The "Othering" of Huie and Atwood

Wing Young Huie's "University Avenue Project," 2007-2010

Chinese-American photographer, Wing Young Huie, has long captured the unique and more authentic sides to the places he visits on his travels, but most noticeably in his home of Duluth, Minnesota. As stated in one of his blog posts known as Politician, Huie loves to explore what is "usually not covered by the press" and uses his photographs as a way of emphasizing the stories of individuals that may not be understood by one's first impression of them. 

Upon first glance, the picture above, taken from a series of photographs in Huie's University Avenue Project, encaptures an older man with his bare torso and arms shown. Covering his skin are tattoos that likely represent his culture or background. 

Although tattoos have been around for thousands of years in many different cultures and represent symbols of status, religious beliefs, or even punishment, they still receive lots of criticism in American society today. 30 years ago, tattoos in America were often considered taboo and were looked down upon. They were frequently worn by society's toughest individuals, like gang members, sailors, or inmates, but finding them on anyone else was extremely rare. 

While the popularity of tattoos has drastically increased in times since, where many young adults are accompanied by them, criticism by America's older generations still exists. Common disapproval stems from tattoos appearing to be unprofessional, undesirable, rebellious, and considered to be something of lower class. 

In many ways, despite tattoos being more prominent now than ever before, there are still significant portions of America that disapprove of and distance themselves from individuals that have them. This can be defined as "othering," or the act of making out someone or something to be totally different or alien. Upon further analyzing Huie's photograph, one could see how this concept of othering is being exploited and being brought to attention given the modern tattoo conflict. 

Similarly, in Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale, the concept of othering is also present. The book revolves around a futuristic society known as Gilead in North America, lead by a fundamentalist Christian regime, in which women are stripped of their rights and used merely for reproductive purposes as a way to combat the nation's fertility and environmental crisis. 

To elaborate, the society's women are separated into categories. Those who are fertile and healthy become what is known as Handmaids and are raped monthly by their Commander, a high-ranking man, in an attempt to bring forth that household a child. Women who are no longer in prime reproductive age either become Marthas, which are housekeepers, or are sent away to clean up toxic waste. Finally, we have the Wives and the Aunts. The Wives are women who are married to Commanders, and the Aunts are those who teach Handmaid's proper procedures of Gilead. 

This notion of division within the society is Atwood's extensive metaphor for the concept of othering. The book constantly describes how those in Gilead have particular purposes to society, and are therefore intentionally segregated from one another in a lot of senses. In comparison, in modern day America, we can see a fairly large gap between the older generations who disapprove of tattoos and the young adults who have them. Each disagree with the morals of the other and therefore sometimes alienate the other group.

Just as Huie focuses on the othering of something that individuals wear on them, being tattoos, Atwood uses a similar technique. She portrays her othering when it comes to the uniform of each division of women. To elaborate, the Handmaids are forced to wear red, the color of blood and life. Wives wear blue, and so too do the Aunts and Marthas have their own colors.

By the oppressive government enforcing such distinctions, it instills a feeling of "us versus them" which acts as a means of controlling its people. This in essence is a form of othering, as it emphasizes the differences of the people. Readers can see the effects of this psychological process as it shows how disunity has occurred in the society. The strength of the people is destroyed and the strength of the government is increased as citizens no longer feel like they can relate to anyone outside of their division.

When we distance ourselves from different social groups in real life, disunity is possible. We let our fears or distaste of the other groups take control, and therefore hatred and negativity can spread. Huie and Atwood use their demonstration of othering to hint at such a possibility. 

Overall, both Huie and Atwood demonstrate how social groups "other" those that are different from them based off of what they wear on their bodies. Whether that be tattoos, as shown in Huie's photograph, or the different color uniforms of the women living in Gilead, like Atwood's novel, both artists bring to light a crucial concept that plays a part in society.