Today we have Kom Kunyosying and Carter Soles on to discuss their 2012 article "Postmodern Geekdom as Simulated Ethnicity". This article is very dense and has a lot of different ideas making up its thesis, so we didn't feel we could contain the discussion within a single episode.
Discussed in this Part 2 episode:
"Postmodern Geekdom as Simulated Ethnicity" by Kom Kunyosying and Carter Soles
www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc54.201…olesKunyoGeedom/
Robert Crumb's "Whiteman" comic strip:
img.eastfist.com/whitemanbyRCrumb.jpg
Robert Crumb's "Whiteman Meets BigFoot"
champagnesharks.blubrry.net/whiteman-me…ts-bigfoot/
Frank Chin's concept of "Racist Love."
chintalks.blogspot.com/2008/08/racist-love.html
Contrast the scenes with Kyle the geek and Rhonda from Road Trip to Crumb's "Whiteman Meets Bigfoot". As Kyle becomes increasingly uninhibited and less geeky, he at the same time is shown embracing stereotypical blackness:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz3SOdEw0LY. This culminates with nerdy Kyle bedding a large, very sensual black woman, interestingly shown in animal print, as the final step in conquering his repression and reclaiming his manhood. Note the animal print the black woman is wearing (nature, animalistic).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=281lLnMhKVI Like Crumb's Whiteman, sex with the primal, primitive, hyper sexual black woman is transformative:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Ly36Bdmcw. This is taken further when we see how much more masculine Kyle is portrayed in the afterglow of the sexual encounter. Also note his friend explicitly asks if he had sex with an animal, a subtle dehumanization.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnjGj3rx1N0. The Postmodern Geekdom article has more examples of this trope of geeks using black slumming as a way to reclaim primal masculinity.
Tony Harris's rant against conventionally hot women infiltrating geek culture, especially in cosplay and comic convention culture:
www.bleedingcool.com/2012/11/13/hey…s-tony-harris/
Black Skin, White Masks by Franz Fanon
amzn.to/2ze0Z5E. Also, What Fanon Said by Lewis Gordon
amzn.to/2zsZe5s
"Incoherent Icon" by Noah Berlatsky, about Milestone Comics' Icon comic and the lack of political imagination of its black creators regarding its Black Superman.
www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2015/03/incoherent-icon/. Also, discussing Milestone comics is "Diverse Mediocre Genre Product" by Noah Berlatsky
www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2015/02/dive…nre-product/ and "J. Lamb on Why Superhero Diversity Isn’t Enough," also by Noah Berlatsky
www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2015/02/j-la…isnt-enough/.
Sexual Politics and Narrative Film: Hollywood and Beyond by Robin Wood, a collection where the essay "Mandingo: The Vindication of an Abused Masterpiece" first appears.
amzn.to/2ysSeqI
Love & Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class by Eric Lott
amzn.to/2ze4hGg
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman, Jr.
amzn.to/2xLJUne
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Robert Crumb
