Identity and Identification
on the internet, no one knows you’re not Tony La Russa
EDIT/UPDATE: After reading Collin’s comment, I decided to research further. The lawsuit was settled out of court, but part of the issue was distasteful references to players who had died of heart conditions or driving accidents. Bad taste! I’d sue if I were La Russa too, in this case — but because I’d be serious [...]
584: Weekly Position Paper #14: Performativity and Subversion: Thomas Beatie Televised in a Gay Bar
This is about two weeks old now, but I forgot to post it. In Chapter 7 of Beyond Identity Politics, Moya Lloyd discusses the difference between performance and performativity in order to discuss the potentials for parody as subversion. Performativity, she argues, cannot be reduced to simply performance, in part because performance relies on autonomous [...]
Lloyd: Beyond Identity Politics (2005)
Beyond Identity Politics: Feminism, Power and Politics by Moya Lloyd My review rating: 5 of 5 starsLloyd’s book is an excellent book for those interested in feminism and post-structuralist theories of identity and politics. Lloyd is able to articulately and clearly convey post-structuralist feminist theories in ways that are accessible, even when the original author [...]
584: Weekly Position Paper #7: Cosmopolitanism in “The Man to Send Rain Cloudsâ€
Leslie Marmon Silko’s “The Man to Send Rain Clouds†(182-186) is the story of how Leon and Ken found Teofilo dead under a cottonwood tree and Teofilo’s subsequent burial. When Leon and Ken first encounter Father Paul in the story, they do not tell him of Teofilo’s death, but later Leon goes to the priest [...]
584: Weekly Position Paper #6: Why Do White People Claim They Have No Culture?
In Chapter 4 of The Ethics of Identity, Appiah notes that while the United States has never been less culturally diverse, there have never been more celebrations of, or demands for, cultural diversity. He questions the values of both culture and diversity as good things, arguing that cultural change is commonplace and that a lack [...]
challenging gay left orthodoxy
I found this book at Webster’s, the local bookstore/coffee shop downtown, and thought it might make me sufficiently angry or challenged. From the Introduction: Queer. Once—and still—an anti-gay slur, it’s been reclaimed by a minority of gay people as a supposedly affirmative label. Yet it’s an odd and problematic word, often less indicative of sexual [...]
584: Weekly Position Paper #5: The Future of Typified Bodies and Identities
In Chapter 3 of The Ethics of Identity, Kwame Anthony Appiah notes that there are two interrelated questions we should ask regarding identities: “how existing identities should be treated; and what sort of identities there should be†(108). According to Appiah, to ask to be treated with equal dignity despite marginalized identities is not enough, [...]
educated souls and goth makeup in schools
I love coincidence — it’s not “mere” as we would like to think, but instead useful. Just after finishing reading Chapter 5 of Kwame Anthony Appiah’s The Ethics of Identity, in which he devotes space to “Educated Souls” — the role of education in a liberal society — I saw this post at sociological images, [...]
584: Weekly Position Paper #4: Problematizing Empathy
In Where We Stand: Class Matters, bell hooks describes various times in her life when she does not want to be understood, or moments when empathy does not do enough. While not a central focus of her book, these are themes that weave their way into various sections. For example, after the privileged women at [...]
Alexander on flattening difference and form
Jonathan Alexander’s the CCCC blog is a great reflection on the ways in which readers and writers “flatten difference.” While teaching Judd Winick’s graphic novel Pedro and Me I became concerned about what my students were taking away from their encounter with the text and our discussions about it. While students appreciated the friendship that [...]
