The unPatriotic Act: Sex, Body, & Nation
The unPatriotic Act addresses gender roles, sexual orientation, and cultural origins through humor and satire as she performs these conflicts onto and with her body. As a performance art piece, Cook’s work requires a single actor and does not follow the formal structure of a dramatic piece. She uses dark humor and satire to draw connections between the evils of the Bush regime and military dictatorship in Argentina (Hemispheric Institute). Furthermore, the humor and satire illustrates the evils of oppressive legislation and the arguments in support of them. Her piece directly confronts the USA Patriot Act and its proponent, the Bush Administration. The body is a central tool in her piece and acts as a channel through which Cook translates her ideas to the audience and the physical structure her government attempts to oppress. Cook uses sexual terminology in relation to her national identity in order to draw a connection between the body and the nation in which it exists. In the performance Cook says, "the same race, the same religion doesn't seem to work, but we all know that we are something that makes us the same. Come’on, we are faking our National orgasm," (18) which links the act of sex and national identity. As an a native of Argentina, Cook fits within a transnational frame as she struggles with the reconciliation of herself as a US citizen with a different origin, which is dangerous during the time her piece addresses. The idea of national unity is faked, according to Cook. The fabrication of a national identity acts as the link between us. She asserts that not even race or religion can act as the pungent adhesive to bond the nation together. The only concept uniting us is the belief that we are united. Cook’s sexual energy drives these connections as her entire piece can be seen as one sustained sexual act that peaks with a climatic orgasm. Cook breaks from her gender throughout the piece in order to make claims about homophobia, her sexuality, and gender roles. Cook says, “I want to have a very big dick, this big, and I want to shake it all over after I pee,” (6) referring to the power associated with being an influential artist and more broadly the power of being a male. Cook dissociates with the female gender in her desire to modify her body in favor of male genitalia, which emphasizes her resolve to not be controlled and the significance of sexual organs in relation to her sexuality and her performance. Homophobia and gender are central to Cook’s piece, which is why the body is significant. One of the steps of Cook’s satirical 12-step plan for democracy, which is loosely akin to the USA Patriot Act in that it is a systematic and formulaic way of monitoring the abstract concept of freedom, states, “Gays are dangerous too” (11), which associates homosexuality with terrorism. Cook uses her body to combat homophobia by divorcing from her gender and using sexual terminology to verbally, and metaphorically sexually, abuse the United States and its false sense of nationalism as she perceives it to be.
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