<font size=2 face="sans-serif">Mark, "theory" doesnt "....try
to differentiate its language from everyday terms... " It is
people that do that. And that question of agency and responsibility
-- may be the central to the discussion here. . </font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">We have been struggling with this issue
for some years at the Lavender Languages conference. how to talk about
sexual transgression and sexual "difference" [different
from what ? ] without falling deeply into an esoteric vocabulary
that few understand and fewer value. . Conversations
with the media about queer linguistics -- try it ! </font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Hegemonies of whiteness and related
issues are on the program., </font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Join us next week (Feb 13-15, 2015)
, </font><a href="www.american.edu/cas/anthropology/lavender-languages"><font size=2 face="sans-serif">www.american.edu/cas/anthropology/lavender-languages</font></a><font size=2 face="sans-serif">
</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Wlm L. Leap<br>
Professor, Department of Anthropology, American University, Washington
DC 20016</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Co-editor, Journal of Language and Sexuality
</font><a href=http://www.benjamins.com/#catalog/journals/jls><font size=2 face="sans-serif">http://www.benjamins.com/#catalog/journals/jls</font></a><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><br>
<br>
"It is not very hard to silence us, but that is not because we cannot
speak." -- a Bengali villager once remarked to
Nobel prize winning economist Amartya Sen (The Argumentative
Indian, Picador Books, 2005: xiii) </font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">"Don't be a drag, just be a queen."
Lady Gaga <br>
</font>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">From:
</font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">"Peterson, Mark"
<petersm2@miamioh.edu></font>
<br><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">To:
</font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">Frank Bechter <fbechter@gmail.com>,
</font>
<br><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">Cc:
</font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">"Linguistic Anthropology
Discussion Group \(LINGANTH@listserv.linguistlist.org\)" <LINGANTH@listserv.linguistlist.org></font>
<br><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">Date:
</font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">02/06/2015 10:31 PM</font>
<br><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">Subject:
</font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">Re: [Linganth]
It turns out that Jane Hill is white(!)</font>
<br><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">Sent by:
</font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">"Linganth"
<linganth-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org></font>
<br>
<hr noshade>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=4 face="Roman">That's true Frank, but it is also strategic.
Critical theory often tries to differentiate its language from everyday
terms because those terms are weighted by their associations with positions
the scholars are trying to critique. This kind of alienating vocabulary
is common in any science where specialized vocabularies emerge. But when
media coverage of physics or chemistry occurs, the media producers generally
seek to translate the concepts for their audiences. Here, they were deliberately
making use of Malinowski's "coefficient of weirdness" to make
the discourse alienating.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=4 face="Roman">Mark Allen Peterson<br>
Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology<br>
& Professor, International Studies Program<br>
120 Upham Hall<br>
Miami University<br>
Oxford, OH 45056<br>
513 529-5018<br>
petersm2@miamiOH.edu</font><font size=4 color=blue face="Roman"><u><br>
</u></font><a href=http://www.connectedincairo.com/ target=_blank><font size=4 color=blue face="Roman"><u>www.connectedincairo.com</u></font></a>
<br>
<br><font size=3>On Fri, Feb 6, 2015 at 11:38 AM, Frank Bechter <</font><a href=mailto:fbechter@gmail.com target=_blank><font size=3 color=blue><u>fbechter@gmail.com</u></font></a><font size=3>>
wrote:</font>
<br><font size=3>Critical scholars, take a critical look at your own discursive
practices. If the question is how to get the helpful message across, be
willing to see your own bad chess moves. We see in this piece, </font><a href="http://jezebel.com/watch-these-two-white-ladies-freak-out-about-asus-white-1681368338" target=_blank><font size=3 color=blue><u>http://jezebel.com/watch-these-two-white-ladies-freak-out-about-asus-white-1681368338</u></font></a><font size=3>,
that Fox leads with a string of specific words -- indeed, a string of specific
*types* of words -- found in the *course description* of the disputed course,
U.S. Race Theory and the Problem of Whiteness: "... postcolonialist,
psychoanalytic, deconstructionist, feminist, new historicist." The
anchor omits the lead phrase, "Major critical schools of recent decades,"
so as to make the wash of hyper-intellectual terms as incoherent as possible.
They are as alienating as possible, thus allowing any construal of "whiteness"
or "problem" to fly. One cannot stop Fox and misguided students
from selectively omitting phrases, but one should wonder whether the string
of words that Fox did latch onto for its own purposes are actually helpful
in any other way, i.e., in the goal of greater critical awareness in the
world at large, or especially in a course description. If your goal is
to equip students with tools to fight institutional racism and disenfranchisement,
these terms are not helpful. They are not tools. To the contrary, they
-- especially when you rattle them off all in a row -- are the very discursive
forms which can ensure, in the minds of many readers, your complete irrelevance
and hauteur. To me, they ensure that you probably don't know what you're
talking about. If critical scholarship is to be useful in the world (which,
of course, need not be its function), then hit hard in your advertisements
of it, explain any big term you use, or simply don't use it. Realize what
you're up against. If a wash of such terms actually attracts select students
and colleagues who are content to have this discourse remain provincial,
consider how many more you will attract with terms that are designed to
arrest a much bigger audience, which hopefully is the real goal.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=3>Frank Bechter</font>
<br><font size=3>Charlottesville, VA</font>
<br>
<br><font size=3>On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 12:00 PM, Matthew Bernius <</font><a href=mailto:mbernius@gmail.com target=_blank><font size=3 color=blue><u>mbernius@gmail.com</u></font></a><font size=3>>
wrote:</font>
<br><font size=3>On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 12:01 PM, Peterson, Mark <</font><a href=mailto:petersm2@miamioh.edu target=_blank><font size=3 color=blue><u>petersm2@miamioh.edu</u></font></a><font size=3>>
wrote:</font>
<br><font size=3>What we think of as "objective" journalism evolved
in a particular historical and economic context. Before that, it was not
at all uncommon to have the Republican and Democratic newspapers in the
same city, each sniping at different targets the other supported.</font>
<br><font size=3><br>
And to that point, when one looks at the entire history of American Journalism,
the "objective period" (which I'd argue we are approaching the
end of) is more of a historical anachronism rather than the norm. To Mark's
point, the reality is that the Fox News approach is, in many respects,
closer to the traditional form of the press.<br>
<br>
Great discussion all,</font>
<br>
<br><font size=3>- Matt</font>
<br>
<br><font size=3>-----------------------------<br>
Matthew Bernius<br>
mBernius@gMail.com | </font><a href=http://www.mattbernius.com/ target=_blank><font size=3 color=blue><u>http://www.mattbernius.com</u></font></a><font size=3>
| @mattBernius<br>
My calendar: </font><a href=http://bit.ly/hNWEII target=_blank><font size=3 color=blue><u>http://bit.ly/hNWEII</u></font></a>
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