The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History

Transcription

Full citation:
Price, Jennifer. “A Brief Natural History of the Plastic Pink Flamingo.”
Chap. 3 in Flight Maps: Adventures With Nature In Modern America.
New York: Basic Books, 2000. (Adaptation for The American Scholar)
http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/6448
Rights:
© Jennifer Price. All rights reserved. Made available on the Environment
& Society Portal for nonprofit educational purposes only.
The Plastic Pink
Flamingo
A NaturalHistory
JENNIFER
PRICE
thebirthplace
yearsago, I visitedtheUnion Productsfactory,
of the plasticpinkflamingo.It nestlesamonga flockof plastics
on Route117 westof Bosin Leominster,
factories
Massachusetts,
ton. I have come to believe,and wouldlike to persuadeyou,thatthe
in thebasement,
wheretheystillmeltpolyethblow-molding
department
withpinkdye and extrudethe hot pinkplasticinto flaylenecrystals
molds,can be just as usefula place to searchfor the
mingo-shaped
deepestmeaningsof natureas the mostremotewildsof the Rockies,
whereI havealso looked.
instinctsand the fierce
Since then, to plumb my nature-loving
to natureharboredbymanymembersof mygeneration,
attachments
I havebeen tracingtheflamingo'shistorythroughtheannals of landsouthFlorida,middle-classinventions,Las Vegas,
scape architecture,
fiftiesstyles,sixtiesrebellions,organicgardening,JohnWatersmovies, Elvis,wildernessareas,AndyWarholprints,the CultureWars,and
marchto economic dominance.
myfellowbabyboomers' thirty-year
At some point,I began to listencarefullyto the storiespeople told
me. Mygraduate-school
adviserheard a NationalPublic Radio report
on a kidnappedpair of flamingosthatsent back postcardsfromthe
EiffelTower.Friendshad stolenthe birdsofflawnson drunkenlate"■^ JenniferPrice, a freelancewriterin Los Angeles, recentlycompleteda doctoratein
withNaturein
Maps:Adventures
historyat Yale University.This essayis adapted fromFlight
Modern
whichis being publishedthisMaybyBasic Books.
America,
73
This content downloaded from 128.97.27.21 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 06:47:14 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE
AMERICAN
SCHOLAR
editor had a famous collection.
night outings in college. A New Yorker
roommate's
had
taken
a flamingonamed Eudora
My
travelingpartner
and
backpacking, mountain-biking,
cross-country
skiing through the
White Mountains, the Arctic,and the Sierras before forgettingit one
summerin a cabin at Donner Pass.
And so, by degrees, I became cathected to the plastic bird that the
naturewriterTerryTempestWilliamshas branded "our unnaturallinkto
the naturalworld."
plastic flamingowas inventedat Union Products in 1957 by a
young designernamed Don Featherstone,but its provenance- the
- can be traced back manycenturies.
prehistoryof lawn ornamentation
I'll begin in mid-eighteenth-century
England. At thattime,a revolutionschool
of
architects
created a "natural"lawn aesary English
landscape
theticthatwould rivalthe "artificial"
seventeenth-century
gardensof Versailles as a paradigm and cast a great shadow forwardonto American
landscapes, Americanlawns,and the do's and don't'sof Americanyard
art.Led bythe greatlandscape architectLancelot "Capability"Brown,the
new designersturned the estates of English aristocratsinto rolling expanses of meadows,trees,lakes,and streams.AtVersailles,the royalarchitectshad lined the perfectparterreswithquantitiesof dragons, satyrs,
swans,wolves,nymphs,and Greek gods. But as Brown and his minions
- a near-completefeat
blottedout geometryfromthe Englishcountryside
by the mid-1800s theygave lawn ornamentsa tenuous welcome. Their
bastions of nature featuredrustichermitagesand a modest handfulof
stagand dog statues.Theymuch preferredto deployreal animals,such as
sheep, cattle,and- bestof all- nativedeer.
And yet,to turnan estateinto naturerequired greatefforts
of human
intervention.The architectsbuilthills and dug lakes. They planted trees
by the tensof thousands,chopped down grovesfulof others,added dead
trees back in for effect,and cropped vast acreages of new grass. They
made riversbend. They made sunlight dapple. In some cases, they
evictedlongtimetenantfarmersand razed theirvillages.They set out, as
Brown's famous protégé Humphrey Repton enthusiasticallyput it, to
"conceal everyinterferenceof art,howeverexpensive."It is trickyto say
whetherthe "nature" theyleftbehind contained less artificethan the
perfectavenues and precisiontopiaryofVersailles,or whetherit required
less human labor and capital to maintain. The architectscreated not
nature itself,but an idea, a definition
of nature as a place thatis free of
humansand human artifice.
A seedbed of urbanization,industrialization,
and modernmarketcapiand
talism,eighteenthearly-nineteenth-century
England also saw the
privatizationand enclosure of once-common agriculturallands. Many
people began to definenatureas a realm thatwas as yetuntransformed
74
ThePlastic
PinkFlamingo
not the partsof the naturalworldthathumansuse or change,but the
partsthattheydo notuse. Naturewas not urbanand had no industrial
It wasa refugefrom
factories.
It wasa place withouteconomicactivities.
social upheaval.As a Place Out There,it was fastcomingto represent
thatlifein early-modern
everything
Englandwasnot.Aboveall,peoplein
thethroesofbecomingmodernappealed to natureas a timelesssource
In the late 1700sand early1800s,Hume and Burkeproof authority.
"natural"
theoriesof moral philosophyand politics.Adam
pounded
setoflaws.
Smithdescribedthenewmarket-based
economyas a "natural"
"natural"
aesthetic.
a
Wordsworth
Gainsborough
soughtaesthetic
painted
in nature.Evenetiquettemanualslaudedthevalueof
and spiritual
truths
in mannersand posture.And Capability
Brownmade the
"naturalness"
walk
in.
an
idea
could
around
you
landscape
In fact,whatcouldclaimtheauthority
ofnaturemoreeffectively
than
of a vastexpanseof it?Onlywealthy
squirescould enjoythe
ownership
- landedaristocrats
ofthisdefinition
whocould takeprimeagribenefits
whocould purculturalacreageout ofproductionand urbanmerchants
chase countryretreats.The urban poor and workingclassescouldn't
to
afford
to traveloutofthecities.Andruralpeasantscouldhardlyafford
treatthelandscapeas a non-farming-or-hunting
zone.A Brown-designed
of socialpoweras Versailles,
estatemade as definitea statement
onlyit
did itbydeclaringthatwealthand statuswerenaturalOf course,no one
in England,duringthatera ofexplosiveeconomicgrowth,
wasusingand
the
elites.
And
much
of thefuture
nature
more
than
wealthy
changing
of thisidea wouldunfoldas a battleamong the more monied
history
ofnature,
socialclassesoverexactly
whowouldgetto claimtheauthority
and forwhatpurposes.
in
wasstilltwocenturiesaway.Meanwhile,
plasticpinkflamingo
thelate 1700s,Frenchlandowners
werehiringEnglisharchitects
to
AmericonverttheirexquisitegardensintoNature.AcrosstheAtlantic,
can landowners
such as ThomasJefferson
tookto the Englishaesthetic
likebirdsto thesky.Americans,
afterall,havealwaysembraceda visionof
and as a sourceof social and political
natureboth as countermodern
from
authority
Jefferson's
pastoralideal,whichwed ruralrootsto reas an
and
to Thoreau'sfaithin wilderness
publicanindependence virtue,
antidoteto overcivilization.
FromthePuritans'"cityon a hill"to myths
of
theAmerican
Westto theremarkably
literalMountRushmore,
Americans
havemade naturemeaningful
as a powerfulsourceof authority
fornationalidentity.
The EnglishschoolfounditsgreatAmericanapostlein Andrew
Jackson Downing,a nurseryman
in upstateNewYork.In the 1840s,he made
meadowsroll,streamsmeander,and treesclumpirregularly
on country
estatesthroughout
theHudsonValley,
wheretheHudsonRiverschoolof
75
THE
AMERICAN
SCHOLAR
landscape painters committed similar visions to canvas. And he ap"Vases,""rustic
proached the quest* η of lawn ornamentscircumspectly.
harmonious
accessories":
and
"other
baskets,"
Downing deployed these
he
A
farther
the
manor.
bit
away,
planted "rockwork"and
only near
wooden "moss houses." However,on the fartherreaches of one's lands,
human artificehad to vanish entirely.A vase way out there,he admonished, "[does] violence to our reason or taste."At his own residence in
groundsstaffto use "inNewburgh,Downinginstructedhis all-too-visible
visiblehands" to mowthe lawnsat night.
His real passion, however,was to downsize the English principlesfor
smallerestates.In the democraticUnited States,a growingmiddle class
owned property,too, and Downingwas froma middle-classbackground
himself.How should Americanswithless land- he recommendedat least
- "rendertheirplaces
acres but consentedto workwithten or twenty
fifty
he
tastefuland agreeable?""We answer," said, "fry
onlythesimple
attempting
and natural;and the unfailingway to secure this, is by employingas
leading featuresonly trees and grass."Downing preached restraintand
naturalnessabove all else. He generallyreferredto them as "taste.""An
humblecottagewithsculpturedvases,"forexample,"wouldbe in bad taste."
What is "taste"?You can have taste in clothes, wine, furniture,art,
decor- almostanythingyou purchase.The concept emergedwitha vengeance in the early1800s,as spreadingwealthand new mass-production
technologiesequipped the growingnumbersof urban middle-classconsumerswiththe resourcesand tools to decorate and accessorize. Taste,
you could say,is a styleof consumerism.It is also a statementof identity
became
in
that
American
and it's exactly this era
inextricably
identity
connected withconsumerism.Taste was, to some degree, an upper-class
injunctionof restraintthatcautioned the new consumersnot to presume
to be trulywealthy.And yet the middle classes rapidlymade taste their
own and counterdeployedit to reject the showyexcesses of the rich. If
you advertisedthat,unlike the workingclasses,
you consumed tastefully,
- but thatyou exercised the
to buy things
resources
had
abundant
you
middle-classAmericanvirtue,and the admirable market-economy
ethic,
of self-control.
But is good tastesupposed to be a middle-classstyleof consumerism?
No, itjust is: a universally
superiorsensibility(or so goes the assumption)
to
thatwould logicallyturnto nature,thatbedrock of Americanidentity,
one's
to
And
what
better
place prove
legitimizeitsaestheticof simplicity.
good tastethan on the bit of nature thatwas closestat hand- one's own
frontlawn?
The yard-artwars escalated exactlyas fastas the suburbsspread outward.Afterthe CivilWar,Downing'sstudentFrederickLaw Olmsted- the
legendaryarchitectof NewYork'sCentralParkwho fiercelypromulgated
- retrofitted
Downing'sprinparksand lawnsas refugesfromurban stress
76
The PlasticPinkFlamingo
ciples to the scale of the largishlawn.He convertedNatureinto the
rolling,tree-dotted,
upper-middle-class
neighborhood.In the 1880s,
FrankJesupScott,yetanotherDowningstudent,adaptedtheguidelines
formedium-sized
lawns.In hisdo-it-yourself
manual,TheArtofBeautifying
HomeGrounds
Small
he
advised
callow
landownersto "avoid
Extent,
of
.
.
.
lawn
with
or
marble
spotting
your
plaster
imagesofanykind,or those
caricatures."
His rulesleftspace forgrass,a treeor two,and a
lilliputian
fewflowers
close to thedoor.This remainsthearchetypal
visionforthe
middle-class
suburbanfrontlawn.
The homeowners,
were gettingrestless.In the 1920s they
however,
animals.In the 1930sdo-it-yourselfers
made deer,
boughtcast-aluminum
and frogsoutofcement,theDepressionmaterialofchoice.Each
rabbits,
newdecade broughtmoresuburbs,morelawns,and cheapermass-producedornaments.
The down-classing
oflawnartwaswellunderway.
trendsculminated(or bottomedout) afterWorldWarII in the
dual explosionsof suburbsand plastics.In the 1950s developers
plowedan averageof threethousandacres of new suburbseach day.
and some working-class
Americansearned
Many lower-middle-class
houses:
to
ranches,split-levels,
enough buysingle-family
Cape Cods,TuColonial
revivals.
It
was
the
era
of
of
dors,
upwardmobility, undreamed-of
newlevelsofconsumerism,
and ofthebabyboom,whenmyownparents
movedintoa tinyhousejust outsidethe St. Louis citylimits,and four
childrenand fiveyearslater- in 1960,theyearI wasborn- tradedup to
a spaciousFrenchcolonialfarther
out.
The plasticsindustries,
setout to
energizedbywartimetechnologies,
accessorizethe split-levels
insideand out. Nylon,rayon,vinyl,polyester,
The companiescouldmakealmost
Lucite,Plexiglas,
Saran,polyethylene.
anything
cheaplywiththenewpetroleum-based
plastics,and did: radios,
Barbie
hula
"walnut"
dolls,
polyester
pants,
hoops,
paneling,"leather"car
interiors,
vinylwallpaper,
Tupperware,
Naugahydeloungechairs."Better
for
Better
a DuPont sloganwent.
Things
LivingThroughChemistry,"
After1946,Union Productsmanufactured
"PlasticsfortheLawn":dogs,
and
a
two-dimensional
thatsoldwell.
ducks,
frogs,
flamingo
In 1956 the companyhired Don Featherstone,
a recentart-school
- a threewho
for
the
sake
of
on
his
first
graduate,
accuracy
project
dimensionalmolded-polyethylene
birdnamedCharliethe Duck- spent
six monthssketching
a live model in his studio.In 1957 Featherstone
a
three-dimensional
whichsold evenbetterthanthe
designed
flamingo,
flatversion.UnionProductsretaileditswaresat Sears,Woolworth's,
and
Ben Franklin's.
"Flamingopink,"said the1957Searscatalogue."Placein
to
In thedecades
lawn,
garden,
beautify
landscape.""Lifelike."
"Lovely."
ahead, the flamingowould onlyrarelyoutsellthe duck- but it would
becomefarmorefamous.
77
THE
AMERICAN
SCHOLAR
subdivisions.
Middle-class
The birdtookup residencein working-class
Good
taste
literature
flourished:
it
a
wide
berth.
A
fifties
suburbanites
gave
TasteCostsNo More;How GoodIs YourTaste?And on medium-sizedlawns,
- and a lawnthatadvertised
Nature
leisure,refuge,and economicindeban on
"grass,trees,a fewflowers"
pendence mandatedthenear-total
all
and
barbecue
were
artifice.
sets,
consignedto the
pits
gardens,
Swing
An
absence
human
life
remains
a
of
signaturefeatureof the
backyard.
Of
a
suburbanfrontlawn. course, second aspectof these
middle-class
ofmoneyand labor,and a vastherbicide
lawnsis thatgreatinvestments
Brownmasterto
maintain
them.Likea Capability
are
industry, required
hides
much
of
theabundant
zone
of
nature
this
no-artifice
actively
piece,
usestocreateit.
thatthehomeowner
humanartifice
On a smalllawn,you'dhavetoscaledownto grassand perhapsa tulip
A
or two.Andyouhad preciouslittlespacein whichto exerciserestraint.
But
an
but
tasteful."
in
a
house
stated
front
of
lawn
"affluent,
large
plain
and
unadornedswatchin frontof a verysmallhouse said "inexpensive,
more."Belowa certainlevelofwealth,tasteceasestooperate.
can'tafford
favoredmoreconspicuousstrategies
consumersgenerally
Working-class
American
Dream. They emphasized,
to landscapetheirpieces of the
ratherthan underplayed,theirhuman presence.They found ample
frogs,lightManyplantedtheirlawnswithsquirrels,
space forartifice.
theplastic
In Catholicneighborhoods,
and
houses,windmills, flamingos.
creaturesbecamea logicalextensionof the religiousfiguresthatimmigrantsin the citieshad placed on theirporchesand in theirwindow
Catholicsmoved to
boxes (thoughas second-and third-generation
would
enclavesfarther
middle-class
out,many
rejecttheirparents'lawn
.
or at leastmovetheirownto thebackyard)
withembarrassment,
displays
at only$2.76a pair.
Searsdida briskbusinessin pinkflamingos,
the pinkflamingosplashedinto the fifties
market,it staked
Since the
two majorclaimsto boldness.First,it was a flamingo.
toFloridaand returning
had been flocking
Americans
1930s,vacationing
In the 1910sand 1920s,MiamiBeach's
home withflamingosouvenirs.
with
firstgrandhotel,the Flamingo,had made the bird synonymous
wealthand pizzazz.Aftera 1926 hurricaneleveledMillionaire'sRow,
developersbuilthundredsof moremodesthotelsto caterto an eager
middleclassservedbynewtrainlines- and in SouthBeach,especially,
ArtDeco style,repletewithbrightpinks
architects
employedtheplayful
motifs.
and flamingo
This was a littleironic,since Americanshad huntedflamingosto
in Floridain the late 1800s,forplumesand meat.But no
extinction
tourists
tateswoulddrawworking-class
In the1950s,thenewinters
matter.
inscribed
the Union Productsflamingo
down,too. Back in NewJersey,
withFlorida'scachetofleisureand extravagance.
one'slawnemphatically
78
The birdacquiredan extrafillipofboldness,too,fromthedirectionof
Las Vegas- theflamboyant
oasisof instantrichesthatthegangsterBenhad
jamin "Bugsy"Siegel
conjuredfromthe desertin 1946 withhis
FlamingoHotel.Anyonewho has seen Las Vegasknowsthata flamingo
standsout in a desertevenmorestrikingly
thanon a lawn.In the 1950s,
namesakeFlamingomotels,restaurants,
and loungescroppedup across
thecountry
likea lineofsemioticsprouts.
- a second and commensurate
And the flamingowas pink
claim to
boldness.The plasticsindustries
ofthefifties
favoredflashy
colors,which
TomWolfecalled"thenewelectrochemical
of
the
Florida
littoral:
pastels
tangerine,broilingmagenta,lividpink,incarnadine,fuchsiademure,
ratherthan
Congo ruby,methyl
green."The hueswereforward-looking
for
a
in
raised
the
old-fashioned,
just right
generation,
Depression,that
was readyto celebrateitsnewaffluence.
And as KaralAnn Marlinghas
the"sassypinks"were"thehottestcolorofthedecade."Washing
written,
in passionpink,sunset
machines,cars,and kitchencountersproliferated
and
In
Bermuda
after
he
pink,
pink. 1956,right
signedhisfirst
recording
ElvisPresley
contract,
boughta pinkCadillac.
- as iftheycouldbe blue
Why,afterall,call thebirds"pinkflamingos"
or green?The plasticflamingo
is a hotterpinkthana realflamingo,
and
evena realflamingois brighter
thananything
else aroundit.Thereare
fivespecies,all ofwhichfeedin flockson algaeand invertebrates
in saline
and alkalinelakesin mostly
warmhabitatsaroundtheworld.The people
whohavelivedneartheseplaceshavealwayssingledout theflamingo
as
Christians
associated
it withthe red phoenix.In ancient
special.Early
the sun god Ra. In Mexicoand the Caribbean,it
Egypt,it symbolized
remainsa majormotifin art,dance,and literature.
No wonderthatthe
stood
out
so
when
Americans
in temperate
subtropicalspecies
loudly
NewEnglandreproducedit,brightened
it,and sentitwadingacrossan
inlandsea ofgrass.
was bound to get noticed.Flamingosand lawnart ran afoulvery
ofculture.Artcriticslaunchedthemostdirect
quicklyof thearbiters
In Kitsch:
attacks.
TheWorld
GilloDorflessingledoutthenew
ofBad Taste,
creatures
as
the
lawn-and-garden
"archetypal
image"ofbad taste.Dorfles
tookhis cue fromClementGreenberg's1939 diatribeagainstkitschas
"thedebased. . . simulacraof genuineCulture."Kitsch,Greenberghad
warned,"[drew]itslifeblood" fromreal Culture,and Dorflesagreed:
"vampirekitsch"had evolvedinto "one of the crucialproblemsin the
ofart."
history
Americancriticshad been assailingthemass-produced
artsformany
decades.Butin the1950s,theevilsweremultiplying
as fastas plastics,
and
intellectuals
"Mass
culture,"
postwar
respondedaggressively.
Dwight
Macdonaldchargedin 1953,"is ... a cancerousgrowthon High Cul79
THE
AMERICAN
SCHOLAR
ture.""The epitomeof all thatis spuriousin the life of our times,"
had warned.Dorflesagreed:it"killedall ability
to distinguish
Greenberg
betweenartand life."
in the1950s,itemergedwithfullforcein dialogueson AmeriReality:
can society.Andjust as tastewas fortified
by the idea of natureand a
countermodern
sensibility,
Realityoftenexpresseda setofrisingworries
aboutthemodernmediationofexperienceand aboutreplication.
Many
Americansdefinedwhatever
seemedenduring,unique,and absoluteas
real. ř/n-Reality,
was humanartificerun amok.Whatmore
by contrast,
to
to
logicalauthority appeal thannature?And plasticlawncreatures
whether
madonnas,or UnionProducts'newlinesofmiceand
flamingos,
oftheinauthentic.
ladybugs emergedas theepitomization
Mass tourismcame under attack,too, as the dire proliferation
of
ersatzexperience.South Floridaand Las Vegas- whereworking-class
Americans
at cheap Frenchprovincial
motels
presumedto extravagance
withVersailles-like
parterregardens meritedspecial attention(from
TomWolfe,amongothers)as centersfortastelessness
and blackholesof
the ungenuine.In the geographyof un-Reality,
the suburbsattracted
theirown set of critics.In the 1956 sociologicalstudyTheOrganization
thesuburbsas a cultureless
voidthat
Man,WilliamWhytecharacterized
the
individualism
that
so
Americans
had
moved
there
negated very
many
to pursue.Suburbsweremasshousingforthe massconsumers.
As the
1963songwent,"Littleboxesmade of ticky-tacky
. . . littleboxes,all the
same."
Nothingsymbolizedthe suburbsmore visiblythan the regulation
set of reality
lawn,whichalso came underattackfroma verydifferent
In
advocates. the 1960s,the natural-lawn
and organic-gardening
movementsrejectedthelawnas an alienplantingofnon-native
specieswhose
survival
led byChemLawnand Techniturf.
The
dependedon an industry
eco-advocates
calledthelawnnotjust a bastionof toxicity,
butalso "lifeIn otherwords,naturalless [and] artificial."
The lawnwas anti-nature.
lawn advocatesand ChemLawnclientsadhered to the same countermoderndefinition
ofnatureas anti-artifice.
Buttheanti-lawn
camppitted
canonsoftaste.The
thegainingembraceofreality
the
traditional
against
eco-advocates
fromnative
promotedmore naturalplantingstrategies,
on mowingto wildflower
grassesand a moratorium
gardens,wetlands,
and
The
conflictsgrew
vegetablegardens,
burn-your-own
prairies.
in Wisheated."Areyouor haveyoueverbeen,"a prosecuting
attorney
consinaskedone suburbanite
whosegrasshad exceededthelegaltwelveinch limitin the Sun ShadowsWestsubdivision,
"a memberof anyof
in preserving
all typesofplants?"
thosegroupsinterested
thesebattalionsof postwarcriticshad all raised
By the mid-sixties,
director indirect
GilloDorfles,TomWolfe,
objectionsto lawnflamingos.
and thehome-prairie
advocatesweren'texactlybowlingbuddies.Butby
80
theUnion Productsflamingos
fromits
1970,evenSearshad withdrawn
and
them
with
waterfalls
whose
"uneven
catalogue
replaced
fiberglass
. . . resembles
thenatural,ruggedbeautyofauthentic
slate."
layering
massconformity,
falseexperience.ThesewerefastemergArtificiality,
as
the
of
the
1960s
counterculture
as well. The baby
ing
targets
boomersin theexpandedmiddleclasshad grownup in thesuburbs,and
as we came ofage,we famously
rejectedthepinkwashingmachinesand
trimmed
lawns.
We
made
"Getreal"one of our mostmemorable
green
we
criticized
a
wide
slogans;
range of social, economic,and political
policiesas "unreal";and we appealed,withtheweightof historical
logic
behindus, to natureas the counterforce.
In fact,we used the terms
and "nature"almostinterchangeably,
and made natureless a
"reality"
and
more
a
supporting
authority,
reigningideal,thanit had everbeen.
Somebabyboomersjoined back-to-the-land
movements.
Manyofus went
and
But
whether
or
not
we
ever
donned a fivecamping
backpacking.
of
boots
and
went
to
nature,manyofus drew
poundpair hiking
actually
on Natureas a metaphor.The Revolution,as RobertGottliebhas re"an EarthHappening."TheGreening
marked,was definitely
ofAmerica,
Charles Reich's best-selling
manifesto,
generational
championedthe
counterculture's
missionto replace"thefalseculturethatgoeswithfalse
consciousness"
witha new"culturethatrejectsthesubstitution
phenomenon . . . whereinartificiality
the
natural."
replaces
Alongsidethe postwarcritics,the babyboomersarmed themselves
withRealityand Nature,and convergedon theersatz.And in thefifties,
all thehostileforcespouncedon one target,
sixties,and earlyseventies,
aboveall others,
withunanimousand utmostscorn:PLASTIC.Itsproductionand use continuedto soar.But plasticcrashedfroma metaphoric
peak,as theexemplarof"Better
ThingsforBetterLivingThroughChemto thecancerat thecore ofAmerica'ssoul.AsJoanDidion putit,
istry,"
America's"mostpublicizedself-doubts
[were]Vietnam,SaranWrap,diet
the
Bomb."
wrote
pills,[and]
GarySnyder
poemsagainst"plasticspoons,
excoplywoodveneer,PVC pipe,vinylseatcovers."A NewLeftmanifesto
riatedthe "whitehonkieculture. . . handed to us on a plasticplatter."
And in 1968,whenan affluent
whitehonkiesuburbaniteput his arm
aroundDustinHoffman
in TheGraduate
and said,"Ijust wantto sayone
wordto you.Justone word. . . plastics,"
theline capturedperfectly
the
disaffections
of an entiregenerationof middle-class
babyboomers.And
whatcouldbe moreplasticin 1968thana hotpinkplasticflamingo(for
$3.69a pair) thatstuckoutlikea UFO on a limegreensuburbanlawnin
Iowaor NewJersey?
- the
did it become theverydefinition
of anti-nature
When,exactly,
theneplusultraoflawnart?It is hardto say.
gewgawto end all gewgaws,
Butby1972,whenJohnWaters's
moviePinkFlamingos
openedwitha shot
8i
THE
AMERICAN
SCHOLAR
of the eponymousbirdsoutsidethe trailerof a three-hundred-pound
womanplayedbythetransvestite
actorDivine- whoviessuccessfully
for
thenationaltitleof "filthiest
alive"
feces
and
murperson
byeatingdog
- it clearly
in frontof tabloidand TV reporters
deringher competitors
had happened.
that'swhenpeople beganto laugh.Divinewearsgarishmakeup
and printhousedresses.
She drivesa '58 Cadillac,urinateson suburban lawns,and has an incestuousrelationship
withherson,whohimself
is fondof dead chickens.Watersadvertised
themovieas an "exercisein
The undergroundpress
poor taste"and "likedthe understatement."
lovedPinkFlamingos
and crownedWatersthe Princeof Puke. "It'slike
a standingovation,"
Watersexplained,"ifsomeonevomitswatchgetting
one
of
films."
He
too: Variety
calledit"one of
ing
my
enjoyedthereviews,
themostvile,stupidand repulsive
filmsevermade."
Watershad grownup in an upper-middle-class
suburb.Andwhatmore
and
for
the
rebel
boomers
to rejecttheir
enjoyable
satisfying
way
baby
values
than
to
in
assault
the
middle-class
faith
taste
and touse a
parents'
blatantsymbolof artifice?
Waters's
cohort
itself
defined
American
Still,
of artificewhichconvertedthe flasocietyas plastic:his exaggeration
for
into
a
tool
rebellion
and
mingo
gaveita second,ironiclife- presupwhichshowcasedcanniposed thecritique.In hismovieDesperate
Living,
a
sex
and
female
the
balism,
change,
wrestling, heroineyells,"ALL
NATURALFORESTS SHOULD BE TURNED INTO HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS! I WANTCEMENT COVERINGEVERYBLADE OF GRASS
IN THE NATION!"To "understand
bad taste,"Watershas written,
"one
has tohaveverygood taste."
Led byAndyWarhol,pop artists,
too,brazenlysoughtout thecheap,
thefake,themass-produced,
theplastic.Warhol'sgridsofidenticalMona
Lisasand Campbell'ssoup cans deliberately
tappedthedeepestfearsof
"I am forartyou can pickyournose with,"Claes
the standard-bearers.
"forthe majesticart of dogOldenburgproclaimedin his manifesto,
"forKool-art,
7-UPart... Ex-laxart... Meat-o-rama
art."Justas
turds,"
Waterstransgressed
the
artists
mocked
nature
to
the
taste, pop
transgress
established
boundariesof bothtasteand art.And likeWaters,they,too,
commentedon massculturein termsthatat once celebratedand critiquedit.As Oldenburgwrote,"I am foran artthatembroilsitselfwith
theeveryday
crap& stillcomesouton top."
Gay men, too, adopted the plasticflamingoin the sixties.Waters
in the camp sensibility,
in whichtransvestism
plantedhis moviesfirmly
and dragqueens have long playedan especiallyconspicuouspart.Gay
men wagedarguablythe mostcreativecelebrationof the extremesof
- and the mosttransgressive,
artifice
since forwhatmainstream
social
standardhaveAmericansappealed to the absoluteauthority
of nature
82
morevehemently
thanforheterosexuality?
Versaillesemergedas a camp
Eden. Drag queens donned pink and plastic.And the pink flamingo
arsenalof thegayand
settledin to enjoya secureberthin thesymbolic
subcultures.
camp
the early1970s,Union Productsissueda pig in a three-piece
suit.
It marketeda "flamingodeluxe," too withmore natural,yellow
fans,
legs- butit didn'tsell.Whowouldpreferit?Not theworking-class
or thetasteful
or
the
middle-class
boomer
homeowners, (especially) baby
fans.By the late seventies,
began to disappearinto the
pinkflamingos
hands of thievesundercoverof night.Havingbecome an established
- as a markerof the transgression
of the
symbolof the insurrectionary
- thebirdbecamea usefulthingto have
unmovableboundaryofnature
around more generallyto markanythingrebellious,outrageous,or
subverItbecamean effective
oxymoronic.
wayto posta sign:"Something
sive happeninghere."Whatdid pink flamingoshave to do withreal
Not much. But in the 1970s,we began to use themas a
flamingos?
boundariesof
ubiquitoussignpostforcrossingthevarious,overlapping
and nature.
class,taste,propriety,
art,sexuality,
And thentheuses and meaningsof thepinkflamingobecamereally
complex.In 1984,MiamiVicesplasheda glitzyvisionof southFlorida
acrossAmericanTV screens.Plasticflamingosalesboomed.In 1986,for
the firsttime,Union Productssold more flamingosthan Charliethe
Ducks.Soon you could orderthemthrougha RollingStonead, or from
theflamingo
storeCat'sPyjamas,
wherea box of twobirdscost
specialty
$9.95,twodollarsmorethanthesamepairat Kmart.
The 1980shad arrived.
As thesixtiesrebelsmovedintotheeconomic
new
the
mainstream,
thirty-something
yuppiesstilllikedto thinkofthemselvesas social criticsand culturalrebels.The early-sixties
PortHuron
manifesto
fortheNewLefthad begun,"Weare peopleofthisgeneration,
bredin at leastmodestcomfort
. . . lookinguncomfortably
to theworld
we inherit."In the Reaganeighties,we began uncomfortably
to inherit
theworldin immodestcomfort.
The crossingofboundariesremaineda
of
but
it
was
now
safer,and veryoftena matterof style.
badge identity,
The flamingos
at poolsidesand on condo porcheswerelikebluejeans in
- or theDonJohnson
boardrooms
andJeepsin UpperWestSide garages
in MiamiVice,of a whiteArmanisuitwitha two-day
beard
combination,
and no socks.As the Cat's Pyjamascatalogueadvertised,
above
a
just
for
a
doormat:
"On
find
listing
vinyl
just
pink-flamingo
everypage,you'll
whatyouneed to ruinyourneighborhood."
In the 1980s,Americanstraveledwiththebirdsacrossthebordersof
statesand nations.We gave flamingosas birthday,
and
housewarming,
showed
as
we
substiand
decorations,
movingpresents.
They
up wedding
tutedthemforreindeerin Christmas
lawntableaux.In sum,once the
83
THE
AMERICAN
SCHOLAR
in the
becamea babyboomersignpostforboundaryviolations
flamingo
sixties,and earlyseventies,
eighties afterhavingevolved,in thefifties,
- we logically
intothemetonymy
ofartifice
and anti-nature
beganto use
markerfor
coast
to
as
a
in
rash
of
an
unorchestrated
coast,
it,
gestures
crossinginto new places,times,eras,stagesof life,and even the most
At thesametime,thetrulytransgressacrosanctreachesofnatureitself.
sive crossingshad become less dangerous.Thieves,forexample,still
- but theownersnowmetransomdemands
snatchedthebirdsat night
withplaymoneyand pinkchampagne.In theearlyseventies,
bycontrast,
such theftshad shared the same reception,and the same nocturnal
missionsto repaintblacklawnjockeyswithAfrican
defiance,as theleftist
colors.
liberation
The boundariesof art,too,had becomesaferto cross.In the 1980s,
art galleriesfeaturedkitschexhibits.In 1983,Christowrappedeleven
islandsoffthe coast of Miamiwithbands of hot pink polypropylene
fromhigh
transgression
plastic.The projectwasat once a self-conscious
- which,like Warhol'ssoup cans, maintainedthe
art to mass culture
- and a convincingproofof the
on them
boundariesby commenting
about
italso madea statement
erosionofthesesameborders.Inevitably,
of
in modernAmericansociety.The pinkflamingo,
natureand artifice
forless thanten dollarsand
course,made exactlythe same statement
issueda
a fleetofboats.In 1987,thegovernorof Massachusetts
without
to
an
essential
contribution
proclamationthatthe pink flamingowas
American
folkart.
had graduatedtoArtnotso muchbecauseof
Still,thepinkflamingo
itsaestheticmeritsbutbecauseofthebabyboomers'ascendance.In the
itsfirmplace in theadultboomers'identity
consolidated
artifice
eighties,
the
at
least
two
routes.
First,
beganto waxnostalgic
thirty-somethings
by
called up a collective
about the 1950s.The pink flamingoeffectively
fakeness
ofthe
and exuberant
childhoodpast- theinnocence,optimism,
in thefifties
manufactured
eraofpassionpinkkitchens.
began
Flamingos
- eventhoughthese
in antiquestores
to appearwithArtDeco bric-a-brac
thesamemold
fromessentially
birdshad been manufactured
fifty-dollar
childrenhad been sixtiesrebels,too.
as theones at Kmart.Butthefifties
to rebelagainsttaste,butalso to
ofartifice
We'd embracedtheextremes
ofAmericansocietycould be funto playin. In
showthattheun-Reality
the 1980s,manymiddle-class
babyboomerswouldexude a cool, ironic,
and
stancetowardTV, lawnornaments,
half-affectionate,
half-mocking
the
the restof whatDwightMacdonaldhad once labeled
"spreading
ooze." Some of us worriedand wrungour hands about mass culture.
Someofus enjoyedit.Manyofus didboth.
a visionofnatureas a Place
as we fortified
or conveniently,
Ironically,
of
economic
uses
nature,wewereconsolidating
Apartthaterasespeople's
Andtheretaillandscapewaschangingfastto tapinto
ourownaffluence.
84
PinkFlamingo
ThePlastic
yuppie desires.ForeverFlamingo,Do Wah Diddy,and SarsaparillaDeco
Designs catered to the nostalgicembrace of the fifties.A second set of
companies, which included Cat's Pyjamas, Poor Taste, and Archie
McPhee's Toy Store and Espresso Tiki Hut, marketedWaters-style
irony.
All these storesprominentlyfeaturedpink flamingos.On the other side
of the divide,The Nature Company,NaturalWonders,and The Natural
zones. The St. Louis Zoo giftshop did
Selection were strictanti-artifice
sell a polyesterflamingonamed Laverne and a music box, withtwo revolvingflamingos,thatplayed "The WayWe Were." But here, as at other
naturestores,the standardplasticflamingowas avis nongrata.
By the late 1980s,the flamingohad acquired a greatmeasure of legitimacy.Other lawn ornamentscame and went- GrannyFannies and fuzzy
lawn sheep in 1987-88, a lawn-micerevivalin 1989-90. In 1987, flamingo
- a fewin new clubs such as the InternationalSocietyfor
fansnationally
the Preservationof Pink Lawn Flamingos- celebratedthe bird's thirtieth
birthday.In reaction,JohnWatersgave awayeveryflamingohe owned. At
Union Products,Don Featherstonewas promoted to vice president.He
signed withan agent and moved into a large home in Fitchburgwithhis
wife,their poodle Bourgeois, and a large flamingocollection. And in
1987, Featherstonemade the firstmajor alterationto his original mold:
he inscribedhis autograph on the bird's flank,to distinguishhis design
from copies marketedby two other companies. "We're trying,"he explained, "to protectitsimage as the original."From thatpoint on, Kmart
shoppers could check to be sure thattheywere purchasingthe real and
and artificiality.
legitimatesymbolof inauthenticity
so the fiftieschildren entered the 1990s- a decade in which
we've been obsessed with boundaries, and in which the Internet
challenges even the borders of time and space. The culturewars raged
fiercelyin the universities,where baby boomers elevated Africanfolk
tales,yard art,and Pearl Jam to the same level of culturallegitimacyas
Shakespeare, Rodin, and Beethoven. As multiculturalismbecame a
watchword,affluentwhiteAmericansrifledculturaltraditionsworldwide,
in a sort of global rummagesale, forfood, clothes,music,and religion.
Sexual bordersbecame roiled in theirown set of battlesin the arts,the
courts,the universities,and the military.In 1997, the comedian Ellen
DeGeneres's comingout drewas much media scrutinyas a smallwar.
It's not surprisingthatpinkflamingosflewoffthe shelvesin the 1990s,
even as concrete "fashiongeese" reigned as the new rage in ornaments
that people actually put on their lawns. We continued to travelwith
- you don't do thatwithCharlie the Duck or a concretegoose
flamingos
wearinga dress- and a pair showed up at Cape Canaveralbeforea rocket
launch. We use the birds, in old ways and new, to mark the whizzing
trafficacross borders- intact,blurred,safe, dangerous, social, cultural,
85
THE
AMERICAN
SCHOLAR
national,aesthetic,spatial,temporal,sexual,planetary.Camperspost
outsidetheirtentsat nationalforestcampsites.
You can now
flamingos
hirethe companyFlamingoSurpriseto plantforty-odd
on a
flamingos
A flurry
friend'slawnthe nightbeforehis birthday.
of crimenovels
- send outsider heroes
Flamingo,NeonFlamingo,A MorningforFlamingos
And myownfast-growing
intoa seedySouthernunderworld.
collection
It didn'thappen entirelyon purpose,mostof it having
of flamingos?
been bestowedon me byfriendsand relatives,
withthe exceptionof a
Still,I'm a baby
specialpair autographedforme byDon Featherstone.
boomer,raisedin an affluent
suburb,and at once a onetimescholarand
a "natureperson."So perhapsthebirdsmarkmyforays
intoa topicthat
- tame
doesn'tseem,on the surface,to be eitherscholarlyor natural
bordertraffic,
really,comparedwiththe "pinkflamingorelay"at the
1994GayGamesin NewYorkthatfeatureda combination
swimraceand
costumepageant.
In the nineties,the affluent
babyboomersenteredtheirfortiesand
fifties
toachievenewheightsofstatusand power;theflamingo
sweptinto
itsmiddle-aged
of
and
reward.
The
Annals
Reyears glory
ofImprobable
search
awardedDon Featherstone
the1996Ig NobelPrizeinArt.In 1997,
a new Internetsite on pink flamingosnamed On StagnantPond- a
- swiftly
of anti-Nature
counter-Walden
garnereda raftof awards.In the
artscene,lawnornaments
movedfromartgalleriesintomuseums.The
PhilbrookMuseumofArtin Tulsa,housedin an ItalianateRenaissancestylevilla,posteda plasticflamingoin a pot outsidea 1996 exhibiton
MarilynMonroe and Elvis. As baby boomer nostalgia has turned
- thelastfiveyearshaveseen Pez conventions,
hundredthhagiographie
celebrations
ofJell-O,and a newNationalPlasticsCenterand
anniversary
- thepinkflamingo
Museumin Leominster
has reignedinevitably
as patronsaint.It's a featuredentryin the 1990Encyclopedia
Bad
Taste
and
of
the 1991 WholePop Catalog
In 1996,Don Featherstone
boughtand became presidentof Union
Products.In 1997, the bird's fortiethbirthdayengenderednational
traveledto flamingosigningsaroundthe counhoopla as Featherstone
The
coincided
withthetwenty-fifth
ofPinkFlatry. birthday
anniversary
and FineLine rereleasedthemovienationally,
withextrafootage
mingos,
thatincludedWaters'sjustification
for killinga chicken:"Well,I eat
chickenand I knowthe chickendidn'tland on myplatefroma heart
attack.I thinkwe made thechicken'slifebetter.It gotto be in a movie."
Waters'ssteadfast
Peopleinterviewed
parents:"We'reveryproudofJohn,
butwejustdon'tsee anypointin subjecting
ourselvesto thatfilm."Some
lostsightofthemovie'srebelliousand emeticrolein
reviewers,
however,
theannalsofpostwarculture."Withall theplasticproductaround,"the
Entertainment
reviewer
entertainwrote,"[thisfilmis] a nutritiously
Weekly
ingevent."
86
PinkFlamingo
ThePlastic
Princeton
rented
1995,facedwitha dorm-room
University
shortage,
trailersto house the extrastudents,
who promptly
plantedpinkflaoutside.
The
boundaries
of
and
which
class
thesebirds
culture,
mingos
crossedbutalso marked,haven'texactlycrumbledintodust In theninehas spurreda renaissancein
ties,mygenerationof midlifehomeowners
upscale garden ornaments,includingeighteenth-century
Englishantiques.The cataloguesforEarthmadeand otherhigh-endgarden-supply
outletsfeature$299 rusticcopperherons,$179 ClassicFiberglassurns,
even$24.95 stonesharks("Eatspinkflamingos
forbreakfast!").
Yetthe
of
come
a
aesthetics
have
since
Brown
verylongway
dialogues
Capability
- are
and Andrew
JacksonDowning.Theseborders and so manyothers
Butaren'ttheyunderintensenegotiation?
recognizable.
All exceptone lone boundary:Natureand Artifice.
In threedecades,
thebabyboomershavebrokendownbordersofeverykind.Butas we've
madethewallbetweennatureand not-nature
done so,we'veconsistently
morevisibleand powerful,
and we'veleftitstanding.
And thisis thelast
In
so
of
the
an
of
ever
more fluidand
secret, far,
pinkflamingo.
age
an effective
negotiableboundaries,
boundarymarkeritselfhas to marka
boundarythatis definedas rigidand absolute.The pinkflamingostill
worksso beautifully
becauseit stakestheur-boundary
thatwe haveused
to markand challengeall others.The countermodern
of nadefinition
tureas anti-artifice
has remainedremarkably
We'veasked,
unchallenged.
- and
Whatis art- and can it be a pinkflamingo?
Whatis good taste
shouldwe care?Whatis good literature
or good musicor good film?
Whatis normalsexuality?But has anyoneeveraskedwhether
a pinkflamingois
Ifa fewofus havecalledtheplasticcreatureart,whohas calledit
nature?
nature?And forall who have questionedthe natureof art or tasteor
or moralrightand wrongor evenreality,
howmanyofus have
sexuality
askedwhatnature
is?The pinkflamingohas toldus verylittleaboutreal
or about the nonhumannaturalworld.And yet,withineach
flamingos
- as anti-artifice,
ofnature
liesan unquestioneddefinition
plasticflamingo
and countermodern.
not-human,
in Leominster,
WhenI visitedthe Union Productsfactory
I watched
two men use a large vacuumtube to suck the polyethylene
crystals,
fleckedwithpink dye,fromoutsizecardboardMobil and Phillips66
boxes and expel the mixtureinto aluminummolds. Other workers
paintedthe billsyellowand black,usingpetroleum-based
paints.They
cutlengthsof rolledsteel,made fromironand otherores,forthelegs.
theplasticpinkflamingo
is whollyreal,and certifiably
natuVeryliterally,
ral. It'sjust naturethat'sbeen mined,harvested,
sold, heated,boxed,
resold,and reshipped.It is naturemixedwithhumanartificejust like
Andrew
JacksonDowning'slawn,mowedin the moonlightby"invisible
hands."The definition
of natureas anti-artifice
has alwayserased the
humanpresencein our bastionsofNature,and thedefinition
ofartifice
87
THEAMERICANSCHOLAR
as anti-nature
has erasedthenatureused to manufacture
it.Mygenerationand classhavewieldeda visionofnaturalness
thatsidestepsourown
in
the
and
unsustainable
uses
ofnaturalresources.
complicity
aggressive
And we'vemade it evermoreentrenchedas our economicpowerhas
of the pinkflamingohas a
grown.Wouldyou believethatthe history
moral?The symbolofartifice
is actually
natureincarnate.
Whatcan a pinkflamingomean?The gardenwriter
AllenLacyhas
written
that"every
us
to
live
within
illusion
. . . thatit
[the]
gardentempts
is something
"Theplasticflamingo,"
natural,notthecreationofartifice."
he observes,"remind
[s] us whatgardensare: not the giftsof natureto
humanbeingsbuttheproductsofhumanbeingscooperating
deserving
withthe naturalorder to createutilityand delight."Signpostseveryon lawns,in movie
where,in thevenuesofnatureand culture:flamingos
on skislopes,in thehandsofthieves,
in artgalleries,
and on the
theaters,
snowed-in
shoresof HudsonBay.We'veread thesigns,uprootedthem,
and reinvented
them.Yetthepinkflamingos
seem to me muchlikethe
we
Jell-Oat thehundredth-anniversary
Jell-Oparties.The morevariations
comeup with,themoretheplasticbirdsinsiston theiressentialnature.
As forDon Featherstone,
he's ponderedthe history
and stardomof
hiscreationwithsomewistfulness.
"I reallylikehowmyflamingo
looks,"
he says."ButI can'thelpbutwonder,
not
duck?"
why my
His duck,he adds,is morerealistic.
Andin thatlastobservation,
I suspect,liestheanswer.
88

The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History

Transcription

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