Friday, July 3, 2009

Words I am tired of

"Appropriation" "discourse" "subversive" "transgressive" "consciousness" "problematic" "examine" "hegemony" "patriachy" "dominant culture" "the other" "postcolonial" "exploitation" "oppression" "ways of knowing" "representations" "objectification" "deviance" "binary" "intersectionality" "activism" "silencing" "hierarchy" "empowering" "internalization" "revitalization" "womyn" "epistemology" "controlling images" "privilege" "normative" "marginalization" "safe space" to name a few.

It's not that I have a problem with any of these words on their own (well, except maybe "womyn"). While I accept that most, if not all, academic departments use their own language, these words and phrases get tossed around so casually among ethnic and gender studies types that I begin to suspect that they're just being used to avoid actual thought. But hey, maybe that's just me.

I kind of want to design a point system that I can use whenever I'm reading a relevant article or book. One point for nouns from the above list. Two points for words ending in "-zation." Three points for anything deemed "problematic." Five points for alternative spellings of "woman," "women," etc.

Any more words you want to add to the list?

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