Limitations of Taste as Performance
Friday, October 2, 2009 by Charmaine
I believe one of the limitations of 'taste' as performance, as observed by Hugo Liu, is that it relies heavily on the person reading it and their knowledge of the tastes being named. The chances of an audience member having actually seen all the movies, listened to the bands' breadth of work, or watched the entire runs of the TV shows being named is quite unlikely.
As such, the audience member needs to judge the identity performance by their preconceptions of what the movie, band, or TV show is about. These preconceptions may have been from their exposure to advertising or by word-of-mouth; in any case, it is unlikely that the audience member is accurately picking up on the exact things that the person is trying to perform. For example, Sheldon may declare that he enjoys House. Penny has only seen one episode, and assumes that Sheldon is naming the show because he likes medical, scientific things, and therefore he is quite a practical and scientific thinker himself; when in fact Sheldon knows very little about science and likes the sarcasm and humour of the show.
It can also rely on the assumption that not everybody will be engaged in the named preferences. By naming relatively obscure things, the performer knows that only the audience members who recognise and enjoy the same things will understand what he is indicating about his identity.
I find that when taste is performed in these ways, that is, aiming being for a more rewarding performance for people with the same tastes, it can be quite exclusive and indicative of a current obsession with labels.
As such, the audience member needs to judge the identity performance by their preconceptions of what the movie, band, or TV show is about. These preconceptions may have been from their exposure to advertising or by word-of-mouth; in any case, it is unlikely that the audience member is accurately picking up on the exact things that the person is trying to perform. For example, Sheldon may declare that he enjoys House. Penny has only seen one episode, and assumes that Sheldon is naming the show because he likes medical, scientific things, and therefore he is quite a practical and scientific thinker himself; when in fact Sheldon knows very little about science and likes the sarcasm and humour of the show.
It can also rely on the assumption that not everybody will be engaged in the named preferences. By naming relatively obscure things, the performer knows that only the audience members who recognise and enjoy the same things will understand what he is indicating about his identity.
I find that when taste is performed in these ways, that is, aiming being for a more rewarding performance for people with the same tastes, it can be quite exclusive and indicative of a current obsession with labels.