Controversial Banksy-created opening for “The Simpsons”
“Deviance is a collection of conditions, persons, or acts that society disvalues, finds offensive, or condemns.” (Clinard & Meier, 2010, p. 6).
That is the broad, general definition for deviance, but there are four different definitions that cover its various forms: the statistical, absolutist, reactivist, and normative definitions. The statistical definition holds that whatever’s in the statistical minority characterizes deviance, and the absolutist definition defines it as “result[ing] from a value judgment based on absolute standards,” and that particular actions are deemed deviant “because they have always defined deviance (through tradition or custom)” (Clinard & Meier, 2010, p. 9). Deviance is anything that a social audience reacts against according to the reactivist definition, and the normative definition asserts that the label “deviant” depends of the situation and on “a group’s notion of actions and conditions that should and should not occur” (Clinard & Meier, 2010, p. 9).
I think that street artist Banksy is the prime poster figure of deviance, as he fits each of these definitions. Even before getting into his actions, Bansky’s name and identity qualifies as deviant—“Banksy” is a code name or pseudonym, for his real name has been speculated but never confirmed. People have tried selling his identity on Ebay for thousands of dollars. He uses stencils to graffiti, and also makes sculptures; the themes of his work consist of social and political commentary, as well as anarchism and existentialism. The little biography available on him tells us that he is British, and that he started his career as a freehand graffiti artist in the Bristol underground scene of street art. He has left his work all over the world, including the London Zoo, the Islraeli West Bank barrier, Disneyland in California. Bansky has managed to install art pieces in the Museum of Modern Aet, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the American Museum of Natural History. His artwork gets removed frequently, but has also been sold for thousands.
There are those who say that Bansky is overrated, seeking fame, and that his work is superficial. I am among those are fascinated by him, because his message is so distinctly subversive and just so mind shatteringly different from well, the rest of the world. It wakes you up. A spokesman for Transport for London, the government entity that had workers remove Banksy’s art, said that graffiti “creates a general atmosphere of neglect and social decay which in turn encourages crime” (BBC News, 2007). Keeping graffiti as an act of deviance in mind, read some of Banksy’s quotes:
“The people who run our cities don’t understand graffiti because they think nothing has the right to exist unless it makes a profit… the people who truly deface our neighborhoods are the companies that scrawl giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff.”
“You owe the companies nothing. You especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.”
“Brandalism: Any advertisement in public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It belongs to you. It’s yours to take, rearrange and re-use. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.”
It makes you question what is considered deviant. Bansky’s work rejects consumerism and the companies that thrive on making us think we need things we don’t. This message has been seen before, but something about his unrelenting commitment to telling it makes me feel as though I’ve never really thought about it until him.
Banksy's alteration of an iconic photograph taken during the Vietnam War
Kiddie Ride turned Anti-BP Statement piece
Cave painting Banksy installed in the British Museum, which was added to its permanent collection
References
Clinard, M.B., & Meier, R.F. (2010). Sociology of deviant behavior. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
(2007, April 20). Iconic Banksy image painted over. BBC News. 20 April 2007. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6575345.stm
christinaoverton 