I want 00 for president
태도가 작품이 될 때
박보나 작가의 <태도가 작품이 될 때>는 일상의 경험과 미술을 연결한다.
에세이에서 소개한 작품 중 인상깊게 본 Zoe Leonard의 시 “I want a dyke for president"에서 느낀 요즘의 생각을 얘기하고 싶다.
이 시는 “나는 소수자의 환경을 경험한 대통령을 원한다.”라는 말을 한다. <더 나은 논쟁을 할 권리>를 쓴 김주희 교수님의 강의에서 잊을 수 없었던 말이 있다.
“소수자에 대한 복지는 선민이나 당위가 아니다. 사람들은 나는 소수가 되지 않을 것이라 착각한다. 어느 날 내가 교통사고를 당할지, 성정체성이 바뀔지, 복지의 사각지대에 놓일지 어떻게 알 수 있는가? 소수자 복지에 목소리를 내는 건 나의 이득을 위한 행동이다.“
바텀업으로 목소리를 내지 않는 사람은 위기의식이 없거나 비겁하다. 변화를 위한 목소리를 내지 않고 변화를 바라는 건 태만하다. 나는 어떤 어른이 되고 싶은지를 알게 된 요즘이다.
Zoe LeonardI want a dyke for president. I want a person with AIDS for president and I want a fag for vice president and I want someone with no health insurance and I want someone who grew up in a place where the earth is so saturated with toxic waste that they didn’t have a choice about getting leukemia.
I want a president that had an abortion at sixteen and I want a candidate who isn’t the lesser of two evils and I want a president who lost their last lover to AIDS, who still sees that in their eyes every time they lay down to rest, who held their lover in their arms and knew they were dying.
I want a president with no air-conditioning, a president who has stood in line at the clinic, at the DMV, at the welfare office, and has been unemployed and laid off and sexually harassed and gaybashed and deported.
I want someone who has spent the night in the tombs and had a cross burned on their lawn and survived rape. I want someone who has been in love and been hurt, who respects sex, who has made mistakes and learned from them.
I want a Black woman for president. I want someone with bad teeth and an attitude, someone who has eaten that nasty hospital food, someone who crossdresses and has done drugs and been in therapy. I want someone who has committed civil disobedience.
And I want to know why this isn’t possible. I want to know why we started learning somewhere down the line that a president is always a clown. Always a john and never a hooker. Always a boss and never a worker. Always a liar, always a thief, and never caught.
