Truly the postmodernist intellectual movement has become a postmodern joke unto itself. I came to this revelation during a recent viewing of this hysterical youtube video entitled “Butter Dance”. For those of you who cannot or choose not to view it, the video is a six minute dance routine in which a fat Asian woman in a tight dress and heels “dances” on/in several sticks of butter accompanied by the sound of Indonesian shamanistic drumming. As you would expect, occasionally she slips and falls into the mess of saturated fats. This is intentional. But she rises again, she perseveres. The falls are actually quite brutal and uncontrolled resulting in resounding wet slapping noises as she strikes the stage. At times I actually worried she would do herself harm, but no doubt this element of danger only adds to the gravity of the piece. The routine ends with her kneeling on the stage, thoroughly covered in butter, gazing out into the audience with an accusatory stare.

I don’t think I need to go into any deep analysis here to point out the “oppressive” social norms that this dance routine is deconstructing. The whole thing hits you over the head with it like a sledgehammer. She’s fat. She dances in butter. She falls. She gets up. She glares at us with an accusing expression. Obviously this is a jab at socially constructed, patriarchal norms of beauty and the oppression of fat women. Derp. Not too hard to grasp.

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