"Toxic Bodies" and the Invisible Knapsack

Beth Berila's "Toxic Bodies" piece describing demonstrations by ACT UP provides a detailed look at how our society and culture has become so image-oriented. Although the intent of the article was to illustrate how society marksThis materialistic mentality can be seen in ACT UP's exploit of Wall Street. Dressed in the same manner as "normal" individuals that work in Wall Street, the ACT UP members were not even looked at with suspicion because they looked like any other normal individual working in the building. Yet, their true identity was so easily hidden because of society's propensity to use image as a way to judge others. Since they looked the part, it was assumed that they were the part.

Although ACT UP's intent was to protest against the high cost of an AIDs drug, they truly highlighted how difficult it was to visually differentiate "queers" from "normal" people. This also touches on an idea discussed in past readings: the invisible knapsack in which individuals are privileged because of their skin color. In ACT UP's case, individuals skinned in conservative suits in the image of a stock broker. As explained by the reading, if they had been "women, people of color, and/or poor people" then they would not have been able to perform the demonstration in the way that ACT UP did. This truly highlight the privilege that a white male or any that is considered to be "normal has, since even in the world of activism, they were able to perform an act that those deemed as abnormal probably would not have been able to do.

It can be considered that the heavily reliance on stereotypes and image are used to judge individuals since it is the easiest way to do so. All that is needed to classify someone is to give them a quick glance, and suddenly all kinds of assumptions are made regarding an individual's ability/career/income. As long as there is this reliance on image, then race, gender, sexuality, disease issues and a form of the "invisible knapsack" will continue to exist. Although ACT UP's actions was designed to bring attention to an issue regarding AIDs, it truly highlighted an issue just as worrying: society's overuse of image to judge individuals. As demonstrated by the exploit, even today when we know that it is impossible to tell an individual's true character based on how they look, why are we continuing to try and do so?