Pleasure in Knowing, Pleasure in Looking: Viewing Images at the Intersection of Lorde and Davis

Feminism: 1: the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. 2: organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests. (dictionary.com) 

Feminism: New feminisms have emerged and the feminism into which I identify is a feminism that emerged from the work of radical women of color scholar activists. A feminism that challenges racism, that is anti-capitalist. A feminism that recognizes that the weight of history urges abolition of the structures responsible for racism and misogyny.” (Angela Davis, NYU Skirball Talk: Politics & Aesthetics in the Era of Black Lives Matter Lecture Series, 2018) 

Angela Davis’ intentional focus on the widely critiqued subject matter of feminism during the latter half of her lecture at NYU Skirball, and our recent exploration of Audre Lorde’s essay, “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” have prompted me to think about my research in a different way. With the flooding of new ideas inspired by my classmates and many of the readings given to us this semester, I’ve been in a constant state of deliberation. Pleasure in knowing, pleasure in looking? Who’s gaze and what kind of gaze? Where does the power lie in these looking relations? Can we as black spectators challenge our notions of self-pleasure through visual images? Keeping the proverbial expression, “when you know better, do better,” in mind, I use my title to question a few key points that not only have greatly shifted my deliberation, but also affirmed my research interests in the uses of black feminism(s) in conjunction with black spectatorship and visual culture analysis. 

What if in the context of “knowing better;” with understanding that we as spectators would ultimately operate under a higher level of self-awareness and intimacy with ourselves, that we saw the world around us (especially through visual images) “better” - or with a heightened sense of engagement and pleasure as consumers and constructors of visual images. I must also note that the notion of pleasure in which I’ve come to learn as it exists in visual culture is entirely subjective and its relationship to the viewer is dependent on a number of external and internal factors. One internal factor I’ve also chosen to incorporate recently into my research planning is our innate erotic power. I became very interested in Lorde’s usage of the erotic as power for understanding inner “resources” and its inextricable link to our world view formation and thus our interactions with people and things (images) in that construction. 

While black feminism(s) has been a huge component of my research interests over the past few months, time and time again I found myself questioning my ability to draw connections between the aforementioned concepts because it felt too wide of a gap to fill. In naming her feminism, and the

importance of its utilization in the dismantling of interlocking systems of domination, I was reignited with the urgency to return to the drawing board. I found myself coming closer to finding that synergy between self-perception/representation and visual culture and media. Accompanied with several other black feminist writings, especially the particular notion of erotic as power by Audre Lorde, there is a connection that can be explored. That of which is one that starts within the self and is formed through both our subconscious and conscious, and used to inform our particular gaze as women of color; be it oppositional - coined by black feminist author and cultural critic bell hooks, or self-identified otherwise. Consequently with creating our gaze, how can we re-imagine visual pleasure while considering the spectrum of theoretical formation that has helped us understand our unparalleled experiences as women of color? 

Under a hegemonic white-male capitalist and patriarchal society that has cultured us into creating singular narratives of black and brown bodies (even as a black woman) we are socialized to inherit preconceived notions about our bodies and everything in relation to. Can Lorde’s Uses of the Erotic be put in conversation with the number of other readings in the canon written by black women scholars to analyze films and photographs created by Black women, and if so how do interrogate different perceptions of pleasure within that process of creating and viewing?

Can it then be another radical site of resistance?