If A Million BrothasMarried A Million Sistas
& Raised 2 Million Children
In 25 Years
They'd Be The Most Powerful
People On The Planet
Everything Else Is ________ ?
Monday, December 14, 2009
A Millie A Millie A Millie
If A Million BrothasMarried A Million Sistas
& Raised 2 Million Children
In 25 Years
They'd Be The Most Powerful
People On The Planet
Everything Else Is ________ ?
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8 comments:
DV:
Isn't this being "hetro-normative" of you?
I don't know what that means man.
I first heard the term a few years ago when Jada Pinkett-Smith was called as such when she was the featured speaker at a college symposium and made reference to "women in the audience dreaming all of their lives getting married to the MAN OF THEIR DREAMS and having children in a house with picket fences".
Some of the lesbians in the audience actually got offended by her comments, calling it "hetero-normative speech"
Heteronormative - defined:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=heteronormative
Fellas,
Heteronormativity is one of those clever-sounding, useful words that comes from queer studies. Heterosexuality is taken to be the norm within a society and sexuality is defined strictly within these terms. Anything that goes against that is abnormal and for people like Judith Butler (Gender Trouble) its given her to the homosexual and transgendered identities as marginal and subjugated identities which challenge the dominant order...hence the pink mantra 'gay is the new Black'.
HOWEVER its also become a useful term in gender discourse with specific regard to the intersex states and helps explore important social questions like what is a man or what is a woman like with people who have andrgynous syndrome (AIS I think) or with hermaphrodites.
In other spheres heteronormativity is a way of looking at expectations on women and issues of reproduction and patriarchy are inextricably linked to the construction of heterosexuality as hegemony. For Black women - in a historical sense the colonized and enslaved body has been the site of sexual pleasure/abusefor the White male. Or for 'women of color' in South East Asia or Africa who get into forced marriages.
And then of course for Black lesbians or anti-marriage Black feminists it becomes a way of talking about their multiple oppressions as Black, lesbian/'liberated' women. I think Jada did, unwittingly, play into the hands of these oh-so-sensitive feminist who were just itching to get a stab at her. If I were to have a heteronormative critcism of her it would be that not the Western nuclear family is not everyone's ideal. The picket fence is a middle-class plantation dream. But I'm not walking around with a big chip on my shoulder and she's Jada, not some cultural critic posing as a representative of the universe.
Class dismissed ; )
It's a damned shame when what is normal is vilified.
-Mahndisa
i don't think its a matter of vilifying what is normal per se, as much as opening up the discussion to figure out what's normal and for whom.
i agree with konwomyn, in the u.s., hetero-normativity is just as 'normal' as racism.
the criticism, or vilification in some instances, only comes when there's a critical mass of people who are no longer willing to be the 'victim' (self-imposed or legitimate) of 'normal' standards for humanity.
Chosen,
Please note that I'm not suggesting heteronormativity and racism are the same. In the US it could be said that at a subversive level, racism is normalized through the invisibility of Whiteness and White privilege such that in race and gender discourse heteronormativity can function as its tool. The same can be said of class privilege or of sexist privilege e.g the dual role of the naked female body as art and as a commercially consumed good. On the same level, the same cannot be said of the male body. Not making a case for equity - noooo, I'm making an illustrative comparison.
Yea I do agree that we do need to critically question and in the process redefine what is meant by normal and on whose terms, understanding that normativity is a fluid meme that is always in construction. A bit radical for some conservatives here, but it depends on how you choose to look at something - as a threat or as an opportunity for ones, to define, on their own terms what is the norm. I guess that's like what DV tries to do with his memetic discourse - sometimes controversial, sometimes on point.
...peace
konwomyn, i hadn't made that assumption. but point taken.
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