Otherness<\/p>\n
Human Geographers are interested in understanding how people occupy space together.\u00a0 How do we get along?\u00a0 Difficulties arise anytime people of different backgrounds (racial, ethnic, religious, financial, etc.) are called upon to share finite space, role definition becomes important pretty quickly!\u00a0 Hierarchies (pecking order), equitable division of resources, friendships, enemies, etc. are all important.\u00a0 What\u2019s interesting to me is how contrast emerges as a primary means of definition when we look at these roles.\u00a0 More specifically, if Gill Valentine\u2019s general perspective is correct, in the west, pretty much everyone is held in contrast with white men.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlack\u201d is measured against white in gradations, the darker skin the more bad or dirty or scary or treacherous a person is.\u00a0 A woman is either feminine or \u201cmanly\u201d based on the contrast against quintessential man.\u00a0 But I suppose if contrasts are going to be the main way to create definition then a fixed position is demanded.\u00a0 Otherwise, otherness can\u2019t even happen.\u00a0 This seems to be a recipe for warfare at every turn.\u00a0 Why must this be?\u00a0 Why must my individuality rely on another to be legitimate?\u00a0 I\u2019m curious\u2026<\/p>\n
Is it possible for us to be simply different without an implied inferior-superior spectrum?\u00a0 Can I be \u201cJon\u201d without being thinner than, fatter than, shorter than, taller than, dumber than, smarter than, less important, more important?\u00a0 What would our societies be like if \u201cdifferent\u201d didn\u2019t demand a superlative?<\/p>\n
For example, gender (in my view) is a function of creation NOT volition.\u00a0 If a hierarchy of importance is removed then differentness is not seen as being socially constructed\u2026 it\u2019s just different.\u00a0 Simple.\u00a0 I wonder sometimes if we don\u2019t make things complex on purpose?<\/p>\n
And one more random thought.\u00a0 I\u2019m still trying to get my head around the idea of the body as space.\u00a0 I have always thought in terms of the body providing definition of an individual that occupies<\/i> space, not as space in and of itself.\u00a0 This is a new concept to me, one which requires some consideration before calling \u201cBS!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Otherness Human Geographers are interested in understanding how people occupy space together.\u00a0 How do we get along?\u00a0 Difficulties arise anytime people of different backgrounds (racial, ethnic, religious, financial, etc.) are called upon to share finite space, role definition becomes important pretty quickly!\u00a0 Hierarchies (pecking order), equitable division of resources, friendships, enemies, etc. are all important.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[22,638],"class_list":["post-4954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dimlgp","tag-valentine","cohort-lgp5"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4955,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954\/revisions\/4955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}