Data Bodies, and the Militarized Civilian's Need to be Patriotic

In an era (especially after September 11^th) of seemingly constant surveillance attributed to state of the art technology in the hands of power, and enforced laws, such as The Patriot Act, Jasbir Puar critiques the way our bodies are transformed into transcribed sets of data, used by a power source, to better calculate our every move in her essay, “Data Bodies.” In her work, Puar draws attention to the subject of how a body becomes data-ed by referencing Eugene Thacker in saying, “Thacker writes that biopolitics both ‘universalizes and individualizes the population’… ‘in biopolictics, the body is a database, and informatics is the search engine’”(160). She goes onto explain that what this means is, “In statistical terms, race and sex are experienced as a series of transactional informational flows captured or happened upon at chance moments that perceive and render bodies transparent or opaque, secure or insecure, risky or at risk, risk-enabled or risk-disabled, the living or the living dead.” In saying this, Puar argues that bodies become a “statistical population,” in which U.S. state surveillance practices can base judgment in relation to pre-set data ideas. We can relate this theory to “racial profiling” in airports, etc. However, Puar’s real argument relies on how, “self-regulation becomes less an internalization of norms and more about constant monitoring of oneself and others, watching waiting, listening, ordering, positioning, calculating. One sees emerging through these practices not necessarily the crafting of the individual subject cohered through acquiescence to or internalization of norms but assemblages of “militarized bodies” (156). What this means, as Puar continues to argue, is that “militarized bodies” arise beyond what we deem normalized military (i.e. the actual military) to the, “everyday activities” of civilian bodies. In saying this, Puar argues that civilian bodies become data bodies by “voluntary practices” of surveying in order to control. In other words, civilians choose to act in certain ways to obtain their own control, because they believe it to be their, “patriotic mandate” (156). Thus, “militarized bodies” are created in "patriotic" civilians, and surveillance is not just in the power of the U.S. government, but also in it’s population.

In Hasan Elahi's “Tracking Transience,” a critique of specific U.S. state surveillance practices, in particular those that incarcerated him for “alleged terrorist activity” that was probably be based on racial profiling, relate to Puar’s militarized civilian body, in which she classifies as, “the compliant citizen.” “The compliant citizen” encompasses, “airport security measures, biometric technologies… video surveillance…” (157) After Elahi was arrested for alleged terrorist activity, he was forced to occasionally “check in” with FBI authorities on his whereabouts, and thus reacted in a way in which he deemed, “aggressive compliance.” In “Tracking Transience,” Elahi documents his every move, and credit card purchase by using his cell phone, and GPS. Every move meaning: pictures of food, toilets, and a digital map of his current whereabout. In these digital mediums he almost mocks the way U.S. surveillance practices try to keep tabs on questionable “data bodies” that are (in this case) based on race.

In a similar notion, Monica Enríquez-Enríquez's uses the medium of digital video, and written text to critique U.S. state surveillance in her film, “Asilo Queer.” In the film we see a body covered in words (both English and Spanish), and we hear a narrator critique how specific U.S. state surveillance practices deal with the “data bodies” of immigrants. The narrator says, “I have been written all over in particular by the way in which I enter and I am able to stay in this country. I can no longer tell what my story is… because I’ve had to write many versions of myself…I am a compilation of selves.” The narrator also claims to have, “no language” in which she can express herself. We visually see the confusion written on her “data body,” and we physically hear the disorientation an immigrant may feel as he or she enters a country filled with “militarized civilians” who as Puar would call, “informant-citizen cum vigilant spies” may data an immigrant body into being a suspicious subject, or illegal immigrant (157). The struggle Enríquez-Enríquez displays shows the complexity of power in a country where even the citizens are of a conspicuous and bias power.

The narrative surrounding a “patriotic citizen” in the U.S. creates militarized citizens whom feel obligated to act in a voluntary need for protection of themselves and the state. This video clip from an episode of the television show, “The Office,” deploys and plays with the idea of militarized citizens. In this case we have the character Dwight bringing in an audio surveillance device, in order to be a “compliant citizen”, under his bosses wishes. Jim (and other characters), react in a similar way that Elahi did with, “aggressive compliance.” This sort of mocking is of course different than Elahi’s, however it plays with the same principles of power relationships, and explores how in a twist of who’s being surveyed may be comical. Also, note the patriotic Uncle Sam figure at the beginning.

Work Cited:

Jasbir Puar. Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007

“The Office” clip found on Spike.com