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Unit 7 - Reflective Post

What did you enjoy the most about the course? What did you find the most challenging about the course? What concepts/units were your favorite? Is there anything you wish we got to talk more about (keeping in mind we still have a couple more readings left--Lorde's The Cancer Journals and a reading about the prison industrial complex)? If you could add one unit, what would it be on?

To be honest, I enjoyed this course wayyyyy more than I enjoyed last semester’s course I took with you (GWS 302-transnational bodies) and I don’t think it has much to do with you or the course material, but rather with the student body. I think what made GWS 350 so special/great this semester was the fact that everyone seemed like they wanted to be there, everyone had a similar foundation of knowledge (about GWS, oppression, etc.), everyone contributed really amazing knowledgable valuable personal and insightful things during discussion, etc. I rarely ever felt bored or frustrated. I know gate-keeping sucks, but it’s worth it to have a class like we did this semester and to prevent (imo) a class like last semester’s where dumb white girls didn’t do the work and contributed waste-of-time points (sorry I’m being harsh but like I pay for my education... you know?). People seemed disinterested and bored, and this semester’s vibe was not that, and that’s what I loved. IDK, whatever you did to foster that, it was amazing. Maybe it’s just chance of who ends up in the class, i don’t have a clue.  Most challenging part of your courses are the individual once-a-semester protocol assignments. I don’t like doing them (I think it’s a personal thing, something about it just doesn’t “click” with me). Favorite unit/concepts... all of them? I’m sad we had to go online bc discussions were so beautiful and I wish I was a more timely student so I could actually hear the discussions more. If I could add a unit, I think you’d obviously know at this point I’d add a unit about sex workers. I think it ties in a lot of different concepts together--transness, homelessness, hierarchy (whorearchy), classism, police violence, state surveillance, fear, disposability, racism, exotification, gender-based violence, survival, mutual aid, solidarity, organizing, capitalism/classism, exclusionary “radical feminism,” etc. etc. etc. You’re forever one of my favorite teachers and so immensely grateful that the UK GWS dep’t hired you, and that you teach what you teach, and you are who you are. My UK undergrad experience would undoubtedly not have been the same. 

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Unit 6: Provocations to Fem Theory: Bodies & Materiality  Keyword: Disability Justice

(Note: I completed Tumblr Unit’s 3, 4, and 5 below!) 

Define: 

one of my favorite kind of justices (who am i kidding, they r all my favorite)! I’ll start this off with a really great quote from Sunaura Taylor’s "What is Disability?”:

“The disability justice movement, which centralizes disabled people of color, poor people, and queer and gender-variant people, has emerged in response to the need of a disability movement that centralizes oppressions as inextricably connected.”  

I think this defines the disability justice movement quite well. I would add also that dj’s (i’m the queen of illegitimate acronyms) aim is to dismantle ableism along side other forms of oppression. I think that part of the dj movement is built on the foundation of understanding disability as largely socially constructed and a lot of issues boil down to access and accessibility. 

Example: 

I think leah lakshmi piepzna samarasinha is an amazing proponent of the dj movement whom i love very very much. she’s one of my favorite writers, and i’m very grateful you introduced me to her! I also really love mia mingus and alice wong. leroy moore is pretty f’ing cool too. i also really love the two women featured in those videos (patty berne and stacey milberne).  i’m not so well versed in disability justice organizations and groups, but I know there is ADAPT (we read about it), and sins invalid. i’ve learned about a lot more in your classes, they are just slipping my mind now. 

Why is it important?

beyond the obvious reasons and answers of ending ableism and all the other oppressions, disability justice has taught me that 1) disability is socially constructed 2) disability is wayyyyy more diverse than what i thought it was 3) i’m neurodivergent/neurodiverse af 4) a lot of tools, resources, and knowledge to make the spaces that I am a part of more accesible. as a direct result from your class, i have made it a priority in my planning to make spaces accesible. I write in the description of events building locations, the presence of elevators/stairs, whether there are soft/cushiony seats, what the size of the space is, whether food/water is provided, etc. When resources are available, also offering childcare and language interpreters. also releasing important information in popular spoken languages. making it a habit and priority at the beginning of meetings to set expectations and norms, introduce names and pronouns, commit to disclaiming sensitive talk with content warnings, etc. etc. etc. 

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Unit 5: Provocations to Fem Theory: Transnational Feminist Theory Keyword: white/neoliberal feminism

Define: 

white feminism is the kind of feminism that harms us all. it is feminism that doesn’t take into account other factors of oppression like imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, ableism, etc. it is the kind of feminism that believers wish to export to ‘oppressed’ Third World nations as some sort of guiding liberating ideology. it’s very harmful, and wrong. 

Example: 

an example of white/neoliberal feminism is the girl effect campaign. they structured their campaign around the idea of an oppressed ambiguous Third World girl. the campaign constructs this girl to be plagued with all sorts of problems and diseases and victim to terrible things like rape, child marriage, etc. but the girl is not from any one country, she symbolically represents all the girls and women in Third World countries that need saving. white/western women think that it is their responsibility or job to save third world women. they also think they know third world women’s problems best. they also generalize all of the third world into one reductionist soup. they also don’t incorporate any analyses of how imperialism, colonialism, and capitalism (all more or less perpetuated by the West) effect women’s rights in these Third World places. 

Why is it important?

Because white/neoliberal feminism is inherently oppressive by not taking into accounts other forms of oppression. it’s just another insidious way to keep white people at the top. because it’s disguised as good and as helpful, but really perpetuates more harm. it is important we understand and deconstruct these things and build our feminism across borders across classes across abilities across races and nationalities. and in fact, our feminism should be centering those who are the most marginalized and oppressed. not centering in as in they become the focus of our attention to help and save, but centering in as in passing the mic, giving the stool you’re standing on and megaphone you’re holding over. and taking action at the directive of these women! poor women, black women, brown women, native women, trans women, sex workers, third world women, disabled women, etc. 

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Unit 3: Theorizing at the Intersections Keyword: Intersectionality Theory

Define:

Intersectionality theory is the idea that when we analyze the manifestation of one oppression, we can’t really separate that from other oppressions that manifest as well. Particularly when analyzing an individual or group of people who experience multiple forms of oppression. A Black Woman can’t be reduced to just being a Black person in amerika and a woman in amerika. There are unique manifestations of racism and sexism that affect Black Woman particularly and uniquely, and we must analyze at those intersections rather than analyzing the individual lines independently that may make up the metaphorical intersection.  

Example: 

I am an example of someone who lives at the intersection of many identities: neurodivergent, womxn, Middle Eastern, sw, leftist. I can’t individually separate any one part of my identity apart from the rest. Although, a lot of my life is tinged with aspects of sexism, I’d say that’s probably the strongest ‘defining’ aspect of my identity. I don’t feel like my turkish-ness has shaped my gender, but my gender has definitely influenced what kind of islamic cultural rules I was brought up with. (but that’s not the point of intersectionality theory, i am just rambling!) 

Why is it important?

Intersectionality theory was born out of the predicament that at a factory plant there were quotas to fulfill a certain amount of positions with Black folx and with women, and they were filled (1). What was later found out though, is that Black Women were hardly represented in the workforce, because there was no special quota for Black Women. This leads itself very naturally to intersectionality theory, which posits that (in this case) race and gender cannot be addressed individually/independently, and that people who live at the margins of both race and gender must also be taken into account. This is important because without recognizing people who live at the margins of many identities, they continue to be marginalized, forgotten, ignored, oppressed, and disenfranchised. 

(1) 

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Tumblr Unit 4: Reflection Post

I’ve gone through a lot of emotional states and feelings over the past month. I feel like every day, I feel different. It’s all phases and waves of realizations. My neurodivergences are undoubtedly intensified. A lot of people are beginning to feel the way that I have felt every day for over a year now. Some things that I’ve been plagued with all my life. Inability to focus. Depression. Distractions. Anxieties. Procrastination. Executive functioning problems. All of it. It doesn’t feel good at all, does not make me feel more seen or heard at all. It is bad enough that I have to experience and feel it. Others don’t belong in this dark world. 

But, I don’t really want to talk about my feelings. That shit would get me locked up in some institutional place somewhere. That’s an excuse, though. I manage my feelings as they come. I write them as they come. And numbness is a coping mechanism. Forgetting they exist, denying their existence, even if temporary, that is how I survive. That is how I get by. Imagine what trauma survivors would feel everyday if their subconscious didn’t repress certain memories, thoughts, feelings. That’s... me. I’m okay with it. I don’t want to think about how my dad might die and I haven’t spoken to him in 4-5 years because he married an abusive woman who I have a restraining order against who hates me. Fuck. That. Shit. I’d rather get lost in reading some Octavia Butler fiction. And continue to not be sober for a single day since the end of spring break. Fuck thinking about things right now. Let it come when it comes... 

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Unit 2: Gender Performance

Define:

I will be referring to Butler’s article ““Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” in defining gender performance. In this article, Butler argues that gender is produced through repetitive acts (or performances) that are rooted in belief rather than ‘objective’ truth or biology, and thus argues that gender is performative, and not biologically intrinsic. Butler argues: “gender identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo” (p520). 

Example:

My job is heavily reliant on gender performances, especially as a woman of color, I must compensate for my non-whiteness by my femininity. I accentuate features of feminity like my long hair and “smooth” (shaven) legs and my slim/hourglass figure. But these are all performances... I groom myself to look a very particular way, to fit a particular image of womanness. But I can easily cut my hair short (would get rid of all those split ends...), let my leg hair grow free wild and untamed (bye bye razor bumps!), and ditch my current workout program and outfits, and what would I look like? I’d still be clocked as a woman, but would I be clocked as a “sexy woman” or as “feminine”? Probably not. It’s all an act and a performance. And I didn’t even dive in here that I change my personality to be more feminine. (In general) I am more quiet, talk less politics, listen more (in the context of m-f conversation), etc. all to perform a certain very feminine role. In the sake of making money, though, which I think is more feminist than being a loud political feminist killjoy, because material gains >>> (in this context, and it isn’t a rule of thumb). There’s a lot to unpack there though. 

Importance:

The importance of understanding gender performativity and gender vs sex and the myth of gender as biological essentialism is paramount. And the basis of feminist theory. We have been taught that gender is something biologically intrinsic to us. That he is male and man because he has penis and i am female and woman because I have vagina. But, really? Does that account for why women are not in positions of power? Politicians? CEOs? Doctors? Lawyers? Accountants and bankers? Why we are cleaners, waitresses, nannies, nurses, caretakers, teachers? No, I don’t think so... it’s because we are taught at an early age that we are a certain identity that we then conform to because society makes us... society constructs a box and tells us we must fit in that box otherwise there is something wrong with us. And this is the basis of understanding pretty much all identities as socially constructed and thus, as our oppressions as socially constructed and nothing inherent to us as individuals or individual responsibility. There are much larger powers at play. 

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GWS 350 Tumblr Unit 1: Feminist Killjoy

Define: 

Ahmed describes the figure of the feminist killjoy in “In Living a Feminist Life.” My quotations will be pulled from Chapter 1: Feminism is Sensational. Ahmed never quite defines the feminist killjoy, but rather does a wonderful job describing the feminist killjoy... and also, how it *feels* to be her. To be the person who is thought of as a problem because she points out the problems (Ahmed). To be the person who interrupts the smooth workings of a family dinner where problematic and ----ist statements usually fly under the radar and go unchecked. The feminist killjoy is someone who unapologetically stands up for what they believe in and is right, at the expense of ‘ruining the moment’ or breaking the silence or whatever other relationships, contexts, and tensions may be happening in the particular situation. It’s putting forefront the issue of dismantling sexism, racism, oppression. 

Example: 

I am a feminist killjoy... all the time. I am my own example. I am a feminist killjoy when I tell men I won’t f*ck them for free. Or listen to them for free. Especially their dumb ass stupid opinions. Especially their dumb ass stupid political opinions. Pay. Me. For. That. And when you pay me to listen, you’re paying me to school you on how wrong you are. Or when I apologetically clank our wine glasses together (that you’re paying for) cheers’ing to a free Palestine after you “complimented” me by saying I look like a sexy IDF soldier (ew). I’m a feminist killjoy when I interrupt you mansplaining to me, pointing out that I’m more knowledgable on this topic than you and you're dominating the conversation. I’m a feminist killjoy when I show up in spaces I’m unwelcome to... like when a bunch of recovering folx were about to get kicked out of their sober living residences and I almost got kicked out for being in their apartment because “guests are against the lease” but really because i was helping them protest their unfair eviction.  I’m a feminist killjoy when I snicker loudly at your stupid comment in your speech at the city council meeting advocating for the demolition of the houses of my neighborhood in order to build luxury (unaffordable, gentrifying) student housing: “would you want your daughter to live on those houses on E Maxwell St?” I am that daughter and my mother would BEAT your ass for saying that. #FeministKilljoys

Importance: 

There is incredible importance in recognizing, acknowledging, cherishing, celebrating, describing, admiring the figure of the feminist killjoy. It’s finally a name we can put to the behavior we’ve been doing all along. It’s validating. And all in such a wonderful positive light, too. It’s reclaiming that feeling of “maybe I shouldn’t have said anything” or “wow I really did ruin xyz moment” to validation and admiration of the person who points out the serious problems that uphold oppression. The figure of the feminist killjoy themselves is highly important in... dismantling oppression. We need to do systems change work, but we also need to grow in our numbers. Always be agitating and educating and organizing. We need to stop racism in our own families. We need to bring the level of consciousness of those around us up. There are many ways to do that, and I happen to adopt the role of the feminist killjoy <3 

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Tumbr Unit 7: Hijab(i) Fetish(ization)

Before dwelving into this keyword, I want to open it up to a broader concept of the fetishization of Muslim/Middle Eastern/Arabian women, which is intrinsically linked to the fetishization of the hijab, the hijab being one of the strongest symbols and subject of ethnic coding for Muslim-/Middle Eastern-/Arabian-ness. Other symbols and subjects of ethnic coding pertaining to this group (which is a problematic lump of a group to begin with for lacking nuance and accuracy) are a) (long) dark hair, dark eyes, and ‘olive’ skin (I put it in quotes because what the hell is olive skin!?) b) a certain style of clothing (like harem pants) or way of doing makeup that emphasizes dark features/piercing eyes and c) probably a lot of other things I’m forgetting (like hairiness, lol) (also other things like having a certain body type, emphasize our sexualization/exotification/fetishization as a ‘sexy arabian woman’ trope. I blame Jasmine from Aladdin for this shit. (just kidding--but it certainly concretized this a lot!). I chose this concept/keyword because it relates directly to me. I am not a hijabi wearer, but I do wear a headscarf every now and then. My partner pointed out to me the day before we talked about this article, (my white male-passing partner) that every time they have been scrutinized by the police has been in a situation with me. But not just with me “regular me” but with me when I was wearing my headscarf. And none of these instances were because of protest/activism/disruption. My worst case of TSA harassment was when I was wearing my headscarf. But I am also harassed and extra-scrutinized by TSA all. the. damn. time. It is also relevant to me because of my proximity to the informal work I’m engaged in. I’ve had clients tell me they’ve fantasized about me in a burqa (what?!?) and I’ve had customers bring up the Taliban, Isis, Al-Qaeda, George Bush, and terrorism with no prior conversational context or provocation, but, simply because of the way I look (and because I was in a sexualized informal environment).

I think I also define this keyword slightly different than the way the article does. I have been saying “the fetishization of Muslim/Middle Eastern/Arabian women” long before reading the article. My prime example (manifestation of) is this [the infamous Mia Khalifa, of whom I’ve had the pleasure of being my #1 ‘celebrity look-alike’ according to… white people].

I think the article (https://theintercept.com/2018/12/29/muslim-women-hijab-fashion-capitalism/) would define ‘hijab fetishism’ as putting on display/advertising/using as a tool of consumerism/social capital/marketing of a fair-skinned and wealthy-passing hijabi women. And the article points out that this is problematic on many accounts, including but not limited to a) not all Muslims wear hijabs (while this sort of advertisement is usually the only representation given to Muslim amerikans), b) most Muslims aren’t white-passing/fair-skinned (and many in fact are Black), c) not all Muslims are bourgeois/wealthy/wealth-/class-privileged, and d) the promotion of hijabi women is shallow and promotes individual “overcoming” or “excellence” without addresance to harmful policies and controlling images waged on Muslims domestically and internationally (imperialism, cheap labor, travel ban, war on terrorism, etc.).

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Keyword Tumblr Unit 7 (The Disposable Body): Homelessness

Why:

I chose this keyword because it is an injustice/an issue I am keenly aware of and passionate about. My partner works at a homeless shelter in Lexington and we (along with 6 other young folx) started a non-profit to address youth homelessness in Lexington. I also intern every Thursday at a youth homeless drop-in center. I live in a strange in-between world of being invested and intimately tied to the issues of homelessness, proximity to homelessness, and housing insecurity [oh yeah--and we did the basic needs campaign], while also being housed and never experiencing these issues personally. Although, I believe I will face some sort of housing insecurity in the future because I am unable to provide a co-signer for housing or proof of income. Welp. Homelessness is an issue often forgotten about in ‘radical’ academia as well as in leftist spaces. Why? I don’t know. We often talk about housing insecurity, but sometimes fail to include homelessness and homeless folx in our analyses and scope of view. 

Definition: 

I tend to not like using the word ‘homelessness’ on its own, but rather as a part of the list: homelessness, proximity to homelessness, and housing insecurity. Because just saying ‘homeless’ (although useful at times and in specific contexts) does not encompass the folx who were once homeless. It does not encompass the folx who are one months rent short of eviction and homelessness. That being said, ‘homeless’ also has it’s own strict definition by HUD (housing and urban development) that ignored a whole variety of folx experiencing homelessness. For example, someone who is couch surfing because they have no place to live is not considered homeless under HUD’s definition. My definition for homeless is anyone who identifies as homeless. It is someone who does not have a home to live in, that they feel secure in, that is (ideally) safe, adequate, accessible. Someone sleeping in their car out of necessity is homeless, as exemplified by the VICE video we watched. 

We also read an article ‘Neoliberal Biopolitics and the Invention of Chronic Homelessness’ that talked about and defined chronic homelessness specifically. I thought the article was great, and my partner agreed, who was really happy to see we have a unit devoted (mostly) to homelessness and furthermore, read critical literature on homelessness, which they struggled to find much of. 

An example: 

I didn’t pick a very academic-y keyword so this section won’t make too much sense. Homelessness and housing insecurity is HUGE issue in this country (well, across the world, but isn’t it ironic how bad it is in the ‘freest country’ ‘most democratic country’ ‘wealthiest nation’ etc etc. i guess that goes for literally everything too. we incarcerate more people than literally anyone else, it’s wild). I guess I’ll use this section to talk about our non-profit, Canopy Young Adult Community House. We decided to start this and incorporate because of the lack of response from UK with our housing insecurity demands during the Basic Needs Campaign. In general, there is a lack of resources and services for young adults experiencing homelessness/housing insecurity in Lexington. And the needs as young adults (18-24 yo) are so vastly different from those of other people experiencing homelessness (the average age of someone at a shelter is definitely above 30). We have decided that our first project will be to start a Youth Action Board in Lexington, comprised of 18-24 y/o with experience or proximity to homelessness, and do mutual aid work with this population.

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Keyword Tumblr Unit 6 (The Immobile Body): Securitization

I got this keyword/term from the Gonzalez reading (Tourism Mobilities, Indigenous Claims, and the Securitization of the Beach by Vernadette Vicuna Gonzalez). I think that it also applies well to the video “Walking While Black” by Vox, because, in order for society to be secure from poor people and black people, and more nuanced, poor black people, our ‘security forces’ must enforce absurd laws on this population to ensure streets look nice, and clean, and free from poor black people. I believe in this sense securitization and gentrification are simultaneous and interrelated concepts and processes done by the white supremacist settler-colonial racist state. This concept is important because it is one way how people become dispossessed from their land and from the mobility of their body, become oppressed, etc. 

My understanding of securitization is the act of acquiring and maintaining a space by a powerful force/group of people for their own interests. The Gonzalez article uses securitization in the context of securitizing beaches for tourist interests/tourism industry interests (from indigenous/local/native people). It can also be used in the context of gentrification, as I tried to outline above. Borders of all kinds are securitized--the mediterranean sea border, the mexico-US border, etc. etc. Someone is ‘made secure’ at the expense of other peoples immobility. 

Example: sex workers being arrested on Third Street in order to ‘clean up the neighborhood’ for future gentrification aka revitialization and development in that predominantly POC (black) and poor/lower class neighborhood. Securitizing certain streets and spaces for future (non-grassroots/local/community-owned) real estate developers and business owners. 

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Keyword Tumblr Unit 4 (The Laboring Body): Emotional & Body Labor

Woooooo!!! This unit brought up *a lot* of feelings in me. I like, at every turn, wanted to talk about the emotiona/body labor performed by sex workers. We talked and read about those who work in fast fashion, and in retail in general, as well as nail salon workers and animal factory workers. Did you know sex workers, specifically dancers, are essentially highly paid therapists, except, they’re naked? And sometimes they dance and grind on customers while asking questions like… “so how have you been since your wife has left you?” Talk about body labor, lol, that is the epitome of it! Being a sugar baby is a whole other level of body labor too. And I believe, they are (generally) well-compensated (discluding survival sex workers). And this is how all workers who perform emotional labor and body labor should be compensated. WELL. 

What is emotional labor? It is the (typically unsaid, between the lines, not-in-the-job-description) labor performed (typically by womxn [though not necessarily/always/exclusively], and typically experienced increasingly with each layer of marginalized identity [i.e. BIPOC, LGTBQIA+]) which ensures other people’s emotional/psychological well-being and needs are put forefront and taken care of, and is typically unpaid, uncompensated, and unrecognized. Can take place in all different kinds of settings ranging from the workplace to the relationship.  I.e. smiling, blowing off microaggressions, engaging in small talk, acting like a therapist/counselor, etc. 

What is body labor? It is defined pretty well in the abstract of ‘The Managed Hand; The Commercialization of Bodies and Emotions in Korean Immigrant-Owned Nail.’ Body labor is a term “to designate a type of gendered work that involves the management of emotions in body-related service.”

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Keyword Tumblr Unit 5 (Precarity): Borders

I chose the keyword borders because it encompasses many sites of oppression that plague our world, and also because it entails a certain amount of absurdity regarding harmful and oppressive social constructions. In my opinion, borders, as they manifest today, are absurd (absurd like--don’t make sense. Why does that exist? irrational). Enclaves, exclaves. People can’t own water. How can beaches be divvied up? How can people own air? Own bodies of water? Own drinking water? Own rights to the environment? Own rights to ecosystems? To living processes? To nature? Who dictates borders? Who enforces them? How are they drawn? How are they marked? It’s not like there is a line in the sky that clearly marks “yours” and “mine”… borders relate to migration issues, obviously. borders relate to climate issues because—it is these nations that colonized these lands, that implemented these absurd governments and economic systems, that also pollute and destroy and abuse and exploit the earth, nature, our environment. Borders relate to colonized people (native/indigenous people), and people harmed by imperialist policies. The Intercept article brings up 9/11 a few times in regards to militarization and body death toll comparisons, but never goes as far to say that it is because of geopolitical interests (read: oil) in the Middle East, that the US *created* extremists and terrorists. (https://theintercept.com/2019/10/03/climate-change-migration-militarization-arizona/). 9/11 was a US-manufactured problem. Borders will continue to be a site of violence and manifest in various ways and continue to oppress all kinds of people, and also, be used as a rationale to continue environmental + ecological destruction. 

I would define a border as a social construction that is created by the group in power which dictates what is theirs and ‘not theirs’. Borders are relatively arbitrary (almost never have an Earth-based or nature-based reason as to why they are drawn up the way they are unless in regards to the ability to access natural resources). Borders are also fluid--constantly changing and not abiding by strict law or rule. Borders are a form of colonization of both Earth/environment/ecology/natural resources as well as of and on First Nation, indigenous, native, and otherwise “there-before-you” peoples across the world. 

As I was recounting my experiences at borders, being stopped at the border, and with border security, I remembered this one time my mom said something that surprised me, took me aback. I was complaining to her in the airport or pointing out a Food and Agriculture security guard, and she told me something along the lines of ‘pretend like they don’t exist, don’t make eye contact, and walk by them like you didn’t even see them there.’ It’s pretty uncharacteristic advice from my mom. But we get stopped, and in particular, I get stopped so often. I’ve gotten stopped at the Canada-US border in a car with my white Canadian step-father because of me. The way I look. My passport. They flipped through my passport and saw all the countries stamped, and boom, we were stopped and held in their police office or whatever for over an hour while they ran security background checks on the both of us. I think borders hurt people. Borders were created by colonizers (male colonizers). Borders are born out of an epistemology that is inherently tied to oppression, that is oppressive. I also think borders will continue to be a site of oppression, and especially a site of oppression, because of the creation of climate refugees. The more people fleeing and mobilizing, especially dispossessed, marginalized, poor, brown, etc. people, the more borders will be securitized under protectionist and nationalistic rhetoric (anti-immigration, xenophobic rhetoric). 

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Unit 3: The Colonized Body Keyword: ASSIMILATION

Assimilation policies and programs are a defining feature of colonialism, and particularly, US settler-colonialism. Assimilation in the Native American context can be summarized by the (awful) quote “Kill the Indian; save the man” as described in the PBS documentary ‘Unspoken: America’s Native American Boarding Schools.” We had a tough question in class to figure out the relationship between genocide and assimilation, and it was difficult to tease through. Regardless, assimilation is a violent way to strip people from their land, culture, tradition, knowledge systems, ways of being, life and knowing, etc. for various state-sanctioned and capital-informed purposes of resource extraction and eugenics/racism/white supremacy. 

‘Indian Removals and the Affective Entitlements of Whiteness’ goes in depth about Native American assimilation in the US:  “By the late nineteenth century, the genocidal US military campaigns against Native peoples slowly gave way to purportedly benevolent programs for assimilation … US boarding school policy was perhaps most explicitly an effort to destroy tribal cultures and ways of life between the 1880s and the 1930s, but the number of Native American children in boarding schools continued to grow—as well as the forms of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse endemic to those institutions—until reaching an estimated peak enrollment of sixty thousand in 1973.” Boarding schools were a huge part of Native American assimilation. People were denied their right to speak their language, practice their customs, learn their history, and endured a number of abusive situations, policies, and rules, all meant to exert control over the Native population for the sake of control and power and domination, intimately related to white supremacy. 

I know and understand assimilation in the context of my own peoples in Turkey. We are an ethnic minority, and we are denied our history, our language, our way of life. Both explicitly through forced education in Turkey, as well as indirectly through global forces like capitalism which force our self-sustaining people to abandon non-profitable yet traditional and culturally relevant work in order to feed families in our neoliberal, globalized and consumption-based capitalistic society. In fact, assimilation is ever present in my home--where i was denied the knowledge to know my ethnicity, because in Westernized Turkish eyes, we should have our heads down and be ashamed of our non-Turkishness, our [alleged?] Armenianess (proximity to Armenianess), our village-ness, our differences. I was taught that our language was simply a dialect--I was never taught that it was its own language. A language dying fast--a language on the UNESCO endangered language list. My mom used to tell me her teachers would hit her hands and nails with a wooden ruler for her “nails being too long.” I wonder if she mis-coded what happened and if it was because she was a hemsinli kid in a nationalist assimilation-forward Turkish school. Both the countries of Turkey and Armenia fight for their right to claim us as one of their own--as either Turkish blood or Armenian blood. We cannot be left alone in peace as the mixed people and culture we are. And we are mixed because of war, genocide, rape. But I cannot corroborate any of this. All the information regarding this is propaganda. Another form of assimilation. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JptVo4n5Fuw 

Rest in power Kazim Koyuncu, a fighter for the rights of ethnic minorities within Turkey, through music 

[capitalism-must-die]

[capitalism-must-die]

Unit 2 Keyword:  The Global South Girl (The Third World Girl)

Arguably, the women in my family are constructed as these girls (as these women--the use of the word girl is an intentional choice, by both Dr. Todd and the forces responsible for constructing this image) by both our own government and the US (and larger Western) government(s). Although it isn’t limited to governments in the Western world--it is a whole array, a matrix, of institutions (schools, media, military, foundations, corporations, organizations, etc.), invisible forces, systems of power, societal values, etc. that construct, produce, and reproduce the notion of the ‘Global South girl’. 

Attached is a picture of what kind of work my mother’s father’s side of the family does. [Women in headscarves picking hazelnuts from the mountainous region of Turkey]. The women in my family have historically been farmers and growers of the land. Hazelnuts have always been important to our traditions and culture, but the increase in hazelnut production (and *export of hazelnuts*)  was not a welcome one and is a direct result of corporate capitalism, globalization, neoliberalism, the free market, etc. My mom’s half-sister grows black tea in our village, selling 1 kilo of undried leaves for 2 lira. 2 lira is about 50 cents right now. Recently, BBC came out with this article: https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-49741675 [Is Nutella made with nuts picked by children?]. 

https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2015/0907/How-Turkey-is-tackling-child-labor-in-hazelnut-harvesting (this article is a great example of portraying the (turkish) Global South girl with the headline photo). https://ahvalnews.com/hazelnuts/child-labourers-helping-harvest-turkeys-hazelnuts-bbc (same with this one).

(disclaimer: i make no comment on the content of these articles and the validity of the problems they attempt to bring to light. i rather want to look at the framing, the reasoning, the contextualization, the Western so-called “source” of the problems, the face of the problems, etc.) 

*We are not oppressed by anything other than corporate capitalism, forced assimilation, US imperialism, neoliberalism, globalization, and the free market*

*We are not oppressed by anything other than corporate capitalism, forced assimilation, US imperialism, neoliberalism, globalization, and the free market*

*We are not oppressed by anything other than corporate capitalism, forced assimilation, US imperialism, neoliberalism, globalization, and the free market*

Well, to be fair, the patriarchy is real. We, women, are oppressed by the patriarchy. Absolutely. But, the patriarchy is real everywhere. There is no need to construct Muslim women as “more oppressed,” as the Western media does--that just serves the West’s own interests in (moral?) justification of intervention in our (a broad ‘our’ of the Middle East and other Muslim countries) government, economy, land, military, etc.  

The Global South girl is a constructed girl. She is marked by her youth/young age, her innocence, her oppression, her sad face (or her newly empowered face upon your donation), her brown skin, her non-Western attire, her oppressive customs and traditions, the barren land that surrounds her, her dirty skin, her ‘personal’ obstacles and hurdles. This girl is a well-constructed and intentionally-taken picture from a remote village in questionable country. This girl needs saving. She needs our help. She needs structure and programs. She needs advice and Westernization and modernization. She needs to be like us, poor girl. Oh, the poor Global South girl! 

I don’t know if we are subject to Western targeting of “development” and “saving.” We are surely subject to the images of people used in portraying the “Global South” in a certain way by the West. (Turkey isn’t a clean country that fits either with North or South, Western or Eastern, forwards or backwards, first world or Third World, developed or developing). I do know that we are and have been subject to targeting of development, modernization, Westernization, Turkification, and assimilation by the Turkish government (as are other ethnic minorities and rural/village people in Turkey). Our government since Ataturk has been on a mission to become like the West. That doesn’t mean we are like the West, or that we are on board with that mission. 

[capitalism-must-die]

Third World Feminismssssss

ah, my favorite kind of feminism because it is *my* feminism! A feminism that counters white feminism or western feminism. A femnism that is non- & anti- & de-colonial and non- & anti-imperial. A feminism that speaks to me, my culture, my knowledge, my struggles (even as I am positioned in the US). Third World Feminism is by and for third world women. What do we mean by “Third World”? it is a political concept that was originally created to marginalize, belittle, and further subjugate nations that are under it’s definition, but has been reclaimed by these countries as a sense of unity, pride, and identity against hegemonic and dominant Western power, violence, oppression, narrative and rhetoric.  It is a political concept that roughly corresponds to the geographic location of the “Global South” (which is also a political concept) which refers to “underdeveloped,” “developing,” and/or poor nations. These nations that comprise the Third World (and honestly the word “nations” doesn’t quite fit either—there are many regions and peoples that are unrecognized by state powers that fit the politically-defined definition) were often previously victims of European/Western colonization and/or imperialism. These countries are painted as poor and are associated with poor quality of life, human rights violations, etcetera, by the western media. they are painted as needing saving by richer countries, by “developed” countries, by whiter countries. white feminism adopts this line of thought, framework, and ideology and takes the shallow depiction of the Third World that western media and rhetoric produces and perpetuates and assumes that the women in these countries are oppressed with all odds against them, need saving, unable to save themselves, are docile and unable to resist, do not resist/struggle/fight back, and are poor victims. Third World feminism puts forth that third world women in fact don’t need saving, are able, can, and do struggle, resist, and fight back, have nuanced and deep political analyses, are not poor victims, are able to and do put out international calls for support, etc. Third World feminism centers the lives, experiences, and needs of third world women themselves, completely eliminating the opinion of non-third world women in matters that are frankly, not hers to begin with (although i guess men can be white feminists too, so ignore my gendered language).

third world feminism (along with indigenous feminism), in my opinion, is one of the first manifestations or forms of transnational feminism as described and articulated by both Chandra Mohanty in Revisiting Under Western Eyes  and Ranjoo S. Herr in Transnational, Third World, and Global Feminisms. Herr’s article set out to differentiate third world feminism from transnational feminism but i still don’t have a clear understanding of the difference and I sometimes think critical theorists critique for the sake of it instead of contributing meaningfully to social change. maybe thats misinformed and misplaced…

“‘Under Western Eyes’ sought to… draw attention to what was left out of feminist theorizing, namely, the material complexity, reality, and agency of Third World women’s bodies and lives.” (Mohanty, p510)

A defining feature of Third World feminism is its understanding that issues surrounding gender in these nations cannot be divorced from these nations’ history and subjugation to Western dominance like colonialism and imperialism.

an example?

me! so, i wish this was joke, really wish this wasn’t true or real, but my landlord (a self-proclaimed leftist who may or may not teach in UK’s history department) really likes to talk. like a lot. so whenever i drop off rent, he always forces really long one-way conversations on me. in our most recent “conversation” (can it really be called a conversation if just one person talks the entire time?) scratch that—in our most recent unidirectional monologue directed at me, i was told that (ohhhhhhhhand this guy is white like distantly european jewish immigrant type white) i was told that muslim women in my part of the world are oppressed and that my countrys secularist founding father was a liberator to “oppressed” muslim women. pause, hold up, WHAT?!?? and when i tried to explain how that’s problematic as fuck, i just kept on getting told by this white dude that no, i’m wrong (as a muslim[ish] turkish womxn), that, in fact, a leader who literally tried to erase the existence of my ethnicity/culture/language, was a great leader who did wonders for the modern world and for the feminist movement. and that, my friends, is pretty much the textbook definition of what white feminism is, and why third world feminism as a counter-reaction is oh-so-necessary for a more holistic and truer understanding of the world and the powers at play and how to actually fight injustice and have quality, peace, justice, peace and dignity and prevent further colonialism, imperialism, oppression, and violence within movements (like feminism).

why is it important?

because, for example, if our only understanding of “international” feminism in the US was that muslim women are oppressed and therefore need (outside) (support of) saving, my part of the world would probably be experiencing way more instability and violence then it already does.

[capitalism-must-die]

Unit 5

The systemic pathologization of everyday life... (Deregulating Disorder)

The example of the hospital loosening its binaristic boundaries of insitutional physical hospital/medical setting and larger city/community in order to follow and adopt spectric/spectrum model/thinking was very scary to read. That is gross. I completely agree with the article. Deregulating disorder makes me think about how easily pills are prescribed (specifically psychiatric pills). I am very much a victim of pathologization. I have been force-fed pills for the larger part of my teen years. Psychiatric pills for “mood disorders” like bipolar disorder. For ADHD in college. I’ve been institutionalized against my will, because I fought back against my _ _ _ hitting me, my choice to self-defend and respond physically to their physicality towards me landed me in the hospital. Because police have been called to our home too many times because of our ‘domestic fights.’ Because I acted out. Because I was a rebellious, not to be confined, teenager. Because I am overly-empathetic, abnormally creative, a little smarter than most, depressed at times because of the state of my life and the world, I was labeled with depression, with anxiety, with executive-functioning problems, with a mood disorder. I was mapped onto many different spectrums and had to take serious psychiatric pills because of psychiatrists, teachers, psychologists, therapists, counselors, police, my family, all convinced something was wrong with me. That I was not normal. Deviant. Abnormal. Needing to be controlled. In addition to me not having bipolar disorder, and not needing these pills, I suffered from many of the side effects these pills carry with them. I am very much a victim of the psychiatric-industrial complex, of big pharma, of being too out there for a daughter of Middle Eastern immigrants (as it relates back to our class on the school to prison pipeline and how children of color specifically black children are disproportionately labeled as deviant and with cognitive/behavioral disabilities). 

The psychiatric-industrial complex really scares me! The erasure of categories and embrace of the spectrum doesn’t sound so bad in theory, but the article is very much correct and accurate in pointing out and critiquing this paradigm shift which allows for the blurring of private and public life and placing the majority of society on the map of various spectrums and disorders (or on the spectrum... in simpler words). I am not sure how we are more surveilled because of the blurring of these distinctions. How are we more controlled, more regulated? How are we more oppressed, more hurt? How is it profitable? The simple answer to the profit question is that if more people are placed on a spectrum for a disorder/illness/problem, then more people will seek solutions, and of course, as we know, no solution is free. Is our neoliberal medical society shifting the paradigm of what disability/illness/disorder is in order to create a problem that the neoliberal capitalist free market can then market a “solution” for? Is our increase in medicine usage as a society based in (can be attributed to) the for-profit motive alongside framework shifts of the blurring of those who are normal/abnormal disordered/not disabled/abled?