sex tapes
Music: Siouxsie & The Banshees: Peepshow (1988)
Apparently there is a "reality show" on the E! Channel titled Keeping Up with the Kardashians, a show that is a direct consequence of Kim's apprenticeship with Paris Hilton. A wealthy Beverly Hills socialite, Kardashian's celebrity status was catapulted by the release of a seemingly private sex tape made with rapper Ray J. With magazine appearances, one spread in Playboy, and now the show, Kim Kardashian has made it to the public screen.
What's astonishing to me is that this path to publics emerged relatively recently: in the past decade suddenly getting one's private(s) (self) noticed is a route to publicity, and increasingly one that celebrities do not seem terribly worried about. The circulation of one's amorous, nekkid life, however, is only the most extreme manifestation of a deeply entrenched logic hastened by the infrastructure of the Internet: for many Netizens, getting noticed may be more important than keeping the bedroom door shut. From collecting friends on MySpace to "To Catch Predator" shows on Dateline NBC to my own personal self-disclosures on this blog, increasingly publicizing what goes on in various privates is a means of public address (or public intercourse, if you prefer).
Recently I was invited to participate in the biannual Public Address conference in Madison, Wisconsin this fall. I about fell out of my chair. I am extremely flattered to be asked, but to say that I'm nervous about speaking for this audience is certainly an understatement. Why? Because (a) they are a very smart crowd known to value rigor and good writing; (b) I am usually not considered a public address scholar; and (c) people more centrally identified with public address may resent I get time on the program. Oh yeah, and (d) I was approached to speak on the topic of "sexuality in the republic." Hence, the sex tape. I am going define public address as a form of circulation, and discuss the sex tape as a condensation symbol for the libidinal economy that underwrites public discourse. I'm starting NOW because I want to have the argument all worked out, thought-through, and . . . you know, I want to do a very good job. Why? Oh, because of (e): the conference is intended to honor one of my mentors, Karlyn Kohrs Campbell. If anything I do not want to disappoint her!
In any event, I think I might be able to diffuse any resentment by simply stressing values and upbringing. Sloop and I have discussed how, on the one hand, folks who do cultural studies tend to think of us as public address scholars, but on the other hand, public address scholars think we are cultural studies. I think this is in part because both Sloop and me (and a host of others, like Dan Brouwer and Rob Asen, Dana Cloud, and so on) try to speak-across the different sub-areas of rhetorical studies. This results in what some would consider divided allegiances, but I don't really think so. To me, the most central work—the backbone—of rhetorical studies is public address, the rigorous, historical contextualization and close reading of texts. To say I don't do this simply isn't true (see meh book). Besides, I share the value set of public address scholars, and---wait for it, here it comes . . . ---some of my best friends and mentors are firmly public address!
I think I'll definitely frame my talk with some of that, and then shift to how my speaking at the conference has something to do with the changing nature of address itself: Undressing in front of cameras as a means of addressing publics and counter publics. YouTube videos of fellow cutters, slashing their arms and building communities through private pain. Circulating photos of classmates in compromising positions on cell phones. Contemporary capitalism's command, "enjoy, or else!" as Zizek puts it somewhere, is transforming modes of publicity into the logic of peeps. And while such enjoyment is libidinal, the object of the sex tape suggests, to me, it is really not about sex. Something else is being worked out and negotiated. It's my task for the next few months to think about what this something is, and then figure out how it impacts public address in ways that are not immediately obvious.
Stay tuned, as I'm sure I'll blog about this more in the months to come.