Stranger Intimacy Ch 1 & 2

Text: Stranger Intimacy by Nayan Shah

Chapters: 1, 2

The rather incomprehensible and intriguingly enigmatic title, at first glance, proves to be the crux of the book, Stranger Intimacy, written by Nayan Shah.  In the text, Shah portrays the real and vivid picture of the consequences of having South Asian and Chinese immigrants in the Western North America (Vancouver, California, Seattle, etc) during the late nineteenth and in the early twentieth century. In order to enforce the validity of his observations and analyses, he presents a plenty of anecdotal evidence and interesting arguments.

According to Shah, the immigrants mainly from India and China – the so called “transient people”, mostly men, moved to Western North America to find temporary jobs and worked in ranches, lumber yards, etc. The coming of the immigrants proved to be rather intrusive to the “homosocial” communities of the predominantly white population who had already settled in these parts. The assimilation of the immigrants into the societies was made extremely difficult, if not impossible by the hatred and disgust that the white individuals and families had due to their physical and cultural differences (racial differences).  Overwhelmed by the increased population of foreign immigrants and their sense of responsibility for their own people, adult white men started to grow overprotective and accused innumerable foreigners of acts of indecency. Moreover, the increased competition for jobs further fueled this white hatred of foreign immigrants. For instance, in Fair Oaks, California in 1911, “three young white men” instigated a raid on Hindu immigrants working as lumberjacks for sexually harassing and assaulting white men in the community.  Even though “South Asian men”, Indians, escaped any kind of torture and physical assault, they were warned that they would be “killed” if they came back to the place again.

As the immigrants failed to assimilate into the existing white societies, as their number grew, they formed their own communities, hanging out in bars and sharing their experiences together. Despite of this positive atmosphere created, these communities also had their dark sides. Perhaps out of despair and loneliness (immigrants were mostly men who lived alone with their families back in their homes), much public drunkenness, violence and prostitution were rampant. Two of the quintessential examples of these communities that were geographically separated from the middle class white families and were formed by the immigrants were Chinatown and Gastown in Canada, the so-called Borderlands. Due to the proliferation of these acts of indecency, policing in these communities were tightened and a large number of foreigners were incarcerated or had to pay fines. As these immigrants or ‘strangers’ went through hardships and lived together in confined spaces, although they came from completely different backgrounds, they grew more and more intimate, understanding each other’s positions and circumstances. This fact attributes to the title of the text, Stranger Intimacy.

Personally, it is painful to see these “strangers”, who are literally strangers in the region, are discriminated and treated as inferiors in white dominant societies just because their different color and race. Although they indulge in things that are considered disgusting and indecent, I believe that their circumstances required them or almost forced them to engage in such acts.

Sexing the Body, page 1 - 16

Article: Sexing the Body

In this particular part of the text, ‘Sexing the Body’, the author, Anne Fausto-Sterling, discusses the ambiguous and indecisive line between male and female and the past attempts to separate human beings into the two conventional gender groups. By introducing to us the case of Maria Patino, a female Spanish athlete who was disqualified for being tested a male.  Sterling asserts that our social idea of gender (male or female) is crucial because it shapes the ‘politics of science’ concerning gender-related issues. In other words, the distinctions that we make as social beings affect the scientists’ research regarding the issue.

When further discussing whether gender is socially constructed or inherent to humans, Sterling suggests views from three different groups of people all of which she is a part of. Firstly, explaining the phenomenon from the perspective of the biologists using the scientific method and looking at the cells. Secondly, as a member of a group of diverse people sharing the common interest in gender identity, she re-enforces the biological explanations. Lastly, she views the issue from the feminist perspective who, by and large, believe that the atmosphere and the environment play a significant role in shaping their gender roles. They believe that “culture molds and effectively creates the body”. On the issue of the gender being a societal construction or an inborn quality, I agree with the view of Boswell who is quoted in the text and asserts that sexuality is “real” meaning an inborn biological characteristic. Sterling states “Boswell implies we are quite possibly born with particular sexual inclinations wired into our bodies. Growth, development, and the acquisition of culture show us how to express our inborn desires, he argues, but do not wholly create them.” I believe that no matter what the societal norms or more extremely speaking, taboos are, individuals are bound to express their inborn sexuality. Relating this to the earlier articles about how parents should react to their child’s gender, I believe that the right way for parents to help their child develop his or her is to be open-minded and provide a liberal environment in which he/she can exercise his/her innate gender identity freely. 

Just a little side note for my own clarification: 

According to Anne Fausto-Sterling, the author of ‘Sexing the Body’:

Sex: Sex refers to physical attributes and is anatomically and physiologically determined.

Gender: Gender is a physiological transformation of the self – the internal conviction that one is either male or female (gender identity) and the behavioral expressions of that conviction.

Gender Diversity in Native Indian Cultures

Articles:
1. Doubleweaving Two-Spirit Critiques
2. Gender Diversity - Cross-cultural Variations

It was a pleasant surprise to find out that even in Native Indian communities, which I have never thought of (probably due to lack of awareness), there were various "non-normatively" gender-ed people. It is a pity that with the onset of the European domination of Indian tribes in the New World, Native Indians were forced to restrict their gender roles into a binary system – male or female.

In the first chapter of her text ‘Gender Diversity Cross-cultural Variations’, Serena Nanda portrays peaceful Indian communities which accepted and allowed the expression of various gender characteristics no matter what the Indians’ inborn biological sex was. It was as if it didn’t matter to them at all. For instance, men with female characteristics would wear women’s clothes in daily lives and when they were to fight in wars, they would change their clothes into those of men. Even in the professions/occupations of the gender-variant Indians, they were able to pursue a chore of their choice under the absolute flexibility of the society. Female gender variants would hunt along with men and male gender variants would take care of the household successfully. This positively leads to the fact that gender variant Indians formed the central part of the gender-discussion instead of playing a marginal role as they do in today’s world.

However, as the Europeans invaded their land as well as culture ever since the contact, Native Indians asserts that they have been under their ‘colonization’. As one of the means for ‘decolonization’ of the Native tribes that still exist in North America, they are raising issues such as abnormal gender roles present in Indian communities and conflicts that they face due to their race, class and gender. In the writing ‘Doubleweaving Two-Spirit Critiques’, a Cherokee author Qwo-Li Driskill shows how the Europeans’ colonization of the Native Indian tribes constricted the gender variation into just two roles – male and female, with the addition of an unofficial and still disputed title, ‘two-spirited’ people (which the Europeans decided to call people with queer gender identities). The Native Indians are not just expressing their discontent about the general European rule laid upon them regarding gender roles. This seems to mean something more significant to them. In fact, through protesting against and exterminating the European cultural remnants, they intend to overthrow the still existent European control over them.

Another thing I found interesting was how the issue of gender roles is further complicated by the race, class and gender identity. The expression used, ‘doubleweaving’ which was a technique taken from the traditional way of making baskets of a Native Indian tribe, the Cherokees, denotes how sophisticated and complex the problem of solving gender roles is.

It seems to be a general contention that the present binary gender system should be abolished in order to eliminate the discrimination of the minority. I believe that the present two gender roles can be dissolved and we can eventually come up with terms that would each signify each and every gender present. Furthermore, in order to succeed in dissolving the binary gender system, I think that getting rid of our prejudices and pre-conceptions and social norms toward specific genders is an essential step. It is my firm belief that greater gender diversity will bring out a more enriched and interactive society. 

Dismantling The Existing Inequality Based On Race, Class and Gender

Article: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection by Patricia Hill Collins

Patricia Hill Collins’ article, ‘Race, Class and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection’, takes off by conceptualizing the idea of the race, class and gender categories and their analyses. She does this by stating that we must avoid and move our discourse away from additive analysis and the two key premises that we are so habituated to making when faced with issues in our daily lives. First premise, according to Collins, is dichotomous thinking – classifying things/people that we see into two distinct opposite groups. The second premise is the ranking of these dichotomous differences. A good example would be ‘women are inferior to men.’ Through these suggestions, Collins argues that these characteristics, in real life, interlock with each other, producing a complex set of identities that cannot be taken independently in each and every person.

Following the ‘ re-conceptualization’ of the categories and analyses, Collins delves deeply into the cases of race, class and gender discrimination in three different ways or the so-called ‘dimensions’. The first idea, ‘Institutional Dimension of Oppression’, refers to the structures of domination and subordination exacted by the social institutions such as schools, hospitals and government facilities. Secondly, the author presents the idea of the ‘Symbolic Dimension of Oppression’ by which human beings are differentiated and categorized according to the prejudices and stereotypes against them. Lastly presented is the ‘Individual Dimension of Oppression’ which arises due to the influence of the other two ‘dimensions’ in each individual in the formation of his or her preconceived notions toward certain social and ethnic groups.

Collins then proposes three methods to ‘transcend these barriers’ and ‘build the types of coalitions essential for social change’. After all, it has been observed by him that even though we passionately talk about equal opportunities and equal rights, there exist in abundance, marginalized people who are unjustly discriminated due to their gender, race, color and other inborn characteristics.  The author begins by claiming that the different circumstances that people are born under shape their privileges differently and therefore, view the world from different and often contrasting perspectives. These power and privileges are easy to go unnoticed and unappreciated. This links to the third solution that the author talks about – the power of empathy. Empathy is, according to Collins, having interest in other people’s lives. In my personal interpretation, empathy, in today’s small world in which people mix easily, does not seem to be a choice, but a necessity to resolve any issues regarding unequal treatment of people based on their ethnicity, gender and color of the skin. Lastly, the author suggests that a common enemy would encourage these different peoples and groups to bond and interact harmoniously. However, she stresses that this seems to happen based on the necessity and therefore, asserts that “we must support each other’s efforts, realizing that they are all part of the larger enterprise of bringing about social change".

Thank you! :)

Some Thoughts On 'Claiming An Education' by Adrienne Rich

This speech by Adrienne Rich which I read in the form of an article has been a great inspiration and motivation for me. Even though she was addressing the female students at that time, her assertion that students need to claim and not receive education touched me the most. Additionally, I concur with her idea that students must take responsibility for their education which means formulating their own original thoughts and actively taking up hard work and facing challenges.

Taking an idea from the other article, ‘White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack’, by Peggy McIntosh, I tried to put myself in the shoes of women back in the old days when they were not permitted to receive or rather, ‘claim’ education.  As a student with insatiable curiosity and desire for knowledge, I believe that I would not have endured the restricting conditions that were put onto me just because of my gender. I probably would have ended up reading and solving math problems secretly hiding under my blankets or in a deserted clandestine location. As a result of this self-exercise, I learned to appreciate the opportunities that I was provided with and to not take anything for granted.

Another point that I thought critical was that the world around us (“great issues” and “major texts”), the Western civilization, is all built up by white male. This seems only natural since education was a luxury that only white men could afford to receive. As a result, all prominent positions in government and important businesses are owned by white men in the absence of women. History proves to us that most of the foundational works in philosophy, math and the sciences were developed almost exclusively by privileged white men. There is wonder that the present world view is recorded and perceived from the perspective of these white men.

In light of this fact, I believe and agree with the author’s view that students (not only female students) should challenge the pre-existing views and attempt to look at the world from their own distinct personal perspective, producing diversity of thoughts and ideas. In order for this is happen, it is, as a matter of fact, crucial to give equal opportunities to everyone and put a stop to baseless discriminations. However, the equality of gender seems to be a difficult goal to be achieved considering the fact that men hesitate and sometimes, do not acknowledge the fact that they are advantaged. According to the other article, ‘White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack’, men are portrayed as hypocrites because they acknowledge the disadvantage the women have in numerous ways and yet, deny their advantage over them. Moreover, in most cases, they do not take any actions against this inequality.

To put my broad and lengthy view of education in a nutshell, I believe that education is the basic right that every human being has the right to claim no matter what the person’s gender identity or sexual orientation might be. It is a right that cannot be denied and the right that is extremely crucial to the development of the human society and the preservation of peace and agreements. It is through education that people become more intelligent, inquisitive and social. As Adrienne Rich asserts, female students as well as male students should strive to claim knowledge, erasing the barriers that make the play unfair to certain groups. 

I appreciate you bearing with me! 

A Whole New Experience

*FYI: This is kind of like a personal journal entry... Hope you enjoy it! 

Reading articles about ‘L.G.B.T.Q.I.A’ communities, especially the ‘Generation LGBTQIA’ written by Michael Schulman, from the New York Times couldn’t have had a greater impact on me. Having lived my entire life in two countries, Korea and India, where the ‘L.G.B.T.Q.I.A’ communities are practically non-existent, topics on the ‘abnormal’ sexual orientations and gender identities open up a whole new world to me. In spite of its novelty, I believe that the environment that the United States creates where ‘non-straight’ people can express their inconveniences and personal stories openly to the public is conducive to the well-being of its entire people.

High degrees of courage and boldness that people like Stephen Ira, who posted a video on ‘We Happy Trans’ display, astounds and surprises me as a foreigner who is still trying to grasp the culture here in the United States. Furthermore, the fact that a considerable number of higher education institutions such as the University of Pennsylvania and the school I currently attend, University of California at Berkeley actively support and encourage these communities is something I have never experienced before neither in Korea nor in India. Furthermore, people are nonchalant and even proud to be a part of the ‘L.G.B.T.Q.I.A’ communities. For instance, Santiago Cortes, a student at the University of Pennsylvania claims “I wrote about an experience I had with a drag queen as my application essay for all the Ivy Leagues I applied to.”

More appalling to me, so to speak, were the reactions of the public to these communities and people and how widespread and accepted they were in the United States. Obama’s second inaugural speech which talked about gay rights, circulation of articles regarding the issues of the ‘nonconforming’ gender identities and the support provided by a lot of the educational institutions seem to be signs of acceptance or at least attempts to understand the minority groups. However, there is no denial that people still have to work on fully understanding and accepting people of the nonconforming sexual orientations and gender identities as can be seen in Sadie’s recent letter to the President Obama.

In contrast to the type of environment that the United States creates, the atmosphere in my home country, Korea, is that of secrecy and absolute contempt from the public once one declares to be not straight. In 2000, a television figure and a comedian, Hong Suk Chun, came out of the closet, declaring to be gay. General public’s response to this coming out was extremely vile and rejecting. Undoubtedly, Mr.Hong disappeared from the television channels and went into seclusion. Most of his friends had left him and watched from distance. Moreover, he was to be between jobs and barely get by for the next three years.

I feel like I am slowly learning more and more about the people of nonconforming gender identities. I hope that at the end, I will be able to understand them as much as possible and further help them get across their messages all around the world, making the world more equal and human.

Thank you so much for reading :)

Is Gender THAT Important?

“If you really want to get to know someone, you don’t ask what’s between their legs” – Kathy Witterick

The quote above seems to be the crux of the article, ‘Boy or Girl? 4-Month-Old Being Raised Genderless’. The story in the article presents a married couple who keeps the gender of their four-month old baby a secret. The couple announces that they wouldn’t want their child, Storm, to be restricted in many ways due to his or her gender. Furthermore, they seem to be hoping that Storm’s innate originality comes up, intact and protected from the social prejudices and cultural norms. By and large to the public, this is an outright protest against the social norms regarding gender. The couple wishes to keep the gender a secret until Storm finds out later in life. In response to this unprecedented idea, experts in the field of psychology have made numerous remarks of which were mostly negative and condemning.  Dr.Ken Zucker confesses, “While I love the concept, I don’t think the benefit outweighs the negative repercussions, at this point and time in the world.”

In addition to the remarks from experts, the article has seen a large number of comments from the public. In fact, most of the comments criticized the couple’s idea. Their arguments range widely from “the child will find out sooner or later and won’t be able to deal with it” to “the social norms are hard to depart from and we must succumb to them.” On the brighter side, there are people who show support saying “I think it takes a lot of courage to raise a child this way. These parents appear to be doing a terrific job with all of their children.” In the midst of these intense arguments about the idea of keeping the child’s gender secret, I would like to weigh in and present my point of view…

Since my first year at the elementary school, I mostly hung out with girls around me playing the games that they played and watching romantic/comedy movies that not a lot of boys liked. Because I had been spending a lot of time with girls, I grew more comfortable hanging out with them more than my male friends. Later, I would grow to like the pink color which is almost considered the symbol for female sex. Although this inborn interest of mine in the so-called ‘girly stuff’ didn’t inhibit me from getting along with my guy friends, it did throw me off my comfort zone a few times in my life. India, where I went to high school, was a rather conservative place to be in. One day, I wore a pink shirt with jeans and walked into the school weekly assembly. All eyes were turned around toward me and some of my friends told me that I looked ‘gay’. Well, because I was expecting this kind of response (knowing what the social norms stated about guys wearing pink clothing) I wasn’t that hurt or offended. However, it got me to think about things that have been set by our society that restrict, not by law but by peer pressure and in many other ways, our freedom to expression and presentation.

Instead of not revealing his gender, I think that the parents should plant in Storm the ability to later question and dispute the social norms that we take for granted, thereby letting him exercise his freedom of expression when he becomes an adult. This way, he will be able to avoid the paramount psychological and the cultural shock that a lot of psychologists suggest would take and argue/explain his way through difficult situations he might face.

A little poem ;) 

“I Hear It Was Charged Against Me” by Walt Whitman

I hear it was charged against me that I sought to destroy
institutions;
But really I am neither for nor against institutions;
(What indeed have I in common with them?– Or what with the
destruction of them?)
Only I will establish in the Mannahatta, and in every city of These
States, inland and seaboard,
And in the fields and woods, and above every keel, little or large,
that dents the water,
Without edifices, or rules, or trustees, or any argument,
The institution of the dear love of comrades.

Thank you so much for reading J