Interdisziplinärer Workshop „European Bodies in the Making“
Lehrstuhl für Vergleichende Mitteleuropastudien, Europa-Universität Viadrina; Viadrina Center for Graduate Studies, 19.11.2015 – 20.11.2015
Marietta Kesting
Papers presented during the workshop discussed how “Europe” shaped or shapes such categories as race, class and gender or sexuality and how these can be denoted on bodies. They also discussed how “Europe” becomes “naturalized” in bodies and how it shapes bodies’ agency and impact the social and cultural worlds these bodies inhabit. Papers have shown that body contributes either to reproduction of “Europe”, or – as a metaphor – possibly creates spaces of change in Europe.
In her comment to Ms. Sadzinski’s paper MARIETTA KESTING (Berlin) referred to Peggy Phellan who remarked that not every visibility equals power (as in the example of post-porn, naked white women would then rule the world). As Ms. Kesting also claimed, a more intersectional approach would have made it possible to reveal more invisibilities then that of non-white women’s body. Also a term homonationalism coined by Jasbir Puar would have made the historical and Eurocentric genealogies of the hierarchies post-porn creates more apparent. Regarding Joanna Jurkiewicz’s paper, Ms. Kesting suggested that it would have been desirable to dwell more on the connection between “tourists” and “refugees” / ”migrants” in the works of discussed artists. As both papers discuss visibility / non-visibility where white young, pretty, abled body remains a norm, Ms. Kesting points out that while one wants to make one identity visible, one has to be careful not to delegitimize and de-visualize other identities.