today's feminist thoughts brought to you by the letter F
I'm still in discussion with a couple of people in the last post I made on the topic. And something that springs to mind is what is meant by the word "privilege". People don't like the word, I guess, cause it's been used as a put down around the traps lately or as a way of dismissing someone's thoughts. But the way I see it is ... some people get
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To give it some context, I believe the term - as it is used in race theory - comes from the critical race theory debates of the 1980s. Although it probably didn't originate during this time, I suspect it was popularised around this era.
A somewhat famous example of the use, is when Patricia Williams used it to ague against Mark Tushnet's (critical legal theorist - most of my knowledge of this stuff comes from legal theory but it's sociological theory as well) assertion that a rights based discourse as a rallying point for legal recognition and citizenship was - well, problematic to put it simply.
Patricia Williams - a black woman - said that it is a position of privilege that allows Mark Tushnet - a white man - to argue against rights. He has rights, hence he can critique them. For those who do not have rights, these must be achieved before they can be critiqued.
That's probably a bastardisation of the debate. They're both compelling arguments - I think it's worth checking them out if you can find them. I was sure I had a copy somewhere... but I checked the shelves and couldn't find it.
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