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The Body Art of Brotherhood 269 269 9 The Body Art of Brotherhood Sandra Mizumoto Posey To break with the ruling hegemony that has a hold on images of the black male body, a revolutionary visual aesthetic must emerge that reappropriates, revises, and reinvents, giving everyone something new to look at. —bell hooks, Art on My Mind Branding is by no means new to the cultural landscape of the United States. It has been used to mark the ownership of slaves as well as cattle, and this is the iconography to which most people first turn when attempting to understand the practice.Branding in fraternal organizations in general,and in black Greekletter organizations (BGLOs) in particular, has a long and living tradition, although most people are probably unaware of it. Thus, its increasing presence in the public eye makes it seem like a new phenomenon,and it is indeed“something new to look at.” Although many inside and outside BGLOs condemn it as a reference to the branding of property,to understand it,we must take hooks’s words to heart and see it as an aesthetic that“reappropriates, revises, and reinvents ”what we think of the “black male body.” This reinvention is an ongoing rather than a static process. Like the analysis of any art form, understanding it requires more than an examination of an object or even the culture from which it arose. Rather, one must take into consideration individual motivations, outside interpretations, and changing perspectives. With material forms such as branding, meaning evolves in their conceptualization, in acts of creation, and in their continued use. Body modification often conjures images of antisocial rebels, disreputable characters, or other unfavorable and sometimes masculinized associations.Yet the type of men who actually modify their bodies and their reasons why span an entire range of possibilities—some falling within traditional notions, and others deviating from them. Thus, this chapter explores brands as part of a brownchap09.pmd 1/11/2005, 4:02 PM 269 270 Sandra Mizumoto Posey symbol system in process.In Studying Organizational Symbolism,MichaelOwen Jones defines symbol as a term that “usually connotes something concrete, either an object or a behavior that is reified and treated as a discrete entity. Symbolism refers to both the practice of investing things with meanings and a ‘system’ of symbols. Symbolic behavior directs attention toward people’s interaction and communication in the course of which they generate, convey, and infer meanings and significance.”Jones also reminds us that although the study of symbols often emphasizes shared interpretations, a more critical point of analysis lies in “multiple and multilayered meanings, even conflicting interpretations of symbolic behavior.”1 Symbols are used to communicate with the self and with others.They are not static. Instead, they are the tools by which we come to understand ourselves and to tell others who we are. This chapter examines the essential interplay between the negotiation of symbols and their meanings by the public, the organization, and the individual members. At work within these three categories is more than a simple analysis of facts, if there is such a thing. Because many of the historical texts make no mention of branding, “facts” are replaced with a variety of informal narratives . Which narratives the public, the organization, and the individual members accept and which they do not reveal the goals and ideals of those who choose to believe or disbelieve them, and the goals they think the organization possesses or should possess. Public Opinion of Body Modification Traditions To the eyes of outsiders, branding might be associated with hazing or with historical parallels such as the branding of cattle or slaves as a marker of ownership .As part of a larger complex of semipermanent body modification practices such as piercing and tattooing,2 branding is often viewed by the American public as an abnormal activity engaged in by marginalized individuals and groups. This is far from the case. Some of these practices are gaining in popularity among a wider sphere of people, and other common forms such as plastic surgery or cosmetic tattooing (referred to in the industry as “permanent makeup”)3 are often overlooked or categorized separately. From beauty to belonging , the motivations for altering one’s body are as diverse as the people who choose to do it. Although branding is most commonly associated with BGLO members, many other individuals and groups elect to inscribe indicators of group affilibrownchap09 .pmd 1/11/2005, 4:02 PM 270 [3...

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