Dispossesion

Chapter 2 of Dispossession discusses the dispossession and the matter of the human. The chapter starts of with the argument that, “dispossession speaks to how human bodies become materialized and dematerialized through histories of slavery, colonization, apartheid, capitalist alienation, gender and sexual normativity, and humanitarian reason”.  Generally speaking, assumptions both racist and patriarchal have historically been used to justify the oppression of those who are different. Dispossession is a language that “ expresses experiences of uprootedness, occupation, destruction of homes and social bonds, incitation to authentic self identities humanitarian victimization, unlivablity, and struggles for self determination”.  Dispossession in a sense changes narratives to fit that of the oppressor. These narratives serve as the story that society goes by meanwhile shutting out all those who do not buy into the narrative. One can tie this to the idea of the insider vs. outsider.  Spelman and Lugones speak on the opposition of “insiders” and “outsiders”, with regards to the feminist theorization of different female populations in any given cultural/ social setting. The outsider attempts to give an account of “insiders” own experience often times observing their own cultural experience and applying it to their account of others, thereby remaking others in their own image. The pressure to believe the outsiders accounts are problematic because the individuals begin to view themselves not based on their own reality but based on the perceived reality of others. Cornell urges that the constant comparison of self to others inevitably creates an environment of social competition and because society is androcentric, women base their self-identity on the patriarchal external concept of what it means to be “woman”. Often times females of color and white females are unprepared to engage in dialogue about experiences of what it means to be a woman due to as Lugones states, “the hierarchical distinctions between theorizers and those theorized about” which are “endorsed by the same views and institutions which endorse and support hierarchical distinctions between men/women, master race/inferior race, and intellectuals/ manual workers”. In essence, the all voices cannot be heard due to the patriarchal, classist, and racial institutions that dominate the narrative.