Symphony in white (or variations on a theme)

I. declares that with her meal she would like mashed potatoes beacause "they are white and delicious". I have a good laugh, and then this lightbulb flashes on in my brain, as bright white as any in a good old-fashioned cartoon. Today's thoughts have revolved around the idea of whiteness.

Now, I realize that this may be a taboo topic and perhaps that is precisely why I am adressing it. If I can't be politically incorrect within my own mind-sphere, where the hell can I be myself?!

On that thought, before I delve into the milky white depths of the blank screen, I must digress. Last night between the reporting on the rape of a 10-year-old girl by two late teens, and the tragic teen-driver killing unsuspecting Disney-land going family there was a little blurb about a student breaking into our "ultra-secure" university server and changing grades. Funny thing about the ease with which one can reset passwords and such... hmmm. Maybe there will be better security measures in the future? Imagine life in which identities could not be stolen... Where would that leave us, I wonder.

But I digress more than should be truly acceptable.

On whiteness:

Thought one: Sexuality, desire and what turns us on.
So, in Portuguese class today we examined several web-posted photos of American (and yes, also white) students on their trips to Brazil. We were asked to reflect on social differences, the most prominent one was the men's love of speedo bikinis. I personally find this to be quite unattractive, and not because of prudishness (although I have all these weird issues that pop up at the most unexpected of times, but we won't talk about those today), rather, men with nice chests and legs would be much better suited to either just plain nudity, or better, slightly loose slacks, that just hint at the prize underneath. But hey, that's just me. What I was really thinking about is this: how much of our sexual "deviance" or our personal tastes are dictated by our culture and how much are just personal?

The weather has lent itself to biking in skirts, and pheromones must be flying fiercely through the spring air, because the other day, as I was riding home, (and actually all day because it was windy)my skirt kept flying up. Now, nothing is visible when you are sitting and pedalling, but thighs, which are seen on a regular basis in other circumstances. But there is something irresistably inviting, it would seem, about sneaking a peek at that to which we are not supposed to have access. Therein lies the pleasure of a voyeur. In any case, I was shocked and amused at the whistling passerby's not because they whistled (I still do get the occasional piropo, even if I am not as cute as I once was) but because they were WHITE and they were college-age boys. White men, at least those under, say, thirty, never like me, it is just a rule of law, I have always had much more success with Hispanic, Black and Mediterranean men, and not so much East Asians but more South East Asians. It makes you wonder what it is that you possess that actracts one entire group of people and fails to attract entire other groups.

K. was discussing the Brazilian aesthetic: big booty, tiny tits (or at least thoroughly unimportant), and I was struck by the inherent constructedness of this collective taste. Why should that be attractive in one culture and not in another, and how do you explain the persistence of those same tastes in people removed from the prescriptive cultural setting? A mystery. Now in this country, bastion of powerful white men that it is, it seems that the prevailing taste is for women that look like barely post-pubescent teens, which explains why I had very few white boyfriends after age 13 (that and I scared the pants of them, quite literally;). Is it a question of power? Is it just a cultural lack of sensuality? What is it, I really would like to hear a good answer.

And what about fetishes? Skin color? Ears? Feet? Breasts? Necks? Asses? Armpits? Anuses? What makes these things particularly attractive to one person and not another, and is it a question of genetic programming, culture or a combination of the two?

What about those of us that, as with food, like to try just about anything, and find very few things that we don't like? Is that another fatal flaw? No answers? No? No one to even talk about these things.

Thought two: Mistrust of the anglo
So the other only somewhat tangentially related thought that falls under the rubric of whiteness is this strange cultural rift here in southern California that divides the Hispanic population from the Anglos. Now don't get me started on this whole stupid "Minute Man" mierda, because it deserves a rant of its own, but the idea of thousands of white guys with guns rushing the Arizona border, under the auspices of the US government, with a desire to "protect and defend" does not bode well for those of us who actually hope for peace sometime in the next century. M. was talking about how at the shelter the Mexicans all think he is crazy for talking to the white hippie-esque woman. "what do you want with her?" They wonder quietly, or not so, among themselves. They also, undoubtedly, think him mad to be married to a white woman, and there, they might be right, but not because of the skin color. Back in the Northeast the same incredulous, "you're married to a white woman? What you thinkin' man?" came from the Dominican population. "Dude, they ugly, what you want with them? There ain't no flesh to hold on to..."

Here the Hispanic population does not trust the anglos, and rightly so, when every few years there are sweeping throngs of xenophobic outlashes, before the whites remember that "oh yeah, we don't want to do these jobs for shit wages..." and they conveniently "forget" to ascertain document validity. This latest trend has just begun and may indeed have been sparked by an anti-American manifestation after a futbol match in D.F. where the US lost and the ruffian crowds chanted "up with Bin Laden" or things of the sort. Just goes to show that crass stupidity is an equal opportunity disease. But in any case, gleefully hunting down people who are already living in fear while providing major services to the citizens of this country can't possibly act in favor of national "security". All it can do is breed more hatred and incomprehension, which is, it seems, exactly the goal of this administration so that it can come in and establish fascist order with no one left to question the validity of the discourse.

I say the only terrorists that we have to revile and fear are the whitest of white men. White is the new black... no longer the color of death only in Asia, but all over the world.