Melissa D Terry | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (original) (raw)

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Papers by Melissa D Terry

Research paper thumbnail of Sedimenting solidarity: Signs from the Madison protest

The 2011 Wisconsin protest inspired the wide ranging production of handmade and commercially-prod... more The 2011 Wisconsin protest inspired the wide ranging production of handmade and commercially-produced signage. Five hundred signs were collected and preserved by the Wisconsin State Historical Society and others were obtained by the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Art historians and prominent art institutes have dismissed the aesthetic qualities of handmade signs, instead cataloging them as ephemeral historical artifacts. I argue that signs work similarly to other art forms in the modern era, such as advertisements and poster art, which have gained scholarly attention. This project uses the Madison protest as a case study in order to track the often wide and varied sedimentation of protest signs in the aftermath of social movements. While signs from Madison originally existed in the hands of protesters as communicative devices, they were also placed in storefront windows and home residences as symbolic reminders of solidarity. Other signs were placed in historical archives as artifacts of social discontent or (re)placed in museum spaces as conceptual works. The wide sedimentation of Wisconsin protest signs speaks to their versatility as functioning objects which worked as communicative devices using a language dependent on visibility, recycling, circulation, and community. It is important that the discipline of art history begin to recognize the Figure

Research paper thumbnail of Who’s got the “Reel” power? The problem of female antagonisms in blaxploitation cinema

Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, 2012

Between 1973 and 1975, films starring Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson such as Cleopatra Jones (Jack S... more Between 1973 and 1975, films starring Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson such as Cleopatra Jones (Jack Starrett, 1973), Coffy(Jack Hill, 1973) and Foxy Brown (Hill, 1974) introduced leading black women into the predominantly male blaxploitation scene as aggressive action heroines. Within the cinematic spaces of blaxploitation films which featured women as active agents, a racial and sexual divide exists. These films positioned women either inside or outside of gender tolerability by utilising binary constructions of identity based on race, sex and elementary constructions of good and evil, black and white, straight and gay, and feminine and butch. Popular representations of lesbianism and sisterhood within blaxploitation cinema reflect a dominant social view of American lesbianism as white while straight women are consistently represented as black. However, these spaces also constricted black and white female identities by limiting sexuality and morality to racial boundaries. This article ...

Research paper thumbnail of Sedimenting Solidarity: Signs from the Madison Protest

Research paper thumbnail of Who's Got the "Reel" Power? The Problem of Female Antagonisms in Blaxploitation Cinema

, Coffy (Jack Hill, 1973) and Foxy Brown (Hill, 1974) introduced leading black women into the pre... more , Coffy (Jack Hill, 1973) and Foxy Brown (Hill, 1974) introduced leading black women into the predominantly male blaxploitation scene as aggressive action heroines. Within the cinematic spaces of blaxploitation films which featured women as active agents, a racial and sexual divide exists. These films positioned women either inside or outside of gender tolerability by utilising binary constructions of identity based on race, sex and elementary constructions of good and evil, black and white, straight and gay, and feminine and butch. Popular representations of lesbianism and sisterhood within blaxploitation cinema reflect a dominant social view of American lesbianism as white while straight women are consistently represented as black. However, these spaces also constricted black and white female identities by limiting sexuality and morality to racial boundaries. This article seeks to question the unique solitude of these female heroines and interrogate a patriarchal cinematic world where sisterhood is often prohibited and lesbianism demonised. I don't believe in [women's lib] for black people … we're trying to free our black men … I like being a woman. I have been discriminated against, but not because I'm a woman. It's because I am black … before [people] see me as being female, they see me as being black. The stigma that's been placed on you because you're black gives you enough kill to get you through the woman thing … it's much tougher being black than being a woman. (Tamara Dobson 1973) Tamara Dobson, upon the release of Cleopatra Jones (Jack Starrett, 1973), expressed her disinterest with the women's movement, arguing that her action heroine character in the film was "not a women's libber" but was rather "defending an important freedom for her people: the freedom to exist without drugs" (Klemesrud). In contrast, cultural race theorist Michele Wallace wrote in a 1975 article entitled "A Black Feminist's Search for Sisterhood" about her quest for sisterhood and feminism: "the message of the Black Movement was that I was being watched, on probation as a black woman, that any sign of aggressiveness, intelligence, or independence would mean that I'd be denied even the one role still left open for me as 'my man's woman'" (6-7). She argued that "the most popular justification Black women had for not becoming feminists was their hatred of white women", a distinction that pleased black men (7). It is clear that black women identified in varying ways with the Black Power and women's liberation movements. An analysis of 1960s and 1970s blaxploitation productions exemplifies this general male interest in demoting female camaraderie by emphasising difference based on race, moral and sexual preference. Melissa DeAnn Seifert is a second year Masters student in the Department of Art History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She also currently works as a teaching assistant for an introductory film history course at the university. Her research interests include non-traditional art forms, visual culture and film media where she specifically aims to understand the politics of domination, subjugation and resistance. Within these frames, she deconstructs representations of women, gender relations and sexuality.

Teaching Experience by Melissa D Terry

Research paper thumbnail of Teaching Assistant for Introduction to African Art

Research paper thumbnail of Teaching Assistant for Art History 101 & 102 / Ancient to Medieval Art & Renaissance to Modern Art

Research paper thumbnail of Teaching Assistant for History of Film II: Development of an Art

Conference Presentations by Melissa D Terry

Research paper thumbnail of “‘Casting’ Women Out of the Revolution: (In)conclusiveness and Gendered Warfare in Blaxploitation Cinema”

Research paper thumbnail of “Collaborative Cardboard Canvases: The Work of ‘Artivist’ Signs at the Wisconsin Uprising”

Research paper thumbnail of “Who’s Got the ‘Reel’ Power? Constructed Spaces of Racialized Lesbianism and Anti-sisterhood in Blaxploitation Cinema”

Research paper thumbnail of “Spaces of Solidarity, Places of Transformation: D.I.Y. Visual Culture as Resistance”

Research paper thumbnail of “Signage, Sculpture, and Solidarity: D.I.Y. Visual Culture During the Madison Protests”

Research paper thumbnail of “Boundaries, Pollution, and the Gendered Value of a Name: Utopia, Reality, and Gender Constructs in Dogtooth”

Research paper thumbnail of “Outsiders Among Outsiders: Women in the Black Panther Party”

Research paper thumbnail of “Internal Gender Politics of the Black Panther Party: Image vs. Reality”

Research paper thumbnail of Sedimenting solidarity: Signs from the Madison protest

The 2011 Wisconsin protest inspired the wide ranging production of handmade and commercially-prod... more The 2011 Wisconsin protest inspired the wide ranging production of handmade and commercially-produced signage. Five hundred signs were collected and preserved by the Wisconsin State Historical Society and others were obtained by the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Art historians and prominent art institutes have dismissed the aesthetic qualities of handmade signs, instead cataloging them as ephemeral historical artifacts. I argue that signs work similarly to other art forms in the modern era, such as advertisements and poster art, which have gained scholarly attention. This project uses the Madison protest as a case study in order to track the often wide and varied sedimentation of protest signs in the aftermath of social movements. While signs from Madison originally existed in the hands of protesters as communicative devices, they were also placed in storefront windows and home residences as symbolic reminders of solidarity. Other signs were placed in historical archives as artifacts of social discontent or (re)placed in museum spaces as conceptual works. The wide sedimentation of Wisconsin protest signs speaks to their versatility as functioning objects which worked as communicative devices using a language dependent on visibility, recycling, circulation, and community. It is important that the discipline of art history begin to recognize the Figure

Research paper thumbnail of Who’s got the “Reel” power? The problem of female antagonisms in blaxploitation cinema

Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, 2012

Between 1973 and 1975, films starring Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson such as Cleopatra Jones (Jack S... more Between 1973 and 1975, films starring Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson such as Cleopatra Jones (Jack Starrett, 1973), Coffy(Jack Hill, 1973) and Foxy Brown (Hill, 1974) introduced leading black women into the predominantly male blaxploitation scene as aggressive action heroines. Within the cinematic spaces of blaxploitation films which featured women as active agents, a racial and sexual divide exists. These films positioned women either inside or outside of gender tolerability by utilising binary constructions of identity based on race, sex and elementary constructions of good and evil, black and white, straight and gay, and feminine and butch. Popular representations of lesbianism and sisterhood within blaxploitation cinema reflect a dominant social view of American lesbianism as white while straight women are consistently represented as black. However, these spaces also constricted black and white female identities by limiting sexuality and morality to racial boundaries. This article ...

Research paper thumbnail of Sedimenting Solidarity: Signs from the Madison Protest

Research paper thumbnail of Who's Got the "Reel" Power? The Problem of Female Antagonisms in Blaxploitation Cinema

, Coffy (Jack Hill, 1973) and Foxy Brown (Hill, 1974) introduced leading black women into the pre... more , Coffy (Jack Hill, 1973) and Foxy Brown (Hill, 1974) introduced leading black women into the predominantly male blaxploitation scene as aggressive action heroines. Within the cinematic spaces of blaxploitation films which featured women as active agents, a racial and sexual divide exists. These films positioned women either inside or outside of gender tolerability by utilising binary constructions of identity based on race, sex and elementary constructions of good and evil, black and white, straight and gay, and feminine and butch. Popular representations of lesbianism and sisterhood within blaxploitation cinema reflect a dominant social view of American lesbianism as white while straight women are consistently represented as black. However, these spaces also constricted black and white female identities by limiting sexuality and morality to racial boundaries. This article seeks to question the unique solitude of these female heroines and interrogate a patriarchal cinematic world where sisterhood is often prohibited and lesbianism demonised. I don't believe in [women's lib] for black people … we're trying to free our black men … I like being a woman. I have been discriminated against, but not because I'm a woman. It's because I am black … before [people] see me as being female, they see me as being black. The stigma that's been placed on you because you're black gives you enough kill to get you through the woman thing … it's much tougher being black than being a woman. (Tamara Dobson 1973) Tamara Dobson, upon the release of Cleopatra Jones (Jack Starrett, 1973), expressed her disinterest with the women's movement, arguing that her action heroine character in the film was "not a women's libber" but was rather "defending an important freedom for her people: the freedom to exist without drugs" (Klemesrud). In contrast, cultural race theorist Michele Wallace wrote in a 1975 article entitled "A Black Feminist's Search for Sisterhood" about her quest for sisterhood and feminism: "the message of the Black Movement was that I was being watched, on probation as a black woman, that any sign of aggressiveness, intelligence, or independence would mean that I'd be denied even the one role still left open for me as 'my man's woman'" (6-7). She argued that "the most popular justification Black women had for not becoming feminists was their hatred of white women", a distinction that pleased black men (7). It is clear that black women identified in varying ways with the Black Power and women's liberation movements. An analysis of 1960s and 1970s blaxploitation productions exemplifies this general male interest in demoting female camaraderie by emphasising difference based on race, moral and sexual preference. Melissa DeAnn Seifert is a second year Masters student in the Department of Art History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She also currently works as a teaching assistant for an introductory film history course at the university. Her research interests include non-traditional art forms, visual culture and film media where she specifically aims to understand the politics of domination, subjugation and resistance. Within these frames, she deconstructs representations of women, gender relations and sexuality.