The epistemology of ignorance, according to Tuana, involves the
expression of at least one of many ideological actions: KNOWING THAT WE Do NOT
KNOW, BUT NOT CARING TO KNOW, WE Do NOT EVEN KNOW THAT WE Do NOT KNOW, THEY Do
NOT WANT Us TO KNOW, WILLFUL IGNORANCE. All of these themes, according to her,
work together to produce a culture of ignorance, via which destructive systems
of oppression can and are allowed to perpetuate. She uses the burgeoning Women’s
Healthcare Movement of the late 80s to the present to illustrate her thesis:
pointing out that due to the factors outlined above, little to no attention was
paid to women’s health issues, reproductive anatomy, oral contraception and its
physiological consequences prior to the period. Thus, a culture of ignorance
surrounding intimate details of the female health-related psyche continued to
not only marginalize women in its discourse, but sometimes damaged women when
proper education was not readily available.
Ortega similarly discusses what she
terms as “loving ignorance” that many white women and men use in theorizing the
lives and experiences of women of color. She posits that this position is
dangerous in that it doesn’t involve knowing or wanting to know about women of
color but rather, the arrogant perceiver (as she also refers to them) “does not
even care to know about the object of perception, [and s/he] merely wants to possess,
use, coerce, and enslave this object.” (Ortega 61).
I agree with both Tuana and
Ortega, particularly in reference of healthcare issues prevalent amongst women
of color. Besides infectious disease trends whose cure/research can often
provide profitable benefits through prescription and treatment, issues like reproductive
conditions (uterine fibroids, endometriosis) and other various healthcare
ailments pervasive in minority communities are both not readily available to
the population it affects the most, but have very little information surrounding
its discourse. Using Tuana’s thesis: this willful ignorance would go under “KNOWING
THAT WE Do NOT KNOW, BUT NOT CARING TO KNOW” and “THEY Do NOT WANT Us TO KNOW,”
because the lack of incentive to find and research information regarding these
conditions cause women who are affected the most to unduly suffer at the hands
of their ignorance.
I agree with your analysis and find it interesting that Ortega discussing "loving ignorance" as dangerous. It seems odd that something loving would be dangerous, so I don't find any type of ignorance, conscious or not, to be loving. I also find it extremely important that the ignorance surrounding women's health and bodies has not only marginalized women, wishing society at large and within the scientific community, but has produced a type of violence on these bodies that is not enacted on male bodies.
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