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transraccoon · 9 months

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On transandrophobia and the concept of co-substantiality

I refrained from talking on this topic as it's not a debate in my french leftist circles but seeing how it's prevalent here on tumblr, I think it's a good opportunity to talk about some concepts.

First of all, on a linguistic note, people people create words to suit their needs. The etymology doesn't matter : if transandrophobia is created to description "the specific oppression that trans men suffer", it does not imply that mysandry exists. It's an opression specific to an identity.

This bring me to a critique of some interpretation of intersectionalty. That it would only be intersection of oppressions. As you can't be oppress as a man, there is no intersection between being a man and being trans (so no need to use a different word than general transphobia).

This interpretation is honestly baffling. I'll take an example that I think everybody will agree on : Black men are more often arrested by police (or killed, or put in prison...) than white people because of the racial integral state. But also more than black women, why is that, how can we explain that this police brutality is more harsh on black men ? The same reason as the stereotypes saying that black men are more violent, criminal... This is a specific oppression for black men (who may choose to create a word to describe it).

This is not to say that black men are more opressed than black women. There are differences on the kind of racism that they suffer. Intersectionality is not the addition of oppression, it is used to describe specific interactions of class, race and gender and the social relations associated with them. (even if in general men oppress women, everything depend on the social relations)

(If you'd like to delve deeper into the subject, I suggest you read up theories on subaltern masculinities.)

There are still a lot of critics of intersectionality to do. As a materialist, I prefer the notion of co-substantiality of the social relations (CSSR) (coined by Danièle Kergoat, french sociologist).

A social relation is a antagonistic relation between two social groups around an issue. it's a relation of material and ideal production.

Social relations are co-substantial : they form a knot that cannot be cut at the level of social practices (except from an analytical sociology perspective) and they are co-extensif : when deployed, the social relations of class, gender and race reproduce and co-produce with each other.

CSSR doesn't naturalized the categories for example : "workers and woman" are part of gender and class relations. Sometimes in the struggle, they can form a collectif subject, original in its practices, but a subject always in process and not reductible to that category.

This is the main issue with intersectionality "mapping the margins" this means fixing the categories, naturalizing them. This concept struggles to reflect a shifting and historical relation of domination.

Multiplicity of categories hide the social relations. But we cannot separate social categories and social relations where they were made. Working with those categories is risking to leave blind spot. Spots that can be the strongest aspects of domination, just as they can be bearers of resistance.

Co-substantiality is the complex dynamic interweaving of all social relations; each leaving its mark on the others, modulating each other, building each other up in a reciprocal way; the fact that they form a system does not exclude contradictions between them.

Refusing to reason in terms of fixed entities allows us to put the political subject (and not just the victims of domination) back at the center of analysis, taking into account all its ambivalent and often ambiguous practices.

#transandrophobia #co-substantiality #consubstantialité #kergoat #CSSR #analysis #theory

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sophygurl · 5 years

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WisCon43 - re: programming

I’ve been thinking about conversations (both online and off) held this year about WisCon’s programming - lack of certain kinds of diversity, reasons why that might be, and what to do about it. As someone who writes up a lot of panels, goes to a lot of panels, sits on a lot of panels, and although I didn’t mod this year - has moderated her fair share of panels, I’ve been thinking about it from all of those perspectives.

My perspective is also of someone who has a balance of ways in which I am and am not marginalized. I won’t list every single thing as that would be tedious and non-productive, but to share some of the biggies: I’m disabled, queer, and genderqueer; I am also white, cis, and neither an immigrant or the child of immigrants. If I get stuff wrong in any of the areas I’m privileged in, I very much welcome correction and feedback. Also, none of us these communities are monoliths - so conversation from all angles is always helpful.

To those who may have missed some of these conversations, my impression is that it flowed from a few starting points: 1) people new/new-ish to WisCon who therefore weren’t as aware of how programming works differently at this 100% volunteer-run con, 2) people unaware that certain demographics of the con (specifically mentioned were poc - particularly blpoc, and trans/non-binary folk) have grown tired of being The Diversity People on panels, 3) some incidents at last year’s con - while handled by safety and anti-abuse teams well - did contribute to folks from certain marginalizations either not wanting to come or at least not wanting to actively participate in programming this year.

I don’t have a lot of thoughts on those points. I have never been on the concom, don’t know a lot of about the behind the scenes stuff that goes on, and while there are certainly things we can do (”we” meaning both the folks officially doing stuff bts and all of us as a community who care about the con) to make the con feel and be safer for everyone and to encourage more people to participate - we certainly can’t make people continue to do frustrating 101-level work educating people about their own identities year after year.

What I DO have thoughts on are the other starting points some of these conversations flowed from, which I perceived to be: 1) this panel description touches on specific marginalizations but the issues affecting those marginalizations were not brought up by panelists, 2) when someone from the audience asked questions relating to those marginalizations, the panelists didn’t know what to say, 3) when there were people with and without certain privileges on a panel - sometimes the people with privilege talked over the people without them.

These are all very fixable issues, and indeed I have seen these issues dealt with in very positive and productive ways in the past, so I wanted to share a little bit about my experiences when I’ve thought it has gone well.

Panel Writing.

The first stage of programming at WisCon is submitting panel ideas to the programming department. I write a lot of panels up (ask the programming department lol), and I write up panels on a broad variety of topics from Important Issue panels to fun squee panels. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when writing up panels with a nod to intersectional feminism and diversity inclusion:

When writing a panel about a Serious Issue, make sure there is some language about the ways in which other intersections are impacted by the Issue. For example, if I’m writing up a panel about queerness, I might slip in a phrase also asking the panelists to think about ways in which race or class affect the Queer Issue at hand. That way it’s baked in. Hopefully (and you can’t control this if you’re not on the panel yourself - but hopefully), the moderator and panelists will take those intersectional issues into consideration in their discussion.

When writing up a more fun fannish panel, STILL make sure to include a statement or two asking the panelists to consider ways in which Fan Thing touches on issues of race, gender, what have you. For example, “yaddayadda fun thing! Also, how do we feel about the show’s treatment of race?” Again, the idea is to bake it right in there so that the panelists are already (hopefully) thinking about those things and won’t be caught off guard when the audience is wanting or expecting them to discuss it a little bit.

When suggesting a panel, you can suggest potential panelists. You can either do this specifically as in “Person A would be a great addition to this panel!” or more generally with a note asking “please make sure at least one panelist is X identity”. None of these things are guarantees, of course, but it helps programming see what you’re going for. Another idea for when it’s essential that a panel is comprised of specific folk is to hand-staff the panel. That means it’s not open for volunteers and only the people who have been pre-selected can sit on the panel. (I believe this is how panels at many other cons are naturally run?? It’s just not the default for WisCon where we like lots of volunteers and self-selection.)

Another thing to keep in mind is thinking about who your potential audience is going to be. You can delineate in the panel description whether this is meant to be a 101 or higher level discussion. You can bake in the idea that this panel is jumping off from a panel held in a previous year and the panelists won’t be doing much in the way of backgrounding that. You can say “this is NOT a panel about ...” to make it clear this panel is about Issue Y and only about Issue Y. There are lots of ways to make it clear what the panel should and shouldn’t be about, which again, is not a guarantee, but certainly helps move the panel in the right direction.

Panel formation.

When asking to be on a panel, you can make a note about why you want to be on it, or why you want to moderate it. This is a handy place to speak about your identity pieces (IF you want - nobody is forced to do this). For example, on a panel about disability, I might type in a little note talking about my specific disabilities and possibly how my queerness informs my disability. That way, if there are ten people with similar disabilities as mine asking to be on the panel - programming can decide that maybe I don’t need to be there. Or if no one else has mentioned queerness as part of their identity, they might put me on to make sure that’s a voice being included.

When you get assigned to a panel, you see the names and emails of the other folks on the panel with you. If you’ve been coming to the con for awhile, you might be able to see right then where a problem area might be - like, holy cow this panel about TV show with black main character is skewing very white! Or perhaps that panel about the intersection of X and Y has mostly folks with experience X and not Y! What do? Well, there’s a few things that I’ve seen done/have done.

One thing is to reach out and see if people from the underrepresented group want to join you on the panel! You can do this quietly by asking folks you know personally, put out calls on social media, ask programming to help you locate some folks, or even put up notes in the green room once at the con asking for folks with identity Y to volunteer.

I’ve also been on panels where none of the above happened, but I’ve looked out into the audience and seen friends with Identity Y who I know are usually up for talking at a moment’s notice and asked if they’d join us. (This can backfire if your friend with Identity Y is just sick to death of talking about their identity, but if you ask it in a nice enough way, hopefully they’ll feel comfortable saying nah, I’m here to listen this time)

This can also happen as the email conversations begin and everyone starts sort of awkwardly saying things like “well, I think we should talk about asexuality but I’m not ace...” and suddenly you realize you’ve left out an important part of the conversation. As in the above scenario, sometimes you can reach out and include that perspective. But sometimes you can’t. What do then?

One thing I’ve seen done/have done is to have the moderator acknowledge the issue at the start of the panel. “We all understand that an ace perspective, or perspective X, is an important one for this topic, but none of us are ace, so we’re just gonna do our best on that part and if we mess it up, we hope someone with that perspective will correct us!” This accomplished a few things: 1) it lets the audience know that you know there is a flaw there so they’re not sitting there wondering why tf you’re not talking about Thing X as much as they’d expected, 2) allows folks in the audience with perspective X the opportunity to speak up if they’re feeling like they want their perspective shared (example: “you mentioned that none of you are ace, I’m asexual and wanted to share that...”). It might be important for the mod to even seek out “comment not a question” in those specific instances.

Sometimes, as happened my very first time moderating, it turns out that someone in the audience has a very unique and important perspective and the rest of the panelists just kinda do chinhands listening to them for a bit and THAT IS OKAY.

You might even get all the way to the panel and not realize until someone in the audience speaks up that you are lacking an important perspective. What do??

This weekend, I witnessed a panel where this happened and the panelists all just asked the audience member if they’d come up and be on the panel with them! Now, like the example above of asking a friend in the audience at the start of the panel, this won’t Always work. Perhaps the audience member does not Want to share their perspective - they only want to make sure that perspective is being covered. That is 100% fair! No one should feel forced or pressured to insta-join a panel! But giving someone the option can be a great way around accidental gaps in inclusion.

Doing the panel.

Now, it’s not always possible to flesh your panel out with diverse perspectives. Despite trying all of the other things, perhaps no one with Identity X wants to sit on your panel. Or perhaps there are too many intersections for a panel of 6 to even cover all of them. Or maybe no one even realized how important Issue Y was to Panel Z until Panel Z got underway. But STILL there are things you, the panelists and moderator, can do!

The most important thing you can do is to make sure you’re prepared for the stuff baked into the panel. Even if you believe the make-up of the panel is sufficient to cover a specific issue, what if the 2 poc panelists end up unable to make it to the con or the 1 Deaf panelist got sick or the person you thought you remembered was Jewish - ooops turns out you had mistaken them for someone else? Listen, this stuff happens. So Be Prepared.

No, as a white person, I absolutely cannot and should not speak on the experiences of people of color. That would be wildly inappropriate. But what I can do, and try to do, is educate myself ahead of time on how the topic at hand affects or is affected by issues of race. If there are poc on the panel willing and able to touch on those things - perfect! Worst thing that happens is that I got a little more educated, which is the opposite of a problem anyway. But if it turns out that it’s only me and another white panelist and the audience is asking questions about race, I can at least say something like “from what I’ve read in this article/heard my poc friends saying/saw online from poc fans.... it seems like XYZ might be true but also could be a problem because of ABC”. Heavy disclaimers should abound, but, yes, it is possible to at least address an issue even if that issue doesn’t directly affect you. In fact, Tired Queer in the Corner might be really happy that you Straight Ally on the Panel did your homework.

If you can’t prepare - if an issue sneaks up on you - just be honest about that and still try to do your best! “Oh, wow, I just realized we never discussed in our pre-panel discussion how the issue of religion impacts this topic, but now that this audience member has brought it up - can any of us speak on that?” If it turns out that, no, none of us can speak on that - toss it to the audience. “Can anyone else address this?” Again, this is a potential backfire situation, but worse case scenario no one wants to address it, you can apologize, pledge to do better next time, and move on. The toss-it-to-the-audience approach also only generally works in smaller panels where audience participation is easily done. If you’re on a dais with a large crowd and no wireless mics - you might have to forgo that particular work-around.

Other options include post-panel discussions. Moderator: “We only have ten minutes left and we never did hit topic X. If anyone - panelists and audience alike - would like to discuss this, we can move into the overflow room to dig in deeper.” That’s one approach. Another is to take it to twitter, or other online discussion. “Sorry we didn’t get to any audience questions about Y - but please add your comments to the # and we’ll do our best to reply in the coming days!” Last year I moderated a panel with a lot of very intelligent and wordy panelists and we literally ran out of time right before I would have gone to audience questions. But that hashtag was busy and lots of us went to it after the panel and had some lovely conversations with some of our audience members that way. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s another way to try and get to the stuff that might otherwise be missed.

Also - be aware of your privileges and make sure you are privileging the voices of those you have privilege over. This weekend, I caught myself interrupting a fellow panelist of color and stopped mid-interruption, doing the sort of “no, continue” motion and set the mic down to make sure I didn’t do it again until they were finished. It happens to all of us, and most of us at WisCon are in positions where we have some and don’t have other privileges. As a panelist - try and remember where yours are and be mindful of when to stop talking.

As a moderator - you have to do this and Also keep in mind your fellow panelists intersections and possibly step in when you notice the white lady keeps monopolizing the conversation or the cishet dude to keeps talking over the queer woman. It’s part of the mod’s job to make sure everyone is heard, so if you don’t believe you’re capable of doing that part you need to either 1) ask someone to help you or 2) not moderate in the first place. [And BTW, asking for help is okay! We don’t all have the same skill sets, so asking one of your panelist buds to help you in an area you lack is not a bad thing to do!]

So those are some of my ideas on how to make sure more voices and types of voices are being heard in panels. I’d love if people added their own! Thanks to everyone who made it a priority for us to keep having these conversations.

#wiscon #wiscon 43 #cons #intersectionalty #wc43

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melissme · 3 years

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Gender&Design

After reading Fabello’s article I thought about being a brave person. Be brave if you are the one who different and don't be shy about your differences. You should show yourself to the world and proud yourself. No one can judge you because of your choice. It is you ,and you should proud yourself.

Adapt your feminist design!

When we see feminism as an ideology rather than a commercial purpose, we can also project our ideas into our designs. For example, when designing an outfit, we can come up with the idea of a gender difference. We can design the outfit according to a person, not for a woman or a man. We have to break biases and accept people for being human.

#gender #design #sexism #intersectionalty #difference

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jenniferratcliffe · 2 years

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20s Britain

The middle class are on strike

The working class go unpaid

The middle class are rioting

The working class get living standards lowered

The middle class complain about disadvantage

The working class struggle to find average

The middle class talk about intersectionality

The upper class talk about glass ceilings

The aristocracy talk about lineage

The rich gossip about holidays on the moon

The working class get handcuffed for taking walks beneath it

#poetry #basic #classism #post intersectionalty #intersectionality #middling #middle class #upper class #rich #royal #society #poor #average #gapme #poem #writing #free verse #simplism

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lastsonlost · 3 years

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Woke' warriors on San Fran school board deny gay white dad with bi-racial daughter place on volunteer parent committee because he's not diverse ENOUGH!

Seth Brenzel, a gay white father of a bi-racial child, was denied a spot on the San Francisco Board of Education's volunteer parent committee

The issue of whether to allow Brenzel to volunteer for the 15-person parent advisory council was debated for almost two hours on Tuesday night

His candidacy faced opposition from some board members and members of the public who argued that there wasn't enough diversity on the council

Those who opposed his candidacy were concerned with the fact that he is white

The 15-person council currently only has 10 members: Two black mothers, one Asian-American, three Latinx, one Pacific Islander and three white

Brenzel, who is the executive director of a music program for children, is openly gay. He lives in San Francisco with his husband and their young daughter

If approved, Brenzel would have been the only father on the council

The issue of whether to allow Seth Brenzel to volunteer for the 15-person parent advisory council was debated for almost two hours on Tuesday night during a board meeting.

The parent advisory council, who had unanimously supported Brenzel to join their all-female committee, had submitted his name to be approved by the school board.

His candidacy, however, faced opposition from some board members and members of the public who argued that there wasn't enough diversity on the council - even though there are five seats currently empty.

Those who opposed his candidacy were concerned with the fact that he is white.

The 15-person council currently only has 10 members: Two black mothers, one Asian-American, three Latinx, one Pacific Islander and three white.

Brenzel, who is the executive director of a music program for children, is openly gay. He lives in San Francisco with his husband and their young daughter.

If approved, Brenzel would have been the only father on the council.

After the lengthy debate, the school board eventually decided against voting on his appointment at all and asked the council to find alternate candidates for them to consider.

Brenzel's appointment to the council was just one of the agenda items for the meeting that ended up going for seven hours.

Another item on the agenda was about reopening San Francisco schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is the same school board that last month voted 6-1 to strike the names of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln from the district's institutions.

As a result, 44 schools had to change their names after board members deemed the historical figures to have ties to racism or have 'dishonorable legacies' despite basing the decision on incorrect Wikipedia articles.

The issue of diversity was a main argument in deciding whether to appoint Brenzel to the council.

One person, only identified as Tara, said during the meeting: 'They are not a diverse group of parents as far as I have seen, I have noticed and have observed.'

Others who opposed Brenzel's appointment argued that the council 'does not even mirror Joe Biden's cabinet' and that other 'voices need to be heard first before white queer voices'.

Commissioner Matt Alexander - who described himself as the lone white board member - had said that it seemed 'like the white members are over-represented on the P.A.C.' and that there was an under-representation of 'Arab, Vietnamese, Native American folks'.

'I'm probably going to get complaints now I'm telling white parents not to be involved or something. I want to be clear, that's not what I'm saying,' he said, before later adding that 'white parents also in the city tend to have a lot of privilege and power and access the board of ed in various ways.'

Several others, however, defended Brenzel's candidacy, pointing out that he would bring diversity because he is gay and a father.

'I see no reason why Seth should not be confirmed. I think this is just honestly just a political show so you can say that you stopped a white person from getting on,' one speaker said.

Another member of the public said: 'I'm very upset we are focusing solely on race. Seth would be the only male on the pact. He would be the only LGBTQ member. He has a bi-racial child.

'I mean, this notion of oh, he's just a white person therefore we can't have him, it's absolute nonsense. There's diversity beyond the color of our skin and I think it is important to consider diversity beyond just race and the intersectionalty of parents.

'We are all diverse in our own way and Seth brings a lot of diversity to a pact that has no men and no LGBTQ parents.'

It comes as the school board president Gabriela López, 30, defended last month's decision to rename the 44 schools honoring historical leaders who have since been branded by activists as racist.

San Francisco Unified School District had been criticized for voting by 6-1 last month to change the name of one-third of the city's schools.

Parents and residents became concerned when it emerged that historians had not been consulted by the renaming committee.

Instead, committee members allegedly used references from Wikipedia and other non-scholarly sources to determine which personalities were racist and problematic.

Several of those citations have now been proven to be factually incorrect, including a false claim that American poet James Russell Lowell did not want black people to vote and that Paul Revere's military activities were tied to 'the conquest of the Penobscot Indians'.

Gabriela López, the head of the San Francisco Board of Education, continues to defend the decision claiming in a tense interview with the New Yorker that she doesn't want to 'discredit the work that this group has done' despite their use of inaccurate information.

She claimed that she did not believe the names had been selected in a haphazard way, even after being read a list of the misinformation that was used in some of the decisions.

'No, because I've already shared with you that the people who have contributed to this process are also part of a community that is taking it as seriously as we would want them to,' Lopez argued about the errors made in the research process.

'And they're contributing through diverse perspectives and experiences that are often not included, and that we need to acknowledge.

'What I keep hearing is you're trying to undermine the work that has been done through this process. And I'm moving away from the idea that it was haphazard,' she said in the strained Q&A.

Lopez also pushed back on the complaints that historians were not consulted as part of the process.

Among the names included on the list that had provoked pushback from residents and historians was President Abraham Lincoln.

Lopez said that she did not believe Lincoln was a person she would 'admire or see as a hero'.

'I think that the killing of indigenous peoples and that record is something that is not acknowledged,' she said.

'It's something that people are now learning about, and due to this process. And so, we just have to do the work of that extra learning when we're having these discussions.'

Lopez also claimed that the renaming was only facing criticism because 'people will always have a problem with the discussion of racism', not because of the inaccurate information.

'That is what I know. That is why I'm getting death threats. That is why people aren't open to other possibilities. Because when we have this discussion, that's the outcomes no matter how good it's set up, no matter how open we are,' she said.

'No matter what, people are going to have an issue with that. That is what I know, given my experience. Of course, I'm hearing what you're saying, but I don't think it's going to change the outcome. People are still going to be up in arms when we're doing this.'

Among the other criticism received by the city's board of education was that it had voted on the renaming when there appeared to be no plan in place to bring students back to in-person learning.

'What I cannot understand is why the school board is advancing a plan of all these schools renamed by April when there isn't a plan to have our kids back in the classroom by then,' San Francisco Mayor London Breed had said.

The city of San Francisco has also since sued the board of education and school district claiming they have violated a state law that required districts to adopt a clear plan during the pandemic as it relates to in-person education.

Lopez claimed that it is 'completely false' to say they don't have a plan and accused to the mayor of jumping at 'any opportunity to cause further division'.

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evilelitest2 · 4 years

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How do you think Bernie can best stop his more rabid fanbase? (I'm not judging the claim, just a genuine question.)

That is fair. And its a good question, cause despite how toxic Sanders fans can be online, I really do think Sanders himself is a good man who doesn’t believe the shitty things you see his fans says. here is what i’d do If I was like...Sanders advisor

1) Talk about the importance of intersectionalty. Like just bring it up on twitter, at rallies, in speeches.

2) At the least, don’t let any of your staff go unto Chapo. At the most actively denounce it as toxic and not representing your brand.

3) Actively say “Don’t tweet snakes at Elizabeth warren” “Don’t mock pete for being gay” that goes a long way

4) Hire some staffers to go through twitter and find any instance of Sanders fans being racist, sexist, homophobic ect, and denounce it

5) SCREEN YOUR FUCKING PEOPLE BETTER

6) When talking about racism/sexism/homophobia, acknowledge that these issues won’t just be fixed by focusing on class issues. Undercut the Dirtbag left

7) Finally don’t demonize your opposition, a lot of the problem comes from the fandom getting into “anybody who isn’t Sanders is a bootlicker” mentality which is super toxic. Make it clear that Trump is the main enemy, not the DNC

Fun fact btw, now that its a two person race, the toxic biden fans are coming out. but because Biden is winning they won’t hurt him the way that Sanders fans hurt him

#ask EvilElitest #Bernie Sanders #Joe Biden #Elizabeth Warren #Dirtbag left #Chapo House

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chamomileyes · 7 years

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Vegan: Abusing animals is shitty.

Carnist: Plant feelings, quinoa, migrant workers, allergens, deserted islands, lions!! New study, natural, availability, animal welfare, unhealthy, humans first, extremism, tyranny, humane!!!

Vegan:....Abusing animals is still shitty?

#veganism #the derailment is endless #and sometimes it's an important convo when comes to intersectionalty and accessibility but so often it's like #i have an allergy therefore veganism is meaningless

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snothando-p-nxumalo · 3 years

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The Journey of Developing My Positionality

Positionality is the concept that personal values, opinions, and time and space affect one’s understanding of the world. In this case, race, gender, class, and other characteristics of identity are indicators of social and spatial status (Sanchez, 2021). Learning one’s position in society is important. I grew up in a lower socio-economic where a woman is seen as a wife, who must take care of kids, clean and cook while the man goes to work and provide for the family. I was raised by a single mother, who had to work hard to provide for me as my father chose to let her be a single parent by leaving us. Through all the that, I saw the importance of being an independent woman. My mother always encouraged me to go to school and become something so I can never rely on someone to feed me, which is why I am on this journey of becoming something great.

(Intersectionality & Personality, 2015)

Occupational therapists have a responsibility to assist patients/clients to enhance their capability to function their desired activities and characteristics as independently as possible (Stromsdorfer, 2020). By doing this, as therapists we also need to understand our position within the environment, we are working in. As many clients let us into their world, by this I mean opening up to us, but we must respect the person’s beliefs and personal values they have. This is allowing for the therapist and clients to build a rapport which will allow for treatment to occur. When I am screening at the clinic or seeing clients at the park, I ensure to speak IsiZulu and basic concepts as possible for them to understand what I do.

I am fortunate enough to understand where most people are coming from as I am also from a lower socio-economic. This promotes the way I approach the people at Inanda Seminary clinic. I allow the client to share their difficulties and their situation at home without having them feeling like I am more privilege than them or above them. When working the community, you are actually within that person’s space. This is a big transition from the hospital setting to the community setting. By being in the community, I need to be informative about the dynamics of injustice, discrimination and oppression, therefore understanding the effect of economic deprivation on populations-at-risk and limitations of receiving proper healthcare. This made me realize that there is still a lot of work that need to be done to uplift the community.

The projects and programmes we do at Inanda Wilderness Park are based what the community needs. These projects benefit the whole community as we treat babies to elderly people, this is more of giving back to the community. Ames (2021) stated that this is also a great to learn more about the community and the people living there. This is an opportunity to help us understand better the situation of others in the community. When working with people who are interested in what you are doing, it allows for better improvement. A fair and broad view of your surrounding will also help you become an effective and compassionate citizen.

In general, when I consider my position, I still think there is a lot that I still need to learn. However, I came to a conclusion that growing in the lower socio-economic environment also affects how you see the world. Some people are resistant to the services we offer as they think we are intruders who came to change the way they are living rather seeing us as humanist we wish to see the community developing and improving from the challenges they are facing on their own. this is what drives me to actually want to continue learning and understanding not everyone will be open to change.

References

Ames, M. (n.d.). The Importance and benefits of giving back to your community. Retrieved 2021, from EF Academy Blog: http://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/efacademyblog/importance-giving-back-to-your-community/

Intersectionality & Personality. (2015). Retrieved from Zella Elliot: https://www.zettaelliott.com/intersectionalty-positionality/

Sanchez, L. (2021). Position/Positionality. Retrieved from New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/tftw-position-positionality/

Stromsdorfer, S. (2020). The 13 Most Common Occupational Therapy Setting. Retrieved from My OT Spot: https://www.myspot.com/occupational-therapy-settings/

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ot-yolanda · 3 years

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Positionality is the key to your perception

“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful” (Margaret J. Wheatley, 2021). As people are complex and dynamic, and while being human, and our races or genders might give us commonalities with other people we each present differently in terms of our positionality. We are influenced by our upbringing, culture (both western and indigenous), religion, friends, environment, and many other aspects that are unconscious. Our positionality is the rationale behind every action and reaction that we express through verbal and non-verbal communication.

According to Takacs (2002), understanding positionality means understanding where you stand with respect to power, an essential skill for social change agents. From this understanding, we have a standpoint from which we can challenge power and change ourselves. I believe I have lived most of my life in my head, constantly building and breaking down what have learn both at home and in our areas like church or at school (academically). With age, I have a different understanding of the world through my experiences and the knowledge I have obtained from reflecting on those aspects. I am also aware that my positionality on many ideologies will also change in the years to come because positionality is forever adapting to the new understanding of the information.

On a personal level, all the factors such as race, class, educational attainment, income, ability, gender, citizenship, culture, religion, and schooling have greatly influenced my positionality. My outlook on the world has mainly been from a negative standpoint due to not understanding myself as a person and lack of knowledge of mental health. On a deeper level, as I mentioned not understanding myself was due to the battle of traditional and religious upbringing (traditional Zulu parents who grew up in predominantly black communities) but living in a western environment (predominantly white suburbs) and being the first born didn’t help me either as I was initially being directed and moulded to follow a path chosen by my parents and the dreams, they had for me, not taking into account my own ideas.

Having said all of that one’s positionality plays a big role in therapy as a health professional. Takacs (2002) feels that much of our dialogues with other people are not just dialogues but more monologues to convince others to adopt our way of thinking and in most or even all cases of patient vs therapist relationship there is a superiority vs inferiority complex. When assessing being aware of one’s positionality and the being aware of the different positionality your client may have is important to be able to obtain accurate assessment findings that will guide your intervention and treatment principles linking to your client’s positionality. When working in a community, reflexivity is crucial to creating non-bias programmes and to be able to incorporate culturally appropriate recommendations whilst also introducing the community to new and improved developed (slightly western) programmes to guide the community in a forward direction, so that the community is not stagnant.

In conclusion, a deep analysis of our positionality vs the community as a whole’s positionalities and individuals within the communities positionality, play a role in development and intervention. Thus, being aware of our position on specific topics and how not to project our unconscious engraved opinions onto others will make us better health professionals in the long run.

References:

Takacs, D. (2002). Social Justice. Positionality, Epistemology, And Social Justice In The Classroom, 29(4 (90), 168-181.

50 Quotes About Self-Reflection To Inspire You To Take Better Care Of Yourself. (2021). Retrieved 10 May 2021, from https://www.yourtango.com/2019322251/self-love-quotes-about-self-reflection-take-care-of-yourself

(2021). Retrieved 10 May 2021, from https://www.zettaelliott.com/intersectionalty-positionality/

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