OK, having calmed down, I will concede Margaret_Bombin’s point. This video is indeed a demonstration of privilege, even though I didn’t intend it to be one. I didn’t even think about the burqa law when I wrapped my face up, I was just going for the look I used when I made the dance up. But that’s where she’s right: privilege is not having to think about things that other people are forced to. If I’d been a Muslim woman in Paris, I couldn’t have done what I did without thinking about it.
I’d go further, actually: having the money to visit Paris is evidence of privilege; not everyone has the liberty to do that. Also, I was there because I’d gotten a grant to do an artist residency in rural France, and anyone who’s gotten a grant like that has to admit that’s a position of privilege, too. You get things like that from being able to write grant apps well, as much as anything else. Having the liberty to make art is a position of privilege as well, since so many people around the world have to struggle just to eat.
Separately, it’s interesting the framing effect the headline has on the clip. To me, it’s a clip about my dumb dancing in a pretty place. Even that draws attention away from the lyrics, which are, in this case, what I think the the song is about. When I submitted the clip I mentioned the accidental illegality as a kind of ‘ps, it’s funny that’; the point of the video was never to say anything about that law, and I don’t even mention it on the Vimeo site itself. Corey’s headline is snappier than the one I proposed, which didn’t mention burqas at all, but then frames the whole video differently. The song, which was the point of origin for the whole thing as far as I’m concerned, retreats even further into the distance, and commenters here talk only about how the video relates to the headline.
Finally, it’s still annoying the way anyone in America seems to assume anyone who might look like them on the internet is American. You might not notice this, but as a non-American I see it often enough to have the shits with it. It seems like cultural narcissism to me. Seriously guys, there’s a whole world out there. We are not all you.
