Publics & Politics
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Figure 1.0(source)
Politics and Publics
In the last few weeks, we have examined how conversations about culture, gender, and sexuality have been framed in politics and the publics. Media and social-political organizations have been at the center of these conversations. I find interesting some of the ideas put forward by Cloud(2018) and Brower & Ansen (2010). In Brower & Ansen’s piece, I found two concepts, publics, and webs as relevant. While in the Cloud (2018) piece, I find it interesting how the classical concepts, episteme, and Doxa have been wielded alongside mediation.
My interpretation of mediation is that it serves as a bridge for creating knowledge or episteme based on common belief or what we can call doxa. In order words, mediation plays an intermediary role as “occupying the middle space between knowledge and meaning, inevitably shaping what can be known and how it can be known…” (16). In conceptualizing Cloud’s (2018) mediation, I think it is important to acknowledge the role that power plays in determining what the public construe to be the truth or facts. Indeed, what we (people or public) refer to as facts or truth are “social constructs that aid the powerful in the exertion of their interests.” (Cloud, 24).
This makes me think of some other ideas, such as hegemony and articulation theory, that we have touched on in previous classes. For instance, Gramsci’s hegemony also advocates that those with power control what the public considers to be true without coercion, but through rhetoric or language. As an extension of what hegemony is, articulation also involves the recreation of identities to serve an agenda.
Even more, I find interesting connections between Cloud's (2018) key idea about mediation and its centrality around power and hegemony, with Kelly’s (2020) construction of victimhood as well as Sloop’s (2000) idea on the performative nature of gender. Kelly (2020) claims that victimhood is “often expressed through blame-shifting and manipulation” (13). The keyword here again is manipulation, which I earlier mentioned as being central to Gramsci’s idea of hegemony. In the same vein, Sloop (2000) following this line of thought- that knowledge or episteme is created through meaning creating and by those with power, makes a connection with gender and society. Gender is “socially constructed and performative” (3) in a hegemonic system. These systems or places where mediation can be anywhere. Mediation “refers to any process of interpretation or alteration” and a “more general process” (Cloud, 80). Cloud’s (2018) conceptualization of mediation as a process that can happen anywhere, connects with Brower & Ansen's (2010) idea about public spheres and networks. The contemporary public sphere “has become a web of discursive arenas, spread across society and even in some cases, across national boundaries”. (6).
As I try to weave these threads of ideas, namely, the big 5, mediation, episteme, doxa, hegemony, and articulation, I think of the Tyrann Mathieu persona. Mathieu’s identity was reshaped over time through mediation actions by his interviewers and NFL, especially when the latter decided to bring in on board. In one of his interviews, I recall how he was humorously called honey, while badger was omitted. The belief (Doxa) about Tyrann’s skillfulness and ferocious nature was constructed as “aggressive and hypermasculine than white bodies” (Bower and Hanna, 2019, p117), and this new construction or episteme had to be circulated across public spheres. This was perpetrated to suit a hegemonic agenda. It is even interesting that one of the big 5 talked about by Cloud (2018) was employed in this articulation, with the way the interviewers Stugotz and Le Batard, performed “risibility politics” (Brower, 2010) on Tyrann with the use of humor.
Finally, I find these ideas resonant with my research interest in domestic abuse in interpersonal relationships. For instance, I find a cross-cultural media representation of domestic abuse in interpersonal relationships in public spheres. Nigerian comedians leveraging on Tik Tok, Instagram, and YouTube, have continued to create content that mediates and creates humor resonant with public doxa or serves as counter-publics on issues such as domestic abuse in interpersonal relationships. While some comedians create content to normalize abuse and viewers unconsciously embrace these media representations, as a response to such mediations, female stand-up comedians and actresses have also created counter-public content to contest the normalization of domestic abuse. It is enthralling how despite the distance in time and space, from Nigeria in Africa to the United States in North America, are interesting parallels of how culture shapes gender, sexuality, ideologies, and beliefs in both private and public spheres, and the roles the human bodies play in this process.
Citations
Asen, Robert, & Brower, Daniel C. “Public Modalities: Rhetoric, Culture, Media, and The Shape of Public Life”. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, 2010.
Cloud, Dana L.” Reality Bites: Rhetoric and the Circulation of Truth Claims in U.S. Political Culture.” Ohio University Press, Columbus, 2018.
Grano, Daniel A., & Butterworth, Michael L. “Sport, Rhetoric and Political Struggle.” Peter Lang Publishing, New York, 2019.
Kelly, Casey. “Apocalypse Man: The Death Drive and The Rhetoric of White Masculine Victimhood”. The Ohio State University Press, Columbus. 2020.
Mr. Patrick. “Domestic Violence: The Adventures of Mr. Patrick” Youtube, uploaded by Mr. Patrick. 6 July 2018, https://youtu.be/RfA6nEP6aaM.
Rodrigo, Quim. “Materiality of Discourse with Foucault.” YouTube, uploaded by Critique with Nietzsche and Foucault, 16 Jan. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lklhyNP6-YM&t=204s.
Sloop, John. “Rhetoric of Sex Identity in Contemporary U.S. Culture”. University of Massachusetts Press, 2004.