Mob Justice

Original photo owned by Summit Entertainment LLC

The story of the village mob taking justice in their own hands is as old as villages themselves. My brother and I had always felt that living in any small town where everyone knew each other would be the worst thing imaginable. Apparently, one of the products of mass communication has produced a virtually world wide village effect.

José Luis Rodriguez's winner of the coveted British Natural History Museum's annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year award had sparked an Internet outcry late last year. There seemed to be two interesting factions between the "proper" photography community furious at the uncultured harassment of obvious trolls, and the Internet community who are furious at the elitist photography community for being so gullible about a fake photo. So it turns out that although the photo wasn't photoshopped, further investigation had shown the photo did turn out to violate the rules of the contest. So Rodriguez was stripped of the title and the £10,000 prize.

For me this is a great example of an almost democratic process of internet communications. I wonder if this would set a precedent in which the "noisy crowd" can overturn decisions in established institutions or even break down their authority altogether. Not that think that "tea-baggers" should be the new wave of democracy, but internet communication to form and create mobs would be interesting to keep an eye on.

Asian women

I found this video through a blog on how this artist seems very off from what cartoon drawing is about. To his defense, "How to draw..." instructionals for beginners are often quite bad and misleading.

I'm more concerned with the problem of his essentalist idea of what constitutes as an "Asian women". He seems to use the word "beautiful" as a descriptor for the physical traits. There is an uncomfortable awkwardness to his presentation of how he draws the figure and even the finished product is rather odd. If he had a similar presentation on how to draw "Black Women" it wouldn't be difficult to call him out as a racists, but for some reason it's socially acceptable for "Asian women"

I guess I'm extra sensitive on the issue of beauty and particular on Asian beauty is from a presentation I saw last night by Dr. Daniel Hamermesh. His argument was that from just looking at an input/output model, it seems that better looking people tend to get paid more, and are more valuable to their employers. What I found somewhat lacking was there was a very positivist and ethnocentric idea of what beauty was and there were little measures taken to take that into account. Obviously beauty is not a static thing nor is it commonly agreed upon in different groups. During the Victorian age, plump pale women were the height of beauty being indicators of being wealthy enough to stay indoors and eat, while tan skinny women were probably "gypsies" or "farm workers". So class is a huge predetermination for beauty and class defines what is beautiful.

What about the beautiful Asian women from poor third world countries that Western men go gaga for? They aren't rich why are they seen as beautiful. Again, as the saying goes, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", and the beholder are wealthy westerners justifying their taste and unaware of the fact their taste becomes an indicator of how wealthy they are. They are wealthy enough to spend time to travel to "exotic" lands and pursue "exotic" women. In the world we live in now, there is no greater indicator of wealth than showing how "globalized" one's taste is.

In the end we are not talking about beauty of perfect tube shaped women which flatter kimono, or long slender necks, or tiny delicate feet. They are not marks of beauty admired by those with power, only the tastes of those in power matter, and they are privileged in society.