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Practice vs theory
July 18, 2005
Ok, a step away from the emotional stuff for a moment, as there is actually a lot of interesting stuff going on for me here in the intellectual world of the Amsterdam summer institute. In the tediously postmodernly named afternoon class (theorizing practice/practicing theory) this week, it seems like we’re going to get up close and personal with some of my favorite things to hash out - the differences between thinking and doing. More than that, we’re examining questions of the ways that thinking and doing inform and enhance each other. Definitely very good stuff to be dealing with.
The instructors are two Indian women who are very up-to-date on the discourses around sexuality in their country, but are also actually involved in work on sexuality on the grassroots level. They’ve both worked for a sexuality information hotline for many years, and their work answering calls has grown into a larger research project about sexuality and the language used to describe and process sexual experiences. For one of the first times during the institute, today I heard instructors stress the importance of people’s stories in the context of not just academic research but also in the context of cultural understanding of what sex means to the people experience the sexualities.
This is a goddamned relief and has gotten me thinking a lot more about my position in this whole mess. Yeah, it’s unique - but what should I do with it? That, my friends, is the question.
Although I understand the concept of expertise and all, I also think that a cacophony of voices speaking their own sexuality, unmediated by academic-ese, is a profoundly valuable thing. Better yet, people should be encouraged to both speak about their experiences and relate them to other experiences and think critically about the meaning of their experiences in the society they live in. I don’t think many academics give “the people” enough credit - as if the ascribing of meaning is entirely the provenance of the academics. I realize I’m getting kind of defensively democratic and rahrahrah “power to the people” or whatever, but I like being difficult at all costs.
The danger of veering away from the academic of course is ending up infinitely reinventig the wheel, and “discovering” concepts about sexuality that Foucault was tinkering with years ago. The best place, as in all things, is a balance. However, I’m beginning to think about this balance in a different way - its not so much a teeter-totter balance act, but more a tug-of-war. The teeter-totter invokes an image of finding a precarious place where either end is held up equally. Well, that just isn’t the reality of the way things are working (either in theory or in practice, haha). It’s a less clean cut thing for me, the struggle for balance is really just for constant becoming, questioning and re-pondering a thousand times.
And the funny thing about that is that it relates really directly to the thoughts I’m having about how to structure my professional/academic/activist hullaballoo, but also connects pretty strongly with how I’m trying to rethink what’s going on with my personal sexuality. I just always have to remember that it’s all a struggle, and without that struggle I wouldn’t really have anything interesting to write about - or do with my life. So bring it on, I say, even when its ugly.
Posted by Dacia at July 18, 2005 06:05 PM
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Comments
Heh heh… You said “Foucault”.
You know he’d be teased mercilessly in school with that name nowadays.
Great entry, btw. Conceptual academia and a ‘fuck yeah’ attitude rarely come off that coherently to the outsider. :)
Posted by: Vince at July 18, 2005 07:04 PM
The struggle is what keeps life interesting. I don’t believe in finding final answers, just constantly evolving and discovering new and, hopefully, better ones.
Vince - since I took French when I was in school I never thought to pronounce Foucault that way! LOL But yes, he would be teased today. :-)
Posted by: Nadia at July 18, 2005 07:40 PM
As Tony Robbins Says “Awaken The Giant Within”. You said the question is what you should do with it? Do what you love dacia. Write about it, Talk about it, don’t force on others let them come to you. Your Blog Postings are a step in the right direction. You have many fans and friends who come everyday to read what you have to say. Use it. Find out what others think. Your sexual experiences entice some as well as your “soapbox postings” envoke good conversations.
For instance you talk about struggles, I believe struggles come from within. It is our perception of what we believe a struggle is. Some things I struggle with may be easy to another. It is how you perceive the struggle and deal with it.
Good to see you fighting on and I am looking foward to reading about how you fight the ugly.
Posted by: christopher at July 18, 2005 09:47 PM
Dacia, I think Christopher is right. And furthermore, I think you should read Jonathan Livingston Seagull right away, followed by Chicken Soup for the Soul. Oh, and I hear Tom Cruise has been spreading some good wisdom these days too. Maybe he’s finally got some motivational tapes out.
By the way, I believe it was in fact Gowan who said ‘Awake the Giant.” Helloooo…. It was a single off of the album right after Strange Animal. That Gowan dude… man, he knows shit.
Nadia- I took French is school too. Part of being a Canuck. But, I’m a firm believer that if a word has an ‘f’, followed by a hard ‘c’ sound, and vowels somewhere in the middle, it can be made dirty with enough hard work. Just look at what the French did with their word for ‘baby seal’. ;)
Posted by: Vince at July 18, 2005 10:56 PM
Einstein got matter and energy right, worked on electromagnetism for 25 years, and got the random probabilistic natureof the world wrong; and was arguably one of the three greatest minds of all times.
You don’t do anything small, hat’s for dman sure. So let me encourage you, because I suspect if anyone can integrate as much as you’re trying to do, it’ll be you.
Go get ‘em!
Monty
Posted by: Monty Parker at July 19, 2005 04:03 PM
Dacia.. don’t remember how I found your blog but I’ve loved every post. You’re true to yourself and true to your own self and you run it up the flagpole every chance you get. Salute. Sometimes a wee bit of feedback is in order… even if the rest of us are full of shit. How in the blue hell can we ever know how it feels. We never can. You have a purpose and a goal. Just remember, the purpose of a goal is not to attain the goal. The purpose of a goal is the actions we take to achieve the goal. It is the actions that make us the people we need to be to achieve the things we need to achieve to be happy with ourselves and our lives and to live our lives regardless of what anyone says, thinks or does. Because if we have what we want, we are happy with ourselves and our lives and can deal with the reality we have created…then the opinions of other people don’t matter. Rock on Dacia… I respect what you do… don’t stop for anyone. Peace.
Posted by: Han at August 6, 2005 12:27 AM
