Sunday, March 29, 2015
Butler and Athanasiou chapter 8-10
Chapter 8 through 10 greatly reminded me of the Lugones' piece on the oppression of women of color by white women. In chapter 9, the two philosophers center around a discussion of freedom of body and mind through the "politics of performativity."Athanasiou state that "in various forms of racism and land dispassion, we well as in neoliberal forms of governance through market assessments, social mattering emerges as an apparatus that regulates contemporary processes of making live and letting die (97). According to Lugones, in Western feminist theory, the voices of women
of color are excluded in that they are addressed by enforcing marginalization, a social construct synonymous, I believe, with what Athanasiou is describing. When
feminist theory is constructed, it is at the expense of non-Western middle
class white women, explains Lugones. This is the process Athanasiou and Butler discuss and describe within these chapters. Another social construct that reminds me of these chapters is the Mohanty piece, where the main theme of the article reveals around the idea that oppressors know better than their victims, who, if "they knew better," would embrace what the oppressors are presenting before them. In almost every instance, this is also a social "mattering" where a culture places itself above another and labels itself superior to enact oppression and dominance by way of social escalation.
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Fernanda, I too focused on chapter nine, and I think you're point adds dimension to the authors' discussion. missed this point in the chapter, and I think your connections to to Mohanty and Lugones make the point much more salable. I agree, that through all of the authors discussion about oppression, it seems that those who are in the position of power or have the ability to state their opinion as fact marginalize those they either forget or discount. People and establishments, such as the government of the market, use their leadership and authority as platforms to legitimize their opinions and choices, purposely or unintentionally oppressing and disregarding certain people. I don't think this is always done on purpose, and perhaps this is an example of an epistemology of ignorance, where they do not know what they're doing, but never less there is an assumption that they are right. I'm not certain how to overcome this pattern of oppression, and I often question in economic and political situations where the line is between doing what is best for the country or economy and trying to make everyone happy. But I think much of the decisions being made today do not conform to either of those concerns.
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