For their final project in FG212/RM200/FM206 Critical Media Studies (Block C 2023), Vivienne Diggs, Misbah Lakhani, Zach Looney, and Danny Weight critiqued print and audiovisual media for Pepsi’s “Live for Now” campaign, focusing especially on race and gender. For the new media creation portion of their project, they created a new print advertisement and digital commercial, carefully acknowledging their own limitations.
For their final project in FG212/RM200/FM206 Critical Media Studies (Block C 2023), Nikolai Charchenko, Samuel Lain, Finn Mott, and Finley Swain critiqued print and audiovisual media for Childish Gambino’s song “Bonfire,” focusing especially on sexism. For the new media creation portion of their project, they created a new print advertisement and music video, carefully acknowledging their own limitations regarding race and racism during their in-class presentation.
Going into this museum, I thought it would be well-funded like some of the other ones we have gone to this block. I did question the opening hours, as it was only open for two hours a day, and it was labeled temporarily closed on Google. What a surprise that a museum about the harmful impacts of capitalism in a capitalist country would not be well-funded! A majority of the displays were introductory, however, accessible and engaging to anyone unfamiliar with critiques of capitalism. Just like race, gender and sexuality, class is another social status that is used to oppress people, and we have discussed the ways intersectionality considers class along with race, gender, and sexuality. During our Jewish History walking tour, we touched on the topic of people who have the privilege to flee and seek refuge, during the Holocaust that was typically wealthy men. A prime example of this is Fazali Taylan, a rich Turkish businessman discussed in “Turk and Jew in Berlin: The First Turkish Migration to Germany and the Shoah” by Marc David Baer. Turkish people were also sent to concentration camps during the Nazi regime. During this time, the Schutzstaffel (or SS) offered the repatriation multiple times to the Turkish government for thousands of people. The Turkish government did not seem to care until it was Taylan, a Turkish migrant with Jewish ancestry. Because of his assets and business exporting German technical goods to Turkey, Turkey actively intervened to save Taylan’s life. While we often hear the stories of the rich like Taylan, the stories of the poor are often overlooked. Grassroots movements and organizations are the wheels for change, yet once the change occurs, the government takes all credit for creating such an “amazing society.” This was also discussed during the Jewish History walking tour when we learned Germany was being praised for being a country that recognizes its own past, but that was only done after the grassroots movements for Holocaust recognition in the 1970s.
by Talulah Geheim
Kate Nixon
On our penultimate day of the course and after a walking tour focused on the history of poverty and solidarity in Berlin, we visited the Museum des Kapitalismus (Museum of Capitalism). While the museum was on the smaller side, it was packed with interactive exhibits that often made you work for the knowledge (clever!). As a visual learner, I really enjoyed the visual explanations of capitalism—most of the details about how capitalism functions as a system of oppression had concrete examples that were easily digestible. The one section of the museum I especially appreciated was the visualization of intersectionality, a concept coined by American civil rights advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw that “is a metaphor for understanding the ways that multiple forms of inequality or disadvantage sometimes compound themselves and create obstacles that often are not understood among conventional ways of thinking.” This specific display let each person place planks, such as sexism, classism, and racism, that divided pegs that represented people into sections. These sections represent how multiply marginalized groups face different forms of oppression based on how their identities intersect. These intersecting identities create unique experiences that cannot be universalized based on one sole identity category, such as race or gender. Overall, the museum’s displays of how systemic oppression operates in everyday life make it all the more understandable to those who are more unfamiliar with the systems. The museum was also attentive to the specific ways in which capitalism functions in Germany, which I think is especially relevant for locals who may stop in and want to understand more about how capitalism functions here. Particularly after our walking tour that morning, the museum was a great explanation and insight into how people are forced into poverty that is often generational, and it helped me understand how state structures often perpetuate these conditions.
Kate Nixon is a rising senior pursuing a double major in Feminist & Gender Studies and Psychology, with an interest in finding where the two intersect and how they can inform each other. Raised in Maryland and Kansas City, Kate enjoys being in nature and exploring new places. When not working on classwork or the Colorado College newspaper, you can find Kate with friends making art or reading queer and feminist books in various coffee shops.
Jordan Fields
The Schwules* Museum, located in the Schöneberg district of Berlin, is focused on LGBTQ+ community history worldwide and is one of the first museums to dedicate their work to the queer community. Certain sections of the museum explained critiques of masculinity, activism, and scholarship. On that note, Jürgen Lemke’s “Gay and Lesbian Life in East German Society Before and After 1989” examined the relationships between activism, community-building, and the state, which impacted my comprehension of how LGBT+ communities can be tightknit but have limited access to resources and support in certain situations. In particular, I was thinking about the differences in access and support for BIPoC queers and white queers, as was the case during the COVID-19 and Money Pox vaccinations. The societal connectivity of access through higher authorities or teachings of health insurance in the U.S. were available. Moreover, Jin Haritaworn’s “Queer Injuries: The Racial Politics of Homophobic Hate Crime in Germany” takes a transnational approach along these lines that is more considerate of race and racism, especially regarding criminalization in Berlin. The racialization of hate crimes against the BIPoC LGBT+ people generated discourse on redefining crime and progressive political (policies) integration changes to protect the marginalized people within marginalized groups. These two academic works necessarily highlight ongoing discourse about how the LGBTQ+ community could improve or sustain more accessibility.
Jordan Fields is a rising second-semester senior at Colorado College pursuing an independently designed major focused on sociological Gender Studies and an Urban Studies minor. They grew up in the south and west of Chicago, Illinois. Their family was born and mostly raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and they identify as a Black Puerto Rican American. They wanted to take this course to better understand critiques and discourses on race, sexuality, history, and feminism.
Emma Fowkes
The Schwules*Museum’s timeline of the decriminalization of queer love and life reminds us that historically, the criminal justice system has been used as a weapon of state violence. The “Love at First Fight” exhibit outlines how LGBTQ+ activism and identities were a product of state repression. Queer nightclubs were often targets of police raids, and until as recently as 1994, queer people were being imprisoned for consensual sex. Jin Haritaworn explains how hate crime politics often selectively protect the most privileged members of the LGBTQ+ community while criminalizing others and bolstering the police state. Discourse on hate crimes relies on the myth that violent homophobia is “locatable with a few rotten apples” from which the diversity-loving state can protect domesticated, non-criminal LGBTQ+ people. In Germany, those “rotten apples” are largely identified as Muslim immigrants, while the victim is often conceptualized as a white, gender-conforming man. The Schwules* Museum’s documentation of police violence against queer people demands that we not forget that we, the more privileged in the queer community, were once criminals, too. Surely, homophobic hate is a real problem that must be eradicated. But in the process, we need to be careful of who we position as the perpetrator, who we position as being in need of protection, and who we rely on for that protection. Crenshaw’s intersectionality details how identity groups “are in fact not monolithic but made up of members with different and perhaps competing identities as well.” Popular discourse around LGBTQ+ people often centers white, gender-conforming men. Increasing surveillance and incarceration for the purpose of hate crime policing puts people of color, trans people, sex workers, and other people disproportionately targeted by state violence at risk. The Schwules* Museum and Haritaworn highlight the dangers of relying on state apparatuses to integrate only the most privileged of queer people into the mainstream while subjugating others in the process.
Emma Fowkes is a rising senior at Colorado College majoring in Sociology but doing her best to take classes across as many disciplines as possible. She spends a lot of her time training in the sprints, jumps, throws, and hurdles for the college’s track and field team, as well as leading Injustice Watch, the student court-watching organization. After Berlin, she is planning on returning to her family’s home in Wilmette, Illinois to do research on the El Paso County Judicial System and work as an usher at a local music venue. Recently, she completed her first “moderate” level sudoku puzzle.
Brailey Harris
On our last Monday as the #FemGeniusesinBerlin, we had class at our usual spot, xart splitta on Hasenheide Street. After our initial check-in, we got to hear about Judy’s research on Indian hobbyism in Germany and its implications. Throughout our discussion, Judy gave us insight into the academic journey she has followed as her understanding of and relationship to this prominent industry has shifted. As we wrapped up class, I asked Professor Lewis a question about the generation and perpetuation of knowledge. “How do you decide what stories you share with the community, the public, and what you keep to yourself?” In her response, she reminded me that with whatever I choose to share, I should leave room for my future self to disagree with me. As you age, the perspective you have on the work you do will likely change. After class, I headed to the Schwules* Museum to learn about the queer histories of Berlin. With white faces abound, I saw friends, lovers, and colleagues, but I struggled to find myself represented in this space– except in a small but powerful exhibit dedicated to Audre Lorde, Katharina Oguntoye, and Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out. I did, however, notice what looked like remnants of New York style Ballroom culture in the drag queens’ dress and performances depicted on the walls. This leads me to the question: “How is Black culture within the United States reproduced elsewhere?” I ended my day with a visit to the Berlin Aquarium. As a giant Ecology nerd, I have been very curious to know more about how Berliners memorialize, preserve, and protect the nature that surrounds them. The tortoises and lizards were more friendly with visitors than I have ever witnessed, and I got to see insects I have only ever heard about in books!
Brailey Harris is a rising sophomore at Colorado College and a Texas native. They enjoy slam poetry, speaking out of turn, and playing rugby for the school’s Cutthroat Trout club team. Brailey’s major is currently undeclared, but they hope to intertwine their passions for understanding both people and the planet.
Elie Deshommes (middle) with Kate Nixon (left) and Elliot Triplett (right)
My day in the life was an interesting one. I went to the Schwules* Museum and the Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charité (the Gay Museum and the Medical Histories Museum). Medical history has always been a topic of interest to me. From the humor of Ancient Greece to the “bad airs” of the Victorian period, humanity has come a long way in understanding what makes our bodies tick. However, what most fascinates me is the study of race, body rights, and the extent that these beliefs affect us today. The Medical Histories Museum acknowledged the shaky history of its early collections, noting that most wet and dry specimens were taken from the most vulnerable in society (e.g., mentally ill, unwed mothers, and poor people). Quite simply, these people were only seen as valuable in terms of what could be taken from them. Walking around and seeing the early specimens was a painful process. They had no names, and their anonymity in life continued in death. Female, Male, Adolescent, and many other labels were attached to them—all but the names that gave them identity. Seeing the phrenological skull and the journals on phrenological and racial typecasting made me ache. Before me was the justification and the works that were utilized in the slave trade, genocides, and many other systems of racial hate. The museum did a good job in acknowledging the criminality of these “doctors” and “scientists” with an entire section on how false science and racism influenced the results and the methods that were used to gain these results. But what made me hopeful was the museum’s focus on giving body rights and names back to the patients they cared for (in the connected hospital). From the 1920s onward, consent was a major element of the specimens. Other visitors didn’t enjoy the fact that the specimens had names and stories behind them, but for me it was refreshing. Their bodies weren’t stolen and abused. They were given freely with the goal to further medical understanding. It isn’t a perfect system. Classism, sexism, and racism are still very present in the modern day. For example, Black people are still often seen as patients without pain and without needs. The mentally ill are still treated with scorn and discomfort. But what I saw in that museum (and the adjacent studies in the Neuroscience Division) was a focus on the individual, a practice focused on truly helping others, caring about them, and letting the patient have their individuality and names back.
Elienne Deshommes is a queer rising junior who loves to learn. They are majoring in Organismal Biology, focusing on environmental stability and healing. However, their interests are broad and include African-based religions, queer history, evolutionary sciences, and Greco-Roman history. Born in Denver, CO to a Haitian immigrant father and a Coloradan mother, their dream would be to return the island of Hispaniola and its ecological past to increase the opportunities of LGBT citizens via STEM jobs and education.