A Body That Denies the Written Word

 

“Written clothing is carried by language, but also resists it, and is created by this interplay.” Roland Barthes – The Fashion System

Roland Barthes begins his sojourn in, The Fashion System, by foregrounding the differences existing between image-clothing and written clothing.  Image-clothing is a descriptor Barthes applies to garments that are photographed or drawn.  An audience is capable of consuming these garments as an immediate whole (Barthes 14).  Written clothing, on the contrary, consists of garments that are described or transformed into language.  Written clothing references a particular element, allowing the value of that element to be stressed.  It is this emphasis on the elements of a garment that fragments written clothing: “This emphasis obviously rests upon an intrinsic quality of language: its discontinuity; the described garment is a fragmentary garment” (15).  Barthes constructs his arguments in relationship to fashion magazines.  These publications often feature pictures of dress (image-clothing), accompanied by syntactic commentary (written clothing).  There exists both an image perceived of as whole, and a written component that is processed in fragments.  In consideration of the body that is inscribed upon, Barthes’ discourse lends itself provocatively.  For, it becomes quite evident that the body inscribed upon is very much a body dressed in words.   

During his discussion of written clothing, Barthes makes a prescient observation concerning the informational function of this clothing.  He suggests that words, syntactic components, can be altered without fundamentally reshaping the informational component of the text (4).  Simply, the written garment, resists the very language that composes it. 

If the written garment can be considered a means of approaching the written body – the body wears the ink – than this “bod(il)y garment” similarly degrades the information present on the exterior.  It is not the words that are suggestive, for they seem to have very little significance.  The syntactic inscriptions, written in “permanent” marker could be derogatory, or flagrant.  A poem might be constructed cocerning the general impotency of the subject.  Conversely, yet less frequently, the body text might consist of more positive descriptors or images (perhaps, a drawing of a flower).  Here, the language in use is perpetually denied.  One notices that the body is canvassed in ink, and yet disregards the very words that compose the garment.  Even those that create the garment realize a certain syntactic insignificance: cliche words are written hastily without much forethought. 

Instead, the inscription seems to draw its significance from what might be considered the performative aspect of the inscription process.  Simply, the body text gains significance in the use of language, but denies the very words by which it is constructed.  The humor lies not in the written word, but in the act of writing.  This, ultimately, is the paradox of the body that is inscribed upon.  What of those that write upon the body?  Surely, this is not considered a viable means of relaying something infinitely profound.  Rather, there is in this act, a certain performative desire.  To dance for friends or accomplices as one would dance on a stage. 

Seemingly, these acts are reminiscent of the happenings that were so entirely popular in various art circles during the late fifites and early sixties.  Often it appears that the audience is more satisfied with the supposed ”spontaneity” of the event than the actual message:

A girl the audience had not seen before, shoeless and wearing a bright print dress, began to climb on and through the structure of black inner tubes.  Even though wooden beams ran up within the columns, holding them in position, the inflated tubes were far from rigid.  They sagged, twisted, and slid under the weight of the climbing girl.  From somewhere above, soapy water flowed constantly down the tubes, making the rubber even more slippery than it would be ordinarily.  For a minute or so the girl climbed inside and out of the glistening tubes, then the light went out. (Happenings 181)

The performative aspect of this ritualistic coding provides an interesting synopsis of the events that precede its occurence…