Oppression Embodied

Journal of Counseling & Development, 2000

Women's Studies in Communication, 2021

Solidarity, as conceptualized by BIPOC feminisms, offers an alternative to the universalizing notion of a global feminist sisterhood popularized by second-wave white feminists (hooks 127). Whereas white feminist conceptualizations of "sisterhood" coopted Black feminist languages to suggest similarities in women's oppressions, 1 BIPOC feminist theorizations of solidarity emphasized that recognizing embodied differences was essential for resisting intersecting systems of oppression. As described by Chandra Talpade Mohanty, "in the face of unequal power relations among feminists [ … ] 'common differences' can form the basis of deep solidarity" (503-04). But what solidarity across difference looks like is still subject to debate. In recent years, the terminology of allyship has been utilized in conversations about forging antiracist solidarities. Allyship indicates an alliance of people in positions of privilege with individuals from historically marginalized groups they are not part of; however, allyship can also reproduce power structures and bolster whiteness. Popular media is rife with call-outs of those who profess to be allies, with blog post titles including "The Problem with Calling Yourself an Ally" (McConnell) and "Are You a White Feminist? Feeling Hurt?" 2 Exploring the topic of "feminist hurt," Sara Ahmed addresses the feelings that move us toward feminism after experiences of hetero/sexist violence, how these experiences leave us "fragile" or in a heightened state of reactivity and breakability, and how we risk "being shattered" by our experiences and by feminist work itself (60). Further foregrounding the racializing logics that inform and authorize heteropatriarchal and misogynistic violences, she asks, "how can we respond to the histories that leave some bodies, some relationships, more fragile than others? How can we face up to those histories of losing face?" (59, emphasis added). Antiracist feminist praxis requires building alliances across structural inequities that produce precarities for some bodies more than others, yet calls for systemic change too often continue to be met by white fragility (DiAngelo) and its (attempted) face-saving performatives. For example, as the 2019 NCA Distinguished Scholars/#CommunicationSoWhite controversy unfolded (Wanzer-Serrano et al.), fragility was reflected in enactments of "hurt feelings" by white feminists (and others) on CRTNET, illustrating how feminist allyship fails when the feelings of "allies" are privileged over the feelings of those they claim to be allied with. Inspired by CONTACT Roberta Chevrette

"DIVING INTO THE WRECK:" THE EMBODIED EXPERIENCE OF WHITE WOMEN INVESTIGATING PRIVILEGE AS A CATALYST FOR SOCIAL CHANGE , 2018

Abstract This qualitative study examined the meaning-making of white women investigating the racialized identity of Whiteness and interrogating how privilege is operationalized in day-to-day interactions in the U.S. society. An awareness of privilege does not have to be based in shame and guilt. It can be transformed into effective actions through embodied consciousness. Embodied ways of knowing can help to expand intellectual conversations into opportunities to practice engagement even when it is uncomfortable to do so. It is not possible to examine privilege without talking about race. If conversations that might otherwise be uncomfortable, or threatening can be transformed by attending to the source of knowledge through the bodily experience, then resistance and discomfort can be used as opportunities to increase people’s awareness, challenge unconscious biases and hidden assumptions that keep racism and other forms of oppression alive and make them available for modification. This study illuminates the potential for joining feminist, anti-oppressive theories with embodied reflexivity to investigate how cultural locations socialize us to collude with structural inequities. The work includes taking an embodied approach to learning. Honoring the body as a source of knowledge means being intentional about how our bodies experience resistance to change. Resistance is intended to represent a process of questioning and challenging dominant narratives, and cultural beliefs that reinforce institutional inequality. Resistance in this context includes a range of physical, emotional, and cognitive challenges, various levels of discomfort and unconscious barriers that could be difficult to identify. The scholarly significance of this study is contributing to our understanding of how Whiteness as a racialized identity is understood and managed in a country where Whiteness has been all but invisible to public policy. The aim of this work is to extend our scholarly conversations about the difference between intellectualizing the work and embodying the work. Key Words: privilege, Whiteness, structural inequality, racism, white fragility, embodied ways of knowing, embodied learning, consciousness, culture, hidden biases, feminist pedagogy, anti-oppressive, critical empathy, intersectionality, resistance, cultural humility.

Psychoanalytic Social Work, 2024

Virginia is a White trans lesbian woman in her late 30s living in a rural environment in the United States. She is a long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy patient in a community mental health center. She has a significant trauma history from childhood. Harnessing Avgi Saketopoulou’s concept of traumatophilia, this article analyzes Virginia’s intra and inter-psychic dynamics that result from her material experience in the world. Under a ubiquitous threat of politicized violence within her community, she experiences a constant fear for her and her family’s safety. At the same time, Virginia experiences a sexual attraction for women who have voiced anti-trans bias. In conjunction with her trauma history, this dynamic illustrates Virginia’s traumatophilia forming a tension between her experience of terror in the face of bigotry and her fantasy of inclusion. Detailing the political implications of trans experience as connected to the psychic conflicts manifested within a traumatophilia, the article concludes that trans experience is both implicitly and explicitly political. As such, psychoanalytic practitioners working with trans patients should focus on the ways in which psychic suffering is shaped and conditioned by the social world.

The Journal of Aesthetic Education, 2010

The lived experience of the body–that is, our bodily sensations, perceptions and behaviors–is the essential ground of human identity. Developmentally, our visceral impulses serve as the foundation for personal agency, guiding us as we move through the world, reaching for some things and refusing others. Our bodily encounters with the physical environment shape and reshape our understanding of the world; we learn about gravity by falling down and discover how our point of view changes when we walk around and encounter new perspectives. Language, often considered a function of our cognitive capacity for abstraction, is laden with meaningful references to the body that hint at its sensorial roots. Indeed, cognition itself is increasingly understood as deeply intertwined with bodily feeling i. When applied to our understanding of the social world, our embodied experience plays an equally important role. As we navigate interpersonal relationships and learn about the characteristics associated with different groups of people, our bodies help to create and maintain the power dynamics that can arise between us–for instance, by signaling dominance or submission through our gestures and eye contact ii. We are categorized into sociocultural groups according to physical traits that are marked as desirable or deficient based on their appearance and functioning. Depending on our social identifications, we may learn to treat our bodies as sexual objects or as instruments of labor. In short, our nonverbal communication patterns, beliefs about body norms, and feelings of connection and identification with our bodies are all deeply affected by our assigned membership in different social groups and the privileges associated with that membership iii. However, despite the research evidence supporting these ideas, existing models of social justice have not been particularly attentive to the body's role in reproducing oppression iv in everyday life. Neither have approaches that specialize in working with the felt sense of the body (often grouped into a field called " somatics " v) offered many strategies for resolving the tension between the information available to us through bodily explorations of sensation and movement and the data grounded in social power and authority. However, it is possible to address the singular experience of the body in a way that does not bypass the political. Conversely, it is possible to work collectively to transform oppressive social structures while fully recognizing the micro-sociological building blocks that maintain those structures. An embodied approach to social justice–one that recognizes the degree to which our bodies are implicated in the reproduction of social power–should not be considered a replacement for working on the macro-sociological level to make structural and ideological changes in social institutions such as education or healthcare, or as a substitute for legislative reform. Rather, it works to support change in the relational fabric of our lives so that structural shifts correspond with authentic transformations in attitude, and where legal rights and freedoms are experienced at the core of our beings and manifested in our everyday interactions with others.

This article illustrates how liberation psychology and phenomenological research can work in tandem to raise conscientização (critical consciousness) about unjust societal dynamics, mourn sociopolitical community traumas, and construct empathic bridges among diverse citizens of society. It outlines three ways in which phenomenological researchers can harness their methodologies as an emancipatory tool for oppressed communities. First, I discuss how Steen Halling's dialogal phenomenological method can build public homeplaces in which members of marginalized communities can gather together to share and gain insight into their oppressed lived experiences. Second, I discuss how Max Van Manen's existential-phenomenological data interpretation can nurture solidarity among the oppressed and oppressors and demonstrate the ways in which institutionalized oppression dehumanizes all citizens. Third, I encourage phenomenological researchers to disseminate research in artistic formats to evoke compassionate witness among citizen bystanders about oppressive lived experiences. The article concludes by positing that Paulo Freire's process of emancipation is, essentially, a phenomenological endeavor.

Review of Disability Studies: International Journal, 2018

The essay seeks to explore body-focused phenomenological writing in disability studies and film theory throughout publically shared anecdotes, coming-out narratives, and embodied autoethnographies. Through the author’s own bodily experiences in academia, particularly writing, attending conferences, and teaching, Greenberg bridges the gaps between the disciplines through an embodied autoethnographic phenomenological methodology inspired by film scholar Vivian Sobchack.

2011

This study exposed the ramifications of childhood sexual abuse in regards to an African American woman's self-representation by contextualizing this experience within the larger cultural context; thereby, illuminating issues regarding race, class, gender, and relationships with others. Framed within a feminist theoretical paradigm, this study integrated the sociological context of race and culture using Black Feminist thought (Collins, 2000) and Relational Cultural Theory, which examines women's psychological identity development (Jordan, 2010; Miller, 1976). To illustrate an African American woman's negotiation of existence as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, this qualitative study employed the research methodology autoethnography. Employing autoethnography provides individuals primarily studied by members of the dominant culture the opportunity to study their own experience. This is especially important when exploring the topic of sexual abuse. Sexual abuse poses methodological concerns for researchers because of the topic's sensitive nature (Ellis & Bochner, 2003; Mendis, 2009). Investigating the impact of sexual abuse is warranted as it gives voice to the survivor's experience; thereby, liberating the survivor. Yet, it is important to note the hegemonic relationship between the researcher and survivor, since the researcher is contextualizing the information through her eyes (Lister, 2003). Through the researcher's contextualization the survivor transitions back into a victim position. Therefore, "survivor discourse about sexual abuse then may be far from "liberatory", as the survivor discloses her innermost experiences to an expert, who then reinterprets the vi experiences using dominant codes of normality" (Lister, 2003, p. 47). By employing an autoethnographic approach, I am negotiating this hegemonic relationship by serving as the researcher and participant. As the participant I am describing an experience that once victimized me. As the researcher I am contextualizing my journey as a survivor, more specifically, investigating how this experience affected my sense of self, perception of others, and my relationships. With a deeper understanding of self and others, autoethnography can be a very empowering method of inquiry. Autoethnographies can bring "voice" to those marginalized in society and bring coherence for individuals seeking to understand how past experiences have influenced their life and identity (Ellis & Bochner, 2000). vii

2014

We reflect on our embodied experiences of living out the various layers of anti-Black racism in our daily lives. Our starting point is our powerful gut reaction to the experiences of Black youth in a research study exploring youth violence and healing in Canada. We were awed by the intensity of anti-Black racism that youth wrestle with and their creative strategies of healing from its violence. As researchers, we were stunned into reflexive realization that we were inextricably woven into the tangled webs of anti-Black racism even as we were struggling to disentangle ourselves and break free. We were astounded by how the tensions that grip Black youth were our own tensions as well. In this paper, we ground ourselves in these tensions that we harbour deep within our bodies as we explore the theoretical contours of anti-oppression. The stories we tell emerge from our stepping back in critical self-reflection and following our powerful gut feelings to their cultural and structural root...