YouTube link here. William looks different, huh?
This week, William is still recovering, so the Producer steps in as guest host. We talk about things we’ve been watching together, have some marital banter, and then delve into questions from Jas and Dave of Id. Enjoy!
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Awesome. 😊
Heh. I don’t know why, but I didn’t even think about the fact that you’d be listening to this episode.
Hah! That discussion made me laugh out loud while driving to school yesterday!
I definitely do not come to the podcast for definitive answers. 🙂 In fact, I generally reject the idea of definitive answers–sort of in keeping with the whole discussion.
And I really wasn’t asking to get an answer about myself or who I am, but was using myself as an example to start a more general discussion.
That said–just to clear up some of what came up: Yes, the taiko conference was to discuss racism. Taiko in the U.S. pretty much came out of the 60s/70s peace movement and Asian Pride movements–so there’s a lot of social justice stuff going on at most taiko conferences, but this one was specifically focused on how the community might do things to bring about change after George Floyd’s murder
One of my grandfather’s was Chinese. The other grandparents were German, Scots and English. As far as heritage/stories, the biggest influence was my Scots grandma. I basically didn’t know my Mom’s parents (Chinese/German) until I was 8 or 9 as they and my Mom were estranged. (She ran away from the Circus and the marriage her Dad had arranged for her with a Chinese acrobat. Even when they were back in touch, most of the contact was with my grandmother.)
Your discussion did help me clarify what my thoughts are about all this. I think the problem with the concept of identity is that people think of it as some property of an individual rather than as a social construct. As a social construct, it isn’t something that you own or have, but is constantly defined by interactions–sometimes with little noticeable change though.
So, for instance, what happened at the taiko conference was that one of the organizers was someone who used to be in my taiko group and knows that I’m one-quarter Chinese. She excluded me from the white affinity group and sent me an email asking if I understood what an affinity group meant, as in her eyes, I’m not white. It’s really important for her to acknowledge ethnic background as she’s half Chinese and half Japanese and her family tried to deny the Japanese side during WWII and post WWII anti-Japanese oppression. When I’ve been supporting her work (she ran an all Asian female taiko group until last year), I was identifying more as Asian. But in the context of an affinity group to talk about George Floyd’s murder, I think I’m white (’cause this is how I am treated almost all the time).
As far as gender, I don’t think the traditional definitions of male/female or masculine/feminine ever made much sense to me. I don’t have any issue with people identifying me as female, but I do have problems when there’s some traditional view of what that means that goes along with it. Like the one misidentification that bugs me is when my students want to call me Miss or Mrs. with my last name attached. I’m not single, and I’m not Mrs. last name, because my last name is not my husband’s.
Generally, I think both sex and gender are social constructs. The evidence that sex is, as well as gender, is in the way that babies of “indeterminate sex” are generally forced into the binary.
Gender fluid/Non-binary-Interesting. I understand the difference Trish is pointing to. Here’s what I wonder–“Gender fluid” seems to accept the idea of the binary because gender is generally defined in terms of the binary. But does it also undercut the binary because that binary definition says that gender is fixed rather than fluid? I’m not sure. Non-binary does seem to more explicitly reject the binary.
I’d be happy to post some pictures. How would I do that?
Ran away FROM the circus! Your family history just keeps on giving! 🙂
Had a discussion the other day with someone, an older person like myself, discussing young people who appear to be adopting various labels sort of as a fad or fashion, and how it felt “disrespectful” to the group attached to the label.
It reminded me of this talk.
It’s all so crazy, because I firmly believe you can’t tell someone what they are or aren’t. Their identity is something they get to define. But sometimes… their version of a thing is completely different from yours. And heck, they MIGHT be lying, sometimes.
Just gotta push intersectionality. You say you’re X? Cool. It’s important to note that not all X are necessarily like you, and that’s still valid.
(The “you” in this was a hypothetical person, by the way… not Jas) 🙂
Something I also didn’t mention on the podcast, but when Tony said, “I identify as white.” I was kind of taken aback. Because my initial reaction was, “Why? I don’t!” But that’s not really true either – I put it on forms all the time. It’s just that if you asked me to describe myself, it would never come to mind as something to mention. Now whether that’s because it’s a privileged position so I don’t *have* to think about it, or if it’s because most people’s perception matches mine, or something else entirely, I’m not really sure.
jas’ question is so timely. Just yesterday I attended a Latinx and friends session because I wanted to learn how to be a better friend, however, because of the last name of the person I married (and I chose to take that name), I felt like there were probably some people in the session who thought I was part of the Latinx group, rather than an “and friend.” I kinda felt like I was somehow misrepresenting myself, like I was trying to show that I’m Latinx when I’m not, and to go to any effort to clarify that I was there as an “and friend” seemed like I was somehow ashamed that I might be thought of as Latinx. (note, this was a training session with a speaker and a moderator, so I and the other participants did not and were not asked to talk, so it’s not like the topic of how I self identify would have even come up.)
Also yesterday, I received a business email addressed to Mrs. Lastname. While that is technically a correct way to address me, something about it rang weird. Like it was sexist in some way. Also realizing that it feels weird that the salutation is dependent on my marital status, as though that’s my colleague/business contact’s business.
I’m enjoying this new era very much and actually have things I think I could contribute or revisit. I think a deep dive or 12 into intersectionality would be very interesting. I am 99% just CIS, White, Hetero but it makes me think deeper into my own identity and what little bits of intersectionality I DO experience… probably more just small deviations from the social constructs than anything truly groundbreaking. But I’ll save that for a future email.
From the title I WAS a little disappointed there wasn’t discussion of Cowboy Bebop
That IS important!
https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/medium/1/cowboybebop-see-you-space-cowboy-oryza-nosativa-transparent.png
I knew you’d appreciate it. And I am trying to not get too geeked over the Netflix show in case it’s not good, but everything I see hypes me further. I already have a crush on Daniella Pineda from all the sass she was firing back at people that didn’t like her as Faye.
Yeah, it did occur to me that people would think of that. But I’m a jerk, so I just ran with it.
I’ve seen the cast shots for the new show. I didn’t know John Cho was gonna be Spike. So now I’m kinda psyched!
I’m also enjoying the new format. It’s a bit less… distinctive than the note cards. But it makes me feel like we’re actually approaching issues the listeners want to talk about. The note cards were a bit more of a crap shoot, due to size limitations.