Thursday, April 18, 2013
An Attempt to Overcome the Heteropatriarchal Slippery-Slope
How have I internalized oppression, and how have I oppressed is a question that would literally take me a book-length text to answer thoroughly and up to date (I would of course need yearly editions to rework the answer). But for the purpose of a blog post, I will state the prevalent and most eminent oppression (both enacted and suffered): heteropatriarchy. Since early age, I have been constantly struggling to not fall prey of what I can now name as heteropatriarchy. Before, and that is, back in Mexico, I identified it as a naturalized machismo mexicano. Although I identified from an early age with Sor Juana's feminist poetry, Michael Jackon and Prince's androgynous personas, Danny Zucco's feminine masculinity, and Juanga!, I was still immersed in a world where gender transgressions was an extreme sport called "walking over egg-shells." My allegiances with the above mentioned jotos y jotas was a coveted personal matter, not public, not political. I have desired women since I discovered my sexuality. Nonetheless, I have always been extremely cautious of how I navigate heteronormative spaces, aka, the world. I have never been as open as I am now about my sexuality and identity. So to answer the question shortly is to say that I have been complacent and complicit to heteropatriarchy. Throughout the majority of my life, I have been skeptical to social norms, and defeatedly assumed that there is nothing I can do. But, doing nothing is just that, not doing anything for or against, it is being stoic. But, in this case, the stoic and conformist attitude is counterproductive as it feeds the hegemony with our complacency to the heteronorm. Do you all think that by our inactions against patriarchy, does that place us in agreement with the norm? I ask because I understand this is not a black-or-white subject, it is complicated complex and it can have various answers. This slippery-slope conundrum reminds me of the rape-consent argument, that if one does not resist, one is assumed to have automatically consent, and I want to step away from such type of fallacious thinking. I would like to hear what we all have to say about whether or not our complacency to the norm is agreeing with the hetronorm?
Because heteropatriarchy is such a vast and overwhelming system of power operating at all levels of society, I would like to propose that we all think of one, just one way we can overcome or challenge heteropatriarchy in our daily lives. James Scott describes these minimal acts of political resistance as “infrapolitics,” the daily struggles embarked by oppressed members of a society which are visible only if we see beyond of what our traditional understanding of political acts of resistance is (protest, rally, picketing), and is invisible as a tactical approach “born out of prudent awareness of the balance of power.” What will be your infrapolitical activity challenging heteropatriarchy?
-Kendy Rivera
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Excellent reflection here, Kendy. I'm so glad you were finally able to sign in using the right technology. I also really like the questions you pose. Perhaps you can give us an example or two of how you oppose heteronormativity on a daily basis.
ReplyDelete--Profe
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DeleteProfe thank you for the reply. I think that one way I try to overcome heteropatriarchy is by being "out and about" myself. By that I mean, that until recently I had lived navigating a strange cloud of metalanguages, half-truths, too polite and too timid political correctness, wishy-washy perceptions and understanding of who I am , where I am and what my place in this world is. I was being overly stimulated by "the norm." But the exaggerated stimulation was also creating electric shocks in my body--compelling me to act in ways I couldn't even recognize, and at the same time, frying me slowly.
ReplyDeleteEres tu Kendy, la misma Kendy? La misma que tenia algo que decir sobre todo lo que veia?!.
When I began my college education in this country I learned something I had known about, yet was discouraged to do so while being educated in Mexico. I learned about silence. I learned to be silent in the United States. My early encounters in college writing classes where discouraging to say the least, heart-breaking, but mostly, violently muting. I was mutating into a sound-less form of myself I had never experienced. Later, I learned the social value of timid political correctness and exacerbated politeness. Soon, I found myself emitting, "Excuse me!", "Sorry!" and "Thank You" almost compulsively. The yearn to fit-in. To be part of the norm. To belong.
Now, after many years of indoctrination, I can freely make the decision to step out and say: I AM HERE! I will no longer hide away from my ideas, to be psychologically violent against myself and pretend to create a Dr. Jekyll out of what was really a Mr. Hyde impersonation of yo. I say no to conforming, and no to your absurd ideas of what is appropriate and inappropriate thinking just because your racism and ethnocentrism told you that someone like me, a brown, mujer, y jota, could never think straight. And to that I respond: I will never think straight, because the idea you have about "straightening" is disgustingly crooked. No gracias!
In sum, I can say that my best attempt to overcome heteropatriarchy is first, being critical and assume it exist. Don't doubt it, as it is the air we breathe; and second, to be true to myself and never try to conform my thoughts. They can think they have tamed my behavior, but never, never the ideas. And those ideas I imprint in paper, in a computer, in a posting. It is the words that I write that challenge his norm.
To this I close with Anzaldua's excerpt of a letter to All Of Us, that is, A Letter to 3rd World Women Writers:
" Why am I compelled to write? Because the writing saves me from this complacency I fear. Because I have no choice. Because I must keep the spirit of my revolt and myself alive. Because the world I create in my writing compensates for what the real world does not give me. By writing I put in order the world, give it handle so I can grasp it. I write because life does not appease my appetites and hunger. I write to record what others erase when I speak , to rewrite what others have miswritten about me, about you. To become more intimate with myself and you. To discover myself, to preserve myself, to achieve self-autonomy. To dispell the myths that I am a mad prophet or a poor suffering soul. To convince myself that I am worthy and that what I have to say is not a pile of shit. To show that I can and that I will write, never mind their admonitions to the contrary. And I will write about the unmentionables, never mind the outraged gasp of censor and the audience. Finally, I write because I'm scared of writing but I'm more scared of not writing" (169)