Blog: Omar's Lecture, "Shopping for Pleasure" by John Fiske, and "The Subversive Imagination of Anti-Road Protest and Reclaim the Streets" by John Jordan

Nouriyah Saleh
May 29, 2017

Blog Response: Omar's Lecture, "Shopping for Pleasure", and "The Subversive Imagination of Anti-Road Protest and Reclaim the Streets"

One part of Omar's lecture that I found interesting was the tactic of decoy. 'Decoy' was defined as "strategic method of jokes that challenge systems of oppression". The whole time, I was thinking of Russell Peters, a world-renown Indian-Canadian who bases his jokes on racist stereotypes. He doesn't necessarily challenge the stereotypes, but over-exaggerates them with personal stories. This ties into how Omar mentioned that jokes don't have to be neither hegemonic or counterhegemonic. 

In Shopping for Pleasure, John Fiske talks about how malls are sites of power for women, in that purchasing commodities empowers them and gives them a role outside of being at home and doing chores. The mall is one of the few places that is acceptable for women to go to by themselves and blurs the line between private and public life. I thought it was interesting how Fiske used religion as a metaphor for consumerism - malls are cathedrals and commodities are icons of worship. However, I thought the idea of the article was a little odd to me. It made sense, but I felt like it was confining women's powers to just shopping. The reading isn't as relevant as to today's, where women are gaining and fighting for more power at home, in the workplace, and other public areas.

Reclaim the Streets was a movement that took over major London roads and turned them into huge festivals. The purpose was to take "back those things which have been enclosed within capitalist circulation and returning them to collective use as a commons". The more festivals that came around, the harder it became for organizers to avoid surveillance from the police. Although, they managed to pull through every time. I think this form of protest was a very powerful and creative one - it caught the attention and participation of thousands of people and used art and music instead of regular protesting. However, the reading never mentioned the response from the public about what they thought of the movement. It makes me wonder how effective Reclaim the Streets was in getting their message across. For all we know, the people who participated in the festivals probably joined just for fun and didn't know the meaning behind it.