Overdue

Now that my brief presentation circuit is over, I can return to active blogging :)  That being said, I have to talk a little about how this class and the readings we've been doing has popped up over the past few weeks; I may have been participating in spirit only, but affect is popping up everywhere.  Granted, this may be because now that I'm working the buzz, I see it in many more places, but I also like to think this may be due to the circuitry system that unites individuals' brains into a loose collective of affected individuals.  In other words, we're all a little bit "touched" (as my Gramma would say) by affect.

Affect has been coming up repeatedly in my Feminist Theory class.  This is probably because several of my colleagues were in the Feminist Research Methods class last semester, but as we tried to discuss several other students expressed an interest in discussing affect.  The summation of the class was that affect seems to fit right in with feminist methodologies and practices.  So here are a few ideas along those lines.  Chandra Talpade Mohanty presents this great outline for feminism without borders and although she’s speaking directly to geography in addition to considering local and global feminisms. Mohanty argues that the first step to leveling the playing field and moving toward this goal is to “read up the ladder of privilege” (452).  Pulling from standpoint theory, she manages to avoid essentialism by acknowledging that knowledge from third world/south women is the most inclusive viewing of systemic power.  This does not mean that the locations or its inhabitants have exclusive and crucial knowledge of inequality, rather the vantage point provides perspectives of the interlocking and systemic oppressions.  I like the idea of opening this up across the body as well.  Feminism as a lived experience enhanced by the connections it creates physically, mentally, and spiritually. 

Making connections is one of the most important aspects of feminist theory and practice – acknowledging connections that exist is one of the major components of affect.  Toss this into the digital era we’re currently swimming in and it seems like we are in the swell of a new era both ripe with potential and threatening disaster.  What I mean is that the digital capabilities of our new media are, as Henry Jenkins argues, a platform for creativity and construction.  A large part of this boils down to deconstructing the past and standardized forms of communication: using the ashes from the old to build up and away into the new.  This could be a way of recycling, but it is also a point in space for new digital creators to use as the antithesis for their work.  The disaster is the ease in which this space can be co-opted for corporate means and the relative acceptance of the capitalistic presence in everyday life.  Additionally, the numbers of those creating versus those passively consuming seem staggeringly disparate.  But the need to connect is more on the surface than ever before.  More of this to come…and with more references to readings from this class coming soon.