Re: Public - private; rational - personal

Judy Diamondstone (diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu)
Wed, 24 Jul 1996 15:28:58 -0400

Hi, Angel - Do you remember a specific presentation by a woman
that was empirically grounded but ill-received for being emotional --
I also would like to get at these issues (of what counts as
evidence, when presented by whom, etc.), which I believe bear on
presentations by people of color as well as women here in the US.

- Judy

At 02:58 PM 7/17/96 +0800, you wrote:
>Hi fellow xmca-ers (members of mind-culture-activity discussion list),
>
>Some time ago, there was some discussion on xmca on this topic, e.g.,
>"what's public and could go on to xmca, what's private, and should go to a
>private channel", what's "rational" and "objective", "scientific", what's
>"personal", or "emotional". What's a public voice, and what's a private
>voice, etc..
>
>I'm interested in continuing with this discussion, and hope that there's
>someone out there who would also be interested in taking up these issues
>or in discussing the implications and ideological sources of our
>understandings of these notions (e.g., public, private, rational, personal,
>emotional, etc.).
>
>My sense of it is that the "public" vs. "private" and "rational" vs.
>"personal, emotional" divisions are not neutural but ideologically laden,
>and women are usually placed in the arenas of "private", "emotional",
>"household", etc. (see C. Luke, 1992). Dorothy Smith's analysis also shows
>that the capitalist economic mode and "division of labour" assign women
>to the "private", "personal", "household" space, and women's concerns and
>experiences are marginalized as non-public, non-rational, non-scientific,
>"emotional", "personal", "private", etc..
>
>I see many links between these ideologies and women's marginalization in
>the academic circles; women's works and presentations can easily get
>criticized as being "too emotional", "too intimate", "too personal", etc..
>
>It doesn't mean that women's works are not rigourous, are not grounded in
>data and evidence; it may be that the criteria to establish what counts as
>data and evidence tend also to be one-sided and usually subscribe to a
>male's world view (epistemological and ontological assumptions grounded in
>male experiences).
>
>I understand that this can be controversial, and I welcome your sharing of
>your views.
>
>Cheers,
>Angel
>-----------------------
>Angel Lin, Ph.D.
>Assistant Professor
>Dept of English
>City University of Hong Kong
>Tat Chee Ave., Kln., Hong Kong
>phone: (852) 2788-8122
>fax: (852) 2788-8894
>e-mail: enangel who-is-at cityu.edu.hk
>
>
>
>
>
>

....................
Judy Diamondstone diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu
Graduate School of Education Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
10 Seminary Place New Brunswick, NJ 08903

Eternity is in love with the productions of time. - W. Blake