MODULE B - THEORY
Max den Hartog

1.
‘They are in dialogue with a hair color that has been used by the world to suggest whiteness, to suggest privilege, to suggest desirability, beauty. For them, the first thing that came to mind was this question of choice. Women over 50 say, “It covers my gray.” Younger women say, “It’s a form of expression,” but when you ask them what they’re expressing, it’s like they don’t want to arrive at the idea of conformity around beauty standards that have been presented—on television, in Barbie dolls—from the time they arrived out of the womb.’

Regensdorf, Laura. “Why Blonde Privilege Is Real, From Barbie to the White House.” Vogue, 24 July 2018, https://www.vogue.com/article/claudia-rankine-john-lucas-stamped-blonde-hair-color-race-brooklyn-new-york.

2.
‘People with trans identities could describe themselves as men and women, too- or resist binary categorisation altogether - ut in doing either they queered the dominant relationship of sexed body and gendered subject.’

Stryker, Susan. ‘Homonormativity and Disciplinarity’ Transgender History: the Roots of Todays Revolution. Seal Press, 2017, PP. 201.

3.
‘The photographs themselves are simply what they are, innocent idealizations taken to Cinemascope perfection. But when a major photographic museum like the Eastman House packages an exhibition of images this obvious and loquacious about cultural exclusivity, and when the Hyde books a showing of that exhibition without seeming to see this, it feels like 1958 all over again.’

Jaeger, William. “‘Colorama’ Images Show a World of Exclusive Whiteness.” Times Union, 20 Mar. 2019, www.timesunion.com/preview/article/Colorama-images-show-a-world-of-exclusive-13703396.php.  

4.
‘The important thing for me is how we create a national discussion about images that are difficult to talk about, and images we are embracing. That’s why I wanted to look at contemporary photography, art photography, memes, as well as the history of photography within this framework.’

Weber, Jasmine. “Rethinking the Archive of Black Visual Culture with Deborah Willis”, 5 November 2018  

5.
‘It’s not surprising to me that people are not opting to go lighter, even if that’s closer to what their skin tone is, because they’re kind of represented by the default anyway’

McGill, Andrew, and Aminatou Sow. “Why White People Don’t Use White Emoji.” The Atlantic, 9 Aug. 2021, www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/white-people-dont-use-white-emoji/481695.  

6.
‘For example: bell hooks’s oft-cited essay, “Is Paris Burning?,” questions Livingston’s directorial gaze and postulates that the film merely reifies the allure of Eurocentric bourgeois whiteness to a white audience. José Muñoz identifies the film as “a highly sensationalized rendering,” “overexposed,” which “glamorize[s] the experience.” A New York Times article in 1993 documents the ravages AIDS wrought upon the ball communities and cites lawsuits against Livingston for their share of the profit by ball members featured in the documentary—all of which highlights how the material realities of HIV/AIDS and poverty were glossed over in the film.’

Gonsalez, Marcos. “Paris Doesn't Always Have To Be Burning.” Public Books, 16 Sept. 2020, https://www.publicbooks.org/paris-doesnt-always-have-to-be-burning/.

7.
‘Women may feel isolated in male-dominated working environments; they may face discrimination as they are cut out of networks while male bosses hire and promote in their own image. But what about at a macro level? Does the lack of female representation materially affect the work produced by architects, developers and planners? Would new housing, street and office blocks look or feel any different if more women were in charge of designing them?’

“If Women Built Cities, What Would Our Urban Landscape Look like?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 5 Dec. 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/dec/05/if-women-built-cities-what-would-our-urban-landscape-look-like.

8.
‘The potential to recognise a spectrum of yellow, brown and reddish skin tones was there, but the film companies went with emulsions that catered to the perceived needs of their target consumers, whose hides were noticeably lighter than those of black shutterbugs also seeking to document their family c vacations, milestone and celebrations. ’

Halliday, Ayun. “Color Film Was Designed to Take Pictures of White People, Not People of Color: The Unfortunate History of Racial Bias in Photography (1940–1990).” Open Culture, 3 July 2018, www.openculture.com/2018/07/color-film-was-designed-to-take-pictures-of-white-people-not-pe
ople-of-color.html.

9.
‘Here again, the question that orient my analysis is: how do black families and communities in diaspora use family photography to carve out a place for themselves in the European contests they come to call home.’

Campt, Tina. “Introduction.” Image Matters: Archive, Photography, and the African Diaspora in Europe, Duke University Press, Durham, 2012, pp 14.

10.
‘The straight men were the ones who most insistently enunciated the doctrine of ‘do your own thing’ and ‘it’s all free’ and ‘don’t tamper with the good vibes.’ We began to feel that this hippy ideology was a cover for privilege and power and laziness and irresponsibility. We felt like we were doing most of the work and we were paying for it all. The were being taken care of.’.

Mitchell, Larry, and Ned Asta. ‘Introduction.’ The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions, Nightboat Books, 2019, PP. 20.