Staring how we look sobre la mirada.pdf - artecolonial

76 DON’T STARE
public codes. Astonishing sights competed for the citizen’s eye. Staring at
supposed Wild Men or Genuine Indians trotted out at World Exhibitions or
even straining to glimpse decorated heroes at parades offered a safe social
distance that face-to-face encounters on the street with fellow citizens did
not. Ladies and gentlemen were not to stare or be stared at by people with
whom they might strike up a relationship. The visual intimacy of staring
at possible equals upsets the fragile coherence of our route to recognizing
one another, to understanding precisely who it is we face in this jumble of
strangers through which we must navigate. Here, then, is a paradox of staring:
beginning with the era of Whitman and the emergence of the Great
American Spectacles, public life demands that citizens stare at the new and
changing worlds we live in, while at the same time staring at one another
risks intrusions far too familiar for everyone’s comfort. The result was a contradictory
cultural edict that Americans should always see a spectacle but
never be a spectacle.