We write in Context — in historical time and personal development. We can trace our thinking & style, and see it shift as we do. Writing is just a snapshot of where we once stood — on issues, and in life. When you read someone’s Writings, you can find them and yourself — where they were, where you are or want to be. In this way, Writing is dimensional — a way we share perspectives, and a sense of Belonging.
May you enjoy these Writings.
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Feminisms: Inclusion as a Radical Act
“Perhaps there is a way to think about Inclusion that invites more than fear. One that makes room for new ways of thinking and living. One that asks: Can we hold things together? And not simply because we are falling apart. But can we truly “hold things together?” Which is about Consciousness. Perspective. Positionality. The prospect of Inclusion can bring to our attention (lovingly) how we orient to life; how we (habitually) think, and where we stand. Can expose the ways we might prefer lives of clear separation, even as we work to hold doors and hearts open. How we like our duality, unmitigated. Our sense of “us or them,” unwavering–while claiming we are all in this together. Indeed, we are a complicated bunch.”
Read More of “Inclusion as a Radical Act”, in Trivia #16– Feminisms
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What (pre)Occupies Your Life?
“What occupied your life is now gone.”
I hear myself say this to a friend, as she is talking about the sense of space she feels as she leaves old habits and things behind – yet now worries how she will handle losing her aging pet dog. How can she prepare for this impending loss? So she starts planning, and talking about where she will bury him, as he plays in front of her…
I see we are still preoccupied with death, the theme of our last issue. And we are also preoccupied with being preoccupied – with shifts and changes, with navigating new open spaces…
Just because we aren’t consciously aware of something, doesn’t mean we aren’t preoccupied with it; that we aren’t always responding to it in some way. Sometimes the things we are preoccupied with are things we don’t easily recognize. We don’t feel particularly nervous or twitchy – yet somehow a habitual preoccupation has organized our lives.
Read more about what preoccupies women’s lives — including issues of Appearance, “Leaning In,” and how this matters for a new Feminism in: “Spring: The Seasons of TRIVIA” in TRIVIA: Voices of Feminism, Issue 14: (pre)Occupation. 2013
An Editorial on Death
“I never thought my mother’s death would come in handy. It’s not something you can easily put on your C.V., or trot out in job interviews to demonstrate your skills managing untenable situations – your abilities to navigate the unthinkable (the unfathomable). There is no T-Shirt that says, “I Survived Death;” no shirt or PR campaign to make it more user friendly — no “Got Death?” or “This is what (a)Death looks like” or “Death, the Other Experience.” Nope. And certainly no happy-face icon proclaiming, “Death is Good.””
Read more of A Feminist Editorial on Death in TRIVIA: Voices of Feminism, Issue 13: Death. 2012.
The Zen of Suburbia: Looking for a Sense of Place
“How do people manage the needs for nostalgia, safety, and home, with the need for yoga and a latte?”
What happens when we live between spaces or ideas or selves — are dislocated, in transition, or “Betwixt & Between”? Sometimes we just haven’t found ways to understand where we live — either through geography or position. This sense of liminality can bring tremendous discomfort; it can also bring a new way of seeing: viewing Cities, and our place in them, how we construct “Home” and navigate Boundaries of Self. Most importantly, it highlights how useful a sense of displacement is as a foundation for new perspectives.
Read more from “The Suburban Metropolis: A Study in Nothing or a New Hybrid Species?” in Stimulus/Respond, Vol. 16.; pps. 102-107. Jan-Feb 2007
Sexualizing
“That Workplaces get sexualized is nothing new. But how workplaces and interactions come to be sexualized is. This new theory of Sexualization not only affects how we approach workplace encounters, but more importantly, is the beginning of thinking differently about the Sexual.”
What does it mean to Sexualize someone or something? How does this occur? How is “Gender” involved in Sexualization? In the following article, I introduce the term “Sexualizing,” which is a conceptual framework to understand the complexity of sexualized encounters /experiences that can not be captured by essentialist or identity-based interpretations of “Sexuality.” To put it simply, Sexualizing doesn’t just happen — but instead reveals our habitual thinking about gender, sexuality, and power.
Read more about a Sociology of Sexualizing in “I Need a Screw”: Workplace Sexualization as an Interactional Achievement. (1998). in Everyday Inequality: Critical Inquiries, O’Brien & Howard. Pine Forge Press.