I can't be the only one who sees a certain degree of irony here...

[rushin_doll]

Well. Hello, LJ. It has been some time, has it not? While my posting history shows that I've been offline since early July, the truth is that my LJ habits have been sporadic since sometime in February of this year. This was due primarily to my class load being crazy and me just having a lot to do. Prior to that I was rather diligent about

Comments

[silveraspen]

I am -- for the moment -- going to leave aside the eye-blinking reaction that your remark about reintegrating with the LJ community for your own academic benefit induced, and address your query.

Write item 1. Walk before you run, etc.

Item 2 will likely not speak as well to your classmates because of their lack of shared context.

Do not write item 3. That involves a topical discussion of elements outside the scope of the stated focus on the shared story.

(Do I sound irritated? That's because I am. But I am extending you the benefit of the doubt and presuming you intend humor and don't realize that you appear to be utilizing a giant expression of privilege in dealing with what has long been a traditionally "safe" or protected space.)

[rushin_doll]

For what it's worth the remark was intended to be facetious. I'd be willing an interested in exploring the disconnect between my intention and your reading of it in more detail, as I suspect that it says a lot about me and the way I present myself, but I'll leave that up to you. For clarity: the driving force behind this post is that I am excited, I have friends I think will be excited to know that I am excited and possibly be excited to participate, and LJ happens to be a tremendously good tool for sharing that excitement with them

[silveraspen]

As I said, I figured you were sourcing your remarks in a humor-related basis, so yeah. I am also not at all surprised that you are excited and delighted to have the chance to share and engage with a group of people to explore something that is of great and enjoyable interest

[rushin_doll]

I'm with you on your first point, there. Perhaps ironically one of my undergraduate focuses in sociology was on social stratification and institutional privilege, so I have a strong intellectual and academic understanding of how privilege works. Of course I also belong to every politically privileged majority that I can readily identify within the power structure of the United States (white, male, heterosexual, protestant, etc.) so I often run the risk of slipping into it anyway

[silveraspen]

Perhaps I am not being sufficiently clear. Let me rephrase.

I often run the risk of slipping into it [privilege] anyway

You already have it. Whether one is consciously expressing a thing does not change the fact that the thing may exist -- or in this case DOES exist -- in a larger context.

Here, let me give you specific examples of presumptive privilege from your own statements made to me in the comments above:

Statement 1: the disconnect between my intention and your reading of it
Demonstrates: Assumption that the error is on my part and not yours; assumption that intention absolutely defines reception despite larger contextual arena; assumption that other people's opinions/interpretations have less validity than your own

Statement 2: that wants to think that I'm a good person and that some disconnect is responsible for the appearance of privilegeDemonstrates: Assumption that privilege does not apply if not desired; expression of fallacy that possession of privilege equates to innately "bad" personality characteristics (It

[rushin_doll]

About the time I'd half-written a rebuttal to this comment I realized that I'd be better served by stepping back, giving myself some time and emotional distance, and thinking about things. I think I benefited from doing so, and I appreciate your candor here

[badninja]

I like you a lot, Ana, but I'm going to be honest about what I think is the reason people can get irritated around you. It feels like you insert a certain amount of distance between yourself and others on here. This comment is a good example. Try rereading it from an outsider's perspective - it sort of comes across like you're using LJ to study human interaction and making no secret of it, but making no effort to get closer to others.

Now, I know that isn't true, okay? But that's how it can come across, sometimes. You said you were curious, so... yeah.

[rushin_doll]

I can sort of see your point, and I'd love for you to elaborate on the "distance" thing you're perceiving if you're up for it. But my gut reaction is to say (perhaps inaccurately) that I'm not writing for outsiders. I'm writing for my flist. And, at least in theory and to a first approximation, my flist is made up of people who know me. I basically expect people to bring the context of what they know about me outside of this post to the table when they read it, and that would, hopefully, mean that they knew what I'm trying to say.

Which may be wrong-headed of me, in that I shouldn't be doing things that way. Or it could even just be wrong, and even with context people don't get what I'm trying to do.

Open to possibilities,
Ana