Dirty Bird

In part what makes this a hard topic to talk about, to tackle, is the endless overwhelm of contamination. Birds are everywhere, wings are everywhere, (in Italy) angels are everywhere. There’s no escape. If we reflect on some of our key words of contaminated media, we can find wings in all. To approach just one is daunting, as it is just so large. In the consumption of bird “wings” in our food, to our sexualization of  angel “wings” on a Victoria’s Secret runway; We are bombarded with the two forms too often to have the ability to step back and form an opinion. 

 “Aestheticization

Commodification

Constructionism

Culture

Discourse

Essentialism

Functionalism”

During my research, there were three major themes that came clashing into one another over and over; spirit, soul, and sex. Most depictions we create of angels (after the year 1900) have been in the context of sexualization. There’s something we love about taking this pure, sacred symbol and putting it as a backdrop to someone’s fantasy, perhaps permission to have a guilt free orgasm. On the other hand, we had spirit. The metaphysical meaning we assign to angels and birds, whether as a total savior or a warning sign of something evil, always centering back to something higher than us. Lastly, soul. The innermost part of every being, and whether we deem it good or bad, or even just good enough. In a quick judgment we mark everything we cross, from neighbors to nature, as one or the other and often without room for complication. This is where birds are most special, as they are one of the few creatures that we send back and forth in our cultural perspective. In all forms of media, functionalism (eating the bird) to aestheticization (idealizing the bird as something sacred, we communicate a different meaning of what birds are.