Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 07:33:41 -0500 (EST) From: "Cyberdiva (a.k.a \"Radhika Gajjala\")" <rxgst6+-AT-pitt.edu> Subject: backstage and aside - moving centre stage now and then On this Cyber-Theatre, then we "Third World Diva Girls" and friends are waiting for this drama to unfold We shall Perform We are the Audience As we wait we here the rustle of paper backstage on the other side of the the dark screen there is life the ??? of the questioning minds the emotion be cause we have so much invested in studying this "topic" "non-western" feminism located in some form of privilege we try to connect with our lacks and try to understand the other s lacks as well Carrying various guilts In my case - centuries of brahmin guilt ambiguously ashamed and proud all at the same time I am not Dalit. I am not (white, aristocratic) British either. Tracing my "location" my "feminism" to the personal my mother with no sense of "class" or anglified education my mother the daughter of a farmer. who is happiest when her arms are elbow-deep in manure (cow dung!) and she does not need to worry about who sees her cracked bare feet my mother in her sloppy ly draped sari and lack of makeup and the airs and graces of the educated woman who always felt she did not deserve everything good that ever happened to her her silences, the mother who knew not clearly (Yet very clearly, she knew, she understood) why her daughters and sons were sometimes embarrassed when she came to their schools (which was rare enough) she with her hawai slippers and turmeric smeared saris smelling like the earth smelling like the kitchen yet she had her share of guilt too centuries of guilt where we contribute d (still do) to the oppression of other castes. I am still backstage - then, browsing through possibilities in my head Browsing through Adrienne Rich On the Politics of Location through bell hooks about Third world diva girls but let us make it heard too this backstage activity every once in a while. ??? ******************************************************** homepage:: http://www.pitt.edu/~rxgst6/jabberwocky.html ********************************************************
Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005