Friday, April 11, 2008

Sins Only a Feminist Can Commit





Depending on where you stand the views of one room are always different.

What I've learned from this week of blogging is that the largest obstacle to any sort of healing or unity is the inability to get past self-interest.  I'm not talking about the obvious kind of self-interest when you're glossing over your own bum in the passing window, but the self-interest when inventory is done only for your vault; measuring your net losses or gains.  It's not that simple. 

...Insights and possibilities for social transformation are often trapped by ego-related attitudes and claims regarding the ownership of truth...   -Leela Fernandes, Transforming Feminist Practice

Translation: Believing your view of the room is the only legitimate one.

Vanity.  No wonder it's one of the 7 deadly sins.

Feminist Vanity?  Now we're REALLY talking destruction.

7 comments:

  1. sole ownership of truth? Sounds like patriarchy and hierarchy all over again to me. great thoughts and lovely photo- I want to be in this room from every view.

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  2. Anonymous3:21 PM

    I agree entirely. Simply from a theoretical point of view, claiming a metanarrative is traditinally a very masculine approach to theory. Then, with the metanarrative comes a dogma - you're either with us or against us, which absolutely breeds infighting. There will always be disagreement, but discourse is surely the way forward, not sniping.
    (And I've a wonder at my nerve to say that - I've had spats in my time. It's important to pack it in though, and I recognise defending my 'feminism' was partly defending 'myself', which is in keeping with what you say about feminist vanity.)

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  3. Sudy, thanks for these recent posts. Sanity-inducing.

    And yeah, that's a seriously lovely room. I would like to be there now please.

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  4. Also much agreed. This is the thought I've kept coming back to and finally ended up writing about. Except I was way more unnecessarily wordy about it.

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  5. Isn't that room divine? I spent more time photographing it than actually *sitting* in it! I loved it. It belonged to a friend's friend's friend and was generous enough to allow an acquaintence to stay there for a much needed rest in Florida.

    And, Lina, aren't we all guilty of feminist vanity? Ugh...I'm not excluding myself from that confession!

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  6. yup.

    and yeah, love those photos.

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