woops

is not like other people
you know how those frwench philosopher's love to neologise - and baudrillard was always ahead of his time - check out this first paragpraaph from the conspiracy of art:

baudrillard said:
The illusion of desire has been lost in the ambient pornography and contemporary art has lost the desire of illusion. In porn, nothing is left to desire. After the orgies and the liberation of all desires, we are left with the transsexual, the transparency of sex, with signs and images erasing all its secrets and ambiguity. Transsexual, in the sense that it now has nothing to do with the illusion of desire, only with the hyperreality of the image.
 
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catalog

Well-known member
i think the two are probably not the same thing, but they sort of are as well. like, i was on a train and there was a trans woman (hope i don't get in trouble for saying the wrong thing here) and i couldn't help but be a bit transfixed at all the micro decisions that have gone into getting that appearance. like, it's a lot of work, for that surface, if you know what imean. i'm gonna get in trouble i think, so i'll stop, but i think we can now discuss this stuff a bit more.
 

bunnnnnn

Well-known member
i think the two are probably not the same thing, but they sort of are as well. like, i was on a train and there was a trans woman (hope i don't get in trouble for saying the wrong thing here) and i couldn't help but be a bit transfixed at all the micro decisions that have gone into getting that appearance. like, it's a lot of work, for that surface, if you know what imean. i'm gonna get in trouble i think, so i'll stop, but i think we can now discuss this stuff a bit more.
Curious to know what you mean - what it was that outed her to you as being trans. I know it's a fraught terrain and I'm not fishing to bite your head off for saying the wrong thing. Just having been through this process and having been quite conspicuously trans, at least early on in my transition, I can see both sides of this - the discomfort of being possibly gawped at (I'm sure you weren't gawping) and also having to make particular aesthetic decisions, sometimes in painstaking detail and sometimes getting it wrong - in order to fulfil the requirements of 'passing'
 

bunnnnnn

Well-known member
Curious to know what you mean - what it was that outed her to you as being trans. I know it's a fraught terrain and I'm not fishing to bite your head off for saying the wrong thing. Just having been through this process and having been quite conspicuously trans, at least early on in my transition, I can see both sides of this - the discomfort of being possibly gawped at (I'm sure you weren't gawping) and also having to make particular aesthetic decisions, sometimes in painstaking detail and sometimes getting it wrong - in order to fulfil the requirements of 'passing'
And also questioning the relationship between the surface, my own sense of self and how the shifts in how others reacted to me shifted my self perception
 

catalog

Well-known member
yeah, no it's fine, i realise what i wrote might be construed as offensive, i'll try to answer everything

what it was that outed her to you as being trans
like facial features, cheekbones, chin, stuff like that. nothing massively pronounced but i was fairly sure. maybe i was wrong though.

the discomfort of being possibly gawped at (I'm sure you weren't gawping)
and yeah i hope i wasn't gawping, she was sitting kinda right in front of me, to the left, so sort i sort of saw her each time i looked up from my book. she was listening to music and didn't look offended in any way.

having to make particular aesthetic decisions, sometimes in painstaking detail
this is sort of what i mean. like each time i looked up i noticed a new thing and i suppose became aware of the decision process that might have been going on. like, noticed earrings, they were biggish hoops, similar to ones my wife used to wear. also eye shadow, faint lipstick. hair very neatly parted. i mean nothing that ii wouldn't necessarily notice on anyone else, it was more like i became aware of these things as being something that would have had to be done. i mean, she was wearing everything pretty well, didn't seem phased or anything.

and going back to woops' quote from baudrillard

the transparency of sex, with signs and images erasing all its secrets and ambiguity. Transsexual, in the sense that it now has nothing to do with the illusion of desire, only with the hyperreality of the image.

i just got this awareness, that i was looking at all these things as separate things, that she has chosen to put together in a certain way, and became aware of what they mean. like you can arrange these facets in different ways and make an idea of something.

dunno if that helps.
 

bunnnnnn

Well-known member
I suppose the outer signifiers of sexual difference and the processes that maintain them only become apparent where you perceive some element to rupture expectations?
 

catalog

Well-known member
yeah i guess. like there's an arrangement which has a slight glitch to it so then you become aware of it all.
 

version

Well-known member
Picked up Fragments the other day. It's almost like reading a novel. Just loads of notes and aphorisms from his journals circa 1990 - 1995. There's a bit where he talks about a European referendum that's more or less indistinguishable from the kind of stuff you read around Brexit.

"The democratic dictatorship is shaping up nicely."

😂

"The presenter furious at my refusal to take part in his programme acts as though I were there, asks questions, waits, leaves a silence and says on the radio: There you have it. B. is here, but he does not wish to reply. Is this what you call a philosopher?"

:ROFLMAO:
 
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version

Well-known member
Whenever he talks about women or AIDS or disabled people he comes off like the French intellectual equivalent of an embarrassing boomer uncle.

"The paralytic in his wheelchair embodies the virtual reality of movement."

"Thelma and Louise: the only great film about perfectly free women."


I read a review of one of Virilio's where he was pulled up for the way he talked about the disabled too, although he doesn't have the flippancy of Baudrillard. With him, it's more that he has this insensitive way of describing technologies in relation to disabilities. Some people weren't keen on D&G's use of 'schizophrenia' either.

I suppose this is one of the dangers of dealing in concepts.
 

version

Well-known member
16236


Italian edition of Fatal Strategies @version

They can't seem to stop themselves making things sexy. Remember the "voluptuous mermaid statue" a few months back? Also the bronze statue of the woman in the dress.

'Provocative mermaid statue makes waves in southern Italian town'

'Italy: Statue of scantily-clad woman sparks sexism row'
 
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