On Fri, 4 Apr 1997, Nalo Hopkinson wrote:
> NH: I can find the Delany quote if I look, but I think that the gist of
> what he said is that, as supportive as he is of feminism, he will never
> wear a woman's body and walk in a woman's shoes, any more than a White
> person could claim to be a Black activist. He, by very nature of being
> male, is part of that group of people from whom women have/have had to
> wrest our share of privelege. He says he cannot be inside the experience,
> but he can walk alongside us.
I've been wondering about this question of how well experiences translate.
I wonder--perhaps because I only become aware of which groups I belong to
when I'm immersed in some wholly different ones (e.g. I feel most "female"
when I'm amongst males, most American when in Spain, etc.)--I wonder what
it means to "wear a woman's body."
Are minority experiences really that different? I say this because I know
what it is like to feel different from those around me, and also like
others around me, but who I feel different from and who I identify with
shifts moment to moment. The only lasting part is the emotion (of
sameness and difference), not the incident that prompted it.
And sometimes I feel alienated from the groups I "belong" to--I haven't
yet felt unsafe at night because I am female...but I empathize with
those who do. I just wonder if we are deceiving ourselves in marking off
boundaries that divide and enclose--aren't we all just "walk[ing]
alongside" each other?
Andrea Klein
(sorry not sf-nal, except I guess one could take the discussion into
androgynes and cyborgs and other boundary-melters...)
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