that it is also always irrelevant on the individual level because statistics are other people.
Oh, that's a wonderful way of putting it!
I agree that not denying statistical trends, while still recognizing that trends are only just that and not necessarily intrinsic truths, is important. Although especially with things like "middle classes on average are taller," it's also important to ask why.
I started identifying as a feminist in college (after reading a whole lot of theory and agreeing with it but not seeing the need for the label) after one particular incident. One of the members of my social group freshman year (frosh always move in herds) recognized that are the female students in our group got salads with romaine lettuce and all the male students iceberg. I thought it was a very feminist thing to notice, but instead of taking it to the feminist conclusion and asking how we were differently socialized, she just began to essentialize and call the iceberg lettuce "man lettuce." This annoyed me to no end and put me so over the edge that I decided there was a pressing need for self-identified feminists after all.
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Date: 2008-05-21 09:30 am (UTC)Oh, that's a wonderful way of putting it!
I agree that not denying statistical trends, while still recognizing that trends are only just that and not necessarily intrinsic truths, is important. Although especially with things like "middle classes on average are taller," it's also important to ask why.
I started identifying as a feminist in college (after reading a whole lot of theory and agreeing with it but not seeing the need for the label) after one particular incident. One of the members of my social group freshman year (frosh always move in herds) recognized that are the female students in our group got salads with romaine lettuce and all the male students iceberg. I thought it was a very feminist thing to notice, but instead of taking it to the feminist conclusion and asking how we were differently socialized, she just began to essentialize and call the iceberg lettuce "man lettuce." This annoyed me to no end and put me so over the edge that I decided there was a pressing need for self-identified feminists after all.