concrete cages

From: Phillip White (Phillip_White@ceo.cudenver.edu)
Date: Wed Aug 15 2001 - 07:25:09 PDT


xmca@weber.ucsd.edu writes:

        kathryn alexander scrobe:
>
>Bill, i have had some difficulty catching up with the email these
>past days - the CHT ethnography of the skater's park is fascinating,
>and
>yet i found the letter posted yesterday by your skater - rebel quite
>reminisicent of the common refrain of so many angry young males voices
>demands for privilege and special consessions - and then the threat of
>violence if they are not appeased.
>
        and then a few days later, kathryn, you wrote that upon rereading your
message that perhaps you were being far too cranky.

        may i disagree?

        i thought that your message was quite astute and pointed out a particular
kind of dilema that we folks are faced with on a daily basis... which is
how to deal gracefully when confronted with demands of perogative and
privilege... demands both implicit and explicit and at times accompanied
with threats.

        while within our experience it is often angry young males who are voicing
demands, situating this activity in a CHAT perspective reveals that these
men are practicing overtly an activity deeply structured within all
activities of our society - this practice has even been noted here at
xmca - and is practiced not just by men, but like any form of abuse, is
practiced as a way of exercising power by nearly every participant of our
society, depending on each participant's immediate cultural resourses. it
is like abuse - yes, as a statistical average, more men abuse women than
otherwise. and yet not only do some women abuse men, but some women abuse
children - and some children abuse (bully) other children - and much of
that abuse is ignored. it's complex.

        anyway, i thought that your point was very important - i do think too
that we haven't yet figured out a way to understand how do deal with these
on-going socially embedded demands that are such a major component of our
daily practices.

phillip

        

* * * * * * * *
* *

The English noun "identity" comes, ultimately, from the
Latin adverb "identidem", which means "repeatedly."
The Latin has exactly the same rhythm as the English,
buh-BUM-buh-BUM - a simple iamb, repeated; and
"identidem" is, in fact, nothing more than a
reduplication of the word "idem", "the same":
"idem(et)idem". "Same(and) same". The same,
repeated. It is a word that does exactly what
it means.

                          from "The Elusive Embrace" by Daniel
Mendelsohn.

phillip white
doctoral student http://ceo.cudenver.edu/~hacms_lab/index.html
scrambling a dissertation
denver, colorado
phillip_white@ceo.cudenver.edu



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 01 2001 - 01:02:09 PDT