Posts by Paul Williams
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
How are the hostels, do you happen to know?
I don't sadly Giovanni, I was reading here hoping to learn how badly the university was affected. I'll certainly post anything I hear.
-
Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?, in reply to Mr Mark,
Mary Wilson on RNZ is Excellent. Asked some very important questions to greatly clarify things.
Indeed.
Listening in from Sydney, I can only offer my thoughts to all directly affected. Reading here I'm relieved to learn most PAS regulars are safe, though the Haywood's house collapse is terrible, and I've managed to get hold of all but one of my offline friends (one of whom will be looking out for many thousands of Canty students in hostels).
-
<light-hearted>I'm speculating now, but is one consequence of "identity politics" the passion behind some cause celebs, cycling for instance? You know; as a white middle class hetro man, I'd love to attend your land rights sit in but I'd look out of place... instead I'm off to ride slowly across the harbour bridge? <light-hearted>
‘Cause I think that what's annoying me about this notion of identity politics; the sense that somehow an individual’s politics is constrained to only their personal experience. This narrow construction offends the "no man is an island" principle that I'm injured by any oppression.
I far from an activist (now) but certainly my activism in the past was oriented at decreasing disadvantage even if I didn't directly suffer it myself... then again it was student politics (cue accusations of being petite bourgeoisie...)
-
Up Front: Say When, in reply to George Darroch,
Paul, to the degree in which HIV/AIDS is now no longer exclusively a power relation (which it certainly was 10 years ago) and is slowly moving back into the realm of a less socially constructed disease, the analogy doesn't hold.
That's fair, in my defence, it wasn't until I read your earlier contribution that I thought about the "power imbalance" dimension of the issue and I'm still processing what I think about it.
-
Indeed. So what's your point?
Dear Gio, it was the very next sentence in the post.
He doesn't have the virus so I'm asking if that precludes him from the position.
I'm not missing the word, though I might be missing your point but I am trying to follow your argument which must surely be evident in my posts.
-
Which would make me very suspicious indeed if you started identifying with working class or racial minority struggles. You should feel free to support them, but actually vying to occupy those subject positions, boy, I would find that very problematic.
I'm not sure what you mean by "subject positions"?
A friend of mine has recently been appointed the CEO of the HIV/AIDS Council. He's copped criticism for not being gay but reasonably pointed out that HIV/AIDS mustn't be conflated exclusively with a particular sexuality. However, he's not got the virus, does that mean he can't lead the organisation?
But again supporting it and being a part of it - two different things.
But that's not the equivalence you drew. I might've misunderstood but you said:
I think tino rangatiratanga is a useful analogy: I prefer to think of it as the means of achieving self determination of tangata whenua through kaupapa Maori, rather than simply placing more Maori people at the top of Pakeha political and corporate structures (on this, I think one could do worse than reading the Bruce Jesson lecture delivered by Annette Sykes last year). Now, I support the aspirations of Maori people towards changing society in this direction, but wouldn't dream of identifying as Maori.
If you substituted female for Maori and Feminism for Tino Rangatiratanga wouldn't you end up saying that you could be an Italian man who was pro Tino Rangatiratanga and a feminist while still being neither Maori or female in which case identity doesn't preclude beliefs.
-
Now, I support the aspirations of Maori people towards changing society in this direction, but wouldn't dream of identifying as Maori.
But you could say you support Tino Rangatiratanga which, unless I'm mistaken, is the equivalent to "feminism' in your example.
-
Up Front: Say When, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Equality ain't the same thing as identity.
I don't know that I follow?
I identify as a man, of the straight white middle-class variety, and appreciate that this means I could readily be part of the "patriarchy" (insofar as my genus is the patriarchy) but I don't agree that this precludes me from having personal views that differ from cultural structure (thanks Megan, I found your meta-critique helpful even if I've mangled it here) in which case, it is possible that I could be feminist (the test though is separate).
ETA: I've now read George's contribution which addresses a number of issues I'd not thought of...
-
Another way of putting it is that in order to be a feminist you have to identify as a woman first, and I don't.
See, I don't get that at all. Conceptually and practically I consider men and women equal, how does my gender matter?
-
This is something I do seriously want to get right, because three girls who look to me for some guidance in this area, along with their wholly more card-carrying feminist mother, grandmother and auntie, could be influenced either positively or negatively, depending on how badly I stuff up.
You might have stated this concern slightly differently from how I would have recordari but I broadly agree. At the risk of oversimplifying, I'd like to think I can be a feminist (as per Danielle's definition) while still enjoying the banner for this post (with all due respect to Emma).