Picturing Whiteness

Yuppie Project

This article brings up a topic which I have been thinking about for awhile...the topic of whiteness and how to critique it in art. When we were given our assignment to come up with a stereotype against us and then find a way through art to falsify that myth, I had an extremely hard time thinking of a stereotype against me. There are things I could find, but they were limited and not powerful stereotypes. First, I am a woman, and there are ways to stereotype women still, but as a culture we have become far less prejudiced against women in general, especially in white society. Whereas a black or Asian, etc woman might have problems fitting in to society, the white woman has become an image of equality with man, and even at times, the stronger of the two. There are those that still hold stereotypes of women, but they are fewer and further between. Women can be in the army, they can study, they can hold jobs, preach in churches, and own companies as leader above men. They are not the woman of the early age, and they are not known as the raiser of children exclusively any longer. So how do you give a white woman such as myself a stereotype? I believe the only way to stereotype a white woman is to be of another descent and to criticize the whiteness I possess. As Nikki Lee points out in her Yuppie Project, the whites stand alone. They are possessors of their color without having to think about it. We have always been the high society in America, and therefore it is hard to stereotype us. I think the Yuppie Project does a great job of pointing out the white's exclusivity in society, and also says plainly that we are a close-minded group, unwilling or perhaps unable to blend with other society. Critiquing them in this project works because Nikki is Asian, but how does one critique their own whiteness? If I were to do Nikki's pieces, would I fit in to all the societies she fit into with ease? Would I fit in to the high society Wall Street stock brokers in the Yuppie Project? I think I would fit in better to the Yuppie Project than I would with the other societies she blended into during her series. The Wall Street business club seems to be the stereotype of white society; the money winners, the exclusives, the high societies. Lee could not fit in because she is foreign, and I could because I am white, but I could not fit in so well to alternative societies because I am white. Because the whites are viewed as this picture of high money maker society, and not as the poor, old, and essentially "low" society, we can never fit in to low society groups because we will stick out. Perhaps not always and not for every group, but overall white people stick out. How did we get this way? I think artists should focus more on critiquing whiteness to open people's eyes in our society.

Case in Point:
What do you think automatically when you see this picture? That she is a member of the society? Or that she's in a foreign country to help this society? I automatically think the latter. What if the roles were reversed?