Greetings. I just signed up for this particular list in the hope of some
enlightenment and stimulating conversation. However, in this particular
note I am asking for any help on a specific topic. I am a fourth year
university student at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. One
of my areas of study is population growth, with a geographical interest
focusing on China. I am not only studying this from an economical or
demographic point of view, but also a morale point of view as population
control impinges on women's personal rights and freedoms. This is just a
general idea of what I am interesed in in terms of this topic - this
issue can get very complex and convulted depending on one's atttiudes etc.
Anyway, my point is, I am curious to know if anyone can offer some
assistance in this field either through comments on personal experiences
(particularily with referance to China), personal viewpoints and inputs,
referances to other materials or people, or anything that could help to
further examine this topic.
If anyone is particularily interested in either helping or in getting
more info on what I am studying, please feel free to write
([EMAIL PROTECTED]), and I will write back ASAP.
Thanks,
Fiona Campbell
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tue Oct 25 11:12:39 MDT 1994
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tue Oct 25 11:12:39 1994
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Date: Tue, 25 Oct 1994 11:15:02 -0600 (MDT)
From: anne jordan dashiell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Diversity
To: Faith BarrGlover <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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> I just want to make a brief comment in support of Dorceta's questions in
> her second post about diversity. I have found thorough many years of
> being part of feminist spiritual and environmental groups that I
> occasionally feel less-than-acceptable because of my heterosexual
> orientation; some of this, I've found, is just my insecurity; some of it
> has been directly expressed to me and about me within my hearing.
faith- i think there's a BIG difference between occasionally feeling
less than acceptable because of being het....and people within
marginalized groups being "intolerant" of difference. the way i see it,
if you are being talked about by non-het people in this "intolerant" way
then maybe you are doing things or saying things that make non-het people
uncomfortable or making them think you are not working to deconstruct
your heterosexism. you may think thats not a possibility, but if you
identify yourself as heterosexual, its quite possible that you are unable
to understand what it feels like to not identify with that sexual preference.
also, maybe you arent doing things to offend...in which case, its
possible that the people you are dealing with are not ready to go on to
"the next stage" (which is different for everyone- and certainly
different from you as a person who identifies with the norm) and either
you should take it the same way you (hopefully) take challenges to your
whiteness by people of color. do you understand that the dynamic is the same?
-anne
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tue Oct 25 11:16:36 MDT 1994
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tue Oct 25 11:16:35 1994
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Date: Tue, 25 Oct 1994 13:13:24 -0500 (EST)
From: Kate Sandilands <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: "heterophobia"?!?!?
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Greeting, fellow list subscribers. I have only recently signed up
for this list, and have been listening in, with varying degrees
of interest, to some of the conversations going on.
But now I feel I have to say something. I agree wholeheartedly
with those writers who entreat us to think about, and act
upon, an agenda of "diversity" that goes beyond the simplistic
repetition of buzzwords. And "diversity" means, sometimes,
having to come to terms with the social relations of domination.
This is not simply a question of confessing "privilege" (as if
we could really claim to understand the exact effects of being
"middle class" on our perspectives and utterances), but of
grappling with difficult problems of both day-to-day interaction
and social structure.
Which means, I think, that sometimes one is going to feel
uncomfortable. Not every social/political situation is going
to make each of us feel "welcome" to the same extent all the time.
I don't need to repeat that we live in a world where conflicts
are levelled and glossed over by discourses about "one world"
and "global villages" and "we should all live in harmony." While
conflict is not the only possible expression of disagreement
(which I think is tremendously healthy, if sometimes
exhausting), I think that a lot of the talk going on on this
board re: "diversity" has the unintentional effect of glossing
over genuine debate on the issues that "divide" us, and
throwing us into a realm where all we are concerned about is
whether or not we feel comfortable with any given discussion.
Pardon me if this is not quite clear, but I'm a real newcomer
to this medium.
In any case, I think that it is sometimes very useful for
people who are more obviously "supported" by dominant social/
discursive categories to feel some discomfort when confronted
with those who have been cast as Other in these discourses.
I say this with particular reference to some people's apparent
feelings of exclusion when positioned as "marginal" in the
occasional workshop where heterosexuality is not the norm, but
it applies equally to other discourses as well. It is not useful
to use the language of "reverse discrimination"; that is the
language of the right (at least, it is here in Canada), and
it serves to cover over questions of inequality with a patina
of "respect for diversity." What happens is that the fundamental
relations of power that underly the whole question are ignored.
In any case, I propose that some concrete "issues" be raised
as a way for us (meaning the participants in this conversation,
plue others who may want to join) to transcend this whole
debate about what is really NOT the problem we face. I'm sorry,
people, but we in Ontario just lost the possibility of having
lesbian and gay families recognized as "families" for the sake
of human rights protection, benefits, etc. The right mobilized
very well; our (social democratic) government lacked the
political and moral will to do something courageous. Gay families
do not have rights; bashing is commonplace on the streets of
"Toronto-the-Good"; Canada Customs systematically stops shipments
of queer literature at the border claiming it is pornographic.
Discomfort at workshops DOES NOT COMPARE to these systemic
violences and regulations.
So I would like to ask you (all) a question: how can we begin
to formulate an ecofeminist agenda that deals explicitly with
questions of heterosexism? I see, in existing ecofeminist
literature, little discussion of sexuality, let alone queer
sexuality. I am not interested in creating a new set of sexual
"norms" to which all people must aspire; I AM interested
in interrogating current forms of sexuality in terms of their
perpetuation of particular modes of power. Are we (ecofeminists)
content with Dworkin and MacKinnon, or are there specific
things that we could add to contemporary struggles around
sexuality (which I think is far more complicated than simply
a question of orientation)? Isn't there an erotic dimension
to social life that we want to preserve/foster? Don't
Dworkin et. al. seem to forget this? Can we speak about the
erotic dimensions of nature (especially in a context where
so much sexuality is influenced by/reduced to domination)?
On a practical level, how can we think about political organizing
in a way that links struggles over nature with struggles over
sexuality? How can these be linked to antiracism? How are
our understandings of our bodies implicated in all of this, and
is there a link to challenging the medical establishment?
I'll shut up, now, but am looking forward to someone responding.
And please tell me (you can "flame" me if you want, but I think
this medium isn't very good for expressions of high emotion)
if my intervention is useful.
Kate Sandilands
Faculty of Environmental Studies (yes, I'm an academic, if that
wasn't perfectly obvious all along, but my life as a political
theorist doesn't preclude activism, thank you very much)
York University
Toronto, Ontario
CANADA
