Bell Hooks, Talia M. Bettcher , Himani Bannerji , and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson
Bell Hooks Reading
Children as the best theorist as they have not yet been socialized to see our social practices as natural and ask why we might not do things different
Hooks and challenging the patriarchal norms as a child
Refers to herself as “a demonic little figure who threaten to subvert and undermine all that they were trying to build” hence why his parents responded with repressing containing and punishing
Theory as a healing place for hook to imaging different futures, explain the pain and make it go away
Alic Miller (Prisoners of Childhood) used theory as a healing place
Reciprocal process of theory and practice; self recovery
“Theory is not inherently healing, liberatory, or revolutionary. It fulfills this function only when we ask that it do so and direct our theorizing towards this end.”
Terms like "theory" or "feminism" are used freely by individuals who may not actively embody or practice what those terms signify
These individuals often operate in spaces of privilege, where they have the power to define and project interpretations of their work, which might not reflect the true nature of their actions
Academic environments are highlighted as spaces where feminist theory is often produced in hierarchical ways
Those with higher status and visibility, particularly white women, can appropriate the work of less visible scholars without proper acknowledgment
Readers and audiences frequently attribute ideas to well-known scholars, even when those scholars have credited less visible sources
This process obscures the contributions of marginalized voices and perpetuates inequities in knowledge production
Katie King uses the example of Chela Sandoval, a Chicana theorist whose work is influential but often underrecognized
Despite the sporadic and unconventional publication of Sandoval's work, her ideas circulate widely and are appropriated by more visible figures, masking the depth of her influence
King's critical point is that feminist theory does not arise from isolated individuals but from collective engagement and contributions
This challenges the common perception of intellectual production as the work of singular, high-profile figures
Although King critiques these dynamics, she also risks positioning herself as an authority, which could perpetuate the same hierarchies she critiques
Nonetheless, her analysis underscores the importance of recognizing collective and diverse contributions in feminist theory
Expansive perspective of the theorizing process
Privileging written feminist thought and theory over oral narratives
Black women and women of color critiqued the universalization of "woman" as a singular, homogeneous category
They highlighted that this category often ignored differences in race, class, and other intersecting factors that shape women’s experiences
These scholars and activists argued that gender alone does not define "femaleness."
Other factors like race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and colonial history play critical roles in shaping identity and lived experiences
Intersectionality
This intervention led to a fundamental shift in feminist theory, disrupting the dominant perspectives that were primarily shaped by white, academic women
It exposed the limitations of hegemonic (dominant and normalized) feminist theories that often centered the experiences and concerns of white, middle-class women
The dominant feminist theories produced by academic women tended to prioritize gender issues without adequately addressing how other forms of oppression intersect with gender
The work of Black women and women of color challenged these theories, bringing attention to the complexity and diversity of women’s lives
This critique introduced intersectionality as a critical framework in feminist thought, revolutionizing how feminists understand identity and oppression
It shifted the focus from a narrow, gender-only perspective to a more inclusive and multidimensional analysis of power and inequality
White men and women ignoring the work of black women/women of color, explaining it as not theoretical enough
Then appropriated by the individuals who de-legitimized their work
Theory used for producing an intellectual class hierarchy
Work deemed truly theoretical is work that is highly abstract, jargonistic, difficult to read, and containing obscure references that may not be all clear or explained
“A narcissistic self-indulgent practice that most seeks to create a gap between theory and practice so as to perpetuate class elitism.”
“Any theory that cannot be shared in everyday conversation cannot be used to educate the public”
“We might ask ourselves, of what use is feminist theory that literally beats them down, leaves them stumbling bleary-eyed from classroom settings feeling humiliated, feeling as though they could easily be standing in a living room or bedroom somewhere naked with someone who has seduced them or is going to, who also subjects them to a process of interaction that humiliates, that strips them of their sense of value.”
Feminist theory as a instrument of domination
Also filled with important ideas that have the potential of serving a healing liberatory function
Still poses a danger to feminist struggle
Many women feel that dominant (hegemonic) feminist theories fail to address their lived realities and struggles
This disconnect leads to dismissing or rejecting such theories as irrelevant or out of touch
The author highlights a common yet problematic assumption: that theory and action are separate and that action is inherently more valuable.
This dichotomy undermines the idea that theory itself is a form of social practice, shaping actions, strategies, and movements
By rejecting theory outright, some women unintentionally reinforce oppressive hierarchies within feminist movements
This prioritization of "concrete action" over "theory" can marginalize intellectual contributions, particularly those of women of color, and limit the development of comprehensive feminist frameworks
The author recounts a gathering of predominantly Black women where the group debated whether prominent Black male leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X should be critiqued from a feminist perspective
A participant expressed frustration, dismissing the discussion as unproductive "talk" and emphasizing the need for action
The author argues that such discussions are essential, especially for Black women and women of color, as opportunities to interrogate race, gender, class, and sexuality intersections are rare
She views theorizing as a revolutionary act of claiming intellectual space and shaping collective understanding
She feared contesting those that rejected theory
Words as action
Intellectual work and theorizing as necessary tools for advancing black liberation
The discussions themselves are acts of resistance
Emphasized the need for new theories to address contemporary challenges like despair, violence, and low self esteem
There was a tension between pushing these ideas and maintaining a sense of unity, recalling past experiences in feminist spaces where raising issues of race was seen as disruptive to solidarity
Censoring and anti-intellectualism in predominantly black settings that are supposedly supportive
Silencing in institutions; women of colour not being theoretical enough
Elite academics use theories of Blackness to assert authority and restrict access to collective theory-making, hindering liberation struggles
Rejecting theory outright as worthless promotes anti-intellectualism and reinforces the false divide between theory and practice, ultimately undermining efforts for critical consciousness and collective liberation
While Ali’s book employs accessible language, it is rooted in patriarchal theories that justify sexism
This example highlights how some Black nationalists value theory in resisting white supremacy but dismiss its importance in addressing gender and sexism, undermining collective struggles against oppression.
“Personal testimony, personal experience, is such fertile ground for the production of liberatory feminist theory because usually it forms the base of our theory-making.”
Needs a body of feminist theory that focuses on integrating feminist thinking and practice into daily life
Feminist thinking has empowered many to transform their lives, but the author critiques "lifestyle feminism" for lacking political commitment to mass-based feminist movements
In a capitalist society, feminism is often commodified, turning it into a privilege for the few rather than a force for societal change
Feminist activists must prioritize a revolutionary agenda that aims to transform society and make feminist theory accessible to a broad audience
The author’s choice to write in an inclusive, non-academic style reflects this commitment, though it comes with challenges, such as being dismissed as "not scholarly" in academic spaces
The authors work is used by men in prison who are trying to unlearn sexism
Evidence that work directed at transforming consciousness amongst diverse audiences works
Debating and theorising of race gender and sexuality can be used as a means to release feelings and ideas that people keep inside and heal the hurt
Theorizing as a method for naming our pain
“Make it a location for theorizing”
Exposing wounds to give experience to teach and guide and start new theoretical journeys
Find the pain within and “offer healing words, healing strategies, healing theory”
No gap between feminist theory and feminist practice
Lecture notes – Theory as a liberatory practice
The personal and simple nature of bell hooks writing makes it both more accessible and digestible when reading
What determines professionality in philosophy?
By gauging the credibility over work based on academic standards, it is discriminatory for certain groups and makes it inaccessible to the majority
Oral and written
Theory as intervention to challenge the status quo
Theory becoming more sophisticated makes it less and less accessible; makes it so less people can understand and produce theory
Writing from testimonials has its own benefits that academic methodological data lacks
You don’t know anyone better than yourself
The creation of hierarchy within academic settings
Theory as a place of sanctuary
Everyone participating it in our own ways; doubts and questioning
Making sense of what's happening
Imagining possible futures and where life could be lived differently
A healing place
Lived experience of critical thinking where you can explain your own life (explain the hurt away)
Silence as an act of complicity
Theory can heal when we use it to
Written and or oral narrative that challenge the status quo
Silence vs. voice and communication
Theory as a form of social practice and educational enterprise
Theory as a remedy for collective healing
What makes theory healing is connecting theory and practice
Philosophy doesn’t have to be overcomplicated; it is simply the love of wisdom and holding opinions
Analyzing theory through different perspectives to gain knowledge
Justifying perspectives and beliefs and start debates regarding how a theory is supposed to be
Open to be evaluated and examined to improve
Action-oriented; rather than just talk and rhetoric
Debate and conversation as action
Hook sees theory and practice as a reciprocal and connected
Cant have one without the other
Instrument vs end-laden (value oriented meaning production)
Emerges from engagement with collective sources, rather than being an individual practice
Feminist theorizing
Circulating theory; spreading the word
Inquires gender, sexism, and sexist oppression and exploitation
Pain
Agenda: transforming women's lives
Creating theory that speaks to the widest audience of people
Needs to be inclusive
Eg. women based on self identification (including trans gender women)
White feminist theory critique by hooks
Not-inclusive
Lifestyle based
Commodification of feminist theory
Hierarchical
Enables white women with high status and visibility to draw upon the works of feminists scholars who have less or not status
No recognition of the original source
Open the gateway for broader multicultural identities to contribute to philosophy
Equity as a myth
Women are oppressed within academia
Especially those experiences intersectionality
0 Indigenous women teaching in political science in Calgary
Stats show that the power differences still remain
Who are the hiring committees?
Who sets the standards?
Shows how justice can be inactive
How injustice can be institutionalized
Talia M. Mettcher lecture: Gender, identity, theory, and action
Philosophy of gender
Gender is an identity
Identity, sense of self, possessing a sense of “who” and a sense of “what”
Our identities implicates gender; the social world bears gendered practices
These practices based on gender are “value-laden” and “action-guiding”
Philosophy/theory of gender identities
Critically examines gender. Thus, asks questions about the meaning and nature of “manhood” or “womanhood”
Reflects on identity-founding beliefs (knowing that these beliefs are related with social norms that govern humans behaviours/actions/choices)
Critically investigates and questions the unquestioned, common-sense “norms” around categorizations of genders
Contemporary Trans Philosophy
Political liberatory dimension is central to the inquiry of Trans studies
Critically examines the “now dominant model of trans theory” (which evolved simultaneously with queer theory and queer politics in early nineties)
Queer theory/politics attacks gender/sec binarities and asserts that all gender/sex is socially constructed
Trans studies are inherently political theory bs “trans lives are valid and legitimate”
Why is Trans philosophy inherently political?
It relates to trans individuals lives so its a political issue not just isolated and abstract object of investigation
Trans theory bears and possesses experiential dimension pertaining to legal and political subjectivity of actual humans who identify Trans
This is a critical branch of philosophy of gender as it opens a new window for trans subjectivity in theory
Contemporary Trans studies
Departs from abstract investigation of Trans identity
Unreflective views of gender about the nature of gender and sexuality can lead/cause harmful effects in people's day to day lives
Lived experience of Trans individuals reflected in theory
Trans individuals are the authors, content-creators of Tras identity in theory
“World”- traveling subjectivity in theory
The very cartography of the theory and social world of identities is formulated on an oppressive rhetoric
However, contemporary Trans studies offers an intersectional approach where identities are lived on a multiversal domain
Multicultural, “world”-traveling subjectivity in theory: more complex than the givens of normative theory of the gendered world and its one-dimensional gendered practices
“..There is a danger that we view others only in terms of ourselves —a danger that is only augmented if our map places other in categories that are racist, sexist, or in other ways harmful to them. One of Lugones' point is that in order to be open to see others as they see themselves -and to be able to identify with them-
it is important that one be open to seeing oneself differently, open to the fact that one may be viewed by others in a way that does not necessarily accord with one's self-conception. In a word, one must "world"-travel (Bettcher 2007, 14).
Talia M. Bettcher reading notes
The stereotype of philosophy as disconnected from everyday life is addressed by emphasizing its relevance to daily existence.
In teaching philosophy of gender, the concept of "identity" or "sense of self" is central.
Individuals possess a sense of who they are, which involves a "map" of the world, guided by beliefs about gender, sexuality, race, and religion.
These identity-based beliefs may not always be true or well grounded, and philosophy can help critically examine them.
Just as Socrates questioned concepts like piety and justice, similar questions can be asked about identity, such as "What is a woman?" and "What is a man?"
Students are encouraged to reflect on their identity-founding beliefs and how these beliefs guide behavior.
Our sense of self often involves norms that govern behavior, such as cultural aesthetic norms that women may be evaluated against, which are tied to their sense of self-worth.
Norms about excellence in achievements often go unquestioned and can guide behavior in ways that are taken for granted.
Philosophy is ideal for examining the grounding of gender-regulated behavior and questioning moral, aesthetic, and other norms.
The author, as a transsexual woman, emphasizes the impact of unreflective views on gender and sexuality in daily life.
There is a history of transsexuals being objectified in research, but contemporary trans studies has moved away from this and given trans people a voice as subjects/authors.
Trans studies has a political liberatory dimension, addressing transphobic aspects in theory and research.
The dominant model of trans theory borrows from queer theory, challenging gender/sex binaries and viewing them as socially constructed.
Trans studies is interdisciplinary, drawing from history, psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and biology.
The author emphasizes that theory is inherently political and bound to political considerations.
The legitimacy of trans lives is assumed in the course, but teaching this assumption is controversial and political.
One key theme in the course is the relationship of theory to politics and how it relates to the lives of the people it examines.
Intersectionality is essential to the course, recognizing that oppressions based on race, class, religion, and gender are deeply intertwined.
Gender norms are often connected with racial and class-based stereotypes and cultural ideals, such as the White beauty ideal for women and hypersexualization of Black men and women.
Gender and racial oppression are deeply connected, and race must not be abstracted when discussing gender and sexuality.
The course Philosophy, Gender, and Culture and Introduction to Transgender Studies address these issues, with a concern that current trans studies emerges from a specific cultural location (White, academic, American, Anglo).
There is a lack of writing from people outside of this location, and transgender issues are often discussed abstractly without considering race.
"World"-traveling is a key concept in the courses, influencing the approach to service learning and civic/social engagement.
The concept of "world"-traveling, introduced by Maria Lugones, involves moving between different social realities or "worlds."
Changing "worlds" involves a shift in self-identity, with each world influencing how a person views themselves.
Identity may be partially determined by external perceptions, and one’s sense of self can blind them to how they are seen by others.
There is a risk of viewing others only through one’s own perspective, especially if that perspective is harmful or discriminatory.
To understand others and identify with them, it’s crucial to be open to seeing oneself differently and acknowledge that others may view you in ways that differ from your self-conception.
Service learning is used in courses to help students connect classroom discussions with real-world experiences and challenge their own beliefs about identity.
In the Introduction to Transgender Studies course, most students are not transgender and often have limited knowledge or interaction with transgender individuals.
The course aims to introduce students to trans realities and to combat the exoticization and marginalization of transgender people.
Service learning is a key part of encouraging students to "world"-travel and experience trans issues firsthand.
Beyond theory, students are encouraged to engage in grassroots trans community organizing to understand the politics of trans issues.
Much of transgender theory neglects issues of race and class, and service learning helps students see these limitations.
The Los Angeles Transgender Youth Consortium (TYC) addresses the impact of HIV on transgender youth, providing real-world experience for students.
Service learning in courses like Philosophy, Gender, and Culture focuses on topics like domestic violence, sexual assault, and LGBTQ+ issues.
Students work with agencies like the East Los Angeles Women's Center, Prototypes, and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center to gain practical experience.
Several organizations, including Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team, Bienestar Human Services, and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, were involved in service learning.
Students helped with outreach, support services, information gathering, and developing brochures about trans-friendly resources.
Students participated in HIV 101 and transgender 101 training before beginning their service.
Service learning allowed students to interact with real trans people and communities, enhancing their understanding of trans issues.
Integration of service learning with classroom activities is important, with guest speakers and panel presentations providing expert insights.
The presence of community experts in class bridges the gap between theory and real-life application, particularly in topics like sexual violence.
In Introduction to Transgender Studies, inviting trans community leaders offered a counterpoint to the theory grounding the course, focusing on activism and real-world issues.
Non-service-learning students were required to attend at least one community event to gain firsthand experience of a different world.
In Philosophy, Gender, and Culture, students were required to attend cultural events on campus, such as National Coming Out Day.
The success of community service integration is tied to the instructor’s personal relationships with agencies and active community involvement.
The instructor’s commitment to civic/social engagement helps guide students and undermines the objectification of the community.
The instructor’s active role in grassroots organizing and long-term relationships with agencies helps students engage authentically.
This model is particularly important in preventing the marginalization of trans people in the classroom.
The instructor's prior involvement with partners helped move students from campus to genuine trans community intervention.
Important reflection activities include journal entries, short response papers, and reflection questions at the beginning and end of the course.
Collaboration with student-staffed volunteer organizations to conduct group reflection sessions.
Reflection activities include selecting objects representing identity, creating collages, and answering the question “Who am I?”.
Students relate their identity to their service experiences, leading to group presentations that focus on different identities.
In Introduction to Transgender Studies, students write a term paper that integrates theory with their service experience, reflecting on the relationship between theory and real-world experience.
The term paper assignment involves three stages: meeting with the instructor, writing rough drafts, and submitting final drafts with detailed feedback.
Students are encouraged to reflect on their agency placement, its mission, and its clientele.
The goal of civic/social engagement is to increase students' social/cultural responsibility and sensitivity to different perspectives.
The goal is to increase students' social/cultural responsibility, self-reflection, and critique of their own subject position.
Service-learning allows students to gain a deeper understanding of gender, race, and class politics, especially in real-world settings.
Students who engage in service learning often make observations and critiques they wouldn't make in the classroom alone (e.g., racial divisions among trans women).
The hardest objective for students is to engage in self-assessment and see themselves from another's perspective, which is key for "world traveling."
Students often reflect on their own relationship to gender, becoming more accepting of diverse identities.
Service learning helps move students beyond objectification of transgender people to recognizing them as real individuals.
One measure of success is continued student engagement in social/political issues after their service learning, such as continued volunteering or working for placement agencies.
An example of impactful engagement: a student advocated for a transgender program that was at risk of losing funding, showing informed social/civic engagement.
Community partners evaluate student participation through attendance, evaluation forms, and discussions with the instructor.
Students are generally awarded an "A" unless they fail to perform their tasks responsibly, with reflection activities helping evaluate their learning outcomes.
Journal entries are measured with three points: in-class concepts, community-based experience, and reflection on the connections/disconnections between them.
Paper topics include sections requiring reflection on theory-practice connections and sociocultural context.
Strong papers (B+ and above) should demonstrate students challenging their own subject position.
Transgender is an umbrella term that includes various gender identities and expressions, such as transsexuals, cross-dressers, drag queens/kings, and some butch lesbians.
"Trans" is sometimes used to avoid contested terminology regarding transsexuals.
Future teaching goals include clarifying the relationship between identity, "world"-travel, reflection, and social/civic engagement.
Instructor plans to work more closely with community partners for better course integration.
Emphasis on "world"-travel, social engagement, and identity reassessment to enhance student learning and reflection.
The instructor's role as both educator and community activist enables better guidance for students in social engagement and political theorizing.
Bettcher reading summary:
Gender, Identity, Theory, and Action
Philosopher Talia Bettcher introduces relevance of philosophy in gender studies.
Central concept: Identity (sense of self).
Individuals have a map of their world influenced by values and beliefs about gender, sexuality, race, and religion.
Critical examination of identity-based beliefs is vital.
Suggested reflective questions:
What is a woman?
What is a man?
Emphasis on norms that guide behavior in society, particularly for women and men concerning cultural aesthetics and achievements.
Identity in Practice
Bettcher shares personal experiences as a transsexual woman.
Critique of how traditional gender theories overlook lived experiences of trans individuals.
Historical treatment of trans individuals as objects in research.
Emergence of trans studies focusing on trans individuals as subjects/authors.
The relationship of trans theory to queer theory and its common themes:
Attack on gender and sex binaries.
Social construction of gender and sex.
Trans studies intersectionally engages with:
History
Psychology
Sociology
Philosophy
Biology
World-Traveling
Introduced by philosopher Maria Lugones.
"World"-traveling: engaging in different social realities.
Self-conception changes across different "worlds."
Recognizes external perceptions of oneself may differ from self-identity.
Importance of recognizing others outside personal perspectives to avoid harmful categorizations (racist, sexist, etc.).
Importance of service-learning and civic engagement in understanding identity and social realities.
Service Learning
Service learning integrates course objectives with community work.
Courses cover topics such as:
Domestic violence
Sexual assault
LGBTQ issues
Collaborated agencies include:
East Los Angeles Women's Center
Prototypes
Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center
Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team (APAIT)
Students do outreach, provide support services, and research resources for the transgender community.
Essential for students to experience unfamiliar realities and engage directly with community members.
Classroom Integration
Guest speakers from involved agencies enhance learning and bridge theory with real experiences.
Topics include:
Introduction to trans issues
Medical model of transsexuality
Transphobic violence
Encouragement for students to attend community events, providing real-world context.
Reflection
Reflections are core to the learning experience across courses.
Various activity styles:
Weekly journals
Response papers
Group reflections
Students often explore their identity in relation to hands-on experiences.
Reflection questions guide personal and academic growth regarding gender identity and social engagement.
Evaluation and Conclusion
Community partners assess student participation through:
Attendance
Evaluation forms
Discussions.
Essential for deep engagement and understanding of gender dynamics.
Examples demonstrate the impact of service learning on student perspectives and motivations.
Future goals include:
Clarifying relationships between identity, service learning, and engagement outcomes.
Continuing to integrate community partnerships into coursework for a holistic educational experience.
Himani Bannerji lecture notes:
Liberal analyses of the notion of identity
“being,” “subjectivity,” “agency,”“experience”
The term has been used as an important conceptual instrument for diverse political projects ranging from nationalism to liberal democracy
Feminist and marxist theorists critique of the liberal notion of identity
Imaginative cultural being, individualistic, divisive, regressive, idealistic
Falsely separate the self/agency/subjectivity/being/consciousness from the world where the subjectivity is situated in and inhabits
detached/disconnected from the organization or structure of the world in relation to capital and class – inclusive of colonialism, slavery and imperialism
Formation of identity politics is a process of “naming” aka “identity production”
Marginalized or repressed identities are defined/determined/minoritized/produced on the basis of
Nationality or religion (as subaltern political subjects or agents
Various interpretations of body (sex, sexual orientation, race)
Identity politics is difference politics/difference construction:
Social groups are named based on the narrative produced by the ones who bear political and discursive power to assign meanings to different others and to create clusters of inclusion and exclusions
Himani Bannerji’s critique of the liberal conceptualizations of identity
Bannerji approaches to the notion of identity from a Marxist perspective
Either identity or class (mutually exclusive) perspective is not satisfactory
Self or consciousness as being in and of the world:
Reflexive or dialectic identity
An isolated account/explanation of selfhood/subjectivity cannot generate transformative politics
Class-sensitive reconstruction of identities
"Interpreting identity as I have done, by integrating difference and class with it, historicizing it helps to a larger extent. One has to cast the net wide, and saturate the notion of being with becoming" --political possibilities" being the key theme.Having an open-ended notion of self-definition helps, over one which is self-enclosed, static, and essentialized. It helps to situate the notion of identity into history, rather than using it as a conjuring stick for creating mythologies. Identities cannot be any more of the past, the very history along whose paths we look back for our origins, dictates the logic of being contemporary to our own historically situated present. Identities need to be signs and signals of the future- they must speak to individuals as collectivities of resistance, summoning and interpellating them in their names of resistance, beyond the "house of bondage" (Bannerji 1995, 37).
Marxist iteration of identity: reflexive or dialectic identities with transformative capabilities/possibilities
Bannerji, following marxist (historical materialist) interpretation of “self” explains the account of subjectivity/agency as a “being in and of the world”
Political subjectivity as subject/object; embodied subjectviity/agency
Materially situated existence in connection with others (interpersonal) and structures of others (institutional) and structures of agency (identity politics)
A subjectivity as a part of living history and structures made by it
Bannerji identifies subjectivity as historical subjectivity (representative of transformative politics) in a dialectic relationship with the socioeconomic structures of the world
Identity production as process labour production
A critical question to ask: who names and named?
Elite european males as universal representative of ruling and knowing: humanist universalism
On a lower scale, white bourgeois feminists “named as well: feminist theorists identity politics were originated on being equal to white men
(Universal) women: they didn’t position themselves in regard to non-white women; they overlooked the significance of the differences of womanhood. However, marginalized women’s experiences are not only shaped in relation to men but also to the polities and economies
I.e. labour processes and organization
Lowr value of the labour of women and of non-white women in particular
This is also a racial dynamic – gendered labour is raced
There approaches ignore the class relations and the processes of class-based labour production
"Resting on the core of a recognition of the self and its individuation with regard to others, the concept of identity in the context of capitalist development and international division of labour and power takes on a peculiar convolution in this basic self-other relation. For the colonized or "raced" subjects the notion of identity involves a loss of pre-colonial, relatively substantive forms of subjectivities through a colonizing reductionist gesture towards their historicity, multiplicity and dynamism. They become essentialized, unified or totalized as entities, i.e. they undergo a reification, with specifically ascribed meanings produced through the colonial negative definitions of the other"' (Bannerji 1995, 26).
Un-’capital’ist formation of identities is obvious to the intersection of class and identity
Political subjectivity/agency is historically saturated by structural relations and organizations of economic capital
Identity and class are mutually inclusive notion
Class formation
According to Bannerji, proper evaluation of the nation of identity cannot be done isolated from historical and structural organizations of capital
Class-sensitive interpretation of the notion requires explorations around the economic aspects of subjectivity/agency
A concrete organization of class identity in relation to gender and race
Class as a racial and gendered historical formation (sexual and social division of labour)
Exploitation and accumulation of surplus value (the social product which is over and above what is required for the producers to live) is gendered and racialized
Identity politics as ideological “device of control”
Political life is shaped by the hierarchiall organization and ordering of identities
Identity politics tacitly enables the organization of the labour on hegemonic terms
The processes of naming produces and control and subjectify the experience of social subjectivities
Identities become instrumentalized for economic hegemony of some identities over others and for the global mobility of the capital
Anticolonial resistance to identity politics
Marginalized or the repressed are the ones who have been most exercised in relation to political and personal power relations within diverse rhetoric/discourses of identity politics
However, these groups do not get involved in the process of naming others, instead the key project for these groups have been “writing histories” representative of their subjective experiential content to recover, explore and rename themselves on their own terms
Anticolonial “renaming” through “politically actionable” terms
Understanding the history of the “ideally” constructed content of difference and how these differences are implicated in socioeconomic structure and relations of power/ruling and resistance matter
"So we might say, that both the need for an identity, which negates the imposed one, as well as the character of the emerging forms, depend on the specific history of domination and dispossession. The questioning and reconstructing identities have to take place in the context of this hegemonic history- and involves situating them within particular social, cultural and ideological relations and forms" (28).
A “politically actionable” term: Class
Identity and difference as historical forms of consciousness connected to class formation, capital and class politics (mutually formative)
These concepts intersect in the socioeconomic experiences of the political subjectivities in the structural organization of the world
If we recognize the intersection of these two, we can head towards practical and concrete structures that recognize the gendered and racialized aspects of the labour force and their implications in shaping collective and individual identity experience
Reflexive or dialectic identity: an anti-racist feminist exploration for transformative political subjectivities
Bannerji distinguishes the project of theorizing identity from the project of theorizing subjectivity. Bannerji argues that the latter ought to replace the former as the ground for transformative criticism of historical structures of oppression:
"The social analysis we need, therefore, must begin from subjectivity, which asserts dynamic, contradictory, and unresolved dimensions of experience and consequently does not reify itself into a fixed psychological category called identity which rigidifies an individual relationship with her social environment and history" (Bannerji 1995, 88).
The gap in employment rates between men and women through years:
1978: (M) 72.7% (W) 41.9% – the gap was about 30 percentage points
2019: (M) 66.3% (W) 58.5% – the gap is about 8 percentage points
Gender gap in annual earrings decreased: over this same period, women’s income from employment increased, helping to reduce the gender gap in annual earning
Gender gap in 1976: 56.2%
In 2019: 27.3%
Himani Bannerji reading notes
"Identity" is a common political term today, once mainly used by Romantic poets and philosophers.
It has become central to various political projects, from nationalism to liberal democracy.
The concept emphasizes subjectivity, experience, and the notion of "being."
Representation in both political and cultural senses has become central, connecting identity with power distribution and political agency.
Some view this shift as positive, while others, including many Marxists and feminists, see it as divisive, individualistic, and regressive.
The use of "difference" and "representation" has struggled in political theory.
Subjectivity, experience, agency, and representation have mainly been explored by post-modernists, post-structuralists, and cultural theorists.
"Identity" is now often seen as a separate political project from "class," creating a divide in political theory.
This mirrors Marx's critique in the "First Thesis on Feuerbach" regarding the false separation between self-consciousness and the world.
Marx argued that idealists focus on consciousness, while materialists focus on the world's structures, but both ignore the interconnectedness of the two.
Marx's solution was a dialectical understanding of self and world, where both inform each other.
Marxists should adopt this approach to better understand identity, difference, subjectivity, and agency in the context of history, social organization, and capitalism.
Gramsci's concept of hegemony, particularly in everyday life, should also be incorporated into this understanding.
Integrating Marxist concepts of class, ideology, and historical understanding of capital helps move beyond the divide of "culture or class" and "identity politics or class struggle."
Marx's "Eighteenth Brumaire" emphasizes that people make history, though not under their own conditions, and need names or specified agency to do so.
Cultural-political identity and named agency are key to historical subjectivity.
Marx's focus on specified cultural-political identities is central to his political project, regardless of his views on peasants.
The Roman costume drama in the French Revolution illustrates the significance of names and identities in class politics.
A name or ascribed identity holds political significance—"a Rose by any other name would not smell as sweet."
To avoid seeing identity and difference as opposed to class, we must challenge our categorical approach to both and to representation.
We need to understand how identity, difference, and class interact historically, with different agents in specific social relations.
Exploring particular identity projects can lead to new interpretations beyond culturalist or Marxist perspectives.
The quest for a named agency is often seen as "identity politics," but it can be perceived either positively, as community creation, or negatively, as exclusion.
There are varying versions of "identity," with distinctions and slippages in historical contexts.
A craving for identity, subjectivity, and representation in politics often stems from marginalized or repressed groups.
Marginalized groups, such as nationalities, religious groups, and those minoritized by sex, orientation, or race, are most engaged in identity politics.
These groups are often "People Without History," lacking names of their own choosing, in contrast to elite European males who remain non-named in humanist texts.
Elite European males, through their universalist humanist perspectives, don't see their identity as a device of control, and thus aren't engaged in identity politics despite their centrality in ruling structures.
White bourgeois feminists have not viewed their feminist theories as identity politics, despite their starting point being their perceived difference from white men.
They neglected the experiences and differences of non-white women, rendering them invisible in both theory and practice.
"Identity politics" is often attributed to marginalized groups (Black, First Nations, Chicano women), while feminism is seen as a universal, white-identified worldview.
The term "identity politics" is often used derogatorily by those in central political spaces, not by the marginalized groups practicing it.
Marginalized groups, facing denial and misidentification, show a strong desire to name and reclaim their identities, extending beyond the individual to a collective historical identity.
Women's, gay, and Black history projects are proliferating as part of efforts to recover, explore, and re-name in politically actionable terms.
These acts of naming are seen as crucially political, expressed in terms of gaining voice, freedom, and identity through writing, reading, and speaking.
Despite differing political positions, there is a shared concern for identity and named representation across various movements, including separatist cultural nationalism and liberal pluralism.
Political movements like multiculturalism, commoditization of ethnicity, Black workers' movements, anti-racist feminism, and national anti-imperialist liberation projects may share initial recognition but differ in focus.
This paper focuses on identity, difference, and representation for colonial, post-colonial, and post-slavery subjects living in North America, aiming to overcome the divide between subjectivity and class politics.
The paper situates identity-related issues within a broader historical and political context.
Fanon's reflection on being marked as "different" and experiencing racial identity through external stimuli illustrates the complexities of racial identity and the shift from a corporeal to a racial epidermal schema.
The experience of non-white people often involves the loss of identity and the meaning of their difference, marked by societal perceptions of them as "different."
Fanon’s work and Aime Cesaire’s critique of Prospero’s naming of Caliban highlight the violence of misnaming and the need for collective self-naming.
Racial slurs like "criminal blacks," "Pakis," "niggers," and stereotypes of different groups (e.g., the native, Muslim, Arab, African, Indian) reflect the ongoing violence of colonial misrepresentation.
Colonial expressions in academia, such as "the Orient" and "underdeveloped countries," reinforce harmful stereotypes, often paired with harmful state practices like racial profiling and police violence.
The historical context of colonialism, imperialism, and slavery continues to shape identity and violence today.
The search for a new identity, free from colonial bondage, is tied to ongoing political struggles over meaning and representation.
Anti-colonial theorists like Fanon, Said, and others have critiqued colonial culture, cultural imperialism, and distorted representations.
The critique of European humanism and enlightenment acknowledges their role in supporting capitalism through colonialism and slavery.
"Epistemic violence," as discussed by Spivak, refers to everyday life and state practices that shape negative identities like "immigrant," "alien," "illegal," and "visible minorities."
These identities are forms of violence and domination, reinforcing the "othering" of marginalized groups from Europe's self-proclaimed "civilized" self.
Such identities often lead to self-division, self-hatred, or mimicry, becoming so hegemonic that they are perceived as transparent or naturalized, reinforcing the superiority of the rulers.
This hegemony influences structures, institutions, legalities, and cultural life, legitimizing relations of ruling, capital, class, and imperialism.
The experience of being non-white in Europe or North America is shaped by these hegemonic identities.
Identity politics for marginalized and colonized people must be understood in opposition to these dominant identities, which permeate every aspect of life, from street culture to politics.
The reversal or rejection of these hegemonic identities by marginalized groups often leads to exclusivity and angry rejection, touching on the tension between the marginalized and the dominant.
Conferences like "Writing through Race" spark tension in the Canadian arts world due to the violent historical processes of colonization and decolonization.
Fanon noted that both colonization and decolonization are violent, and societies still recycle historical violence, like "slave-names."
For example, a Tamil man lies in a coma from a neo-Nazi attack, demonstrating the continuation of racial violence.
Policies like "Save Our State" in California and vigilante groups reflect a desire to maintain racial homogeneity, often criminalizing marginalized groups while benefiting from exploitation.
The figure of Sarah Bartman, reduced to her sexual parts for colonial spectacle, exemplifies the violent dehumanization of Black bodies.
The polygenetic argument was used to justify racial differences by claiming inherent differences in Black bodies, reinforcing the idea of racial hierarchy.
Racist portrayals of Black people included stereotypes about sexuality and morality, contributing to the dehumanization and justification of exploitation.
Identity, as historical and social subjectivity, is influenced by political-cultural notions of difference, leading to divergent political directions.
For colonized or racialized subjects, identity involves a loss of pre-colonial subjectivities, reduced through colonialism to essentialized, unified cultural entities.
These reified identities are shaped by colonial stereotypes that define the colonized as the "other," contrasting with the idealized, rational European self.
Colonial stereotypes invert European ideals, such as portraying the colonized as irrational and animalistic, while the colonizer is seen as rational.
In Shakespeare's The Tempest, Prospero’s civilized identity is constructed by ascribing savagery to Caliban and his mother Sycorax.
These stereotypes conflict with the lived experiences, histories, and cultures of the colonized people.
The colonial identification of figures like Sarah Bartman as "Hottentot Venus" was based on a European perception of racial difference, positioning her as inferior compared to European women.
Sarah Bartman’s identity was defined through colonial stereotypes, neglecting her personal experience and humanity.
Colonial constructs such as "the native," "the Negro," and "the African" were imposed externally, shaping distorted social, cultural, and political subjectivities that lack authenticity.
These imposed identities erode authentic selfhood, creating psychological and political consequences.
The colonized develop political subjectivities rooted in their oppression, often leading to figures like the comprador bourgeoisie, "mimic men," or collaborators who embody this complex identity formation.
Revolutionary politics and identity formation are shaped by understanding the construction and content of difference, which plays a crucial role in oppression and agency.
The problem shifts from overthrowing clear forms of domination to studying the construction and deconstruction of identities within historical and social contexts of ruling and resistance.
Scholars like Edward Said, David Theo Goldberg, Henry Gates Jr., and Angela Y. Davis emphasize that there is no simple or pure origin to identity; subjectivity is always shaped by historical context.
The need for an identity is both a negation of imposed identities and shaped by the specific history of domination and dispossession.
Identity reconstruction must take place within the context of hegemonic history, situating them within social, cultural, and ideological relations.
It’s more than negation; avoiding mythological inversions is key to authentic historical search.
Diasporic populations face limitations in political agency, but history is longer and more complex than colonization, offering contradictions and opportunities.
History is shaped by both ruptures and continuities, contradictions and homogeneities, and includes multiple competing discourses and social relations.
Colonial subjects like "the native," "the negro," "the coolie," etc., are never fully formed identities and contain contradictions.
Fanon’s concept of the dual persona ("the native" and the people) shows the disjunction in colonized individuals, revealing possibilities for new identities and resistance.
Resistance and identity construction require a return to actual social relations and cannot be solely based on imagined communities.
Previous materialism was criticized for conceiving reality as mere objects rather than human activity, which idealism attempted to counter.
Marx criticized the false dichotomy between consciousness and the world, subjectivity and social organization, and emphasized the interconnectedness of identity, difference, and class.
It is misguided to view identity and difference as separate from class formation, capital development, and class politics.
"Difference" involves more than diversity; it encodes social, moral, and cultural relations of ruling, constructing identities by measuring the distance between ruler and ruled.
Class cannot be understood without considering gender and "race"; otherwise, it becomes either an abstraction or a cultural essence.
A concrete organization of class cannot exist without considering the particularities of gender and "race."
Class organization requires historical, cultural, sexual, and political relations, which Marx highlights in Grundrisse as the convergence of many determinations.
Economic reductionism is not possible without considering social relations and cultural forms, as economies are influenced by conscious moments and practical organization.
Exploitation and accumulation of surplus value depend on social and sexual divisions of labor, as well as moral and cultural valuations.
The lower value placed on women’s labor, particularly non-white women, is directly linked to profit margins in capitalist systems.
In post-Fordist capital, gender and "race" are crucial to the labor practices and profit margins of multinational corporations.
Gendered and "raced" labor is a cultural phenomenon, affecting both white and non-white workers in societies like Canada.
European capitalism has been "raced" throughout its history, with primitive accumulation involving force, conquest, and plunder.
Capital later develops more mediated forms of violence and force, particularly in the procurement of unfree labor (slavery and indentured servitude) and the organization of wage labor.
Historians and political economists like Eric Williams, Herbert Gutman, and Walter Rodney show the intertwined nature of "race," class, and capital.
Marx notes the state's role in mediating force in exploitation, evidenced by debates on race, religious ideas, and colonial laws.
Enlightenment dualisms (e.g., civilization vs. savagery) have geographic and labor-based implications, with Black and white labor forming dialectical values in capital.
Historically, Black labor was commodified and exploited, and now similar patterns exist with less direct exploitation.
Post-colonial, imperialist relations maintain economic and political dominance, while hegemonic common sense legitimizes it.
In metropolitan countries, the white working class resents the non-white working class, allowing capital to benefit from this division.
In Canada, a white settler colony, labor histories reflect these complex dynamics.
Canada’s history of land occupation and property systems is deeply rooted in "race" and ethnicity; "race" is inseparable from "class" in this context.
Identity projects related to oppression based on "race" and gender are interconnected and require special attention.
Gender differences in labor valuation become complex when intersected with "race."
The mental and manual division of labor reflects the Enlightenment’s reason vs. nature dichotomy, where "racing" populations is linked to viewing people as more bodily or animal-like.
This explains the intensification of the Black woman's association with naturality and animality.
Angela Davis, in Women, Race and Class, discusses how Afro-American women were treated as equally productive workers as men but were "sexed" rather than gendered, falling outside the Southern ideology of femininity.
Black women were forced to work like men, subjected to extreme abuse, and viewed as "breeders" and labor commodities, not as mothers or family members.
Davis argues that understanding Afro-American women's identity requires integrating "race," gender, and class, and relating these to the history of slavery.
This integration is necessary for understanding the identities of all women in North America.
Black struggles in North America are tied to asserting an identity or subjectivity focused on self-determination.
Class as a concept cannot be used merely as an abstract tool or ideological trick; it must be grounded in concrete social relations that define different forms of difference.
The point of philosophy, according to Marx, is not just to interpret the world but to change it.
Identity politics operates with the notion of both sameness and difference, implying not only a semiotic dimension but also desire, creativity, history, memory, and power relations.
Identity can signify both who one is and who one can become, pointing to agency and political possibilities rather than predetermined outcomes.
There are different ways to politicize identity, and these projects can share common origins but diverge in their political expression.
Political subjectivities and self-identities are shaped within specific political and ideological contexts, leading to contradictory possibilities and no guarantee of a single form of politics.
The politics of identity cannot be assumed to automatically lead to socialist outcomes or an understanding of what needs to be done to end oppression.
Misery does not automatically produce communism, and desire for change does not naturally align with clear political actions.
Both oppressed and non-oppressed groups can fall into cultural or class-reductionist stances.
Some identity politics focus on cultural nationalism or multiculturalism, ignoring class and capital, leading to dehistoricized, decontextualized, and invalidated political projects.
These political movements may obscure class and gender contradictions, reinforcing power dynamics they aim to escape.
Creating mythological histories or imagining communities based on religion or traditional values can reinforce patriarchy and class structures.
Such identity-based politics can bond with liberal democracy or even fascist forms, without addressing deeper political and social issues.
The problem lies in focusing solely on history, culture, and experience while excluding whites or challenging cultural appropriation, without addressing broader systemic issues.
Non-white people’s struggle often stays within existing political terms, limiting true decolonization and risking compromise or separatist nationalism.
Cultural reductionism or relativist multiculturalism may compromise political struggle, aligning with capitalist property relations.
This issue is not only within "identity politics" but also affects postmodernist and post-structuralist thought, leading to ahistorical or liberal individualism.
Marxists face a choice between agentless structuralism, focusing on capital and ideology, or an ever-changing subject that lacks social grounding and history.
There is a tension between aesthetic and economic perspectives, with colonization viewed either as economic destruction or as theft of representation.
The challenge remains how to move beyond the dualism of cultural versus economic capital and address both discourse and political economy.
Interpreting identity by integrating difference and class, and historicizing it, helps address political possibilities and avoid static, essentialized identities.
An open-ended view of social-self definition situates identity in history, making it dynamic and future-oriented rather than mythological or fixed.
Identities should signal the future and speak to collective resistance, drawing from past struggles but not being confined to them.
The concept of identity as a sign of resistance challenges historical oppression, exemplified by figures like Sojourner Truth.
Racism and sexism can lead to trauma and disempowerment, creating angry or submissive individuals unable to shape their own history.
Class politics that ignores personal empowerment and identity issues betrays itself, as socialism should remain a social politics.
Cultural projects, like Black History Month, serve personal empowerment and are essential to representation, and white people should reflect on why such representations threaten them.
White people's anger at being excluded from dominant projects stems from their historical centrality, and their resentment towards multiculturalism and human rights reflects a struggle with being dislodged from this position.
"Reverse racism" charges and criticisms of "political correctness" often stem from a sense of discomfort with losing privilege or feeling guilty.
"Identity politics" is not problematic as long as it doesn’t erase history or social relations; it should not become an ideological tool that obscures connections between different struggles.
Overreliance on identity as a cultural concept can lead to individualism and a limited understanding of experience, ignoring historical and social context.
Linking individual consciousness with the economy, state, and history creates actionable, politically transformative identities.
Himani Bannerji summary
The Passion of Naming: Identity, Difference, and Politics of Class
The narrative begins with the historical figure Sojourner Truth, emphasizing the significance of naming one's identity.
Identity has become a central term in political discussions, often serving various political agendas, from nationalism to liberal democracy.
There are mixed perspectives on the focus on identity in politics:
Positive view: Emphasizes subjectivity and representation.
Dismissive view: Critiqued as divisive and individualistic by many Marxists and feminists.
Identity as Political Currency
The shift towards identity politics has deprived other forms of politics, particularly class struggles.
Reference to Marx’s critique of the false separation between self and social conditions.
The task for Marxists is to reconcile concepts of identity and class within the socio-historical context of capital and colonialism.
Exploring Issues of Identity and Agency
Scholars in post-modernism address subjectivity and representation but often neglect the material implications of class struggle.
The complexities of identity politics arise from historical oppression and marginalization of groups.
Those invested in identity politics seek to reclaim agency, often articulating their experiences against dominant narratives that erase their identities.
Colonialism and the Construction of Identity
Historical naming practices (e.g., Caliban in "The Tempest") contribute to a legacy of oppression.
Terms used in dominant cultures often carry pejorative connotations (e.g., "criminal blacks," "illegal immigrants").
Language plays a crucial role in both the construction and deconstruction of identity and difference.
Intersection of Identity, Difference, and Class
Identity and difference cannot be isolated from the context of power, class, and historical trauma.
The construction of identity among marginalized people is shaped by internal and external social dynamics.
Class, gender, and race intersect, forming complex social hierarchies that underpin political struggles.
Feminist Perspectives on Identity
The author critiques the limitations of mainstream feminism which has often centered on the experiences of white women.
Intersectionality is essential when discussing identity, as experiences of women are differentiated by race, class, and other factors.
Conclusion: Rethinking Politics of Identity
The struggle for self-identification and representation intertwines with broader political movements.
Critical analysis of identity politics is necessary to avoid reductionist narratives that erase the complexities of lived experiences.
Emphasis on the need for a dynamic understanding of identity, framing it as a process connected to historical and social contexts.
Rosemarie Garland Thomson reading notes
Introduces the concept of "misfit" to explore the lived identity and experience of disability, emphasizing its situational and relational nature in time and place.
Argues that misfit emphasizes the particularities of lived embodiments, avoiding a generic disabled body.
Misfit clarifies feminist discussions on universal vulnerability and dependence.
Defines misfitting as a shifting spatial and temporal relationship, giving agency and value to disabled subjects.
Contrasts traditional views of disability as a lack or flaw, framing it as a social construct influenced by prejudicial attitudes and societal barriers.
The concept of misfit aligns with materialist feminist theories, highlighting the dynamic interaction between bodies and their environments.
Contributes to disability theory by acknowledging pain and functional limitations without dismissing disability as a purely social phenomenon.
Material feminism, as described by Karen Barad, shifts the focus from linguistic interpretations to material-discursive understandings, emphasizing dynamic phenomena and entangled agency.
Misfitting allows for an exploration of world-making through material-discursive becoming, offering a new way to think about disability's intersection with society.
Introduces "misfit" as a critical term to challenge dominant understandings of disability.
Fitting and misfitting describe encounters where two things either harmonize or are incongruent.
A misfit occurs when two things fail to align, not because either is wrong, but because of their mismatch.
Context (spatial and temporal) determines the fit, meaning and consequences shift with changing contexts.
Misfit focuses on relation, context, and mediation, rather than essence or origin, emphasizing instability and materiality.
Misfit lodges injustice in the material world, rather than only in social attitudes or representations.
The term "misfit" offers semantic flexibility, meaning both the act of failing to fit and the person who doesn't fit.
"Fit" implies harmony, suitability, and correctness, while "misfit" denotes unsuitability, disparity, and inconsistency.
"Misfit" can refer to both the state of not fitting and a person considered out of place or rejected for unusual behavior.
There’s ambiguity between "fit" and "misfit," with "fit" also referring to seizures or sudden, transitory ailments.
Misfitting theorizes disability as a way of being in an environment, as a material arrangement between body and surroundings.
A "fit" occurs when there’s a harmonious interaction between a body and an environment that sustains it.
A "misfit" occurs when the environment fails to sustain the body’s shape and function.
The environment tends to be designed for majority bodies, often creating misfits for those with disabilities.
Civil rights and universally designed spaces aim to enlarge the range of "fits" by accommodating diverse human variations.
Historically, people with disabilities have been considered outcasts, both socially and materially, due to the mismatch between their bodies and the built environment.
Misfitting results in exclusion from the public sphere and segregation into private spaces or institutions.
Disability disadvantage arises from both social oppression and environmental misfitting.
Misfit shifts feminist theory from discourse to materiality, focusing on the relationship between bodies and environments.
Misfitting is a performance, enacting agency through the encounter between body and world.
Misfitting and fitting exist on a spectrum, with real consequences for accessibility and inclusion.
Examples include a wheelchair user encountering stairs versus an elevator, and a deaf signer misfitting in a hearing environment like a boardroom.
Fitting and misfitting are aspects of materialization, grounding discursive constructivism in matter.
Fitting happens when a generic body enters a world designed for uniform, standard bodies.
Misfitting emphasizes particularity, focusing on the unique shape, size, and function of a person and how they interact with their environment.
The encounter between body and world is dynamic, with a fit or misfit depending on the specific moment and place.
Examples of fitting and misfitting include various interactions with spaces and devices, like voting booths or ATMs.
The concept "shape carries story," borrowed from Caroline Walker Bynum, highlights the relationship between body and narrative, nature and culture.
Bynum suggests that embodiment is dynamic and entwined with temporality, with our changing shape linking past and future moments in a continuous story.
A good enough fit allows a person to navigate the world in anonymity, fitting in with environmental expectations without standing out.
Material anonymity refers to a way of being in the world that goes unmarked and unrecognized, allowing one to exercise rights and participate in society.
Linda Martín Alcoff’s concept of identity formation aligns with misfitting, as identity is relational, experiential, and contingent on context.
Identity is not fixed in visible features but emerges from how bodies interact in social contexts, as shaped by dominant interpretations.
Alcoff’s identity theory combines materialist and constructivist elements, viewing identity as both performative and narrative.
Misfitting adds materiality to Alcoff’s theory, highlighting how bodies interact with the built and natural environments, determining fit or misfit.
Fitting and misfitting are tactical navigations through space and time, affecting both visual and tactile relations that define identification.
These concepts focus on the material particularity of our bodies and how they interact with the world, reshaping both body and environment.
Disability politics advocates for changing the world to ensure equal access, not changing bodies to fit societal norms.
People with disabilities, such as those with quadriplegia or deafness, should be provided environments that allow full participation, not forced normalization through medical interventions.
Alcoff’s aim is to make identities more visible to transform their meanings, fostering positive narratives that enable political agency.
The experience of misfitting can disrupt fitting, revealing its fragility and potential for political awareness and action.
Misfitting, despite leading to exclusion, can foster solidarity and awareness, contributing to movements like disability rights.
Misfitting helps form disability identity by challenging complacency and emphasizing the contingencies of human embodiment.
The dominant cultural narrative of human development expects individuals to fit into the world, viewing bodies as stable and manageable.
Modernity seeks to control and standardize human bodies, assigning value based on conformance to norms like medical standards or societal expectations.
Misfitting emphasizes the dynamic, shifting nature of both embodiment and environment, making identity fluid.
The concept of misfitting extends beyond disability theory to universalize it as a fundamental human experience of embodiment.
Misfitting ties into feminist theory concepts like dependence and vulnerability, centralizing embodied life in sociopolitical relations, subject formation, and bioethics.
Conceptualizing humans as embodied challenges the abstraction of individuals into autonomous subjects, as critiqued by Martha Albertson Fineman.
Misfitting highlights that bodies are always dependent on environments, and vulnerability lies in how bodies are sustained within them.
Fineman’s vulnerability theory aligns with misfitting, suggesting that all humans experience universal vulnerability and dependency on care.
The denial of dependency and caregiving in liberal orders contributes to social injustice, and Fineman calls for collective responsibility for care and protection.
Fineman and Butler both emphasize bodily vulnerability, but while Fineman focuses on the need for reciprocal care, Butler highlights human attachment and the vulnerability tied to grief and mortality.
Fineman's vulnerability centers on basic needs like food, shelter, and comfort, while Butler’s relates to the loss of others and the inevitability of death.
Sociologist Brian S. Turner connects embodiment and vulnerability to human rights, asserting that the self is rooted in a specific body and environment.
Turner’s theory suggests that human rights should account for embodiment’s fragility and suffering, and his view aligns with Butler’s notion of shared vulnerability.
The United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities reflects a misfit concept, recognizing disability as contextual and caused by environmental and attitudinal barriers.
Misfitting occurs when the environment fails to accommodate the body’s needs, and vulnerability is realized in hostile environments.
While social resources and privilege influence vulnerability, the theory of fitting and misfitting underscores that vulnerability is inherent and becomes apparent when bodies encounter unsustaining environments.
A theory of fitting and misfitting expands the conversation on vulnerability, focusing not only on harm and suffering but also on how bodies engage with the world and form subjectivity.
A bioethics of social justice is embedded in the concept of misfitting, where experiences of oppression can lead to demands for better fits in society.
Misfitting in the public sphere denies full citizenship, and the goal is to create universally sustaining environments that provide equal access in democratic spaces like workplaces, schools, and public institutions.
Disability and equal rights movements seek to address this misfit by advocating for environments that accommodate diverse bodies, making access to civil and human rights a proper fit.
The experience of misfitting can produce a politicized consciousness, where individuals gain epistemic privilege from their outsider standpoint, enabling liberatory identity politics.
Misfitting can materialize identity, making it politically significant, and when theorized, it structures the narrative of how marginalization happens, highlighting the dissonance between individual and societal identities.
Misfitting stresses relational dynamics over fixed essences, shifting the focus of oppression from individual actions to material environments.
Misfit helps reframe inequality by emphasizing the mismatch between bodies and environments, which causes exclusion and disadvantage, as seen in disability and institutional racism.
Inequality arises not only from prejudicial attitudes but from the material configurations that fail to accommodate diverse bodies, creating barriers to participation and access.
A feminist materialist disability theory must argue why disabled people should be included in the world, not just the public sphere.
While civil and human rights initiatives aim to integrate people with disabilities, technologies like medical normalization and eugenic selection work to eliminate disability.
Disability has historically been purged through eugenic actions such as the Holocaust, lynching, the prison-industrial complex, and coercive heteronormativity.
Civil rights movements, like the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Americans with Disabilities Act, counteract the exclusion of disabled people.
Positive identity politics should reimagine disability as human variation, accepting it as part of human biodiversity within a democratic society.
Disability bioethics advocate for revaluing impairments, with misfits playing an essential role in creating survival strategies and challenging societal norms.
Misfits can challenge and rearrange environments to promote equal participation in public life.
Despite modern pressures for standardization, human bodies vary greatly, and disability is an unavoidable aspect of life.
The traditional response to disability focuses on changing the person, but the concept of misfitting suggests the environment must be adapted to accommodate diverse human forms.
The dynamic interaction between body, history, and environment means misfitting is a part of the lived experience of disability and the essence of being human.
Disability should not be eradicated to fit the world but understood through processes of fitting and misfitting, emphasizing disability as a form of human variation.
Disability is a universal human experience found in every society, family, and life.
Accepting disability as part of human experience allows for a more inclusive approach to social justice, integrating disabled people into society.
Recognizing interdependence rather than independence highlights that everyone relies on others for survival and life tasks.
A shift toward intrinsic valuing of humans supports egalitarian political culture.
Socially conscious misfitting can generate moral understandings and adaptive skills for both disabled and nondisabled individuals.
Traits associated with disability foster adaptability and resourcefulness, which can benefit all people.
Examples of adaptability: people without arms using toes, blind people navigating without light, deaf people communicating silently.
Misfitting can be generative, not catastrophic, as seen in artists and thinkers like Claude Monet, Chuck Close, and Jürgen Habermas.
Misfitting aligns with Wendy Brown’s idea of politics focusing on what we want rather than what we are, emphasizing location and relationality over essentialism.
Identity as variable fits and misfits allows for productive politics without neutralizing identity, showcasing the power of misfitting.
PDF summarizer
Introduction
Concept of Misfit: Explores the lived identity and experience of disability situated in place and time.
Materialist Feminist Understanding: Emphasizes how embodiment interacts with the environment, accounting for spatial and temporal dynamics.
Arguments Presented
Emphasis on Lived Embodiments: Misfit emphasizes varying lived embodiments countering the generic notion of a disabled body.
Clarification of Feminist Critical Conversations: Provides clarity on universal vulnerability and dependence in disability discourse.
Agency and Value of Disabled Subjects: Misfitting is presented as a dynamic relationship that highlights adaptability and resourcefulness.
Historical Context
Traditional Understandings of Disability: Historically viewed as lack, excess, or flaw, situated in bodies, shifted towards a social construction perspective that acknowledges discourse.
Social Oppression: Emerges from prejudicial attitudes manifesting as architectural barriers, unequal resources, and exclusionary practices.
Distinction Between Impairment and Disability: Impairment relates to bodily states, while disability is a social process that defines the significance of those states.
Fitting and Misfitting
Definition of Fitting: Represents harmony where two elements (body & world) align.
Definition of Misfitting: Represents disjunction; situations where bodies do not harmonize with their environments.
Dynamic Nature of Misfitting: Highlights the inherent instability of misfits as they exist in specific contexts and relationships.
Implications of Fitting and Misfitting
Context vs. Essence: Misfitting emphasizes relational and contextual understanding over essentialist views.
Materiality of Misfitting: Injustice is located in the world’s materiality, illuminating how physical environments, not just social attitudes, create barriers.
Misfitting as a Performance of Agency
Misfit in the Public Sphere: Demonstrates how misfitting can convey subjugated knowledge and political potential, challenging dominant perspectives.
Material and Visual Anonymity: A good fit enables individuals to navigate without drawing attention, whereas misfitting challenges visibility and recognition in society.
Visibility, Identity, and Misfitting
Relational Identity: Identity is shaped by embodied experiences rather than fixed features.
Navigating Space and Time: Fitting and misfitting represent tactical navigation through social and physical spaces, influencing identity perception and experience.
Social Justice in Material Changes: Advocates for societal shifts favoring the environment accommodating diverse bodies rather than attempting to normalize bodies through medical interventions.
Misfitting, Dependence, and Vulnerability
Universal Vulnerability: Reflects the inherent fragility of all human bodies in relation to their environments.
Dependency as a Core Element: Emphasizes collective responsibility for care and the acknowledgment of interdependence amidst societal structures.
Feminist Theory and Misfitting
Shifting Focus: Focus moves from individual autonomy to the relational dynamics between body and environment.
Bioethics and Misfitting: Advocates for a social justice bioethics that recognizes experiences of misfitting as avenues for greater inclusivity and recognition.
Conclusion and Future Considerations
Celebrating Diversity: Misfitting reflects human diversity and the need for environments that embrace variation rather than conform to rigid standards.
Potential for Political Agency: Misfitting presents opportunities for marginalized individuals to develop collaborative politics that promote equal access and identity visibility.
Cultural Re-evaluation: Urges a shift in how society perceives disability, moving towards understanding it as a universal human experience rather than a deviation from the norm.
Rosemarie Garland Misfits: A Feminist Materialist Disability Concept lecture notes
This article offers the critical concept misfit in an effort to further think through the lived identity and experience of disability as it is situated in place and time
how the particularities of embodiment interracial with the environment in its broadest sense, to include both its spatial and temporal aspects.
the interrelated dynamics of fitting and misfitting constitute a particular aspect of world-making involved in material discursive becoming
avoids a theoretical generic disabled body
Traditional understandings of disability
Medical model on determining the attributes of disability
disease or injury cause anomalous individuals to be damaged and therefore dysfunctional, and thereby disables them
freeing individuals from biological dysfunction is the recommended approach to alleviate the suffering
not connected with individuals geographical or social environment
discussion of disability from a environmental context
specifically focuses on the embodiment aspect of subjectivity
The embodiment concept of subjectivity refers to how an individual's personal identity and experiences are shaped by their physical body and its interactions with the environment. In the context of disability, this involves understanding how lived experiences and embodied realities can vary significantly. The materialist feminist approach emphasizes that embodiment is not just about the physical state of a body but also involves how this body relates to and is influenced by its surrounding environment, including spatial and temporal dynamics. Thus, subjectivity is seen as relational and context-dependent, rather than fixed or essential.
remove the stigma from the human body and put the burden on society, environment, and conditions of the community
shft prevalent traditional understandings of disability as lack, excess, or flaw located in bodies to a relational conceptualization of disability as social construction whose meaning is determined primarily through discourse
disability oppression
prejudicial attitudes that are given form in the world through architectural barriers, exclusionary institutions, and the unequal distribution and access to resources
The disability is in the environment rather than in the individual
not located or centralized in the human body
more relational
Expands the idea of the social construction of reality toward a material-discursive understanding of phenomena and matter
misfitting as an explanatory concept lets us think through a particular aspect of world-making involved in material-discursive becoming
material feminist theory
grounded on the aspects of “embodied subjectivity”
uses phenomenological methodology
relationality between subject and world (inclusive to spatial and temporal aspects of environment)
expands the social constructivist approach by developing a material discursive repertoire; non-essentialist but rather materialist approach/understanding to phenomena and matter
phenomenological method in philosophy
centralized on the concept of “consciousness”
a descriptive enterprise that specify the structures that characterize consciousness and the way we experience it
embodied cognition/bodily cognition/materialist approach to the states of consciousness
prioritizes the first-person point of view; the phenomenologist, the investigator of consciousness studies his or her own experience from the pov of living through that experience
phenomenon means appearance, or that which shows itself. Logos means something like ‘allowing something to be exhibited’
phenomenology is the discipline that allows that which shows itself to exhibit itself
Phenomenology is a philosophical approach that emphasizes the study of conscious experience from the first-person perspective. It focuses on how individuals perceive, experience, and interpret the world around them. Originating with philosophers like Edmund Husserl, phenomenology seeks to understand the structures of experience and consciousness without preconceived notions or biases. By exploring phenomena as they appear to individuals, phenomenology reveals insights into the meaning and significance of experiences, making it particularly relevant in fields such as psychology, sociology, and existential philosophy.
materialist feminist approach to disability
presents a non-traditional approach, extends beyond the conceptual and political interpretations of disability; engages in spatial and temporal dynamics of social context; thus, non-essentialist
lived identity and experience of disability: embodied subjectivity of people with disabilities; lived/felt/experienced body is at the center of this approach
the concept of Misfit: Misfitting. Identity and their performance is a social product of their relationship to the environment as a moving being/body in the world
”I propose the term misfit as a new critical keyword that seeks to defamiliarize and to reframe dominant understandings of disability”
“The disadvantage of disability comes partly from social oppression encoded in attitudes and practices, but it also comes from the built and arranged environment. Law or custom can and has produced segregation of certain groups; misfitting demonstrates how encounters between bodies and unsustaining environments also have produced segregation”
Fitting vs misfitting as aspects of materialization: social and political individuation of people with disability
fitting
two things come together in harmony
the verb denotes a relationship of spatial juxtaposition, meaning “to be of such size and shape as to fill exactly a given space, or conform properly to the contour of its receptacle or counterpart; to be adjusted or adjustable to a certain position”
the action of fitting: proper, or suitable relationship with an environment; well adapted, in harmony with, or satisfying the requirements of the specified situation
as an adjective, fitting: “agreeable to decorum, becoming, convenient, proper, right/“ Fit is an adjective also moves beyond simple suitability into a more value-laden connotation when it means “possessing the necessary qualification, properly qualified, competent, deserving” and “in good form or condition”
fit then suggests a generally positive way of being and positioning based on an absence of conflict and a state of correct synchronization with one’s circumstances
misfitting
two things come together in disjunction
misfit, in contrast, indicates a jarring juxtaposition, an “inaccurate fit; (hence) unsuitability, disparity, inconsistency,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary
Misfit offers grammatical flexibility by describing both the person who does not fit and the act of not fitting. The verb misfit applies to both things and people, meaning, “to fail to fit, fit badly; to be unfitting or inappropriate.”
This condition of misfitting slides into the highly negative figure of a “person unsuited or ill-suited to his or her environment, work, etc.; spec. One set apart from or rejected by others for his or her conspicuously odd, unusual, or antisocial behaviour and attitudes.” Thus to misfit readers one a misfit
disability justice
political; concerned with the political communities—thus, a social (justice) issue
aims at exploring and redesigning the requirements of justice for the empowerment/liberation of the subjectivity of people with disabilities in the socio-political plateau (as right-bearing citizens)
”The aspiration to equality across bodily variation”: equalizing socioeconomic and political resources of the states to its people in pluralistic terms
disability justice as political liberation
An identity issue:
the disabled liberation movement has similar concerns with women’s and BIPOC groups emancipation movements
Thus, disability justice is concerned with proper political recognition and representation of disability subjectivity
”Misfitting serves to theorize disability as a way of being in an environment, as a material arrangement. A sustaining environment is a material context of received and built things ranging from accessibly designed built public spaces, welcoming natural surroundings, communication devices, tools, and imple-ments, as well as other people. A fit occurs when a harmonious, proper interaction occurs between a particularly shaped and functioning body and an environment that sustains that body. A misfit occurs when the environment does not sustain the shape and function of the body that enters it. The dynamism between body and world that produces fits or misfits comes at the spatial and temporal points of encounter between dynamic but relatively stable bodies and environments. The built and arranged space through which we navigate our lives tends to offer fits to majority bodies and functioning and create misfits with minority forms of embodiment, such as people with disabilities. The point of civil rights legislation, and the resulting material practices such as universally designed built spaces and implements, is to enlarge the range of fits by accommodating the widest possible range of human variation.”
fitting: essence over context, isolation, origination
misfitting: context over essence, relation: “when the spatial and temporal context shifts so does the fit” (593), mediation
“The concept of mishting allows identiry theory to consider the particularities of embodiment because it does not rely on generic higures delineated by identity categories. The encounters between body and environment that make up mis fitting are dynamic. Every body is in perpetual transformation not only in itself but also in its location within a constantly shifting environment. So who one is and what that means is fluid as well. The material particularity of encounter determines both meanine and outcome.”
”identities interpersonal relations and bioethics Conceptualizing human subjects as embodied ensures a materialist analysis that accounts for human, particularly. Focusing on the contingency of embodiment avoids the alstraction of persons into generic, autonomous subjects of liberal individualism, what legal theorists Martha Albertson Fineman calls one of the foundational myths of Western culture (fineman, 2005; 2008). The concepts of misfitting and fitting guarantee that we recognize that bodies are always situated in and dependent upon environment through which they materialize as fitting or misfitting”
Identity; sense of self processing a sense of “who” and a sense of agency
privilege and marginality spectrum of identities have strong influences on education, capacity to speak English, history of trauma and coping skills, history of mental wellness, employment, experience, with the justice system, having extended family, history with homelessness, etc.
race, gender, class, sexual orientation, physical ability, religion, ae, immigration status, indigenous status
power and privilege compared with marginality, are not opposites
living in society and community (Canada) means that certain identities are valued more than others. Identities that fall on the side of privilege: Male, white, cisgender, middle/upper class, heterosexual, able-bodied, Christian, adult age range, Canadian-born, non indigenous
Social construction of misfits
misfit occurs when the environment does not sustain the shape and function of the body that it enters
misfit as a new critical keyword that seeks to defamiliarize and to reframe dominant understandings of disability
The disadvantage of disability comes partly from social oppression encoded in attitudes and practice, but it also comes from the built and arranged environment
law or custom can and has produced segregation of certain groups, misfitting demonstrates how encounters between bodies and unsustaining environments also have produced…
shifting the narrative through critical phenomenology of identities: constructivist approach to the formation of social identities
visible identities
relational, experiential, and contingent as in misfitting “discursive-material”
perceptual habits how we perceive each other determines in large part how we make our way through the world and how we treat one another
The dominant cultural story of proper human development is to fit into the world and depends upon a claim that our shapes are stable, predictable, and manageable:
Modernity relies on controlling and standardizing human bodies and to bestow status and value accordingly.
The binarizing perceptual habit of "us versus them"; self versus and other