Edible Body Bread

Kittiwat Unarom (Thai artist) Bakes Edible 'Body Parts' Bread

"He hopes his realistic artwork will make people ponder whether they are consuming food, or food is consuming them."

"Along with edible human heads crafted from dough, chocolate, raisins and cashews, Kittiwat makes human arms, feet, and chicken and pig parts. He uses anatomy books and his vivid memories of visiting a forensics museum to create the human parts."

More excellent photos: http://www.kirchersociety.org/blog/?p=920

Quotes and photos:
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/strange/news-article.aspx?storyid=43707
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2005/09/05/2003270488

FDR Memorial: rubbing, disabilities, & water

Last weekend, I was in Washington, D.C., doing research and visited the national mall for the first time in over a decade. I'm uploading some images from the FDR Memorial for several reasons. I'll mention only a few of the more obvious ones here.
First, to touch on previous posts, there were rubbings. More than any other memorial on the mall, the metal statues at this memorial belie contact: with FDR's shoulders, hands, etc., in and out of his wheelchair, with his dog's ears, with symbolic statues of people standing in line during the Depression, and so forth. I've included two pictures of the rubbings evident from the space dedicated to people with disabilities, which leads to a second reason to share these images for discussion.
This week in the IU seminar, we're discussing a series of essays and chapters on embodiment and technology. One is a chapter from Susan Wendell on how movements (like ours?) to embrace bodies and embodiment is a privilege of those of us who are more able-bodied; in a sense, she is attempting to recover the desire to escape one's body for those who live with disabilities, if it is desired. I think her challenge is an interesting one to consider coming out of readings about torture and bodies in physical pain. Do any of you feel we/you/I are in danger of romanticizing bodies in our pursuit of studying them/us?
Finally, I'm also uploading an image of a waterfall; throughout the FDR memorial (and the WWII memorial), in addition to stone and metal, water plays an integral role in the rhetorical experience constructed for visitors...hearing water fall...seeing water reflect images...why is water such an essential element to so many of our more tender, daily, essential, and valued embodied experiences? Why do so many of us love to vacation near (and in) oceans and lakes and bays? What rhetorical role does water have for our embodied relationship to mourning?

Drag Performance Workshop at UIUC, 10/27

I just got the following notice from UIUC's LGBT News Listserv:

Drag Performance Workshop

Friday, October 27, 2- 4pm
Office for LGBT Resources
Rm 323 Illini Union.

Everyone is welcome to join us for a workshop to explore the dynamics of gender and performance. Come pick up tips and practice their costume! Explore your masculine and/or feminine side or blur the boundaries in a safe, and fun setting. This interactive workshop will be led by Rene Chadwick, makeup artist for the Krannert Center for Performing Arts.

You will have an opportunity to see your friends be transformed into a different gender or defy gender altogether right before your eyes! We will also provide a handout list of items you may need for your costume and where to get them!

This workshop is right in time for Halloween but also will help you get started on your costume for the Colors Of Pride First Annual Drag Ball, Nov 4 at the Grand Ballroom of the Illini Union from 8 pm - midnight. The Drag Ball is open to all and will feature a dance, performances, prizes, and a drag competition! All are welcome to come in drag of whatever gender they desire.

Sponsored by the Office for LGBT Resources. For more information, contact kkempdel@uiuc.edu

CFP Travel Writing & The Body

Another CFP from http://cfp.english.upenn.edu:

“Bodies of Knowledge/Knowledge of Bodies: Depictions of theBody in American Travel Writing.”

The Society for American Travel Writing. American Literature AssociationAnnual Conference, 24-27 May 2007, Westin Copley Place, Boston, MA.

The Society for American Travel Writing, a member society of the AmericanLiterature Association, issues a call for papers for two sessions at the ALA2007 conference in Boston, MA. Entitled “Bodies of Knowledge/Knowledge ofBodies: Depictions of the Body in American Travel Writing,” the sessionswill explore depictions of the body in travel writings by “American” authorsor about “America” or “Americans.”

Approaches may include (but are not limited to):

· Relationships between the body and knowledge
· Effects of travel on the body, including illness, discomfort, etc.
· Travel and bodily processes, including consumption, digestion,evacuation, etc.
· Travel and bodily concerns, including appearance, physical danger,sexuality, disability, gastronomy, etc.
· Historical perceptions of the body in American travel writing

Papers should be 20 minutes in length. Abstracts of no more than two pagesmay be submitted by 15 January 2006 by mail, or preferably by email, to Dr.Valerie Smith, Department of English, Quinnipiac University, CLA-IC, 237 Mt.Carmel Ave., Hamden, CT, 06518, or <Valerie.Smith@quinnipiac.edu>; or to Dr.Russ Pottle, Department of Literature, Saint Joseph Seminary College, 75376River Rd., Saint Benedict, LA, 70457, or <acdean@sjasc.edu>.

Sexual Politics of Pets

“You’re not just buying a cat;
it’s a medical device that replaces shots and pills,”
said Megan Young, chief executive of Allerca.
“At the same time, this is a living animal,
so the well-being of our product comes before our customers.
This is not some high-priced handbag that you put back on the shelf if it doesn’t match.”

Cat Lovers Lining up for No-Sneeze Kitties
by Elisabeth Rosenthal, NY Times, October 6, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/science/06cat.html?em&ex=1160712000&en=5a22ee18f017cf58&ei=5070

In light of our conversation in class on the Sexual Politics of Meat, I thought this phenomenon of hypoallergenic cats, a.k.a. lifestyle pets, is revealing in regards to the ways in which we treat animals even when we don't eat them. For $4,000 one can now buy a cat that is bred "so that its glands do not produce the protein responsible for most human cat allergies."

Perhaps the most complicated sentiment from the article is an Allerca pet-owner's comments on her new cat Joshua, Ms. Chytrowsky, who says she is normally quite allergic, had no symptoms even though she allowed Joshua to sleep in her bed. “I fell in love with him,” she said. “He is a real stud — well, he is a stud, really.”

CFP: Autobiography and Fat Studies

For those of you not on the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List http://cfp.english.upenn.edu, these upcoming projects may interest you:

Autobiography and the Body

We are seeking essay abstracts for a proposed anthology of essays on any aspect of the role of the body in autobiography. In recent criticism of autobiography, the body has once again becoming central to discursive constructions of the self. The pervasive influence of the Cartesian duality in the classic American autobiographies by men – such as those of Benjamin Franklin, Henry James, and Henry Adams – is apparent in their emphasis on the life of the mind, while the pronouncements of Paul de Man in the early 1980’s defined the self as inevitably an artificial linguistic construct that once again seemed to make the body disappear. Feminist scholars such as Sidonie Smith, however, have shown how for women biology has long been perceived as destiny, and thus their autobiographies often focus much more on the life of the body and its relation to their emotional lives. In recent years women writers have become the leading practitioners of memoir and autobiography, and the autobiography of disease and disability has become one of its most popular and innovative subgenres. Simultaneously, the significance of the body in life writing has gained increasing attention even among scholars who do not focus specifically on women’s life writing as scholarship of autobiography has begun to explore the science of the brain. In his most recent book Paul John Eakin, long a groundbreaking scholar in the theory of autobiography, has once again taken the lead, reading texts such as Lucy Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face and Robert Murphy’s The Body Silent in light of the most recent debates by neurologists such as Oliver Sacks, neurobiologists like Gerald M. Edelman, and philosophers of mind such as Daniel C. Dennett.

The time is ripe for an essay collection on the significance, or insignificance, of the body in autobiography. Possible subjects include, but certainly are not limited to, classic autobiographies, slave narratives, women’s autobiography, the autobiography of disability and disease, autobiography and neurobiology, or autobiography and the body as racial signifier.

Please submit electronically abstracts of no more than 750 words along with a brief CV to Dr. Christopher Stuart of the University of TN at Chattanooga at <chris-stuart@utc.edu> by January 1st, 2007. Requests for more information may be sent to the same address.


Fat Studies

CFP for 2007 PCA/ ACA
(deadline November 15, 2006)

Fat Studies is becoming an interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary field of study that confronts and critiques cultural constraints against notions of “fatness” and “the fat body”; explores fat bodies as they live in, are shaped by, and remake the world; and creates paradigms for the development of fat acceptance or celebration within mass culture.

Proposals in the area of Fat Studies are being accepted for the 2007 PCA /ACA (Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association) National Conference in Boston, MA, (April 4-7 2007; Boston Marriott Copley Place). Papers are welcomed from academics, researchers, intellectuals, activists, and artists, in any field of study, and at any stage in their career.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

·representations of fat people in literature, film, music, nonfiction, and the visual arts
· cross-cultural or global constructions of fatness and fat bodies
· cultural, historical, or philosophical meanings of fat and fat bodies
· portrayals of fat individuals and groups in news, media, magazines
· fatness as a social or political identity
· fat acceptance, activism, and/or pride movements and tactics
· approaches to fat and body image in philosophy, psychology, religion, sociology
· fat children in literature, media, and/or pedagogy
· fat as it intersects with race, ethnicity, class, religion, ability, gender, and/or sexuality
· history and/or critique of diet books and scams
· functions of fatphobia or fat oppression in economic and political systems

By November 15, 2006, please send an abstract of 250 words or a completedpaper to Fat Studies area co-chairs, Stefanie Snider (ssnider@usc.edu) and Lesleigh Owen (goddess_les@yahoo.com).

Please include your complete contact information, and a CV and/or 50 word bio, along with anticipated A/V needs.

Completed papers for those accepted will be due to Stefanie Snider by March 1, 2007. Presenters must become members of the Popular Culture Association. Find more information on the conference and organization at http://www.popularculture.org.

Foley's Follies

Kelly's post about babies as property, Tim's post about anti-abortion protestors re-presenting the absence of bodies, and Peter's posts with me about children and coporal punishment collide for me in the past couple of weeks about the current political scandal of Congressman Mark Foley and his abuse of power with his young male interns. Of course, it is improper for a boss to abuse his/her status over an employee; but, many facets of this scandal seem to be telling about our impressions of bodies today. To raise just two:

First, all of Foley's interns had to be at least 16 (Lewinsky, by comparison, was 22). As Katha Pollit points out on commondreams.org, 16 is the legal age of consent in Washington (and most states); so, despite most media covereage, Foley is NOT a child abuser. Since the US is one of five countries in the world where it is legal to place a 16 year old on death row--2% of our death row population in 2004--calls to "protect the children" sound disingenuous to me. Sadly, I have not assigned a book on children's bodies in my seminar; so, I'm hoping some of you reading this blog will have scholarly readings to recommend about these rhetorical constructions of children's bodies, esp. the ways we simultaneously romanticize and demonize them. One I could suggest, though less focused on bodies per se, is Lawrence Grossberg's Caught in the Crossfire: Kids, Politics, and America's Future.

Second, although I assume I'm preaching to the converted here: despite ongoing media coverage of Foley's sexuality, most child abusers are straight men. For a great essay including stats on this, read Carol Norris' "The Radical Right, the Myth of the Gay Child Abuser, and You" (also on commondreams.org). The homophobia of the mainstream media is only matched by their ongoing ineptitude at actually undertaking investigative reporting. This is an old myth; but, does anyone have any insights to why this inaccurate stereotype of gay man persists today in the new millennium? Why do you think it continues to have rhetorical traction, esp. in terms of what mainstream culture apparently is willing to believe about gay bodies?