Agency and Power

Chapter 13 of The Theory Toolbox focused primarily on “agency” as well as how power has an effect on the way we view agency. The chapter starts by defining power and agency by saying that “given a particular set of constraints on our subjectivities, what actions, operations, and powers can be brought to bear in an interpretation or analysis?” In other words, “agency” is described in this chapter as simply being the power to do something.



Theory Toolbox Ch. 13



Later in the chapter, the use of power and agency as well as history and its context comes into play. A quote that says, “We cannot ignore human agency in history. We cannot, in other words, ignore the fact that people create history by doing things; history is made rather than found.” This quote really made sense because it proved to me that subjects can always be agents because people on a day to day basis do things to create history. The ability to respond to historical contexts is what in fact embodies this idea of subjects having agents. “in light of such representations, the reminder that people are agents who make history is all the more necessary, given the inclination to view the present as inevitable, the future as nothing more than a repetition of the past”. Simply put, our agency is both constrained and enabled by the contexts in which we find ourselves.



Power & Authority



Power comes into play in regards to agency by the example of using wealth presented in the chapter. For example, being wealthy often would translate into a much greater capacity to make choices, to take control over ones time, to enhance ones mobility; all of which create the conditions of improved health, security, and happiness; however not across all contexts. What I mean by this is that when looking at the contrary of wealth, being wealthy and having power also makes the individual an immense target and threat to scam or violence. In other words, representation or the way that others view us in a key role in how society identifies us. “The subject’s positions we occupy are never simply a function of what we choose for ourselves”. Power in other ways such as post-structuralism is an example of how power is illustrated by challenging the norms and what seems to be set in place by society; this idea of “universal truth”. “And such challenges require agency, our capacity to make choices and act, yet another form of power”.

Case of Beer

An example of the power of choice in regards to agency and power presented in the chapter would be something like case day. Around campus on case day, majority of the students on campus wake up early in the morning to try and consume a case (24 beers). Although most don’t finish the case or those who do end up puking or passing out immediately after, making the choice to participate is an example of how contexts constrain us, yet also give us the means to respond specifically to situations and other people. What I mean by this is that although my example of case day is a bit wacky and bizarre, the ability and choice to respond to this event in town gives birth to the idea of agency. And even if one does not choose to participate in case day, the choice and ability to not respond or participate is somewhat a response in itself; one that has consequences and effects. So in conclusion, “Agency”, then, is always a response to already given contexts, and, as we’ve seen throughout the semester, in this sense the ways we respond to the everyday world are bundled up with the ways we respond to cultural contexts”.

The Corporate University

When looking back in history at women’s place in society, the vast majority of her work was done in three main areas; the kitchen, household chores, as well as being the caretaker for children. Though, times have changed and women have been given much more opportunities for growth in areas such as education and flexibility within the home life, why it is that woman are still getting the short end of the stick in regards to fields of work in areas of academia.

Jane Juffer

Author and Professor Jane Juffer of Cornell University wrote a chapter called “The Corporate University” in her book Single Mothers that goes into depth about the hardships for single mothers specifically as well as women in general to have a balanced home-life while also having a competitive and successful work-life. She begins the chapter by differentiating the corporate work life to the University lifestyle and says “No longer, it would seem, does the University stand in opposition to the market; its just another place where, as Henry Girout puts it, “market values replace social values, and people appear more and more willing to retreat into the safe, privatized enclaves of family, religion, and consumption”. She then goes on to talk about how 67 of the top 100 corporations in the United States offered some form of “child care” for single mothers in there on-site facilities enabling women to work while also knowing that there children were safe; however, on the contrary, only few University’s offered child care for any of there faculty, students, and staff, and if they did offer it, the chance of it fitting there needs would be very unlikely.

Later in the chapter she goes on to talk about how single mothers are not able to engage in many social or public gatherings because that requires there time and for a single mother, time is something that does not come often. Single mothers who are in the field of academia have to try and balance work, building up there tenure, children/family, as well as a social life outside of family and work. There have been many scholars who have said things such as “academics with children should stop complaining about a personal decision and take responsibility for there personal affairs”. Though, I agree that every individual has the opportunity to make decisions upon there personal affairs, I disagree with the idea that women complain about this issue. In reality, women are the only gender than can produce an offspring therefore in my opinion they deserve and should be given the opportunity to have children without suffering in there area of focus in the academic realm.



Single Mother Book



Professor Cary Nelson, who has written many books and a great deal of material in regards to academic labor issues was quoted saying that it has “an odd echo of republican family values”. I agree with this quote because in reality the University is pretty much saying that women who have children are making a choice to sacrifice there careers, that having children will make it so that a women can not reach tenure, as well as the idea that there should be a man there that shares the load. This to me sounds very republican and is not fair to the single mothers who are in fact seeking profession in academia.

Jane Juffer shows this idea numerous times in the chapter by presenting ideas such as “domestic issues reside only in the home, which is cut off from work and assumes no public value”. What is mean by this is that single mothers having children has the consequence of being in a work climate in which to seek help a parent renders one vulnerable to charges of failure to recognize the middle-class privileges or of not making the grade as a serious scholar. She then shows example of this by saying “the colleague who brings a child to a meeting or a dinner runs the risk of appearing needy, unable to keep her private affairs sufficiently private” or the “scholar who turns town separate engagements or fellowships because extended child care is too hard to find or because moving your child for a year would be too unsettling for the family may not be able to meet the professional criteria for tenure”; the professor who does not pursue competitive job offers because she cant imagine moving her child will not get the raise that her colleagues who play the game of offer and counter-offer will receive.

Though the discrimination as well as glass ceiling effect presented by Juffer is something that is startling to see, the paradox and ironic twist that she later presents is even more startling. “Despite the fact that much of academic scholarship in the humanities, especially in feminism and gay studies, critiques the nuclear family norm and reveals it’s nationalist, racist, homophobic, and sexist effects, academic work practices rely on the nuclear family as the most visible form of both raising children and achieving tenure and promotion”.  Juffer in the quote presents the irony of the academic system and how in fact scholars bash down the idea of sexist and discriminatory actions and then turn around and embody the exact way of living that they just bashed down.

Not only is this issue not fair for single women due to the implications that having children and being single is somewhat of a hindrance, the even more astonishing factor of this issue is that fact that women are being somewhat punished for doing something that only women have the power to do; produce a child. Although the University has come around over time, the time consuming, absent from family, work-filled lifestyle that a professor has to deal with is something that will always be a disadvantage for a women in the academic area of profession.

How To Write About Africa

Throughout the past few weeks all over the internet, newspapers, televisions, as well as social networks, the case of Trayvon Martin has become more and more talked about on a national level. According to numerous sources as well as a police dispatch recording, a man by the name of George Zimmerman, a self appointed neighborhood watchmen as well as racist, made a 911 call in regards to a 17 year old boy who was wearing a “hoodie” and looked suspicious in the area. The police told Zimmerman to not follow the boy however, Zimmerman instead did not follow the police orders and within minutes shot and killed Trayvon Martin for no reason at all.

Trayvon Martin

This case may have seemed to be quite simple, however, George Zimmerman was not arrested for a crime that he committed, and instead Trayvon Martin seemed to have just been another black kid in the wrong place at the wrong time. While all of this was happening the President of the United States had a press conference saying that if he were to have a son that he would look just like Trayvon. The NAACP as well as other organizations across the United States were astonished and appalled by the injustice that this young boy had experienced and even with the President, government officials, as well as the entire nation questioning what was going on, Trayvon and his family seemed to be getting the short end of the stick.

Presiden Obama Press Confrence On Shooting

Then weeks after the horrific incident, a man by the name of Geraldo Rivera went on national television and pretty much said that Trayvon Martin died because he was wearing a hoodie and fit the description of a thug, black man, who was in the wrong. When watching this I was appalled not only because of his ignorant statements, but even more because on the day Trayvon Martin was killed, it was raining which is why the hoodie was on in the first place. The fact that Geraldo Rivera almost blamed Trayvon Martin as well as any other individual who was killed for reasons out of there control is sickening and really just goes to show how much stereotypes and false beliefs that society tends to associate with different groups of people.

Don’t get me wrong though, there are in fact men who wear hoodies in which are in the gang life, who do sell drugs and who are looking for trouble, however, that does not mean that everyone who is black and wearing a hoodie is a thug. Even if the claims were correct and Trayvon was in fact up to no good, selling drugs and walking the streets looking for trouble, that does not give anyone the right to kill him because in reality he did nothing wrong.



Stereotypes



This idea of stereotypes and false beliefs presented in the Trayvon Martin case really shares many similarities to the article How to Write About Africa written by Binyavanga Wainaina. In the article he spoke pretty much entirely on the continent of Africa and the ignorant stereotypes or claims that people tent to associate with Africa and its people. By doing so his article was written somewhat like a handbook of tips to write about Africa and its people in which was completely brilliant sarcasm. He said things such as “never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Piece Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these”. This is the first sentence of the article and shows already the way people view Africans. He then goes to describe Africa and its climate and he suggest that nobody really cares instead everyone assumes that it’s a place full of aids, famine, and malnutrition; leaving the idea that we should treat “Africa as if it were one country”.

Later in the article he continues to sarcastically make claims of African culture and people by making them seem almost un-human, and rather animal like. He says “make sure you show how Africans have music and rhythm deep in their souls, and eat things that no other humans eat. Do not mention rice or wheat; monkey-brain is an African cuisine of choice, along with goat, snakes, worms, and grubs and all manner of game meat”.

Binyavanga Wainaina

Now you may be wondering how in the hell the immoral and devastating Trayvon Martin case has anything close to similar to the How to write About Africa article, there are numerous things that they have in common. First off, both Trayvon Martin and African people were stereotyped, ignorantly blamed for there situations, as well as depicted as being something that they were not. Trayvon Martin was accused of being a pugnacious and thug-like kid who was causing suspicion in the neighborhood, when in fact he was wearing a hoodie in the rain returning home with an ice tea, a bag a skittles, and on his cell phone talking to his girlfriend when he was shot and killed for fitting a stereotype. African people and culture were depicted in this article as being somewhat hopeless, animal-like creatures who are violent, starved, aid infested and just as Trayvon Martin, falsely associated with something that is beyond there control. What I mean is that yes, there is malnutrition, poverty and disease in Africa, however, that does not give anyone the right to assume that all of Africa is like that and stereotypes set in place tend to give off that vibe. In regards to Trayvon Martin, yes, there are black men who wear hoodies, who sell drugs, and who are a reason to be of suspicion, however, that does not mean that all black men who wear hoodies are thugs and in the wrong.