Anand Thakker

5:38pm, 10 Aug 2009

“ I think part of the problem is separating individuals from dominant cultural attitudes. I think this is something we practice a lot in academia and in feminist, anti-racist etc. forums and places. What I mean by this is when I say something like (for a less-triggery example) that our culture is too reliant on cars, I’m not saying that every car-owner is a lazy, thoughtless, anti-community, polluting a*hole, but I am saying that culturally we do overvalue cars which we can see by our infrastructure, where tax dollars go, public transport funding, lack of bike lanes etc. But it seems to me that conservatives are often blaming the individual instead, so when they read this commentary they think ‘I’m a man (or my brother, dad, husband is) and I don’t hate women,’ the same way many white people say ‘I’m not racist, but….’ I think this is a really difficult point to make with people who already feel defensive and don’t feel personally responsible.

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a comment on this post that a lot of people would benefit from trying to understand (via katoleary) (via gauntlet)

This is an interesting point, and one that feels like a serious conundrum to me.

On the one hand, I agree that it’s important, when reading a cultural critique like the one discussed in the referenced article, to separate the individual from the culture. To understand the point being made, I have to (undefensively) understand that the fact that it’s directed towards a group that I’m a part of (Men) doesn’t mean that it’s directed at me.

On the other hand, that distinction can be the entrance to a dangerous rabbit hole: the (over-)intellectualizing and abstracting of the problem into one that doesn’t actually apply to me at all. I’m pretty embarrassed of just how often I’ve acknowledged the existence of a culture of mysogyny, only to then use that to feel good about myself for not being “one of them”.

For me, the difficult trick to pull off is to understand that the critique really is directed at the culture/group and not at me; but that as a member of the group, I have to actively take responsibility for whatever that critique shows me about my own gender (and, analagously regarding things like race, age, class, etc.).

You know, I still catch myself having a defensive thought about this kinda stuff now and then, and it’s frustrating and annoying. But I guess I think that those habits are so deep (and so well reinforced by my environment) that I’ll never be rid of them completely. Constant vigilance!

Anand Thakker

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