This week in my oral history class, I shared with students some oral histories collected in 2007/8 with survivors of the 1918 Flu pandemic. It’s often said that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes, and in this case, the resonances with our own pandemic era were very pointed for me and my students. Descriptions… Continue reading Pandemic Rhymes: Oral history and the 1918 Flu pandemic
Category: bodies
Grotesque bodies redux
Last year I wrote a post about Miley Cyrus' use of the trope of large black female buttocks in her stage performances and the way it referenced earlier images of the "Female Hottentot" in deeply problematic ways. Because it seems we have learned nothing, we again have another white female unknowingly invoking this trope in… Continue reading Grotesque bodies redux
Miley Cyrus’ Grotesque Bodies
I know I'm a little late to the party here on this, but it took me some time to find the time to write this! Much has been made of Miley Cyrus's performance at the VMAs in September--most of it hand wringing and pearl clutching over the spectacle of a young woman, a former Disney… Continue reading Miley Cyrus’ Grotesque Bodies