status mediators
Katherine Brown (kbrown who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu)
Thu, 12 Sep 1996 11:18:31 -0700 (PDT)
Hi Judy and others interested in the issue of the doublebinds of masculinity
and femininity. I don't think I have any original insight on the ways that
we alternately experience privelege and disempowerment by virtue of gender
identity, just that it is a fluid set of markings and constructs, that
deployingf the cultural resources and carrying the cultural baggage of our
gender role or i.d. as male or female, masculine or femininine, introvert
extrovert, smart, dumb lazy, clever, powerful or dependent--these are things
that pivot from asset to problem in the oddest ways. I know men who will
not walk on a dark street on the same side as a lone woman because they
are aware that it makes women uncomfortable and don't want to be responsible for
those fearful backglances and those quickened steps. I had an African
American male student tell me that he was at the ATM one day feeling really
good as he was depositing a huge paycheck, but still he did his usual thing
of standing WAY behind the 'invisible line" that many people orient to
when "doing ATM" behavior (i.e. I am not going to rob you or read your stupid
little secret code...), and he felt bad because no matter how much money
he had made on that check, he still was this big black dude at the ATM and
it makes the white folks nervous...I see women who are very bright and very
smart dumb down and talk in little baby voices that are not in their
repertoire when there are only women in the room...these are both protective
and disabling screens thrown up to put their male interlocutors at ease.
I mean we're never totally on top or on the bottom...its not a linear ladder,
or even a plottable XY axis...Like Bill Gates is on top and we're all so many
standard deviations away from him....:)
p.s. remember that if you get WIndows 95, its okay as long as you remember
that you're not operating it, it's operating you...
just an aside...
Katherine Brown
LCHC