TY - JOUR

T1 - Making a spectacle out of herself - Bobby Baker's take a peek!

AU - Aston, E

PY - 2004/8

Y1 - 2004/8

N2 - Drawing on Mary Russo's theorization of 'female grotesques', this article analyses Take a Peek! - a circus, fairground-styled 'freak' show by British performance artist, Bobby Baker. While making a display of or a spectacle out of herself can be argued for all of Baker's work, Take a Peek!, the third show in her 'Daily Life' series, is especially concerned with 'woman' on display. The article argues that in Take a Peek! Baker turns herself into a 'spectacular' demonstration of 'failed' femininity in a way that constitutes a site/sight of feminist critical 'work'. The analysis proceeds by detailing the various ways in which Baker realizes her performance through strategies that serve to grotesque the feminine and figure an archaic maternal, the sorceress and the hysteric. In conclusion, Baker's invitation to laugh at the grotesquing of her own body is proposed as a means of empowering those who look, to look differently at the ideas and 'ideals' that shape the feminine in contemporary cultural and social systems, and to expose the symbolic feminine for what it truly is - a freak show.

AB - Drawing on Mary Russo's theorization of 'female grotesques', this article analyses Take a Peek! - a circus, fairground-styled 'freak' show by British performance artist, Bobby Baker. While making a display of or a spectacle out of herself can be argued for all of Baker's work, Take a Peek!, the third show in her 'Daily Life' series, is especially concerned with 'woman' on display. The article argues that in Take a Peek! Baker turns herself into a 'spectacular' demonstration of 'failed' femininity in a way that constitutes a site/sight of feminist critical 'work'. The analysis proceeds by detailing the various ways in which Baker realizes her performance through strategies that serve to grotesque the feminine and figure an archaic maternal, the sorceress and the hysteric. In conclusion, Baker's invitation to laugh at the grotesquing of her own body is proposed as a means of empowering those who look, to look differently at the ideas and 'ideals' that shape the feminine in contemporary cultural and social systems, and to expose the symbolic feminine for what it truly is - a freak show.

KW - abject

KW - Bobby Baker

KW - femininity

KW - gaze

KW - grotesque

KW - spectacle

U2 - 10.1177/1350506804044463

DO - 10.1177/1350506804044463

M3 - Journal article

VL - 11

SP - 277

EP - 294

JO - European journal of womens studies

JF - European journal of womens studies

SN - 1350-5068

IS - 3

ER -