Day: April 21, 2018

In Framing the Questions: Positive Imaging and Scarcity in Lesbian Photographs, Jan Zita Grover discusses the concept of “the burden of scarcity” (Grover, 187). When representations of a given group are in short supply, that rarity can distort the public perception of the group by overrepresenting or underrepresenting certain aspects of the group. One example cannot possibly capture an entire group of people with different identities and experiences, but society could view a single photograph or statement as representative of a large group. The burden of scarcity, therefore, is the burden of the expectation that a single object or action can meet all of the varied, and sometimes conflicting, expectations places upon it. It also refers to the pressure for members of underrepresented groups to act as ambassadors of their group and to police their actions to avoid negatively impacting the perception of their group.

The burden of scarcity still exists. Though this is obviously a small sample size, I have personally policed myself to represent groups I am a part of well. Until the last month of my senior year, I was the only openly queer person in my high school, and I felt a lot of pressure because of it.

 

Reference

Jan Zita Grover, “Framing the Questions: Positive Imaging and Scarcity in Lesbian Photographs”

In Jan Zita Grover’s article on lesbian photography, she speaks about “the burden of scarcity” in relation to lesbian sexual imagery. To explain what this means, one must first understand the context in which it is being discussed. In our patriarchal society, lesbians are consistently either represented as deviant bodies or not represented in society. The lesbian body is almost seen as a deviant object in the stereotypes of the current patriarchal society. Grover mentions that there are typical issues when things are in short supply, including problems with hoarding and placing too much “value and power to whatever commodity has become or is designated as scarce” (p.187). In turn, Grover seems to be suggesting that there are high expectations for the limited number of images that represent lesbian desires. These scarce images cannot properly symbolize all lesbian bodies, but rather a select few that only have a portion of the population’s characteristics and do not take into account different subcultures. As an example, she compares movies, which depict white heterosexual women in a particularly negative light that would cause shame if they were the only models available. However, this is not the case and there are many representations of heterosexual white women in movies that they can pick from.

-CB

Grover, J. Z. (1991). Framing the Questions: Positive Imaging and Scarcity in Lesbian Photographs. Stolen Glances. (pp. 184-190). Ontario, Canada: Pandora Press.