Exploration 1: Identity Mapping

"Hi, my name is Martee. You know, like the guy." Yep, according to most people I know, I have a boy's name. Thanks, Mom and Dad.  

Privilege and Oppression. Which Social Identities are privileged by the oppression of others? What are forms of privilege and by oppression? Which social identities are the targets of oppression by unearned privileges granted others? What are forms of oppression experienced by the targets of oppression?

 

Exploring these questions seemed quite fluid as I speedily typed words into the wordle screen for the image seen above. For many years, I feel that I have been aware of such inequalities. However, the most stunning revelation came as I began to see my own “identities” staring back at me from the image produced: an educated middle-class white female (I did mention, I was a girl, right?) from a southern religious background. The truth is I like to exclude myself from this group of "oppressors" and I feel justified in doing so because I do not exploit any power or privilege I might possess. But is that enough? Can I deny parts of my identity that are undeniable? Forget them? Is that possible?

True identity can be neither delivered or denied nor stored as mere information...true identity is something known in one heart and recognized in another.

 -- John Berger, "Concerning Identity"

Below I have mapped out what I consider to be the most significant and influential parts of my identity: 

 Map Key: (I utilized color instead of the varying line model suggested)

Blue - parts of my identity that I had no control over, the environment into which I was born/raised (with the exception of English speaking, needing to be added to this category as well) - primary dimensions.

Pink - distinctive innate characteristics that are mine, a part of my DNA (I originally included English speaking solely in this group, however, after some thought, it overlaps with the blue) - primary dimensions.

Orange - identities that I have assumed based on personal choices, ideals, and convictions - secondary dimensions

Yellow - geographical places that I believe have deeply impacted my identity at the corresponding stages of my life (and beyond) - secondary dimensions. 

The idea of privilege. Coming from a lower/middle class farming family in a very rural part of Louisiana, I never felt particularly "privileged" growing up. I always "had" less than others; however, my parents valued education and instilled within each one of us the importance of working hard. To this day, I have always taken pride in that I was the first generation of my family to go to college and complete a degree (one that I am still paying for) within a field that I have great interest and passion, the Arts.

With that said, I do not recall feeling a wall of separation between myself and what I wanted to achieve. Being white was a privilege. Being educated offered privilege and a small degree of power. Being an educated white middle class in the South, I was afforded opportunities (privileges) that many of my African American counterparts were not. 

Oppression. If I was oppressed, it was because I was female (despite my name). My family had definitive gender expectations that extended into all aspects of life, right down to the "chores" we were assigned. My arm still bears a scar from a rusty barbed wire fence that reminds me of my early "rebellion" against these assigned roles. My attitude was simply to prove that I could do anything my brothers could do...thus the scar.

My identity. Parts were chosen for me. Others I have selected and shaped. Who I am today is different from the person I was yesterday and will be tomorrow. In looking back through the years, I am always a bit surprised at how much I have grown, shifted, changed. How different I look from my roots. A primary example for me is race politics. Although I grew up in the rural South, the race politics that exist stood out as injustices to me from my first awareness of them. However, as Weedon describes, I took a self-proclaimed "liberal, colour blind position which claimed to see no difference" (Weedon, p 2). This position seemed sufficient until 1) I had children and 2) I moved back to the South after a decade long hiatus.  At which point, I realized that this passive approach presupposes difference as unimportant rather than something to be celebrated. Differences are vital to the understanding, appreciating, accepting and nurturing of one another. Weir suggests "a model of identity not as sameness, but as an historical process of holding together; not through stasis but through transformation. ... [and] that a transformative identity politics must incorporate both relations of identification and recognition of relations of power: thus, transformative identity politics are politics of self-critique and self-transformation, and transformation of a 'we'" (Weir, 2008, p 112). Discovering that "we" has been my challenge over the past year. Searching for how to identify with a collective, rather than simply as an individual. To which "we" do I belong? How does that redefine my identity? Alter it? Add to it?

The courses I teach are completely online with little to no physical connections between my students and myself. We all exist in a virtual world of texts, emails, documents, voice over slides, and the occasional phone call (the most common link to the non-virtual world). With a name like "Martee," I am often mistaken for a male instructor. I find myself in a constant state of self-critique and self-transformation in order to shape the way that my students "see" me through our interactions in each of my courses. The reason I teach? So that hopefully my students will more successfully navigate these spaces than I currently do.

Resources: 

Weir, A. (2008). Global feminism and transformative identity politics. Hypatia, 23(4), 110-133.

Video: Concerning Identity (9:25 min.) A reading by John Berger.

Weedon, C. (2002). Key issues in postcolonial feminism: A Western perspective. Gender Forum: An International Journal for Gender Studies.