Letwin Gurupira's patriarchy and Chipo's patriarchy are very similar to my patriarchy. The difference is that there is another level of oppression they have to face due to their skin colour. Terms like capitalism and patriarchy point to the way that power is structured in society. Certainly, we will experience the impact of this power in different ways, but not so differently that it warrants having a different category for "a white woman's experience of patriarchy" and "a black woman's experience of patriarchy". I believe that there is a real danger in overemphasizing perception and the perceiver to the point that the power structures that oppress seem to disappear, or seem to be totally different depending on whether you are "black" or "white".
There is a background to my opposition to postmodernist theory. I swallowed postmodernism whole as an undergraduate, back in the eighties. I left University and went on to be bullied in the workplace. I said to the bosses there, "I seem to have the perception that I am being bullied, but please correct me if I am wrong. Perhaps it is not your intention? After all, this is merely my perception and may have nothing to do with reality, at all, since reality is something we cannot know."
The bullying did not stop but simply intensified at that point.
I learned the hard way that sometimes it is better to address reality as if it actually existed, otherwise there is no way of combating its particularly negative manifestations. If you try to address the issue as if it could be merely something happening in your own mind, you are ideal fodder. They have you where they want you, with your belief that the bullying is simply a product of your way of thinking.
There is a background to my opposition to postmodernist theory. I swallowed postmodernism whole as an undergraduate, back in the eighties. I left University and went on to be bullied in the workplace. I said to the bosses there, "I seem to have the perception that I am being bullied, but please correct me if I am wrong. Perhaps it is not your intention? After all, this is merely my perception and may have nothing to do with reality, at all, since reality is something we cannot know."
The bullying did not stop but simply intensified at that point.
I learned the hard way that sometimes it is better to address reality as if it actually existed, otherwise there is no way of combating its particularly negative manifestations. If you try to address the issue as if it could be merely something happening in your own mind, you are ideal fodder. They have you where they want you, with your belief that the bullying is simply a product of your way of thinking.
1 comment:
When we were voting for student council at our university last semester the post-modern party was on a ticket with other leftist groups, IIRC, and that was the reason why I didn't vote for this alliance. I really couldn't see how a focus on anti-oppression could go together with defining everything on an individual basis.
Post a Comment