By Ella Kate Whiteley Happy to be a woman. Just don’t need to attend to it so much. Minoritised in the workplace I remember feeling the irony of joining a Woman in Philosophy group during my doctorate, while wanting not to be seen as a woman in philosophy. Colleagues who were men weren’t
Features that are deemed threatening or discordant acquire heightened salience. Of course, the sociocultural/political/economic regimes that establish what and who are deemed threatening or discordant are multifaceted, pervasive (we are, essentially, submerged in them continuously, saturated) and seemingly inveterate.
With a normative standard of cis gender hetero White maleness comes the privilege, for cis gender hetero White males, of opting to ignore the relevance to oneself of demographic features; anyone not belonging to the cohort of cis gender hetero White males, however, is rendered aware, nearly continually, of any demographic characteristic that departs from the normative standard (a cognitive and affective burden that the cis gender hetero White male does not experience).
Cis gender hetero White maleness is never a qualifying descriptor for one's professional status or accomplishments, while any other demographic is explicitly appended, and functions as a subtle asterisk- 'this person's achievements are notable (and circumscribed) precisely because they are not cis gender hetero White male.'
The absence of the appended demographic term connotes and confers an immediate, permanent (indelible, truth be told) exemption from any requirement to establish credibility, the worth of one's words, the reasonableness of one's presence in rooms of importance. Membership has its rewards.
This framework is pernicious, persistent, perverse. It is simultaneously manifest everywhere we go, and often unconscious in its operation. Efforts to undermine its hegemony entail highlighting the same demographic sorting that serves as its basis, an apparently intractable double-bind.
Near as I can tell, dismantling the hegemonic sociocultural/political/economic apparatus of cis gender hetero White maleness entails the deliberate demographic displacement of cis gender hetero White males from seats of authority. It would seem, here in the US, the fascist wing of our Supreme Court agrees, displaying extraordinary and absurd on their face legal fictions to summarily dispense with the well-established, and demonstrably effective, policy of affirmative action to remedy systematic discrimination. The hegemonic sociocultural/political/economic apparatus of cis gender hetero White maleness was reasserted precisely because over the course of several decades, it was starting to show signs of eroding. The fascists couldn't claim the hegemonic sociocultural/political/economic apparatus of cis gender hetero White maleness hadn't been discredited, so instead they simply decided it no longer meaningfully existed. The dissent of Justice Ketanji-Brown-Jackson is blunt and uncompromising:
"“With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat,. “But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”
Demographics shouldn't matter, but they do. They quite literally determine what words are granted legitimacy, what life one is permitted to live, in many instances, simply, who lives and who dies.
Features that are deemed threatening or discordant acquire heightened salience. Of course, the sociocultural/political/economic regimes that establish what and who are deemed threatening or discordant are multifaceted, pervasive (we are, essentially, submerged in them continuously, saturated) and seemingly inveterate.
With a normative standard of cis gender hetero White maleness comes the privilege, for cis gender hetero White males, of opting to ignore the relevance to oneself of demographic features; anyone not belonging to the cohort of cis gender hetero White males, however, is rendered aware, nearly continually, of any demographic characteristic that departs from the normative standard (a cognitive and affective burden that the cis gender hetero White male does not experience).
Cis gender hetero White maleness is never a qualifying descriptor for one's professional status or accomplishments, while any other demographic is explicitly appended, and functions as a subtle asterisk- 'this person's achievements are notable (and circumscribed) precisely because they are not cis gender hetero White male.'
The absence of the appended demographic term connotes and confers an immediate, permanent (indelible, truth be told) exemption from any requirement to establish credibility, the worth of one's words, the reasonableness of one's presence in rooms of importance. Membership has its rewards.
This framework is pernicious, persistent, perverse. It is simultaneously manifest everywhere we go, and often unconscious in its operation. Efforts to undermine its hegemony entail highlighting the same demographic sorting that serves as its basis, an apparently intractable double-bind.
Near as I can tell, dismantling the hegemonic sociocultural/political/economic apparatus of cis gender hetero White maleness entails the deliberate demographic displacement of cis gender hetero White males from seats of authority. It would seem, here in the US, the fascist wing of our Supreme Court agrees, displaying extraordinary and absurd on their face legal fictions to summarily dispense with the well-established, and demonstrably effective, policy of affirmative action to remedy systematic discrimination. The hegemonic sociocultural/political/economic apparatus of cis gender hetero White maleness was reasserted precisely because over the course of several decades, it was starting to show signs of eroding. The fascists couldn't claim the hegemonic sociocultural/political/economic apparatus of cis gender hetero White maleness hadn't been discredited, so instead they simply decided it no longer meaningfully existed. The dissent of Justice Ketanji-Brown-Jackson is blunt and uncompromising:
"“With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat,. “But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”
Demographics shouldn't matter, but they do. They quite literally determine what words are granted legitimacy, what life one is permitted to live, in many instances, simply, who lives and who dies.
Best regards,
IDR