In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Month: December 2009

Invisible Identities, Part 2: The Default Human

So, I’ve talked about how the notion of the invisible identity is problematic, particularly through the framework of my personal experiences of being “invisibly” disabled and non-white. Now to the flipside of invisibility.

Certain characteristics exist in the societal consciousness as default traits. That is, a person is a man unless they’re pointed out as a woman (how many times have we all heard ‘woman lawyer’ or similar?) Disabled people are unexpected, out of the norm. The coming out process doesn’t exist for straight people, because everyone’s assumed to be straight until it’s made clear they’re not. While non-white people are described according to their race (‘the Asian man’), white people are described according to specific physical characteristics (‘the blonde man’). These are the default humans, and we are assumed to be so unless we are otherwise. It’s a strange phenomenon, really: these identities are represented so often, in so many contexts, that we don’t even describe them anymore.

It’s also curious because so few of us are that default human, white, cis, abled, middle class and so on. The default human is really quite far from being usual.

What the invisibilisation of privileged characteristics does is to invisibilise the privileges that go along with them.

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Good on Josh Brorby

He wrote a really attrocious article for his school’s newspaper, and has issued a first-class apology. No, really. It’s not one of those “I’m sorry if you were offended” apologies. It’s an all-out, “I effed up and I learned a lot and let me explain what I learned and what I should have done instead instead of getting defensive” apology.

Good on you, Mr. Brorby. I remain less impressed with the newspaper staff who thought it was a good idea to publish the first article, but it does seem like Josh is making a very serious effort to be a good and productive ally.

Today, I just can’t.

Dear readers, it has been one of those weeks. And so today I just cannot muster a response to this op/ed by Bart Stupak, defending his amendment to the health care bill — an amendment that limits reproductive choice and goes far beyond the already egregious Hyde Amendment. However, nothing would make me happier than to see it torn to shreds. Also, there is far too much misinformation out there about Stupak and abortion coverage in the health care bill, and you are a generally well-informed, well-read, well-reasoned and often funny and entertaining bunch.

So, fair readers: Attack away.

SYTYCD Top 8

If you are not up to the Top 8 yet, please be warned:

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*
*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*
*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*

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A good idea

New York Magazine is framing this as Bloomberg going after fat people and trying to make New York skinnier, but I’ll posit that it’s a good idea — and it’s not about making people skinny. It’s about giving people access to physical activity even when they can’t afford a gym membership.

When Allies Fail

Tami has a great guide for members of marginalized groups to work with allies. It’s a nice reminder to those of us who do social justice work from both sides — as members of communities that face various -isms, and as allies. It can be tough in a space like this one, where sometimes it feels like the same 101 or 102 conversation is happening again and again. But as Tami points out, it is often (though not always) worth the time to work with allies, to recognize that slip-ups and mistakes happen, to educate and to share ideas — not because have to or because we’re obligated to, but because, as she says:

We have a responsibility to treat our allies with respect and humanity. It is the same responsibility that every person has to another. This notion of human regard is the very foundation of equality movements. We cannot demand justice while mirroring injustice. We definitely should not feel a need to “wear the mask” in our own safe spaces in order to make privileged people more comfortable. But we can act with compassion. When we do not, we fail at maintaining alliances. And allied relationships are too important to lose.

Now, I kind of bristled reading her opening, and I’m sure many people are bristling and reading my summary — I know many of us are dead tired of being told we have to coddle our allies and help them understand. But go read her whole post. That is far, far from what she’s talking about. Her piece really is a necessary and helpful reminder about extending basic kindness, when we can (and knowing when and where to draw the line when we just can’t).

And make sure you read Part 1 first.