Amanda Palmer >:( :( ;__;
Yup, that bit of respect has definitely gone down the toilet. I'm hoping she'll continue to think about everyone who is angry, and why we are angry, and will eventually gain an understanding of the pain that she has caused and continues to cause. I believe 100% in the potential sanctity of art -- have you ever heard me talk about Vespertine? -- but art does not occupy a separate world. Art exists in this world, and is subject to and complicit in axes of oppression. I know that beautiful art often emerges when the artist unearths and captures some inner pain that the consumer deeply connects with; that shared feeling can be cathartic, healing.
The narrative of Evelyn Evelyn relies on feeling that is masked in the metaphors of disability, abuse, and freak show. How much does that suck for people who actually have disabilities, who have been exploited by child pornography, who are perceived as "freaks"? You may sometimes feel like an outsider, Amanda, but you have not lived these experiences and are not entitled to carelessly inhabit the bodies of those who have for fun and for show. It's easy to put on "crip drag" when you can step out of it the same night, when you really don't have to experience the systemic oppression of people who live those lives every day. Way to use your ableist privilege to profit from the bodies of people with disabilities! >:(
I really was looking forward to seeing her perform live one day, and now I don't want to anymore. I don't want to hear the music she makes, I don't want to buy her merch, I don't want to tell people that I love Amanda Palmer. The LP and Who Killed Amanda Palmer book in my room are distasteful to me now.
People really suck sometimes.
The narrative of Evelyn Evelyn relies on feeling that is masked in the metaphors of disability, abuse, and freak show. How much does that suck for people who actually have disabilities, who have been exploited by child pornography, who are perceived as "freaks"? You may sometimes feel like an outsider, Amanda, but you have not lived these experiences and are not entitled to carelessly inhabit the bodies of those who have for fun and for show. It's easy to put on "crip drag" when you can step out of it the same night, when you really don't have to experience the systemic oppression of people who live those lives every day. Way to use your ableist privilege to profit from the bodies of people with disabilities! >:(
I really was looking forward to seeing her perform live one day, and now I don't want to anymore. I don't want to hear the music she makes, I don't want to buy her merch, I don't want to tell people that I love Amanda Palmer. The LP and Who Killed Amanda Palmer book in my room are distasteful to me now.
People really suck sometimes.