The Ethics of Documentary Photography: Laetitia Ky’s Radicalisation by Aélia Delêtre
November 22, 2024
With growing recognition on social
media and the contemporary art scene, Laetitia Ky is a feminist artist from
Côte d’Ivoire. While some might say Ky's work is controversial,[1] this
essay, discussing Ky's Untitled #1 (2019) (fig. 1), Untitled #2 (2021) (fig.
2) and Untitled
#3 (2022) (fig. 3) will put forward a more nuanced point of view
regarding her work by applying an ethic of feminism. If Ethics is defined as
the act of understanding, justifying and criticizing people’s moral beliefs and
their practice of them, then combined with feminism, an ethic of feminism must
analyze and question humans’ “vast web of relationships, [and] the forces at
play within those.”[2] First, focusing on Untitled #1 and Untitled #2, I will demonstrate that
Ky's works should be considered documentary photography and that, therefore,
the ethic of her works must be examined. To do so, I will look at the three
photographs’ context and reception to establish the progression of pain and
fear into the radicalization of her discourse.
Documentary Photography: An Activist’s Art
Ky’s works, primarily self-portraits with the inclusion of sculptural elements made of braided hair balanced on her head, are part of the documentary photography genre. While scholars and photographers still debate the exact definition of documentary photography, I will use this term to define a style which “includes aspects of journalism, art, education, sociology and history” and wants “to bring the attention of an audience to the subject of [their] work [...] to pave the way for social change.”[3] Documentary photography, used to record long-term crises, is often associated with objectivity and authenticity.[4] However, like any work of art, artistic choices tamper with and alter the reality presented.[5] Since politics, social movements, African history, and art inspire Ky, her photographs can be considered documentary photography.[6]
Ky's Untitled #1 and #2 are an ode to African art and history. Indeed, in the introduction of her book Love and Justice: A Journey of Empowerment, Activism, and Embracing Black Beauty, Ky explains that she started creating hair sculptures to reconcile herself with her African heritage.[7] To do so, she researched different African tribes and their aesthetics,[8] and some of her works mimic the hairstyles of women in ancient tribes. Because of the slave trade and western beauty standards, African women tend to have a complicated relationship with their natural hair, and most of them start to relax their hair at a young age.[9] Hair and hairstyle had important significations in Africa and, today, they are still linked to self-care, community and sisterhood.[10] Therefore, by using this heavily connotated medium, Ky not only embraces her natural hair; goes against western beauty standards; shares her knowledge of African history with her community; and pays homage to her ancestors' craft, but she also brings her audience’s attention to different social crises.
Indeed, Ky publicly claims her political views—such as her thoughts on abortion, structural misogyny, genital cutting, and western feminism ideology—in her work.[11] Untitled #1, accompanying the section “Welcoming My Periods” in the chapter “Self-Love” of her book, wishes to destigmatize menstruation and period blood.[12] Looking back at the viewer, Ky balances on her head the sculpted body of a woman, from breast to knee, as her head and arms are fragmented. She used black hair to shape the outlines of the woman’s body and a strand of vivid red hair to represent blood flowing down from her vagina onto Ky’s face. This medium allows her to represent and share online a naked menstruating body without breaking social media guidelines regarding nudity.[13] This figurative representation of menstruation also avoids visceral reactions toward the abject. The abject—defined as a threat to the self—is here the period blood, which is taboo in Côte d’Ivoire society, transgressing the barrier of the inside and outside.[14] The photograph cleverly avoids a reaction of disgust from the viewer toward menstruation. While taking a socio-political position, Ky’s photograph tries to undo generational stigmatization.
Untitled #2 accompanies the section “Female Genital Mutilation” (FGM) and illustrates this barbaric practice’s consequences.[15] Ky used black hair to shape a vulva and a razor blade sitting horizontally on the sculpture. Similarly to Untitled #1, a strand of red hair is used to represent blood. Here, the blood stands for the violence endured by mutilated women in Côte d’Ivoire. Regarding Teressa Margolles’ textile works, Skelly recalls how textiles, “intersected with affective labour, usually through the hands of women.”[16] Where Margolles used textiles to acknowledge the physical bodies and the fragility of the skin,[17] Ky uses her hair as an extension of herself to draw attention to the violence she undergoes as a woman from Côte d’Ivoire. Her body is not only indexed in her work by the repetitive gestures of the process, but it is also a part of the artwork itself. Ky looks directly at the viewers with a defying gaze; she challenges the audience to dare look away and close their eyes to her suffering. Thus, even though the sculpture in Untitled #2 shows an act of physical violence toward women, this photograph represents Ky’s sociopolitical activism.
In addition, her photographs employ different artistic strategies to communicate her feminist activism to her viewers. First, the settings of her self-portraits recall mugshots and ethnographic works, for instance, J.T. Zealy’s Delia (1850) (fig. 4). The lack of affect and the plain background—yellow in the case of Untitled #1 and pink in Untitled #2—are strategies used in ethnographic “portraits” “specimenizing” Black individuals.[18] In addition, the use of fragmentation by dismembering the female body in Untitled #1 and isolating the vulva in Untitled #2 recalls famous artworks like Courbet’s Origine du Monde (1866) (fig. 5). In 19th century France, societal attitudes reduced women to their roles as mothers and caregivers. Courbet's work fragmented the body of this woman, emphasizing her identity as a life-giver, textually defining her as the origin of life, while simultaneously idealizing and eroticizing her. Ky avoids suggesting erotism by using sculpted hair to create a figurative rather than a naturalistic image. Ky effectively reclaims the formal characteristics of ethnographic portraiture and the fragmentation of the female body in her figural representation. By employing these different elements in her favour, she encourages the viewers to focus on her feminist messages.
Also, the choice to place her sculpture on her head creates the iconography of the Devil. Indeed, the braids creating the outline of the female body in Untitled #1 and the larger braids shaping the labia from Untitled #2resemble the horns of the Devil-figure Baphomet in Lévi’s engraving (1855) (fig. 6). Like the engraving’s figure, Ky is sitting in front of the viewers, her upper body completely erect, with a confrontational gaze. Most of Côte d’Ivoire’s population is Muslim or Christian, and some sexist traditions still rampant today come from those religious ideologies.[19] Satan and his association with women’s emancipation are well-known and exploited in history, literature, and art.[20] The etymology of the word “devil” comes from the Greek word diabolos, meaning adversary.[21] With her work, Ky is presenting herself as the adversary of her country’s misogynistic system and culture. Just like some traditions, which describe Satan as the one who has “broken free and gained an independent existence,”[22] Ky’s photographs fight against Côte d’Ivoire’s patriarchal system and call for women's safety and freedom.
As I have demonstrated, Ky’s Untitled #1 and #2 are artworks that include references to African art and history, western art history, as well as allude to religious oppression. Furthermore, these photographs bring the audience’s attention to ongoing crises, with the authenticity and subjectivity of Ky’s own experiences. Therefore, going back to the definition of documentary photography,[23] I argue that her body of work is a type of documentary photography and thus needs similar treatment regarding ethical concerns.
Ky’s Radicalisation
In the last few years, Ky received multiple criticisms concerning her essentialist feminism, her use of gendered language, and her exclusion of transgender people from her activism.[24] As time passed, more and more radical messages emerged on social media. For example, when she published Untitled #3 on X, it was accompanied by a description in which Ky recalled the hate she received for associating womanhood with biological sex. She restated her refusal to call herself a “uterus holder,” a “bleeding person,” or a “vagina owner.”[25] Initially, her discourse was more moderate and based on her own experience as she stated: “I don’t relate to the concept of gender. Trans people deserve to exist. They deserve to be heard but I also deserve the same.”[26] Yet, a few months later, when she published on X the first portrait of a series about the women who inspired her, she started with J. K. Rowling.[27] Rowling is well known for her association with the trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) movement. The post, in which Ky discusses the transphobia allegations Rowling has faced, generated many reactions from trans activists. Answering a hateful comment, Ky declared that she is a “PROUD TERF,”[28] and doubled-down on her new label in a subsequent comment.[29] Ky is also very active on her X platform, reposting TERFs and transphobes, such as Rowling and Elon Musk, praising their rejection of the word “cis” and answering other users to reaffirm her TERF identity.[30]
Since Ky’s view of womanhood and female socialization is based on the suffering she and women she knows have endured, she has adopted unfortunate gender essentialist talking points. Her experience of womanhood as a female born in Côte d’Ivoire is shaped by the stigmatization she faced due to her sex. Yet according to her, since trans women do not experience the exact same pain as people assigned female at birth because they are not, for example, subjected to genital mutilation or period stigma, they are excluded from what she categorizes as “women.” This definition gives women the only role of being oppressed by society, which, in addition to being problematic, also reinforces and normalizes the very practices feminists “seek to contest.”[31] Also, it claims that all cis women universally experience the same oppression, which does not take into account the different ways women can experience discrimination.[32] Factors such as race, social class, cultural background, and country of residence intersect with misogyny, creating a unique set of barriers for every woman. While it is true that cis and trans women do not face the same difficulties, they do suffer from the same thing: a patriarchal and misogynistic society. For trans women, these challenges are often intersected with transphobia, family rejection, social stigma, and significant medical barriers. Denying this fact or denying trans identities only reinforces and perpetuates violence against all women.[33]
For Ky, the backlash she’s faced due to her essentialism reflects a problematic perspective within white western society.[34] Most of Ky's critiques are formulated by privileged white queer individuals who may not fully grasp how gender functions differently in different cultural contexts. This tendency to transpose western ideas, a sort of colonization rooted in the belief that western values are superior to non-western beliefs, can undermine other understandings of gender and often overlooks serious issues, such as sex-based discrimination, genital mutilation, and period-shaming. To avoid the issue of white feminism, which arises when western scholars and feminists impose their beliefs onto other societies and cultures, I observed diverse points of view and local activism.[35] The conclusion to this research is that transgender and non-binary individuals in Africa and Côte d’Ivoire are actively fighting for their rights. Associations, including Transgenre et Droits;[36] activists, like Orneill Latiyah;[37] and artworks, such as Gabrielle Le Roux’sProudly African and Transgender, demonstrate their active fight.[38] Nsámbu Za Suékama, a transfeminist focusing on Black and African perspectives, identifying as a “woman of nonbinary/transgender experiences,” is mainly known for their book Black Anarchism and the Black Radical Tradition: Moving Beyond Racial Capitalism published in 2023.[39] In their article “Red, Black, Green—and Proud (RBG-P),” they discuss the Black Lives Matter movement and other contemporary social movements as a reflection of a struggle, where different factions compete for recognition of their embodiment’s worth, highlighting a broader conflict over power.[40] Za Suékama suggests that “negotiating conditions of one’s embodiment in a progressive ‘rights’ focus has yielded a navel-gazing or exclusionary tendency in the Afrikan community across political divides,” such as the anti-trans coalitions. They argue that individuals like Laetitia Ky, who advocate for a TERF ideology and assert that trans rights threaten theirs, betray “a competitive orientation toward how material benefits and political power are imbricated.”[41] Since such critical analysis challenges Ky's work and places it within a more complex narrative, and even if some of the criticisms Ky faces may be rooted in a white and western feminism movement, her association with the TERF movement cannot be overlooked.
Separating the art from the artist?
Ky’s radical discourses come from a communication distortion rooted in fear and pain, but I argue that Untitled #1, #2, and #3 are inherently neither unethical nor transphobic. Most discussions around Ky’s art take place on social media, which distorts genuine communication, encourages dehumanizing and violent language, as well as facilitates venting.[42] As Sara Ahmed describes, pain comes with blaming or attributing one’s suffering to someone or something.[43] While a patriarchal society is the root of the injustices Ky and her peers face, she has constructed and reduced her identity, or at least her womanhood, to this pain and presented it in her photographs. This is evident in her body of works, which primarily focuses on cis women’s sufferings, such as breast flattening, abortion, rape and domestic violence. Ahmed argues that fears are fantasies which “construct the other as a danger not only to one’s self as self, but to one’s very life, to one’s very existence.”[44] As Ky tries to bring forward her difficulties and pain, she is confronted with the fear of her erasure. As she tries to gain a voice and be heard as a woman experiencing violence and oppression, she is faced with public negative reactions to her work and comments asking her to use inclusive language. Ky is afraid this will erase the term woman, which generates a fear of becoming invisible. Therefore, I suggest that Ky’s identification with the TERF movement arises from this fear—a fantasy of the “other” that “hence work[s] to justify violence against others, whose very existence comes to be felt as a threat.”[45] Similarly, some of her critics, whose identities are not recognized in the artist’s works and statements—and thus erased—have reacted out of fear. Fear generates hate, and hate moves around objects, taking in power.[46] What started as innovative and original works, bringing attention to some women’s difficulties in Côte d’Ivoire, ended in death threats and the radicalisation of the artist.
While questioning the ethics of art history, it is crucial to recall that a “work of art is an artifact of a particular sort, […] the product of human invention at a particular time and place, by a particular individual.”[47] Therefore, scholars must question “whether the moral character of the artist figures into a causal explanation of how the artwork came to be just the way it is.” [48] Indeed, some artistic choices, such as the fragmentation of the female genitals to represent women’s difficulties, the lack of different body morphologies, and even her choice of medium, could be seen as a reflection of Ky’s closed-mindedness on queer issues and essentialist ideology. However, regarding Ky’s photographs, the context of fabrication is as important as the artistic elements. While I established that Ky’s radicalization was progressive and based on fear and hate, she also created the three works discussed in this essay before her identification with the TERF movement and her transphobic discourses. I assert that Ky’s Untitled #1, #2 and #3 are ethical documentary photography that cleverly and innovatively brings attention to her difficulties and the sociopolitical crisis in Côte d’Ivoire. Nonetheless, this conclusion does not mean the artist should not be held accountable for her transphobic discourse and, later, her TERF artworks.[1] [2] [3] Instead, I want to suggest with this essay that cancelling artists and their works without understanding the complexity of human relationships and their impact on artworks is a failure of art history.
Illustrations
Bibliography
“Atticus Bagby-Williams & Nsambu Za Suekama.” Daraja Press. Accessed November 5, 2024. https://darajapress.com/authors/atticus-bagby-nsambu.
Ahmed, Sara. The Cultural Politics of Emotion. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.
Berleant, Arnold. “Artists and Morality: Toward an Ethics of Art.” Leonardo 10, no. 3 (1977): 195-202. https://doi.org/10.2307/1573422.
Bettcher, Talia Mae. “Trans Feminism: Recent Philosophical Developments.” Philosophy Compass 12, no. 11 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12438.
Ellis-Hervey, Nina, Ashley Doss, DeShae Davis, Robert Nicks, and Perla Araiza. “African American Personal Presentation.” Journal of Black Studies 47, no. 8 (2016): 869–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934716653350.
Faxneld, Per. Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.
GATE. “Board of Directors.” January 9, 2023. https://gate.ngo/about-us/gate-board-of-directors/.
Gutzwa, Justin A. “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs).” In Encyclopedia of Queer Studies in Education, edited by Kamden K. Strunk and Stephanie Anne Shelton, 695–98. Boston: Brill, 2022.
Herr, Ranjoo Seodu. “Reclaiming Third World Feminism.” Meridians 12, no. 1 (2014): 1–30. https://doi.org/10.2979/meridians.12.1.1.
Instagram. “Community Guidelines.” Help Center. Accessed March 16, 2023. https://help.instagram.com/477434105621119/?helpref=uf_share&cms_id=477434105621119.
Karhu, Sanna. “Gender Skepticism, Trans Livability, and Feminist Critique.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 47, no. 2 (2022): 295–317. https://doi.org/10.1086/716643.
Kirkland, Katie L. “Feminist Aims and a Trans-Inclusive Definition of ‘Woman.’” Feminist Philosophy Quarterly 5, no. 1 (2019). https://doi.org/10.5206/fpq/2019.1.7313.
Ky, Laetitia. Love & Justice: A Journey of Empowerment, Activism, and Embracing Black Beauty. Hudson: Princeton Architectural Press, 2022.
Le Roux, Gabrielle. “Proudly African and Transgender.” Women: A Cultural Review23, no. 1 (2012): 79–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/09574042.2012.644688.
Lindemann, Hilde. An Invitation to Feminist Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Malik, Nesrine. “‘Some People Are Freaked out’: How Laetitia Ky Tackles Abortion, Sexism and Race with Her Extraordinary Hair.” The Gardian, March 31, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/mar/31/some-people-are-freaked-out-how-laetitia-ky-tackles-abortion-sexism-and-race-with-her-extraordinary-hair.
Nannicelli, Ted. Artistic Creation and Ethical Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Okin, Susan Moller, Joshua Cohen, Matthew Howard, Martha C. Nussbaum, and Azizah Y. AL-Hibri. “Is Western Patriarchal Feminism Good for Third World/Minority Women.” In Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?, 41–46. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
Post, Tina. Deadpan: The Aesthetics of Black Inexpression. New York University Press, 2023.
Price, Derreck. “Surveryors and Surveyed: Photography out and About.” In Photography: A Critical Introduction, edited by Liz Wells. London Routledge, 1997.
Rosler, Martha. “In, Around, and Afterthoughts (on Documentary Photography).” In Decoys and Disruptions: Selected Writings, 1975-2001, 175–206. Cambridge: MIT, 2006.
Skelly, Julia. Skin Crafts. Affect, Violence and Materiality in Global Contemporary Art. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd, 2022.
Transgenres et Droits “À propos.” Accessed March 13th, 2023.https://transgenresetdroits.org/about/.
U.S Department of State. “Country Reports on Terrorism 2021: Côte d’Ivoire,” June 22, 2022. https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-report-on-international-religious-freedom/.
Zanghellini, Aleardo. “Philosophical Problems with the Gender-Critical Feminist Argument against Trans Inclusion.” SAGE Open 10, no. 2 (2020): https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020927029.
Za Suékama, Nsámbu. “Red, Black, Green - and Proud (RBG-P).” The Anarchist Library, May 26, 2023. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/nsambu-za-suekama-red-black-green-and-proud.
Footnotes
[1] Nesrine Malik, “‘Some People Are Freaked out’: How Laetitia Ky Tackles Abortion, Sexism and Race with Her Extraordinary Hair,” The Gardian, March 31, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/mar/31/some-people-are-freaked-out-how-laetitia-ky-tackles-abortion-sexism-and-race-with-her-extraordinary-hair.
[2] Hilde Lindemann, An Invitation to Feminist Ethics (New York,: Oxford University Press, 2019), 4, 10, 17.
[3] Derreck Price, “Surveryors and Surveyed: Photography out and About,” in Photography: A Critical Introduction, ed. Liz Wells (London Routeledge, 1997).
[4] Martha Rosler, “In, Around, and Afterthoughts (on Documentary Photography),” in Decoys and Disruptions: Selected Writings, 1975-2001 (Cambridge,: MIT, 2006), 175-206, 176.
[5] Price, “Surveryors and Surveyed.”
[6] Laetitia Ky, Love & Justice: A Journey of Empowerment, Activism, and Embracing Black Beauty(Hudson: Princeton Architectural Press, 2022), 16.
[7] Laetitia Ky, Love & Justice, 9.
[8] Laetitia Ky, Love & Justice, 9.
[9] Nina Ellis-Hervey et al., “African American Personal Presentation,” Journal of Black Studies47, no. 8 (2016): 873, https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934716653350.
[10] Ellis-Hervey et al., “Personal Presentation,” 870; Laetitia Ky, Love & Justice, 78.
[11] Malik, “Laetitia Ky.”
[12] Laetitia Ky, Love & Justice, 151.
[13] “Community Guidelines,” Help Center, Instagram, accessed March 16, 2023, https://help.instagram.com/477434105621119/?helpref=uf_share&cms_id=477434105621119.
[14] Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion (New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015), 87.
[15] Laetitia Ky, Love & Justice, 123.
[16] Julia Skelly, Skin Crafts. Affect, Violence and Materiality in Global Contemporary Art(London: Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd, 2022), 44.
[17] Skelly, Skin Crafts, 44.
[18] Tina Post, Deadpan: The Aesthetics of Black Inexpression (New York University Press, 2023), 39.
[19] “Country Reports on Terrorism 2021: Côte d’Ivoire,” U.S Department of State, June 22, 2022. https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-report-on-international-religious-freedom/.
[20] Per Faxneld, Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture(New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 44.
[21] Per Faxneld, Satanic Feminism, 30.
[22] Per Faxneld, Satanic Feminism, 30..
[23] Price, “Surveryors and Surveyed.”
[24] Malik, “Laetitia Ky.”
[25] Laetitia Ky (@laetitky), “I cant count how many times I've been called transphobic for associating my womanhood to my sex,” X, August 5th, 2022, https://x.com/laetiky/status/1555613331985162242.
[26] Laetitia Ky (@laetitky), “I cant count how many times I've been called transphobic for associating my womanhood to my sex,” X, August 5th, 2022, https://x.com/laetiky/status/1555613331985162242.
[27] Laetitia Ky (@laetitky), “I made @jk_rowling with my hair” X, January 30th, 2023, https://x.com/laetiky/status/1620087541595766784?s=46.
[28] Laetitia Ky (@laetitky), “PROUD TERF,” X, March 5h, 2023, https://x.com/laetiky/status/1631981384037179392.
[29] Laetitia Ky (@laetitky), “A huge one yeah,” X, February 1st, 2023, https://x.com/laetiky/status/1620779690331103232.
[30] Laetitia Ky (@laetitky), “!!!!!!!!,” X, June 21st, 2023, https://x.com/laetiky/status/1671459569808154625. Laetitia Ky (@laetitky), “Queeeeeeen !!!!,” X, June 21st, 2023, https://x.com/laetiky/status/1671802569268645889; Justin A. Gutzwa, “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs),” in Encyclopedia of Queer Studies in Education, ed. Kamden K. Strunk and Stephanie Anne Shelton (Boston: Brill, 2022), 695.
[31] Sanna Karhu, “Gender Skepticism, Trans Livability, and Feminist Critique,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 47, no. 2 (January 2022): 296., https://doi.org/10.1086/716643.
[32] Talia Mae Bettcher, “Trans Feminism: Recent Philosophical Developments,” Philosophy Compass 12, no. 11 (2017), 7-8, https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12438; Aleardo Zanghellini, “Philosophical Problems with the Gender-Critical Feminist Argument against Trans Inclusion,” SAGE Open 10, no. 2 (2020): 9, https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020927029.
[33] Katie L. Kirkland, “Feminist Aims and a Trans-Inclusive Definition of ‘Woman,’” Feminist Philosophy Quarterly 5, no. 1 (2019): 2, https://doi.org/10.5206/fpq/2019.1.7313.
[34] Malik, “Laetitia Ky.”
[35] Susan Moller Okin et al., “Is Western Patriarchal Feminism Good for Third World/Minority Women,” in Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? (Princeton,: Princeton University Press, 1999), 41; Ranjoo Seodu Herr, “Reclaiming Third World Feminism,” Meridians12, no. 1 (January 2014): 6, https://doi.org/10.2979/meridians.12.1.1.
[36] “À propos,” Transgenres et Droits, accessed March 13th 2023. https://transgenresetdroits.org/about/.
[37] “Board of Directors,” GATE, January 9, 2023, https://gate.ngo/about-us/gate-board-of-directors/.
[38] Gabrielle Le Roux, “Proudly African and Transgender.” Women: A Cultural Review 23, no. 1 (2012): 79–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/09574042.2012.644688.
[39] “Atticus Bagby-Williams & Nsambu Za Suekama,” Daraja Press, accessed November 5, 2024, https://darajapress.com/authors/atticus-bagby-nsambu.
[40] Nsámbu Za Suékama, “Red, Black, Green - and Proud (RBG-P),”The Anarchist Library, May 26, 2023. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/nsambu-za-suekama-red-black-green-and-proud.
[41] Za Suékama, “Red, Black, Green”
[42] Zanghellini, “Philosophical Problems,” 10-11.
[43] Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion, 24.
[44] Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion, 64.
[45] Ahmed,The Cultural Politics of Emotion, 64.
[46] Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion, 45.
[47] Nannicelli, Artistic Creation and Ethical Criticism, 210.
[48] Nannicelli, Artistic Creation and Ethical Criticism, 242.
Documentary Photography: An Activist’s Art
Ky’s works, primarily self-portraits with the inclusion of sculptural elements made of braided hair balanced on her head, are part of the documentary photography genre. While scholars and photographers still debate the exact definition of documentary photography, I will use this term to define a style which “includes aspects of journalism, art, education, sociology and history” and wants “to bring the attention of an audience to the subject of [their] work [...] to pave the way for social change.”[3] Documentary photography, used to record long-term crises, is often associated with objectivity and authenticity.[4] However, like any work of art, artistic choices tamper with and alter the reality presented.[5] Since politics, social movements, African history, and art inspire Ky, her photographs can be considered documentary photography.[6]
Ky's Untitled #1 and #2 are an ode to African art and history. Indeed, in the introduction of her book Love and Justice: A Journey of Empowerment, Activism, and Embracing Black Beauty, Ky explains that she started creating hair sculptures to reconcile herself with her African heritage.[7] To do so, she researched different African tribes and their aesthetics,[8] and some of her works mimic the hairstyles of women in ancient tribes. Because of the slave trade and western beauty standards, African women tend to have a complicated relationship with their natural hair, and most of them start to relax their hair at a young age.[9] Hair and hairstyle had important significations in Africa and, today, they are still linked to self-care, community and sisterhood.[10] Therefore, by using this heavily connotated medium, Ky not only embraces her natural hair; goes against western beauty standards; shares her knowledge of African history with her community; and pays homage to her ancestors' craft, but she also brings her audience’s attention to different social crises.
Indeed, Ky publicly claims her political views—such as her thoughts on abortion, structural misogyny, genital cutting, and western feminism ideology—in her work.[11] Untitled #1, accompanying the section “Welcoming My Periods” in the chapter “Self-Love” of her book, wishes to destigmatize menstruation and period blood.[12] Looking back at the viewer, Ky balances on her head the sculpted body of a woman, from breast to knee, as her head and arms are fragmented. She used black hair to shape the outlines of the woman’s body and a strand of vivid red hair to represent blood flowing down from her vagina onto Ky’s face. This medium allows her to represent and share online a naked menstruating body without breaking social media guidelines regarding nudity.[13] This figurative representation of menstruation also avoids visceral reactions toward the abject. The abject—defined as a threat to the self—is here the period blood, which is taboo in Côte d’Ivoire society, transgressing the barrier of the inside and outside.[14] The photograph cleverly avoids a reaction of disgust from the viewer toward menstruation. While taking a socio-political position, Ky’s photograph tries to undo generational stigmatization.
Untitled #2 accompanies the section “Female Genital Mutilation” (FGM) and illustrates this barbaric practice’s consequences.[15] Ky used black hair to shape a vulva and a razor blade sitting horizontally on the sculpture. Similarly to Untitled #1, a strand of red hair is used to represent blood. Here, the blood stands for the violence endured by mutilated women in Côte d’Ivoire. Regarding Teressa Margolles’ textile works, Skelly recalls how textiles, “intersected with affective labour, usually through the hands of women.”[16] Where Margolles used textiles to acknowledge the physical bodies and the fragility of the skin,[17] Ky uses her hair as an extension of herself to draw attention to the violence she undergoes as a woman from Côte d’Ivoire. Her body is not only indexed in her work by the repetitive gestures of the process, but it is also a part of the artwork itself. Ky looks directly at the viewers with a defying gaze; she challenges the audience to dare look away and close their eyes to her suffering. Thus, even though the sculpture in Untitled #2 shows an act of physical violence toward women, this photograph represents Ky’s sociopolitical activism.
In addition, her photographs employ different artistic strategies to communicate her feminist activism to her viewers. First, the settings of her self-portraits recall mugshots and ethnographic works, for instance, J.T. Zealy’s Delia (1850) (fig. 4). The lack of affect and the plain background—yellow in the case of Untitled #1 and pink in Untitled #2—are strategies used in ethnographic “portraits” “specimenizing” Black individuals.[18] In addition, the use of fragmentation by dismembering the female body in Untitled #1 and isolating the vulva in Untitled #2 recalls famous artworks like Courbet’s Origine du Monde (1866) (fig. 5). In 19th century France, societal attitudes reduced women to their roles as mothers and caregivers. Courbet's work fragmented the body of this woman, emphasizing her identity as a life-giver, textually defining her as the origin of life, while simultaneously idealizing and eroticizing her. Ky avoids suggesting erotism by using sculpted hair to create a figurative rather than a naturalistic image. Ky effectively reclaims the formal characteristics of ethnographic portraiture and the fragmentation of the female body in her figural representation. By employing these different elements in her favour, she encourages the viewers to focus on her feminist messages.
Also, the choice to place her sculpture on her head creates the iconography of the Devil. Indeed, the braids creating the outline of the female body in Untitled #1 and the larger braids shaping the labia from Untitled #2resemble the horns of the Devil-figure Baphomet in Lévi’s engraving (1855) (fig. 6). Like the engraving’s figure, Ky is sitting in front of the viewers, her upper body completely erect, with a confrontational gaze. Most of Côte d’Ivoire’s population is Muslim or Christian, and some sexist traditions still rampant today come from those religious ideologies.[19] Satan and his association with women’s emancipation are well-known and exploited in history, literature, and art.[20] The etymology of the word “devil” comes from the Greek word diabolos, meaning adversary.[21] With her work, Ky is presenting herself as the adversary of her country’s misogynistic system and culture. Just like some traditions, which describe Satan as the one who has “broken free and gained an independent existence,”[22] Ky’s photographs fight against Côte d’Ivoire’s patriarchal system and call for women's safety and freedom.
As I have demonstrated, Ky’s Untitled #1 and #2 are artworks that include references to African art and history, western art history, as well as allude to religious oppression. Furthermore, these photographs bring the audience’s attention to ongoing crises, with the authenticity and subjectivity of Ky’s own experiences. Therefore, going back to the definition of documentary photography,[23] I argue that her body of work is a type of documentary photography and thus needs similar treatment regarding ethical concerns.
Ky’s Radicalisation
In the last few years, Ky received multiple criticisms concerning her essentialist feminism, her use of gendered language, and her exclusion of transgender people from her activism.[24] As time passed, more and more radical messages emerged on social media. For example, when she published Untitled #3 on X, it was accompanied by a description in which Ky recalled the hate she received for associating womanhood with biological sex. She restated her refusal to call herself a “uterus holder,” a “bleeding person,” or a “vagina owner.”[25] Initially, her discourse was more moderate and based on her own experience as she stated: “I don’t relate to the concept of gender. Trans people deserve to exist. They deserve to be heard but I also deserve the same.”[26] Yet, a few months later, when she published on X the first portrait of a series about the women who inspired her, she started with J. K. Rowling.[27] Rowling is well known for her association with the trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) movement. The post, in which Ky discusses the transphobia allegations Rowling has faced, generated many reactions from trans activists. Answering a hateful comment, Ky declared that she is a “PROUD TERF,”[28] and doubled-down on her new label in a subsequent comment.[29] Ky is also very active on her X platform, reposting TERFs and transphobes, such as Rowling and Elon Musk, praising their rejection of the word “cis” and answering other users to reaffirm her TERF identity.[30]
Since Ky’s view of womanhood and female socialization is based on the suffering she and women she knows have endured, she has adopted unfortunate gender essentialist talking points. Her experience of womanhood as a female born in Côte d’Ivoire is shaped by the stigmatization she faced due to her sex. Yet according to her, since trans women do not experience the exact same pain as people assigned female at birth because they are not, for example, subjected to genital mutilation or period stigma, they are excluded from what she categorizes as “women.” This definition gives women the only role of being oppressed by society, which, in addition to being problematic, also reinforces and normalizes the very practices feminists “seek to contest.”[31] Also, it claims that all cis women universally experience the same oppression, which does not take into account the different ways women can experience discrimination.[32] Factors such as race, social class, cultural background, and country of residence intersect with misogyny, creating a unique set of barriers for every woman. While it is true that cis and trans women do not face the same difficulties, they do suffer from the same thing: a patriarchal and misogynistic society. For trans women, these challenges are often intersected with transphobia, family rejection, social stigma, and significant medical barriers. Denying this fact or denying trans identities only reinforces and perpetuates violence against all women.[33]
For Ky, the backlash she’s faced due to her essentialism reflects a problematic perspective within white western society.[34] Most of Ky's critiques are formulated by privileged white queer individuals who may not fully grasp how gender functions differently in different cultural contexts. This tendency to transpose western ideas, a sort of colonization rooted in the belief that western values are superior to non-western beliefs, can undermine other understandings of gender and often overlooks serious issues, such as sex-based discrimination, genital mutilation, and period-shaming. To avoid the issue of white feminism, which arises when western scholars and feminists impose their beliefs onto other societies and cultures, I observed diverse points of view and local activism.[35] The conclusion to this research is that transgender and non-binary individuals in Africa and Côte d’Ivoire are actively fighting for their rights. Associations, including Transgenre et Droits;[36] activists, like Orneill Latiyah;[37] and artworks, such as Gabrielle Le Roux’sProudly African and Transgender, demonstrate their active fight.[38] Nsámbu Za Suékama, a transfeminist focusing on Black and African perspectives, identifying as a “woman of nonbinary/transgender experiences,” is mainly known for their book Black Anarchism and the Black Radical Tradition: Moving Beyond Racial Capitalism published in 2023.[39] In their article “Red, Black, Green—and Proud (RBG-P),” they discuss the Black Lives Matter movement and other contemporary social movements as a reflection of a struggle, where different factions compete for recognition of their embodiment’s worth, highlighting a broader conflict over power.[40] Za Suékama suggests that “negotiating conditions of one’s embodiment in a progressive ‘rights’ focus has yielded a navel-gazing or exclusionary tendency in the Afrikan community across political divides,” such as the anti-trans coalitions. They argue that individuals like Laetitia Ky, who advocate for a TERF ideology and assert that trans rights threaten theirs, betray “a competitive orientation toward how material benefits and political power are imbricated.”[41] Since such critical analysis challenges Ky's work and places it within a more complex narrative, and even if some of the criticisms Ky faces may be rooted in a white and western feminism movement, her association with the TERF movement cannot be overlooked.
Separating the art from the artist?
Ky’s radical discourses come from a communication distortion rooted in fear and pain, but I argue that Untitled #1, #2, and #3 are inherently neither unethical nor transphobic. Most discussions around Ky’s art take place on social media, which distorts genuine communication, encourages dehumanizing and violent language, as well as facilitates venting.[42] As Sara Ahmed describes, pain comes with blaming or attributing one’s suffering to someone or something.[43] While a patriarchal society is the root of the injustices Ky and her peers face, she has constructed and reduced her identity, or at least her womanhood, to this pain and presented it in her photographs. This is evident in her body of works, which primarily focuses on cis women’s sufferings, such as breast flattening, abortion, rape and domestic violence. Ahmed argues that fears are fantasies which “construct the other as a danger not only to one’s self as self, but to one’s very life, to one’s very existence.”[44] As Ky tries to bring forward her difficulties and pain, she is confronted with the fear of her erasure. As she tries to gain a voice and be heard as a woman experiencing violence and oppression, she is faced with public negative reactions to her work and comments asking her to use inclusive language. Ky is afraid this will erase the term woman, which generates a fear of becoming invisible. Therefore, I suggest that Ky’s identification with the TERF movement arises from this fear—a fantasy of the “other” that “hence work[s] to justify violence against others, whose very existence comes to be felt as a threat.”[45] Similarly, some of her critics, whose identities are not recognized in the artist’s works and statements—and thus erased—have reacted out of fear. Fear generates hate, and hate moves around objects, taking in power.[46] What started as innovative and original works, bringing attention to some women’s difficulties in Côte d’Ivoire, ended in death threats and the radicalisation of the artist.
While questioning the ethics of art history, it is crucial to recall that a “work of art is an artifact of a particular sort, […] the product of human invention at a particular time and place, by a particular individual.”[47] Therefore, scholars must question “whether the moral character of the artist figures into a causal explanation of how the artwork came to be just the way it is.” [48] Indeed, some artistic choices, such as the fragmentation of the female genitals to represent women’s difficulties, the lack of different body morphologies, and even her choice of medium, could be seen as a reflection of Ky’s closed-mindedness on queer issues and essentialist ideology. However, regarding Ky’s photographs, the context of fabrication is as important as the artistic elements. While I established that Ky’s radicalization was progressive and based on fear and hate, she also created the three works discussed in this essay before her identification with the TERF movement and her transphobic discourses. I assert that Ky’s Untitled #1, #2 and #3 are ethical documentary photography that cleverly and innovatively brings attention to her difficulties and the sociopolitical crisis in Côte d’Ivoire. Nonetheless, this conclusion does not mean the artist should not be held accountable for her transphobic discourse and, later, her TERF artworks.[1] [2] [3] Instead, I want to suggest with this essay that cancelling artists and their works without understanding the complexity of human relationships and their impact on artworks is a failure of art history.
Illustrations
 Figure 1: Laetitia Ky, Untitled #1, First posted on Instagram, Sept 16th, 2019. |
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 Figure 2: Laetitia Ky, Untitled #2, in Love & Justice, 2022. |
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 Figure 3: Laetitia Ky, Untitled #3, First posted on Instagram, August 5th, 2022. |
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 Figure 4: J.T. Zealy, Delia, American-born of African parents, daughter of Renty, Congo, 1850. |
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 Figure 5: Courbet, Origine du monde, 1866. |
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 Figure 6: Éliphas Levi, Baphomet, frontispiece of Volume II (Rituel), In Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, 1855. |
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Bibliography
“Atticus Bagby-Williams & Nsambu Za Suekama.” Daraja Press. Accessed November 5, 2024. https://darajapress.com/authors/atticus-bagby-nsambu.
Ahmed, Sara. The Cultural Politics of Emotion. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.
Berleant, Arnold. “Artists and Morality: Toward an Ethics of Art.” Leonardo 10, no. 3 (1977): 195-202. https://doi.org/10.2307/1573422.
Bettcher, Talia Mae. “Trans Feminism: Recent Philosophical Developments.” Philosophy Compass 12, no. 11 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12438.
Ellis-Hervey, Nina, Ashley Doss, DeShae Davis, Robert Nicks, and Perla Araiza. “African American Personal Presentation.” Journal of Black Studies 47, no. 8 (2016): 869–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934716653350.
Faxneld, Per. Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.
GATE. “Board of Directors.” January 9, 2023. https://gate.ngo/about-us/gate-board-of-directors/.
Gutzwa, Justin A. “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs).” In Encyclopedia of Queer Studies in Education, edited by Kamden K. Strunk and Stephanie Anne Shelton, 695–98. Boston: Brill, 2022.
Herr, Ranjoo Seodu. “Reclaiming Third World Feminism.” Meridians 12, no. 1 (2014): 1–30. https://doi.org/10.2979/meridians.12.1.1.
Instagram. “Community Guidelines.” Help Center. Accessed March 16, 2023. https://help.instagram.com/477434105621119/?helpref=uf_share&cms_id=477434105621119.
Karhu, Sanna. “Gender Skepticism, Trans Livability, and Feminist Critique.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 47, no. 2 (2022): 295–317. https://doi.org/10.1086/716643.
Kirkland, Katie L. “Feminist Aims and a Trans-Inclusive Definition of ‘Woman.’” Feminist Philosophy Quarterly 5, no. 1 (2019). https://doi.org/10.5206/fpq/2019.1.7313.
Ky, Laetitia. Love & Justice: A Journey of Empowerment, Activism, and Embracing Black Beauty. Hudson: Princeton Architectural Press, 2022.
Le Roux, Gabrielle. “Proudly African and Transgender.” Women: A Cultural Review23, no. 1 (2012): 79–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/09574042.2012.644688.
Lindemann, Hilde. An Invitation to Feminist Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Malik, Nesrine. “‘Some People Are Freaked out’: How Laetitia Ky Tackles Abortion, Sexism and Race with Her Extraordinary Hair.” The Gardian, March 31, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/mar/31/some-people-are-freaked-out-how-laetitia-ky-tackles-abortion-sexism-and-race-with-her-extraordinary-hair.
Nannicelli, Ted. Artistic Creation and Ethical Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Okin, Susan Moller, Joshua Cohen, Matthew Howard, Martha C. Nussbaum, and Azizah Y. AL-Hibri. “Is Western Patriarchal Feminism Good for Third World/Minority Women.” In Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?, 41–46. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
Post, Tina. Deadpan: The Aesthetics of Black Inexpression. New York University Press, 2023.
Price, Derreck. “Surveryors and Surveyed: Photography out and About.” In Photography: A Critical Introduction, edited by Liz Wells. London Routledge, 1997.
Rosler, Martha. “In, Around, and Afterthoughts (on Documentary Photography).” In Decoys and Disruptions: Selected Writings, 1975-2001, 175–206. Cambridge: MIT, 2006.
Skelly, Julia. Skin Crafts. Affect, Violence and Materiality in Global Contemporary Art. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd, 2022.
Transgenres et Droits “À propos.” Accessed March 13th, 2023.https://transgenresetdroits.org/about/.
U.S Department of State. “Country Reports on Terrorism 2021: Côte d’Ivoire,” June 22, 2022. https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-report-on-international-religious-freedom/.
Zanghellini, Aleardo. “Philosophical Problems with the Gender-Critical Feminist Argument against Trans Inclusion.” SAGE Open 10, no. 2 (2020): https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020927029.
Za Suékama, Nsámbu. “Red, Black, Green - and Proud (RBG-P).” The Anarchist Library, May 26, 2023. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/nsambu-za-suekama-red-black-green-and-proud.
Footnotes
[1] Nesrine Malik, “‘Some People Are Freaked out’: How Laetitia Ky Tackles Abortion, Sexism and Race with Her Extraordinary Hair,” The Gardian, March 31, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/mar/31/some-people-are-freaked-out-how-laetitia-ky-tackles-abortion-sexism-and-race-with-her-extraordinary-hair.
[2] Hilde Lindemann, An Invitation to Feminist Ethics (New York,: Oxford University Press, 2019), 4, 10, 17.
[3] Derreck Price, “Surveryors and Surveyed: Photography out and About,” in Photography: A Critical Introduction, ed. Liz Wells (London Routeledge, 1997).
[4] Martha Rosler, “In, Around, and Afterthoughts (on Documentary Photography),” in Decoys and Disruptions: Selected Writings, 1975-2001 (Cambridge,: MIT, 2006), 175-206, 176.
[5] Price, “Surveryors and Surveyed.”
[6] Laetitia Ky, Love & Justice: A Journey of Empowerment, Activism, and Embracing Black Beauty(Hudson: Princeton Architectural Press, 2022), 16.
[7] Laetitia Ky, Love & Justice, 9.
[8] Laetitia Ky, Love & Justice, 9.
[9] Nina Ellis-Hervey et al., “African American Personal Presentation,” Journal of Black Studies47, no. 8 (2016): 873, https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934716653350.
[10] Ellis-Hervey et al., “Personal Presentation,” 870; Laetitia Ky, Love & Justice, 78.
[11] Malik, “Laetitia Ky.”
[12] Laetitia Ky, Love & Justice, 151.
[13] “Community Guidelines,” Help Center, Instagram, accessed March 16, 2023, https://help.instagram.com/477434105621119/?helpref=uf_share&cms_id=477434105621119.
[14] Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion (New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015), 87.
[15] Laetitia Ky, Love & Justice, 123.
[16] Julia Skelly, Skin Crafts. Affect, Violence and Materiality in Global Contemporary Art(London: Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd, 2022), 44.
[17] Skelly, Skin Crafts, 44.
[18] Tina Post, Deadpan: The Aesthetics of Black Inexpression (New York University Press, 2023), 39.
[19] “Country Reports on Terrorism 2021: Côte d’Ivoire,” U.S Department of State, June 22, 2022. https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-report-on-international-religious-freedom/.
[20] Per Faxneld, Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture(New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 44.
[21] Per Faxneld, Satanic Feminism, 30.
[22] Per Faxneld, Satanic Feminism, 30..
[23] Price, “Surveryors and Surveyed.”
[24] Malik, “Laetitia Ky.”
[25] Laetitia Ky (@laetitky), “I cant count how many times I've been called transphobic for associating my womanhood to my sex,” X, August 5th, 2022, https://x.com/laetiky/status/1555613331985162242.
[26] Laetitia Ky (@laetitky), “I cant count how many times I've been called transphobic for associating my womanhood to my sex,” X, August 5th, 2022, https://x.com/laetiky/status/1555613331985162242.
[27] Laetitia Ky (@laetitky), “I made @jk_rowling with my hair” X, January 30th, 2023, https://x.com/laetiky/status/1620087541595766784?s=46.
[28] Laetitia Ky (@laetitky), “PROUD TERF,” X, March 5h, 2023, https://x.com/laetiky/status/1631981384037179392.
[29] Laetitia Ky (@laetitky), “A huge one yeah,” X, February 1st, 2023, https://x.com/laetiky/status/1620779690331103232.
[30] Laetitia Ky (@laetitky), “!!!!!!!!,” X, June 21st, 2023, https://x.com/laetiky/status/1671459569808154625. Laetitia Ky (@laetitky), “Queeeeeeen !!!!,” X, June 21st, 2023, https://x.com/laetiky/status/1671802569268645889; Justin A. Gutzwa, “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs),” in Encyclopedia of Queer Studies in Education, ed. Kamden K. Strunk and Stephanie Anne Shelton (Boston: Brill, 2022), 695.
[31] Sanna Karhu, “Gender Skepticism, Trans Livability, and Feminist Critique,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 47, no. 2 (January 2022): 296., https://doi.org/10.1086/716643.
[32] Talia Mae Bettcher, “Trans Feminism: Recent Philosophical Developments,” Philosophy Compass 12, no. 11 (2017), 7-8, https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12438; Aleardo Zanghellini, “Philosophical Problems with the Gender-Critical Feminist Argument against Trans Inclusion,” SAGE Open 10, no. 2 (2020): 9, https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020927029.
[33] Katie L. Kirkland, “Feminist Aims and a Trans-Inclusive Definition of ‘Woman,’” Feminist Philosophy Quarterly 5, no. 1 (2019): 2, https://doi.org/10.5206/fpq/2019.1.7313.
[34] Malik, “Laetitia Ky.”
[35] Susan Moller Okin et al., “Is Western Patriarchal Feminism Good for Third World/Minority Women,” in Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? (Princeton,: Princeton University Press, 1999), 41; Ranjoo Seodu Herr, “Reclaiming Third World Feminism,” Meridians12, no. 1 (January 2014): 6, https://doi.org/10.2979/meridians.12.1.1.
[36] “À propos,” Transgenres et Droits, accessed March 13th 2023. https://transgenresetdroits.org/about/.
[37] “Board of Directors,” GATE, January 9, 2023, https://gate.ngo/about-us/gate-board-of-directors/.
[38] Gabrielle Le Roux, “Proudly African and Transgender.” Women: A Cultural Review 23, no. 1 (2012): 79–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/09574042.2012.644688.
[39] “Atticus Bagby-Williams & Nsambu Za Suekama,” Daraja Press, accessed November 5, 2024, https://darajapress.com/authors/atticus-bagby-nsambu.
[40] Nsámbu Za Suékama, “Red, Black, Green - and Proud (RBG-P),”The Anarchist Library, May 26, 2023. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/nsambu-za-suekama-red-black-green-and-proud.
[41] Za Suékama, “Red, Black, Green”
[42] Zanghellini, “Philosophical Problems,” 10-11.
[43] Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion, 24.
[44] Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion, 64.
[45] Ahmed,The Cultural Politics of Emotion, 64.
[46] Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion, 45.
[47] Nannicelli, Artistic Creation and Ethical Criticism, 210.
[48] Nannicelli, Artistic Creation and Ethical Criticism, 242.
