ozarque (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ozarque) wrote,@ 2007-08-02 08:08:00 |
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Eldering; winding down; afternote...
I had said, in one example of me fussing at myself, "Okay, so there are strangers who have considerable respect for you, but some of your own children are still waiting for you to publish what they refer to as a Real Book, and you still haven't made peace with the feminist community!"
Andcmeckhardt, fjm, and bibliofile all asked for an explanation of "you still haven't made peace with the feminist community!" That's fair enough, but it's not easy.
The objection that there is no one single "feminist community" is also fair, and accurate; I can only say that in this instance it's not relevant. Over the years I've been asked to speak to groups from all of the various branches of feminism, and -- without exception -- what I've said has made my audience angry with me.
Part of the problem is a set of philosophical differences, and I don't think there's any point in my listing those here. I've had no luck making them clear to audiences when I was actually there before them... when they could observe my body language and I could observe theirs, and we could interact on that basis. The chances of my being able to make them clear with nothing but the written word at my disposal are vanishingly small. I will, therefore, mention just the one practical difference that puts me at odds with the feminists (using that as an admittedly over-broad cover term). Here goes....
My perception is that none of the branches of feminism has been willing to make any real effort to reach the cultural group represented by women who get called "white trash" and "trailer park trash" even when they don't live in trailer parks. Women like Paula Jones. Women who are crippled by the Southern Mountain dialects they speak -- women whose dialects very effectively bar them from any chance of moving out of their cultural group. This is my cultural group; I escaped from it -- by sheer blind luck -- because I was born into its "gentry" branch, and I was dogged-stubborn, and telling me I couldn't do something was a sure way to make me fight till I found a way to do it. The books and articles that feminists write, and the speeches they give, and the courses they teach, and the conferences they offer -- in my opinion -- systematically neglect those women. When I speak to feminist groups, of whatever theoretical orientation, I feel duty-bound to express my dissatisfaction about this, and to ask that they do something to fix the problem. That has never yet led to a peaceful resolution.
[And while I'm here: This is analogous to my perpetual demand that Big Name Linguists -- linguists who already are full professors and already have tenure and already have secure status and couldn't be hurt in any way by an accusation that they've stooped to "popularization" -- write something, for once, that would make linguistics clear to ordinary people. That demand never leads to a peaceful resolution either. That gets me responses like "Oh, for gods sake, Suzette, 'ordinary' people don't read!" Uhuh. Many of the women I want so much to reach with feminism are part of that population of "ordinary people."]
I had said, in one example of me fussing at myself, "Okay, so there are strangers who have considerable respect for you, but some of your own children are still waiting for you to publish what they refer to as a Real Book, and you still haven't made peace with the feminist community!"
And
cmeckhardt, fjm, and bibliofile all asked for an explanation of "you still haven't made peace with the feminist community!" That's fair enough, but it's not easy. The objection that there is no one single "feminist community" is also fair, and accurate; I can only say that in this instance it's not relevant. Over the years I've been asked to speak to groups from all of the various branches of feminism, and -- without exception -- what I've said has made my audience angry with me.
Part of the problem is a set of philosophical differences, and I don't think there's any point in my listing those here. I've had no luck making them clear to audiences when I was actually there before them... when they could observe my body language and I could observe theirs, and we could interact on that basis. The chances of my being able to make them clear with nothing but the written word at my disposal are vanishingly small. I will, therefore, mention just the one practical difference that puts me at odds with the feminists (using that as an admittedly over-broad cover term). Here goes....
My perception is that none of the branches of feminism has been willing to make any real effort to reach the cultural group represented by women who get called "white trash" and "trailer park trash" even when they don't live in trailer parks. Women like Paula Jones. Women who are crippled by the Southern Mountain dialects they speak -- women whose dialects very effectively bar them from any chance of moving out of their cultural group. This is my cultural group; I escaped from it -- by sheer blind luck -- because I was born into its "gentry" branch, and I was dogged-stubborn, and telling me I couldn't do something was a sure way to make me fight till I found a way to do it. The books and articles that feminists write, and the speeches they give, and the courses they teach, and the conferences they offer -- in my opinion -- systematically neglect those women. When I speak to feminist groups, of whatever theoretical orientation, I feel duty-bound to express my dissatisfaction about this, and to ask that they do something to fix the problem. That has never yet led to a peaceful resolution.
[And while I'm here: This is analogous to my perpetual demand that Big Name Linguists -- linguists who already are full professors and already have tenure and already have secure status and couldn't be hurt in any way by an accusation that they've stooped to "popularization" -- write something, for once, that would make linguistics clear to ordinary people. That demand never leads to a peaceful resolution either. That gets me responses like "Oh, for gods sake, Suzette, 'ordinary' people don't read!" Uhuh. Many of the women I want so much to reach with feminism are part of that population of "ordinary people."]