Juduth Butler Torture and the Ethics of Photography

Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable? | Torture and Ideals of Photography: Thinking with Sontag | Summary

Central Takeaways

• Butler examines photography every bit ane medium past which human lives in the context of war are presented for human being consumption. In Butler's opinion photographs are a manner in which "suffering is presented" and thus a lens through which human responsiveness to that suffering can be examined.
• Perceptible reality is a construct according to Butler that exists prior to human emotional response. This perceptible reality is framed in a certain context to come across certain aims. A strategy known equally embedded reporting in which "journalists agree [sic] to written report only from the perspective established by military and governmental regime" helps drive the perceptible reality of the public in the context of state of war.
• Strategies used past government and military machine officials to frame the context of war work on both the content and perspective level in Butler's explanation. This human action of framing leads the public to certain interpretations.
• Butler examines the work of American writer Susan Sontag (1933–2004) and her particular questions surrounding the effectiveness of photography in shaping public perceptions of war. Butler explains that Sontag argued in the 1970s that photographs had lost their ability but in her more recent works was more clashing about the function of photographs.
• According to Butler photographs are part of the larger strategy of embedded reporting and of controlling the construction or frame of information presented to the public. She sees the photographs as "actively interpreting" what is happening in the frame.
• The photographs of torture from Abu Ghraib which was an American prison in Iraq used to confine Iraqi prisoners of war are important subjects for Butler. She views these photographs in two ways. They are on the one hand something that might exist used to define "American identity" in terms of atrocity but also a medium to mobilize opposition to the Iraq War (2003–11) which was a disharmonize between the United States and Republic of iraq.
• Butler examines the photos from Abu Ghraib in terms of three concepts which are norms, frames, and suffering. Norms are socially-defined beliefs, frames are how these norms are presented, and suffering is the particular frame presented in the photos from Abu Ghraib. The photos testify prisoners existence sexually, physically, and emotionally abused and tortured which is the pinnacle of human being suffering.
• Humanity is a "differential norm" according to Butler because it is allocated upon some individuals, including the American military personnel conducting the torture but not upon others, including those being tortured. Butler believes that humanity as a differential norm must be challenged because all people possess homo lives that are equally precarious.
• The photos of torture from Abu Ghraib contain layers of framing in Butler'southward opinion. The relationship between the photographer, the camera, the event, and even the context in which the photos are shown helps define the overall frame of perception from which the photos are understood.
• Butler explains that photographs are particularly nuanced media considering they are neither "anterior to the event nor e'er posterior to it." Photographs in Butler's understanding are promises that certain events volition go along.
• The torture photos from abu Ghraib are not "pornography" every bit Butler explains some have asserted. The problem with the photos for Butler lies not in the specific sex activity acts they portray only rather in the fact that the sexual practice acts are being used to shame and debase prisoners.
• The sex acts in the photos are a paradox in Butler's eyes because many involve homosexual acts which would seem taboo per "homophobia within the US military."
• The way the photos were used and consumed is also troubling for Butler. She explains that they were widely circulated "without there being any accompanying sense of moral outrage" at the fashion the prisoners were depicted in humiliating acts.
• Butler explains that the images are so profoundly disturbing that they seek to "erase" the humanity of the torture victims. Yet the photographs as well "instate grievability" because they live on even subsequently the lives they draw take been lost.

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