okay, so, evelyn evelyn...
I guess I'm going to wade into this, because I've been following it for the past few days and variously banging my head against the desk and sitting on my hands in an attempt to wait and see how Amanda was going to respond to the criticism. Well, responded she has! And ugh.
First, some background for those who have no idea what this is about: Amanda Palmer and her friend, Jason Webley, are about to release an album by a group called Evelyn Evelyn. EE is a fictional pair of conjoined twins, who write and perform music, and who have a fairly OTT horrible background. EE is also Amanda and Jason, putting on a sewn-together dress and performing on stage as the twins. Some links for more complete explanation:
Evelyn Evelyn's Myspace page, where you can see the artwork and hear a taste of the music.
Amanda's blog post that lays out the backstory for the twins and is the source of a lot of the criticism.
A good post at the Disabled Feminists blog criticizing the project.
Amanda's first public response to the criticism: setting aside 846 emails and removing the disabled feminists from her mental periphery, @amandapalmer sat down to plan her next record.
Jason's response.
Amanda's blog response to the criticism, posted this morning.
Lots of links to people talking about this issue.
So a while back, there was a wave of people posting angrily about this project (and about Gerard Way's very marginal involvement), and I have to admit that I just couldn't work myself up to being upset about it. Some of it made me a little uncomfortable, but I was also willing to wait and see where there were going with this, because Amanda has actually been pretty good in the past at talking about non-normative bodies and marginalized women, and I was willing to wait and see. However, the tone of that post where she lays out the history of the twins was just so icky and so full of red flashing lights that said to me, "abort, abort, this is going to be bad!!" And honestly, I really haven't entirely worked out how I feel about the project as it stands and exactly what parts of it I find the ickiest and why. I'm still working on that stuff in my own head. What I do know is that her response to the criticism, and the response of many of her fans, has left me so incredibly angry and disappointed at someone who I really enjoyed.
So, lacking in the ability to put this all together coherently, here are some bullet points of my thoughts:
*I don't think disability is something that should be off-limits to non-disabled artists. I think it is a useful and interesting metaphor and point of discussion when done right. But it has to be used thoughtfully, and respectfully, and re-tooling a very old story about conjoined twins, who have been abandoned, mistreated, abused, and isolated, until they were rescued by our heroes and given an opportunity to show the world their heartbreaking genius, is just neither of those things. Seriously? Dead mother, abandoned, sexually abused, sold to the circus? Is there any cliche we've missed here? Also, the weird childish voices they've been given in interviews and on their twitter, and the "quirks" like being afraid of beards, is just icky. This project could have been, or could be, interesting. But so far, all signs point to no.
*I get what Amanda meant when she made that first tweet. I get that she was not dismissing the criticism out of hand. But she did not just fall off the internet turnip truck, and if she had taken a moment to reread her words and think about how that might read to other people, especially as the first words she was saying on the subject, she might have reconsidered.
*Jason's response is not perfect. It still puts a lot of the responsibility on the people who they offended, instead of themselves. However, in contrast to Amanda's tweets and posts, and when compared to so many responses by people when called on their isms, it was a pretty decent post. He acknowledged the criticism and didn't immediately dismiss it out of hand as being all in our heads (like Amanda managed to do several times), he verbalized his own ignorance of the issue, he apologized, and while stating that they won't be changing the project itself, he is interested in trying to change the ways that they talk about it. It will remain to be seen where we go from here, but I just wanted to say that I appreciated his response, especially in contrast to Amanda's.
These thoughts are aimed at both Amanda and many of her fans who have been failing all over themselves on her blog:
*Conjoined twins have a disability, you fuckhead. Seriously, I think this is the comment that made me the most spitting angry in all of the fan comments. No matter what definitional criteria you want to use, there is no question that they are disabled. And saying that it is not a disability and suggesting that maybe someone should ask some actual conjoined twins whether they consider themselves disabled just makes you look like a giant asshole and adds nothing to the conversation. Here, let lauredhel explain this more calmly.
*Speaking of disability, you might be surprised to find out that there are disabled people who are fans of Amanda Palmer, who are reading these comments, who you are talking to right this very minute and you just might not know it. Let's cover this again- there are disabled people in fandom. We don't all preface everything we write with our disability bona fides, but we are here. We are not just a small group of bloggers over on a site called Disabled Feminists. So try not to dismiss the criticism as something that a few people who aren't even AFP fans are harping on just to annoy you.
*And oh yeah, that disabled friend or family member you have? They do not make you an expert on anything. And just because THEY are not offended by something does not mean it is not legitimately offensive. Guess what? Disabled people are just like you and they have differing opinions on things too! There are actually quite a few things that I do not agree with the majority of disability rights activists on. Amazing, I know.
*ART is not an excuse to do what ever you want whenever you want without criticism. You can definitely do what ever you want, go for it, express yourself in whatever way you want, be the special snowflake artist that you believe yourself to be, but you better be willing to accept that not every one will appreciate and love your art like you do. Some people will criticize it, and some people will be hurt by it. If you don't care about those things, that's cool, whatever man, more power to you. Don't expect me to shut up about it, though, and don't expect me to buy it.
*Also, also, the fact that this is a fancy way of getting around the evil oppressive Record Company, is neither an explanation, nor excuse for taking part in the marginalization of disabled people. I am all for screwing the MAN at the record company. But not at the expense of other people.
Okay, I'm done. For now.
First, some background for those who have no idea what this is about: Amanda Palmer and her friend, Jason Webley, are about to release an album by a group called Evelyn Evelyn. EE is a fictional pair of conjoined twins, who write and perform music, and who have a fairly OTT horrible background. EE is also Amanda and Jason, putting on a sewn-together dress and performing on stage as the twins. Some links for more complete explanation:
Evelyn Evelyn's Myspace page, where you can see the artwork and hear a taste of the music.
Amanda's blog post that lays out the backstory for the twins and is the source of a lot of the criticism.
A good post at the Disabled Feminists blog criticizing the project.
Amanda's first public response to the criticism: setting aside 846 emails and removing the disabled feminists from her mental periphery, @amandapalmer sat down to plan her next record.
Jason's response.
Amanda's blog response to the criticism, posted this morning.
Lots of links to people talking about this issue.
So a while back, there was a wave of people posting angrily about this project (and about Gerard Way's very marginal involvement), and I have to admit that I just couldn't work myself up to being upset about it. Some of it made me a little uncomfortable, but I was also willing to wait and see where there were going with this, because Amanda has actually been pretty good in the past at talking about non-normative bodies and marginalized women, and I was willing to wait and see. However, the tone of that post where she lays out the history of the twins was just so icky and so full of red flashing lights that said to me, "abort, abort, this is going to be bad!!" And honestly, I really haven't entirely worked out how I feel about the project as it stands and exactly what parts of it I find the ickiest and why. I'm still working on that stuff in my own head. What I do know is that her response to the criticism, and the response of many of her fans, has left me so incredibly angry and disappointed at someone who I really enjoyed.
So, lacking in the ability to put this all together coherently, here are some bullet points of my thoughts:
*I don't think disability is something that should be off-limits to non-disabled artists. I think it is a useful and interesting metaphor and point of discussion when done right. But it has to be used thoughtfully, and respectfully, and re-tooling a very old story about conjoined twins, who have been abandoned, mistreated, abused, and isolated, until they were rescued by our heroes and given an opportunity to show the world their heartbreaking genius, is just neither of those things. Seriously? Dead mother, abandoned, sexually abused, sold to the circus? Is there any cliche we've missed here? Also, the weird childish voices they've been given in interviews and on their twitter, and the "quirks" like being afraid of beards, is just icky. This project could have been, or could be, interesting. But so far, all signs point to no.
*I get what Amanda meant when she made that first tweet. I get that she was not dismissing the criticism out of hand. But she did not just fall off the internet turnip truck, and if she had taken a moment to reread her words and think about how that might read to other people, especially as the first words she was saying on the subject, she might have reconsidered.
*Jason's response is not perfect. It still puts a lot of the responsibility on the people who they offended, instead of themselves. However, in contrast to Amanda's tweets and posts, and when compared to so many responses by people when called on their isms, it was a pretty decent post. He acknowledged the criticism and didn't immediately dismiss it out of hand as being all in our heads (like Amanda managed to do several times), he verbalized his own ignorance of the issue, he apologized, and while stating that they won't be changing the project itself, he is interested in trying to change the ways that they talk about it. It will remain to be seen where we go from here, but I just wanted to say that I appreciated his response, especially in contrast to Amanda's.
These thoughts are aimed at both Amanda and many of her fans who have been failing all over themselves on her blog:
*Conjoined twins have a disability, you fuckhead. Seriously, I think this is the comment that made me the most spitting angry in all of the fan comments. No matter what definitional criteria you want to use, there is no question that they are disabled. And saying that it is not a disability and suggesting that maybe someone should ask some actual conjoined twins whether they consider themselves disabled just makes you look like a giant asshole and adds nothing to the conversation. Here, let lauredhel explain this more calmly.
*Speaking of disability, you might be surprised to find out that there are disabled people who are fans of Amanda Palmer, who are reading these comments, who you are talking to right this very minute and you just might not know it. Let's cover this again- there are disabled people in fandom. We don't all preface everything we write with our disability bona fides, but we are here. We are not just a small group of bloggers over on a site called Disabled Feminists. So try not to dismiss the criticism as something that a few people who aren't even AFP fans are harping on just to annoy you.
*And oh yeah, that disabled friend or family member you have? They do not make you an expert on anything. And just because THEY are not offended by something does not mean it is not legitimately offensive. Guess what? Disabled people are just like you and they have differing opinions on things too! There are actually quite a few things that I do not agree with the majority of disability rights activists on. Amazing, I know.
*ART is not an excuse to do what ever you want whenever you want without criticism. You can definitely do what ever you want, go for it, express yourself in whatever way you want, be the special snowflake artist that you believe yourself to be, but you better be willing to accept that not every one will appreciate and love your art like you do. Some people will criticize it, and some people will be hurt by it. If you don't care about those things, that's cool, whatever man, more power to you. Don't expect me to shut up about it, though, and don't expect me to buy it.
*Also, also, the fact that this is a fancy way of getting around the evil oppressive Record Company, is neither an explanation, nor excuse for taking part in the marginalization of disabled people. I am all for screwing the MAN at the record company. But not at the expense of other people.
Okay, I'm done. For now.