Monday, February 16, 2009

Sandra Harding - 'Rethinking Standpoint Epistemology: What Is "Strong Objectivity"?'

I had a tough time wrapping my head around this reading, so hopefully this response is at least on the right track :) . Philosophy is unfortunately not my forte. I’m looking forward to Tuesday’s class so that I can gain some much needed clarity on this reading.

For Harding, strong objectivity stems from the notion that social situation both organizes and limits our ability to understand the world. By starting off thought with those at the bottom of our social hierarchies, we will be able to walk away with a fresher and less distorted account to the whole social order. I happen to agree with Harding’s model here, but I also think that the concerns mentioned under the subsection ‘Standpoint Theory vs. Ethnocentrism’ are valid. At first glance, it does appear that standpoint epistemology claims that women’s lives provide a superior starting point. Does this mean that those belonging to the dominant groups discussed in this essay are always incapable of generating the illuminating critical questions that standpoint epistemology is seeking? Is it not inherently bias to make such a claim? And also, what is to say that by starting with those at the bottom of our social hierarchies that we will necessarily reach the goal of generating these new critical questions?

Whether or not Judith Butler would embrace standpoint theory is an interesting question. In the essay ‘Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire,’ Butler is not only seeking to find ways in which women can become fully represented, but to also understand how the category of “women” is culturally constructed. It would appear that the best way to do this would be to start off thought from the marginalized category of women.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Patrick Hopkins – ‘Gender Treachery: Homophobia, Masculinity, and Threatened Identities’

Patrick Hopkins made his conclusion clear when he said that the basis of homophobia is binary gender systems and heterosexism, and that “the only way to ensure that heterosexism and its virulent manifestation homophobia are genuinely eliminated is to eliminate the binary itself – challenge the assumption that one must be sexed or gendered to be a person (p. 431).”
The idea of challenging the assumption that an individual needs to be gendered in order to achieve true “personhood” is a good one that I am in full support of. As a matter of fact, there is already a growing movement, primarily within the transgender community, to honor the notion that there are more than simply two genders and/or to take some pride in not classifying themselves as any particular gender at all. That said, I see living a gender-neutral life as being a personal life choice as opposed to a viable solution to eliminate homophobia and heterosexism.

Assuming that I am correct in agreeing that Hopkins’ conclusion is to dismantle the categories of male and female, I don’t think that I can fully agree with his proposal because I’m still not 100% clear if he is proposing that we do away with binary gender by no longer defining ourselves in terms of masculine and feminine. On the one hand, he states that his proposal doesn’t mean that we will all have to become androgynous, but that his conclusion “simply means that identities would no longer be distributed according to automatically based “sexes”” (p. 431). On the other hand, he states on the next page that he wants to be “unmanned altogether.” I feel like I must be missing something crucial, or that maybe I’m overanalyzing this essay.

Moving on to question #2, being a “woman” does imply heterosexuality in the same way that being a “man” does. In terms of biology, the human sex organs are often seen as solely existing for reproductive purposes, and it takes one man and one woman to reproduce.


All quotes taken from:
‘Free Spirits: Feminist Philosophers on Culture’. Edited by Kate Mehuron and Gary J. Percesepe. Prentice Hall: October 29, 1994.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Elizabeth V. Spelman - ‘Gender and Race: The Ampersand Problem in Feminist Thought’

Before I answer this assignment’s questions, I feel the need to bring up the fact that while reading this piece, my mind kept going back to Betty Friedan’s influential book ‘The Feminine Mystique.’ In it, she explores the role of housewife while bringing to light the lack of fulfillment that many of these women were feeling, which was usually kept hidden. While this book was groundbreaking for its time and is credited for once again igniting the women’s movement, Friedan only wrote of white, middle-class, heterosexual, educated women. I have to wonder what Spelman’s opinion of Friedan’s findings would be.

Limiting my focus on racial stereotypes, there are indeed a lot of them. One in particular that has been floating around in society points to black women being loud and violent. This stereotype partially coincides with the classic Mammy archetype, which is a caricature that portrays an overweight and loud black servant reminiscent of Aunt Jemima. The primary difference between these 2 stereotypes lies in the fact that the Mammy is generally good-natured, whereas the negative depiction of the modern black woman is vulgar and brutal.
I read a very interesting article discussing the book ‘The Black Image in the White Mind.’ The following statistics are brought to light:

*Black female movie characters shown using profanity: 89%
*White female movie characters shown using vulgar profanity: 17%
*Black female movie characters shown being physically violent: 56%
*White female movie characters shown being physically violent: 11%
*Black female movie characters shown being restrained: 55%
*White female movie characters shown being restrained: 6%
These numbers, while 13 years old, seem to support the idea that this stereotype is alive and well is the US.

I do believe that despite our differences, women today can find enough common experiences to fuel an anti-sexist, feminist movement. However, this can only happen when we are ready to acknowledge what Spelman says to be true. The experiences of one woman may differ greatly from the experiences of another, and we have to be willing to humble ourselves to the position of sitting quietly and listening while one woman tells us of the struggle she’s endured due to both her gender and her economic background/ level of education/race/sexual orientation/physical abilities/age/etc.

‘The Black Image in the White Mind’ statistics taken from: http://racerelations.about.com/od/stereotypesmentalmodels/a/blackimage.htm