It has been used as an argument for the erection of the welfare state -- and for its dismantling. . . . From at least the mid-nineteenth century, American social commentators have been announcing the death of the black family and administering last rites.
Thus this work does much to illustrate many of the challenges that black families had in the projects of NYC and represents one of Ligon's more respectable ambitions.
However, the Gay Treasures work that Ligon produces is one of his more controversial creations. He portrays "well endowed" black men in the nude that some have argued is to create a divide in the races by illustrating images that would play to the fears of other races. Ligon elaborates on this problem in his accompanying essay to A Feastof Scraps (DeLand, 2012):
Pornographic images of black men usually fall into a narrow range of types: black men as closer to nature, sexually aggressive, enormously endowed. Black men as phallus. [Frantz] Fanon and others have argued that these stereotypes allay the fears of whites while serving their needs and desires.
These photos are definitely pornographic and nature and certainly could have been left out of Ligon's collection....
However, at the same time, as a homosexual black male, it is undoubtedly his right of self-expression. Yet at the same time he decreases his appeal to a broader audience.
Yet he uses these pornographic images to try to portray social issues. In one image there is a baby sitting in an adult chair left unattended while in an adjacent image there is a nude black male holding his penis in a bachelor pad type setting that looks like a rundown apartment. The caption says "The Baby's Father" which is an attempt to portray the absence of the father in the family scene in the projects of New York. Although this may have an impact on some audiences, the vulgarity of the images is likely to turn many viewers away and have them miss the underlying social message which is a valid issue that affects this community. Therefore, I think Ligon could have had a greater impact if you would have foregone the pornographic aspects to his work when tackling social problems that his community faced.
Works Cited
DeLand, L. (2012). BLACK SKIN, BLACK MASKS: THE CITATIONAL SELF IN THE WORK OF GLENN LIGON. Criticism, 507-537.
