Last Wednesday, GRF Sam Legasse discussed “modern primitives” – how our perceptions of various stereotypes in the past has shifted as people frame them in new contexts, modify their labels, and blur their lines.

For me, the most striking image, the example of subverted stereotypes that stood out the most in my mind, was Josephine Baker in her banana skirt, swinging onto a Parisian stage from the top of a fake palm tree. From a simple internet search about her life, I learned that this performance catapulted her into international fame overnight. Apparently, the vision of her swaying hips, seducing the stereotype of the “primitive African” itself, also stuck out in the minds of her predominantly white audience.

The idea of taking (back?) control of a (frequently damaging and prejudiced) stereotype as a way of discrediting it is, I think, a tactic that’s still being employed today in various contexts. Especially today, when social media allows for the rapid and widespread dissemination of information, these kinds of social movements quickly go viral. Without trivializing the valuable racial impact of Josephine Baker’s dance, the most prominent recent example that comes to mind is the “nasty woman” phenomenon of the most recent presidential election, during which the term “nasty woman” was widely used as a form of self-identification by people (mostly female-identifying) across all social media platforms after Donald Trump used the term to refer to Hillary Clinton in a derogatory manner. One could argue that the term is still degrading – and therefore, a pointless cause – from the eyes of the opposite side, but regardless of one’s political views, the phenomenon itself – an attempt to reclaim a negative stereotype or concept by the very people it once targeted – is fascinating, and begs the question, what is the result of such an act?

For Josephine Baker, the short term outcome was her own fame and fortune. The long term outcome was a slow shift in the perception of the primitive/modern divide. Decades after her death, her influence lingers in modern social movements, and is brought to the very forefront of the public mind every so often by contemporary artists carrying on her legacy (Beyonce’s 2006 performance at Fashion Rocks!). For the “nasty women” of the world, the immediate response was a solidarity of sorts, an acknowledgment and clustering together of people with the same intention of fighting back against a perceived wrong. As for the long-term effect, only time will tell.

But for now, the lines continue to blur, and the gleaming boxes in every museum are starting to melt together under the heat of change.