5 - Disidentification - Taking Back
Disidentification feels to me, regarding its decontextualization and appropriated intentions, similar to other forms of remixing, such as sampling in music and even of cultures taking back offensive terms for a reempowering use. The example that popped in my head (once I understood the concept) was of body-building magazines and the disidentification of it by male gay communities. The first one of this phenomenon was Physique Pictorial, which at the time of its publication (1950's) was being consumed largely by gay men who, finding no legal source of gay soft pornography, used the magazine which was intended for strictly body-building fans (no gay intention in the images). I am unsure about the history of the magazine's publication, whether it eventually secretly embraced its disidentification, but other publications surely did.
Thus the body-building imagery/aesthetic of the 1950's magazine became a appropriated (disidentified) symbol for the male gay community.Basically, gay communities/culture after being shoved to the edges and treated as they don't exist (or shouldn't exist) find those labels and symbols which do not represent them and redefine/reuse/decontextualize them into a hyperstate of representation and non-representation, but this makes the symbol(s) even more powerful.
Remixing and sampling in more modern musical traditions (really realized by the origins of hip-hop and beat production) feels similar to this, though not necessarily containing the same recontextualization strength of disidentification processes for non-gay symbols into gay symbols. Like where the majority culture does not represent gay identities, pieces must be salvaged from it and flipped around to face those pushed to the edges.
These are some really interesting examples you picked. Body-building magazines always felt intensely homoerotic to me, so it's cool that you were able to connect that to the idea of disidentification.
ReplyDeleteYou put words to something I have been thinking about for a long time. In the back of my head, I felt there must be a connection of old body building and the gay community. The thought of "they must know what they are doing". I loved your analysis and look at this example!
ReplyDeleteI really liked your examples of disidentification! I was having a lot of trouble grasping the concept and seeing these made me totally realize what it is.
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