Feminist philosophy conceptual question

December 13, 2015 7:25 PM

I'm trying to put together a reading list for an introductory philosophy of feminism class, and there's a concept that I can't articulate well enough to find any readings on! Recommendations? Concept inside, of course.

I am teaching the first explicitly feminist class in my division at this school, and it's in the most dudely of all disciplines, so I really want this to be a great class. I'm trying to find a good example, article, selection, something, that explains or demonstrates the idea that marginalized people (especially women and POCs) understand the dominant culture's values and assumptions better than the dominant culture understands those it marginalizes.

I feel like I've seen this framed as not only privilege vs self preservation but also just pure indoctrination into ones role as the Other.

I feel like a terrible academic! Is this DeBeauvoir? Angela Davis? I suppose I don't need the earliest historical mention of this idea, but some direction would be delightful :)

posted by zinful to Education (18 answers total)

Are you talking about the idea of passing?
posted by mynameisluka at 7:34 PM on December 13, 2015

I know what you're talking about and wish I could think of an author or article to recommend, maybe Audre Lorde? I'm also thinking something sociological, perhaps based in Marxism specifically or conflict theory in general? (I'm thinking a little bit of early on in Emma Goldman's autobiography.) I have read a bunch of magazine articles that cover this in terms of racial issues but can't remember specifics. Perhaps a recent article about race in The Atlantic?

I'm always a fan of bell hooks for their focus on intersectionality and her amazing ability to express complex ideas in very down-to-earth ways. A few years ago I saw an old interview of hers on YouTube where she talked about how she really liked immersing herself in pop culture (mainstream movies, etc.) for entertainment as well as a way to connect with her working class roots. I realize this is not necessarily what you're looking for but her books are chockful of so much great stuff. (You've probably already included her, I imagine!)
posted by smorgasbord at 7:35 PM on December 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: This is sometimes called the "epistemology of ignorance". One source in the philosophy of race is Charles Mills' book "The Racial Contract", where he discusses the concept of "white ignorance". Mills also has a later paper by that name. It's been broadened and applied within feminist scholarship as well; you might look at Linda Martin Alcoff's paper "Epistemologies of Ignorance: Three Types" in "Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance" (SUNY Press, 2007, eds. Shannon Sullivan and Nancy Tuana). Other chapters in that volume may also be useful.

(Edited to add: Miranda Fricker's work on epistemic injustice may also be useful here.)
posted by informavore at 7:37 PM on December 13, 2015 [7 favorites]

Response by poster: Informavore: YES, absolutely I'm searching for this as an epistemic position. That helps quite a lot, thank you!

smorgasbord: bell hooks is absolutely included, and you're right that she explains things exceptionally well. I am contractually obligated to be excited about using videos as well as reading materials, so more suggestions along those lines are also totally welcome. (Haha)
posted by zinful at 7:42 PM on December 13, 2015

Glad that's in the right conceptual neighborhood. The SEP article on Feminist Social Epistemology has a subsection on it, with plenty of citations.
posted by informavore at 7:46 PM on December 13, 2015

Best answer: "Epistemic privilege" is what I've heard this called. (Though that may be out of date.)
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:46 PM on December 13, 2015 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Another useful search string is "feminist standpoint theory." From this article:

"...certain socio-political positions occupied by women (and by extension other groups who lack social and economic privilege) can become sites of epistemic privilege and thus productive starting points for enquiry into questions about not only those who are socially and politically marginalized, but also those who, by dint of social and political privilege, occupy the positions of oppressors..."
posted by generalist at 7:49 PM on December 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Speaking of multimedia, while not a video, one possible resource for your syllabus is Fricker's interview on Philosophy Bites, which as I recall is quite good. It could supplement some of those papers and bring some questions of identity into the course, including how identitarian regimes structure whose knowledge(s) count(s), and whose do not, as well as how ethics intersects with those regimes.

My own pedagogical instinct would be to de-emphasize standpoint theory, which generalist correctly notes *is* one of the traditions in feminism that have sought to think about junctures of identity and knowledge. But from what comes across my radar, standpoint's dormant-if-not-dead. The more vibrant feminist traditions of thought would, probably, feel more pertinent to students than standpoint theory―which, I would worry, could end up as a punching bag for the more aggro/dudely undergrads.

Finally, Fricker's book―which I have actually read―seems to this non-philosopher like it's doing important space-clearing work in philosophy. However, its theoretical contribution is largely superseded by work in Gender Studies, Crit Theory, Sociology, and several other disciplines.
posted by migrantology at 8:06 PM on December 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

More sociological, but double consciousness (or triple) is another term to look into that may be fruitful here!
posted by kylej at 9:00 PM on December 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

Another useful search term (although I've seen this more in the context of wilful ignorance about scientific/Political issues such as climate change) is "agnotology".
posted by crocomancer at 2:11 AM on December 14, 2015

Another good reading (but sociological) is Beverly Tatum's *Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting in the Back of the Cafeteria* has --in the second chapter, "The Complexity of Identity"-- a very easy-to-follow discussion of the relationship of dominant groups to subordinate groups. For my students, she lands easily and soundly the claim that subordinate groups must know as much as possible about dominant groups whereas the dominant groups can remain ignorant of subordinate groups. (She bases her work on Jean Baker Miller's.)
posted by correcaminos at 3:52 AM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Eve Sedgwick discusses this in Epistemology of the Closet in terms of axioms.
posted by spunweb at 4:20 AM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Is it related to cultural hegemony? Maybe hegemonic masculinity? Sorry, I don't have a reading for you.
posted by Frenchy67 at 6:43 AM on December 14, 2015

the idea that marginalized people (especially women and POCs) understand the dominant culture's values and assumptions better than the dominant culture understands those it marginalizes.

In a non-academic way, it's kind of obvious that if media is disproportionately created by straight white men, then all of us get exposure to a lot of SWM ideas and tropes whereas the minority POV is harder to find. (We do have more women authors and directors and producers than we used to, but things are not yet balanced.)

Also, I think because of the baked in status differences between male spheres and female spheres, a man is less likely to read media that isn't aimed squarely at him. Like he would be discouraged from reading what we call "women's magazines". (Would even be discouraged from learning about the so called "soft sciences".)
posted by puddledork at 6:47 AM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

You might find this blog post by Sara Ahmed helpful.
posted by dizziest at 6:52 AM on December 14, 2015

You've covered more sides of it, but yes, mention WEB DuBois and double consciousness as a foundational idea.
posted by lokta at 4:02 PM on December 14, 2015

Rebecca Solnit coined the word "privelobliviousness" to try to describe the way that being the advantaged one, the represented one, often means being the one who doesn’t need to be aware and, often, isn’t. Her article appears here.
posted by Obscure Reference at 12:41 PM on December 17, 2015

Best answer: I think one of the most direct expressions of the idea that marginalized people (especially women and POCs) understand the dominant culture's values and assumptions better than the dominant culture understands those it marginalizes. comes from Uma Narayan's "The Project of Feminist Epistemology: Perspectives From A Nonwestern Feminist". She writes, "I think one of the most interesting insights of feminist epistemology is the view that oppressed groups, whether women, the poor, or racial minorities, may derive an 'epistemic advantage' from having knowledge of the practices of both their own contexts and those of their oppressors. The practices of dominant groups (for instance, men) govern a society; the dominated group (for instance, women) must acquire some fluency with these practices in order to survive in that society" (in The Project of Feminist Epistemology, p 335).

"Epistemic Advantage" has become a nice keyword phrase for this particular piece of feminist epistemology.

It might also be worth looking at The Combahee River Collective Statement. It is less philosophical, and maybe less direct, but it is also a snappy short piece of writing that I think contains this same line of thinking. I quote:

"A political contribution which we feel we have already made is the expansion of the feminist principle that the personal is political. In our consciousness-raising sessions, for example, we have in many ways gone beyond white women's revelations because we are dealing with the implications of race and class as well as sex. Even our Black women's style of talking/testifying in Black language about what we have experienced has a resonance that is both cultural and political. We have spent a great deal of energy delving into the cultural and experiential nature of our oppression out of necessity because none of these matters has ever been looked at before. No one before has ever examined the multilayered texture of Black women's lives."
posted by jamaal at 4:28 PM on December 21, 2015