He Defies You Still Memoir Of A Sissy Analysis

As a female and artist I’ve faced a great deal of stereotyping from others including harsh allegations about my lifestyle and life choices. Growing up in a deluge of communities and environments I’ve witnessed harassment first hand from people who didn’t agree with my style or how I carried myself. Every person has substance and personality and every person belongs to a variety of communities depending on their interests, professions, sexuality, race, etc. Me, being a broke college student living in a big city I get to cross paths with a plethora of different people with different backstories and different substance. In “He Defies You Still: Memoir of a Sissy” by Tommi Avicolli Mecca I ended up personally connecting to this reading more than …show more content…
It’s generally the “norm” in most families to go to college and study business, medical, general education, etc. (if they even go to school after high school). But it’s often looked down upon to go to art school. I’ve had friends who have decided to go to art school and their parents disowning them or looking down on them for it. I think some people who aren’t involved in the art community have this image of artist not being as successful as a educator, lawyer, doctor, etc. I personally don’t agree with this stereotype however it does exist and has been applied to me before. “Our culture is full of assumptions and stereotypes about how the mind works, perhaps none so enduring as the legend of the “tortured artist”.” This quote from “Mental Illness and Creativity: A Neurological view of the “Tortured Artist” which goes on to describe how some people hold this stereotype about artists in general. Sussman is more so describing the neurological approach to the “Tortured Artist” theory but gives a good viewpoint on how people outside of the art community view artists as a whole. While looking for readings and articles to read for this paper I came across a lot of articles titles “Why you shouldn’t go to art school” or “Being an artist is pointless” which made me want to research more on artist stereotypes and why people feel this way. I think art is a way of life and art is presented everywhere no matter what community you belong to. Music, movies, cooking, etc. is all different forms of art. Without being able to express oneself creatively the world would be boring and dull. These stereotypes of artists need to be killed and put to rest, as well as negative stereotypes towards certain genders/races. However, there can be positive stereotypes in communities they just aren’t talked about as much as the negative. Sussman touches on various types of artists and how people react