a08121989-blog - Tumblr blog

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Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren, at their shop on the King’s Road, London, circa 1985.

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Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood at 430 Kings Road, by David Parkinson 1972

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svengali (plural svengalis). One who manipulates or controls another as by some mesmeric or sinister influence; especially a coach, mentor or industry mogul.

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“This woman, who sees without being seen…”

Frantz Fanon, one of the founders of post colonialism theory (along with Edward Said), wrote of the frustration that the French colonisers in Algeria had regarding Muslim women who wore the face veil (niqaab). His words, penned over fifty years ago, still carry much weight as we attempt to decipher why the West is so concerned about a small piece of cloth.

He said that,

“…this woman, who sees without being seen, frustrates the colonizer.”

By abjuring Western standards of liberation, she asserts an identity, and even power, of her own, thus refusing to acknowledge the validity of, and inherent power in, her colonizer’s unveiling, subjugation and rape of her own culture.

Ironically, in claiming to liberate women from the constraints of the veil, the colonizer is forced to do so with violence and force, thus becoming the culprit of the very crime that he purports to fight.

— Summarized and extracted from Frantz Fanon’s, “Algeria Unveiled”

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Fox and Cat Sketches by Jerome Kaplan

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My Eyes at the Moment of the Apparitions by German artist August Natterer, who had schizophrenia

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