Posted on 09/18/2019 6:10:11 AM PDT by Salman
There’s a lot to look at in this image. At first glance, one sees the anonymity of Norman Rockwell’s mid-century America: the house-unparticular porch, the timelessness of the couple form. Take another look and the pillars supporting the unseen roof of the porch start to resemble the Ionic columns of the White House, the background becoming a gesture or a promise of possibility. You begin to see the image in the aggregate, and the couple, girded by a backdrop literally overwhelmed by the household, becomes the timelessness of the entire image. This photo also tells a profound story about whiteness, above and beyond the fact that almost everything in this photo is, itself, white. It’s such an all-consuming aesthetic, here, that it practically resists interpretation; like the generically familiar (to me, a white person) porch, the cover photo claims that there’s nothing to see, because we already know what it is. We have seen this image, we know this couple, “we” should be comfortable. My “we” is particular to me, but then again, I am more or less exactly who this photo is aimed at. As a queer person, I also notice the quasi-uniform-like aesthetic of Pete and Chasten — I wondered, for a second, if they were actually wearing the same pair of pants — marveling for a moment at the sartorial doppel-banging that at first seems to claim center stage in this photo, before realizing that, instead, there’s actually no sex at center stage, here. And that is part of the point.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.lareviewofbooks.org ...
LA review of books what’s with white bashing all the time?
Thanks for the summary. The first couple of sentances were painful to read and I was debating if it was worth reading.
Thanks for not including the image (really)!
We, primarily intellectuals, have psychoanalyzed ourselves into a fine neurosis.
“Thinking themselves wise they became fools”
These fools are especially dangerous for rejecting the Truths of both God and Nature.
Things ain’t gonna end well for these folks. A lot of weeping ang teeth gnashing.
Need any more proof that journalism is not exactly a den of folks who live to the right of the Bell Curve?
That’s a lot of analysis. One has to be trained to look for and interpret such detail.
I see two broken men who haven’t found Jesus yet.
I clicked just so I could see how far I could tolerate the academic Kabbalah-gibberish. I apologize to the Kabbalah.
People get paid to write drivel like these?
The future for the best healthy heterosexual relations will be in religious communities, with a strong emphasis on marriage and family, with boy and girl children raised together in chaperoned circumstances, so that they socialize with each other on a daily basis for years.
Took a few sentences, but she does reveal the basis of her deranged outlook on life.
Without women?
Ah, and there is a problem with HOMOsexuality. It implies one or the other sex has no importance.
First Family?
Not in my lifetime:-)
What the heck is that thing?
The author, Greta Fleur:Dayum. That gal is just a little more masculine looking than Pete's "husband".
Where does the mass media find these freaks?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.