Wow… after the readings, I’m overwhelmed with thoughts, ideas, and emotions. My major is molecular and cellular biology, and I feel like I’m proficient in understanding and applying concepts of the sort. However, as to the ideas of sociopolitics, intersectionality, and marginalized citizens I have to admit that I’m a little naive. Despite my inexperience with the subject matter, I got an overall sense of one reoccurring fact- that people do not fit into molds of categories or statistics. What really drove this home was the question that Zachery presented in her seminar, “Am I a black woman, or a woman who is black?” I guess the fact that the lines are blurred is nothing new, I have just never viewed gender discrimination, racism, class, or other “differences” in this light before. I guess I have never thought of these categories as something to study, simply only as a fact of life.
There are so many other facts brought up in the readings that I honestly can’t wrap my mind around just yet. The issues of the political rungs that people are stationed at, and how one gets to be in that status, how military women are thought to behave, and how the Appalachian people are viewed by many, are just to name a few issues that brought me out of my bubble of understanding the inter workings of the world thus far.
I posed the question in a previous blog about what we could do as a group to change a whole society’s view as well as their/our concern for others… and these readings gave me some positive feedback. To know that scholars are coming up with effective ways to study intersectionality and portray the facts in an un-skewed sense is exciting. I think understanding and acknowledging people’s differences can start the change that needs to take place in society’s overall view.
September 3, 2008 by g
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