Trauriges Mädchen Theorie (Sad Girl Theory)

Über Arne bin ich auf die „Sad Girl Theory“ als neue feministische Theorie gestoßen:

Wichtigste Vertreterin ist wohl Audrey Wollen, auf deren Wikipediaseite einiges dazu ausgeführt ist:

Audrey Wollen is a feminist theorist and visual artist based in Los Angeles. Wollen uses social media, primarily Instagram,[1] where she has over 25,000 followers, as a platform for her work on Sad Girl Theory, a theory which includes the notion of sadness as a form of power, and the idea that female sadness and self-loathing might include elements of empowerment.[2] According to Wollen, this empowerment may ultimately lead to women uniting.

Auch ein interessanter Ansatz: Traurigkeit und Selbsthass als Form des Machtgewinns. Das Opfer sein Macht verleihen kann ist ja etwas, was sonstigen feministischen Theorien eher wenig entspricht.

Wollen uses her Instagram feed as an art gallery where she uses her body in her art by objectifying her own body,[3] and putting herself into famous paintings, among other methods. Wollen describes her work as a methodology of survival, a method for rethinking „looking“ and „being“.[4] Wollen is inspired by feminist philosopher Judith Butler and Butler’s theory of gender performativity. In her artwork, Wollen makes visible the performative aspects of online existence and activity and how identity is constructed. According to Wollen there is no distinct binary between „the real“ or authentic and performance, instead, the artist makes visible how performance is an inevitable aspect of online activities (as well as in „everyday life“), and how subjects are mediated through technology and language.[5]

Was für ein sinnleeres Gesülze wie es so gerne in „moderner Kunst“ verwendet wird. Und auch eine beliebte Erklärung doch einfach etwas dem Narzissmus zu frönen und Bilder von sich ins Netz zu stellen.

https://www.instagram.com/p/-J5xMRszZk/?taken-by=audreywollen

https://www.instagram.com/p/63TDitMzVX/?taken-by=audreywollen

Aber mal schauen, was die Theorie so her gibt:

Sad Girl Theory is the proposal that the sadness of girls should be witnessed and re-historicized as an act of resistance, of political protest. Wollen states that girls being sad has been categorized as an act of passivity, and therefore, discounted from the history of activism. According to Wollen political protest doesn’t have to be external to the body and Wollen emphasizes that historically girls who have used their own anguish, their own suffering, as tools for resistance and political agency.

Auch interessant: Wir sind gar nicht passiv, wir machen Aktiv nichts! Wobei in der Tat traurige Frauen einen Impuls zum Handeln setzen können, dann eben an Männer, die für sie aktiv werden. 

 

Sad Girl Theory is based on the notion that girls’ sadness isn’t quiet, weak, shameful, or dumb: It is active, autonomous, and articulate. It’s a way of fighting back.[6][7] According to Wollen, the re-staging of girls‘ sadness and self-destruction as an act of political resistance opens up a new history of activism.[8] „Revolt“ might then be understood as something internal, personal and performed on our own bodies, emphasizing girls‘ agency. Wollen also states that the feminist struggle against patriarchal structures have yet to question patriarchal ideals and masculinist tactics of past revolutions, introducing a redefinition of what violence, activism, and autonomy can mean for girls by looking at the actions that are already so pervasive in girl-culture (self-hate, sorrow, suffering, and even suicide) and asserting them as scenes of protest.[9]

Also: Männliche Revolutionen sind eigentlich auch nur toxische Maskulinität und damit schlecht, einfach traurig sein, sich selbst hassen, leiden und Selbstmord(!) sind hingegen eine weiblichere und damit anscheinend positivere Form der Revolution, sollten aber jedenfalls anerkannt werden.

„Frage: Was haben Sie gemacht als die Nazis die Macht ergriffen haben?“

Antwort: „Ich habe protestiert, indem ich traurig war und gelitten habe!“

(Gut, natürlich besser als aktiv mitzumachen, aber echter Widerstand, echte Revolution ist es nicht gerade)

Wollen’s Sad Girl Theory can be considered as an academic response to the liberal feminist ideal that views women as the maker of their own successes. Wollen states that feminism needs to acknowledge that being a woman in a patriarchal society inevitably is difficult and related to oppression and suffering, therefor it is necessary to view the sadness of girls and women as an appropriate and informed reaction to patriarchal structures. Sad Girl Theory is a criticism to liberal ideals of womanhood that depicts „the successful feminist“ as famous, rich and happy. According to Wollen, this idea functions as a second oppression, describing women that are not happy as responsible for the failure of their own emancipation.

Dieser verdammte liberale Feminismus, der meint, dass Frauen an ihrem eigenen Erfolg arbeiten sollten.

In einem Patriarchat ist das Leben einer Frau unausweichlich schwer und mit Unterdrückung und Leiden verbunden. Wie soll man da auch erfolgreich sein?

Sad Girl Theory provided inspiration for artist and writer Johanna Hedva’s Sick Woman Theory, a project focused on chronic illness as an embodied form of political protest. Hedva claims, in response to Wollen’s work, she „was mainly concerned with the question of what happens to the sad girl when, if, she grows up.“[10]

Chronische Krankheit als eine Form des politischen Protest.

Es ist schon interessant, wie feministische Ideen sehr gut zu Passivität und Unterverantwortlichkeit der Frau passen. Die Idee, dass man was für seinen Erfolg machen muss ist schlecht.  Im Patriarchat ist leiden schon eine Form des Widerstandes. Und auf Instagram Fotos von sich posten. Etwas traurig in die Welt schauen ist schon alles, was erforderlich ist. Den Rest kann man auf das Patriarchat schieben.