Utopias and Playgrounds Utopias and Playgrounds backpackers green
Utopias and Playgrounds
Utopias and Playgrounds • backpackers, green lesbians and Iron Johns • Reading: Valentine Ch 8 esp. pp. 270 -282
Rural Space as Utopia • natural, tranquil, utopian • Rural space: – closer to nature – simpler – less-competitive – a refuge from the city – a place for spiritual healing
New Age Movement • professes : – a renewed emphasis on spirituality – re-evaluation of sacred space, nature – utopian • Recent (post 1960) cultural invention
Ideal Cities • Plato wrote about the ideal city in his Republic – trying to characterise the Just Individual – ideal city should be small
Utopia • In 1516 Sir Thomas More created the term “Utopia” – an egalitarian place which he knew couldn’t exist • Emphasised rural with small towns
Revolutionary Utopias • American, French Revolutions, Marxism, Fascism tried to create an ideal society
Utopias • may be authoritarian – ideal order • may be permissive – ideal disorder • Utopia and Dystopia connected – ideal order becomes oppressive – disorder becomes a nightmare
William Morris: News from Nowhere
Utopian America • Pursuit of Utopia an important excuse for European settlement in N. America – Puritan New England – Mormon Utah – Mennonite Manitoba – Old Order Amish • Many of these settlements were rural
Anaheim California • Founded as a utopian commune by German Marxists in 1850 s • Overtaken by suburban LA, Disney • From late 1990 s “Old Colony District” being gentrified
San Ysidro CA • Developed around the “Little Landers” utopian agricultural colony, founded 1908 • Founder William E Smythe a back-to-theland utopian idealist and Irrigation freak
California as Utopia • Represented as such in advertising and media • Rural important to its utopian imagery
Garden Suburbs • Ebenezer Howard 1889 – the ideal (English) city would be a garden-rich suburban paradise – Plenty of nature, fresh air, fresh food
Garden Suburbs • applied to new towns/suburbs in UK early C 20 th: – Letchworth, – Hemel Hempstead, – Welwyn Garden City
Utopian Jews • early C 20 th: Utopian Jews moving to Palestine – establishing farming settlements
Utopian Jews • 1900 s idea of creating a new Jewish town in Palestine • make a clean, fresh start • adopt best planning principles – Ebenezer Howard’s garden suburbs concept
Founding Tel-Aviv • A new Jewish Letchworth in the dunes of Jaffa
1914
1930
Countercultural Utopias • Many of the “utopias” of C 20 th politics have been oppressive – Marxism, Fascism – The American Dream
Countercultural Utopias • Countercultural reaction – search for alternate, permissive utopias – often in rural, wilderness
Herland • A 1915 tale of a utopian female community – war, famine and other “man-made” disasters do not exist • Name used by a Feminist film festival in Calgary
Feminist Utopias • Countercultural attempts to create femalecontrolled communities and spaces • Often situated in rural areas • Testament to the difficulty of utopia: – local hostility – internal wrangling
Iron John • a. k. a. the mythopoetic men’s movement • emerged in the US in 1980 s • A reaction to feminism – reactionary: trying to rescue traditional masculinity? – Revolutionary: trying to reinvent masculinity?
Mythopoetic men’s movement • Lots of non-western cultural borrowing: – white guys banging African drums etc. , – pseudo-aboriginal rituals in the forest • Wilderness integral to its mythology
The Man’s Prayer meme “I'm a man. . . and I can change. . . if I have to. . . I guess. …” – Red Green
"I'm a man, but I can drink, if I have to. . . I guess. " -- Sigma Phi Delta Fraternity Vancouver Alumni Chapter
Society’s Playground • Banal utopianism of having fun • Two themes: – an aristocratic landscape of leisure – a popular playground
Aristocratic Leisure • Cult of scenic beauty • Desire to seek out scenic beauty
Popular Playground • C 19 th and C 20 th social reforms allowed industrial workers more leisure time • This time had to be occupied constructively – programmes of recreation – creation of parks – creation of paid vacation time
Rural Recreation • Rural areas become reworked as playgrounds and recreational areas – urbanites consume them for recreational purposes
Rural Recreation • Merchandising and place marketing of the rural and wilderness – cottaging and second homes – outdoor clothing – off-road vehicles – outdoor tourism
Marketing Wilderness
Using Nature to sell things
“Nature” added to products & places
“Nature” helps sell places
• Costa Rica
• Butter is the best that nature has to offer ….
• Nature Valley
Adding “Nature” • Add “nature” to image – “Rainforest Café”
Nature as a fashion statement • Outdoorsy fashions etc. ,
Example: The SUV in the Wilderness • Earthy colours • Rugged looks • “Outdoorsy” names
SUV as fantasy
• Nissan Murano
• Eddie Bauer meets Ford Expedition
• Fred the anarchist meets Ford Expedition
- Slides: 66