form within her own house and created new tools that the master could not yet conceive of. David Levi Strauss asserts that ³6FKQHHPDQQ¶VFRQWLQXHGLQVLVWHQFHRQWKHULJKWVRIWKHIHPDOHERG\ and feminine mind in a sex-phobic and misogynist culture have led over time to a radical metaphysics that is equally at odds with social FRQYHQWLRQV´ :KHQ6FKQHHPDQQtook off her clothes, it always VHHPHG WR IROORZ FDUHIXO FRQVLGHUDWLRQ RI 'LDPRQG¶V TXHVWLRQ RI location. For example, in Up to and Including Her Limits, Schneemann suspended her naked body from a rope within the PXVHXP VSDFH GHFODULQJ WKH DFW WR EH ³12 µSHUIRUPDQFH¶ PXVHXP EHFRPHP\KRPHVWXGLRP\FDW.LWVFKOLYHVWKHUHZLWKPH´ ,Q an institutionalized space brimming with images of naked women immortalized by the brushes and chisels of famous men, Schneemann literally flew her naked form through the very air of those rooms and wielded her own colors. She was/is a squatter in the houses that men built, relevantly deciding to share that space with a nonhuman companion. Despite this laudatory critique6FKQHHPDQQ¶VULGHKDVEHHQD bumpy one, and it is not over. The remaining controversies of her art raise important questions, the answers to which feed the rescripting processes of all avant-gardes. Inevitably, these questions resound the quandaries of the beauty myth as violently contemplated by Loy, Solanas, and Dunn. In 1980, Lawrence Alloway observed that ³6FKQHHPDQQ¶VXVHRIQXGLW\KDVVRPHKRZDFWHGWROLPLWKHUFDUHHU to seal her off in a Dionysian cul-de-sac´TWGLQ6WUDXVV 6RPH twenty years later, she is still delimited, though the reasons for it have altered. 6WLOHV¶V ³1HYHU (QRXJK LV Something Else´ ZDV SDUWLDOO\ ZULWWHQ WR DGGUHVV WKH ³ZD\V LQ ZKLFK 6FKQHHPDQQ¶V WKHRU\ DQG practice have been usurped for years by artists and critics who often QHLWKHUFUHGLWHGQRUVXSSRUWHGKHUZRUN´ :KHQ6WLOHVDWWHPSWHG to make that argument in another essay, she was censored yet again, EHLQJWROGWKDWZKLOH6FKQHHPDQQPD\EHD³VWHP´RIFRQWHPSRUDU\ IHPDOH ERG\ DUW WKH FXUDWRU WKRXJKW KHU DXGLHQFH ³µZRXOG EH EHWWHU VHUYHGE\DSSOHV¶´6WLOHV $V6WLOHVQRWHVWKHDSSOHLV³VZHHW´ ZKLOHWKHVWHPLV³JQDUOHG´Here, we are talking about beauty and the ORVWEHDXW\WKDWFRPHVZLWKDJH6FKQHHPDQQ¶VVXFFHVVZDVSDUWLDOO\ due to her willingness to share and explore a body that was DHVWKHWLFDOO\ SOHDVLQJ $V /LSSDUG UHSRUWV 6FKQHHPDQQ ZDV ³NQRZQ in the early VDVDµERG\EHDXWLIXO¶EHFDXVHVKHDSSHDUHGQXGHLQ

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+DSSHQLQJV´ ,QWKHSUHYLRXVFKDSWHU, I argued that according to the cultural script, each woman, no matter where she falls on the EHDXW\ VSHFWUXP ZLOO RQHGD\ EHFRPH ³XJO\´ LI VKH OLYHV WR VHH ROG DJH LQ WDQGHP WKH JDXJH RI ZKDW FRQVWLWXWHV DQ ³ROG ZRPDQ´ continues to slip down the chronological scale in Western societies. Once more, questions regarding the privileges and perils of beauty lead to avenues and obstacles, discourses on and distractions from the liberational objectives of women and for animals.

Avenues and Obstacles: A Hierarchy of Beauty and Desire 2XU ³VLHJH´ LV SULYLOeged: we are under siege but able to observe, comment, criticize. ²Carolee Schneemann

Adding to the many incisive questions Elin Diamond asks in her introduction to Performance and Cultural Politics, I will add, ³9RLFHV: :KRJHWVWRGRWKHVSHDNLQJ"´7KLV question is of particular importance in a study such as this, one that attempts to layer animal liberation into reflections on other liberational movements. Nonhuman animals cannot speak for themselves other than to engage in selfdestructive behaviors when they are forced to live in ways unnatural to their species or to reel and writhe in pain at moments of slaughter. +RZHYHU WKHVH ³YRLFHV´ DUH Vilenced because factory farms are notoriously private places that ferociously keep their handling of animals from the public eye. Animals are captives in the truest sense RIWKHZRUG7KDWLVZK\6FKQHHPDQQ¶VVWDWHPHQWDW the start of this section is noteworthy. She acknowledges that, unlike other oppressed groups, female performance artists in Western culture can say something about abuse through acts of observation and critical commentary. They are privileged rebels. Thus, as a U.S. artist, Schneemann was DOORZHG WR FULWLTXH ZKDW VKH FDOOV ³Whe Art Stud Club,´ and in addition to living in an alleged free country, Schneemann was given the privilege of voice because, along with being talented and insightful, she was also young, thin, and white. She ranked high on the Euro-American hierarchy of beauty and desire. As Mina Loy and Valerie Solanas learned in their interactions with the avant-JDUGH³Dmicrocosm of capitalist society,´EHDXW\LVDQ avenue into that world (Lippard 118). Beauty is also an avenue into the ALM, as discussed. However, as VKRZQ WKURXJK 'XQQ¶V Miss Lick, it is also an obstacle to what Wittig termed the destruction of the

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FODVVRI³ZRPDQ´DQGZKDWis further seen as destruction of the plague of patriarchal dualisms. This discussion warrants development through a continued analysis of how the beauty myth has helped and hindered women in the avant-garde, with a final argument that until that myth is rescripted (destroyed?), the possibility of reconceptualization becomes a myth itself. With women making up approximately 80% of the ALM, such considerations have significant ramifications. Thus, any exploration of beauty and desire is an exploration of how women can have a stronger voice for animals in a movement that still resounds with the laugh of the White Man who usually manifests as the rationalist philosopher. )LUVW SXEOLVKHG LQ  FULWLF &OLYH %HOO¶V ³7KH $HVWKHWLF +\SRWKHVLV´ZDVUHOHYDQWZKHQ6FKQHHPDQn attempted to reclaim the museum space in the 1970s, and it is still pertinent today for female body artists and the ALM. In this essay, Bell summarizes the concept of aesthetic theory as one that involves emotion and passion evoked through the arrangement of forms and colors within an artistic production: ³:LWKRXW VHQVLELOLW\ D PDQ FDQ have no aesthetic H[SHULHQFH´ %\³VHQVLELOLW\´%HOOPHDQVDQemotional response. He then makes the distinction between issues of aesthetics in the human form, as I have been using the term in regard to beauty, and DHVWKHWLFVLQUHJDUGWRZKDWKHWHUPVWKH³VLJQLILFDQWIRUPV´RIDZRUN of art. Of course, writing in the early twentieth century, Bell was referencing traditional artistic forms such as painting and sculpture, which often depicted female figures. He likely could not have IDWKRPHG6FKQHHPDQQRU.U\VWXIHN¶VSHUIRUPDWLYHHYHQWV7KDWVDLG his further commentary has implications for women who use their bodies as emancipatory tools. Bell argues that when an ordinary man speaks of a beautiful woman he certainly does not mean that she moves him aesthetically >«@Indeed, most of us never dream of going for aesthetic emotions to human beings, from whom we ask something very different. This ³VRPHWKLQJ´ when we find it in a young woman, we are apt to call ³beauty´ >«@:LWKWKHPDQ-in-the-street ³beautiful´ is more often than not synonymous with ³desirable´; the word does not necessarily connote any aesthetic [emotional] reaction whatever, and I am tempted to believe that in the minds of many the sexual flavour of the word is stronger than the aesthetic. (70)

Although he does so unwittingly, Bell locates one of the greatest REVWDFOHV WR ZRPHQ¶V ERG\ DUW D JHQUH WKDW FRQWUDGLFWRULO\ DURXVHV desire in the hopes that the body can move beyond the status of thing desired. As was discussed in regard to Sade and the Surrealists, desire

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is frequently devoid of emotion and just as frequently violent. Rebecca Schneider argues that women in the avant-garde are reacting to a late capitalist commodity culture that has scripted desire as QDWXUDO DQG PDOH 6KH FRQWHQGV WKDW GHVLUH LV ³QDWXUH GHVLJQHG packaged, and sold²marketed, outfitted, and set upon a runway of dreams where it is also marked for gender as if by some accident of God: desire is masculinized; the desired, femiQL]HG´   :LWKLQ WKLV IHPLQL]DWLRQRIWKH³GHVLUHG´LVDIXUWKHUIUDJPHQWDWLRQWKDWFDWDORJXHV levels of desire, privileging some (young, thin, white) over others (old, IDW³PDUNHG´E\UDFH  ,W LV QDwYH WR WKLQN WKDW WKH ³PDQ-in-the-VWUHHW´RU WKH FUiticin-the-museum, saturated as he is with media images of the female body, will suddenly be able to use his emotive sensibilities to see the real reasons artists such as Sprinkle and Krystufek put their bodies on display,WLVIXUWKHUQDwYHWRWKLQNWKDWWKH³PDQ-in-the-VWUHHW´ZLOOVHH a near-QDNHG9LFWRULD¶V6HFUHWPRGHODQGVXGGHQO\EHDEOHWRsee the real reason she is disrobing in front of a plate of phallic vegetables, as models have done for PETA. The female body is used everywhere and everyday to provoke desire and initiate commerce, and this reality does not dissipate because of the philosophical premises behind ZRPHQ¶VERG\DUW3HUIRUPDQFHE\LWVQDWXUHLVDERXWPRUHWKDQWKH artist. It is about the audience and the hope of remaking the world WKURXJK WKDW DXGLHQFH¶V DELOLW\ WR ORRN DW WKH VDPH WKLQJ GLIIHUHQWO\ So, although Schneemann was not conflicted about her body and its DELOLW\WRH[SHULHQFHSOHDVXUHKHUDXGLHQFH¶VERGLHVPD\EHFRQIOLFWHG (in fact, they have to be because that conflict is the reason for her performance). When the conflicted eye looks at a beautiful, naked female figure, are WKHYLHZHU¶Vsensibilities being aroused or is it the sexual libido and/or feelings of inferiority because the body on display remains unattainable? These inquiries are not meant to negate the rescripting SRVVLELOLWLHVRISHUIRUPDQFHVVXFKDV6FKQHHPDQQ¶VDQGWKHSRVLWLYH analyses and outcomes of her work apply to this study just as much as do the troubling questionVKHUZRUNHYRNHV$V6WLOHVDUJXHVLWLV³WKH ZULWHU¶V UHVSRQVLELOLW\ >«@ WR UHYHDO DQG DFFXVH´ ³1HYHU (QRXJK´ 243). This must apply to all works, even those that are deemed beyond critique, and especially those from which arise contradictory reactions from the very same viewer. Although there have always been women DUWLVWV %HOO¶V FULWLFLVP ZDV ZULWWHQ DW D WLPH ZKHQ PHQ ZHUH DUWLVWV and women were represented in works of art. Real women, those of the flesh who moved and acted, lived in the world outside the

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museum. However, in WKHµVDQGµVZLWK6FKQHHPDQQDWWKHIURQW of the line, real women moved and acted within the museum in an artistic context that used the flesh as medium. Yet this revolution in ZRPHQ¶VDUWhas not come WRWHUPVZLWK%HOO¶VWhesis about aesthetics that provoke emotion and revision and those that provoke desire, be it sexual or otherwise. In fact, it has led to complexities so convoluted and power struggles so seemingly unwinnable that it leads one to ZRQGHULIZRPHQ¶VH[SOLFLW body art is a trend whose time has come and gone or, more optimistically, if it is a trend that came too soon, but that can be vigorously resurrected. Schneemann has continued to perform well into the new millennium, DOWKRXJK 6WLOHV DUJXHV WKDW VKH¶V EHHQ appropriated without proper credit because audiences want to see beautiful bodies ³DSSOHV´  QRW ROG ERGLHV ³VWHPV´  QR PDWWHU KRZ ZHOO-established and pioneering those bodies may be. Much like the world it contends against, the avant-garde celebrates WKH ³FODVVLFDO ERG\ ZKLFK LV monumental, static, closed, and sleek, [as opposed to the] grotesque body [which is] WKH RSHQ SURWUXGLQJ H[WHQGHG VHFUHWLQJ ERG\´ (Russo 325). However, this is not to say that the avant-garde, especially in surrealism, has not also dabbled in ugliness. In fact, the beautiful/ugly divide was certainly on the list of binaries that Breton and crew decried.9 &ODLUH%ODNHZD\QRWHVWKDW³D FKDUDFWHULVWLFRI5RPDQWLFDQG6XUUHDOLVWOLWHUDWXUHDOLNH>«@ZDVWKHLU preoccupation with the grotesque. Like the Romantics, who found a formerly unrecognized beauty in the ugly, the Surrealists were REVHVVHG ZLWK WKH VRPEHU JURWHVTXH PDQLIHVWDWLRQV RI WKH ZRUOG´ (28). The same applies to much of their visual arts as well. However, the avant-JDUGH¶V IDVFLQDWLRQ ZLWK WKH XJO\ LV RQH RI ³PDFDEUH DPXVHPHQW´WKDWLVDOOLHGZLWKWKHLULQWHUHVWLQWKHXQILOWHUHGLQVWLQFWV of the primitive (Blakeway 28). And it is just that consciousness of depicting ugliness that is suspect. Mindful attempts to subvert beauty through a show of ugliness become an acknowledgement of beauty through conscious representation of its opposite, leading to the question: Based upon whose script of ugly and beautiful are these subversive observations being made? Further, avant-garde interest in the ugly and grotesque is highly theoretical. In practice, from the early twentieth century to the present, it was/is often the most beautiful women who were/are allowed into the avant-garde as artists and often only as lovers of established males within the art world: 9

I offer additional analysis of surreal theories of beauty in Chapter Three.

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³1HXWUDO´DUWPDGHE\ ZRPHQVWLOOKDVOLWWOHFKDQFHRIPDNLQJLW into the market mainstream, while the male establishment, XQV\PSDWKHWLFWRZRPHQ¶VSDUWLFLSDWLRQLQWKHDUWZRUOGDVHTXDO competitors, has approved (if rather patronizingly and perhaps lasciviously) of women working with their own, preferably attractive, bodies and faces. (Lippard 101)

Lucy Lippard goes on to argue that this is especially true in Europe. In the United States, women have had more opportunity within the ³QHXWUDO´PHDQLQJWUDGLWLRQDODUWVIRUPV7KDWVDLGWKHERGLHVZLWKLQ avant-garde performance in both Europe and the U.S. were/are overwhelmingly young, thin, and white²the contemporary standard RIEHDXW\LQZKLFKWKH³FODVVLFDO´ERG\WUXPSVWKH³JURWHVTXH´ Which body does Schneemann now possess in her early seventies? One can only surmise, as she stopped using her naked body in performance in the early 1980s, explaining that I have constantly been shifting the context in which I will use nudity. My most recent performance, Ask the Goddess [1993-97], is a very funny piece that is didactic but invites a complex OD\HULQJRIUDQGRPL]HGSURFHGXUHV,GRQ¶WZDQWWRUHSHDWP\ROG messages; the messages have to change for me to discover where the taboos have shifted because they are shifty, in the way that censorship is shifty. (205)

Although she professes not to be the Goddess in this performance² WKH *RGGHVV EHLQJ ³D VHW RI GRXEOH VOLdes that are continually SURGXFHG EHKLQG´ KHU²Schneemann acknowledges having ³HVWDEOLVKHG >«@ WKH MX[WDSRVLWLRQV RI VOLGH LPDJHV >«@ RXW RI >KHU@ RZQLFRQRJUDSK\´ 7KXVERWK6FKQHHPDQQDQG6SULQNOHEHJDQ using Goddess imagery once they had moved past their culturallyGHWHUPLQHG³SULPHV´6SULQNOHLVin her late fifties). With a new crop RI ³DSSOHV´ WR WDNH WKHLU SODFHV ERWK DUWLVWV UHYHUW WR LPDJHV RI WKH transcendent, wise, mother figure who is beyond the bodily form. In other words, no longer human. This reallocation demands to be explored more deeply and in cultural and historical contexts. 6FKQHHPDQQ HQWHUHG KHU IRUWLHV LQ WKH HDUO\ µV 7KXV VKH could still be white and possibly thin, but not young by current standards. In The Beauty Myth 1DRPL :ROI REVHUYHV ³WKH GHFDGHV IURPIRUW\WRVL[W\´WREHWKH³SULPHRI OLIH´IRUERWKVH[HVEXWWKH\ DUH ³FDVW DV PHQ¶V SHDN DQG ZRPHQ¶V GHFOLQH´ LQ :HVWHUQ FXOWXUH (230). As comfortable as Schneemann was using nudity to challenge sexual mores in the bloom of youth, her contextual shift is one that stopped using her exposed ERG\RQFHLWEHFDPHVRFLDOO\³XJO\´$V I note in the previous chapter, Charlotte Wright argues that the word ³ROG´LQ literature signifies a lapse into ugliness. It does so in the real world as well. The foremost positive attribute applied to the elderly is

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that they are wise. Having lived so long, they have knowledge to impart to the young. Their wisdom makes them valuable. In Ask the Goddess, performed when Schneemann was in her fifties, she constructs Goddess imagery while covered up to her neck in black clothing ,Q WKLV SLHFH VKH QRWHV KRZ ³WKH WUDGLWLRQV RI patriarchy split the feminine into [dualisms such as] GHEDVHGJODPRUL]HG´ $UH ILIW\-year-old women debased or glamorized in Western culture? Surely the former. However, this is not necessarily an accusation that Schneemann has become a victim of the beauty myth, though that might very well be the case. Rather, the ³GHEDVHGJODPRUL]HG´ ELQDU\ FRXSOHG ZLWK WKH ³ROG XJO\´ HTXDWLRQ identifies how small the window of privilege is for women in the avant-garde, and the world, both aesthetically and temporally. 6FKQHHPDQQ¶V FRQWLQXHG UROH DV DFFXVHU VSULQJV IURP KHU HDUOLHU performance of the beautiful, young, white, female body. $GGLWLRQDOO\6FKQHHPDQQ¶VEDQRQQXGLW\PDNHVRQHZRQGHULIWKDW privilege would have been revoked had she continued exposing her DJLQJ ERG\ WKH ³RSHQ SURWUXGLQJ H[WHQGHG VHFUHWLQJ ERG\´ WKDW Mary Russo writes of. Would she have continued to provoke, or ZRXOG VKH KDYH EHFRPH D VSHFWDFOH SURYRNHU RI ³PDFDEUH DPXVHPHQW´"10 Similar (but paradoxically opposite) questions arise when FRQVLGHULQJWKHZRUNRI6FKQHHPDQQ¶VFRQWHPSRUDU\+DQQDK:LONH Wilke, as much as, if not more so, than Schneemann, became caught up in the thorn-ridded double bind of beauty and desire. She fit the young, thin, white mold sought after in Western culture, but was also criticized for relying on the trope of the pose (unlike Schneemann, ZKRVHZRUNZDVPRUHG\QDPLF $OWKRXJK$PHOLD-RQHVVHHV:LONH¶V work as feminist, Wilke was constantly attacked by feminists for her ³UHJUHVVLYHIHPLQLQHQDUFLVVLVP,´ and she was accused of everything from miming conventions of the stripper to oversimplifying the search IRUVH[XDOOLEHUDWLRQ /LSSDUGDUJXHVWKDW:LONH¶V³FRQIXVLRQRI her roles as beautiful woman and artist, as flirt and feminist, has resulted at times in politically ambiguous manifestations that have H[SRVHGKHUWRFULWLFLVPRQDSHUVRQDODVZHOODVRQDQDUWLVWLFOHYHO´ (103). Wilke best represents the dilemma of the aesthetics that rouse sensibility vs. those that rouse desire, while also opening up inquiry 10

In a country that exploits bodies, abuse of and disregard for old bodies deserve some mention. Thought time precludes me from diving into that social concern in any great depth, elder abuse, even in terms of objectification and fetishization, is just as relevant an issue as the others discussed thus far.

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into an aesthetics that rouses the anger of unmet desires. Much like Schneemann, Wilke attempted to retrieve power over her body by exposing it without fear, but much like PETA, her art raises questions as to whether or not she wielded her body too soon. This is a temporal consideration perfectly posed by Laura 0XOYH\ DV WKH ³XOWLPDWH challenge: how to fight the unconscious structured like a language >«@ZKLOHVWLOOFDXJKWZLWKLQ the language of the patriarchy´  As Mulvey further states, from a psychoanalytic perspective, there is sure pleasure in being looked at that is warped when the weight of authority is manifested in the looker. This imbalance results LQ D ³IHWLVKLVWLF VFRSRSKLOLD´ ZLWK PHQ DV VXEMHFWs and women as objects. Wilke attempted to balance the scale by looking back within the Western artistic tradition of the posed woman. Further, she augmented her returned gazes with both indifference and the sense that she liked being looked at, and it is on this point that she garnered DVHULHVRIDQJU\FULWLTXHVWKDWDVNHG³How dare she"´/LSSDUGVWDWHV WKDW ³>E@ecause women are considered sex objects, it is taken for granted that any woman who presents her nude body in public is doing VR EHFDXVHVKHWKLQNV VKHLV EHDXWLIXO´  $GGHG WR WKH VHULHV RI contradictory messages women receive, they are to be beautiful but not to know it (or at least not admit they know it). Although Schneemann was attractive, consciousness of her physical beauty is not as evident as it is in :LONH¶VDUW, but GHVSLWH:LONH¶VEHDXW\ and her awareness of it, she is of continued significance because her stares acknowledge that she is young, thin, white, and beautiful, and they are offered without apology. She owns the psychological satisfaction of being stared at. Although her work continues to be troubling in many ways, her stares were something different when initially brandished three decades ago. In What Does This Represent/What Do You Represent from her So Help Me Hannah series (1978-84), Wilke sits in the corner of a room, naked except for high heels. The floor is cluttered with toy guns and Mickey Mouse figurines. Her legs are bent but splayed open, genitals exposed, and she gazes back at the viewer with a look of ennui -RQHV DQDO\]HV ³:LONH SHUIRUPV KHU ERG\ DV REMHFW VKH FRQVWUXFWV KHUVHOI DV OLWHUDOO\ µFRUQHUHG¶ E\ WKH JD]H $QG \HW KHU genitals offered to view and her body slack, disinterested, and selfinvolved, Wilke unveils that which both beckons and threatens the FDVWUDWLRQDQ[LRXVPDOH´ 7KHFUX[RIWKLVSKRWRJUDSKLV:LONH¶V indifferent and apathetic expression. To appropriate :LONH¶V WLWOH what does this disinterest represent? There are two ways to respond. In

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³7KH1DUFLVVLVWLF:RPDQ)UHXGDQG*LUDUG´6DUDK.RIPDQH[SODLQV that the narcissistic woman who fascinates man through her beauty and indifference is only one type of woman, even if it is a question of WKHW\SHPRVW³IUHTXHQWO\PHWZLWKZKLFKLVSUREDEO\WKHSXUHVW DQGWUXHVWRQH´7REHVXUHPHQIDQWDVL]HWKLVW\SHRIZRPDQDV EHLQJ WKH YHU\ ³HVVHQFH´ RI ZRPDQ DV WKH ³HWHUQDO IHPLQLQH´ 7KH\GRVREHFDXVHVKHFRUUHVSRQGVWKHEHVW>«@WRWKHGHVLUHVRI men, since she represents the lost part of their own narcissism. (215)

+HUHLQOLHVFDXVHIRUIHPLQLVWFULWLTXH:LONH¶VSRVHVKDYHEHHQVHHQ to reinforce myths of essentialist femininity while also serving as mere UHSUHVHQWDWLRQV RI PHQ¶V ODFN (LWKHU ZD\ ZRPDQ LV GHQLHG DJHQF\, wholeness and autonomous potency. In contrast, Jones argues that by desexualizing her nudity through a look that borders on antipathy, Wilke reflects the power of the gaze back onto its source. Consequently, Wilke is offering a performative option beyond reproducing or re-presenting²that of reflecting. This ability to reflect, to stare back boldly, as opposed to coquettishly lowering ones lids or sneering seductively, is germane to the cause of rescripting patriarchal rules of perception. Wilke is doing PRUH WKDQ LQ )UHXGLDQ WHUPV ³UHWDLQ>ing] what man has lost²that RULJLQDOQDUFLVVLVPIRUZKLFKKHUHPDLQVHWHUQDOO\QRVWDOJLF´.RIPDQ 212). She is reveling in her natural beauty and selfishness, just as do WKH ³IUHH-ZKHHOLQJ´ ZRPHQ RI 6RODQDV¶V PDQLIHVWR 6KH LV VWDUing back. Andrea Dworkin DUJXHVWKDW³>E@ecoming a man requires that a boy becomes indifferent to the fate of women. Indifference requires WKDWWKHER\OHDUQWRH[SHULHQFHZRPHQDVREMHFWV´Pornography 49). :LONH¶V SKRWRJUDSKV PD\ EH WKRXJKW WR encourage ZRPHQ¶V objectification, but this response is short sighted because her images are not about men, nor is her body a stage built for men to play our their Freudian fantasies. She is indifferent toward the gaze that is indifferent to her. She mirrors while she acts as her own object. :RUNV VXFK DV :LONH¶V VKRZ WKDW WKHUH LV JUHDW SRWHQWLDO IRU HPSRZHUPHQWZLWKLQZRPHQ¶VERG\DUW, yet it is through exploration of that empowerment that the overarching theme of this section becomes glaringly reinforced, which is to look at how being young, thin, and white has allowed women to take on the privileged roles of cultural accusers both in the traditional and ALM avant-gardes. At the same time, these works recapitulate a symbol of desire that is H[FOXVLRQDU\DQGSRWHQWLDOO\SHULORXV6FKQHLGHUVWDWHVWKDWGHVLUH³LV bought into, just as any tangible object is bought. Like a commodity, desire is produced [in capitalist culture@´ (5). The women I have

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discussed, almost without exception, have fit the mold of the desired commodity in the Western world. When they could not naturally fit, they were forced into the mold vis-à-vis Annie Sprinkle stuffing her ample figure into a constricting corset. Of course, the nature of commodity culture is such that desires are bought into, but they will never be²can never be²satiated. &RQVXPHUVDUHRIIHUHGDQ³>L@GHDOEHDXW\ [that] does not exist: The action [of purchasing] lies in the gap between desire and JUDWLILFDWLRQ´EXWLWLVDIDOVHJUDWLILFDWLRQWKDWQHYHUFRPHVWRIUXLWLRQ (Wolf 176). This is where the anger and violence of unmet desire arises, and with women as the unattainable commodities, the anger and violence are RIWHQ GLUHFWHG DW ³ZRPDQ´ ³7KH VFRSLF ILHOG ZDV feminized as passive²as accessible as it was, by virtue of the YDQLVKLQJ SRLQW LQDFFHVVLEOH >«@ :RPHQ ZHUH RIWHQ XQGUHVVHG DQG spread across the terrain as emblems of the scopic field itself, beckoning the viewer to sense both the power of his gaze and the LQVDWLDELOLW\RIKLVGHVLUH´6FKQHLGHU ,Q%HOO¶VWHUPVZRPHQDUH aesthetically pleasing in ways that do not evoke emotion; thus, the arousal of sensibilities sought after by the female body artist or body activist PD\YHU\ZHOORQO\UHPLQGWKHYLHZHURIWKH³LQVDWLDELOLW\RI KLVGHVLUH´+HKROGVSRZHURQO\LQVRIDUDVKHSHQHWUDWHVWKHZRPDQ with his gaze, but he is forever denied the literal penetration that promises to fulfill all of his desires, and even this is a false promise. :KHWKHU KH LV ORRNLQJ DW D SRUQRJUDSKLF PDJD]LQH RU 3(7$¶V ODWHVW campaign, he will EHGHQLHGWKHZRPDQ¶VSK\VLFDOERG\ This is why pornography, with its predominant presence of unattainable women, has come to be seen as a woman-hating industry. And this is why the avant-garde has been seen as woman-hating as well. Even in an imaginary dualistic world in which there is a woman for every man, WKHUHDUHQRWHQRXJK\RXQJWKLQZKLWH³LGHDO´ZRPHQWRJRDURXQG for men of all ages. Some guys are going to get short shrifted, and they will not be pleased in a commodity culture that promises all people can get everything they want if they just want it enough. ,PDJHV VXFK DV :LONH¶V WKRXJK EDFNHG E\ ULJKWHRXV SUHPLVHV VWLPXODWH WKHVH LVVXHV RI PDQ¶V ORYHKDWH UHODWLRQVKLS ZLWK woman. Notwithstanding these conflicting responses to her work, Wilke remains a unique opponent of the beauty myth for she did not go under cover of clothing when the ravages of decay overtook her young, thin, white body. Rather, she exposed those images without shame, thereby revealing a beauty that is grotesque, aging, bloated,

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diseased, and darkened by cancer treatment. Therein, she subverted those cultural doctrines of desire and difference. In 1993, Wilke died of lymphoma, but not before completing a final project, Intra-Venus. In this series of watercolor paintings and photographs, Wilke documents the physical changes that the disease wrought upon her once beautiful body, never giving up her claim to WKH SRVH DQG WKH JD]H 7KH WLWOH DSSURSULDWHV 6DQGUR %RWWLFHOOL¶V The Birth of Venus, a Renaissance painting that documents the birth of a fully-formed goddess who represents love, fertility, and life. However, :LONH¶V WLWOH UHIHUV WR ERWK WKH PHGLFDO SURFHGXUH RI KDYLQJ GUXJV inserted into the veins and to the promise of seeing inside the goddess, exposing the real within the myth of woman. Like Sprinkle and Schneemann, Wilke adopts goddess imagery in her later work, but she does not use their tropes of corporeal transcendence. She does not pretend to have mystical knowledge to impart. Rather, Wilke reveals thHWUXWKDERXWOLIHDQGGHDWK³People often give me this bullshit of, µWhat would you have dRQH LI \RX ZHUHQ¶W VR JRUJHRXV"¶ What GLIIHUHQFH GRHV LW PDNH" « *RUJHRXV SHRSOH die as do the VWHUHRW\SLFDOO\ µXJO\¶ (YHU\ERG\ GLHV´ :LONHV TWG LQ -RQHV   Like those performance artists who use nonhuman animal meat as their metaphor, WiONH¶VILQDOSURMHFWWXUQVWKHERG\LQVLGHRXWEut she uses her own body as allegory. Hanne Tierney declares that IntraVenus VSHDNV RI ³IRUELGGHQ VXEMHFWV´ DQG VKH VHHV LW WR EH D ³ILQDO testament of an artist¶s integrity: the courage to confront her body in LWV DGYHUVLW\ DV ZHOO DV LQ LWV JORU\´ ;   :LONH¶V DUW RIIHUV D paradigm of truth telling that is integral to the project of reconceptualization that matters to contemporary avant-gardes. In #1 from the series, Wilke stares at the camera with an oversized shower curtain on her head. She is draped in a black hospital robe, her body patched with bandages from which tubes protrude, her left breast exposed. The other side of the panel shows her fully naked except for matching bandages on her left and right hips. Her hands are thrown up in a careful, confident gesture for having successfully balanced a pot of flowers on her head. Her body is fleshy, round, and sagging. In the former image, she mirrors a woman caught unaware during her primping routine, the beauty regimen replaced with medical treatments meant to keep her from dying. In #3 as well, she uses traditional poses²one leg bent, head flung back self-assuredly²but her hair is gone, and her indifferent JD]HQRZZDYHUVEHWZHHQDUHIXVDOWRPHHWWKHFDPHUDDQGD³serious, VDG IDFH >WKDW@ ORRNV VWUDLJKW DW WKH FDPHUD ,W WHOOV RI UHVLJQDWLRQ´

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(Tierney 44). In another photograph reminiscent of What Does This Represent/What Do You Represent, she lies on her back, legs splayed, exposing the genitals of a dying woman. Although not Venus being born in the flower of life, she is still a woman. This is something different. This is the truth. This is seeing something differently. This is being a ZRPDQDQGWKLVLVDZRPDQ¶VERG\ -RQHVQRWHVWKDW:LONH¶VERGLO\GHFD\DQGGHDWKSHUPLWWHGKHU full immersion into an art world that once shunned her. This world now ³VKRZHU>ed] her with encomiums, as if her loss of attractiveness and her death (and her aggressive introduction of illness/trauma into KHU IRUPHUO\ µEHDXWLIXO¶ LPDJH  KDG VRPHKRZ DPHOLRUDWHG WKH µQDUFLVVLVWLF¶HIIHFWVRIKHUHDUOLHUZRUN´ ,WZDVDFFHSWDEOHIRU Wilke to have been attractive, but not to be attractive and know it. Again, we observe the double bind of beauty and the unwinnable trap RIWKHEHDXW\P\WK:LONH¶VSRVW-mortem fame echoes a similar topic WDNHQ XS LQ &RFR )XVFR¶V  Better Yet When Dead, a smart title WKDW XQZLWWLQJO\ DSSOLHV WR ERWK :LONH¶V MRXUQH\ WKURXJK WKe avantgarde and human conception of nonhuman animals. For animals, the comparison is obvious. The lives of animals fascinate to the point that they are the focus of countless movies; there is even a television channel dedicated to observing their beauty and ferocity. Animals are good for entertainment, but better yet when dead for consumption. This is the nature of desire, and it is applicable to Wilke and other female artists as well. +HU³ILUVWIRUD\LQWRWKHWHUULWRU\RIZRPHQDQGQHFURSKLOLDLQ Latin FXOWXUHV´ Better Yet When Dead LV )XVFR¶V FRQIURQWDWLRQ RI D WUDGLWLRQRI/DWLQZRPHQ³JDLQ>LQJ@SRZHURYHUWKHFROOHFWLYHFXOWXUDO investment in their bodies when they die spectacular deaths, SDUWLFXODUO\ LI WKH\ GLH \RXQJ´ )XVFR 22). Fusco further argues that American culture has been especially interested in Latin women who KDYHGLHG³YLROHQWO\´DQG³VSHFWDFXODUO\´VXFKDVDUWLVW)ULGD.ahlo, SROLWLFLDQ (YD 3HUyQ DQG 7HMDQR VLQJHU 6HOHQD 7UXH WR )XVFR¶V argument, Wilke gained power within the avant-garde after documenting the violent death that cancer executes upon the human body. She was a beautiful body of the avant-garde during her life, but relegated to the margins by nature of that beauty, even and especially by feminists. After her death and documentation of that death, she was lauded. In other words, Wilke was good, but she was better yet when GHDG$QGDV)XVFR¶VSHUIRUPDQFHVKRZVZRPHQKDGEHWWHUUHDOO\EH GHDGWREHVHHQDV³EHWWHU\HWZKHQ´

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Fusco performed Better Yet When Dead in Toronto, Canada and Medellín, Colombia. She lay in a coffin for several hours per day over about four days time, refusing to speak to anyone, although she was continually asked questions by her Colombian guests. Fusco had to slow down her biological mechanisms so that she could replicate that passivity of death. She describes Canadian reaction as somewhat sedate, while the Colombians were much more active, kissing her and leaving small gifts behind. Then, after a brief cancellation of the performance as Fusco attempted to get paid, the crowd turned on her. 6KH GHVFULEHV EHLQJ ³WDXQWHG E\ UHTXHVWV IURP WHOHYLVLRQ FUHZV ZKR ZDQWHG>KHU@WREUHDNFKDUDFWHUDQGVSHDNIURPWKHFRIILQ´ 7KH reaction was fierce enough to scare Fusco. Indeed, before leaving Medellín she received a note WKDWUHDG³Dear Ms. Fusco, Thank you for coming to Medellin [sic]. The title of your performance is Better Yet When Dead, and indeed, we agree with that assertion, because in life you are a walking disaster!´  )XVFR¶V SHrformance and reactions to it have many implications that relate to the theme of this section. First, it shows the ambivalence with which the female body is viewed, along with the slippery paths that it attempts to traverse. Each culture produces what patriarchy determines to be the ideal²be it a young, thin, white woman or a dead Latin woman who has died spectacularly. Better Yet When Dead also shows how quickly a culture can turn on the female body, especially when it does not act as expected or do what it is told. Wilke certainly had a come-here-go-away-come-back relationship with the culture of the avant-garde. Come here, you are beautiful and your body is desirable, but go away because you know you are beautiful, now come back because your beauty has faded, and we applaud your death. Avenues and obstacles. Most significantly, while Fusco was attempting to show the FRPSOH[ VWDWXV RI ZRPHQ¶V ERGLHV LQ /DWLQ FXOWXUH she reports that SDVVHUVE\ LQHYLWDEO\ HLWKHU FRPPHQWHG RQ KHU VLOHQFH RU ³LVVX>HG@ FRPSOLPHQWVDERXW>KHU@ERG\´  Here, the questions that trouble WKLVDQDO\VLVDULVHRQFHDJDLQ,QUHVSRQVHWR)XVFR¶VPRVWFHOHEUDWHG piece, Two Undiscovered Amer-Indians Visit the West, performed with Guillermo Gómez-3HxDFULWLF-DQ$YJLNRVUHVSRQGHG³,KDGWKRXJKW DERXW ZKDW , ZDV SUREDEO\ VXSSRVHG WR EH WKLQNLQJ >«@ DV , VWRRG JD]LQJDWWKHLQVWDOODWLRQSHUIRUPDQFH«:KDW,GLGWKLQNDERXWZDV KRZ EHDXWLIXO )XVFR¶V VFDQWLO\ FODG ERdy was²which is probably ZKDWMXVWDERXWHYHU\RQHHOVHZDVWKLQNLQJWRR´TWGLQ9HUFRH34). Avenues and obstacles.

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&OLYH%HOO¶VHVVD\inadvertently asks if women can use their bodies as art to move people aesthetically rather than provoke the insatiable desires that are quite often the foundation of those social forces against which women artists struggle. I have begun answering this by exploring works that have reclaimed bodies and reconstituted perception, but inevitably the discussion always returns to the avenues and obstacles that female beauty seems to simultaneously open up and seal off. The sealing off is painfully evident within body performance used by corporate liberation movements such as PETA, but the openings still offer some hope within avant-garde performance, and this hope belongs to the traditional avant-garde as much as it does to those vanguard individuals and movements that care about animal liberation. Thus, the next section includes a final investigation of Fusco¶V ability to rescript desire and the body, along with the way in which she and Nao Bustamante have successfully addressed issues of bodily integrity and beauty as obstacle. In tandem, they also inadvertently recapitulate the similar paths that women and animals traverse as commodified bodies in Western and non-Western cultures. Case Study Two: Rescripting Desire Through Stuff Actually, this piece is about consumption²of our bodies and our myths²and food. ²Coco Fusco and Nao Bustamante

Stuff, a 1996 audience interactive performance piece11 by Latina artists Coco Fusco and Nao Bustamante, is an example of performance that remonstrates against appropriation of the body without raising TXHVWLRQV RI SURELW\ $V )XVFR H[SODLQV ³Stuff is our look at the cultural myths that link Latin women and food to the erotic in the :HVWHUQ SRSXODU LPDJLQDWLRQ´   :LWKLQ WKLV ZRUN VKH DQG Bustamante grapple with all of the same issues as the performance artists explored above, but they do so with a sense of insight and wit that is often lacking in those other pieces. Additionally, Stuff is pertinent to this overall study because it unintentionally but consistently restores the absent referent of animal consumption through its depictions of women. In this way, Stuff and other Fusco 11

Although scripted, Stuff relies on improvisational audience interaction. Thus, Teresa 0DUUHUR VWDWHV WKDW ³WKH DXWKRUV FKRRVH WR LGHQWLI\ LW DV D SHUIRUPDQFH SLHFH UDWKHU thaQDSOD\´ 

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SURGXFWLRQV ERUGHU RQ FROODJH -HDQ )LVKHU ZULWHV RI )XVFR ³+HQFH the text is not a statement of truth so much as a witness of trXWK¶V DEVHQFHDQGDVVXFKRSHQVDSDWKWRZDUGLW´ $GLUHFWVWDWHPHQW of truth is lacking in Stuff, but through humor and over-the-top stereotyping, the truth is restored. Baz Kershaw paints Fusco as one in DVPDOOJURXSRI³exemplars of a style of performance that eschew[s] JLJDQWLVPDQGHQJDJH>V@ZLWKWKHPLQLDWXUL]DWLRQRIVSHFWDFOH´  Stuff exemplifies this tendency. FLUVWDFRPPHQWRQ)XVFR¶VERG\DVVKHLVFHUWDLQO\DQDUWLVW who has used her physical being as a weapon of protest. As noted previously )XVFR¶V DWWUDFWLYH WKLQ WKRXJK QRW lily white figure has EHHQ FDXVH IRU DGPLUDWLRQ HYHQ WKRXJK WKH ³PHVVDJHV´ RI KHU performances are much more complex. And although she has never used full nudity, Fusco has certainly relied on the beauty of her body within the performative sphere. For example, in Two Undiscovered Amer-Indians Visit the West, she dressed scantily and danced seductively for the audience. However, Caroline Vercoe notes that FusFR³uses her own body to highlight the ways in which identity, as perceived through stereotype, constructs cultural myths and FRQWULEXWHV WR FROOHFWLYH PHPRULHV´  HPSKDVLV DGGHG  /LNH :LONH¶V WKRXJK IDU OHVV FRQWHQWLRXVO\ )XVFR¶V ZRUN reflects stereotypes back onto the culture that produces them as it re-presents the myths of woman and the racially marked Other. This is no simple task. A master of spatial and locational considerations, she puts her body on the stage as thing to be desired, while inevitably exposing the truth behind the fantasy and the limits of desire. Homi Bhabha argues VWHUHRW\SHVWREHFRORQLDOLVP¶V³PDMRUGLVFXUVLYHVWUDWHJ\´DQGFHQWUDO to authoritative control of perception; stereotypes declare the immutability of the Other in the most negative of terms (94-95). Thus, ³)XVFR¶V SHUIRUPDQFHV UHO\ KHDYLO\ RQ WKH SRZHU RI VWHUHRW\SHG VLJQLILHUV WR WULJJHU UHDFWLRQV´ 9HUFRH   However, )XVFR¶V LV D mimicry that exposes rather than repeats, and she uses her body to ultimately trounce the stereotypes, not own them. Fusco reflects, she does not reproduce. She abjures, she does not absorb. This is the difference between contestation and reinforcement. The title of this FKDSWHULV³6WDULQJ%DFN´ so it is reasonable to end with analysis of )XVFR¶V DUW EHFDXVH VKH KDV HIIHFWLYHO\ ZLHOGHG WKH VWUDWHJ\ ³RI subversion that turn[s] the gaze of the discriminated back upon the eye RISRZHU´%KDEKD $OWKRXJKKHUERG\PD\DSSHDU³WREHREMHFW of pure scopophilic gratification, the gaze is UHWXUQHG´9HUFRH 

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The fact that she accomplishes these feats in works that are simultaneously moving, amusing, and intelligent allows the viewer to enjoy and ponder as he/she begins to see things differently. Stuff attempts to rewrite the myths of the Other while critiquing cultural tourism as an unwelcomed corollary of JOREDOL]DWLRQ$WWKHVDPHWLPHDVQRWHGE\7HUHVD0DUUHURLW³EODVWV [the] male-centered scripted fantasy [of desire@´ (244). To wit, Western men often travel to Latin, Asian and other ³Third Worlds´ to have sex with women, young girls, and even children of both sexes. Young men and transsexuals also take part in this booming street business as sex workers. But although the script is male-centered, Stuff ultimately critiques all of Western culture as one that looks to the Global South as a land of exotic mysteries, peoples, and foods waiting WR EH ³GLVFRYHUHG´ E\ FRQVXPHUV ZKR GHVLUH ZKDW )XVFR DQG %XVWDPDQWH WHUP ³D ELW RI WKH RWKHU´ ,Q WKLV SHUIRUPDQFH %ODQFD (Fusco), Rosa (Bustamante), and a Master of Ceremonies named EEE Jones (Adam Bresnick) represent the Institute for Southern Hemispheric Wholeness, an organization that, in obvious satirical IRUPDWWHPSWVWRLQFLWHFUDYLQJIRUWKHZRQGHUVWKDWWKH/DWLQ³ZRUOG offers up so willingly [without the hassles of] tropical storms, masked EDQGLWVSDUDVLWHVDQGSRYHUW\´ 7KH7UDYHO7DVWHUVDUHSRWHQWLDO tourists made up of audience members who are given differently colored tickets. If their color is called and they are brought onto the stage, the Travel Taster will be given a new identity. For example, there is François, WKH³HFRQRPLVWLQVHDUFKRIDXWKHQWLFSUHFRORPELDQ food and music,´DQG:DQGD'HVHUW)ORZHUZKRZDQWVWREHFRPHD medicine woman (114). Of course, food and culture are only two products that the Institute offers, and EEE Jones assures the audience WKDW WKH ,QVWLWXWH FDQ DOVR ³VDWLVI\ \RXU KXQJHU IRU WUDQVIRUPDWLYH SK\VLFDOHQFRXQWHUV´  Throughout Stuff, women and food become interchangeable commodities in a way that resonates with the feminist-vegan objective of restoring the absent referent of animal consumption and exposing ZRPHQ¶VFXOWXUDOUROHDVFRQVXPDEOHSURGXFW%ODQFDWHOOVWDOHRIDQ ancient primitive utopia that Westerners such as Wanda Desert Flower adore. These ancients feasted upon the vegetation that the earth offered: ³>F@RUQ \XFFD SRWDWRHV SDSD\D WRPDWR FKLOH DQG FDFDR´ (114). The goddess of this ancient people is Cuxtamali, insignia of stereotypical patriarchal desire whose name is a humorous play on ³FRRNVWDPDOH´)LUVWVKHHQDFWVWKHGRPHVWLFUROHRIIXOILOOLQJRQH¶V physical hunger for food. After she cooks for her man, she will then

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HQDFWWKHGRPHVWLFUROHRIIXOILOOLQJRQH¶VVH[XDOKXQJHUIRUVKHLVVR ³LQVDWLDEOH´ WKDW VKH QHHGV WKUHH ORYHUV WR ³IXOILOO KHU QHHGV´   ,QGHHG³&RRNV7DPDOL´ORYHVIRRGDQGVH[VRPXFKWKDWVKHFUHDWHGD ORYHU RXW RI IRRG SURGXFWV ZLWK ³D QLFH ELJ EDQDQD´ DSSURSULDWHO\ placed (116). 7KH JRGGHVV ILJXUH KHOSV LQ WXUQLQJ ³WKH Vtereotype of the hyper-VH[XDOL]HG UHDGLO\ DYDLODEOH µGDUN ZRPDQ¶ DJDLQVW LWVHOI generating a satiric commentary that [is] [«@VLPXOWDQHRXVO\DURXVLQJ DQG LQFULPLQDWLQJ´ :HDWKHUVWRQ   ,Q RWKHU ZRUGV )XVFR DQG Bustamante conjure up the cliché fantasy woman-as-goddess who is a cook in the kitchen and a whore in the bedroom. Next, they expose the limits of this fantasy through mockery of it. The desire for a woman who exists only to provide food and sex may be momentarily arousing, but the absurdity of it incriminates those who may be titillated by the thought of such a companion. As an outlandish but humorous stereotype of male desire, Cuxtamali is far removed from the goddesses who appear in the work of Schneemann, Sprinkle, and Wilke. Soon after the KLVWRU\OHVVRQ%XVWDPDQWHHPHUJHVDVD³PDLO RUGHUVH[HGXFDWRU´ZKRKHOSVFRXSOHVVHOHFWVH[WR\VDSSURSULDWHWR their needs. She advises such couples to visit a supermarket, choose oblong vegetables, bring them to room temperature, and use them on the woman¶VHURJHQRXVDUHDV. Again, the sexualization of women and food comingle. After weighing the pros and cons of squash and cucumber %XVWDPDQWH¶V PRQRORJXH HQGV HURWLFDOO\ E\ WHOOLQJ WKH woman to also go to the dairy section for whipped cream, spray it all RYHUKHUERG\³DQG\RXUIHOORZVKRSSHUVEHJLQWROLFNDQGOLFN«DQG \RX IHHO PRLVW DQG FUHDP\ DQG VWLFN\´   7KH PRQRORJXH WKHQ VWRSV DEUXSWO\ DV )XVFR VWHSV LQ ZLWK KHU ³QHUG JODVVHV´ RQ DQG clarifies the following: 'HDU $XGLHQFH , WKLQN LW¶V WLme to explain why we are so interested in Latin women and food. Actually this piece is about consumption²of our bodies and our myths²DQGIRRG/HW¶VVWDUW ZLWK $QWKURSRIDJLD >«@ 7KDW ZDV VXSSRVHG WR EH RXU JUHDW creative, cannibalistic revenge. [...] So when you come charging LQ RXU GLUHFWLRQ UXQQLQJ IURP ZKDWHYHU LW LV \RX¶UH UXQQLQJ from²you may not think that we who serve you could be eating you as well. (119)

-XVWDV%XVWDPDQWH¶VGLDORJXHWXUQVRYHUWO\DQGXQDEDVKHGO\VH[XDO² as it reaches climax, so to speak²the action stops and the purpose of the hyper-sexualized imagery is exposed. So, what in a lesser performance could lapse into a mere replica of tired pornographic imagery becomes a didactic moment of clarity in which the audience

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is asked to see differently. The Travel Tasters are asked to see that their consumption has consequences for those consumed as well as for the consumer. Concurrently, Fusco gives agency back to the FRQVXPHGH[SODLQLQJ³*HQWO\EXWHIILFLHQWO\ZHGHYRXU\RX´  Stuff acknowledges the ambivalence with which native people profit from Western desire; thus, ³WKH VQXJ ELQDU\ RI YLFWLPH[SORLWHU EHFRPHV SUREOHPDWL]HG´ 9HUFRH    )XVFR DQG %XVWDPDQWH DUH sure not to let these layered implications get lost in the erotic orgy being described, even if they must stop the action to explain. It is at that moment of clarity that Stuff¶V XVH RI WKH IHPDOH ERG\JUHDWO\GLIIHUVIURP3(7$¶VWKRXJKERWKKDYHUHOLHGRQVLPLODU imagery. Both argue against the appropriation and consumption of bodies, and both try to rewrite the myths of servitude. In 2009, PETA produced a commercial that uses elements of the cultural script upon which Stuff LVEDVHG$V3(7$GHVFULEHVLW³WKHYLGHRfeatures a bevy of beauties who are powerless to resist the temptation of veggie love²[and it] was deemed too hot for the Super Bowl. NBC rejected WKH YLGHR EHFDXVH RI FRQFHUQV RYHU µUXEELQJ SHOYLF UHJLRQ ZLWK SXPSNLQ¶ D ZRPDQ µVFUHZLQJ KHUVHOI ZLWK EURFFROL¶ DQG PRUH´ ³9HJJLH /RYH´  2I FRXUVH 3(7$ actually benefits from this rejection because it saved them the large sum of money it takes to get Super Bowl air time. More importantly, it garnered PETA some attention, likely assuring an influx of visitors to their Web site wanting to see what all the fuss is about. 7KH ³IXVV´ LW WXUQV RXW LV DERXW gorgeous, sexy, masturbating women. While Fusco stops the show to explain what is really going RQ3(7$GRHVQ¶W7KXVWRDKLJK-powered rock and roll soundtrack, they wind up sending the message that women are so incredibly horny that they will use any phallic-shaped object to meet their needs (though the pumpkin surely summons up some logistical issues). The VXSHUPRGHOV¶ performances are ones in which they preen seductively to the camera, signifying their desire for the real thing. In a behindthe-VFHQHVORRNDGLVHPERGLHGPRGHO¶VYRLFHH[SODLQVMXVWKRZPXFK VKHORYHV YHJHWDEOHV ³*UHHQ ILUP DQG D JURXS RI WKHP « ,¶P LQ!´ Does PETA want to stop the abuse of animals or to peddle Martianon-woman gang bangs? Further, there is very little to differentiate 3(7$¶VDGIURP\RXUUXQ-of-the-mill beer commercials that regularly make an appearance during Super Bowl breaks (the primary GLIIHUHQFH EHLQJ LQ 3(7$¶V WHUPV WKDW WKH ³9HJJLH /RYH´ DG LV VLPSO\³WRRKRW´ . Ostensibly, the ad exists to show that vegetarians have better sex lives, but does a woman getting in a hot tub with leafy

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greens or thrusting asparagus up her vagina indicate a healthy sex life? There is a terrible truth of animal abuse underneath the corporate-style commodity fetishism that PETA utilizes, but it is lost in the culturallydetermined beautiful female form and ultra-erotic versions of femininity. Certainly, a thirty-second ad does not have as long as a performance piece does to relay a message, but PETA often engages in similarly-scripted extended performances within public arenas. As expected, they often get noticed, but the question remains: to what end LVWKDWDWWHQWLRQJDUQHUHG",Q0DUN+DZWKRUQH¶VStriking at the Roots, KHLQWHUYLHZVDZRPDQZKRKDVHQJDJHGLQ³QHDUO\QDNHG´SURWHVWV and though she supports them, her response to their criticism does nothing to actually address the critiques 6KH ³ODPHQWV WKDW ZRPHQ¶V ERGLHVKDYHDGLIIHUHQWPHDQLQJLQRXUFXOWXUHWKDQPHQ¶VERGLHVDQG recognizes that we live in a society that does objectify women, [admitting that] the media coverage [sexually explicit protests] garner is generally superficiDO´ (75). Then why do them? Because she holds onto the belief that any publicity is good publicity, even though it is SRWHQWLDOO\ GDPDJLQJ WR ZRPHQ (YHQ WKLV ³QHDUO\ QDNHG´ SURWHVWHU DGPLWVWKDWWKHXVHRIZRPHQ¶VERGLHVGRHVQRWKROGWKHVDPHSRZHULW used to. ,Q UHVSRQVH WR 3(7$¶V XVH RI ZRPHQ¶V VH[XDOLW\ DV DQ advertising tool, Emily Gaarder quotes another female activist HIIHFWLYHO\ FRQFOXGLQJ WKDW ³LQ D SDWULDUFKDO VRFLHW\ DQLPDOV ZLOO QHYHU EH IUHH 1R PDWWHU KRZ PXFK 3(7$ GRHV´   PETA has played out the female body in much the same way as the avant-garde KDVWKRXJKWKLVGRHVQRWVWRSWKHPIURPXVLQJZRPHQ¶VVH[XDOLW\DV their one sure means to get people to look. But this remains, of course, much different than getting people to see. In stark contrast, Fusco and Bustamante offer a paradigm for using the body that does not perpetuate the very social ill they are exposing. They build up the stereotype only to break it down, while PETA only builds, adding structural reinforcements as they go. Part of Stuff¶VFKDUPLVWKHSUHVHQFHRIKXPRUZLWKLQWKLVGHFRQVWUXFWLRQ7KH performers are not afraid to laugh while they expose very serious concerns. The PETA ad is undoubtedly funny in its own right, but not self-reflexively so, as there is no acknowledgement of that humor within the performance itself. Ultimately, it is more silly than anything else, while Stuff LVDQ\WKLQJEXWVLOO\3(7$¶V³9HJJLH/RYH´GLVSOD\V an excess at a loss with what to do with itself. In contrast, Marrero observes WKDWWKH³humorous flavor of the performance piece [Stuff] is evident through its use of over-the-top

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FRVWXPLQJ DQG DXGLHQFH SDUWLFLSDWLRQ´ DV LW SURYLGHV VXEWOH DQG QRWso-subtle parody (237). In fact, Vercoe notes that, ironically, Stuff has been critLFL]HGIRUEHLQJ³WRRHQWHUWDLQLQJWRRPXFKIXQ´DQGWKHUHE\ losing it potential for impact (242). However, peppered within all of Stuff¶VIODPER\DQFHDUHPRPHQWVRISURIRXQGVHULRXVQHVVWKDWDUHDOO the more startling and memorable for having been layered with levity, for in the midst of a laugh, the blow of seriousness feels harder. Fusco and Bustamante play the roles of the tricksters ZKRVH ³task is to activate uncertainty through a play of excess; to precipitate an event where circulating signs can taNHRQQHZPHDQLQJV´)LVKHU Stuff is excessive at times, but it is always aware of its excess and mindful of its intentions. It is at these moments of greatest seriousness that Stuff restores the absent animal referent through its consideration of Latin women as consumable goods (this also occurred in The Incredible Disappearing Woman). Although Fusco and Bustamante set out to reveal the metaphorical consumption of Latin women and myths, along with the literal consumption of food, there are times when the literal and figurative become so blurred that the audience wonders if a woman is literally being cannibalized. Bustamante speaks in character: I am eating her and she tastes so tangy, a bit like a rusty papaya, XQOLNHDQ\RWKHUSHUVRQ,¶YHWDVWHGWomen taste strong, not like PHQ >«@ :KHQ \RX FRQVXPH D ZRPDQ WKHUH LV D WDVWH DQG D smell left in your mouth and in your nose, which are connected by WKH ZD\ DV DUH \RXU DVVKROH DQG \RXU PRXWK >«@ , WKLQN WKRVH who enjoy eating women must enjoy the flavor and scent and MXLFHRIVHULRXVO\SRWHQWIUXLW«,¶YHHDWHQERWKDQGLWWDNHVPRUH UDZWDOHQW«WRHDWDZRPDQ

The sexually explicit nuances here confound the distinction between women and food. In reality, animals are literally eaten and women are said to be sexually eaten, but the dialogue here speaks of literal consumption as one would an exotic foreign meat. Undoubtedly, the metaphor allows animals to be substituted for women, a fairly common avant-garde propensity, but it is delivered in such a way that whatever sexual charge one might get from the thought of sexually HDWLQJ D ZRPDQ¶V ³SRWHQW IUXLW´ LV WURXEOHG %XVWDPDQWH¶V VSHHFK never clearly confirms if metaphor is being wielded or if the audience is hearing of a violent act against a woman. The scene ends abruptly after the dialogue relayed here, and what might be read as a sexually exciting metaphor for oral sex²or possibly as a critique of the DVVXPSWLRQ WKDW ³UHDO´ PHQ GR QRW KDYH WR ZRUU\ DERXW SOHDVXULQJ (eating) women²becomes a disturbing act of objectification within

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the broader context of the performance. Even more troubling is the ambivalence that arises when hearing this tantalizing though disquieting dialogue. Should the audience be aroused or enraged? Maybe both. As Rosemary Weatherston argues, Stuff has a way of dredging up images that are both stimulating and incriminating. EEE Jones is then depicted coaching Blanca and Rosa in the many Travel Taster languages they will encounter (French, German, English), making sure that they say just the right things to keep the tourists interested. Then the women enter the audience, effectively testing attendees to see if they speak any other languages besides their native tongues,IWKH\GRQ¶Wthe women teach them important phrases of the Other VXFKDV³%ULQJPHDQRWKHUPDUJDULWDSOHDVH´³,FDQ¶WHDW IULHG IRRG´ DQG ³:HOO , FDQ¶W ZDLW WR JHW XS DQG GDQFH ZLWK \RX EDE\´ 7KURXJKWKis word play, Stuff brings the whole of Latin culture under the gaze of the Western world, a world that looks toward Latin America as a land of margaritas, fried food, and dancing (and possibly, a land that needs saving by well-meaning liberals from the Global North),QGHHGWKHVHWKUHHHOHPHQWVKDYHEHHQ³H[SRUWHG´LQWR North America DVUHVWDXUDQWEDUVWKDWSURPLVHWRRIIHUD³WDVWHRIWKH RWKHU´ RQ $PHULFDQ soil. Many Mexican restaurants in the U.S. proudly boast to offer, what else, authentic margaritas, fried foods, and dancing! In the name of giving their customers what they want, 5RVD%ODQFDDQGDJURXSRIGDQFHUVWKHQSHUIRUP³DQ$IUR-Frenetic dance extravaganza [during which the] GDQFHUV JR EDQDQDV´   Thus, the stimulation and incrimination are not just focused on sexual tourists, but on anyone who has craved the otherness of a Latin meal, the tropical-ness of a margarita, or the calorie-burning potential of a sensual Salsa lesson at the local fitness club. No one gets out of Stuff unscathed. Stuff ends with a final lesson for a male Travel Taster (TT). Rosa and Blanca sit with a volunteer TT with Rosa explaining, ³:H¶YH EHHQ ZRUNLQJ RQ RXU FRQYHUVDWLRQDO DELOLWLHV ZLWK RXU fantastic HOT INTERNATIONAL guide, which comes with WUDQVODWLRQVIRUORYHDQGVH[LQVHYHQGLIIHUHQWODQJXDJHV´4-25). In sum, they teach the TT that to have a good time with his woman of the evening²in this case, he wants to tie her up and punish her²he must tell her that he will support her financially, take her home to his native country, and never forget her. Although she knows he is lying, the ZRPDQZLOOWKHQDFTXLHVFH$V0DUUHURH[SODLQVLQ³6FULSWLQJ6H[XDO 7RXULVP´ Blanca and Rosa are providing TTs with the script of an unspoken contract between the tourist and the attraction, both of

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whom do not see themselves as exchanging money for sex. The tourist says he is helping a poor native. The attraction says she is merely ³SHUIRUPLQJ DFWLRQV WKDW DUH D PHDQV WR DQ HQG´   $JDLQ WKH binary between victim/victimizer is blurred as sex tourism is scripted as an example of quid pro quo that feeds on the consumer and consumees¶ mutual delusions. Despite this reciprocal back scratching, Rosa and Blanca sing a song at the end of the Institute for Southern Hemispheric :KROHQHVV¶V VDOHV SLWFK WKDW WHOOV WKH WUXWK DERXW FXOWXUDO WRXULVP DW least as the women see it: Señor John is a Malibu swinger who decided to take a trip south his friends said he should first learn some Spanish %XWWKDW-RKQLQVLVWVKH¶VOHDUQHGHQRXJK *** I learned from my BE-LOV-('0$,'>«@ and then from the gardener, the butler, WKHGULYHUWKHZDLWHUDQGFRRN>«@ *** There we two girls work hard for our money putting up with a whole lot of schmucks we dance and sing and grind our hips nightly WREHVXUHZHWDNHKRPHORWVRIEXFNV>«@ *** Our poor John, he has never been sober But on holiday he gets much worse Married ladies must tolerate spouses %XWGUXQNJULQJRVDUHWKHLVODQGJLUOV¶FXUVH

The last line is repeated three times by Rosa and Blanca, but EEE Jones has the last word, telling the audience to pick up brochures in WKHOREE\HQGLQJE\VD\LQJ³Adios and Bon appétit´ *RRGE\H and enjoy your meal, but the hope is that the meal becomes a bit, or a lot, less enjoyable now that the absent referent of woman has been restored. Fusco and Bustamante have revealed reality in Stuff through the guise of stereotype. As Jean Fisher states, Fusco has a knack for not telling the truth directly, but letting the truth manifest through outlandish depictions of its absence. When Fusco sees that the truth may be getting lost in the stereotype or the excess, she steps in and speaks what the story is about. In contrast, groups such as PETA provide only stereotype and only excess when they use women. Vercoe sees )XVFR¶V VW\OH DV ³SHUIRUPDQFH-fictions which challenge conventional readings of cross-cultural encounter and work to unearth SHUVRQDOUHVSRQVHVFRQIURQWLQJYLHZHUVZLWKWKHµKRUURU¶RIWKHLURZQ FRORQLDO UDFLVW IDQWDVLHV´   The radical ALM can use these techniques as well.

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Interwoven with the horrors that underlie colonial and racist GHVLUHVDUHWKHKRUURUVRIVSHFLHVLVWGHVLUHVWKHFUDYLQJIRU³WKHIODYRU DQGVFHQWDQGMXLFHRI>WKH@VHULRXVO\SRWHQWIUXLW´WKDWLVDQLPDOIOHVK milk, and eggs. Among other things, Stuff reveals the extent to which WKH SULYLOHJH RI SOHDVXUH FDXVHV FRQVXPHUV WR ³IRUJHW´ WKH OLYHV WKDW underlie commodities, very often writing a script that justifies their VXVSHFWDFWLRQVLH³,DPKHOSLQJWKLVZRPDQIHHGKHUIDPLO\´³,DP helping to keep the animal population under control,´ ³&RZVQHHGWR EHPLONHGDQ\ZD\´). In The Ethics of What We Eat, Peter Singer and -LP 0DVRQ UHSHDW WKH FRPPRQ VD\LQJ WKDW LI ³VODXJKWHUKRXVHV KDG JODVVZDOOV>«@ZH¶GDOOEHYHJHWDULDQ´ )XVFRDQG%XVWDPDQWH are also contemplating the ethics of what we eat, asserting that quite often we are cannibalizing women, thereby also turning the savage cannibal stereotype back onto the structure that created it. They are, in effect, building a glass wall around the industry of cultural tourism just as those in the avant-garde ALM build glass walls around animal industries. Women and animal oppressions are bound to each other by a corporate culture that thrives on the desire for their flesh. However, the foremost disparity is that animals do not benefit from human desire for their flesh,12 even sardonically, as do the exploited of the Southern hemisphere, as some see it. Still, performances such as Stuff continue to provide a model for successful rescripting that must continue adding panels to the glass structures that the avant-garde builds.

The Avant-Garde ALM and New Ways of Seeing What you are about to see is beyond your worst nightmares. ²Meet Your Meat, PETA Tell all the Truth but tell it slant ²Emily Dickinson

On the PETA Web page from which one can view their banned Super Bowl commercial, there are a series of other videos to watch, all of which depict similar images of women getting overly IULHQGO\ZLWKHDUWK¶VERXQW\6RPHRIWKHYLGHRVLQWURGXFHWKHPRGHOV by name, and if you click on their images, you can see more of them. 12

A possible rejoinder that I have heard is that animals benefit from the animal consumption industry because it gives them the chance to exist in the first place. The absurdity of that justification is, I hope, self-evident.

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In other words, you can metaphorically meet the meat from the commercial. However, the very last video is called Meet Your Meat, DQG LW EHJLQV ZLWK D VWDLG PDVFXOLQH YRLFH DFWRU $OHF %DOGZLQ¶V  speaking the epigram at the start of this section. It then goes on to depict the brutal lives of commodified animals. Many of the images were recorded by hidden cameras that reveal the torture that factory farm workers, who have become desensitized to animal suffering, inflict on food animals (slamming chickens against walls, squeezing them until their feces explode onto the floor). PETA is right²it is beyond your worst nightmares, and it is offered after depictions of your most sensual heteronormative dreams. PETA offers nothing in between fantasy and nightmare, no visual event through which connections and reconceptualization may occur, no way of easing into the truth. Click here and see a sexy woman masturbating or click here and see a petrified cow hung upside down and having its throat slit by a slaughterhouse worker. Click here for a fantasy and here for a nightmare. What image would you rather have on your mind as you go about your day? PETA, if anyone, should know the extent to which otherwise conscientious omnivores do not want to look inside the slaughterhouse walls. In fact, ads depicting the reality of animal abuse are regularly banned from public YLHZ ERWK LQ WKH 86 DQG %ULWDLQ EHFDXVH WKH LPDJHV DUH ³OLNHO\ WR FDXVH µGLVWUHVV DQG UHYXOVLRQ¶ WR WKH SXEOLF´ $GDPV ³&DULQJ´   The fact that the ALM wants people to be distressed and revolted at the thought of animal abuse is obviously beyond the concern of our censoring governments. If the ALM is avant-garde in the way I have positioned them, greater thought must be given as to how it can best cultivate the savage eye. PETA is trying so hard to say that chickens and cows are not your food. Rather, they are living creatures who feel pain and fear, and they are also creatures who can express affection, curiosity, and preferences. 'RQ¶WHDWWKHPDQ\PRUH. But that message is lost through a choice of extremes between which the average viewer will choose the easier of the options. We are drawn to what is familiar, and we are so used to seeing hyper-sexualized versions of femininity that the message behind it gets lost in the landscape of a commercial culture. 3(7$¶V QHDUO\ QDNHG ZRPDQ LV %XG /LJKW¶V QHDUO\ QDNHG ZRPDQ LV 9LFWRULD¶V6HFUHW¶VHWF0ost importantly, there is no viable proof that PET$¶V FDPSDLJQV GR PXFK WR FRQYHUW YLHZHUV WR D YHJDQ OLIHVW\OH Yes, they get people to visit their site, but to look without then taking action defeats the purpose 2I FRXUVH RQH FRXOG DGRSW 3(7$¶V

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corporate ideology that any publicity is good publicity, but that ideology feeds on a human/animal binary that ignores the interconnectedness of all oppressions. If they are helping animals at all, it is to the deficit of women and all other oppressed groups. In the study this chapter offers, the benefits of and limits to ZRPHQ¶V XVH RI WKHLU ERGLHV WR UHJDLQ FRUSRUHDO LQWHJULW\ have been investigated. It is a chapter filled with hits, misses, partially answered questions, unanswered questions, and new questions. It demonstrates the various outcomes of staring back, from reproducing stereotypes without change, to representing them as something new, to reflecting the limits of the stereotype back onto the patriarchy that developed it, to rescripting desire by restoring the absent referent of the desired. Further, it demonstrates a house of cards always in danger of collapse. The collapse occurs with the reinforcement of binaries, and the building continues when the dichotomies blur. Simultaneously, artists such as Fusco and Bustamante have inadvertently reinforced the connection between women and animals in pieces such as The Incredible Disappearing Woman, Better Yet When Dead, and Stuff. Although this connection clearly was not their intended outcome, it does not make the meaning found therein any less significant from a critical animal studies perspective. In addition, this chapter has shown the limits of 3(7$¶VXVH of the female body, aVZHOODVLQWUDGLWLRQDOZRPHQ¶VERG\DUWDVDQ avenue for liberation. Quite possibly, nudity has indeed become the antique notion that Case argues it is, at least in Western culture. In a recent article, Carol Lloyd reports on naked protests in Africa, a world region where the explicit female body holds different cultural significance than it does in the Global North. Lloyd explains that IHPDOHQXGLW\LVVHHQDVDQLOORPHQLQ.HQ\DQVRFLHW\>«@%DFN in 2002-2003, Nigerian women invoked the curse of nakedness when they staged naked protests against ChevronTexaco. What¶s interesting is that, while in the West, naked protest involves an element of seduction, however sarcastic, these African protests seem to depend on the idea that women¶s bodies are downright scary.

Western women are protesting male-scripted desire and the belief that their bodies are mere tools of seduction and not much else, or that animals are food and not much else. Thus, within a Western patriarchal context, and in a culture saturated with eroticized images of women, that seductive element too often trumps the meaning behind it. Western wRPHQ¶VERGLHVDUHQRWFXOWXUDOO\³scary´ as much as they are entertaining and so prevalent that the use of the female form actually becomes boring and trite at times. And if, from a

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psychoanalytic perspective, the Western female body is scary because it signifies castration anxiety, there must be better ways of handling that concern than reinforcing the diminutive role into which that the anxiety-ridden male has cast woman. 3HUIRUPDQFHVVXFKDV)XVFR%XVWDPDQWHDQG6FKQHHPDQQ¶V offer an archetype for the avant-JDUGH $/0¶VREMHFWLYH RI UHPDNLQJ WKHZRUOG)XVFRDQG%XVWDPDQWH¶VXVHRIVSHFWDFOHLQStuff is similar to that used in the Earth First! activist performances and direct action activities detailed in the introduction to this project. It is over-the-top and humorous, but tended by a seriousness of purpose that the artists make known just at the moments when meaning runs the risk of slipping away. The performative ALM is currently a very small faction of a much larger movement, and it needs to grow. ALM theater must tell the truth in the way that Antonin Artaud declared through his Theater of Cruelty as a sphere in which pretense is stripped away to reveal revolting truths while making the audience culpable in the cruelty of truth telling. He believed that it is through such harsh authenticity that perceptions change. In conjunction, growth can also begin by embracing spectacle, which offers transformative possibilities as well, despite its traditional debasement within performance studies. Baz Kershaw cites the Boston Tea Party DQGWKH*XQSRZGHU3ORWDVWRXFKLQJRQ³KLJKO\VHQVLWLYHVSRWVLQWKH changing nature of the human psyche by dealing directly with H[WUHPLWLHV RI SRZHU´   7KHUH LV QR EHWWHU H[DPSOH RI DQ extremity of power than Western patriarchy and its contemporary manifestation in commodity culture, which is what the radical ALM seeks to indict. Those within the ALM see a truth that others merely know² animals die for our food,Q3(7$¶VFDWDORJXHWKH\VD\RIMeet Your Meat ³,I \RX VKRZ D PHDW-eater onO\ RQH YLGHR PDNH LW WKLV RQH´ But how likely is it that anyone will willingly sit down to watch disturbing scenes of actual torture and murder? Further, how likely is LWWKDWORRNLQJDW3(7$¶V³EHY\RIEHDXWLHV´FRXOGHYHUPDQLIHVWWKH truth in Meet Your Meat? Cruelly revealing cruel truths within a space that allows for parody and humor offers a smart and interactive alternative somewhere in between those two extremes. As did Fusco and Bustamante in Stuff, there may come a time when the action FHDVHV DQG VRPHRQH PXVW FRPH WR WKH PLFURSKRQH WR VD\ ³7KLV LV ZKDWZH¶UHWDONLQJDERXWKHUH:HGRQ¶WZDQWWRVFDUH\RXRUJHW\RX RII :H¶UH MXVW WHOOLQJ WKH WUXWK´ 7KLV LV WKH GHPDQGLQJ ZRUN RI transformation and of developing new ways of seeing.

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Charges of idealism aside, it is possible to learn to see the same things differently, something to which any ethical vegan can attest. Not surprisingly, one way of seeing animals differently has a foundation within the process of seeing women as something different. In the 1980s, anti-pornography activist John Stoltenberg set up a series of workshops tKDW WULHG WR GHWHUPLQH ³ZKDW PDNHV SRUQRJUDSK\ VR µVH[\¶ WR PHQ´   +LV UHVXOWV ZHUH SXEOLVKHG LQ D 1994 book with the same title, :KDW 0DNHV 3RUQRJUDSK\ ³6H[\´" Ultimately, Stoltenberg determined that porn is sexy, or only allowed to be sexy, because of D ³GLVVRFLDWLYH ZD\ RI ORRNLQJ´ DW ZRPHQ DV unreal; when the woman is seen to be as real as the man, ³WKH photograph may lose its perceptual distance and hence its HIIHFWLYHQHVVDVDQHURWLFVWLPXOXV´ +LVZRUNVKRSVDUHSHUWLQHQW to the avant-garde ALM because they provide a different blueprint for a process of re-seeing, but one that still relies on audience interaction. Further, these workshops manifest the recurring avant-garde FRQYLFWLRQWKDW³acts of observation are expected to remake the world´ (Stiles, ³1HYHU(QRXJK´ 265). Through a series of Pose Workshops, men were asked to UHHQDFW ZRPHQ¶V SRVWXUHV IURP SRUQRJUDSKLF PDJD]LQHV VRRQ learning that wearing ten-inch-high heels, leaning over a desk, arching your back, raising your buttocks, turning to the viewer and smiling seductively is both uncomfortable and inauthentic. Within these workshops made up mostly of men, they posed as women traditionally GRLQ³JHQWOHPHQ¶V´PDJD]LQHVZKLOHRWKHUPHQZDWFKHGPHQSRVHDV women. Reactions varied widely. Some men laughed, while others felt uncomfortable and unnerved, but the longer the workshops continued, the more serious the tone became: [A]fter six [workshops], the dramatic arc of the exercise turned IURP HQMR\PHQW WR DQJU\ HVWUDQJHPHQW YHU\ IDVW >«] [T]he workshop generally started out at a level of jollity and selfconscious good humor. With each successive pose, however, the group mood became more tense, chilly, and creepy as people caught on to what was happening and realized what they were doing. (34).

,VQ¶Wthis also what the Surrealists want(ed), for people to realize what they were doing by accepting as truth the messages of politicians, religion and tradition" ,VQ¶W WKDW ZKDW IHPDOH ERG\ DUWLVWV DQG WKH avant-garde ALM want, for people to realize what they are doing and who they are doing it to? 6WROWHQEHUJ¶VZRUNVKRSVDUHVLPLODUWR)XVFR¶VSHUIRUPDQFHV in that they attempt to restore the absent referent of woman and to empower women to return the gaze of patriarchy. In The Incredible

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Disappearing Woman, Fusco restores the life of a Mexican woman insignificant enough to be sold for sex after death. In the Pose Workshops, Stoltenberg restores the lives of women insignificant enough to be seen as sexual fragments. The avant-garde ALM similarly seeks to restore the lives of animals insignificant enough to literally be eaten²confined, slaughtered, and devoured. Of course, the ALM cannot hold workshops that fully replicate treatment of animals, as that would result in a lot of slaughtered and butchered audience members. Herein lies a wrinkle within the theory of interconnected oppressions²no matter how bad things may be for oppressed humans, as humans, we are not regularly being confined, tortured and slaughtered with the sanction of the public, at least not nearly in the same numbers as nonhuman animals. We are not eaten. Regardless of these differences, WKHUH LV SURPLVH KHUH DQG WKRVH ZKRVH ZRUN ,¶YH noted above are working within an avant-garde tradition that seeks to ³VKDNHORRVHDVWXFNSHUFHSWLRQSDWWHUQVRWKDWLWFRXOGEHKHOGXSWR YLHZIRUDFKDQJH´6WROWHQEHUJ  Within this project thus far, I have explored the margins of the avant-garde and the ALM²and the PDUJLQV¶ margins²to dig up the myth of beauty and contemplate its destruction as a pathway to OLEHUDWLRQ $ORQJ WKH ZD\ /R\ 6RODQDV DQG 'XQQ¶V LPSRVVLEOH EXW relevant suggestions for destruction have found a surprisingly comfortable place beside the more viable avenues of expression demonstrated by Schneemann and Fusco. The worst outcome of female oppression is apparent in the death of Sylvia Likens, the most promising is in the work of Fusco, Bustamante, Schneemann, Stoltenberg, Adams, and factions of the ALM, as they make uncomfortable connections while offering their audiences new ways of seeing. And each has carried on the surreal objective to, in the words RI(PLO\'LFNLQVRQ³7HOODOOWKH7UXWKEXWWHOOLWslant´ (1). 7KH\¶YH all acknowledged to some extent that the ugly truth²the reality about so-called dumb animals and crazy broads²is best tempered by a process of seeing anew, as opposed to a two-by-four to the back of the skull, though the temptation to violence is a strong one. The final chapter moves this discussion from the margins to the center to explore the state of the beauty myth through its unforeseen and bizarre incorporation of animals, while giving final consideration to where the avant-garde ALM, and thus nonhuman animals, fit within cultural spheres and contemporary reconsiderations of reason and justice.

CHAPTER 3 Convulsive Beauty, Infinite Spheres and Irrational Reasons²Reverie on a New Consciousness Beauty will be convulsive or will not be at all. ²André Breton

The Western conception of beauty, posed against its binary opposite ugliness, was among the many myths under which the Surrealists peered. Like the writers and performance artists from previous chapters, they too saw the limits of beauty as ones that were culturally imposed with no necessary ties to absolute truth. Beauty in the arts had become standardized by a series of shapes, colors, planes, forms, metaphors, words, and images. As have feminists, the Surrealists sought something other than the hegemonic standard of beauty lauded as the ideal. They knew that beauty was an obstacle to liberation, an argument continued here within a search for the avantgarde ALM. Beauty had become rationalized by a set of criteria. It was staid and easily identified, though perhaps not easy to find. In response to this static aesthetic theory, Breton declared that beauty would be convulsive or it would not be beauty. No more talk of transcendent qualities or ethereal beauty that leads man to a state of tranquil repose. Rather, beauty would be raucous, spastic, random and perhaps even hideous. In some sense, beauty as Western culture knew it would be destroyed. In sum, the Surrealists, like PETA, were on to something, but they attempted to find new ways of seeing with the same sexist eyes. Sharla Hutchinson argues that the Surrealists adopted a theory of convulsive beauty as a way to shock audiences into seeing their own repression through graphic representations of the very things humans ZHUH VXSSRVHG WR HVFKHZ ³K\VWHULD obscenity, pornography, and YLROHQFH´   $V GR WKRVH LQ WKH UDGLFDO $/0 ERWK ZULWHUV DQG performers, Surrealists wanted to expose social norms as the progeny of hegemony, not as rights guaranteed to humankind by God and nature. Rosalind Krauss sees convulsive beauty through terms similar to those that describe collage, stating that the Surrealists used

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³SUHVHQFH WUDQVIRUPHG LQWR DEVHQFH [noting that they attempted to present] reality as representation´ &ULWLTXHRIZRPHQ¶VEHDXW\ regimens echo here. Radical feminists attempt to show that although women are presented as having an innate desire to primp, dress up, and wear certain colors by nature of their femaleness (the supposed reality), in truth they are responding to definitions of gender as determined by patriarchy (which is merely a representation). Translated into surrealism, however, convulsive beauty offered more of the same for women. It may have allowed male Surrealists to free themselves from restrictive mores through strikingly new IRUPV EXW ZRPHQ ZHUH VWLOO UHSUHVHQWHG DV ³K\VWHULFV 'DOt  muses (Breton), and victims ([Hans] Bellmer), [and] many Surrealists reconstitute[d] social repression through categories of gender and sexual difference even as they [sought] to liberate their audiences IURPVXFKIL[HGFDWHJRULHV´+XWFKLQVRQ )URP'DOt¶VThe Great MasturbatorWR%UHWRQ¶VNadjaWR%HOOPHU¶VLa Poupee, women are sexual gratifiers, otherworldly muses, children, chopped up body parts, and/or a mix-and-match amalgam of two or more of those options. Women are a means to an end, not ends in themselves (which is, incidentally, exactly what Immanuel Kant said about animals; see below). The convulsive beauty of the surreal woman was found in her hysterical nature, rendering her a curiosity on par with the primitive. Although %UHWRQ GHFODUHG ³7KH SUREOHP RI ZRPHQ LV WKH PRVW marvellous and disturbing problem in DOO WKH ZRUOG´ it was not a problem he had any intention of fixing (qtd. in Meecham 67). In their desire to deracinate beauty, the Surrealists sounded a now familiar cry for freedom that did not adequately consider women. Thus, ³ZRPDQhood´ EHFRPHs a role, an object for use but not for full recognition: an hysterical, child-like, fragmented and/or inspirational creature. In other words, women as autonomous beings were invisible, much like nonhuman animals. This chapter offers an investigation into beauty as a socially imposed obstacle that has very real ramifications for emancipatory movements. In this process, a new concept of convulsive beauty will materialize, and it is one that Breton likely could not have fathomed. As many a radical feminist critic sees things, beauty is fairly convulsive, a raging force that causes women to pluck, pinch, smooth, shadow, whiten, darken, cut, color, curl, straighten, heighten, shorten, make large, make small, sculpt, pierce, shave, erase, tattoo, bind, cover up, and expose. And they do it all for pleasure, pleasure in the

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VHQVH WKDW WKH\ DUH PDNLQJ SHUVRQDO DHVWKHWLF ³FKRLFHV´1 that will make them appealing in a heteronormative commodity culture. Sandra %DUWN\ GHVFULEHV ZRPHQ¶V EHDXW\ UHJLPHQV LQ WHUPV RI XVLQJ machines and devices that will give pleasure to men and cause envy in other women²i.e. blow dryers, hair and eyelash curlers, make-up, etc. (138). These acts of bodily reconstruction rely on technologies of pleasure, and they are not limited to women. Animals too have implements used on them to bring pleasure to others. For example, here Brian Luke gives an exhaustive list of the technologies of pleasure that reconstruct the animal body for consumption, experimentation, clothing, etc.: shooting, trapping, and poisoning, branding, castrating, forcibly impregnating, separating mother and young, tail docking, debeaking, confining, transporting in cattle cars, and slaughtering; burning, cutting, gassing, starving, asphyxiating, decapitating, decompressing, irradiating, electrocuting, freezing, crushing, paralyzing, amputating, excising organs, removing parts of the brain, socially isolating, inducing addiction and imposing disease. ³-XVWLFH&DULQJ´ 

Pleasure is part of a triumvirate of repression made whole with violence and desire, especially for nonhumans. For women, beauty is socially compulsory, making it personally compulsive and convulsive, DQG DOO WKH ZKLOH LW LV SDFNDJHG DV ZRPHQ¶V ³FKRLFH´ 7KXV EHDXW\ will be thoroughly attended to, or it will not be called beautiful. Aesthetic theory aside, when one uses WKH ZRUGV ³EHDXW\´ RU ³EHDXWLIXO´WKH\DUHPRUHWKDQOLNHly referencing an image of woman, and likely posing that image against another supreme image created within a male dominated culture. How does she measure up? How do women compare to woman? A profitable cosmetics industry was being founded just as Breton was penning his great works, thereby instituting the business of beauty upon which the first two parts of this chapter are based. The UHVXOW RI WKLV EXVLQHVV LV WKDW ³WKH DYHUDJH ZRPDQ FRPSDUHV KHU genetic physical endowments with a few hand-SLFNHGPRGHOV´(Etcoff 69). The majority of women attempt to reach an ideal represented by IDEULFDWHGLPDJHVRIDQHJOLJLEOHSHUFHQWDJHRIWKHZRUOG¶VSRSXODWLRQ Rosemary Hennessy argues that current cultural theory often asks that ZH³FRPSDUWPHQWDOL]HKRZZHVHHDQGNQow the world, [demanding 1

More on the GLIIHUHQFHEHWZHHQ³FKRLFH´DQGFKRLFHLVIRUWKFRPLQJ,QWKLVFKDSWHU ³FKRLFH´ LQ TXRWDWLRQ PDUNV LV PHDQW WR LQGLFDWH false choices made by those who have internalized cultural mandates to look and act in deference to predetermined conceptions of gender.

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that we] disparage causal connections, to focus only on the local VFHQDULR WKH SURYLVLRQDO SODQ WKH WHPSRUDU\ VROXWLRQV´   Hennessy is correct in that such compartmentalizing and ignorance are GHVLUHGE\³UXOLQJJURXSV [who fear] that subaltern populations might GHYHORSDOOLDQFHV´ :LWKWKLVLQPLQGUDPLILFDWLRQVRIWKHEHDXW\ myth demand conversation beyond just a discussion of women, as animals too have fallen into its snare as extensions of the human beauty imperative. My critique of surreal ugliness in Chapter Two centered on WKH DUWLVW¶V WHQGHQF\ WR FRQMXUH XS LPDJHV RI WKH XJO\ EDVHG upon restrictive conventions, thereby acknowledging a conception of beauty already established by Western culture though conscious application of its opposite. Ultimately, I argue that the true convulsive beauty² the one that will shock the world, deviate from the norm, and expose cultural repression²is the beauty that is left unattended to, thereby offering a new destructivist aesthetic that, for many women, may be more terrifying than having toxic proteins injected into their faces. )URP WKLV SHUFHSWLRQ RI ZRPHQ¶V EHDXW\ the investigation widens to include the social spheres through which we all navigate, returning to the theories of Jürgen Habermas and Peter Bürger in an attempt to give final address to the questions of parity and sublation that underlie a concluding reconception of what justice for nonhuman animals may look like. Although this chapter discusses spheres, sublation, reason, and justice, it is really about pleasure and if/how we can go beyond a sense that it is owed to us by unseen forces. In other words, I again engage the proposition early posed as a foundation of this study²those who want to change the world have to be willing to give up what they enjoy of that world. How far are people willing to go to live in a just society? The answer to this question may be terrifying as well. Carol Adams argues that a type of subjective suffering arises when one loses pleasing privileges that seem innate, that appear to be hers by nature of her very existence as a conscious human being ³&DULQJ´   7KH VLPSOLFLW\ RI WKLV SHUVSHFWLYH LV DGPLWWHGO\ troubling, but painfully true. Could it really be that humans in the Western world only eat animals for pleasure? Is human unwillingness to give up something enjoyable the primary reason that billions of animals are tortured and slaughtered each year? Yes, and Catherine MacKinnon bluntly agrees: We justify it [eating animals] as necessary, but it is not. We do it because we enjoy it, and we can. We say they eat each other, too, which they do. But this does not exonerate us; it only makes us

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animal rather than human, the distinguishing methodology abandoned when its conclusions are inconvenient or unpleasant. The place to look for the bottom line is in the farm, the stockyard, the slaughterhouse. I have yet to see one run by a nonhuman animal. (324)

The Surrealists knew this to be true, or at least Georges Bataille and his circle did, as DOCUMENTS UHSRUWHGWKDW³QRWRQHRIWKHPLOOLRQV RIDQLPDOVPDQPDVVDFUHVHDFK\HDULVQHFHVVDU\IRUKLVQRXULVKPHQW´ (qtd. in Simon Baker 186). In Anarchy, State, and Utopia, the classic philosophical treatise on justice in which Robert Nozick admits that animal rights are low on his list of concerns, he plainly states as an DVLGH ³6XSSRVH DV , EHOLHYH WKH HYLGHQFH VXSSRUWV  WKDW HDWLQJ animals is not necessary for health and is not less expensive than alternate equally healthy diets available to people in the United States. The gain, then, from eating animals is pleasures of the palate, gustatory delights, varied tastes´  HPSKDVLV DGGHG  &HUWDLQO\ there are some who readily admit they eat meat for pleasure only, simply not caring that animals are harmed in the process, but even they would be loath to step into the slaughterhouse. Just as often, there are those who do care, just not enough to stop consuming animal products. Of course, the pleasure one gets from eating meat or gazing at a made-up woman would be radically diminished if those objects were not peddled as necessary and desirable commodities. The illusion that humans need animals to live and that women need high heels to be sexy is powered by a desire for pleasure and profit. Further, and this is no surprise, acceptance of these illusions is established among the young. For example, Gene Baur of Farm Sanctuary reiterates that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is intricately tied in with big agri-businessesDQG³a major contributor to this problem has EHHQRXUQDWLRQ¶VVFKRROOXQFKSURJUDPZKLFKSXUFKDVHVDJULEXVLQHVV commodities and markets them to school kids at the expense of VXSSRUWLQJJRRGKHDOWK´%ig animal business often underlies political regimes as well. 7KH 1DWLRQDO &DWWOHPHQ¶V %HHI $VVRFLDWLRQ¶V Political Action Committee gave 67% of its political contributions to Republicans and 33% to Democrats in 2008 (Center for Responsive Politics). PolitiFLDQVDUHXQGHQLDEO\³LQEHG´ZLWKDQLPDODJULFXOWXUH The conceptions of truth under which we live have become commodities, leading to the 86'$¶Vfood pyramid, a chart meant to educate citizens on what to eat and how many times per day to eat it. The committee that determines what Americans will purchase and FRQVXPHLVFRPSULVHGRI³UHSUHVHQWDWLYHVRIWKHPHDWGDLU\DQGHJJ

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LQGXVWULHV´ E. Marcus 102). Our willingness to accept lies and absurdities appears to know no bounds. It is no wonder that caring parents are concerned when their children declare a desire to be vegetarian. They have been told by a government they trust that humans need to eat nonhumans to live. This is not true, but there are billions of reasons (re dollars) to keep lying. Beauty? Surrealism? Animals? Politics? Money? Meat? All of these pieces are causally connected, and to address one is to touch on the other, either delicately or with a pile driver. To open a window onto one is to shine a light on the other. To try to stuff one underground results in a bulge somewhere else, so it is best to just dig up the connections and see where they go. In short, this is a collapse of binaries. As Hennessy argues, causally connected groups terrify a regime of truth as they search for alternate conceptions of reality. Along with theorists such as Adams and Bob Torres, Donna Haraway SRVHVWKHVHFRQQHFWLRQVDVWKHYHU\EDVLVRIDQHZIHPLQLVP³,ZDQW to argue for a doctrine and practice of objectivity that privileges contestation, deconstruction, passionate construction, webbed connections, and hope for transformation of systems of knowledge DQG ZD\V RI VHHLQJ´ ³3HUVLVWHQFH RI 9LVLRQ´   +DUDZD\ then surrounds this vision with warnings against relativism and appropriating the perspectives of the Other. Specifically, in The Companion Species Manifesto VKH QRWHV WKDW ³>G@RJV DUH QRW surrogates for theory [and that] feminist inquiry is about understanding how things work, who is in the action, what might be possible, and how worldly characters might somehow be accountable to and love eaFK RWKHU OHVV YLROHQWO\´  7). In the section below, I explore a strain of the beauty myth by admittedly appropriating the perspective of the canine Other. However, this is not merely done as a theory for understanding and improving the lot of human women, but WR RSHQ D SDWK IRU FRQVLGHUDWLRQ RI GRJV DQG RWKHU ³SHW´ VSHFLHV LQ their own rights. And in deference to both the Surrealists and Haraway, I do so for the sakes of accountability, love, and cessation of WKHYLROHQFHWKDWUHVXOWVWKURXJKRXUFXOWXUH¶Vtraditions of augmenting beauty.

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Beauty Goes to the Dogs We Chihuahuas are not toys or fashion DFFHVVRULHV>«@3ULVV\" No Mas! ²Montezuma, Chihuahua

In 2008, Disney released Beverly Hills Chihuahua (BHC). In the commercials for this movie, actor George Lopez YRLFHV ³0\ name is Papi. I am descended from an ancient line of proud warriors. My ancestors went into battle alongside Aztec soldiers. Today, we move within the inner circles of the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet. Who am I? The question is ... What DP,"´3DSL is a Chihuahua, but the film is not about him as much as it is about a pampered female Chihuahua who returns to her Mexican roots after being dog-knapped for use in a dog fighting ring. Chloe Winthrop Nashe, Chihuahua ³child´ of human makeup maven Vivian Nashe, gets daily beauty treatments including, but not limited to, shiatsu massage and seaweed wraps. She also dresses in the finest fashions, sports a Harry Winston diamond collar, and spends her days with RWKHU ³WR\´ GRJV VXQQLQJ E\ WKH SRRO &KORH LV ORYHG E\ 3DSL WKH 0H[LFDQJDUGHQHU¶VIHLVW\&KLKXDKXDEXWKHGRHVQ¶WKDYHSDSHUVVR VKH¶VQRWLQWHUHVWHG2QFH&KORHHVFDSHVKHUFDSWRUVZLWKWKH help of 0H[LFR¶V KRPHOHVV GRJV VKH XQGHUJRHV D PHWDPRUSKRVLV LQ ZKLFK VKHOHDYHV WKHWUDSSLQJVRI EHDXW\ EHKLQG QRORQJHUDUJXLQJ ³, ZDV ERUQ WR VKRS QRW ILJKW´ 6KH VORZO\ ORVHV WKH ,WDOLDQ OHDWKHU ERRWLHV that prevent her from walking properly, her diamonds are stolen, and VKHLVIRUFHGWRUROOLQPXGWRJHWKHUSXUVXHUVRIIWKHVFHQW,Q&KORH¶V RZQZRUGVVKHEHFRPHV³KLGHRXV´EXWDOVRIUHH Eventually, Chloe, Papi and the other dogs wind up in a land of Aztec ruins still ruled by Chihuahuas. The\¶YHGHYHORSHGWKHLURZQ PDQLIHVWRDVVSRNHQE\0RQWH]XPDDQGDIWHUHDFKOLQHWKH³WLQ\EXW PLJKW\´&KLKXDKXDZDUULRUVGHFODUH³No mas´³:HDUHQRWEUHGWR wear silly hats and ride in purses. We will no longer be spoken to with baby talk. We have been FDOOHG µWHDFXS¶ DQG µWLQ\ WR\¶ IRU WRR ORQJ «@ )LQG \RXU EDUN´ &KORH ILQGV KHU EDUN VDYHV WKH GD\ DQG obtains KDSS\QHZKRPHVIRUKHUIULHQGV9LYLDQ¶VQLHFHDOVRILQGVORYHZLWK the hunky Mexican gardener. And though Chloe goes back to live in Beverly Hills²this is a Disney movie, after all²she acknowledges her Aztec roots, her love for Papi, and no longer wears fashionable booties that made walking a cumbersome process. She found freedom

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through the cessation of the primping rituals imposed on her by her master, which leads me to wonder if female humans can do the same. The fetishization of animal aesthetics manifested in BHC, in many ways harmless fun, is just the latest branch of the beauty imperative, as well as an example of consumption gone wild. Most importantly, it illuminates the parallel lives of women and animals through the use of pets as extensions of female allure.2 Animal beauty and fashion link back to women in two primary ways. First, some ZRPHQ¶VEHDXW\DQGIDVKLRQSURGXFWVKDYHVHULRXVUHSHUFXVVLRQVXSRQ nonhuman animals. Josephine Donovan contends WKDW³>Z@hile women have undoubtedly been less guilty of active abuse and destruction of DQLPDOVWKDQPHQ>«@WKH\QHYHUWKHOHVs have been complicit in that abuse, largely in their use of luxury items that entail animal pain and GHVWUXFWLRQVXFKDVIXUV DQGLQWKHLUFRQVXPSWLRQRIPHDW´³$QLPDO 5LJKWV DQG )HPLQLVW 7KHRU\´   6KHLOD -HIIUH\V UHSRUWV WKDW D byproduct of the misogynist demand for female beauty is the ³FROODWHUDO GDPDJH´ RI DQLPDO DEXVH ³-15 million animals are tortured and killed every year in US laboratories that test the safety of FRVPHWLF DQG KRXVHKROG SURGXFWV´   ,QGHHG KXQGUHGV RI mainstream cosmetiFV FRPSDQLHV VXFK DV /¶2UHDO &ODLURO Max Factor and Neutrogena still subject animals to excruciatingly painful testing procedures to make women more artificially beautiful, and this is to say nothing of the animal slaughter necessary for leather (as in CKORH¶VERRWLHV ZRROVXHGHDQGIXU Within the realm of fashion, human animals are also seriously affected by Western desire to consume and to look good. That abuse is causally connected to animal couture as well. BehindTheLabel.org, a multimedia workeU¶V ULJKWV RUJDQL]DWLRQ UHSRUWs a clothing industry EXVLQHVV PRGHO WDNHQ ULJKW IURP IDFWRU\ IDUPV QRWLQJ WKDW ³PRVW retailers do not own the means of production but contract out to factories that will produce apparel, shoes, and accessories for them at low prices´ ³)$4V´  BehindTheLabel goes on to report that the number of companies who do not use exploitive production methods is very few indeed. 7KH0DTXLOD6ROLGDULW\1HWZRUN¶V:HEVLWHRIIHUV steps for holding mock sweatshop fashion shows that could have come IURP &RFR )XVFR¶V SHUIRUPDQFH UHSHUWRLUH )URP DGYLFH RQ VFULSWV venues, and music, to a list of companies who use sweatshops (Tommy Hilfiger, The Gap, Banana Republic, Nike, etc.), the 2 And so much more. BHC begs to be analyzed for its use of cultural and ethnic stereotypes, gender myths, and commodity fetishism. However, I am limiting myself to a discussion of animal aesthetics within the broader scope of this project.

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Network offers a model of performative protest against the exploitation of human workers. With the rise of canine fashion, the dial spins back to animals, as fashion designers such as Vivienne Westwood, Ben de Lisi, Christian Audigier, Juicy Couture, and even rapper Snoop Dogg offer lines of animal clothing. ,Q ³3URWHFWLQJ &KLOGUHQ DQG $QLPDOV IURP $EXVH´ -DPHV Garbarino asks ³Zho could approve of a policy that rationed food in favor of the pets of the rich in place of the children of the poor? Who indeed. A look at the economic realities of life for poor children around the world and rich pets in every country tells us that this policy exists de facto´ &KORHLVRQHRIWKRVHULFKSHWVEXW*DUbarino is not arguing that she or others should be starved so that children can be fed. Rather, he is acknowledging the costs of unsound economic distribution through a popular trend that desperately tries to make animals into humans not IRUWKHDQLPDO¶VSOHDVXUHEXWIRUWKHLUOHJDOO\ GHFODUHG ³RZQHU¶V´ SOHDVXUH ,Q ³7KH )HWLVKLVP RI &RPPRGLWLHV´ .DUO0DU[DUJXHV³&RXld commodities themselves speak, they would say: Our use-value may be a thing that interests men. It is no part of us DV REMHFWV´   )RU WKH PRVW SDUW GRJV DUH VPDUW OR\DO DQG DIIHFWLRQDWH EXWWKH\ GRQ¶W KDYH DQ\ IDVKLRQ VHQVH'LVQH\ IDQWDVLHV aside. Thus, one can imagine a Labradoodle dressed in Juicy Couture VSHDNLQJ 0DU[¶V GLDORJXH ³7KH XVH-value of this jacket may be a WKLQJWKDWLQWHUHVWVKXPDQV,WLVQRSDUWRIPHDVDEHLQJ´ Within this new world of animal aesthetics, including nail paintings and aromatherapy, there is also a hierarchy of beauty and class distinctions. For example, Chloe is initially repulsed by Papi EHFDXVH KH¶V RI D ORZHU FODVV 'RJV KDYH EHHQ DQWKURSRPRUSKL]HG more than any other species in the Western world and, like women, categorized according to human perceptions of their worth. In Social Ecology and Communalism, Murray Bookchin asserts that humans RIWHQ LPSXWH ³WKHLU RZQ VRFLDO LQVWLWXWLRQV WR WKH EHKDYLRU RI QRQKXPDQ VSHFLHV´  3 This tendency most clearly manifests in canine couture and in a distinctive female focus on petit dogs. At the start of this study, children and animals were discussed LQ WHUPV RI WKH IRUPHU¶V SRZHU RYHU WKH ODWHU +RXVHKROG SHWV FDQ EHFRPH FKLOGUHQ¶V FDSWLYH DXGLHQFHV ZLWK children becoming overseers of a pretend universe populated by animals not just literally, but as stuffed toys and in books. For some, playtime does not end in childhood, and when mixed with the drive to consume, animals .

3

All references to Bookchin in this chapter are taken from his four essays published as Social Ecology and Communalism.

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become extensions of KXPDQV¶ commodity fetishism. According to Nancy Etcoff, humans create fashion for pleasure, but also as a way to navigate complex social labyrinths, ultimately arguing that how we use fashion is a statement of who we are or, perhaps more importantly, who we are not (208). Dogs are such a fashion accessory, as Montezuma gripes, and through their pets people look for proof of their own success within capitalist culture, thereby also proving that success to others. To wit, Club Beverly Hills²a real place, not a Disney creation²offers complete lifestyle management for tKH ZRUOG¶V PRVW SULYLOHJHG dogs [through the] exclusive nature of this members-only country FOXE >«@ 1HVWOHG RQ WKH ERUGHU RI %HYHUO\ +LOOV DQG :HVW Hollywood, The Club Beverly Hills is the perfect spot foU /$¶V most powerful dogs to socialize with like-minded peers, enjoy a Jacuzzi soak, grab a gourmet meal, see their private doctor, or fit in a quick workout.

7KH &OXE¶V ZULWH-up is hopefully presented tongue-in-cheek, but FRQVLGHULQJWKDWWKH\GRQ¶WKDYH a price list on their Web site, one can imagine that they are catering to an exclusive clientele. As the old saying goes, if you have to ask how much something costs, you SUREDEO\ FDQ¶W DIIRUG LW 7KH PDMRULW\ RI GRJV LQ 7KH &OXE¶V SKRWR gallery are small breeds, so too on My Uptown Pooch, a Web site RIIHULQJ GRJ FORWKLQJ WR PHHW \RXU VPDOO FDQLQH¶V PDQ\ VRFLDO demands: Weddings²bridal gowns for $200; sleepover parties²$40 pajamas; and Christian holidays²$170 Christmas evening dresses. Almost without fail, modern anthropomorphizing is presented DV ZRPHQ¶V ZRUN DQG YHU\ RIWHQ ZLWK WLQ\ GRJV &KORH¶V KXPDQ ³mother´ Vivian is the high-powered, jet-setting owner of a makeup corporation, and all of the glamorous women in BHC have petite dogs under foot. The small dog trend is not merely a Hollywood fantasy HLWKHUDV+DUDZD\QRWHVWKDW³>V@PDOOLVKGRJVOLNHJLUOVLQWKHKXPDQ VFHQHDUHWKHJROGVWDQGDUGLQWKHGRJDGRSWLRQPDUNHW´Companion 93). The presence of small dogs amongst royalty and the wealthy is not new, nor is the propensity for common folk to mimic the fashions of the rich and famous. Thus, animal trends are very much based in issues of class distinction, but this is a widespread trend with much broader implications. Teen stars and supermodels are photographed with their tiny pooches, resulting in a number of Web sites and magazine editions dedicated to analyzing and ranking the cuteness of celebrity canines, as if somehow their adorableness is an extension of WKHLU ³RZQHU¶V´ EHDXW\ People Magazine has a section devoted to FHOHEULW\SHWVGHFODULQJ³)URP3DULVWR-HVVLFD²and even Adrien!² QR FHOHE LV FRPSOHWH ZLWKRXW D FXWH FULWWHU´ ,Q ³'RJV DUH &KLOGUHQ

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7RR´ 7RUL 6SHOOLQJ¶V 3XJ 0LPL /D5XH -HVVLFD 6LPSVRQ¶V now deceased Maltipoo Daisy, and Britney Spears's Chihuahua Bit Bit, who has a play pen, are among those highlighted. People also alerts UHDGHUV WR WKH EUHDNLQJ QHZV WKDW 3DULV +LOWRQ¶V &KLKXDKXD ³7LQNHUEHOOKDVPRUHFORWKHVWKDQKHUPRP´ Although the trend of little dogs amongst celebrities does not QHFHVVDULO\ LQGLFDWH WKH DYHUDJH ZRPDQ¶V SUHIHUHQFHs, it elicits the question: Why is it seen as feminine to have a little dog? Though LW¶V been noted WKDW FRQFHSWLRQV RI ZRPHQ¶V EHDXW\ DUH DOPRVW DOZD\V formed by queVWLRQVRIKHWHURVH[XDOPHQ¶VSUHIHUHQFHVit seems safe to say that men are not particularly more attracted to women because they own cute little critters. This is because tiny dogs do not make women more beautiful; they make them more feminine in the sociallyconstructed sense of the term (this may also be why Solanas found UDLVLQJ GRJV WR EH D ZDVWH RI ZRPHQ¶V WLPH . A young activist in (PLO\ *DDUGHU¶V VWXG\ RI ZRPHQ LQ WKH DQLPDO ULJKWV PRYHPHQW FRQILUPV WKLV FRQQHFWLRQ ZKHQ QRWLQJ WKDW ³SHRSOH RIWHQ FKRose DQLPDO FRPSDQLRQV EDVHGRQ ZKHWKHUWKH\ DUHµFXWHDQG IOXII\¶ DQG VKH FRPSDUHG WKLV WR WKH SUHVVXUH VKH IHOW µWR ORRN FXWH DQG SUHWW\¶´ (49). ,Q ³7KH 5HSURGXFWLRQ RI )HPLQLQLW\´ 6XVDQ %RUGRKLVWRULFDOO\ contextualizes disorders associated with being a woman: hysteria, DJRUDSKRELD DQG DQRUH[LD 6KH DUJXHV WKDW WKH\ ³DOO KDYH V\PEROLF meaning, all have political meaning under the varying rules governing WKH KLVWRULFDO FRQVWUXFWLRQ RI JHQGHU´   Hennessy¶V Profit and Pleasure is a lengthy argument that attempts to prove the same within tKHVFRSHRIODWHFDSLWDOLVP¶VHIIHFWVRQgender identity, showing how capitalism KDV³H[WHQGHGFRPPRGLW\PDUNHWLQJIDUWKHUWKDQHYHULQWR the body and the unconscious, and heightened manipulation of human QHHGVDQGGHVLUHIRUFRUSRUDWHSURILW´-5). Women who navigate the world with tiny animals attached to their hips make those animals a part of their own embodiments, consciously or otherwise. Therefore, under a contract of compulsory beauty, those diminutive animals are donned, decked out, and adorable because they are part of a human embodiment that must be petite, fashionably dressed, and beautiful. -XVWDVGRIHPLQLVWVDQGSHUIRUPDQFHDUWLVWV³UHJXODU´ZRPDQ look to animals as signifiers of their own (in)significance. Further, the fact that the image of femininity lauded by the media when it comes to GRJVLVRIVPDOOVKDNLQJ³WR\´EUHHGVZKRDUHLPSRVVLEO\FKDUPLQJ says as much about expectations of femininity as it does about the dogs women carry. Women use small animals in the way that Gertrude Baniszewski and her children enacted patriarchal culture

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upon the bodies of their dogs and Sylvia Likens. MacKinnon states, ³:RPHQ DUH WKH DQLPDOV RI WKH KXPDQ NLQJGRP WKH PLFH RI PHQ¶V worlds [«] [B]oth women and animals have been status objects to be DFTXLUHG DQG SDUDGHG E\ PHQ WR UDLVH PHQ¶V VWDWXV DPRQJ PHQ DV well as used for labor and breeding and pleasure. Compare beauty SDJHDQWV ZLWK GRJ DQG FDW VKRZV´ -19). Thus, women also use dogs in a way similar to how men have used women. Along with all the usual trappings of beauty, the script of femininity poses women as naturally nurturing, as innately mothers. What better way to prove yourself to be a caring, nurturing, sexy woman than to parade down a runway, as has hotel heiress Paris Hilton, in high heels, a slinky dress, and a three- to five-pound shivering, bug-eyed animal accessory clinging to you affectionately. Acting to the myth of womanhood as innately mothering, toy dogs have offered women a way to symbolize their natural motherliness without the necessity of actually giving birth or having a child. Hence, VRPH ZRPHQ FDOO WKHLU DQLPDOV ³IXU EDELHV´ UDWKHU WKDQ SHWV $V People VD\V ³'RJV DUH FKLOGUHQ WRR´ %XW DV 0RQWH]XPD DQG comSDQ\ZRXOGVD\³No mas´ Whether one is critical or dismissive of animals as fashion accessories, the ethical concerns that arise from this latest manifestation of the beauty myth require some attention. ,V +LOWRQ¶V use of her dog animal abuse? Not necessarily, and neither is sending your dog to The Club Beverly Hills. Pampering a pooch is not abuse, but perpetrating dangerous myths is²both the myths of femininity DQGWKHP\WKVRI³WKH:HVWHUQZRUOGWKDWPDNHVGRPHVWLFFDQLQHVLQWR IXUU\FKLOGUHQ´WKDWPDNHVGRJV¶OLYHVLQWRQRPRUHWKDQH[WHQVLRQVRI KXPDQV¶ OLYHV +DUDZD\, Companion 11). For example, the Chihuahua trend instituted by celebrity dog owners and movies such as Legally Blonde resulted in a lot of unwanted pets4 amongst noncelebrities. Much like people, Chihuahuas have complex personalities that belie their endearing exteriors. They are more than just cute animals who like to cuddle (though, admittedly, they are quite adept at cuteness and cuddling). They can be aggressive, stubborn, difficult to potty train, and noisy. With the myth exposed²Chihuahuas are not dolls to be dressed up and snuggled with²many new Chihuahua owners abandoned their dogs to shelters because the product did not 4

)RU HDVH RI PHDQLQJ , DP XVLQJ WKH ZRUG ³SHW´ KHUH EXW LW LV QRW ZLWKRXW LWV problems and speciesist connotations. That said, the use of canines described in this VHFWLRQUHQGHUVWKHP³SHWV´ZLWKLQWKHQHJDWLYHDVVRFLDWLRQVVRPHKDYHZLWKWKDWWHUP, thus I do not use quotation marks.

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meet the hype. Unlike Vivian Nashe and Paris Hilton, most people GRQ¶WKDYHEXWOHUVWRZDON and pick up after their dogs. At other times, the animal beauty myth has resulted in outright abuse. In early 2009, a woman was charged with animal cruelty for piercing the ears and napes of kittens, marketing them for KXQGUHGV RI GROODUV DV ³JRWKLF´ 7KH ZRPDQ FKDUJHG VHHPHG genuinely confused by the fuss, basically averring that the kittens were mere animal manifestations of herself, as she too has multiple piercings. If humans like it, why ZRXOGQ¶WDFDW"+HUPDLQDUJXPHQW ³, UHDOO\ WKRXJKW KH ORRNHG FXWH´ TWG LQ 5XELQFDP  Further, although not essentially a story of abuse, a recent Salon.com column ODPHQWV WKH ULVH RI ³VOXWW\ +DOORZHHQ FRVWXPHV´ IRU FDQLQH companions that emphasizes the pressure women feel to be sexy. 0DU\ (OL]DEHWK :LOOLDPV VDUFDVWLFDOO\ DVNV ³:K\ EH DORQH LQ \RXU IR[LQHVV" µ%H VH[\ WRJHWKHU ZLWK WKHVH DGRUDEOH PDWFKLQJ FRVWXPHV for sexy ladies DQGWKHLUSXSV¶7RWKDWHQGyou can dress together as naughty rag dolls, UDXQFK\ SLUDWHV >RU@ KRUQ\ )UHQFK PDLGV >«] [E@HFDXVH QRWKLQJ VD\V µWKLV 3RPHUDQLDQ LV KHUH WR KRRN XS¶ OLNH D bustier DQG PLQLVNLUW´ 7KHVH WUHQGV RIWHQ GLVUHJDUGHG EHFDXVH RI their silliness, show control over other species, and this is a way for humans to use nonhuman animals as demonstrations of their own desires and desirability, as well as to profit from them. ³I want to look cute to the world, so I will make my pet even cuter than nature made him.´ Do we really have to make kittens and Pomeranians any cuter than they already are? Within the big picture, yes we do. Even supermodels, as lovely as they are when unadorned with makeup and fashion, get airbrushed for magazine covers. It is as if the urge to buy and replicate images from the commercial landscape are so great that they cannot be contained in one body, so they overflow onto any KDSOHVVSHWVZKRJHWLQWKHFRQVXPHU¶VZD\ Jo Barr of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) describes the ways in which the media determines animal trends that then determine which species will be neglected. When Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came out in the 1990s, parents bought their children turtles; with the popularity of Harry Potter films, parents are buying their children owls. Barr also reinforces the Hilton connection: ³We¶ve seen trends in recent years brought about E\ WKH ULVH LQ FHOHEULWLHV ZLWK µKDQGEDJ GRJV¶ 7KLV XVXDOO\ OHDGV WR SHRSOH WDNLQJ RQ SHWV EHFDXVH WKH\ DUH µIDVKLRQDEOH¶ DQG VDGO\ WKat means many arH QHJOHFWHG´ TWG LQ ³563&$´  The pleasure in ³PDNLQJ XS´ SHWV LV FRUUHODWHG ZLWK WKH GHVLUH ZH KDYH WR FKDQJH

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ourselves and to be on the cutting edge of cultural trends. As the RSPCA sees things, this fooling with Mother Nature is a form of abuse, and they have plans to prosecute those whose animal fashion fetishes get in the way of animals acting according to their natures (i.e. clothing can cause dogs to overheat, communicate ineffectively with other dogs, and/or simply make them really uncomfortable) ³'RJ 2ZQHUV´ . Haraway sees the ³infantalization´ of dogs as a style of abuse as well, one that results from canines being refashioned into ³WRROV´WKDW³UHVWRUHKXPDQEHLQJV¶VRXOVE\WKHLUXQFRQGLWLRQDOORYH [a tendency she terms] caninophiliac narcissism´  Of course, no one can ever say with complete precision what it is dogs are thinking, so maybe they like getting gussied up for a night on the town. But maybe not. Whether dog fetishism is abuse or not, ultimately, body language will alert humans if a dog in our midst is unhappy in his tshirt and baseball cap or in her booties and bustier. Otherwise, one FRXOGFRQWDFWSHWSV\FKLF%ULGJHW3LOORXGWRZKRP,¶OOJLYHWKHILQDO word on what dogs think of canine fashion trends, ³,¶YH interviewed GRJV DERXW FORWKLQJ DQG PRVW GR QRW OLNH FORWKHV >«@ 7KH\ WKLQN clothes are silly, and that they cause people to see them as cute instead RIVHHLQJWKHLUWUXHQDWXUH´TWGLQ0XWKHU &KORHOHDUQHGWKLVOHVVRQ as well. Many people see pet psychics as silly too, but Pilloud has a point, and it is one that, like those declared by Montezuma, resounds the critiques of radical feminist critics who eschew the politics of beauty. To paraphrase the dogs whom Pilloud has ³interviewed,´ the beauty indusWU\¶V FULWLFV DUJXH WKDW WKH WUXWK DERXW ZRPHQ LV EXULHG underneath the technologies of pleasure, the tools they use to mask who they are without makeup, hair dyes, high heels, diets, surgeries, and little dogs. Convulsive, compulsive, and compulsory beauty cause men to see women as cute and silly, rather than seeing their true natures. More importantly, the technologies prevent women from seeing their own true natures. In the animal food industry, the technologies prevent consumers from seeing the true natures of the creatures who come to them as meat. Much like animal aesthetics, the beauty imperative is easily cast aside as unimportant drivel, especially in the aftermath of the battles between radical and liberal feminists as they strove for the final worGRQZRPHQ¶VIDFHV Nevertheless, since women still have faces, the beauty myth requires further attention to the ultimate goal of offering a new aesthetic of destruction that is as terrifying as it is liberating. Why bother with this exploration? Because ZKHWKHU RQH WKLQNV OLSVWLFN LV D FKRLFH RU D ³FKRLFH´ WKH

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beauty imperative stands in the way of freedom among the oppressed, and I remain interested in the potential of living creatures when they are no longer casualties of the technologies of pleasure. Chloe was liberated when she returned to her roots, found her bark, let go of the frivolities of beauty, and learned that she could still love herself. Once Chloe was free, VKHWRRNFRQWURORIKHUOLIHDQG³JRWWKLQJVGRQH´,¶P wondering if human ZRPHQFDQ¶WIROORZLQKHUSDZSULQWV

A New Theory of Destruction The art that utilizes the destructive process will purge, for as it gives death, so it will give life. ²Raphael Montañez Ortiz As women, we have come to distrust that power which rises from our deepest and nonrational language. ²Audre Lorde

In the Introduction, beauty was demarcated as whatever standard of aesthetic qualities give pleasure to the majority of a culture at any given time, and I explained that within the confines of my thesis, this definition applies to notions of female beauty and desirability. Chapter One discussed three avant-garde writers who contemplated the violent physical destruction of beauty²or those who GHWHUPLQHWKHDHVWKHWLFVWDQGDUGVLQ6RODQDV¶VFDVH²as an avenue for ZRPHQ¶V OLEHUDWLRQ &KDSWHU 7ZR H[SORUHG WUDGLWLRQDO DQG $/0 avant-garde spaces through careful contemplation of how women negotiate the exposed body as stages of dissent. Therein, women were seen to mimic, mirror, and/or mock aesthetic standards. Yet despite the many different ways women have attempted to own their physical beings, all were endeavoring to destroy those ideas that keep them from self possession. Through the varied spaces of contestation, beauty was and continues to be exposed as a euphemism for the myths of femininity, showing that all women are punished by such patriarchal inventions. Philosopher Edward Johnson confirms that >E@HDXW\¶VSXQLVKPHQWLVWZRIROG2QWKHRQHKDQGDZRPDQZKR strives not to stimulate unwanted male desire is stigmatized as unwomanly, unfeminine, and punished for her lack of beauty. On the other handDZRPDQ ZKRUHVSRQGVWRVRFLHW\¶VGHPDQGWKDW she be beautiful finds that her efforts stimulate male desire beyond her ability or willingness to satisfy, and so she is punished for her beauty. (347)

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-RKQVRQ¶V SKLORVRSKLFDO PXVLQJV SLQSRLQW WKH unwinnable plight of female beauty, and it is one that Jack Ketchum also reflects upon in The Girl Next Door, the fictionalized account of the Sylvia Likens murder upon which the film version is based. Here, the narrator David tries to understand the source of his and his FRPSDQLRQV¶ seemingly unwarranted desire to punish Meg (a fictionalized Sylvia), the kind teenager who initially befriended him: And I wonder now if anything would have been different had she not been so pretty, had her body not been young and healthy and VWURQJ EXW XJO\ IDW IODEE\ 3RVVLEO\ QRW >«@ EXW LW VHHPV PRUH likely that is was precisely because she was beautiful and strong, and we were not, that Ruth [Gertrude] and the rest of us had done this to her. To make a sort of judgment on her beauty, on what it PHDQWRUGLGQ¶WPHDQWRXV

In effect, the aging Ruth and the young males in her charge owned 0HJ¶VEHDXW\DQGWKH\KDGILQDOMXGJPHQWRYHUZKHWKHULWZRXld be destroyed or maintained. In both the novel and in real life, the overseers chose to make Sylvia/Meg ugly in the bloom of her womanhood. Similarly, every woman who lives long enough will be made socially ugly by nature of her longevity, thereby being punished for her faded beauty. These realities exist in the margins, as explored in the first two chapters, and at the center, as is being exposed in this chapter; they exist within the static and dynamic female bodies in avant-garde spaces and within the made up or dressed down bodies and faces of women in popular culture. In both cultural realms, the beauty myth defiantly stands in the way of a female liberation that is, by its nature, connected to the liberation of other oppressed groups, nonhumans included. The answer to these problems is still the same, and it lies in an aesthetic of destruction. Before offering that theory, however, a review of beauty is merited through analysis of its limitations. It is not my intention to give voice to every critic who has weighed in on this issue, as there are many, including those who think the discussion is passé. However, the warring perspectives deserve reassessment if we are to see what beauty has become and why it is an obstacle to women even as it opens doors. Feminist debates over female beauty come down to questions RI FKRLFH DQG ³FKRLFH´ 'R ZRPHQ FKRRVH WR EHDXWLI\ EHFDXVH WKH\ are exercising a prerogative that naturally arises from being a woman, RU DUH WKH\ PLVWDNLQJ IUHHGRP IRU D ³FKRLFH´ WKDW SDWULDUFhal hegemony has made for them? For 270 pages, Naomi Wolf lambasts WKH EHDXW\ LPSHUDWLYH DV D SDWULDUFKDO EDFNODVK DJDLQVW ZRPHQ¶V newfound legal, occupational, economic, political, sexual and

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reproductive rights. The Beauty Myth effectively argues that beauty ³LGHDOV GLGQ¶W VLPSO\ GHVFHQG IURP KHDYHQ WKDW WKH\ DFWXDOO\ FDPH IURPVRPHZKHUHDQGWKDWWKH\VHUYHGDSXUSRVH´ :ROIFRQWHQGV that the more fully enmeshed women become in all areas of Western FXOWXUHWKHVPDOOHUDQGPRUH³PDGHXS´WKH\DUHH[SHcted to be. With credible precision, she builds her case that as women become more socially visible, it is demanded that the visibility be augmented by the technologies of pleasure, and this leads to plastic surgery, anorexia, and finally to a general feeling of self-loathing when they do not measure up to the ideal. Then, near the conclusion, she responds unexpectedly to her own important question: ³'RHVDOOWKLVPHDQZH FDQ¶WZHDUOLSVWLFNZLWKRXWIHHOLQJJXLOW\"2QWKHFRQWUDU\>«@:HDOO OLNH WR EH GHVLUDEOH DQG IHHO EHDXWLIXO´ (271). Radical feminists responded to this about-IDFHZLWKDUHVRXQGLQJ³+XK"´,WVHHPHGWKDW Wolf does think, after all, that myths about women descend from heaven. We all like to be desirable and feel beautiful? Even if that is true, will lipstick make us more of both? Who says? Perhaps the very patriarchy that she just spent the majority of her book tearing apart. Or pHUKDSV ELRORJ\ VD\V VR $FFRUGLQJ WR 1DQF\ (WFRII¶V Survival of the Prettiest³7KHUHLVDFRUHUHDOLW\WREHDXW\WKDWH[LVWV EXULHGZLWKLQWKHFXOWXUDOFRQVWUXFWVDQGWKHP\WKV´ :KLOHVKH acknowledges beauty standards to be racist and classist, she also argues that as human animals we are drawn toward certain physical attributes that trigger evolutionary survival instincts and perpetuation of the species. For example, Etcoff argues that most heterosexual men of all ages are attracted to younger women, as the young are more OLNHO\ WR SURGXFH KHDOWK\ EDELHV UHJDUGOHVV RI WKH PDQ¶V GHVLUH WR SURFUHDWH*D\PHQDUHDOVRGUDZQWR\RXQJHU³VH[REMHFWV´WKRXJK not for reproductive reasons. Etcoff then avers that lesbians are the exception to this rule (62). Unfortunately, she does not pursue explanation of this interesting wrinkle in her theory of beauty. In fact, most of her study is about, once again, what heterosexual men find attractive in women. While she does discuss male beauty to an extent, the use RI WKH ZRUG ³SUHWWLHVW´ LQ KHU WLWOH VKRZV WKDW KHU IRFXV LV female desirability filtered through male gaze. 0XFK OLNH :ROI (WFRII FRQFOXGHV ³7KDW LGHD WKDW ZRPHQ ZRXOGDFKLHYHPRUHLIWKH\RQO\GLGQ¶WKDYHWRZDVWHWLPHRQEHDXW\ is nonsense. Women will achieve more when they garner equal legal DQGVRFLDOULJKWVDQGSULYLOHJHVQRWZKHQWKH\JLYHXSEHDXW\>«@$OO women enjoy beauty more when they can see it as one of many HTXDOO\ UHZDUGLQJ DVVHWV´   ,Q RWKHU ZRUGV \RX ZLOO EH HTXDO

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when you become a master in the houses that men have built²make as much money as them, have the same rights as them, etc. Bookchin, referring to Wolf, calls this view-SRLQW ³ZHDOWK-RULHQWHG´ IHPLQLVP  ,QDVHQWLPHQWVLPLODUWR%RRNFKLQ¶V0DULD0LHVin a critique of liberal feminism, argues that under capitalism, equality for women has come to mean appropriating the behaviors, deeds, and goals of patriarchal men (37). In the case of beauty, this means taking on the accoutrements that patriarchal man has declared are beautiful, sexy, and desirable. Patriarchy and capitalism, by definition, cannot be peopled only by masters. A select few will own the means of production²of both truth and commodities²and power. This means that true equality is not possible within those very worlds through which liberal feminists attempt to find parity. Some will have to be slaves, and there are many ways in which that truth is made manifest. %HDXW\LVRQHRIWKRVHZD\V8QGRXEWHGO\WKH³VODYH´PHWDSKRUZLOO have meaning for any woman ZKR HYHU IHOW VKH FRXOGQ¶W OHDYH KHU home without fixed hair, a made-up face, shaved legs, painted nails, and fashionable clothing. Liberal feminists argue that the emancipated woman has a right to make choices, and any who would critique her choice to wear lipstick and high heels is just as bad as the other who would tell her she has no choice but to wear lipstick and high heels. Wolf and Etcoff, bolstered by scholars such as Karen Lehrman (The Lipstick Proviso) and Kathy Davis (Reshaping the Female Body), argue that an inherent aspect of being female is to enjoy being looked at (a similar argument plays out in Hannah Wilke¶VRHXYUH). However, each of these works FDQ DQG KDYH  EHHQ DFFXVHG RI GHWDFKLQJ ZRPHQ¶V SULPSLQJ ULWXDOV from the big cultural picture. For instance, Luce Irigaray agrees that ZRPDQILQGVSOHDVXUHLQKHUUROHDV³REOLJLQJSURSIRUWKHHQDFWPHQW of male fantasies, [but this is a pleasure that is] above all a masochistic prostitution of her body to a desire that is not her own, and it leaves KHULQDIDPLOLDUVWDWHRIGHSHQGHQF\XSRQPDQ´³6H[:KLFK,V1RW 2QH´ ,ULJDUD\H[SRVHVDKLHUDUFK\RIGHVLUHRQFHDJDLQZLWKWKH gazing male on top of the pyramid looking down, his pleasure trumping all others. Sheila Jeffreys poses things difIHUHQWO\DVNLQJ³:RPHQPD\ well say makeup empowers them but the interesting question is, what disempowers them about being withRXWWKHLUPDVN"´ -HIIUH\s¶V question is an important one because it signifies the real topic here² augmented beauty and the demand that women change whatever

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genetics has given them.5 Etcoff may be right in that some people are just more physically attractive than others, perhaps for reasons that no cultural or biological theory can completely answer. Beauty is, as Breton dHFODUHG ³PDUYHOORXV´ EXW QRW PDUYHOORXV HQRXJK IRU WKH Surrealists to have left alone. They subjected women to the same destructive technologies of pleasure that Sandra Bartky and Brian Luke write about in relation to women and animals: cutting, chopping, coloring, crimping, etc. Now with advanced technologies of pleasure, beauty is promised as available to all. As Kathryn Pauly Morgan VWDWHV ³1DWXUDO GHVWLQ\ LV EHLQJ VXSSODQWHG E\ WHFKQRORJLFDOO\ grounded coercion, and the coercion is camouflaged by the language RI FKRLFH IXOILOOPHQW DQG OLEHUDWLRQ´   (YHQ LI RQH ZHUH WR accept the premises of Etcoff and Wolf, they have not answered these questions: When given the choice, why do so many women decide to ³liberate´ themselves through an ideal that iV EH\RQG DQ\ KXPDQ¶V ³1DWXUDO GHVWLQ\´" :K\ DUH ZRPHQ H[SHFWHGWR PDNH WKLVFKRLFHVR PXFKPRUHRIWHQWKDQPHQ":K\FDQ¶WZRPHQHQMR\ZKDWWKH\ORRN like without wearing masks? If animal couture and beauty regimens are not enough to sell one on the assertion of a beauty crisis, consider that the cosmetics industry makes $1 billion annually on makeup sales to children (Jeffreys 119). Again, we see a beauty myth so out of control that it spills onto the most faultless among us. Women who primp are seen to be engaging in an activity that allows them to be individuals, but critics such as Bartky see something different. She explains³,QUHDOLW\ZKLOHFRVPHWLFVW\OHVPD\FKDQJH every decade or so and while some variation in make-up is permitted depending on the occasion, making up a face is, in fact, a highly stylized activity that gives little rein to self-H[SUHVVLRQ´ -HIIUH\s DJUHHVDUJXLQJWKDWWKHVHHPLQJFKRLFHWR³PDNHXS´RQH¶VVHOIUHVXOWs from psychological repression that has been mythologized as women expressing their uniqueness6KHERUURZVSV\FKRORJLVW'HH*UDKDP¶V FRQFHSW RI D ³VRFLHWDO 6WRFNKROP V\QGURPH´ WR H[SODLQ WKH phenomena of false choice, referring to the famous kidnapping case in which victims began to bond and identify with their kidnappers, seeing them as allies rather than acknowledge their own subjugation 5

Although male beauty products are also marketed, I do not investigate that topic because there is still not a demand than men put on masks when entering the public realm. In fact, there are few men who are expected to manage lustrous manes of hair, wear makeup, dress seductively, don high heels, manicure, pedicure, etc., on a daily basis. Men who primp are classed as metrosexuals or drag queens, but women who primp are just women.

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(25). Jeffreys also TXHVWLRQV WKH YHU\ QRWLRQ RI :HVWHUQ ZRPDQ¶V emancipation, going so far as to argue that according to the United Nations¶ guiGHOLQHVIRU³KDUPIXOWUDGLWLRQDOFXOWXUDOSUDFWLFHV´DJDLQVW females, Western women are nearly as oppressed as those from less technologically advanced cultures. Standards for abuse are signified as WKRVHSUDFWLFHVWKDWGDPDJHJLUOVDQGZRPHQ¶VKHDOWKDUH ³SHUIRUPHG IRU PHQ¶V EHQHILW [create] stereotyped roles for the sexes, [and that are] MXVWLILHG E\ WUDGLWLRQ´   5DWKHU WKDQ UHFRXQW DOO RI WKH supporting arguments Jeffreys makes, I want to look at three ways in which the augmented beauty imperative is an obstacle to liberation through its fostering of distraction, competition, and violence, three consequences that also result in the continued exploitation of nonhuman animals. 1DWXUHLVFRQVLVWHQWO\DXJPHQWHGWRPHHWKXPDQNLQG¶VPDQ\ needs. Marx distinctively noted that ³LW LV DV FOHDU DV QRRQGD\ WKDW man, by his industry, changes the forms of the materials furnished by 1DWXUHLQVXFKDZD\DVWRPDNHWKHPXVHIXOWRKLP´ $OWKRXJK Marx gives wood as a supporting example, women, animals, and minorities are just such materials of Nature that man changes to make them useful to him (and current ecological predicaments demonstrate an outcome of this unchecked usage). Along these lines, Irigaray poses a question that pertains to women as much as it does to nonhuman animals: ³'RHVSOHDVXUHIRUPDVFXOLQHVH[XDOLW\FRQVLVWLQ anything other than the appropriation of nature, in the desire to make it (re)produce, and in exchange of its/these products with other members of society? An essentially economic SOHDVXUH´³:RPHQRQ WKH0DUNHW´ 7KXVWKHDXJPHQWHGZRPDQLVWKHDXJPHQWHGFRZ is the augmented wood is the augmented sexual identity. All are products of what Hennessy VHHVDVD³YLROHQFHWDNLQJ place in the wake of neoliberal social policies, [«@>and she decries the turn in postmodern studies that severs culture from] any ties to the fundamental VWUXFWXUHV RI FDSLWDOLVP´   Gender and ideological identities are now marketed products that reinforce their own myths, including the myth of the liberated woman. Just as Bob Torres argues that animal rights organizations sell liberation, so too does the free PDUNHWVHOOIHPLQLVP7KHSRSXODUPHVVDJHRI³buy, buy, buy has now become tinged with the feminist goal of liberation: Buying cool things makes you a liberated woman. Conversely, in order to be a liberated ZRPDQ \RX PXVWEX\FRROWKLQJV´7DQQHQEDXP  ,WDSSHDUVWKDW the promise of liberation is also a material furnished by Nature.

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Consumption is distraction. As Colin Mooers argues that the ³world of fashion, along with myriad other forms of distraction DIIRUGHGE\WKHµFXOWXUHLQGXVWULHV¶QRWRQO\DVNXVWRIRUJHWWKHDFWV of human labour that go into their production, they also invite us to satisfy our affective longings and bodily desires through repeated acts RI FRQVXPSWLRQ´   $nimal labor should be added here as well. Beauty is a further distraction that prevents women from letting go of the false consciousness that keeps them staring into the mirror, wriggling under the male gaze, and believing that once they make as much money as men, parity will ensue. In a 1920 essay entitled ³$JDLQVW )HPDOH /X[XU\´ futurism founder Filippo Marinetti makes some observations that surprisingly echo the arguments of radical IHPLQLVWVRIWKHVDQGµV&ODUD2UEDQQRWHVWKDW in this essay KH³GHFODU>HV@WKDWIHPDOHVKDYHEHHQIRUFHGE\PDOHVWRFRQFHQWUDWH great efforts on their outward appearance, and this has a deleterious HIIHFW RQ ERWK VH[HV´; he sees a transfer of desire from the flesh to ³FORWKLQJ DQG MHZHOV D IHWLVKLVWLF GLVSODFHPHQW´   7KLV displacement has only gained momentum since Marinetti penned his critique. Although an obsession with youth and beauty is hardly a PRGHUQFUD]H%DUWN\QRWHVWKDWLQDVRFLHW\GULYHQE\³YLVXDOPHGLD´ WKH FRPSXOVLRQ WR SULPS LV JDLQLQJ PRPHQWXP DQG ZKDW ³ZDV formerly the specialty of the aristocrat or courtesan is now the routine obligation of every woman, be shed a grandmother or barely SXEHVFHQW JLUO´   %RUGR UHSRUWV DQ LQFUHDVH LQ WKH WLPH ZRPHQ spend on managing and disciplining their bodies, arguing such UHJLPHQVWREH³GLYHUVLRQDU\DQGVXEYHUWLQJ [thereby causing women to engage in] a pursuiW ZLWKRXW D WHUPLQXV´   6R ZKDW ZRXOG women be doing if not obsessing over their appearance? What would LWEHOLNHLIZRPHQ¶VIDFHVDQGERGLHVZHUHVXEODWHGLQWRWKHSUD[LVRI OLIH"-HIIUH\VFRQWHQGVWKDWOLSVWLFNZHDULQJ³FRQVXPHVZRPHQ¶VWLPH money DQG HPRWLRQDO VSDFH´   :KDW ZRXOG WKHLU WLPH PRQH\ and emotional space be focused on if not on looking young and beautiful, or hating themselves for failing to do so? It is hard to answer these questions with complete accuracy because beauty, style, and fashion have long been entangled into commodity culture, but they are still questions that offer the hope of something different. The grand catch of the beauty myth is that everybody loses its daily competitions, but it does not stop people from competing in droves. In studies of women and competition, beauty is a continued area of contestation, leading some to argue that women primp for

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other women just as much as, if not more so, than for men. In Hating Women, a study of female representation in popular culture, rabbinic scholar Shmuley Boteach ponders why contemporary feminists are not more critical of how women are portrayed in popular realms. While VRPHRI%RWHDFK¶VFRQFOXVLRQVDUHWURXEOLQJ²for instance, he argues that women are better than men and that they should be idolized²his observations are noteworthy. Regardless of what theory is trendy in the academy, the majority of Westerners regularly see women represented on television and the Internet, and it is from those realms that Boteach categorizes the four popular paradigms of femininity: The Greedy Gold Digger, The Publicity-Seeking Prostitute, The Brainless Bimbo, and The Backstabbing Bitch (30). More often than not, women in popular culture entertainment dig, seek, act brainless, and backstab to the detriment of other women and in order to get a man. They are cruel and abusive to each other in the process, almost always critiquing the other for physical imperfections and often resorting to the speciesist insults so common in contemporary culture: pig, cow, and bitch. Once again, beauty competitions between women are almost always heteronormative. Luise Eichenbaum and Susie Orbach state, ³&RPSHWLWLRQ DPRQJ ZRPHQ KDV KLVWRULFDOO\ FHQWHUHG RQ JHWWLQJ PHQ¶V DWWHQWLRQ :RPHQ KDYH FRPSHWHG ZLth each other to have the SUHWWLHVW GUHVV WKH QHZHVW KDLUGR WKH VZHHWHVW SHUVRQDOLW\´   Next, they argue that despite this jockeying for a position under the PDOHJD]HZRPHQZHUHDUHUHDOO\VHHNLQJHDFKRWKHU¶VDSSURYDOIRU eliciting envy from another woman is sure sign of their own success. Etcoff agrees, stating that while women allow other women top spots ³LQ WKH IHPDOH KLHUDUFK\ >«@ WKH\ DOVR HQY\ WKHVH ZRPHQ DQG WKH envy poisons the pleasure. Envy is hostility toward the very thing one desirHV´-69). But what Etcoff sloughs off as biology, others see as a bitter consequence of a patriarchally-imposed conception of IHPLQLQLW\-RKQVRQVWDWHVWKDWHDFK³IRUPRIEHDXW\LVDIRUPRIWUXWK though of course not all the truth: it is the truth about the valorization RI UHDOLW\ IURP D SDUWLFXODU SRLQW RI YLHZ´   (QY\ DQG competition may be facts of human nature, but they are facts made more destructive under patriarchy. :RPHQ¶V XQ VSRNHQ EHDXW\ FRPSHWLWLRQV DQG ULYDOULHV DUH bound to the hierarchical culture that breeds them, but Etcoff is wrong about who is on top, and messages such as hers prevent women from forming stronger bonds, thus remaining perpetual enemies even as they declare each other friends. (They are ³IUHQHPLHV´LQWKHSDUODQFH

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of popular culture.) Wolf actually argues that the beauty myth offers ZRPHQWKHSURPLVHRIVROLGDULW\³DQ,QWHUQDWLRQDOH´ 6KHKDVD point insofar as seemingly every culture demands some expectation of femininity, be it veils or shaved armpits. However, both of their arguments are still underpinned by the contention of choice and by the image of women forming solidarity by giving into the very demands that keep them oppressed. In Catfight, a cultural study of women and competition, Leora Tannenbaum asks and responds to a notable question that defies (WFRII¶VLGHDVRQWKHEHDXW\KLHUDUFK\ Whose interests are served by our relentless compulsion to belittle other women? By and large a small number of privileged, individual women benefit from this state of affairs. They reap the UHZDUGV RI ³ZLQQLQJ´ IHPLQLQLW\ 7KH\ UHPDLQ DW WKH WRS RI WKH feminine social pecking order. Still, even the stature of these fortunate few is quite limited when compared to the stature of the group that truly benefits from our situation²men in power. (25)

0HQ EHQHILW IURP ZRPHQ¶V FRPSHWLWLRQ MXVW DV PXFK DV KLHUDUFKLFDO FRPPRGLW\ FXOWXUH KDV FUHDWHG ZRPHQ¶V PDUNHW YDOXHV ³&RPPRGLWLHV DPRQJ WKHPVHOYHV DUH QRW HTXDO QRU DOLNH QRU different. They only become so when they are compared by and for PDQ´ ,ULJDUD\, ³:RPHQ RQ WKH 0DUNHW´ -  :RPHQ¶V competition, then, is part and parcel to the distraction discussed previously. Even the most beautiful woman in the world, a subjective ideal, is not at the top of any hierarchy, as she too is a product owned, and she must compete for what is still peddled as the ultimate prize² male companionship and consideration. Every woman loses Western FXOWXUH¶V EHDXW\ SDJHDQW EXW IRU WKHVH GDQJHURXV P\WKV WR FRQWLQXH ZRPHQ¶V GLVWUDFWLRQ DQG FRPpetition must be sold as natural and liberating $V ,ULJDUD\ WKRXJKWIXOO\ DVNV ³>:@ithout the exploitation of women, what would become of WKHVRFLDORUGHU"´³:RPHQRQWKH 0DUNHW´  Torres resonates Irigaray¶VVHQWLPHQWVin Making a Killing. He gives a definition of speciesism that might well also define sexism, as interpolated KHUH³)DUIURPEHLQJDVLPSOHSUHMXGLFHDJDLQVWDQLPDOV [women] simply for being animals [women], speciesism [sexism] is woven into our mental, social, and economic machinery, and reproduced through interaction of these parts²it is a structural aspect of our political-HFRQRPLF RUGHU´   $V 7RUUHV FRQWLQXHV DUJXLQJ violence underlies this political-economic order, and it does so for women as well as for animals. By its very definition, you cannot have a non-violent culture that is founded on violence. The violence enacted upon animals in commodity culture is blatantly obvious,

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though paradoxically ignored, as will be discussed below, but there is also violence in the pursuit of beauty through advances in the technologies of pleasure. It is on this point that Wolf and Etcoff engage in an unaccounted for double speak. Wolf argues that cosmetic surgery turns the female human LQWRD³PDQ-made woman [and the] walking ZRXQGHG´   Etcoff, just before declaring that the concept of beauty-as-GLYHUVLRQ LV ³QRQVHQVH´ VWDWHV ³&XOWLYDWLQJ EHDXW\ FRVWV PRQH\WDNHVXSWLPHDQGFDQGUDLQHPRWLRQDOUHVRXUFHV´ +RZ can they have such conflicting positions? Because beauty is a choice ³DQGZHQHHGWRILJXUHRXWIRURXUVHOYHVKRZPXFKWLPHDQGHIIRUWZH want to JLYH LW´ (WFRII   $OWKRXJK (WFRII next mentions that ³FRVPHWLFVSODVWLFVXUJHU\DQGFORWKLQJ>DUH@WKUHHJLDQWLQGXVWULHVLQ part devoted to false advertising´she still supports navigating through those industries to feed our innate desire to be admired. Without fail, ZRPHQ¶V feeding of this desire means altering their physical appearance. Non-medical breast augmentation and other cosmetic surgeries are so in demand that they are financed by loan companies. Therefore, it would seem that every womDQ FDQ QRZ ³FKRRVH´ QHZ breasts, new faces, and/or new genitalia through labiaplasty. There is even a Web site called My Free Implants through which men donate PRQH\WRZRPHQ¶VEUHDVWVXUJHU\IXQGVLQUHWXUQIRUOLYHLQWHUDFWLRQ custom photos, videos, and chats. The oldest profession goes modern with women now being paid in breasts. ³*RLQJXQGHUWKHNQLIH´LVWKH most violent outcome of the beauty imperative, and Jeffreys poses aesthetic surgeU\ DV ³VHOI-mutilation by proxy´ (4). While men do undergo cosmetic procedures for reasons of vanity, such surgeries are still very much a womDQ¶VVHOI-inflicted violence. ,Q ³:RPHQ DQG WKH .QLIH´ .DWKU\Q 3DXO\ 0RUJDQ GHFODUHV VXUJLFDODXJPHQWDWLRQWREHWKHFRORQL]DWLRQRIZRPHQ¶VERGLHVDQG much like Boteach, she wonders why critique of this topic is silenced in both feminist and bioethical discussions. After all, women are not performing these surgeries, sometimes multiple surgeries, on themselves 0RUJDQ TXHVWLRQV ZRPHQ¶V SHUVRQDO FKRLFHV QRW WR disempower them, but to suggest that such decisions are not autonomously made; false choice is in keeping with the unwritten rules of patriarchy, rules that are as deeply ingrained in Western FXOWXUH DVWKH\ DUHLQYLVLEOH7KDWLV WKH FRUH RI 0RUJDQ¶V DUJXPHQW She asVHUWV WKDW ZRPHQ LQ ³:HVWHUQ LQGXVWULDOL]HG VRFLHWLHV´ FRPH from a violent legacy, and

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now we are coming to know the knives and needles of the cosmetic surgeons²the knives that promise to sculpt our bodies, to restore our youth, to create beauty out of what was ugly and RUGLQDU\ :KDWNLQGRINQLYHVDUHWKHVH"0DJLFNQLYHV>«@LQD patriarchal context. Magic knives in a Eurocentric context. Magic knives in a white supremacist context. What do they mean? I am afraid of these knives. (312)

As well she should be. Knives are scary, but they are how we get our meat and our women into consumable form. Though as scary as knives are to some women, as terrifying as the prospect of being sliced open may be, a more terrifying thought is the image of their own unadorned faces in public, or the reflection of a face lined by time or framed by silver hair. How is it that our bodies in their natural states have come to be more terrifying than being cut open, torn up, and injected with poison (re Botox)? Who would have thought that %UHWRQ¶V FRQYXOVLYH EHDXW\²violent images of bruised, fragmented, scarred forms²would become de rigueur? Who could imagine that the monstrous faces and distorted bodies resulting from too many plastic surgeries would become an addiction? It is all so surreal. So, what are the options for a new destructivist aesthetic? The first option is going under cover, of hiding the female face. The Guerilla Girls, a troop of masked artists who reveal misogyny in the arts though the personae of well-known female artists, did just that ZLWKJUHDWVXFFHVV3HUKDSVZLWKWRRPXFKVXFFHVV,Q³*XHULOOD*LUO 3RZHU´(OL]DEHWK+HVVsurveys the controversy that arose when some of the women unmasked and pursued the paths that their new-found fame opened up for them. She quotes an anonymous Guerilla Girl as VWDWLQJ³:HFRXOGQ¶WEHDWWKHV\VWHPDQGMRLQLWDWWKHVDPHWLPH>«@ The group was moving in the wrong direction´ 7KLVUDLVHVWKH question of how long women were/are supposed to keep their masks on, of how long they should continue hiding under RWKHU¶V faces or made up exteriors. Initially, the Guerilla Girls were artists, albeit ignored ones. Critiquing them for exposing their faces and pursuing their art is akin to keeping them out of the art world because of those faces. The other extreme is a literal destruction that smacks of surrealism DQG0LVV/LFN¶VSURMHFWVEXWZKLOHLWLVLQWULJXLQJLWODFNV probity, in Kristine 6WLOHV¶VVHQVH (see Chapter Two). To wit, Morgan has contemplated a form of revolt in which women use cosmetic surgery to make themselves ugly, noting in Bretonian style that the ³XJO\ HYHQ LQ D EHDXW\-oriented culture, has always held its own fascination, its own particular kind of splHQGRU´ $OWKRXJKVKH KHUVHOI FULQJHV DW WKH WKRXJKW 0RUJDQ VXJJHVWV ³>E@OHDFKLQJ RQH¶V

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hair white and applying wrinkle-LQGXFLQJ µZULQNOH FUHDPV¶ KDYLQJ RQH¶VIDFHDQGEUHDVWVVXUJLFDOO\SXOOHGGRZQUDWKHUWKDQOLIWHG DQG having wrinkles sewn and FDUYHG LQWR RQH¶V VNLQ´   $JDLQ fascinating, but simply another case of women going under the knife RU DSSO\LQJ VHUXPV DV D UHDFWLRQ WR SDWULDUFK\ -XVW DV 2UODQ¶V surgeries captivate, and although they are backed by thoughtful premises, they have no place in a world view that argues against DQ\RQH¶V EHLQJ sliced open to become more marketable :RPHQ¶V purposeful surgical destruction is another example of self-mutilation for men, even if it is presumably done in defiance of them. A third option for women manifests as a new theory of FRQYXOVLYH EHDXW\ ZKLFK VLJQLILHV WKH ³VXUUHDOLVW FRPPLWPHQW WR compromise traditional aesthetics by shocking audiences with a range RI XQVSHDNDEOH KXPDQ H[SUHVVLRQV´ +XWFhinson 212). Rosalind Krauss notes that for Breton convulsive beauty manifests though mimicry, the cessation of dynamism, and chance findings, three areas outside the poem and the canvas (112). However, put in a FRQWHPSRUDU\DHVWKHWLFIHPLQLVWIUDPHZRUNWKHPRVW³VKRFNLQJ´DQG ³XQVSHDNDEOH´ WKLQJ D ZRPDQ²ideally, the mass of women²could do is nothing. This means taking off the masks and keeping them off (makeup, hair dressing, shaving, maintaining fashion standards, etc.). What social expectations, personal prejudices, and cultural repressions would be exposed via the unmasked woman? What terror would women experience as they contemplated an unmade face and body, as they accepted a wrinkle and sagging breasts over poison and knives? What of the woman who mimics nothing, navigates unmarked though life, and yet finds beauty in herself? Her own found-object. This is no mere scholarly fantasy, either, as there is a National No Makeup Day. This day of truth, of convulsive beauty, is not widely publicized, but WKHTXHVWLRQVLWDVNVDUHTXLWHWHOOLQJ³[W]hat are we so afraid of? Is it EHFDXVHZH¶UHVFDUHGWRVKRZRXUWUXHIDFHVWRWKHZRUOG"2ULVLWMXVW EHFDXVHZH¶YHEHFRPHDGGLFWHGWRKRZPDNHXSHQKDQFHVRXUQDWXUDO DVVHWV"´³1DWLRQDO1R0DNHXS'D\´  The new convulsive beauty is a style of indirect action in ZKLFK³ZRPHQFDQLQYHVWWKHPVHOYHVDQHZRXWVLGHWKHVWHUHRW\SHVRI western and non-western patriarchal culture. Women can have access to the privilege possessed by men of not having to be concerned for appearance and being able to go out in public barefaced and EDUHKHDGHG´ -HIIUH\V   $V 0LVV /LFN OHDUQHG WKURXJK RQH RI KHU projects in Geek Love, literal destruction is ultimately not the answer. To repeat, sKH VD\V RI WKH ZRPDQ ZKR LV EDOG DQG EUHDVWOHVV ³$QG

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VKH¶VVWLOOJRWWKHVH[WKLQJ,I,OHWKHUZDONIURPKHUURRPWRWKHFDQ three men would climb out of the light sockets on the way and find KROHV LQ KHU WR FUDP WKHLU GLFNV LQWR´   7KH new convulsive beauty is not about making women unattractive or deformed, it is about destroying the technologies of pleasure, as they are more about PHQ¶V SOHDVXUH WKDQ ZRPHQ¶V And this is inherently tied into a destruction of the technologies that make animals a pleasurable commodity for human to consume. They are both part of a deceptively simple project of leaving things alone that I will briefly investigate at the end of this chapter. This is not a puritanical stance. There is nothing wrong with the erotic, nor with being attractive, except for when a woman cannot access it without hacking though the muck and mire of cultural H[SHFWDWLRQWKDWRIIHUVRQO\RQHLGHDO,Q³8VHVRIWKH(URWLF´$XGUH /RUGH DVVHUWV ³7KH IHDU WKDW ZH FDQQRW JURZ EH\RQG ZKDWHYHU distortions we may find within ourselves keeps us docile and loyal and obedient, externally defined, and leads us to accept many facets of our RSSUHVVLRQ DV ZRPHQ´   ,Q FRQWHPSRUDU\ FXOWXUH HYHQ QDWXUDO beauty is distorted. For example, Dove beauty products²made by Unilever, a company that practices animal testing²launched the ³5HDO %HDXW\´ FDPSDLJQ LQ ZKLFK ZRPHQ RI DOO VKDSHV VL]HV DQG colors were featured. But despite their pro-woman, pro-natural beauty posturing, it turns out that the images of the women in their campaign were/are airbrushed. As Stiles aUJXHVLQ³1HYHU(QRXJKLVSomething Else´ DOO RI WKHVH ³>U@HOLJLRXV VRFLDO DQG FXOWXUDO IRUPDWLRQV >«@ provide the psychological conditioning that convinces women they are QHYHUHQRXJK´ 3DUDGR[LFDOO\ Dove tells women that their real beauty is not enough by airbrushing their models even as they promote WKDWYHU\VDPH³UHDO´EHDXW\ Lorde, Stiles, and others have sounded a call that demands attention to what women are underneath the distortions that keep us obedient, docile, and loyal to patriarchy. As Lorde defines it, the HURWLF LV ³DQ DVVHUWLRQ RI WKH OLIHIRUFH RI ZRPHQ RI WKDW FUHDWLYH energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our ZRUN RXU OLYHV´ 79). The new convulsive beauty reclaims the female body, taking it back from patriarchy, religion, industry, and even from surrealism. There is no final answer to the questions of what woman or man is, but compulsory beauty and hyper-sexualized femininity have declared what woman is not²good enough. Lorde states WKDWZRPHQ³need to examine the ways in which our world can

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EH WUXO\ GLIIHUHQW´   $ GHVWUXFWLRQ RI :HVWHUQ EHDXW\ P\WKV LV one of those ways. In the next section, these underlying messages of freedom and binary destruction (ugly/beautiful, man/woman, public/private) are transposed from the frame of popular culture and placed into those cultural arenas where change is contemplated and enacted. Along with a destruction of beauty, a destruction of spheres demands contemplation, but through this destruction comes an expansion through which the lifeforce of women, animals, ecology, and other marginalized groups can become melded and recognized. If women gave up their masks and fashions, a great number of animals would be saved, as there would be no need for the animal testing and slaughter that precede such products. However, the connection is much deeper and more profound than is implied through an investigation of commodity chains. Therein, I address performative acts of sublation EH\RQG LPDJHV RI WKH LPDJLQHG ³XQPDUNHG´ ZRPDQ XOWLPDWHO\ considering what such theories have to do with freedom for nonhuman animals and the promise of a more just world.

Expanding Spheres and Performing Sublation [Public spaces] preserved a kind of social intercourse that, far from presupposing the equality of status, disregarded status altogether. ²Jürgen Habermas It is impossible to create a radical and innovative art if this work is anchored in one special gallery location. ²Group Material (art collective)

The beauty myth is born from and sustains patriarchy, consumption, and violence. But the destruction of that myth, while highly necessary, is part of a larger proposal for liberation. Thus, this section plumbs the social world in an effort to expand consideration of the public, thereby re-engaging a topic and question addressed in the previous chapter. Voice. Who gets heard? Added to this query is reflection on how the supposedly voiceless6 can be acknowledged as a 6

Of course, animals do have voices in that they utter sounds indicating responses to outside stimuli, so it is erroneous to call them voiceless. However, as they do not speak the human languages to which we are accustomed, they are rendered ³YRLFHOHVV´LQDVSHFLHVLVWVHQVHKHQFHP\XVHRIWKHWHUP

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mute public, a term not to be confused with Nixon-era conceptions of WKH ³VLOHQW PDMRULW\´ :KLOH WKH VLOHQW PDMRULW\ UHIHUV WR WKH PDVV RI people who do not publicly express their views and opinions, the mute public signifies living members of our society, forced into our society, who are literally incapable of speaking and thinking as human beings²nonhuman animals. In Jürgen +DEHUPDV¶V The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere,7 he states that everybody is represented in the ideal public sphere regardless of status (see epigraph above). However, VXEVHTXHQWWKHRULVWVKDYHH[SRVHGWKHOLPLWVWR+DEHUPDV¶VFRQFHSWRI ³HYHU\ERG\.´ «@PDVFXOLQH SUDFWLFHVLQ SXEOLF SROLWLFDO DQG VFLHQWLILFVSKHUHWRSURFHHGDPRUDOO\´³$QLPDO5LJKWV and Feminist Theory´ 67  )UDVHU ZRXOG VHHP WR DUJXH WKDW 'RQRYDQ¶V XVH RI WKH WHUP³SULYDWHVSKHUH´UHVXOWVIURP³FRQIXVLRQ´RURYHUVLPSOLILFDWLRQ :KDW+DEHUPDVWHUPHGWKH³FRQMXJDOIDPLO\¶VLQWHUQDOVSDFH [shared room with] civil society (commodity exchange and social labor) [within the] SULYDWH UHDOP´   'HVSLWH WKLV QRQ-binary view of KXPDQ FXOWXUH )UDVHU LV FRUUHFW LQ WKDW 'RQRYDQ¶V XVH RI WKH WHUPV ³SULYDWHDVZRPDQ¶VZRUOG´DQG³SXEOLFDVPHQ¶VZRUOG´LVHYLGHQWLQ much feminist discourse. However, Fraser does not seem to consider that those who use the term may be doing so outside of any Habermasian context, or what she calls in the title of her essay ³DFWXDOO\H[LVWLQJGHPRFUDF\´DVWKH\DUHUHIHUULQJPRUHEURDGO\WRD pattern of patriarchal, dualistic, gender demarcations that preceded the conjugal family and civil society. With that said, Fraser paints and presents the supposedly IHPLQLVW PLVFRQFHSWLRQ RI +DEHUPDV DV ³OHVV WUDJLF´ WKDQ WKH LQVWLWXWLRQDOL]DWLRQ RI ³VRFLDOLVW YLVLRQ´ WKDW RFFXUUHG ZKHQ WKH VWDWH 7

All attributions to Habermas in this section are taken from this work.

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apparatus and the public sphere converged (2). This dilemma leads to a discussion of why the public sphere is still so significant and that, at least to some extent, it must remain distinct from the economy and the state lest it become ideologically infected by those institutions. Habermas describes the public sphere, developed in eighteenthcentury Europe, as the sphere of private people come together as a public; they soon claimed the public sphere regulated from above against the public authorities themselves, to engage them in a debate over the general rules governing relations in the basically privatized but publicly relevant sphere of commodity exchange and social labor. The medium of this political confrontation was peculiar and without historical precHGHQW SHRSOH¶V SXEOLF XVH RI WKHLU UHDVRQ (27)

Through this rhetorical medium, the public could, theoretically, keep a FKHFN RQ JRYHUQPHQW DFWLYLWLHVMXVWDVWKH ³FRPPHUFLDOUHODWLRQVKLSV [of] traffic in commodities and news´ EHFDPH D ZD\ RI OLYLQJ (Habermas 15). In tandem, the public sphere was also a potential forum for discussion of non-state matters pertaining to philosophical and intellectual pursuits. In both ways, it is through the ³PHGLXP´RI WDON WKDW WKH SXEOLF VSKHUH EHFDPH ³DQ LQVWLWXWLRQDOL]Hd arena of GLVFXUVLYHLQWHUDFWLRQ´)UDVHU :KLOH+DEHUPDVDFNQRZOHGJHVWKDW WKH SXEOLF VSKHUH VKRXOG QRW LQGLFDWH ³the public, [it does act as a] mouthpiece [and] educator²the new form of bourgeois UHSUHVHQWDWLRQ´ )RUWKHSXUSRVHVRIWKLVSURMHFW, the sphere that Habermas lauds is a way for the public to express opinion, educate, represent the mute public and engage in critical debate with each other as they critically assess the State. ScholarVKDYHPDLQWDLQHGWKHQHHGIRU+DEHUPDV¶VFRQFHSWLRQ of the public sphere, while also noting limitations to it. Although Habermas painted the public sphere as inclusive, his private people DUH SRVHG DV ³SURSHUWLHG DQG HGXFDWHG´ DQG PRVW FHUWDLQO\ male²in other words, the bourgeois (37). Further, his emphasis on critical reason is firmly grounded in Enlightenment, specifically Kantian, SKLORVRSK\ &RQVLGHULQJ KRZ ZRPHQ ³SULPLWLYH´ FXOWXUHV DQG DQLPDOVIDUHGWKHUHLQ+DEHUPDV¶VFRQFHSWLRQRI³HYHU\ERG\´GRHVQ¶W mean everyERG\ $V )UDVHU DUJXHV WKH SXEOLF VSKHUH ZDV ³D masculinist ideological notion that functioned to legitimate an HPHUJHQW IRUP RI FODVV UXOH´   ,W ultimately legitimized a reasonbased hegemonic world-view. Habermas presented a uni-spherical vision of the public, fetishizing the concepts of rational debate, public opinion, and general consensus to the detriment of other social groups and rhetorical

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SRVVLELOLWLHV ,Q ³7KH 6XEMHFW RI -XVWLFH´ 'DYLG ,QJUDP LQYHVWLJDWHV those scholars who have challengHG+DEHUPDV¶VP\RSLFSHUVSHFWLYH For example, Ingram notes that Jean-François Lyotard questions the YHU\QRWLRQRI³XQFRQVWUDLQHGFRQVHQVXVDVDJRDORIUDWLRQDOVSHHFK >«@DQGKHRSSRVHVLWWRRWKHUJRDOVVXFKDVWKHLQYHQWLRQRIGHYLDQW vocabulary and the assertion of differences. For him, dissensus ZURXJKW E\ LQYHQWLRQ LV SUHIHUDEOH WR FRQVHQVXV´   Murray %RRNFKLQDJUHHVFRQWHQGLQJWKDW³OLNHLWRUQRWKXPDQLW\KDVHDWHQ RI WKH IUXLW RI NQRZOHGJH´ DQG HDFK SHUVRQ UHVSRQGV WR OLIH¶V quandaries EDVHGRQKLVRUKHU³KLVWRU\DQGH[SHULHQFH´ 7KXV complete consensus is a myth, and those who disagree with the PDMRULW\VKRXOGEHDWWHQGHGWR³JHQWO\´EXWZLWKWKHNQRZOHGJHWKDW dissensus is a given within a community of individuals. ,QJUDP DOVR VXSSRUWV D ³FRPPXQLW\ RI GLVWLQFW VSKHUHV [that interact with each other] in a just or non-KHJHPRQLF PDQQHU´   Others have supported a similar concept of multiple communities, all of which will have a public voice. As Coco Fusco states, ³5DGLFDO FXOWXUH SURGXFHUV DQG WKHRULVWV KDYH >«@ SURSRVHG WKDW WKLV SXEOLF sphere, rather than being homogeneous, unified and rational, is better conceived of as fragmented and heterogeneous terrain that should remain open to oppositional cultural and polLWLFDO DFWLYLW\´ Corpus Delecti   )UDVHU DJUHHV FRQWHQGLQJ WKDW RQH RI +DEHUPDV¶V missteps is in assuming that only one public sphere is desirable, LJQRULQJERWKWKHH[LVWHQFHRIDQGQHHGIRUZKDWVKHWHUPV³VXEDOWHUQ FRXQWHUSXEOLFV´  If the purpose of the public sphere is to hold the State accountable for its actions, +DEHUPDV¶V ³HYHU\ERG\´ VKRXOG UHDOO\ PHDQ ³HYHU\ body´ However, DV &ROLQ 0RRHUV VXJJHVWV ³&HUWDLQ types of bodies [are] socially visible while others remain largely invLVLEOH´LQKLHUDUFKLFDO:HVWHUQFXOWXUHVKRZLQJ+DEHUPDVWRKDYH a circumscribed (bourgeois) view of representation (2). It is just those invisible bodies upon which the free market is built, and the beauty myth rears its ugly head once again. Irigaray stDWHV WKDW ³ZRPHQ¶V bodies²through their use, consumption, and circulation²provide for the condition making social life and culture possible, although they UHPDLQ DQ XQNQRZQ µLQIUDVWUXFWXUH¶ RI WKH HODERUDWLRQ RI WKDW VRFLDO OLIHDQGFXOWXUH´³:RPHQRQWKH 0DUNHW´171). Third World workers and nonhuman animals surely populate this ³XQNQRZQLQIUDVWUXFWXUH´ as well, and they have been ignored within traditional concepts, and even revisions, of the public sphere. Mooers concludes that issues of embodiment must be tended to within larger discussions of the public.

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His insistence on inclusivity is an initiative concisely summarized by Fraser: ³>7@KHLGHDRIDQHJDOLWDULDQPXOWLFXOWXUDOVRFLHW\ makes sense only if we suppose a plurality of public arenas in which groups with diverse values and rhetorics participate. By definition, such a society must contain DPXOWLSOLFLW\RISXEOLFV´  Habermas argues for an interconnection of spheres within his social schema, stating that although the sphere of the market has been VHHQWREHGLVWLQFWIURPWKH³LQWLPDWHVSKHUH´RIWKHIDPLO\WKHODWWHU LV ³SURIRXQGO\ FDXJKW XS LQ WKH UHTXLUHPHQWV RI WKH PDUNHW´   Despite this alloZDQFH IRU ³FDXVDO´ FRQQHctions, Habermas has an incomplete view of who within this schema gets represented in public forums. In conjunction, Mooers contends that until the alienated laboring body (which is of the market and the intimate sphere) is FRQVLGHUHG DQG XQWLO ³WKH FDSLWalist dialectic of embodiment and GLVHPERGLPHQW RI SUHVHQFH DQG DEVHQFH´ LV GLVVROYHG WKH FXOWXUDO differentiation of spheres will continue (27). In effect, both are arguing that what happens in one area of life intrinsically affects another, and often determines another. Looking at areas of human life separately prevents a holistic view of oppression, thus preventing the public from seeing the fundamental injustices that underlie elements of their lives, diet included. Within these critical discussions of justice, parity, and voice summarized here, little thought has been given to the natural environment that underlies each and every area of social life, from the market, to the family, to the coffee house, to the State. Social anarchist Murray Bookchin has provided a strong voice for advocating consideration of the nonhuman world in conjunction with social issues, a theory he calls social ecology. For precise and comprehensive meaning, I quote explanation of his theory at length: Social ecology is based on the conviction that nearly all of our present ecological problems originate in deep-seated social SUREOHPV>«] [T]hese ecological problems cannot be understood, let alone solved, without careful understanding of our existing society and the LUUDWLRQDOLWLHV WKDW GRPLQDWH LW >«] [E]conomic, ethnic, cultural, and gender conflicts, among many others, lie at the core of the most serious ecological dislocations we face today >«@ 8QOHVV ZH FOHDUO\ UHFRJQL]H WKLV ZH ZLOO IDLO WR VHH WKDW hierarchical mentality and class relationships that so thoroughly permeate society are what has given rise to the very idea of dominating the natural world. (19-20)

Bookchin stresses that ecological crises arise from social problems, and both are founded upon a right to dominate. Thus, when a laborer creates products from which she will eventually become alienated,

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ZKLOH ILOOLQJ KHU ERVV¶V SRFNHWV WKH QHZ SURGXFW QHFHVVDULO\ FRPHV from materials (wood, cows, coral) that have already been detached from their natural states. Domination is not relegated to the spheres of human beings, and it is not only human beings who are oppressed under the patriarchy and capitalism that rely on domination. Animals and nature deserve consideration in the public sphere, though they are mute by KXPDQ VWDQGDUGV 7KXV WKH DEVHQW UHIHUHQW PXVW EH ³UHVWRUHG WR discourse, allowing their stories to be part of the narrative, opening, in VKRUW WKH SRVVLELOLW\ RI GLDORJXH ZLWK WKHP´ 'RQRYDQ, ³&DULQJ WR 'LDORJXH´   -RVHSKLQH 'RQRYDQ¶V HFRfeminist perspective is suggestive of social ecology. However, despite connotations of the term, social ecology should not be equated with ecofeminism or deep ecology, as Bookchin is blatantly hostile toward both, arguing that the IRUPHU ³SDQGHU>V@ WR D P\th of gender superiority, [while the later] HPSKDVL]H>V@ DQ DQLPDOLVWLF UHGXFWLRQLVP´   )XUWKHU DOWKRXJK Bookchin was not an animal rights activist, the domination of sentient beings is especially provocative because, despite what choice Enlightenment philosophers may have declared, they have complex minds and can undoubtedly suffer under assumptions of human supremacy. 7RUUHVVWDWHVWKDWGRPLQDWLRQLVSDUWRI³WKHDLUWKDWFDSLWDOLVP EUHDWKHVDWOHDVWWKURXJKWKHLPSRVLWLRQRIWKHFRPPRGLW\IRUP>«@ it cannot be meaningfully divorced from the regular function of the V\VWHP LWVHOI´   7DNHQ D VWHS IXUWKHU FDSLWDOLVP VWHPV IURP SDWULDUFK\ WKH ³KDUVKHVW DQG PRVW FRHUFLYH IRUP [of domination in which the male] has life-and-death command over all other members RI WKH JURXS´ %RRNFKLQ   7KH PDOH KDV OLIH-and-death command over nature as well. As noted by Maria Mies in Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale, nature, women, and the colonized ZHUHDUH WUHDWHG DV ³IUHH JRRGV´ and endless resources (x). She also asserts that capitalism is just a contemporary manifestation of the patriarchal cultural structure that declares ownership over elements of the natural world, which includes other animals, human and nonhuman. Both capitalism and patriarchy are, by necessity, founded RQ YLROHQFH 7KH ZRPDQ¶V GRPLQDWLRQ LV WKH IRUHVW¶V GRPLQDWLRQ LV WKH7KLUG:RUOG¶VGRPLQDWLRQLVWKHKRPRVH[XDO¶VGRPLQDWLRQ, is the FKLFNHQ¶VGRPLQDWLRQ. If the public sphere is to be effective as a place for critical debate, as a collective voice that contends against governmental and corporate greed, excess and corruption, a real inclusivity, regardless of

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human/nonhuman/sentient status, must be enacted. This is a thorny SURSRVDODVLWDVNVSDUWLFLSDQWVWRFRQFHLYH³RIVRPHWhing so alien to RXU XVXDO FRQFHSWLRQ RI KLHUDUFK\ DQG UXOHV >«@ 7KH SUREOHP RI unifying our own nature is compounded further when we, ourselves, DUHUHPRYHGIURPWKHUHVWRIQDWXUH´.KHHO ,QFOXVLYLW\GHPDQGV a destruction of binaries. To wit, Habermas and his critics are concerned with the social world, organizations such as PETA, HSUS, and EDF claim concern for the natural world, but as Bookchin argues, ³:H PXVW JR EH\RQG ERWK WKH QDWXUDO DQG WKH VRFLDO WRZDUG D QHZ synthesis that contains the best RI ERWK´   ,Q VXP WKH SXEOLF sphere still holds promise, but conception of it must be expanded to include nature and its nonhuman creatures, which Bookchin declares a ³QHZSXEOLFVSKHUH´ (ULF 0DUFXV DUJXHV WKDW WKH DQLPDO ULJKWV PRYHPHQW¶V principal failure is in existing only for the sake of keeping itself afloat, settling for flashy literature and monetary donations over actual change (93). At their worst, these organizations become corporations with highly paid executives. Bookchin sees a similar foundering in RWKHU VRFLDO PRYHPHQWV WKDW ODFN D ³SROLWLFDO SHUVSHFWLYH WKDW ZLOO bring them into the public arena´  HPSKDVLV DGGHG  $V DUJXHG throughout this study, this political perspective must be to end hierarchy, and here my thesis comes full circle to a point on which this SURMHFW¶V Introduction was based: reflection upon what Renato 3RJJLROLWHUPHGWKHPRVW³DQWLSROLWLFDO´RIDOOSROLWLFDOSHUVSHFWLYHV² anarchism. Rather than repeat previous sentiments about anarchism, it should suffice here to sXJJHVWWKDWWKLV³DQWLSROLWLFDO´V\VWHPVKRXOGDW least be considered as part of the political identity that will allow social movements to survive in the public arena.8 Political perspectives, holistic worldviews, and true inclusivity, while necessary in a new manifestation of the public sphere, are useless without allowing for thought as to where the public sphere is or is not located. As Fraser and others have noted, the sphere of private individuals formed into a public grouping is a highly abstract idea as opposed to an explicit locale. Others continue to see it DV OLWHUDOO\ EDVHG LQ WKH FRPPXQLW\ %RRNFKLQ DUJXHV WKDW ³UDGLFDO activity has been sustained by strong community bonds, a public VSKHUH SURYLGHG E\ VWUHHWV VTXDUHV DQG FDIpV´   )RU DOO Whe scholarship about it, the public sphere is in many ways a place that 8

Bookchin actually supports Communalism/Libertarian Municipalism, a melding of Marxism and anarchism, as providing the ideal blueprint for a non-hierarchical society.

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never existed, but it is also a malleable ideal that can take many forms. Regardless of its existence or nonexistence, the original sites of eighteenth-century coffee houses, salons, and periodicals are not twenty-first-century coffee houses, salons, and periodicals, at least not in the United States where those terms mean Starbucks, beauty parlors, and People Magazine. Therefore, the public sphere needs to be modernized if our objective really is to reach a wider public as we speak for a mute public (as opposed to only speaking to other intellectuals and/or activists already in agreement with the message). Mooers discusses the ways in which cyberspace has held promise for a post-human, post-embodiment refiguration of private people entering a public, albeit virtual, realm. However, he notes limits therein, asserting that the liberational disembodiment promised E\WKH:RUOG:LGH:HELVDQ³LOOXVLRQ´,WKDVQRWSURYLGHGa forum for people to shake off their corporeal beings completely while finding parity with others. Still, the Web has been used as a proposed location for the public sphere. For example, the online Public Sphere Project SURPLVHV WR ³KHOS FUHDWH DQG VXSSRUt equitable and effective public VSKHUHV DOO RYHU WKH ZRUOG´ HIIHFWLYHO\ DWWHPSWLQJ D IXQQHO WKURXJK which multiple spheres can voice opinion. Although this is an intriguing idea, it seems to have suffered the fate of many fascinating Web sites: as of this writing, it has not been updated in about a year. While the exact location of the public sphere may never be fixed, interactive avant-garde performance, whether deliberately artistic or otherwise, continues to offer promise within the public realm. Thus, I respectfully and emphatically disagree ZLWK%RRNFKLQ¶V DVVHUWLRQWKDW³VWUHHWWKHDWHUKRZHYHUDUWIXOO\UHGXFHVVHULRXVLVVXHV WR VLPSOLVWLF SHUIRUPDQFHV WKDW KDYH QR LQVWUXFWLYH LQIOXHQFH´   In contrast, performance still holds the promise of transformation, though street performance is certainly not the only public sphere. Much as others have argued for multiple communities, there can also be multiple sites in which those communities converge. Street theater, as Bookchin calls it, literally signifies public spaces taken over, however briefly, by private individuals via semi- to moderatelyscripted performance that necessitates audience feedback and FRQVLGHUDWLRQ$VGLVFXVVHGLQ&KDSWHU2QHLQ³2QWKH1HFHVVLW\RI 9LRODWLRQ´ GHVWUXFWLYLVW -HDQ-Jacques Lebel asserts that a new ODQJXDJHLVQHHGHG³WRUHFRJQL]HDQGH[SORUHWKHIRUELGGHQWHUULWRULHV which had hitherto halted modern art, had to force a complete reexamination of the cultural and historical situation of art. This language is the HappenLQJ´ Lebel surmises that the time is nigh

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for political demonstrations to one day lapse into Happenings, those HYHQWV WKDW HQGHDYRU ³WR H[SDQG DQG OLEHUDWH GDLO\ OLIH DV ERWK D SUDFWLFHDQGDFRQFHSW´6HOO, Avant-Garde Performance 190). 3RODQG¶V 2range Alternative, a non-violent anti-communist anarchy movement most active in the 1980s, provides a relevant model of public performance as transformative theater, and it traces its lineage back to the project of surrealism. Most importantly, its primary objective is to tell the truth. Though Communism was in their crosshairs at the start, ultimately their goal was WR FKDOOHQJH ³RQ WKH VWUHHWV WKH 6WDWH PRQRSRO\ RQ 7UXWK´ %UDQFKIORZHU  7KH 2UDQJH Alternative has very serious inequities to address, such as workers rights, but they do so with a sense of levity that revolutionary PRYHPHQWV RIWHQ OHDYH EHKLQG ,Q WKH ³0DQLIHVWR RI 6RFLDOLVW Surrealism´:DOGHPDU³0DMRU´)\GU\FKGHFODUHV³/HWXVKDYHIXQ our destiny is not a cross. What sense does it make to suffer when you FDQHQMR\\RXUVHOI´This sentiment is aptly mirrored in the memoir of DQLPDO DFWLYLVW 'DQ 0DWKHZV ZKR UHYHDOV ³:KHQ , ZDNH XS each PRUQLQJP\ILUVWWKRXJKWLVQ¶WI want to help animals, but I want to have fun´ 9 His tales go on to prove that both are possible, though the fun should never be had at the expense of forgetting the seriousness of animal abuse. The Orange AlternatLYH¶VYHUVLRQRIIXQ involves Happenings, orchestrated performances, nonsensical graffiti, mock trials in public forums and, their most prominent symbol: little people dressed as dwarves. Therefore, in case of mass arrests, the police will become part of the absurdity as they are filmed putting handcuffs on orange-clad characters from folk tales. All of these acts would be meaningless if not for interaction and observation within various public arenas, as each citizen is asked to join in. Such activities are all inclusive and finally make true +DEHUPDV¶V DVVHUWLRQ WKDW WKH SXEOLF VSKHUH ³SUHVHUYHG D NLQG RI social intercourse that, far from presupposing the equality of status, disregardeG VWDWXV DOWRJHWKHU´   0uch like Fusco and Nao %XVWDPHQWH¶V Stuff, the Orange Alternative uses spectacle to engage the public and give voice to subaltern counterpublics. Additionally, Baz Kershaw notes that VSHFWDFOH KDV ³EHFRPH D IDEXORXVO\ IOH[LEOH IRUFH IRU FKDQJH 3DUDGR[LFDOO\ WKLV QHZ SRWHQWLDO >«@ UHVXOWV IURP the abiding fact that spectacle seems always to transform the human, 9

Considering my previous critique of PETA, I should note that Mathews is an activist with that organization. So, while his affiliation does not necessarily make his comment any less relevant, it does conjure up the ways in which PETA has (ab)used WKHIHPDOHERG\WRPDNHDQLPDOOLEHUDWLRQPRUH³IXQ´

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KRZHYHU FRQFHLYHG LQWR VRPHWKLQJ PRUH RU OHVV WKDQ LWVHOI´   Spectacle transforms as much as truth telling, and it insists upon interface with private individuals who have come to a public place to engage in discourse of the body and mind. The only missing element, of course, is public use of pure reason, which is a desired absence, a point to be discussed below. The style of performance described therein is activist art, an avant-garde expression that comes closest to seeing through the historical avant-JDUGH¶V GHVLUH WR GHVWUR\ WKH LQVWLWXWLRQ RI DUW LQ bourgeois society. As Peter Bürger explains in Theory of the AvantGarde³:KDWLVQHJDWHGLVQRWDQHDUOLHUIRUPRIDUWDVW\OH EXWDUW as an institution that is unassociated with the life praxis of men. When the avant-gardists demand that art become practical one again, they do not mean that the contents of works of art should be socially VLJQLILFDQW´   7KLV GHILQLWLRQ RI VXEODWLRQ LV DW LWV FRUH destructivist, and it reiterates the premises of communal cultural theory: ³7KH VHSDUDWLRQ EHWZHHQ OLIH DQG ZRUN VR SUHYDOHQW LQ WKH modern capitalist economy, must be overcRPH´ %RRNFKLQ   Successive activist art movements have attempted both styles of sublation²artistic and social. But while art can theoretically become practical, making art socially insignificant presents more of a challenge, and in this reality lies a conjectured flaw within the traditional avant-garde definition of sublation²the assumption that any object, ideology, or idea that is a part of the social world can ever be deprived of deeper meaning and significance. By the very definition of sublation, it is impossible to know when a work of art has ceased to be socially significant. Bürger explains³:KHQDUWDQGWKHSUD[LVRIOLIHDUHRQHZKHQWKHSUD[LVLV DHVWKHWLF DQG DUW LV SUDFWLFDO DUW¶V SXUSRVH FDQ QR ORQJHU EH discovered, because the existence of two distinct spheres (art and the praxis of life) that is constitutive of the concept of purpose or intended XVH KDV FRPH WR DQ HQG´   0XFK OLNH WKH ROG TXDQGDU\ RI D WUHH IDOOLQJ LQ WKH ZRRGVWKH TXHVWLRQ KHUHLV³,I DUW LV VXEODWHGLQWR WKH pUD[LV RI OLIH GRHVLW PDNH D VRXQG RU OHDYH DWUDFH"´7KHRUHWLFDOO\ no. However, art can still become fused with life practice while also expanding a conception of what art is. From the pyramids of Egypt, to 0DUFHO'XFKDPS¶VUHDG\-mades, to the newest Wal-Mart architectural edifice, humans do not create anything in a vacuum. Everywhere and all around us are works of human production that represent the politics, ideas, and desires of a particular culture. Rather than ignore social significance, the avant-garde, despite their best intentions, has

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always been most successful in exploring what human creations mean and in exposing alternative truths. This exposition has been taken up by activist artists. $V DIILUPHG E\ 1LQD )HOVKLQ DFWLYLVW DUW LV ³SURFHVV- rather than object- or project-oriented, and it usually takes place in public sites rather than within the context of art-ZRUOG YHQXHV´   0XFK like the destructivist, the activist artist does not create objects that can be hung in museums and galleries, after which detached audiences can mull over its beauty and/or social significance. Once the activist event is over, it has been destroyed as a finite and tangible entity, but its meaning, as recontextualized through the audience, remains. Felshin continues: Finally, when activist artists extend their collaborative way of working to an audience or community, the process takes the form of a similarly inclusive activity²audience participation. Such participation is a critical catalyst for change, a strategy with the potential to activate both individuals and communities, and takes many forms. (12)

In keeping with the argument made at the end of the previous chapter, it is just such acts of performative collage that are necessary for animals to have a socially recognized voice and be counted in when discussions of justice and parity occur. Activist art is a part of the community, as it is theory and praxis within the lifeworld. To borrow Carol $GDPV¶V WHUP WKLV LV D IRUP RI HQJDJHG VFKRODUVKLS The radical ALM can provide a forum for nonhumans within these public arenas that offer different conceptions of reality. Like the Orange Alternative, Group Material (GM), a New York City art collective most active in the late 1970s/early 1980s, demonstrated art sublated with life in just the way that Felshin describes. It was developed by young artists who, in the words of one RI WKHLU IRXQGHUV -XOLH $XOW ZHUH FULWLFDO RI WKH ³FRPSHWLWLYH DUW system in which an individual usually had to develop a signature voicH´ TWG LQ ³*URXS 0DWHULDO´  7KLV FROOHFWLYH GHPRQVWUDWHV WKH possibility of sublation, though the moments of fusion are fleeting. Jan $YJLNRVGHVFULEHV*0¶VPLVVLRQDVOHDGLQJDUWEDFNLQWRWKHSUD[LVRI life, while also giving new life to artistic moments. To the members, however, their meaning, purpose, and membership were left purposely ambiguous. Co-IRXQGHU'RXJ$VKIRUGVWDWHV³&RQWHPSRUDU\FULWLFDO writing often designs too limited a trajectory for non-gallery art practices. Group Material was always interested in trying to FRPSOLFDWH GHILQLWLRQV RI ERWK DFWLYLVP DQG DUW´ TWG LQ ³*URXS 0DWHULDO´ 

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Though vague at times, a mission of this collective was to PDNH DUW PDWWHU QRW MXVW WR WKHPVHOYHV EXW WR ³GLVHQIUDQFKLVHG audiences with whom they identified. Sponsoring cultural diversity, emphasizing community, promoting democratic ideals, righting LQMXVWLFH DUW LWVHOI ZRXOG EHFRPH DQ LQVWUXPHQW RI VRFLDO FKDQJH´ (Avgikos 89). Their integration was accomplished by layering messages into usual sites of the commercial landscape (i.e. public transportation) and asking their non-artist neighbors to display items within salon-VW\OHVKRZLQJV,QHIIHFW*0FUHDWHGDQ³DUWWKDWGLGQRW DQQRXQFH LWVHOI DV DUW´ $YJLNRV   7KHLU VXEODWLRQ ZDV PXOWLmedia, incorporating dance, music, film, and lecture to subtly disseminate messages of justice and democracy. Their sublation was not oblivion, but a use of art outside of institutional contexts, thereby GHVWUR\LQJ WKH LQVWLWXWLRQ LWVHOI $W OHDVW WKDW¶V KRZ LW ZDs in the beginning. Like many avant-JDUGHV *0¶V VXFFHVV LV FRXQWHG DV WKHLU failure by some. Along with problems in both maintaining space and meeting the needs of the working class public, GM eventually displayed their AIDS Timeline LQ1HZLQJ@ YLFWLP LQ GURYHV WR SROLWLFDO FRUUHctness, [of failing] to recognize the extent to which they have institutionalized the politics out of art by conVLJQLQJLWWRILJKWEDWWOHVLWFDQQHYHUZLQ´ 2QH of those unwinnable battles is the search for consistently tangible proof that art has become sublated into life praxis, as opposed to seeking discontinuous moments of sublation in which public arenas can become temporary sites of ideological, political, and aesthetic transformation. In effect, sublation often occurs within the eyes and minds of the altered observer, proof of which is sometimes, but not always, intangible. Conversely, institutional changes have been made due to activities of both BODFN DQG ZRPHQ¶V DYDQW-garde movements. The H[LVWHQFHWRGD\RI$IULFDQ$PHULFDQDQG:RPHQ¶V6WXGLHVSURJUDPV in higher education is partially the result of radical aesthetic activities and performances of those historically oppressed groups. In much the same way, critical animal studies is making its way into educational institutions as a viable topic of discourse, an outcome that has some basis in the activist art of ALM activists who have taken their message ³WR WKH VWUHHWV.´ As argued in the Introduction, the ALM needs to make these inroads into areas of heady critical debate, but because we presume to speak for a mute public, we have an even more difficult

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task ahead by nature of the fact that the source of our activism is nonhumans. At this point in history, animal liberationists are less likely WRILQGLQ&DUROHH6FKQHHPDQQ¶VWHUPVDQ³HTXLW\RIRXWODZV´ amongst other anti-oppressionist organizations because many, even the most radical, find the human/animal domination comparison to be an insult that denigrates the profundity of human suffering. Thus, others in both the academy and on the street might want to shame ALM activists for caring more about animals than humans (whether this is true or not), and they may want to shame those who would dare imply that animal abuse is as significant as the abuse of women or minorities. Consequently, an objective of the radical ALM is to resist these feelings of shame and to avoid becoming parodies of a movement by combating the market pressures that will turn serious ethical concerns into passing fads and fashions. Transformation of public minds is the promise and the challenge of the traditional avant-garde and the avant-garde ALM. Although it appears that most avant-gardes eventually become institutionalized, that is not reason enough to neglect the possibilities of activist art in the public sphere. For the ALM, this means an opportunity for the mute public²nonhuman animals²to speak. Further, the avant-JDUGHVWKDW GR QRW ³VXIIHU´ IURP VXFFHVVDUH WKRVH such as the Animal Liberation Front and Earth First! because, as argued before, they do not see themselves as artists. Avgikos asserts WKDW ZKHQ ³DUW LV LQ TXHVWLRQ DQG LI DUW WUDQVIRUPV LQWR DFWLYLVP LW IROORZV GHGXFWLYHO\ WKDW DUW FHDVHV WR H[LVW´ $YJLNRV   )RU WKH ALM, art is not in question, justice and liberation are, but they use performance and symbolism in the public sphere to enact conceptual transformation in their audiences, so the art is there even as it ceases to exist. It is during those acts that sublative moments can be discerned, though not maintained. Sublation, therefore, should continue to be an avant-garde goal with the knowledge that it may be temporary, but no less meaningful for its brevity. The import of those moments continues on in a transformed public. Activist (non)art is not the only public sphere, and there is no reason that only one need exist; however, it can serve the collective function that Habermas theorizes in Structural Transformation: private individuals converging to form a non-hierarchical public to discourse on the activities of systems of power (and with the U.S. sliding fast into a full-blown plutocracy, corporations, more so than traditional governmental structures, should be the topic of these conversations). It is only traditional conceptions of reason that have

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been omitted from this definition. To wit, when Habermas envisioned WKHLGHDOSXEOLFKHGLGQ¶WVHHWKH2UDQJH$OWHUQDWLYH¶VGZDUYHVRUWKH polkas of Earth First!. In contrast, contemporary social movements often rely on the absurd and the emotional within their public displays, two concepts that seem to have no place in staid political discussions. Thus, the final section of this chapter contemplates the limits of reason within the larger goal of transformation, particularly in regard to nonhuman animals and in preparation for new notions of justice.

An Irrational Approach to Reason and a Brief Theory of Inactive Justice for Animals The animal from which he draws his bloody conclusions, knows only irrational terror and the urge to make an escape from which he is cut off. ²Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer

Max Horkheimer begins Eclipse of Reason by noting how GLIILFXOW ³UHDVRQ´ LV WR GHILQH by ordinary individuals and how malleable the definition is among both philosophers and political regimes. Not being a philosopher myself, I will not attempt to parse out concepts of reason throughout Western philosophical history. Rather, I pose reason as the use of mental faculties via deductive and inductive logic and inference to arrive at conclusions that come closest WR DQ DSSDUHQW FRQFHSWLRQ RI WUXWK +RUNKHLPHU VHHV ³UDWLRQDOLVW SKLORVRSKLFDO V\VWHPV >«@ DV HIIRUWV WR UHFRUG WKH PHDQLQJ DQG exigencies of reality and to present truths that are binding for evHU\ERG\´ 7KXVWKHWUXWKWKDWMXVWLILHGFRORQLDOLVPZDVDVWUXH for the colonizer as it was for the colonized, while lack of reason among the oppressed has often been the grounds for dominating DQLPDOV ZRPHQ DQG ³SULPLWLYH´ FXOWXUHV Reason has also justified human genocide. For example, John Ingram exposes limitations to reason by asserting that rational thinking aided the totalitarian regimes of Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler, arguing that ³GHSULYHGRIUHIOH[LYLW\ social rationality aims at individual GRPLQDWLRQ RYHU RWKHUV >«@ RU totalitarian dominion over KRVWLOH HQYLURQPHQWV´  276). In sum, ,QJUDP¶V LQWHUURJDWLRQ RI+DEHUPDVLDQ UHDVRQ EHJLQV WR TXHVWLRQWKH very notion of what reasonable action means, demanding expanded consideration of ethics and morality within discussions on social issues.

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As noted previously, in the First Manifesto of Surrealism, %UHWRQSRVHGUHDVRQDV³the incurable mania of wanting to make the unknown known, classifiable [concluding that] the desire for analysis ZLQVRXWRYHUVHQWLPHQWV´LQWKHSXUVXLWRIUDWLRQDOWUXWK +HZDV obviously disdainful of rationalist Western thought, seeing it as ³KRVWLOH WR DQ\ LQWHOOHFWXDO RU PRUDO DGYDQFHPHQW´   +RUNKHLPHU though certainly not as antagonistic toward rational thought as Breton, DVVHUWV WKDW UHDVRQ ³KDV EHFRPH FRPSOHWHO\ KDUQHVVHG WR WKH VRFLDO process. Its operational value, its role in the domination of men and QDWXUH KDV EHHQ PDGH WKH VROH FULWHULRQ´   $QG KH DVNV RI contemporary so-FDOOHG SKLORVRSKLFDO WUXWKV ³:KR FDQ VD\ WKDW DQ\ RQHRIWKHVHLGHDOVLVPRUHFORVHO\UHODWHGWRWUXWKWKDQLWVRSSRVLWH"´ (16). This is a question too infrequently posed, and the truths accepted by the mass of individuals are readily approved as if there are no opposites or alternatives. What is the truth about nonhuman animals within this ideology" $FFRUGLQJ WR ,PPDQXHO .DQW ³DV IDU DV DQLPDOV DUH concerned, we have no direct duties. Animals are not self-conscious DQGDUHWKHUHPHUHO\DVDPHDQVWRDQHQG7KDWHQGLVPDQ>«@2XU duties toward animals, then, are indirect duties towards mankind´ (564). Kant is only slightly less dismissive than René Descartes when he posits that animal cruelty as entertainment is immoral, but cruelty LQ WKH QDPH RI VFLHQFH LV ³SUDLVHZRUWK\ DQG >YLYLVHFWLRQLVWV@ FDQ justify their cruelty, since animals must be regarGHG DV PDQ¶V instruments´ (565). This is morality without emotion. As modern philosopher Thomas Kelch states, it was Kant who argued that ³FRPSDVVLRQ V\PSDWK\ RU FDULQJ´ FDQ FRQWDPLQDWH PRUDO WKHRU\ (277) .DQW¶V SHUVSHFWLYH as legacy of ancient Greek philosophical traditions LV DV DFWLYH WRGD\ DV LW ZDV ZKHQ KH ZURWH ³'XWLHV WR $QLPDOV´LQWKHHLJKWHHQWKFHQWXU\ (FKRLQJ %UHWRQ¶V FULWLTXH RI UHDVRQ WKH UDGLFDO $/0 FRQWLQXHVWKHVXUUHDOLVWWDVNRIDGGUHVVLQJWKH³LQFXUDEOHPDQLD´WKDW is rationalist Western logic. As Josephine Donovan contends, this is an avant-JDUGHGXW\³2IWHQDVDSUDFWLFDOPDWWHU0DU[LVWWKHRULVWVKDYH fallen back on the idea of an intellectual vanguard leading and educating the proletariat so as to recognize and act against the LQMXVWLFHVWKDWDUHLQIOLFWHGRQLW´³&DULQJWR'LDORJXH´HPSKDVLV added). However, the very idea of articulating the perspective of nonhuman animals, the new proletariat, appears irrational to many, OHDGLQJWRTXHVWLRQVVXFKDV³:KRDUH\RXWRVSHDNIRUDQLPDOV"+RZ do you really NQRZ ZKDW WKH\ ZDQW"´ )RU WKH DQLPDO DFWLYLVW WKH

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answer is easy. She does not have to prove that animals feel pain or that they have rights by logical means. In fact, Marti Kheel notes that rational argument is limiting in that it cannot prove anything with DEVROXWH FHUWDLQO\ DQG LW LV ³LPSRVVLEOH WR SURYH UDtionally why anyone or anything VKRXOGKDYHULJKWV´ .QRZOHGJHRIV\VWHPDWLF DQLPDOPLVWUHDWPHQWDQGRQH¶VRZQemotional response to that torture is reason enough for the activist to fight for animal emancipation. To appropriate Breton¶V SKUDVHRORJ\, caring for animals means not allowing analysis to win out over sentiment. Sentiment and anger have been degraded within certain strains of Western philosophical discourse, even by animal rights theorists. For example, Peter Singer and Tom Regan have warned against lapsing into emotional displays when contemplating or discussing animal cruelty. In the introduction to the first edition of Animal Liberation, Singer dismissively states that he and his wife are neither fond of nor do they love animals (xxi). And in his 2001 article in Nerve 6LQJHU¶V XVH RI XQUHVWUDLQHG XWLOLWDULDQ ORJLF DOORZV KLP WR rationally FRQFOXGH WKDW ³VH[ ZLWK DQLPDOV GRHV QRW DOZD\V LQYROYH FUXHOW\´ DYHUULQJ WKDW LQ WKH SULYDF\ RI WKHLU RZQ KRPHV LW LV TXLWH likely that individuals are reasonably allowing their canine companions to find sexual release upon their legs. He goes on to argue, quite matter-of-factly, WKDW ³occasionally mutually satisfying [sexual] activities may develop [between species@´ Is this animal liberation? Or is this using animals as a mere theoretical tool to see how far logic can take us, the results of which can lead to objectification of animals as beings who can satisfy our sexual urges as well as our gastronomical ones. In The Case for Animal Rights, 5HJDQ SODLQO\ VWDWHV WKDW ³VWURQJ HPRWLRQ LV QRW D UHOLDEOH JXLGH WR GRLQJRUMXGJLQJ ZKDWLVEHVW´ ,QUHVSRQVHWRFULWLTXHVRIVXFK VWDWHPHQWV5HJDQDVNV³+RZFRXOGRQHFRQFHLYDEO\RIIHUDWKHRU\RI DQLPDO ULJKWV EDVHG RQ DSSHDOV WR HPRWLRQ"´ (xliii). He is correct in that there is little to no room for appeals to emotion in traditional modes of Western discourse, but he also appears to assume that those are the only valid forms of discourse. +LVWRULFDOO\HPRWLRQVKDYHEHHQ³GHQLJUDWHGDVXntrustworthy DQGXQUHOLDEOH>«@VRXUFHVRINQRZOHGJH´ZKLOHVLPXOWDQHRXVO\EHLQJ equated with femininity (Adams, ³&DULQJ´ 7KHUHIRUHIHPLQLVWV have also been sure to disparage emotion. For example, in the introduction to a collection of feminist essays on ethics, Dana E. Bushnell sets out to show that women can reason just as well as men, GHFU\LQJ ³XQIODWWHULQJ VWHUHRW\SHV RI IHPLQLVWV >«] [as] irrational,

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[stating that] although there may be individual feminists who warrant some of these descriptions, there is nothing about feminism that UHTXLUHVDQLUUDWLRQDODSSURDFKWRPRUDOSUREOHPVROYLQJ´ ,QRWKHU words, she takes on the liberal feminist objective of finding success within a world created by men, effectively arguing that once women can make as much money and as many rational arguments as men, they will be equal to them. As discussed in regard to the beauty myth, feminists such as %XVKQHOOXVHWKHPDVWHU¶VWRROVDVDIRUPRIHPSRZHUPHQWZLWKLQKLV house, for, as they see it, to do otherwise is to engage in victim IHPLQLVPDWHUPUHIHUULQJWR³IHPLQLVWVZKR>«@DUJXHWKDWZRPHQ¶V choices [are] severely constrained and made within a context of ZRPHQ¶V UHODWLYH SRZHUOHVVQHVV DQG PDOH GRPLQDQFH´ -HIIUH\V   From this perspective, to infer that women do not make free choices is to say that women are oppressed victims. To further infer that women and animals are similarly constituted under patriarchy is to both victimize women and insult them by comparing them to nonhumans. To assume that women are emotional and cannot reason as men is cause enough for some feminists to adopt the patriarchal language of cold ration. There are other alternatives for women, and thus for women ZKR VSHDN IRU DQLPDOV ,Q ³2SSUHVVLRQ DQG 9LFWLPL]DWLRQ´ 6XVDQ Wendell offers an option besides empowered superwoman or eternal victim: that of responsible actor. As Wendell explains, the responsible actor uses the past, which may include victimization, as a guide to the present and future. The actor contemplates a series of pointed questions to guide her during contentious moments when she may lapse into feelings of being persecuted (57). This option does not pretend that oppression no longer exists, but it shows the potential for empowerment within a culture that dominates women. As Adams DUJXHV WR REVHUYH WKDW ZRPHQ VXIIHU ³FKURQLF YLROHQFH [much like animals,] GRHVQRW PHDQ WKDW ZRPHQ DUHµYLFWLPV¶ EXW WKDW ZH PXVW DQWLFLSDWHWKDWZHZLOOEHYLFWLPL]HGEHFDXVHZHDUHZRPHQ>«@7KH violence we suffer from is agential²that is, it is done by an agent, [and is not imbedded into femininity itself´ ³&DULQJ$ERXW6XIIHULQJ´ 208; 209). Animals are similarly victimized, but, as far as we know, they cannot rationally contemplate their victimization as can women; thus, we are bound to consider them when we look at agential violence, part of which is the demand that women respond composedly and rationally to their cultural oppression, for to do

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otherwise is to be declared irrational and/or hysterical and then to be dismissed. ,QGHHG ZLWKLQ %XVKQHOO¶V DQWKRORJ\ (GZDUG -RKQVRQ critiques so-called victim feminists for daring to not use the tool of reason to make their dissatisfaction known. After quoting a passage by Andrea Dworkin and Catherine MacKinnon, Johnson asks³:KDWGR we hear in this passage? Sarcasm and complaint: complaint that other IHPLQLVWVGRQ¶WDJUHHZLWKWKHP>«] sarcasm that suggests those who GRQ¶WDJUHHZLWKWKHPDUHµJLUOV¶Kave been intimidated [victimized] by pornoJUDSKHUV´-43). Whose rules of rhetoric do Dworkin and MacKinnon break? Who says sarcasm and complaint are inappropriate? What is wrong with being angry, a state of mind often seen as irrational? What is wrong with crying at the thought of animal abuse? Few in %XVKQHOO¶V FROOHFWLRQ FRQVLGHU WKHVH TXHVWLRQV 7KH\ have accepted rational philosophical thought as the only medium for serious discourse, while ignoring the knowledge that can also be found outside the strictures of reason. Western philosophic, intellectual and cultural traditions have not made enough room for emotions, sarcasm, and complaint, and ZKHQ³5HDVRQVHWVWKHSDUDPHWHUVRIWKHGLVFRXUVH>«@RQO\5HDVRQ can be heard. Only Reason will decide when something of relevance has been said, who has won or lost (and because it is Reason, there PXVWLQVRPHVHQVHEHDZLQQHUDQGDORVHU ´%DLOH\ 7KXVDV %ULDQ /XNH DUJXHV ZKHQ D ZRPDQ H[SUHVVHV ³V\PSDWKHWLF FRQFHUQ´ in response to suffering, Reason, deciding the discourse parameters, GHFODUHVWKDWKHUFRQFHUQEH³GLVPLVVHGDVIHPDOHK\VWHULD´³-XVWLFH &DULQJ´   In The Postmodern Animal, Steve Baker agrees in stating that ³>V@entimentality matters >«@ $UWLVWV ULJKWO\ IHDU appearing to be sentimental because it will be taken to indicate a lack RI VHULRXVQHVV´   In sum, parameter-setting patriarchy has decided that sympathy, sentiment, sarcasm, complaint and anger are not suitable within the realm of sober critical debate, not in the debate of the philosopher, the woman or the artist. Those responses have no place in the public sphere, and if women want to achieve equality with men, they had best learn the language of men. Continued complaints about or sarcastic responses to oppression result in women being seen as hysterical, irrational, and victim feminists. This dynamic ensures that women continue to be silenced, especially when they attempt to speak for animals. In opposition to this rationalist institution, a new guard of feminists, led by vegan anti-hierarchy activists, have taken the stance

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that nothing will make them ashamed of their tears, cries and rage, nor WKHLUORYHHPSDWK\DQGV\PSDWK\$V.ULVWLQH6WLOHVDVNV³:KDWLV inappropriate about aQJHU"´ ³1HYHU (QRXJK´   pattrice jones might respond that there is nothing inappropriate about it, for it is acceptable WR ³VKRXW DQG VWRPS´ DQG LW LV QRW D ³FULPH WR IHHO DQG H[SUHVV DQJHU´   As Luise Eichenbaum and Susie Orbach FRQILUP³7RH[SUHVVDQJHULVWRKHDURQHVHOIWRGHfend oneself when RQHKDVIHOWLQYDGHGQHJDWHGRUGHQLHG´ 'HQ\LQJRQHDULJKWWR anger in any environment is a form of oppression that is habitually ignored by mainstream feminists who are trying to be taken seriously in patriarchal culture. This pressure to be reasonable creates what Emily Gaarder FDOOV D ³FXULRXV FRQWUDGLFWLRQ´ LQ WKH DQLPDO ULJKWV PRYHPHQW WKH majority of women she interviewed for her study reported that emotion was the impetus for their activism; however, they also agreed that use of reason and male spokespeople would be more effective in terms of persuading the public to accept their pleas for nonhumans (116). In essence, women are forced to ignore the very instincts that prompt them to action in an attempt to be more like men. The burden RI DGRSWLQJ WKH ³PDVWHU¶V WRROV´ LV LQWHUQDOL]HG LQ WKHVH LQVWDQFHV RI self-suppression. In its place, a message RI ³QRW JRRG HQRXJK´ LV planted: your reasons for wanting to help animals are not good enough, so pretend that something else prompts you if are to be taken VHULRXVO\LQDPDQ¶VZRUOG,IWKHREMHFWLYHRIWKHUDGLFDO$/0LVIRU all animals to live according to their natures, then why not nurture, or even flaunt, the tendency some women may feel to protect the most helpless among us (men as well, as they should not be shamed into hiding their emotional responses to suffering). What is so unreasonable about expressing feelings when debating serious topics? For some, nothing, and thus they offer a revised definition of what reason is, stressing that emotion has not been left out of rational philosophy altogether. Rather, the presence of sentiment has simply been disregarded and/or repackaged. Kheel SURSRVHVWKDWTXLWHSRVVLEO\³VHHPLQJO\µUDWLRQDO¶UXOHVDQGLGHDVDUH in fact, based on distinct feelings [and] those with power in our VRFLHW\ XVH UDWLRQDOLW\ DV D PHDQV RI HQIRUFLQJ WKHLU RZQ PRUDOLW\´ (53). Reason, therefore, is itself based on the feelings of this ruling class, and its power comes down to questions of hierarchy and power, of whose feelings get heard through the pretext of rational thought. Phenomenologist scholar Max Scheler has also argued for a UHYLVHGGHILQLWLRQRIZKDWLVUDWLRQDOE\³HOHYDW>LQJ@V\PSDWK\LQWRD

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IRUP RI NQRZOHGJH >«@ WKDW KH SURSRVHV DV Dn epistemological DOWHUQDWLYH WR WKH REMHFWLILFDWLRQ RI WKH &DUWHVLDQ VFLHQWLILF PRGHO´ (Donovan, ³$WWHQWLRQWR6XIIHULQJ´ 5HDVRQWKHUHIRUHLVQRWWKH enemy. Rather, it is as much a myth as are all of the other myths that spring from its theorems. The goal, therefore, is not to dismiss reason, but to allow other forms of knowledge to coexist with it. Thus, when %RRNFKLQGHPDQGV³proactive, rational intervention into the world² indeed, a world yet to be made and molded by reason,´ he is talking about compassion, pity, anger, and care, whether he uses those terms or not, whether he would agree or not (100). Reason/emotion is another dualism in need of dissolving. This seemingly irrational approach to reason, one that allows feelings such as sympathy and anger as forms of knowing and bases of decision making, manifests in feminist care theory. This response to RSSUHVVLRQ ³LV QRW VR PXFK >«@ D PDWWHU RI FDULQJ IRU DQLPDOV DV mothers (human and nonhuman) care for their infants, but listening to animals, paying emotional attention, taking seriously²caring about² ZKDW WKH\ DUH WHOOLQJ XV´ 'RQRYDQ, ³&DULQJ WR 'LDORJXH´   )RU Adams, feminist care theory opposes the current war on compassion as shown through an apathetic worldwide response to human genocides and animal slaughter, and VKHPDLQWDLQVWKDW³DOOIRUPVRI oppression can be traced to the treatment of animals by humans´ ³:DU RQ &RPSDVVLRQ´   ,Q The Animal that Therefore I Am, Jacques Derrida affirms of animal subjugation, No one can deny seriously any more, or for very long, that men do all they can in order to dissimulate this cruelty or to hide it from themselves; in order to organize on a global scale the forgetting or misunderstanding of this violence, which some would compare to the worst cases of genocide (there are also animal genocides; the QXPEHURIVSHFLHVHQGDQJHUHGEHFDXVHRIPDQWDNHVRQH¶VEUHDWK away). (25-26)

But as Adams asks LQUHVSRQVHWR'HUULGD¶VFRPPHQWDU\, why do only ³VRPH´ GDUH WR PDNH WKH FRPSDULVRQ RI DQLPDO VXEMHFWLRQ to genocide? Why is it still so easy to reason away animal torture in Western culture? For animals are tortured under capitalism and in other commodity cultures by the billions. As stated at the beginning of this chapter, pleasure is the reason, along with the refusal to give up the benefits and pleasures that animal meat, hides, etc. give to humans. Pleasure is the reason Surrealists would not see women as whole beings and the reason the mass of Americans will not see

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animals in that same way.10 Animal care theorists have accepted as irrefutable truth the assertion that animals feel physical pain and that they experience emotional distress when forced to live in man-made slaughterhouses, have their young taken away, or experience any of the myriad of atrocities that humans force them to endure. More importantly, animal care theorists have accepted that those truths matter. As Eric Marcus states in Meat Market, animal welfare reform FDQQHYHUDGGUHVVWKH³YLROHQFHLQKHUHQW´LQIDFWRU\IDUPLQJDQGRWKHU animal industries, as there is violence inherent in every instance of animal made into product (58). Further, in her slideshow lecture, $GDPVDVVHUWVWKDWQRPDWWHULIRQH¶VPHDWLVIURPDIDFWRU\RUEXFROLF family farm, the latter of which barely exists anymore, the undeniable fact is that you cannot partake in meat eating without it being SUHFHGHGE\DQDQLPDO¶VEHLQJNLOOHGDQGEXWFKHUHGThere is no such thing as humane confinement and slaughter. One of my primary goals within this whole project has been to integrate the ALM within the ventures of the avant-garde, particularly surrealism, for their shared objectives of uprooting reason-based Western myth and offering new ways of seeing. As noted, both the radical ALM and the Surrealists formed as a response to mass animal carnage²human and nonhuman, respectively. In effect, both movements condemned social treatment of what Michel Foucault calls GRFLOH ERGLHV WKRVH FRUSRUHDO IRUPV ³WKDW PD\ EH VXEMHFWHG XVHG WUDQVIRUPHG DQG LPSURYHG´ (Discipline and Punish 136).11 Soldiers DQGFLYLOLDQVZHUH::,¶VGRFLOHERGLHVIRUIHPLQLVW cultural scholars such as Sandra Bartky and Susan Bordo, women are patriarchal FXOWXUH¶V GRFLOH ERGLHV )RU WKH $/0 QRQKXPDQ DQLPDOV DUH WKRVH who DUH ³VXEMHFWHG XVHG WUDQVIRUPHG DQG LPSURYHG´ IRU OLWHUDO ingestion by humans. Feminist care theory begins by simply caring that animals are the ultimate docile bodies in a culture that sustains itself on domination, and they recognize that animal oppression eases our culture into myriad other forms of subjugation.

10

In particular, Singer and Mason report that 1.5% of the U.S. population reports to be vegan, one who abstains from all animal products and byproducts, as much as is humanly possible (5). However, a recent edition of VegNews reports that 1% of U.S. adults are vegan. Thus, it appears safe to say that 1-1.5% of the U.S. population is vegan, or those who have been willing to give up the supposed pleasure of using animals. However, even within these percentages, it is not safe to assume that these people have chosen to be vegan for ethical, animal-related reasons. 11 All attributions to Foucault are taken from Discipline and Punish in this chapter.

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The radical ALM wants people to really see the torture that animals undergo and also how pointless it is. However, animal torture is purposely kept from public view. Just as the torture of convicted criminals is no longer a community spectacle, animal torment has similarly disappeared.12 As Foucault says of human torture, Among so many changes, I shall consider one: the disappearance of torture as a public spectacle. Today we are rather inclined to ignore it; perhaps, in its time, it gave rise to too much inflated rhetoric; perhaps it has been attributed too readily and too HPSKDWLFDOO\WRDSURFHVVRI³KXPDQL]DWLRQ´thus dispensing with the need for further analysis. (7)

So too for the butchery of animals. In The Ethics of What We Eat, Peter Singer and Jim Mason report that no industrial animal farms, nor quite a few more traditional farms, would allow them access into their inner workings within the development of their book. These places fear the truth about animal production being exposed, which is why undercover footage has been the most common pathway to seeing how animals are treated on their way to slaughter.13 While a few free-range chicken and egg producers did allow them entry, Singer and Mason express shock at the overcrowding and confinement they witnessed within these so-called humane farms. If ³KXPDQH´ IDUPV DUH HQRXJK to shake an observer, it is chilling to imagine the realities of a typical factory farm, which is where almost all animal products come from. The objective reality hid from public view is that animals are tortured by the billions in houses of industry because their flesh and reproductive products taste good. Any other justification for eating animals in the Western world is part of the myth that radical activists KRSHWRXSURRWDORQJZLWKWKDWP\WK¶VUROHZLWKLQWKHFRQVWUXFWLRQRI other alleged truths. The power of pleasure as a right should not be underestimated, for it has a hold on the human psyche that is not easily broken. As for meat, Torres borrows 0HODQLH-R\¶Vconcept of carnism to explain how otherwise caring individuals skirt the issue of animal abuse. As Joy explains, carnism relies on social norms that GHILQHZKDWLV³QDWXUDO´IRUKXPDQVWRGRWKRXJKQRWLQJWKHQHEXORXV aspects of what constitutes this belief system (29). ,Q 7RUUHV¶ WHUPV cDUQLVP ³GHVFULEHV D VHW RI LGHRORJLFDO DQG SV\FKRORJLFDO SUDFWLFHV 12

Of course, simulated torture is still a form of entertainment, as seen in crime dramas and horror films. A cursory overview of this media shows that women and animals, not criminals, are most often the victims of entertainment torture. At least one animal usually dies in horror movies before the human slaughter begins, with women as favored victims. 13 As noted in a previous footnote, some want to make it a crime to take such footage.

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that allow us to consume meat and other animal products without giving thought to the violence that is done to produce the products in WKH ILUVW SODFH´   7KH EHOLHI WKDW HJJV DQG PLON DUH KXPDQHO\ produced and that cows live out their lives in rural peace are only two of many ways humans delude themselves into thinking animal consumption is ethical. These psychological defense mechanisms are the fuel of torture. In Discipline and Punish, Foucault lays out the criteria for punishment of humans to qualify as torture, and although each species of nonhuman animal undergoes its own unique style of torment based on the products humans want from them, each and every one of these VSHFLHVPHHWV)RXFDXOW¶VFRQGLWLRQV )LUVW LW PXVW SURGXFH D FHUWDLQ GHJUHH RI SDLQ >«@ GHDWK LV D torture in so far as it is not simply a withdrawal of the right to live, but is the occasion and the culmination of a calculated JUDGDWLRQRISDLQ>«@GHDWKWRUWXUHLVWKHDUWRIPDLQWDLQLQJOLIHLQ SDLQ E\ VXEGLYLGLQJ LW LQWR D ³WKRXVDQG GHDWKV´ E\ DFKieving EHIRUHOLIHFHDVHV³WKHPRVWH[TXLVLWHDJRQLHV´

The difference with animals is that they have not committed any FULPHV WR EH SXQLVKHG IRU ,Q $GDPV¶V ZRUGV DQLPDOV DUH ³DWWDFNHG for being rather than doing´³:DURQ&RPSDVVLRQ´ /RRNLQWR the life of any commodity animal and you will find Foucauldian degrees of pain, gradations of painful processes, and, like Sylvia Likens, a series of smaller deaths before the eventual slaughter. Each animal undergoes its own type of agony: anal electrocution for mink, tubed force-feeding for ducks and geese, induced anemia and confinement for veal calves, mastitis for cows, etc. They moan, squeal, cry, mourn, and writhe in pain within the houses that humankind has built for WKHPDQGWKHRQO\³MXVWLILFDWLRQ´IRULWLVWKDWWKH\WDVWHDQGRUORRN good to the majority. Take, for example, the lives of layer hens and their offspring. Within a day of hatching, chicks are separated by gender; the males, being useless because they grow too slowly, meet this fate ³Upon EUHDNLQJRXWRIWKHLUVKHOOVLQVWHDGRIEHLQJVKHOWHUHGE\D PRWKHU¶V wings, the newborns are ground up alive, electrocuted, or thrown into trashcans where they slowly suffocate on top of one another, peeping to death while a human foot stomps them down to make more room IRUPRUHFKLFNV´8QLWHG3RXOWU\&RQFHUQV  This is the yearly fate of over 250 million male chicks (Foer 48). The female chicks, separated from their mothers, then have their beaks seared off with a clipping device without anesthetic. Even purported ³humane´ farms do not use anesthesia because it is too expensive. Beak searing keeps chickens

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from pecking at each other in overcrowded spaces. They are next taken to the place where they will spend the remainder of their lives² battery farms. Tashee Meadows describes the life of a hen on the battery farm: Her feathers are skeletal and dirty. The skin under them is visible and raw from rubbing against the wire. There is purple skin stretched thin over round c\VWV VKXWWLQJ WKH KHQ¶V H\HV DQG FDXVLQJLQFUHGLEOHSDLQWRKHUIHHW>«@6KHKDVWREDODQFHKHUIXOO weight on slanted wires twenty-four hours a day, causing her MRLQWVGLVWUHVV>«@6KHLVLQDFDJHZLWKQLQHRWKHUKHQV>«@DQG must climb over the others tRUHDFKWKHIRRGDQGZDWHU>«@6RPH KDYHWKHLUQHFNVZUDSSHGDURXQGWKHZLUH>«@,PPRELOL]HGDQG unable to get to food or water, they die of starvation in the cage. (150).

The cages these hens are packed into are so small that they cannot spread their wings. Next, to induce egg production in birds that have not already been slaughtered, the hens are starved for seven to fourteen days during what is called a forced molting process (Marcus 21). When they can no longer produce eggs, they are slaughtered. This is the life of one kind of animal, and it only scratches the surface of torments that other commodity animals undergo, from dairy cows, to pigs, to fish (yes, fish suffer as well within the animals-as-food system). 8VLQJ )RXFDXOW¶V FULWHULa, animals are tortured in nearly inestimable numbers. They are born, live, and die experiencing pain that differs only by gradation, and along with the suffering that comes with being treated as a product, factory animals are regularly subjected to additional indignities by desensitized workers. But as Foucault JRHV RQ WR VWDWH LW LV LQ ³WKH µH[FHVVHV¶ RI WRUWXUH >WKDW@ D ZKROHHFRQRP\RISRZHULVLQYHVWHG´ ,QFRQWHPSRUDU\FXOWXUH these excesses of torture mean financial power that panders to a social demand for the enjoyment of animal flesh. Radicals within the ALM question this excess, which is, unexpectedly, in keeping with the project of surrealism. An extreme faction of the ALM, known as ³freegans,´ eat primarily non-animal based foods that they find in $PHULFD¶VWUDVKFDQVDQGGXPSVWHUVFLWLQJsurrealist Georges Bataille DV DQ LQVSLUDWLRQ 6SHFLILFDOO\ LQ ³FRQWUDVW WR FRQYHQWLRQDO economists, who start from the problem of scarcity and how to best overcome it, Bataille analyzed the prevailing social and economic RUGHU WR VHH ZKDW LW GRHV ZLWK LWV H[FHVV´ 6LQJHU DQG 0DVRQ   Animal torture, butchery, and consumption is an unnecessary excess XSRQ ZKLFK WKH ³SUHYDLOLQJ VRFLDO DQG HFRQRPLF RUGHU´ LV EDVHG D point that drives the ALM, and freegans, to action.

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Luce Irigaray asks what would become of the social order if women were no longer exploited. The anti-hierarchy ALM considers what would become of the social order without exploitation of any kind. The avant-garde ALM pursues this question with a passion that mirrors that of the Surrealists DQGPXFKOLNH%UHWRQ³IUHHGRP´LVWKH only word that excites them. However, freedom for animals is not the same as it is for humans. Thus, I end with brief consideration of what justice for animals may look like within the new vista that the avantgarde ALM proposes to create. Throughout this project, the ALM has been occasionally posed as a social justice movement, yet that term is admittedly somewhat of a misnomer. 6RFLDOMXVWLFHLVDERXW³WKHEDVLFVWUucture of society, or more exactly, the way in which the major social institutions distribute fundamental rights and duties and determine the GLYLVLRQ RI DGYDQWDJHV IURP VRFLDO FRRSHUDWLRQ´ 5DZOV   ,Q -RKQ Rawls¶s seminal Theory of Justice (1971), he states two main principles of justice, which are concerned with social, economic, and liberational rights (60). While a creative theorist can surely fit animals into those considerations, Rawls notes that there are limits to his theory because justice is about humans in a social context, and not RQO\³DUHPDQ\DVSHFWVRIPRUDOLW\OHIWDVLGHEXWQRDFFRXQWLVJLYHQ RI ULJKW FRQGXFW LQ UHJDUG WR DQLPDOV DQG WKH UHVW RI QDWXUH´   Nonhumans cannot comprehend nor fully appreciate the right to equal pay for equal work, the right to marry someone of the same gender, nor the right to be judged by the content of their characters (in truth, they cannot even contemplate the right not to be eaten by people, at least not as far as we know). As to animals, Rawls briefly concludes, The capacity for feelings of pleasure and pain and for the forms of life of which animals are capable clearly imposes duties of compassion and humanity in their case. I shall not attempt to explain these considered beliefs. They are outside the scope of the theory of justice, and it does not seem possible to extend the [social] contract doctrine so as to include them in a natural way >«@+RZIDUMXVWLFHDVIDLUQHVVZLOOKDYHWREHUHYLVHGWRILWLQWR this larger theory is impossible to say. (512, emphasis added)

Case closed. Animals are not humans, and thus they have no place within a theory of social justice. For Rawls, the domination of animals and nature are disconnected from other instances of injustice. Robert Nozick, who responded to Rawls with Anarchy, State, and Utopia  LQFOXGHVPHQWLRQRIDQLPDOVWR³SXUVXHWKHQRWLRQ RIPRUDOVLGHFRQVWUDLQWV´UDWKHUWKDQWRSURIRXQGOy ponder their place within speculations on a just society. Yet he does state on more than RQHRFFDVLRQWKDW³the extra benefits [pleasures] Americans today can

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gain from eating animals do not MXVWLI\ GRLQJ LW 6R ZH VKRXOGQ¶W´ (38). His pithiness is telling and rather convincing. While other issues remain open-ended, he seems pretty sure that there is no justifiable reason, other than enjoyment, for animals to be eaten. Yet aside from these asides, animals are not given serious reflection, for they are outside consideration of the ideal State. While both Rawls and Nozick offer some cold conclusions, they identify a key component of a differing perspective that centers on the idea that animals are not almost-human creatures just waiting for their chance to be like us, much as women are not almost-male creatures just waiting for their chance to be like men. Animal justice and rights cannot be contemplated by beings other than humans, and we make these considerations within the context of Western myth and with speciesist minds. In Social Justice: Theories, Issues, and Movements, Loretta Capeheart and Dragan Milovanovic give brief attention to nonhumans via the environmental WKHRU\ RI 7HG 3UHVWRQ DQG WKH\ FRQFOXGH WKDW ³LW ZRXOG EH XSWR DQ informed citizenry to decide whether animals should be protected IURP LQKXPDQH IDFWRU\ IDUP FRQGLWLRQV DQGRU VODXJKWHU´   7KHy IXUWKHU VXUPLVH WKDW ZLWK HQRXJK WLPH ³PHDW PD\ HYHQWXDOO\ EH GHILQHGDVPXUGHUE\DUHDVRQDEOHSXEOLF´EXWXQWLOWKHQPHDWLVVWLOO dinner (99). Case closed once again, leaving one to wonder at what point humans will reasonably decide to forgo the pleasures of animal flesh within a culture that sees animals and nature as theirs to own and dominate. That is like asking representatives of the meat, dairy and egg industries to help create guidelines for what U.S. citizens should eat! 2KWKDW¶VULJKW. We already do that. ,Q³7KH5ROHRIWKH5DWLRQDODQGWKH(PRWLYHLQD7KHRU\RI $QLPDO 5LJKWV´ 7KRPDV .HOFK SURYLGHV DQ H[KDXVWLYH RYHUYLHZ RI how animals fare within justice theories of social contract, natural law, utilitarianism, interests, rights, dignity, etc., but he does so while acknowledging a flaw in these theories, which is (again in Bretonian WHUPV DQ³REVHVVLYHVHDUFKIRURQHHOHPHQWRURQHFOHDUO\GHILQHGVHW of elements to buttress rights, >«@ >and this is a search that has caused] our thougKWV WR JR DZU\´   $V KDYH RWKHUV .HOFK concludes that a theory of rights that is devoid of emotion can never EHQHILW DQLPDOV LQ DQ\ VLJQLILFDQW ZD\ IRU WKH\ DUH ³PRGHOHG RQ :HVWHUQ VFLHQWLILF UHGXFWLRQLVP >«@ ,Q UHDOLW\ ULJKWV DUH QRW VR simple or easily accessed. Rights are actually composites of many HOHPHQWV´ ,QRWKHUZRUGVWKHUKHWRULFRIconventional Western

232

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discourse is not sufficient in discussions of ending hierarchy. This is where the avant-garde ALM becomes vital, for changing human perception of animals is just as important, if not more so, than changing our animal laws. Justice and rights are human inventions, and they have limited capacity within the goal of genuine animal liberation. Quite often, theories of justice and rights lead to compromise via animal welfarism, as opposed to abolitionism. They have not served humans so well either. PeteU .URSRWNLQ¶V  The Conquest of Bread provides a critique of a concept of rights that is disturbingly applicable within contemporary capiWDOLVW VRFLHW\ +H VWDWHV WKDW ³DOO WKDW LV QHFHVVDU\ IRU SURGXFWLRQ >«@ KDYH EHHQ VHL]HG E\ WKH IHZ LQ WKH course of that long story of robbery, enforced migration and wars, of ignorance and oppression, which has been the life of the human race before it OHDUQHGWRVXEGXHWKHIRUFHVRI1DWXUH´ +RZFRXOGWKLV process of destruction in the name of civilization have been justified? $FFRUGLQJ WR .URSRWNLQ LW RFFXUV EHFDXVH WKH IHZ KDYH ³WDN>HQ@ advantage of alleged ULJKWVDFTXLUHGLQWKHSDVW´HPSKDVis added). What was true over 119 years ago²power in the hands of a select few ZKRKDYHD³ULJKW´WRRZQQDWXUH²is just as true today; so the right of the greedy capitalist to move his production to the Third World is the same right of the pleasure-seeking carnivore. The power to dominate the planet on a massive, immediate scale may be in the hands of a select few, but the power to dominate animals is in the power of all humans, a right granted at birth. Therefore, while I have used terms such as ³Mustice´ and ³rights´ to keep with the vernacular of the theoretical venue (and because they are the only recourse of a mind still recovering from speciesism), in many ways such terminology is limiting in a conception of animal emancipation. Brian /XNH DIILUPV ³$nimal OLEHUDWLRQLVRIWHQIUDPHGDVDMXVWLFHLVVXHWKRXJK>«@LWPD\PRUH DSSURSULDWHO\ EH XQGHUVWRRG LQ WHUPV RI FDULQJ´   $V KH IXUWKHU explains: My opposition to the institutionalized exploitation of animals is not based on a comparison between human and animal treatment, but on a consideration of the abuse of animals in and of itself >«@ My moral condemnation of the acts [of animal abuse] arises directly from my sympathy for the animals, and is independent of the question of whether humans are protected from such abuse. (130-31)

Many people who care about animals still eat them, even while feeling guilty about it. Caring people eat animals because it is their human right to do so. A concept of rights is why otherwise compassionate

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individuals acknowledge that, while upsetting, human consumption of DQLPDOVLV³MXVWWKHZD\LWLV´$WKHRU\RIULJKWVRIWHQ bolstered by and contested in courts of law, is an obstacle to, not an avenue for, complete animal liberation, and complete liberation must continue to be our goal, no matter the chants of impossibility. And while this is not a call to abandon legal and political paths to animal liberation outright, it is a challenge to admit the limitations therein and focus our attention on an abolitionist approach to animal liberation. The way in which cessation of animal abuse affects humans is that by challenging the ownership of nature, one challenges the existence of hierarchy itself, and this should be the path to liberation: a challenge to hierarchy that acknowledges animal abuse as inexcusable in and of itself. Luke does not support animal liberation only because it may OHDG WR DQ HQG RI ZLGHVSUHDG KXPDQ RSSUHVVLRQ UHFDOO .DQW¶V assertion that duties to animals can be nothing more than an extension of duties to other humans). Animal abuse is innately unethical, a decision made not through exhaustive logical deductions and perfectly honed arguments a la Singer and Regan, but because of how it makes one feel regardless of the eventual repercussions that animal liberation may have on humans. $OWKRXJK/XNHGHFULHVDQLPDOPLVWUHDWPHQW³LQDQGRILWVHOI´ that does not negate the extent to which such misuse opens the door for other types of oppression. Holistic activists within the ALM have identified a web of subjugation that starts with nonhuman animals, extends downward into the earth, and then upward into human animals. To question animal oppression is to question the culture that allows such domination DQG WKH GLVFRXUVHV WKURXJK ZKLFK ³WUXWK´ circulates (to borrow again from Foucault). As Adams ponders, ³3HUKDSV RQH UHDVRQ ZH GLG QRW UHVSRQG WR WKH JHQRFLGHV RI WKH twentieth century is that we learned to tolerate a hierarchical world in ZKLFK NLOOLQJ LV DFFHSWHG´ ³:DU RQ &RPSDVVLRQ´   In kind, holistLF DFWLYLVWV RSSRVH ³VRFLHWLHV WKDW DUH VWUXFWXUHG DURXQG hierarchies as well as economic classes, [those social systems which] VKDOO QHYHU EH IUHH RI GRPLQDWLRQ´ %RRNFKLQ   $V D VSHFLHV RI animal, human beings are way beyond taking only the minimum of what we need from nature to survive, even to comfortably survive. We are addicted to domination, slaves to excess, and according to Torres and other social anarchists, it is fundamentally impossible to detoxify ZLWKLQ D ³VWDWH-oriented system [or within] the dynamics of FDSLWDOLVP´ 

234

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To oppose the use of animals for human ends fits the GHVWUXFWLYLVW³DWWDFNRQFDSLWDOLVWYDOXHV´0HW]JHU, ³$XWR-Destructive $UW0DFKLQH$UW´ )RUVRPHWKLVPHDQVDQRQYLROHQWDQDUFKLVW revolution. For others, this means dismantlement, which entails DFWLYLVWV FRPLQJ ³WRJHWKHU WR XQGHUFXW DQG XOWLPDWHO\ HOLPLQDWH WKH LQGXVWU\ RI DQLPDO DJULFXOWXUH´ 0DUFXV   )RU VRPH WKLV LV D peaceful process; for others, there will be blood. But while the majority of animal liberationists continue to focus solely on QRQKXPDQVRWKHUVZDUQDJDLQVW³VLQJOH-LVVXHPRYHPHQWV´%RRNFKLQ 66). This latter group is the radical avant-garde ALM, heirs to the project of surrealism D PRYHPHQW JXLGHG E\ WKH QHHG ³WR change consciousness and XOWLPDWHO\ VRFLHW\ LWVHOI´ %RRNFKLQ  HPSKDVLV added). This avant-garde must take its message to the streets through activist art, penetrate the public sphere, and inundate all comers with its message. Justice and rights for animals are human contrivances and speciesist ideas, though liberation remains of value. The very assumption that we have the right to set up rules of law for nonhumans and for what humans are allowed/not allowed to do with them is steeped in the mindset that allowed for imperialism. As -RVHSKLQH'RQRYDQDVVHUWV³1DWXUDOULJKWVDQGXWLOLWDULDQLVPSUHVHQW impressive and useful philosophical arguments for the ethical WUHDWPHQW RI DQLPDOV´ EXW WKRVH DUJXPHQWV ZLHOG LQYHQWHG FRQFHSWV that parse out parity for some, domination for others, while emotion is OHIW LQ WKH GXVW ³$QLPDO 5LJKWV´ 76). Considering the atrocities that have taken place and continue to take place in the world of humans, there is no reason to believe that man-made concepts of ethics, morality and law will ever be enough to liberate animals. Yes, they are what we have to work with now, but the ALM, as an avant-garde, has a responsibility to dream of something better and to offer a vision of that reverie to the world. So, what is the dream? Part of it must include leaving nonhumans alone. We will have no interference in the lives of those animals who have no care of humankind, but still preventing their suffering when/if necessary. Liberation for animals is a type of (in)activism in that we as humans will accept the premise that we ³VKRXOGQRWNLOOHDWWRUWXUHDQGH[SORLWDQLPDOVEHFDXVHWKH\GRQRW want to be so treated, and we knRZWKDW´'RQRYDQ³$QLPDO5LJKWV´ 76). I have posed liberation for women as that time in which they are no longer docile bodies who use the machines of pleasure to make themselves into viable commodities in an heterosexist, patriarchal

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culture. Similarly, animal liberation comes when humans stop transforming nonhumans into food, clothing, jewelry, entertainment, science experiments, sport, machines, etc. The storybooks lied. Nonhuman societies are not microcosms of human society, and we must stop seeing them as such. Dogs are not mini-humans who like to primp and preen for admiring audiences. It is not the objective of nonhumans to reach the eventual goal of being like humans, just as it should not be the objective of women to eventually be like men or like the impossible ideals of womanhood created by men. Catherine 0DF.LQQRQ DIILUPV WKDW ³VHHNLQJ DQLPDO ULJKWV RQ WKH µOLNH XV¶ PRGHO RI VDPHQHVV PD\ EH PLVFRQFHLYHG XQSHUVXDVLYH DQG FRXQWHUSURGXFWLYH´   7KH radical ALM objective is not to learn how to integrate all species into the lives of humankind, but to know that they should live according to their natures. We have seen, heard, smelled, and felt their terror under the tyranny of humans, and it is not acceptable. We have walked past their packaged flesh and reproductive emissions in the supermarkets, and it is not all right. The truth of animal commodities has been exposed. $QLPDOV GRQ¶W OLNH WR EH WRUWXUHG, and that is reason enough to not torture them. How do we really know? We know because we just know. :HGRQ¶WKDYHWRSURYHLWWKURXJKWKHODQJXDJHRISDWULDUFK\ And freedom rears its beautiful head.

CONCLUSION Love and Laughter Now: Plucking at Stems or Uprooting Oppression? No one who has lived even for a fleeting moment for something other than life in its conventional sense and has experienced the exaltation that this feeling produces can then renounce [t]his new freedom so easily. ²André Breton ,W LV QRW D PDWWHU RI SXWWLQJ RXW RQH¶V H\HV ,W requires seeing the same thing differently. ²Carol J. Adams

$ YLGHR SRVWHG RQ WKH $QLPDO /LEHUDWLRQ )URQW¶V :HE VLWH shows ALF agents breaking and entering a science lab, destroying computers and documents, and rescuing beagles who were being brutalized in experiments by the Boots Group, a leading British pharmaceutical company. The balaclava-wearing warriors, dressed in black, looked angry (though also cool in that sexy way that rebels always do), and they destroyed with a vengeance. Then, to the tune of 0HDWORDI¶V ³, :RXOG 'R $Q\WKLQJ IRU /RYH´ WKRVH VDPH QHDUO\destroyed dogs are imaged after the rescue; they are running, frolicking, playing with each other, and being caringly held by the still-masked crusaders. As asked in the title of Steven Best and $QWKRQ\-1RFHOOD¶VERRNDEout the ALF, are these people terrorists or freedom fighters? The same question was asked about the Surrealists MXVW DIWHU  ,Q ³Surrealism and Demoralization of the :HVW´ DUW KLVWRULDQ -HDQ &ODLU ³MX[WDSRVHG WKH GHVWUXFWLRQ RI WKH World Trade Center with Louis Aragon¶VUDQWDJDLQVWWKHµZKLWH EXLOGLQJV¶RI1HZ5HYLHZ@´ Seen and Heard. Seen and Heard International, 2006. Web. 25 May 2009. 5XVVR 0DU\ ³)HPDOH *URWHVTXHV &DUQLYDO DQG 7KHRU\´ &RQER\ 0HGLQD DQG Stanbury 318-336. Schneemann, Carolee. Ask the Goddess. CaroleeSchneemann.com, 1993-1997. Web. 12 May 2009. _____. Fuses. Perf. Carolee Schneemann and James Tenney. 1967. UbuWeb. Web. 12 May 2009. _____, Ed. Imaging Her Erotics: Essays, Interviews, Projects. Cambridge, MA: MIT P, 2003. Print. _____. Meat Joy. Perf. Carolee Schneemann. 1964. Electronic Arts Intermix. Web. 21 May 2009. Schneider, Rebecca. The Explicit Body in Performance. London: Routledge, 1997. Print. 6FKQXUHU 0D[ZHOO ³$W WKH *DWHV RI +HOO 7KH $/) DQG WKH /HJDF\ RI  +RORFDXVW 5HVLVWDQFH´%HVWDQG1RFHOOD-127. 6FRWW 6KLUOH\ /\QQ ³:KDW 0DNHV 6HULDO .LOOHUV 7LFN"´ Crime Library. Court TV, 2005. Web. 14 Feb. 2006. Seaver, Richard and Helen R. Lane, Eds. and Trans. Manifestoes of Surrealism. Ann Arbor: U Michigan P, 1974. Print. 6HOLQJHU(ULF0XUSK\³/RYHLQWKH7LPHRI0HODQFKROLD´6FKUHLEHUDQG7XPD43. Sell, Mike. Avant-Garde Performance and the Limits of Criticism: Approaching the Living Theatre, Happenings/Fluxus, and the Black Arts Movement. Ann Arbor, MI: U Michigan P, 2008. Print. _____. The Avant-Garde: Race Religion War. Kolkota, India: Seagull Books, Forthcoming June 2011. Print. 6KUHLEHU 0DHHUD ³µ/RYH ,V D /\ULFRI %RGLHV¶ 7KH 1HJDWLYH $HVWKHWLFV RI 0LQD /R\¶VLove Songs to Joannes´6KUHLEHUDQG7XPD-109. 6KUHLEHU0DDHUDDQG.HLWK7XPD³,QWURGXFWLRQ´6KUHLEHUDQG7XPD-16. _____, Eds. Mina Loy: Woman and Poet. Orono, ME: National Poetry Foundation, 1998. Print. Singer, Peter. Animal Liberation. 3rd ed. New York: Ecco, 2002. Print. BBBBB³+HDY\3HWWLQJ´Nerve, 2001. Utilitarian Philosophers. Web. 17 Aug. 2010. _____, Ed. In Defense of Animals: The Second Wave. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006. Print. Singer, Peter and Jim Mason. The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter. Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 2006. Print. Solanas, Valerie. SCUM Manifesto. 1967. Brooklyn, New York: Verso, 2004. Print. Sprinkle, AnniH ³3KRWR %LR (OOHQ$QQLH$Q\D ´ Annie Sprinkle.org, n.d. Web. 20 June 2009. 6WDXGHU(OOHQ.HFN³7KH,UUHGXFLEOH6XUSOXVRI$EVWUDFWLRQ0LQD/R\RQ%UDQFXVL and the )XWXULVWV´6KUHLEHUDQG7XPD-377. STELARC. Home page, n.d. Web. 18 June 2009. 6WLOHV.ULVWLQH³1HYHU(QRXJKLVSomething Else: Feminist Performance Art, Avant*DUGHVDQG3URELW\´+DUGLQJ-289. BBBBB³7KH3DLQWHUDVDQ,QVWUXPHQWRI5HDO7LPH´6FKQHHPDQQ-16.

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Works Cited

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