Critical Response #3

Critical Response #3: King & Justice et all

            Reading media such as Sexuality, Nationality, and Idigeneity is always fun for me because different authors and values and beliefs can be represented in one volume of a work. These articles were interesting to me, because it made it clear to me how little I ever hear about Native Americans. Before this class I hadn’t really realized how little Native people of color ever get represented in the media, I just hadn’t ever noticed it, and I suppose this is how the media wants it. For people to not notice the lack of representation that exists for certain portions of our “equal” nation. But I definitely feel as though I’ve seen more representation for African American people that I have with Native Americans. It was also odd hearing about the queer movement being compared to that of the Native Americans, but I suppose that it does make some sense since both of the movements seem to be minimalized and attempted to be ignored.

            A common topic of discussion in the articles was that of settler colonialism, and how this relates to queer theory. Settler colonialism involved the murder or control of native peoples when new colonies came to settle into their land. This was common practice against the indigenous Native Americans back in the colonial times, and isn’t really spoken of much now. This compares to how even now the LGBTQ movement is attempting to be quieted even now. While there are finally more frequent mentions of the queer community in the media, there still isn’t nearly as much attention as there should be. There is even less attention paid to the Native Americans, obvious in the fact that I live Oregon which has more of a Native population than a lot of places, and I still don’t have a lot of knowledge about the tribes and reservations that lie around me.

           

            The interview with Virgie Tovar was interesting; I did enjoy her term ‘bohedonist.’ I also liked that she brought to light all the different forms of art that exist. When most people think of art, mostly what comes to mind is paintings and drawings, maybe poems and music. But to me art is really anything that allows for self expression. Artwork can be a very powerful form of political statement, and Tovar tackles some serious issues with her art such as gender politics and fatphobia. A point she makes in the interview, that “education is the key to ascendency” struck me the most though I think. Because that’s basically how I’ve felt from high school on, and my father was always a big believer in me and my sister going to college so that we could have better than he had. So I’ve definitely lived with that sort of mantra for most of my life. And like Tovar says, that attitude has helped me a lot with a lot of things, and has helped me gain a lot of skill sets.