Embodiment Critique - UTNIF 2015

UTNIF 2015 Embodiment
Kritik - Paperless
Toya & Jaime
Katherine Alexander, Lauren Andrews, Christina Bui, Mosie Burke,
Elaine Chen, Jack Delehanty, Tyler Durbin, Amy Ho, Grace
Kiersznowski, Matthew Lugibihl, Nathan Metz-lerman, Patrick Molina,
Jia (Anita) Pan, Maryanne Pasiewicz, Nikpreet Singh, Alex Sodders,
Emi Solorzano, Wai Ho Zhang,
UTNIF 2015 Embodiment Kritik - Paperless...........................1

***1NC Shells***..........................................................................3
1NC XO 12333......................................................................................... 4
1NC Drones............................................................................................. 6
1NC Foucault........................................................................................... 6
1NC Sophomores: TSA............................................................................. 6
1NC Survivors: Welfare............................................................................6
1NC Survivors: Anxiety............................................................................6
*** Links ***................................................................................6
Anxiety....................................................................................................... 6
Embodiment.............................................................................................. 6
Foucault..................................................................................................... 6
Gendered Language...................................................................................6
Giroux........................................................................................................ 6
High Theory............................................................................................... 6
Islamophobia............................................................................................. 6
Legal Reform.............................................................................................. 6
Omission.................................................................................................... 6
The State................................................................................................... 6
Surveillance Studies................................................................................... 6
Satiable Demands...................................................................................... 6
Settler Colonialism..................................................................................... 6
Welfare....................................................................................................... 6
War/Violence Inev...................................................................................... 6
*** Impacts ***............................................................................6
War............................................................................................................ 6
Structural Violence..................................................................................... 6
Settler Colonial Violence............................................................................6
Gender Violence......................................................................................... 6
Patriarchy................................................................................................... 6
Structural Violence Outweighs...................................................................6
***Alternativos***.......................................................................6
Countervisuality......................................................................................... 6
Racial Healing Alt....................................................................................... 6
Alt Interdependence................................................................................6
Two Spirit Critique...................................................................................... 6
*** Alt Solvo ***...........................................................................6
Alt comes first............................................................................................ 6
Counter Surveillance..................................................................................6
Assemblages.............................................................................................. 6
***2NC Answers***......................................................................6
2NC AT: Perm........................................................................................... 6
2NC AT: Framework................................................................................. 6
2NC AT: Link Turn Foucault......................................................................6

***AFF Answers***.......................................................................6
Assemblage Permutation...........................................................................6
AT: Intersectionality.................................................................................... 6
Alt Offense................................................................................................. 6
Alt Doesnt Solve........................................................................................ 6
Narratives bad........................................................................................... 6
Performance Bad........................................................................................ 6
Discourse................................................................................................... 6
A2 RoB....................................................................................................... 6
Framework................................................................................................. 6
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1NC XO 12333
The affs analysis of surveillance systematically ignores
how embodiment is implicated in the processes of
technological surveillance.
Conrad in 09
(Kathryn, Associate Professor of Kansas at the University of Kansas. Surveillance, Gender, and the Virtual
Body in the Information Age. Published in Surveillance and Society, 2009).
the informatisation of the body has worrisome implications , as

Lyon, van der Ploeg, and Hayles suggest above. At the very least , the technological
advances of dataveillance have largely progressed more quickly than
the careful discussion of the ethical, moral, philosophical, and legal
issues they raise. But the risks of this informatisation of the body have not been acknowledged by
feminist and queer studies. The lack of attention to the problems inherent in
the rise of the virtual body may be in part because both the
'posthuman' and feminist and queer theory emerge, as Hayles reminds us, out of a critique
of the liberal humanist subject (Hayles 1999: 4). The myth of the universal
subject, dependent on the far-from-universal Western white male
experience, have tended to erase the voices, experiences, and
contributions of those who fall outside of this model. But Hayles also notes
that 'embodiment has been systematically downplayed or erased in
the cybernetic construction of the posthuman in ways that have not
occurred in other critiques of the liberal humanist subject , especially in
feminist and postcolonial theories' (4).5 At the same time as these new ways of thinking
about the human provide a critique of the liberal humanist subject, 'to the extent that the
posthuman constructs embodiment as the instantiation of thought/information, it continues the
liberal tradition rather than disrupts it' (5). This liberal tradition has, as
she suggests, a long history of 'an emphasis on cognition' over
embodiment (5). Contemporary feminist theory's apparent blindness
to the risks of informatisation are not only due to the critique of the liberal humanist
it appears, at least on the surface, to share with the 'posthuman', but also due to feminist
theory's complex and sometimes fraught relationship with
embodiment more generally. Some feminists, particularly in the late 1960s and 70s, embraced a
In short,
concept of 'woman' dependent upon a perceived biological essence, and have celebrated the female body
as essential giver of life; but many strands of theoretical feminism have questioned those seemingly
'essential' links between body, 'sex', and 'gender'. Poststructuralist feminism in particular, inspired by
writers such as Monique Wittig and perhaps best exemplified in the works of Judith Butler, has been
concerned with the ways in which discourse6 not only affects women's rolesi.e., 'gender'but actually
shapes the physical body and 'sex' itself.7 In Butler's theory, indebted to a range of philosophical traditions
including Foucault's conception of gender as constituted by the circulation of power and knowledge
the body is always already shaped by discourses, and so

'biological sex' can never be taken for granted as a stable ground on
which gender identity is built. In other words, although the body itself has
a material reality outside of 'discourse', our understanding of what
the body is, including our understanding of its 'biological sex', is
shaped by discourse. Butler is perhaps best known for her often-misunderstood concept of
(Foucault 1990),
'gender performativity', the notion that gender is a 'stylized repetition of acts' (Butler 1990: 140). The
popular understanding of her work has been that one can change one's gender performance and thereby
challenge the entire gender system at will, a misconception she has had to correct in subsequent texts.8
Butler, like Foucault, does not suggest that subjects can control the discourse that forms them quite so
directly; we operate as gendered subjects within the gendered system, and so deliberate attempts at
parody (as in, for instance, a staged drag queen performance) tend simply to reinforce our understanding
of 'proper' gender. But Gender Trouble does provide a possibility for change, though not a change effected
that 'the possibilities of gender

transformation are to be found precisely in the arbitrary relation
between such acts, in the possibility of a failure to repeat, a deformity, or a parodic repetition that exposes the phantasmic effect
of abiding identity as a politically tenuous construction ' (141). Such a
'de-formity' or 'failure' might look more like what we would call an intersexed or
hermaphroditic body: a so-called 'natural' body that does not fit neatly into
the accepted gendered/sexed binary, and as such troubles the whole
'natural' binary system.
by a conscious subject, when she suggests
Subscribing to the myth of the inevitability of violence is a

discourse that robs individuals of their agency and
become complicit with the violence described
Ibish, 12
(Hussein, is a Senior Fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine.
journalist, Nothing is inevitable 22/05/2012,
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentary/nothing_is_inevitable2//NMM)
One of the most important political principles is that history is not

deterministic in any sense. It is, rather, a genealogy of human
choices. It is shaped by agency, intentionality and decisions that are
both individual and collective. Almost all of the most insidious
contemporary political mindsets reject this. Instead they invoke some
kind of determinism or historical teleologythe will of God, the hidden hand of
the market, biological determinism regarding human beings or their habitat, Malthusian
prognostications about population growth. These are all common variants of the theme. And all of them are
totally and dangerously mistaken. I had the pleasure of debating the Iranian-American author
Reza Aslan last week at the University of California, Los Angeles regarding the future for Israel and the Palestinians. It was
the importance of avoiding determinism and the

ethical and political imperative to reassert the primacy of human
agency in shaping history and, particularly, the future. We agreed on some key points regarding the
extremely useful in reminding me of
diagnosis of the Israeli-Palestinian syndrome but differed completely on the prognosis and the prescription. We agreed
that there was much blame to go around for the fact that peace has not yet been achieved. We both noted the historically
corrupt and frequently incompetent Palestinian leadership, the extremist mentality of Hamas and, above all, the ongoing
Israeli settlement project as key factors in the absence of peace. But that was more or less where agreement ended. In the
second part of his diagnosis, Aslan categorically asserted that Palestinian statehood was absolutely impossible because
of demographic and infrastructural changes enforced by the occupation. His prognosis was that a prolonged period of
bloodshed, "apartheid and ethnic cleansing" is totally unavoidable. Eventually, he said, international mediation would
enforce his prescription: a loose confederation" akin to the Bosnian arrangement. All
of this, he insisted,
was inevitable, with an absolute certainty worthy of Nostradamus himself. Aslan
readily agreed this was not a desirable outcome and frankly conceded the
extraordinary amount of violence that would be required to produce it. Perhaps unfairly, I thought I detected in him an
inexplicable nonchalance about the nightmarish picture of the future,

in the style of Hieronymus Bosch, that he was painting as inevitable. There is, as I
noted, nothing inevitable in the realm of the political. Outcomes are produced by
political, economic, military and social forces. But all of these are expressions of human will and agency, both collective
and individual. The word impossible is, potentially, a legitimate political category if one can convincingly demonstrate
that the forces that produce outcomes, based on their own interests, cannot plausibly yield a given result. But the
word "inevitable" is almost never a legitimate political category, most

importantly because human agency is always the most important
factor, and there are countless unforeseeable imponderables and
contingencies. In our debate, I continued to insist that a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians
is indeed still possible, mostly because a majority on both sides want it and because there is a huge body of international
opinion and law that requires it. I've always unhappily accepted that a continuation of the status quo is more likely for the
foreseeable future. In Aslan's dystopian vision of a future characterized by increasingly bloody conflicts, apartheid and
ethnic cleansing is indeed a possibility. But I see no reason to conclude that it will inevitably either occur or, less still,
yield the outcome he predicts with such astounding confidenceespecially not if ethnic cleansing is a factor. Apart from
asserting that while a limited number of outcomes can be reasonably defined as impossible for the foreseeable future, I
Human beings are, in fact, not only able to

decide their future, but that's exactly what they always have done and
will do, barring unforeseeable natural disasters that are rare and usually manageable. What I was defending was a
argued that almost nothing is "inevitable."
"secular" perspective on history and politics, in the way its most important contemporary champion, Edward Said, defined
it. It's
a position that emphasizes human agency, intentionality and

decisions, and rejects every possible form of determinism, not just religious
superstition. I told Aslan that even if I believed he were right about the likely prognosis of bloodshed, apartheid and
ethnic cleansing, to use his precise words, I would be proud with all the conviction and passion I could muster to fight
against this contingencythis set of choiceswith every fiber of my being. Precisely because Aslan's radical dystopian
vision is actually plausible, everyone
who does not work against it will be

complicit in the horrors he predicts. But because they will be the
consequences of human choices, they are by no means inevitable. We
have the ability and profound moral obligation to choose differently.
Reformist logic enhances state power which justifies its

atrocities as well as legitimizes the creation of a singular
identity. The impact is dehumanization and
marginalization of those who dont fit into the states
framework
Queering the Singularity, 12
(A grassroots organizer who identifies as genderqueer and transgender, Queering the Singularity, Here is to Dancing and Derailing,
https://queersingularity.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/heres-to-dancing-and-derailing///NMM)
the prison-industrial complex and war machine attest to the

utter failure of reformism in the United States. Despite all the
earnest progressives who have been working within the system for
decades, the state continues to kidnap ped, torture, and incarcerate
hundreds of thousands for growing or possessing the wrong species of
plant. This stands irreconcilably at odds with empathy as well as the
principles of freedom and justice. To name but one more example, the U.S.
government has forcibly relocated over a million people since
Barack Obama took office, most simply because they happened to
born outside of an arbitrary line in the sand. Even if you accept authority in theory
which I vehemently do not exercising such organized and mechanical
violence against human bodies on such flimsy bases constitutes a
heartbreaking and infuriating outrage. If reformism cannot even end
these horrors, why bother ? Given the numbers already involved in
To begin,
long-term campaigns to improve the state, why should we expect

that incorporating ourselves into the process will meaningfully
change anything? Liberalism has failed over and over again to end
even the worst sorts of institutionalized violence despite
considerable participation from arguably well-meaning people . Dont let
Dale convince you itll be different after you jump on board. More ominously , Dales
insistence on the necessity of the state enhances its legitimacy and
thus power . The anarchist critique identifies bureaucratic coercion and the mentality of obedience
as a key source of oppression. Progressive statist discourse risks furthering the
most nightmarish aspects of modernity dehumanization,
dependency, alienation, self-discipline in its calls for reform.
Saying we absolutely need the same institution that torments me
and my comrades on a daily basis as well as murders folks like AbdulRahmanal-Awlaki leaves us with no way out . By funneling our fierce passions into
the void of electoral democracy and pathologizing autonomy, statist logic justifies these
atrocities and all but assures their indefinite reiteration . Dales statism
contradicts eir profession of both nonviolence and pluralism. As any political theorist will tell you, the
state relies on a monopoly on violence for its very existence. This feature
of state power likewise permits only limited pluralism. Under the logic of authority, any actor not subdued,
tamed, and domesticated presents a threat. While Dale asserts that [n]o one ideal will prevail over the
diversity of our peers, the state demands submission to a singular ideal. This
project has yet to conclude the states monopoly on violence remains incomplete but the goal is
definitional. Anyone who materially defies the dominance of the U.S. government faces a prompt
Making a satiable demand on the state to curtail surveillance leaves

intact the use of surveillance to foster social control
Hier in 03 (Sean, Professor of Sociology at the University of Victoria. Probing the Surveillant
Assemblage: on the dialectics of surveillance practices as processes of social control. Surveillance and
Society, 2003)
With an exaggerated degree of importance assigned to the social and cultural effects of the technological
the surveillant assemblage rests

on the assumption that the impetus to surveillance comes
fundamentally from above, from elite, police or government. As
surveillance technologies increasingly made possible the monitoring
of a wider portion of the population, this has been interpreted as a
shift in the cultural character of surveillance hierarchies . Yet, the fallout of
capabilities of contemporary surveillance practices,
an acceleration in the expansion of surveillance infrastructures has not been the tearing away of
a polarization of hierarchies has

ensued in the form of a simultaneous leveling and solidification of
already existing fractures. One form in which the solidification of
surveillance hierarchies assumes is a dynamic set of practices
conceptualized in terms of social control processes. Admittedly, the
epistemology of social control, which has enjoyed a long history in sociological writings,
has tended to produce a kind of determinism implying that there
surveillance hierarchies sui generis, but rather
exists an acting society, social structure or remote governmental

body that acts upon an otherwise homogenous population in a
singular and uniform manner. It is for this reason that recent sociological
discourse on social control has sought to understand the workings of
governmental projects by drawing attention to the importance of the
intersection of state practices with processes and techniques of self
formation. Maintaining a conceptual emphasis on the role of human agency, as well as the
configurational character of state policy, the popular dimensions that presuppose
social control processes in their manifest form have been prioritized
(cf. Hunt 1999; Hier 2003). What has hitherto been ignored is the role that
surveillance practices in terms of the mutual conditioning of
synoptical forces and panoptical desires have to play in the
formation of processes of social control.
[Personal narrative/performance]
We embrace radical healing, in which members of the
community come together to voice their struggles with
dominant power-this dialogic method is a step toward
rebuilding the wellness of our community through
fostering hope for the future, empowering individuals,
and establishing a love of the self that is a prerequisite to
collective resistance.
Ginwright in 10
(Shawn, Associate Professor of Africana Studies at San Francisco State University. Peace out to revolution!
Activism among African American youth: An argument for radical healing. Published in Young Nordic
Journal of Youth Research by SAGE Publications in 2010. Accessed on SAGE Journals.)
I shift from social disorganization of youth behaviour and borrow from the
works of Janelle Dance (2002), Joyce West Stevens (2002) and Janie Ward (1995; 2000) who not only
acknowledge the constraints of urban poverty and structural

marginalization, but also create space to better understand how
black youth navigate, develop meaning and resist social
marginalization. Dance (2002) accurately comments on what she titled, the scholarly gaze on
black life: ... in clarifying the structural factors that lie beyond the
control of individual Black Americans, these sociologists unwittingly
suggest that Blacks are controlled by these forces, when the mean
to convey that Black are constrained, sometimes severely, by
structural forces (p. 27). This perspective leaves greater room for
agency or the capacity for people to act and respond to sociocultural
forces in ways that contribute collective well- being . This approach examines
assets in neighbourhoods and families and how institutions support youth as they confront daily problems.
this approach provides us with an opportunity to

conceptualize the conditions that both threaten community life as
well as understand the process that contributes to civic well-being. I
call this process radical healing which builds the capacity of young
Additionally,
people to act upon their environment in ways that contribute to

well-being for the common good. This process contributes to
individual well-being, community health and broader social justice
where young people can act on behalf of others with hope, joy and a
sense of possibility. Radical healing occurs in everyday life when
black youth confront racial profiling in their neighbourhoods, fight
for free bus passes to get to school, demand access to bathrooms
that work in their schools and hold impromptu theatre on street
corners to inspire youth vote. These acts require a consciousness of
possibilities and are fostered through strong caring relationships
and spaces that encourage black youth to see beyond present-day
community conditions. When black youth are conscious of the root
causes of the problems they face, they act in profound ways to resist
and transform issue they view as unjust. This requires that we
conceptualize oppression as a form of social and collective trauma.
This view of oppression allows us to identify and name the cultural,
social and spiritual consequences of trauma for oppressed communities. Trauma conveys the idea that oppression and injustice
inflict harm. Effectively responding to oppression, therefore, requires a
process that restores individuals and communities to a state of wellbeing. Radical healing points to the process of building hope,
optimism and vision to create justice in the midst of oppression .
Healing from the trauma of oppression such as poverty, racism,
sexism homophobia and class exploitation is an important political
act. Without a critical understanding of how the various structures of
domination operate in our daily lives, we cannot begin to develop
meaningful forms of personal and collective resistance. Daily
trauma, hopelessness and nihilism prevent us from participating in
organized collective struggle aimed at ending domination and
transforming society (Hooks, 1993: 15). Healing occurs when we reconcile
painful experiences resulting from oppression through testimony
and naming what may seem to be personal misfortune as systemic
oppression . Understanding the personal and political dimensions of
daily life, however, requires a critical consciousness, a way of
understanding the social world through political resistance and
freedom. This notion of resistance occurs in communities where the
capacity to confront racism and other forms of domination teach
youth what they need to know about the world and how to change
things in it (Ward, 2000). Janie Victoria Ward suggests that these communities are
intimate spaces where young people cultivate resistance against
beliefs, attitudes, and practices that can erode a black childs selfconfidence and impair her positive identity development ( Ward, 2000:
51). The power to speak about painful experiences related to racism,
sexism and poverty facilitates healing because the act of testifying
exposes the raw truth about suffering and releases the hidden pain
that is the profound barrier to resistance. Hope and radical
10
imaginations are important prerequisites for activism and social

change. Together hope and imagination inspire youth to understand
that community conditions are not permanent, and that the first
step to change is by imagining new possibilities. Robin Kelly (2002) reminds us
that hope and imagination may be the most revolutionary ideas
available to us, and yet as intellectuals we have failed miserably to
grapple with these political and analytical importance (pp. 1112).
Healing involves reconciling the past to change the present while
imagining a new future. The concept focuses on how hope,
imagination and care transform the capacity of communities to
confront community problems. For young people, healing fosters a
collective optimism and a transformation of spirit that over time,
contributes to healthy vibrant community life. Educational, social
movement and youth development research has neither adequately
addressed the theoretical significance of suffering nor considered
the empirical dimensions of healing, hope and freedom. Despite the
plethora of research that has documented the ways in which poor black communities collectively
experience gentrification, violence, job loss, family dislocation and substance abuse, few have explored the
collective healing process.
Long-term exposure to economic abuse, structural

violence and social marginalization has threatened aspects of civic
life and community well-being. This is not so much the basis of a
deficit model, but more precisely a broader perspective that
highlights how over time economic, cultural and social
marginalization can rupture the psychosocial fabric that forms
communities of care, fosters collective and individual well-being
and purpose. These ingredients are critical to support political
action. Radical healing involves building the capacity of young
people to act upon their environment in order to create the type of
communities in which they want to live. By integrating issues of
power, history, self-identity and the possibility of collective agency
and struggle, radical healing rebuilds communities that foster hope
and political possibilities for young people. This process acknowledges the ways in
which joblessness, poverty, violence and poor education have been toxic to black communities. At the
this process fosters new forms of political and community

life. By rebuilding collective identities (racial, gendered, youth),
exposing youth to critical thinking about social conditions and
building activism, black youth heal by removing self-blame and act
to confront pressing school and community problems. Community
same time,
organizations can play an important role in healing and responding to neighbourhood and community
problems (Ginwright, 2009). Often, these organizations provide opportunities for urban youth to connect
with peers, adults and experiences that address pressing social and community problems. Robert Sampson
(2001: 95) argues that social capital for poor communities must be more understood as closely linked to
collective efficacy and calls for the linkage of mutual trust and the shared willingness to intervene for the
common good. Sampson et al. (1999: 635) argue that collective efficacy for children is produced by the
shared beliefs and a collectivity in its conjoint capability for action. The notion of collective efficacy
emphasizes residents sense of active engagement. This perspective allows for defining the purpose of
social relationships through actions promoting justice within neighbourhoods, churches and youth
programmes in low-income urban communities, all of which serve as vital sources for the understanding of
civic organizations
are pathways for youth to engage in healing or what Paulo Freire (1993) calls
civic life for African American youth and their communities. In many ways,
11
praxis
critical reflection and action. Often, community-based

organizations facilitate the healing process because they foster
important relationships and develop critical consciousness
necessary for activism. Similar to Freires conceptualization of critical consciousness, I use
the term to convey how an awareness of the systematic forms of oppression
builds the capacity for self-determination to take action to address
social and community problems. Critical consciousness allows youth
to see and act differently in the world as agents rather than
victims. This notion marks a significant departure from the standard social capital literature that
more often fails to recognize both individual and collective agency or how social networks ultimately foster
Critical consciousness and action promote selfdetermination and compel individuals and collectives to claim power
and control over sometimes-daunting social conditions. Power and
control over life situations are key for social justice and wellness
(Prilleltensky, 2008; Prilleltensky et al., 2001). Wellness encompasses more than striving for the
absence of risks and the elimination of community problems. Rather it points to those
individual needs required to effectively engage in collective action.
Wellness and social justice illustrate how young peoples aspirations
to create better schools, safe neighbourhoods and vibrant
community life require both individual and collective development .
The relationship between social justice and wellness is an important
aspect of radical healing. The capacity to act to improve the quality
of life for oneself and others highlights the convergence of both the
personal and political dimensions of civic life. Individuals seek power
and control both at the personal level, through their own decision
making, and at the political level, by organizing their neighbourhood to influence public
policy. This is precisely the process of liberation which overcomes
internal and external sources of oppression . Liberation is both
freedom from internal and external forms of oppression and
freedom to pursue dreams, wellness, peace and a better quality of
life (Prilleltensky, 2008). This pursuit of justice and freedom, in this sense, yields
both internal capacity to resist domination, as well as builds social
capital and a greater external capacity to act to create better
community conditions. Wellness is a result of power and control over
internal and external forms of oppression (Prilleltensky et al., 2001; Watts and
Guessous, 2006). It is my contention that radical healing can facilitate wellness
on three levels. First, the individual level wellness focuses on
strengthening political and social consciousness, hope, optimism
and voice among young people. Particularly important is building
critical consciousness necessary to resist domination and create a
better way of life. Often social justice researchers, educators and practitioners focus
almost entirely on youth resistance without conceptualizing the
critical importance of creating. For young people, individual wellness
provides an internal capacity and resilience to engage in civic and
social justice efforts. Second, community-level wellness focuses on
collective power and control over local public policy. As young
critical consciousness.
12
people heal, they can also form communities where a collective
consciousness drives people to act to achieve social justice.
Community wellness involves community organizing , planning a neighbourhood block party or attending a public hearing about a school closure. These examples of
community wellness signal trust, relationships, networks and
optimism about the capacity for social change. Third, social wellness
is where young people engage in social movements and other forms
of collective action. Robust and healthy democratic life requires
debate, contestation and participation, all of which signal social
well-being.
13
1NC Drones
Drone encode biometric measures in order to detect
queerness. By a refusal to confront these issues, the aff
proliferates divisions, stereotypes, and oppressions.
Monaham 2015 [Torin, a Professor of Communication Studies at The
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research focuses on
institutional transformations with new technologies, with a particular
emphasis on surveillance and security programs, The Right to Hide? AntiSurveillance Camouflage and the Aestheticization of Resistance
http://publicsurveillance.com/papers/Right-to-hide.pdf]
A different masking project called the Facial Weaponization Suite presents a much
more complex artistic intervention.48 Created by Zach Blas, this project captures the images of many
different faces and aggregates them into one, grotesque, cellular, plastic mask that confounds face-
forges
collective masks of this sort to critique regimes of visibility that
reduce people to static identity categories and discriminate against
them. Thus, one of his masks, The Fag Face Mask, responds to scientific
studies claiming that queerness can be read reliably on ones facial
features, which could lead to automated algorithms for detecting sexual orientation in the absence of
any other information.49 The so-called Fag Face Mask, then, is a monstrous merging of
the faces of many self-identified queer men, perhaps showing the
grotesqueness of bigoted categorization while also serving as a
symbolic weapon against the unnamed enemies who would control
through stigmatizing visualizations. Rather than simply substitute one bizarre collective
representation for an alienating singular one, the Facial Weaponization Suite aspires
to erase identity markers altogether. It denies the legitimacy of a market of discrete
recognition systems and defies legibility by people or machines (see figure 3). Blas
identities and the systems that would reduce people to them. Blas and colleagues explain: We want a
technology that allows us to escape regimes of identification standardization and control, like facial
recognition technologies and biometrics. In response to this, we ask, What are the tactics and techniques
for making our faces nonexistent? How do we flee this visibility into the fog of a queerness that refuses to
be recognized? We propose to start making faces our weapons. We can learn many faces and wear them
Today, in our biometric age, existence

has become a means of control. . . . Becoming nonexistent turns your
face into a fog, and fog makes revolt possible.50 This articulation
epitomizes the logic of the right to hide, a right to become
nonexistent and invisible to institutions. The envisioned space of fog purportedly
interchangeably. A face is like being armed. . . .
frees one from social constraint and expectation, affording identity experimentation and potentially
revolt. Oddly, this play with masks and faces references a universal we and advocates for the erasure
of difference, or at least its markers, in the service of individual autonomy .
It performs a kind
of post-identity politics right to social and political equality without any signifiers of
difference, which are themselves seen as oppressive impositions on the part of others. The fog is a utopic
non-space where the artist can speak on behalf of others, not because everyone is him, as in the case with
Selvaggios URME project, but because no one is anyonepeople, as defined by difference, do not exist.
Figure 3. Zach Blas. Facial Weaponization Suite: Fag Face MaskOctober 20, 2012, Los Angeles, CA. Photo
by Christopher OLeary. 168 T. Monahan At the same time, the Facial Weaponization Suite communicates
additional messages that deserve interpretation. What does it mean to take seriously dubious scientific
Critical science studies

scholarship has revealed over and over how cultural prejudices are
encoded in supposedly impartial scientific measurements of
claims about being able to read queerness on peoples faces?
14
biological difference. This can be seen, for instance, in assertions dating back to
Aristotle about the inferiority of women due to them having less
heat, or in nineteenth century claims that criminality could be read from ones physiognomy, or in
mid-twentieth century research professing to have found bodily
markers of homosexuality on womens genitalia.51 In each case, science
reproduces the values of its practitioners and its wider culture. In accepting scientific claims about
queerness and the body, Blas might be unwittingly affirming the validity of constructed truths about
measurable biological difference. In essence, the Facial Weaponization Suite says that the identity markers
ascribed to us by institutions, including the institution of mainstream science, are accurate, so only by
erasing and evading (not debunking) them can we obtain freedom. Additionally, it is worth questioning the
semantic appeal to militarized action. If faces are already being enlisted in militarized security responses
to constructed terrorist threats, for instance through biometric face-recognition capture at borders or on
city streets, then military logics already prevail and infuse dominant discourses and practices.52 The
hegemony of militaristic framings bounds what is viewed as possible and practical, positioning resistance
problematically as threatening to the nation state and deserving of criminalization. Perhaps, taking a cue
from Jacques Derrida,53 a better goal might be to defuse, instead of combat, the violence of binary logics.
Such a discursive move could inspire a greater tolerance for ambiguous identities and the messiness of
social worlds.

framework

To begin,
15
More ominously , Dales

Dale convince you itll be different after you jump on board.
Ginwright in 10

16


Additionally,
17



same time,
18
civic organizations
praxis critical reflection and action. Often, community-based
19

well-being.
20
1NC Foucault
By endorsing the implementation of their plan outside of
themselves, the aff papers over the implications of
digitized surveillance on the identity of communities and
condemns them to ontological violence.
Conrad in 09
The rise of the virtual body has its roots in the interconnection
between new information technologies and new directions in
surveillance. Several scholars have noted that the rise of the contemporary
surveillance society corresponds with 'a new form of penology based
on "actuarial justice", which is legal abandonment of individualised
suspicion' (Norris & Armstrong 1999: 26). The result, as William Staples puts it, is that 'we
may be witnessing a historical shift from the specific punishment of
the individual deviant to the generalized surveillance of us all ' (Staples
1997: 6). This shift is part of a larger attempt to manage riska 'shift
away from strategies of social control which are reactive (only
activated when rules are violated) towards proactive strategies
which try to predict dangers one wishes to prevent' (McCahill 1998: 54). More
technologically advanced versions of this 'proactive' approach rely on 'dataveillance', or the surveillance of
data, which is much cheaper as well as more comprehensive than physical surveillance techniques (Clarke
1994). The proactive approach also relies on predictive models and simulations. As David Lyon argues,
behind this proactive approach is the assumption that gathering more and more information can lead to
complete knowledge and thus more effective prediction (Lyon 2001)a claim to which I will return later in
this article.
The motivation toward body surveillance as a more effective

predictive tool is based on an assumption that the information
gleaned from biometric technologies is more reliable than other
kinds of data (Staples 1997). Faith is placed in the anatomical body as a
repository for correct information about the subject, bypassing the
mediating filter of human language, memory, desire, need, and so
forththat is, the complex and fallible human subject her- or
himself. But perhaps paradoxically, since our culture has had an ambivalent relationship to the body,
the data gleaned from the body has increasingly been privileged over the
material body itself. Indeed, as N. Katherine Hayles as put it, since World War II, information has
'lost its body' (Hayles 1999). In her examination of cognitive science, philosophy, literature, information
Hayles traces a shift in Western

thought toward the 'erasure of embodiment' (4) and toward seeing
human consciousness as disembodied information. The physical
body, in this 'posthuman' view, is effectively a prosthetic for thought
and information, and 'embodiment in a biological substrate is seen
as an accident of history rather than an inevitability of life' (2). Following
Hayles, Irma van der Ploeg suggests that 'this "informatization of the body" may
eventually affect embodiment and identity as such. We may need to
consider how the translation of (aspects of) our physical existence
into digital code and "information," and the new uses of bodies this
theory, cybernetics, and other disciplines and trends,
21
subsequently allows, amounts to a change on the level of ontology,

instead of merely that of representation' (van der Ploeg 2003: 58-9). In other words,
the body itself is changing as a result of new information
technologies and the ways in which we interact with them. She
continues, 'with technological and discursive practices converging
toward an ontology of "information," it is unlikely that their
mediating link, embodiment even while acknowledging its
constraining and limiting powerwill remain unaffected. And
because embodiment concerns our most basic experience of the
body and of being in the world, these developments carry profound
normative and moral implications we ought to attempt to uncover'
(59). In short, the information gleaned from body surveillance is not merely a
'data image', an irrelevant or circumstantial collection of information, but indeed is constitutive of
the body. There is no distinct line between the biological body and
the 'virtual body', to use another of van der Ploeg's terms; and when the virtual body is
circulated, probed, even stolen (as in the case of 'identity theft'), those actions can impact the lived
'the new, intensive forms of

monitoring, categorizing, scrutinizing and, ultimately, controlling
and manipulating of persons through their bodies and embodied
identities that become possible in this new ontology suggest that
some form of integrity of the person may be at stake ' (71).
experience of the body. As van der Ploeg points out,
Giroux is unable to theorize effective modes of

resistance. Ivory tower conceptions of political
engagement fail to manifest themselves in a
way that creates actual material change
Richardson 12 (Chris, Doctorate in communication studies, Between Scarlem and the
Ivory Tower: An Autoethnographic examination of marginality in Canadian Communication and Media
Studies, pp. 17-18, JP)
Though Girouxs writings about intellectuals performing acts of liberating pedagogy and emancipatory
politics initially appealed to me, I became frustrated and dissatisfied as I read through his books. His titles
are powerful and provocative: Education Under Siege: The Conservative, Liberal, and Radical Debate over
Schooling (1985), Stealing Innocence: Corporate Cultures War on Children (2001), The University in
Who would not want to

defend something under siege? Who would argue that innocence
should be stolen or that the university should be enchained? After
reading these texts, however, I felt no closer to discovering the answers
or insights I had hoped to find. Instead, emancipation and liberation
started to lose their meaning as words so often do when repeated
so frequently . In his book Ideology, Culture, and the Process of Schooling (1981), for example,
Giroux argues that political issues must be discussed within
classroom social relationships that illuminate, concretize, and
demonstrate a more radical notion of liberation (108). I became eager to
pursue these noble goals. In Education Still Under Siege (1993), I read similar lines published
twelve years later: The discourse of the transformative intellectual
Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex (2007).
22
takes the issues of community and liberation seriously... creating

conditions for emancipatory forms of self and social empowerment
among both educators and students (Giroux and Aronowitz 1993, 53). Again, I could
not have agreed more. Ten years later, however, Giroux was producing two or
three books per year and arguing for similar liberating projects . As he
writes in The Abandoned Generation: Democracy Beyond the Culture of Fear (2003), if emancipatory
politics is to be equal to neoliberal capitalism, educators need to theorize politics not as a science or a set
of objective conditions, but as a point of departure in specific and concrete situations (Giroux 2003, 65). I
was struck by how the more recent quotation sounds quite similar to the passage from 1981. While it is not
my intention to downplay
Girouxs
contribution to critical pedagogy and the fields of Communication
texts can sound so timely, so urgent,

and yet so repetitive. I do not dispute his premise that, at risk of oversimplifying his arguments,
and Media Studies, I have to wonder how so many
the public needs to critically debate and participate in emancipatory politics without interference from
Giroux repeats this argument for three

decades leads me to believe that he is either not serious about achieving
this goal or he has simply had little effect by writing these
arguments in academic texts. This is , of course, a problem that all
scholars attempting to put theory into practice encounter as they
endeavour to affect change. It is ironic that, as a critic of the
corporatization of higher education, Giroux has been the Global
Television Network Chair in Communication Studies at McMaster
University since 2004. This problematic relationship with corporate
media points to an institutional situation in which funding, even for
anti-corporate scholars, often comes from corporations and where rhetoric is
rewarded while action is relegated to a second shift (Few, Piercy, and
corporations or ruling elites. But the fact that
Stremmel 2007). Most of us chose this career because of our commitment to a profession that is relevant
to peoples lives, write Few, Piercy, and Stremmel (2007), we did not leave our interest in social action at
The pressure to publish, secure

funding, teach, supervise, and attend conferences, however, limits
the time academics have to pursue practical community issues . To
survive professionally, they contend, professors inevitably lose or subsume
important parts of themselves (57). I realized, through reading scholars like
Giroux , that academics can gain significant cultural capital by speaking
about the marginseven if the actual activities that would take
individuals into marginalized communities are less frequently
pursued than the abstract and theoretical work that is likely more valued by
the doorstep when we entered academia (47).
tenure and hiring committees. It is interesting how Giroux evokes riskiness by speaking of fugitive
cultures (1996), living dangerously (1996), and abandoned generations (2003). These phrases seem
to imply that
Giroux has placed himself in jeopardy by writing about disenfranchised groups; yet, in
doing so, he gains from what Foucault (1990) calls the speakers benefit (6). Foucault
explains the speakers benefit by examining the way scholars have written about sexual oppression: 00
then the mere

fact that one is speaking about it has the appearance of deliberate
transgression. A person who holds forth in such language places
himself to a certain extent outside the reach of power... conscious of
defying established power, our tone of voice shows that we know we
are being subversive, and we ardently conjure away the present and
If sex is repressed, that is, condemned to prohibition, nonexistence, and silence,
23
appeal to the future, whose day will be hastened by the contribution

we believe we are making (6-7).
Similarly, Giroux positions himself as taking a risk by speaking out
on these issues even though it is fairly commonplace in Canadian
communication studies to talk about uneven power relationships and
marginalized groups. It is important to note that Foucault does not argue society was never
repressed or that repression itself is a ruse; he instead asks why do we say, with so much passion and so
much resentment against our most recent past, against our present, and against ourselves, that we are
if the topic of discussion is said to be

repressed then those who talk about it most are somehow fighting
against power itself. In other words, it does not matter whether the topic
is actually repressedI would argue that speaking about the margins holds
considerable rewards in the field of Communication and Media Studieswhat
matters is the way in which it is positioned as repressed and
therefore in need of liberation.
repressed? (8-9). He implies that

framework

To begin,
24
More ominously , Dales

Dale convince you itll be different after you jump on board.
Ginwright in 10

25


Additionally,
26



same time,
27
civic organizations
28

well-being.
29
1NC Sophomores: TSA

An analysis of state surveillance is inextricably tied to an
analysis the surveillance of transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals--- that analysis must be
intersectional because the conversation is also linked to
nationalism, citizenship and racialization
Beauchamp, 09
(Toby, Assistant Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Illinois his research focuses
is the critical lens of transgender studies, Artful Concealment and Strategic Visibility: Transgender Bodies
and US State Surveillance After 9/11, Surveillance and Society,
http://www.academia.edu/2626451/Artful_Concealment_and_Strategic_Visibility_Transgender_Bodies_and_
US_State_Surveillance_After_9_11)
On September 4, 2003, shortly before the two-year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center
and Pentagon ,
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released an

official Advisory to security personnel . Citing ongoing concerns
about potential attacks by Al-Qaeda operatives, the advisorys final paragraph emphasizes
that terrorism is everywhere in disguise : Terrorists will employ novel methods to
artfully conceal suicide devices. Male bombers may dress as females in order to
discourage scrutiny (Department of Homeland Security 2003 ). Two years later, the
Real ID Act was signed into law, proposing a major restructuring of
identification documents and travel within and across U.S. borders. Central components of
this process include a new national database linked through federally standardized drivers licenses, and
stricter standards of proof for asylum applications. In response to both the Advisory and the Real ID Act,
trans
populations would be targeted as suspicious and subjected to new
levels of scrutiny . Criticizing what they read as instances of
transphobia or anti-trans discrimination, many of these
organizations offer both transgender individuals and government
agencies strategies for reducing or eliminating that discrimination. While
attending to the very real dangers and damages experienced by many
trans people in relation to government policies, in many cases the
organizations approaches leave intact the broader regulation of
gender , particularly as it is mediated and enforced by the state . Moreover , they
tend to address concerns about anti-trans discrimination in ways
that are disconnected from questions of citizenship, racialization or
nationalism . Nevertheless, by illuminating the ways that new security measures interact with and
transgender activist and advocacy organizations in the U.S. quickly pointed to the ways
affect transgender-identified people and gender-nonconforming bodies, transgender activist practices and
the field of transgender studies are poised to make a significant contribution to the ways state surveillance
The monitoring of transgender and

gender-nonconforming populations is inextricable from questions of
national security and regulatory practices of the state, and state
surveillance policies that may first appear unrelated to transgender
tactics are understood and interpreted.
30
people are in fact deeply rooted in the maintenance and

enforcement of normatively gendered bodies, behaviors and
identities. I argue here that transgender and gender-nonconforming
bodies are bound up in surveillance practices that are intimately
tied to state security, nationalism and the us/them, either/or
rhetoric that underpins U.S. military and government constructions
of safety. At the same time, the primary strategies and responses offered by transgender advocacy
organizations tend to reconsolidate U.S. nationalism and support the increased policing of deviant bodies.
Government reform is never anything more than a

symbolic victory that is a guise for violence
Spade 13
Dean Spade, Associate Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law,
transgender, intersex and gender non-conforming people activist
Intersectional Resistance and Law Reform - http://www.deanspade.net/wpcontent/uploads/2014/05/signs-proofs.pdf - Published 2/23/23 - Accessed
7/9/15 - JDD
Social movements using critical intersectional tools are making demands that are often difficult for legal
scholars to comprehend because of the ways that they throw US law and the nation-state form into crisis.
legal equality contains and neutralizes

resistance and perpetuates intersectional violence and because they identify
Because they recognize the fact that
purportedly neutral administrative systems as key vectors of that violence, critical scholars and activists
are making demands that include ending immigration enforcement and abolishing policing and prisons.
These demands suggest that the technologies of gendered racialization that form the nation cannot be
reformed into fair and neutral systems. These systems are technologies of racialized-gendered population
control that cannot operate otherwisethey are built to extinguish perceived threats and drains in order to
protect and enhance the livelihood of the national population. These kinds of demands and the analysis
they represent produce a different relation to law reform strategies than the national narrative about law
reform suggests, and different than what is often assumed by legal scholars interested in the field of
legal equality victories are being exposed as

primarily symbolic declarations that stabilize the status quo of
violence, declarations from courts or legislatures become
undesirable goals. Instead, law reform, in this view, might be used as a tactic of transformation
equality law. Because
focused on interventions that materially reduce violence or maldistribution without inadvertently

expanding harmful systems in the name of reform. One recent example is the campaign against gang
injunctions in Oakland, California.
A broad coalitioncomprising organizations

focused on police violence, economic justice, imprisonment, youth development,
immigration, gentrification, and violence against queer and trans people
succeeded in recent years in bringing significant attention to the efforts of John Russo, Oaklands city
attorney, to introduce gang injunctions (Critical Resistance 2011). The organizations in this coalition are
prioritizing anticriminalization work that might usually be cast as irrelevant or marginal to organizations
focused on the single axis of womens or LGBT equality. The campaign has a law reform target in that it
seeks to prevent the enactment of certain law enforcement mechanisms that are harmful to vulnerable
communities. However, it is not a legal-equality campaign. Rather than aiming to change a law or policy
that explicitly excludes a category of people, it aims to expose the fact that a facially neutral policy is
administered in a racially targeted manner (Davis 2011; Stop the Injunctions 2011). Furthermore, the
coalition frames its campaign within a larger set of demands not limited to what can be won within the
current structure of American law but focused on population-level conditions of maldistribution. The
demands of the coalition include stopping all gang injunctions and police violence; putting resources
toward reentry support and services for people returning from prison, including fully funded and immediate
access to identity documents, housing, job training, drug and alcohol treatment, and education; banning
31
employers from asking about prior convictions on job applications; ending curfews for people on parole and
probation; repealing Californias three-strikes law; reallocating funds from prison construction to education;
ending all collaborations between Oaklands government and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE);
providing affordable and low-income housing; making Oaklands Planning Commission accountable
regarding environmental impacts of development; ending gentrification; and increasing the accountability
of Oaklands city government while augmenting decision-making power for Oakland residents (Stop the
These demands evince an analysis of conditions facing

vulnerable communities in Oakland (and beyond) that cannot be resolved
solely through legal reform since they include the significant harm
inflicted when administrative bodies like ICE and the Planning Commission
implement violent programs under the guise of neutral rationales.
These demands also demonstrate an intersectional analysis of harm
and refuse logics of deservingness that have pushed many social
movements to distance themselves from criminalized populations.
Injunctions 2011).
Instead, people caught up in criminal and immigration systems are portrayed as those in need of resources
and support, and the national fervor for law and order that has gripped the country for decades, emptying
public coffers and expanding imprisonment, is criticized.
Ginwright in 10

32

beliefs, attitudes, and practices that can erode a black childs selfAdditionally,
33
confidence and impair her positive identity development ( Ward, 2000:



same time,
34
civic organizations
35

well-being.
36
1NC Survivors: Welfare

Their questioning of welfare is one of privilege because it
ignores labor relations and how the queering of black
women results in justification for oppression replicates
their impacts
Collins, 2002 university professor of sociology at the University of
Maryland. Former head of the Department of African American Studies at the
University of Cincinnati, past president of the American Sociologist
Association Council. (Patricia, Work, Family and Black Womens Oppression.
Online article, https://caringlabor.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/patricia-hillcollins-work-family-and-black-womens-oppression/ 7.9.15)//ctb
When Dan Quayle, then U.S. vice president, used the term family values near the end of a speech at a political fund-raiser
in 1992, he apparently touched a national nerve. Following Quayles speech, close to 300 articles with family values in
their titles appeared in the popular press. Despite the range of political perspectives expressed on family values, one
Family values, however defined, seemed important to

national well-being, and Quayle had tapped much deeper feelings
about the significance of ideas about family if not actual families
themselves in the United States. Dan Quayles and similar understandings
of family depend heavily on who controls the definitions . And the
definitions advanced by elite groups in the United States uniformly
work to the detriment of African-American women. Situated in the
center of family values debates is an imagined traditional family
ideal . Formed through a combination of marital and blood ties, normal families should
consist of heterosexual, racially homogeneous couples who produce
their own biological children. Such families should have a specific
authority structure, namely, a father-head earning an adequate
family wage, a stay-at-home wife and mother, and children . Idealizing the
thing remained clear:
traditional family as a private haven from a public world, family is seen as being held together through primary emotional
Assuming a relatively fixed sexual division of labor,

wherein womens roles are defined as primarily in the home with
mens in the public world of work, the traditional family ideal also
assumes the separation of work and family. Defined as a natural or biological
arrangement based on heterosexual attraction, instead this monolithic family type is actually
supported by government policy. It is organized not around a
biological core, but a statesanctioned, heterosexual marriage that
confers legitimacy not only on the family structure itself but on
children born in this family (Andersen 1991; Thorne 1992). In general, everything the imagined
bonds of love and caring.
traditional family ideal is thought to be, African-American families are not. Two elements of the traditional family ideal are
the assumed split between the

public sphere of paid employment and the private sphere of
unpaid family responsibilities has never worked for U.S. Black
women. Under slavery, U.S. Black women worked without pay in the allegedly public sphere of Southern agriculture
and had their family privacy routinely violated. Second, the public/private binary separating
the family households from the paid labor market is fundamental in
explaining U.S. gender ideology. If one assumes that real men work and real women take care of
families, then African-Americans suffer from deficient ideas concerning gender. In particular, Black women
especially problematic for African-American women. First,
37
become less feminine, because they work outside the home, work
for pay and thus compete with men, and their work takes them away
from their children. Framed through this prism of an imagined traditional family ideal, U.S. Black
womens experiences and those of other women of color are
typically deemed deficient (Higginbotham 1983; Glenn 1985; Mullings 1997). Rather than trying to
explain why Black womens work and family patterns deviate from the seeming normality of the traditional family ideal, a
more fruitful approach lies in challenging the very constructs of
work and family themselves (Collins 1998b). Understandings of work, like understandings of family,
vary greatly depending on who controls the definitions. In the following discussion of the distinction between work and
measures of self, May Madison, a participant in John Gwaltneys study of inner-city African-Americans, alludes to the
difference between work as an instrumental activity and work as something for self: One very important difference
between white people and black people is that white people think you are your work. . . . Now, a black person has more
sense than that because he knows that what I am doing doesnt have anything to do with what I want to do or what I do
when I am doing for myself. Now, black people think that my work is just what I have to do to get what I want. (Gwaltney
1980, 174) Ms. Madisons perspective criticizes definitions of work that grant White men more status and human worth
work is a contested
construct and that evaluating individual worth by the type of work
performed is a questionable practice in systems based on race and
gender inequality. Work might be better conceptualized by
examining the range of work that African-American women actually
perform.Work as alienated labor can be economically exploitative,
physically demanding, and intellectually deadening the type of work long
associated with Black womens status as mule. Alienated labor can be paidthe case of Black
because they are employed in better-paid occupations. She recognizes that
women in domestic service, those Black women working as dishwashers, dry-cleaning assistants, cooks, and health-care
or it can be
unpaid, as with the seemingly never-ending chores of many Black grandmothers and Black single mothers. But work
assistants, as well as some professional Black women engaged in corporate mammy work;
can also be empowering and creative, even if it is physically challenging and appears to be demeaning.
Exploitative wages that Black women were allowed to keep and use
for their own benefit or labor done out of love for the members of
ones family can represent such work. Again, this type of work can be either paid or unpaid.
What is the connection between U.S. Black womens work both in the labor market and in African-American family
networks? Addressing this question for four key historical periods in Black political economy uses this broader
understanding of Black womens work to further Black feminist analyses of U.S. Black womens oppression.
The affs advocacy does not provide a method for

operationalizing their privilege which means their
disembodied knowledge production results in apathy
toward the people most directly effected by their impacts
We have to discuss our social locations and understand
intersections before we can approach politicsthe alt is a
prerequisite to the aff
Youkhana 14
(Eva Youkhana, Interdisciplinary Latin America Centre, University of Bonn, A Conceptual Shift in Studies of
Belonging and the Politics of Belonging , Social Inclusion, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 10-24,
https://www.academia.edu/13804986/A_Conceptual_Shift_in_Studies_of_Belonging_and_the_Politics_of_Belo
nging)
When we examine different social science definitions of belonging,

we find that the concept ranges from a personal feeling, the sense of
belonging to a certain group, place, or social location, to the
understanding of belonging as a resource that can be used to draw
38
social demarcations and establish border regimes, the so-called

politics of belonging (Antonsich, 2010; Yuval-Davis, 2006, 2011) of people and groups with
similar senses of belonging. It is necessary first to describe the established
social sci-ence definitions of belonging and move on to the poli-tics
thereafter . Ethnicity and citizenship, both concepts operational-ized by the abovementioned
Research Network and used as sub-categories of belonging (cf., Albiez, Castro, Jssen, Youkhana, 2011),
are well known in various dis-ciplines and have long been discussed in social sciences and history (for
ethnicity cf., Anderson, 1983; Barth, 1969; Elwert, 1989; Gabbert, 2006; Pedone, 2003; and for citizenship,
Conrad & Kocka, 2001; Isin & Turner, 2002; Cachn Rodrguez, 2009), but belonging is still a rather new
theoretical term.
Belonging has often been used interchangeably with the

term identity (An-tonsich, 2010; Pfaff-Czarnecka, 2011), and has been used as a synonym of, or in
association with, citizen-ship, which is agreed to be an entitlement describing a
contractual relationship between a person and the state (Antonsich, 2010,
Yuval-Davis, 2011, p. 47). Be-longing has recently been conceptualized in studies of migration, in
sociology, and in anthropology (Anthias, 2006, 2009; Bogner & Rosenthal, 2009; Christensen, 2009; PfaffCzarnecka, 2011; Savage, Bagnall, & Long-hurst, 2005; Social Issues Research Centre [SIRC], 2007; YuvalDavis, 2006, 2011) in order to better understand political contestations and their ethnic (Bschges & PfaffCzarnecka, 2007; Strbele-Gregor, 2010; Yashar, 2005; for Africa see Lentz, 2006) 1 and religious legitimizations (Castells, 2002 [1997]; Haynes, 2009). With re-spect to migration studies, where belonging is
increas-ingly contested et een and a ong host and guest o unities, Yu al -Davis
(2006) and Anthias (2006, 2008) have made important contributions to the theorization of belonging.
According to Yuval-Davis (2006, p. 199f), belonging is about a) different social

locations that emerge along different power axes and social
catego izations, individuals identifications and emotional
attachments, and c) shared ethical and polit-ical value systems.
Using an intersectional approach, belonging is defined as a dynamic
process, constructed and negotiated along multiple axes of
difference, such as class, race, gender, stage in life cycle, sexuality,
and ability (Yuval-Davis, 2006, p. 200). By locating the con-cept at the
interface of different categorizations of the social and their multiple
effects of producing un-belonging in the case of inequality and
exclusion, the authors introduce an intersectional approach in order
to better understand related social contestations. In-tersectional
approaches were int roduced as a theoreti-cal and methodological
perspective by feminist theo-rists in order to include women as the
subject of research more systematically and to stress gender as an
analytical category (Maj, 2013; McCall, 2005). Yuval-Davis justifies the
importance of intersectional approaches by arguing that social
locations of belonging are never constructed along a single power
axis but re-fer to different social sections and are therefore multidimensional. To he, Intesectionality is a metaphorical term, aimed at
evoking images of a road intersection, with an intermediate or
contested num-ber of intersecting roads, depending on the various
us-ers of the terms and how many social divisions are consided in a
particular intersectional analysis(Yu al -Davis, 2011, p. 6). The attraction of
this is its consideration of multiple narratives of belonging,
influenced by different historical trajectories, and of social realities
that are able to form senses of belonging far beyond those tied to
ancestry, authenticity, and places of origin.
39
The aff assumes work relations and domesticity are

mutually exclusive this assumption perpetuates
capitalist class relations and reinforces their impacts
Gender roles were similarly shaped under slavery. Black women
generally performed the same work as men. This enabled them to
recraft West African traditions whereby women were not limited to
devalued family labor (Jones 1985; D. White 1985). However, unlike African precolonial political
economies, where womens labor benefited their lineage group and their children, under slavery neither men nor women
got to keep what they produced. Under U.S. capitalism, slavery also established the racial division of labor whereby
African-Americans were relegated to dirty, manual, nonintellectual jobs. Despite slaverys burdens, African-Americans did
not perceive work as the problem but, rather, the exploitation inherent in the work they performed. A saying among
enslaved Africans, Its a poor dog that wont wag its own tail, alludes to popular perceptions among Blacks that Whites
Black womens work

affected the organization of child care. Perceptions of motherhood
as an unpaid occupation in the home comparable to paid male
occupations in the public sector advanced by the traditional family
ideal never became widespread among the majority of AfricanAmerican women (Mullings 1997). By denying enslaved African women marriage, citizenship, and even
were lazy and did not value work as much as African-Americans themselves.
humanity, slavery provided no social context for issues of privatized motherhood as a stay-at-home occupation. Instead,
communal child-care arrangements substituted for individualized maternal carea few women were responsible for caring
for all children too young to work, and women as a group felt accountable for one anothers children (D. White 1985).
African-American womens experiences as mothers have been

shaped by the dominant groups efforts to harness Black womens
sexuality and fertility to a system of capitalist exploitation. Efforts to
control U.S. Black womens reproduction were important to the
maintenance of the race, class, and gender inequality characterizing
the slave order in at least three ways. First, the biological notions of
race underpinning the racial subordination of the slave system
required socalled racial purity in order to be effective. Since children followed
the condition of their mothers, children born of enslaved Black women were slaves. Forbidding Black men to have sexual
relations with White women of any social class reduced the possibility that children of African descent would be born to
Motherhood
and racism were symbolically intertwined, with controlling the
sexuality and fertility of both African-American and White women
essential in reproducing racialized notions of American womanhood
White mothers. Any children born of such liaisons must be seen as being the product of rape.
(King 1973). Second, motherhood as an institution occupies a special place in transmitting values to children about their
On the one hand, a mother can foster her childrens

oppression if she teaches them to believe in their own inferiority .
On the other hand, the relationship between mothers and children
can serve as a private sphere in which cultures of resistance and
everyday forms of resistance are learned (Scott 1985). When Black slave mothers taught
proper place.
their children to trust their own self-definitions and value themselves, they offered a powerful tool for resisting oppression.
40
controlling Black womens reproduction was essential to the

creation and perpetuation of capitalist class relations. Slavery benefited certain
Finally,
segments of the U.S. population by economically exploiting others. As Black feminist intellectual Frances Ellen Watkins
Harper argued, How can we pamper our appetites upon luxuries drawn from reluctant fingers. Oh, could slavery exist
long if it did not sit on a commercial throne? (Sterling 1984, 160). Under such a system in which the control of property is
Slaveowners
controlled Black womens labor and commodified Black womens
bodies as units of capital. Moreover, as mothers, Black womens
fertility produced the children who increased their owners property
and labor force (Davis 1981; Burnham 1987).
fundamental, enslaved African women were valuable commodities (Williams 1991).
An integral part of the workforce, black women are

subjected to dependence on the state at guarantee of
mistreatment yet they are ignored
Black women who work yet remain poor form an important segment
of the Black working class. Labor market trends as well as changes in federal policies toward the poor
have left this group economically marginalized (Zinn 1989). Ironically, gender differences in the jobs held by working-poor
On average, approximately one-third

of Black women and men who find employment work in jobs
characterized by low wages, job instability, and poor working
conditions. These jobs are growing rapidly, spurred by the increasing
need for cooks, waitresses, waiters, laundry workers, health aides,
and domestic servants to service the needs of affluent middle- class
families. While plentiful, these jobs are mostly in neighborhoods far from
the inner-city communities where poor Black women live. Moreover, few
of these jobs offer the wages, stability, or advancement potential of
disappearing manufacturing jobs. The work performed by employed
poor Black women resembles duties long associated with domestic
service . During prior eras, domestic service was confined to private households. In contrast, contemporary cooking,
Black women and men are becoming less pronounced.
cleaning, nursing, and child care have been routinized and decentralized in an array of fastfood restaurants, cleaning
services, day-care centers, and service establishments. Black women perform similar work, but in different settings.
The location may have changed, but the work has not. Moreover, the
treatment of Black women resembles the interpersonal relations of
domination reminiscent of domestic work. Mabel Lincoln, an inner-city resident, describes
how the world looks to her as a working woman: If you are a woman slinging somebody
elses hash and busting somebody elses suds or doing whatsoever
you might do to keep yourself from being a tramp or a willing slave,
you will be called out of your name and asked out of your clothes. In
this world most people will take whatever they think you can give. It
dont matter whether they want it or not, whether they need it or
not, or how wrong it is for them to ask for it. (Gwaltney 1980, 68) Many Black
41
women turn to the informal labor market and to government

transfer payments to avoid being called out of their names and
asked out of their clothes. Many Black women over age 16 are not
employed, in many cases because they cannot find jobs, because
they are in school, have children to care for, are retired, or are in
poor health. A considerable proportion support themselves through
varying combinations of low-wage jobs and government transfer
payments. The employment vulnerability of working-class African-Americans in the postWorld War II political
economy, the relative employment equality of poor Black women and men, and the gender-specific patterns of
dependence on the informal economy all have substantial implications for U.S. Black women who find themselves among
the working poor. One effect has been the growth of families maintained by Black single mothers. As the testimonies of
the
alarming trend is the persistent poverty of African- American women
and children living in such households (Dickerson 1995a). The increase in
unmarried Black adolescent parents is only one indication of the
effects that changes in the broader political economy are having on
work and family patterns not just of poor Black women but of many
other segments of the U.S. population. Rates of adolescent pregnancy are actually
numerous African-Americans raised by their mothers suggest, such families are not inherently a problem. Rather,
decreasing among young Black women. The real change has been a parallel decrease in marital rates of Black
adolescents, a decision linked directly to how Black teens perceive opportunities to support and sustain independent
households. A sizable proportion of families maintained by Black single women are created by unmarried adolescent
mothers. This decline in marital rates, a postWorld War II trend that accelerated after 1960, is part of changes in AfricanAmerican community structures overall (Wilson 1987). The communal child-care networks of the slave era, the extended
family arrangements of the rural South, and the cooperative family networks of prior eras of Black urban migration have
eroded. These shifts portend major problems for African-American women and point to a continuation of Black womens
oppression, but structured through new institutional arrangements. The effects of these changes are convincingly
demonstrated in Ladner and Gourdines (1984) replication study of Tomorrows Tomorrow, Joyce Ladners (1972) study of
Black female adolescents. The earlier investigation examined poor Black teenage girls values toward motherhood and
Black womanhood. The girls in the original study encountered the common experiences of urban poverty they became
mothers quite young, lived in substandard housing, attended inferior schools, and generally had to grow up quickly in
order to survive. But despite the harshness of their environments, the girls in the earlier sample still had high hopes and
dreams that their futures would be positive and productive (Ladner and Gourdine 1984, 24). The findings from the
replication study are quite different. Ladner and Gourdine maintain that the
assessments the
teenagers and their mothers made of the socioeconomic conditions
and their futures are harsher and bleaker than a similar population a
generation ago (p. 24). In talking with young grandmothers, all of whom looked older than they were even
though the majority were in their 30s and the youngest was age 29, Ladner and Gourdine found that all became single
parents through divorce or had never married. The strong Black grandmothers of prior generations were not in evidence.
Instead, Ladner and Gourdine found that these young grandmothers complained about their own unmet emotional and
social needs. They appeared to feel powerless in coping with the demands made by their children. They comment
frequently that their children show them no respect, do not listen to their advice, and place little value on their role as
parents (p. 23). Sociologist Elaine Bell Kaplans important (1997) study of 32 teen mothers and adult women who were
once teen mothers reports similar findings. By the 1980s, reports Kaplan, so many young Black girls were pushing
strollers around inner-city neighborhoods that they became an integral part of both the reality and the myth concerning
Kaplan describes a threadbare,

overstretched Black extended family system where Black mothers
could not support the emotional needs of their daughters. In the
absence of support, teenagers got pregnant and decided to keep
their babies. Just at a point in life when young Black girls most needed affection, many felt unloved
by their mothers, ignored by their schools, and rejected by their
fathers and boyfriends. The girls mothers had their own needs. Often in poor health,
anxious, distracted, and generally worn down by the struggle to
raise their families in harsh urban neighborhoods, mothers routinely
saw their daughters pregnancies as one more responsibility for
them to bear.
the sexuality of Black underclass culture (p. xx).
42
Queer bodies that fall outside the heteronormative

relationships face structural violence through
institutionalized homophobia.
Price 12
(Joshua M. Associate professor of sociology at Binghamton University,

Structural Violence: Hidden Brutality in the Lives of Women Sep. 17, 2012,
pp, 96) Nikpreet.
As a lawyer," writes Sandra Lundy,"I know from experience that litigating
openly queer cases in civil court is never easy. You can be sure that
somehow, somewhere, when you least expect it, homophobia will rear its
ugly head in the courtroom, derailing your arguments, upsetting your client,
making it impossible to be heard" (1999, 43). "Given how difficult it is for our
queer people to be treated well in the civil justice system , particularly when
they seek relief from abusive partners, I understand why some in our
community urge queer people to bypass the court system entirely and
instead bring issues of abuse to friends, private mediators, and counselors"
(Lundy 1999, 44-45). Nevertheless, Lundy concludes that on balance the
court's protections and ability to enforce the law are important. She urges
lesbians who face abuse to take their cases to court. Another way of framing
her situation is in terms of a vicious either/or. Women who face forms of
violence that fall outside the conventions of domestic heterosexual
relationships often face the either/or of being considered essentially the same
or fundamentally different from other women. If they are the same, then they
fit the solutions that the courts come up with or that the shelters offer. They
fit the psychological models and the warning signs of abuse. However, if their
lives do not conform to the imagined model, then they are outside of the
ambit of shelters, the courts, or other places of refuge or redress for (some)
heterosexual women. Sometimes they can go to those places, but there they
face a set of presuppositions that simplify them and their identity, the spaces
they must traverse, the people to whom they matter or who matter to them,
and those spaces regard them as conforming to an abstract sameness with
any otherall otherbattered woman. They face the either/or when
structural or stare violence is taken out of the equation. When violence is
structural or institutional, then women either look the same as other battered
women, or they are unrecognizable as battered. Homophobia is a form of
structural violence. Stare violence is in evidence when that homophobia is
institutionalized in such a way that to identify as a lesbian is to run risks. In
this case, lesbians (and gay men) fit awkwardly in the traditional schema of
partner battering (see Lundy 1993). Inside the marriage contract, tools exist,
such as orders of protection, to reorganize the relationship. The lack of a
marriage contract has historically marked an absence of a technique for
thinking conceptually. Certain kinds of violence are harder to conceive for the
popular imagination. And this is a way in which structural violence works
indirectly: in the maintenance of silences, in the evasion of unthinkable
43
Ginwright in 10


Additionally,
44

45



same time,
civic organizations
46
well-being.
47
1NC Survivors: Anxiety

Really, do you really want to affirm anxiety? When a lot of
us in this community experience anxiety just about being
ourselves? When a queer person in the community
experiences such intense anxiety about being able to
present themselves that they begin to internalize the
oppression that theyve been subjected to, do you want to
affirm anxiety? When a disabled person is anxious about if
theyll be accepted into an abled bodied community, do
you want to affirm anxiety? Youve separated yourself so
much from your personal experience that you make
arguments whose form relies on affirming psychological
violence-no matter how cool you think it is that an old
white man named Heidegger wrote about anxiety, it is
never acceptable to run arguments that will inevitably
make marginalized people in our debate space recall the
anxiety the felt from just being themselves. Let me quote
one of the tags in your 1AC: it says, We are all always
already guilty. No we are not-we, the queer, the disabled,
the people of color, the feminine people of this community
refuse to believe that we are guilty-we choose instead to
love ourselves for who we are, because that is the only
way we can begin to liberate ourselves from the
domination you perpetuate.
The affirmation of anxiety justifies the discomfort queer
people feel in the closet-the closet is a heteronormative
form of social oppression.
Seidman in 02
(Steven, professor of Sociology at State University of New York at Albany. Beyond the Closet: The
Transformation of Gay and Lesbian Life, pgs. 7-9)
What I heard was unexpected. While many of the individuals I interviewed described themselves as
closeted, their current lives didnt fit what I take to be as the defining feature of the closet. The closet, I
reasoned, is about an individuals having to make life-shaping decisions in order to pass. The individuals I
interviewed described past lives that were closeted. However, as they talked about their present lives it
became clear that, except for a few individuals, they were not making decisions about love, work, friends,
individuals I interviewed
spoke of concealing their homosexuality in specific situations or with
particular individuals. This episodic pattern of concealment should not be confused, as many
of my interviewees did, with the closet. There is a huge difference between concealing from an uncle
and social activities to avoid exposure or suspicion. Almost all of the
or a client and marrying or avoiding certain occupations in order to pretend to be straight. The former
may be a source of anxiety and discomfort, but the latter potentially shapes a
whole way of life. If the concept of the closet is to be useful in understanding gay life, it should describe a
life-shaping social pattern.
Homosexuality is so fateful for the individual

48
precisely because the closet involves fashioning a public life at odds

with private feelings and ones core sense of self. If there were no
need to be closeted, homosexuality might still be a source of
disrespect and disadvantage. However, the realities of the closet force
individuals to make a momentous choice: a life of passing of a
struggle to come out. Either way, the closet makes homosexuality a
potentially life-shaping condition. Also, and importantly, the fact that the closet
is about individuals making decisions about love, work, residence,
and friends in order to conceal an important part of who they are
suggests that it is more than an inconvenience or minor nuisance; it is a condition of
social oppression. Closeted individuals suffer systematic forms of
disadvantage and disrespect. Accordingly, the closet is not simply a product of
individual ignorance and discrete acts of prejudice and discrimination, but is created by the
actions of the government, the criminal justice system, families and
popular and scientific culture. In short, the closet refers to a state of gay
oppression produced by a condition of heterosexual domination . No
one, surely not myself, can seriously maintain that the realities of homophobia and heterosexism are in the
hate crimes against

gays have increased almost fourfold between 1991 and 1998; since the Dont ask, dont tell
past. Some facts are indisputable. According to the Uniform Crime Reports,
policy was installed in 1994, the number of lesbians and gay men discharged from the military has risen by
almost 70 percent; while the number of pro-gay bills introduced into state legislatures increased steadily in
the mid-1990s (for example, 41 in 1995, 128 in 1997), so too has the number of anti-gay measures (64 in
families, schools, the military, and

churches, not to mention the Boy Scouts, remain minefields for many gay
Americans. Sadly, the closet remains a reality for too many lesbians
and gay men.
1995, 120 in 1997). And lets not forget that
The anxieties described in the 1AC are better articulated by a lens of

queer anxiety that understands the fear of being feminized by
terrorism as an internalization of cisheteropatriarchy. This
alternative explanation competes, the aff fails to recognize that
oppressive structures are already ordered on patriarchal
hierarchies-his analysis completely glosses over the body.
Aho in 10 (Kevin, Professor of Philosophy at Florida Gulf Coast University. Heidegger's Neglect of the
Body, Published by SUNY Press, pg. 53)
Heidegger from the standpoint of feminist theory, because

meditations on the meaning of being are far removed from the
ontic concerns of social, political, and ethical philosophy . However, as we
Initially it may seem strange to engage
his
have seen, Heideggers approach to the question of being begins with his own existentiell interpretation of
ordinary, concrete life. Heideggers departure from a conception of understanding based on detached
theorizing in favor of everyday social understanding would appear to make him attractive to the concerns
feminist philosophy has provided

significant contributions and criticisms particularly regarding the lack of bodily
concreteness and gender specificity in Heideggers analysis of
everyday life. Again, Heidegger avoids a thematic discussion of the
body by focusing on the structures for any meaningful bodily
experience whatsoever. According to Heidegger, we dwell in these structures of meaning by
of feminist theory. And, beginning in the early 1980s,
virtue of our being-in-the-world, and these structures are asexual (geschlechtslos) of neutral (neutral)
because they are more original than the particular biological characteristics of man or woman. But
49
what Heidegger does not appear to recognize is that our concrete acts
and practices have a certain gender identity that is socially
constructed and historically constituted, an identity that is already
marked by masculinity, already privileging a particular set of habits,
institutions, and languages. The question we come to is this: Is Heideggers
project shortsighted because it fails to grasp the fact that the
disclosive clearing we rely on to interpret things as such is already
ordered in terms of oppressive social hierarchies?
Your affirmation of anxiety is really messed updiscriminatory violence done on disabled bodies
culminates in anxiety-your affirmation only reifies the
exclusion of the disabled body.
Stevens in 11
(Bethany, JD, MA, Center for leadership in Disability, College of Health and Human Sciences, Georgia State
University. Politicizing Sexual Pleasure, Oppression and Disability: Recognizing and Undoing the Impacts of
Ableism on Sexual and Reproductive Health. Published by the Center for Women Policy Studies, 2011.
http://centerwomenpolicy.org/programs/waxmanfiduccia/documents/BFWF_PoliticizingSexualPleasureOppre
ssionDisability_BethanyStevens_FINAL.pdf).
To undo structural aspects of

ableism, disabled people must have access to sexual and reproductive
health care that is safe and welcoming to our needs. Intersecting aspects
of identity and personhood must be accounted for in order to make
spaces truly accessible to all disabled people. Social Security Insurance must be
Enacting a Politic of Cripsex: Undoing Structural Ableism:
reformed so that disabled people are not kept in poverty nor denied access to marriage. Our right to parent must be
Institutions and nursing homes that steal our lives away from us must
be shut down, not just because the Supreme Court decided it was a violation of the law to incarcerate us but
because we are people and deserve to be treated as such. All of these issues of discrimination
create physical, emotional and psychological harm that is
manifested in depression, hypertension, anxiety , and heart disease (Krieger, 2000). These very
real forms of violence enacted through structural and even
internalized oppressions must be understood in order to unravel
them. All of the issues addressed here speak to the need for policy and
advocacy that is driven by the voices and needs of all disabled
people and law and policy must work together with communitybased movement building in order to truly shift minds to embrace
disability in our culture. It may be useful to also think about
revolutionary ways of embracing disabled people , particularly
concerning sexuality and reproduction. Certainly all disabled people must have access to
embraced.
sexuality education, yet it is not available to those in special education. Knowledge about anatomy, learning when, why
and how to say yes and say no to sexual advances, and understanding desire and pleasure are all human rights that
everyone should have. Some of the more controversial approaches might include the use of sex surrogacy and
Much of the writing and policy internationally (e.g., Denmark, Australia and
focus on satiating male sexual needs by
sex surrogates or sex workers; I encourage thinking beyond
phallocentric understandings of sexuality. Disabled women and LGBT
and queer disabled people need to be included in these policies. The
benefits of sexual expression have been quantified and should
involvement of sex workers.
the Netherlands) that subsidize these activities
50
inform policies that recognize the need for sexual pleasure. Some of the
many health benefits of sexual activity, include analgesic effects, hypertension reduction, increased relaxation (Whipple,
these positive effects could actually

counteract some of the negative impacts of discrimination.
Koch, Moglia, & Samuels, 2003); many of
Ginwright in 10


Additionally,
51

52



same time,
civic organizations
53
victims.
This notion marks a significant departure from the standard social capital literature that
54

well-being.
55
*** Links ***
56
Anxiety
Anxiety felt by queer people as a result of homophobia leads to
internalization of oppressive norms and self-policing.
Harbeck in 14 (Karen, faculty member in the Graduate Education programs at Northeastern
University College of Professional Studies. Coming Out of the Classroom Closet: Gay and Lesbian Students,
Teachers, and Curricula, pg. 38)
Popularized by sociologist Weingerg (1972), homophobia originally meant an irrational fear of
homophobia has been expanded to

include disgust, anxiety, and anger (MacDonald, 1976). Further, it has come to be
used not only to the reactions of heterosexuals but the internalization of negative
feelings by homosexual men and women (Lehne, 1976; Malyon, 1982; Margolies,
homosexual persons. Over the years, however,
Becker, and Jackson-Brewer, 1987). Despite the methodological, conceptual, and political problems
associated with homophobia, the term is a useful benchmark for beginning understanding of the
attitudes and feeling sof persons about homosexuality and the sources for these beliefs (Herek, 1984;
Lehne, 1976; Sears, 1990). One of the more extensive areas of research in lesbian and gay studies is on
adult attitudes toward homosexuality or toward homosexuals. These studes often report the relationships
between attitudes and personality traits or demographic variables. Though such studies are not without
conflicting data, Herek (1984) has summarized some consistent patterns. People with negative
attitudes report less personal contact with gays and lesbians, less (if any) homosexual behavior, a more
conservative religious ideology, and more traditional attitudes about sex roles than do those with less
Those harboring negative attitues about homosexuality

are also more likely to have resided in the Midwest or the South, to have grown up in rural areas
of in small towns, to be male, older, and less well-educated than those expressing more positive
negative views.
attitudes.
57
Embodiment
We have to discuss our social locations and understand
intersections before we can approach politicsthe alt is a
prerequisite to the aff
Youkhana 14
(Eva Youkhana, Interdisciplinary Latin America Centre, University of Bonn, A Conceptual Shift in Studies of
Belonging and the Politics of Belonging , Social Inclusion, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 10-24,
https://www.academia.edu/13804986/A_Conceptual_Shift_in_Studies_of_Belonging_and_the_Politics_of_Belo
nging)
When we examine different social science definitions of belonging,

we find that the concept ranges from a personal feeling, the sense of
belonging to a certain group, place, or social location, to the
understanding of belonging as a resource that can be used to draw
social demarcations and establish border regimes, the so-called
politics of belonging (Antonsich, 2010; Yuval-Davis, 2006, 2011) of people and groups with
similar senses of belonging. It is necessary first to describe the established
social sci-ence definitions of belonging and move on to the poli-tics
thereafter . Ethnicity and citizenship, both concepts operational-ized by the abovementioned
Research Network and used as sub-categories of belonging (cf., Albiez, Castro, Jssen, Youkhana, 2011),
are well known in various dis-ciplines and have long been discussed in social sciences and history (for
ethnicity cf., Anderson, 1983; Barth, 1969; Elwert, 1989; Gabbert, 2006; Pedone, 2003; and for citizenship,
Conrad & Kocka, 2001; Isin & Turner, 2002; Cachn Rodrguez, 2009), but belonging is still a rather new
theoretical term.
Belonging has often been used interchangeably with the

term identity (An-tonsich, 2010; Pfaff-Czarnecka, 2011), and has been used as a synonym of, or in
association with, citizen-ship, which is agreed to be an entitlement describing a
contractual relationship between a person and the state (Antonsich, 2010,
Yuval-Davis, 2011, p. 47). Be-longing has recently been conceptualized in studies of migration, in
sociology, and in anthropology (Anthias, 2006, 2009; Bogner & Rosenthal, 2009; Christensen, 2009; PfaffCzarnecka, 2011; Savage, Bagnall, & Long-hurst, 2005; Social Issues Research Centre [SIRC], 2007; YuvalDavis, 2006, 2011) in order to better understand political contestations and their ethnic (Bschges & PfaffCzarnecka, 2007; Strbele-Gregor, 2010; Yashar, 2005; for Africa see Lentz, 2006) 1 and religious legitimizations (Castells, 2002 [1997]; Haynes, 2009). With re-spect to migration studies, where belonging is
increas-ingly contested et een and a ong host and guest o unities, Yu al -Davis (2006)
and Anthias (2006, 2008) have made important contributions to the theorization of belonging.
According to Yuval-Davis (2006, p. 199f), belonging is about a) different social

locations that emerge along different power axes and social
catego izations, individuals identifications and emotional
attachments, and c) shared ethical and polit-ical value systems.
Using an intersectional approach, belonging is defined as a dynamic
process, constructed and negotiated along multiple axes of
difference, such as class, race, gender, stage in life cycle, sexuality,
and ability (Yuval-Davis, 2006, p. 200). By locating the con-cept at the
interface of different categorizations of the social and their multiple
effects of producing un-belonging in the case of inequality and
exclusion, the authors introduce an intersectional approach in order
to better understand related social contestations. In-tersectional
approaches were int roduced as a theoreti-cal and methodological
perspective by feminist theo-rists in order to include women as the
58
subject of research more systematically and to stress gender as an

analytical category (Maj, 2013; McCall, 2005). Yuval-Davis justifies the
importance of intersectional approaches by arguing that social
locations of belonging are never constructed along a single power
axis but re-fer to different social sections and are therefore multidimensional. To he, Intesectionality is a metaphorical term, aimed at
evoking images of a road intersection, with an intermediate or
contested num-ber of intersecting roads, depending on the various
us-ers of the terms and how many social divisions are consided in a
particular intersectional analysis(Yu al -Davis, 2011, p. 6). The attraction of
this is its consideration of multiple narratives of belonging,
influenced by different historical trajectories, and of social realities
that are able to form senses of belonging far beyond those tied to
ancestry, authenticity, and places of origin.
By endorsing the implementation of their plan outside of

themselves, the aff papers over the implications of
digitized surveillance on the identity of communities and
condemns them to ontological violence.
Conrad in 09
The rise of the virtual body has its roots in the interconnection
between new information technologies and new directions in
surveillance. Several scholars have noted that the rise of the contemporary
surveillance society corresponds with 'a new form of penology based
on "actuarial justice", which is legal abandonment of individualised
suspicion' (Norris & Armstrong 1999: 26). The result, as William Staples puts it, is that 'we
may be witnessing a historical shift from the specific punishment of
the individual deviant to the generalized surveillance of us all ' (Staples
1997: 6). This shift is part of a larger attempt to manage riska 'shift
away from strategies of social control which are reactive (only
activated when rules are violated) towards proactive strategies
which try to predict dangers one wishes to prevent' (McCahill 1998: 54). More
technologically advanced versions of this 'proactive' approach rely on 'dataveillance', or the surveillance of
data, which is much cheaper as well as more comprehensive than physical surveillance techniques (Clarke
1994). The proactive approach also relies on predictive models and simulations. As David Lyon argues,
behind this proactive approach is the assumption that gathering more and more information can lead to
complete knowledge and thus more effective prediction (Lyon 2001)a claim to which I will return later in
this article.
The motivation toward body surveillance as a more effective

predictive tool is based on an assumption that the information
gleaned from biometric technologies is more reliable than other
kinds of data (Staples 1997). Faith is placed in the anatomical body as a
repository for correct information about the subject, bypassing the
mediating filter of human language, memory, desire, need, and so
forththat is, the complex and fallible human subject her- or
59
himself. But perhaps paradoxically, since our culture has had an ambivalent relationship to the body,
the data gleaned from the body has increasingly been privileged over the
material body itself. Indeed, as N. Katherine Hayles as put it, since World War II, information has
'lost its body' (Hayles 1999). In her examination of cognitive science, philosophy, literature, information
Hayles traces a shift in Western

thought toward the 'erasure of embodiment' (4) and toward seeing
human consciousness as disembodied information. The physical
body, in this 'posthuman' view, is effectively a prosthetic for thought
and information, and 'embodiment in a biological substrate is seen
as an accident of history rather than an inevitability of life' (2). Following
Hayles, Irma van der Ploeg suggests that 'this "informatization of the body" may
eventually affect embodiment and identity as such. We may need to
consider how the translation of (aspects of) our physical existence
into digital code and "information," and the new uses of bodies this
subsequently allows, amounts to a change on the level of ontology,
instead of merely that of representation' (van der Ploeg 2003: 58-9). In other words,
the body itself is changing as a result of new information
technologies and the ways in which we interact with them. She
continues, 'with technological and discursive practices converging
toward an ontology of "information," it is unlikely that their
mediating link, embodiment even while acknowledging its
constraining and limiting powerwill remain unaffected. And
because embodiment concerns our most basic experience of the
body and of being in the world, these developments carry profound
normative and moral implications we ought to attempt to uncover'
(59). In short, the information gleaned from body surveillance is not merely a
'data image', an irrelevant or circumstantial collection of information, but indeed is constitutive of
the body. There is no distinct line between the biological body and
the 'virtual body', to use another of van der Ploeg's terms; and when the virtual body is
theory, cybernetics, and other disciplines and trends,
circulated, probed, even stolen (as in the case of 'identity theft'), those actions can impact the lived
'the new, intensive forms of

monitoring, categorizing, scrutinizing and, ultimately, controlling
and manipulating of persons through their bodies and embodied
identities that become possible in this new ontology suggest that
some form of integrity of the person may be at stake ' (71).
experience of the body. As van der Ploeg points out,
The affs analysis of surveillance systematically ignores

how embodiment is implicated in the processes of
technological surveillance.
Conrad in 09
the informatisation of the body has worrisome implications , as

Lyon, van der Ploeg, and Hayles suggest above. At the very least , the technological
advances of dataveillance have largely progressed more quickly than
the careful discussion of the ethical, moral, philosophical, and legal
issues they raise. But the risks of this informatisation of the body have not been acknowledged by
In short,
60
The lack of attention to the problems inherent in

the rise of the virtual body may be in part because both the
'posthuman' and feminist and queer theory emerge, as Hayles reminds us, out of a critique
of the liberal humanist subject (Hayles 1999: 4). The myth of the universal
subject, dependent on the far-from-universal Western white male
experience, have tended to erase the voices, experiences, and
contributions of those who fall outside of this model. But Hayles also notes
that 'embodiment has been systematically downplayed or erased in
the cybernetic construction of the posthuman in ways that have not
occurred in other critiques of the liberal humanist subject , especially in
feminist and postcolonial theories' (4).5 At the same time as these new ways of thinking
about the human provide a critique of the liberal humanist subject, 'to the extent that the
posthuman constructs embodiment as the instantiation of thought/information, it continues the
liberal tradition rather than disrupts it' (5). This liberal tradition has, as
she suggests, a long history of 'an emphasis on cognition' over
embodiment (5). Contemporary feminist theory's apparent blindness
to the risks of informatisation are not only due to the critique of the liberal humanist
it appears, at least on the surface, to share with the 'posthuman', but also due to feminist
theory's complex and sometimes fraught relationship with
embodiment more generally. Some feminists, particularly in the late 1960s and 70s, embraced a
feminist and queer studies.
concept of 'woman' dependent upon a perceived biological essence, and have celebrated the female body
as essential giver of life; but many strands of theoretical feminism have questioned those seemingly
'essential' links between body, 'sex', and 'gender'. Poststructuralist feminism in particular, inspired by
writers such as Monique Wittig and perhaps best exemplified in the works of Judith Butler, has been
concerned with the ways in which discourse6 not only affects women's rolesi.e., 'gender'but actually
shapes the physical body and 'sex' itself.7 In Butler's theory, indebted to a range of philosophical traditions
including Foucault's conception of gender as constituted by the circulation of power and knowledge
the body is always already shaped by discourses, and so

'biological sex' can never be taken for granted as a stable ground on
which gender identity is built. In other words, although the body itself has
a material reality outside of 'discourse', our understanding of what
the body is, including our understanding of its 'biological sex', is
shaped by discourse. Butler is perhaps best known for her often-misunderstood concept of
(Foucault 1990),
'gender performativity', the notion that gender is a 'stylized repetition of acts' (Butler 1990: 140). The
popular understanding of her work has been that one can change one's gender performance and thereby
challenge the entire gender system at will, a misconception she has had to correct in subsequent texts.8
Butler, like Foucault, does not suggest that subjects can control the discourse that forms them quite so
directly; we operate as gendered subjects within the gendered system, and so deliberate attempts at
parody (as in, for instance, a staged drag queen performance) tend simply to reinforce our understanding
of 'proper' gender. But Gender Trouble does provide a possibility for change, though not a change effected
that 'the possibilities of gender

transformation are to be found precisely in the arbitrary relation
between such acts, in the possibility of a failure to repeat, a deformity, or a parodic repetition that exposes the phantasmic effect
of abiding identity as a politically tenuous construction ' (141). Such a
'de-formity' or 'failure' might look more like what we would call an intersexed or
hermaphroditic body: a so-called 'natural' body that does not fit neatly into
the accepted gendered/sexed binary, and as such troubles the whole
'natural' binary system.
by a conscious subject, when she suggests
61
Foucault
Foucaltian understandings of surveillance dont account
for changes in surveillance practices
Heir 03
Sean P. Heir, Department of Sociology, University of Victoria, Victoria British
Columbia Canada Probing the Surveillant Assemblage: on the dialectics of
surveillance practices as processes of social control. Published 2003
Accessed 7/6/15 - JDD
contemporary literature concerned with surveillance has
demonstrated a tendency to gravitate towards the metaphoric imagery expatiated in
George Orwells prescient vision of Oceania and, more commonly, Michel Foucaults abstraction of
the panoptic. For Orwell, the future promised state totalitarianism, exemplified by the telescreen, the thought
The
police and categorically selective social monitoring practices. So went the argument, the constant visibility of Big Brother
served as a mechanism of repression oriented towards inducing and maintaining compliance and social order.
Foucault, by contrast, understood the visible manifestations of modern

surveillance as having been increasingly rendered unnecessary
through the normalizing gaze of the disciplines and the constitution of selfregulating subjects. Well beyond a mechanism of repression, panoptic observation involved a productive
reflection on the self to the extent that the dispersion of truth claims across a range of social institutions served to
generate disciplinary practices and the exercise of power over oneself. In Haggerty and Ericsons assessment (2000),
what emerges as problematic through this protracted reliance on

Foucault and, less commonly, Orwell is that such accounts fail to embrace
seriously contemporary developments in surveillance techniques.
Among other things, they contend that contemporary surveillance practices stretch
far beyond the state, their technological capabilities problematize a
reliance on 18th and 19th century total institutions and, far from the negative
connotations that tend to be attached to surveillance, many surveillance practices today are
not only supported but encouraged by those who serve as the primary targets
of data gathering systems. What this intimates for Haggerty and
Ericson is that, rather than recasting Orwellian or Foucauldian
imagery to fit the technological particularities of contemporary
surveillance (i.e. electronic panopticon, super panopticon), it is more beneficent to chart
alternative theoretical and conceptual terrain. In doing so, they
invoke Delueze and Guattaris concept of assemblages to denote the
increasing convergence of once discrete information and data
gathering systems. Pronouncing surveillance as one of the main institutional components of late modernity,
the surveillant assemblage is put forth to distance their conceptual endeavor from the episteme of discretely structured
objects of stability and constancy. Incorporated to explicate the functional multiplicity of a heterogeneity of objects whose
unity is located in moments of interdependence, the notion of the assemblage is adopted to capture the configurational
character of the present in the words of Deleuze and Guattari (1987: 406), veritable inventions. For Haggerty and
what is notable about the emergent surveillant assemblage is

that, driven by desires to bring component parts together into
functional systems variations on which take the form of control, governance, security and profit an
exponential increase in, and convergence of, surveillance
technologies has ensued. They explain that surveillance capabilities
are increasingly directed towards the human body as a distinctive
composition of life forms and webs of information. These processes involve abstractions
Ericson,
62
from, or data doubles on, organic hybrids, such that a protracted reliance develops on machines not only to register but
record otherwise discrete observations. Maintaining that we are only beginning to appreciate how surveillance is driven by
the desire to integrate component parts into wider systems, they insist that data simulations are not simply
representational by nature, but involve a more advanced form of pragmatics having to do with their instrumental efficacy
in making discriminations among divergent populations.
Contemporary surveillance has become rhizomatic, thus

replacing the panoptic hierarchy
Heir 03
There is no doubt that developments in contemporary surveillance techniques have opened spaces not previously
accessible (or not on such a wide scale) to divergent agencies and organizations. The problem which emerges, however, is
rhizomatic character of
contemporary surveillance has worked to transform previously
existing hierarchies of surveillance. In contrast to panoptical
conceptions of surveillance, where the few are able to visualize the
many, they maintain that the rhizomatic expansion of surveillance throughout
all sectors of society ....cumulatively highlight a fractured rhizomatic
criss-crossing of the gaze such that no major population groups
stand irrefutably above or outside the surveillant
assemblage(op.cit.:618). They attribute this partial democratization of surveillance hierarchies to the fact that
that Haggerty and Ericson deduce from their conceptualization that the
surveillance has become rhizomatic (op. cit.:617), recognizing that although surveillance monitoring remains differential in
there has transpired a synoptic shift of sorts,

whereby bottom-up forms of observation are now at work (op. cit.:618)
which parallel Foucaults conception of panopticism. The point they wish to make is
that the creeping character of surveillance infrastructures, made
possible by advances in information and communication technologies
across state and extra-state agencies, have enabled the many to
scrutinize the few like never before, rendering a more extended
range of the population susceptible to surveillance in its many
forms.
its various application(s),
63
Gendered Language
They use the term you guys this universalization of a
masculine subject position reinforces a system in which
men are seen as superior to women
Kleinmen 2 (Sherryl, Teacher at the Department of Sociology at the
University of North Carolina, Why Sexist Language Matters,
http://uncadvocatesformdphdwomeninscience.web.unc.edu/files/2014/03/Klei
nman_QualitativeSociology_2002.pdf, 3/20/2002//MP)
For years I've been teaching a sociology course at the University of North Carolina on gender inequality. I
cover such topics as the wage gap, the "second shift" (of housework and childcare) that heterosexual
women often do in the home, the "third shift" (women's responsibility for intimate relationships with men),
compulsory heterosexuality, the equation of women's worth with physical attractiveness, the sexualizing of
women in the media, lack of reproductive rights for women (especially poor women), sexual harassment
For example,
if women are expected to take care of housework and children, then
they cannot compete as equals with men in the workplace; if men
see women largely as sex objects and servers, then it is hard for
men to see women as serious workers outside the home; if women
are taught that it is their job to take care of relationships with men,
they may be blamed for breakups; if women are economically
dependent on men, they may stay with abusive male partners; if
women prefer intimacy with women, men may harass or violate
them. What I've left off the list is the issue that both women and
men in my classes have the most trouble understanding -- or, as I
see it, share a strong unwillingness to understand -- sexist
language. I'm not referring to such words as "bitch," "whore" and
"slut." What I focus on instead are words that students consider just
fine: male (so-called) generics. Some of these words refer to persons
occupying a position: postman, chairman, freshman, congressman,
fireman. Other words refer to the entire universe of human beings: "mankind" or "he." Then we've got
and men's violence against women. My course makes links among items on that list.
manpower, manmade lakes and "Oh, man, where did I leave my keys?" There's "manning" the tables in a
country where children learn that "all men are created equal ."
The most insidious, from

my observations, is the popular expression "you guys." Please don't tell me
it's a regional term. I've heard it in the Triangle, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Montreal. I've seen it
in print in national magazines, newsletters and books. And even if it were regional, that doesn't make it
right. I'll bet we can all think of a lot of practices in our home regions that we'd like to get rid of. I sound
But that's because I've so often heard (and not only from
students) ... What's the big deal? Why does all this "man-ning" and
"guys-ing" deserve a place in my list of items of gender inequality
and justify taking up inches of space in the newsletter of a rape
crisis center? Because male-based generics are another indicator -and more importantly, a reinforcer -- of a system in which "man" in
the abstract and men in the flesh are privileged over women. Some say
defensive. I know.
that language merely reflects reality and so we should ignore our words and work on changing the unequal
gender arrangements that are reflected in our language. Well, yes, in part .
It's no accident that

"man" is the anchor in our language and "woman" is not. And of
course we should make social change all over the place. But the
words we use can also reinforce current realities when they are
sexist (or racist or heterosexist). Words are tools of thought. We can
use words to maintain the status quo or to think in new ways --
64
which in turn creates the possibility of a new reality . It makes a difference if I

think of myself as a "girl" or a "woman"; it makes a difference if we talk about "Negroes" or "AfricanAmericans." Do we want a truly inclusive language or one that just pretends? Before I discuss how benignsounding words like "freshman" and "you guys" reinforce the gender inequalities on my list, above, let me
tell you about an article that made a difference in my own understanding of sexist language. In 1986
Douglas Hofstadter, a philosopher, wrote a parody of sexist language by making an analogy with race. His
article ("A Person Paper on Purity in Language") creates an imaginary world in which generics are based on
race rather than gender. In that world, people would use "freshwhite," "chairwhite" and yes, "you whiteys."
People of color would hear "all whites are created equal" -- and be expected to feel included. Substituting
"white" for "man" makes it easy to see why using "man" for all human beings is wrong. Yet, women are
And can you think of

one, just one, example of a female-based generic? Try using
"freshwoman" with a group of male students or calling your male
boss "chairwoman." Then again, don't. There could be serious
consequences for referring to a man as a "woman" -- a term that still
means "lesser" in our society. If not, why do men get so upset at the idea of being called
expected to feel flattered by "freshman," "chairman" and "you guys."
women? And why do so many women cling to "freshman," "chairman" and "you guys?" I think I know why,
"Man" is a high-status term, and women

want to be included in the "better" group. But while being labeled
"one of the guys" might make us feel included, it's only a guise of
inclusion, not the reality. If we were really included, we wouldn't
have to disappear into the word "guys." I'm not saying that people who use "you
guys" have bad intentions, but think of the consequences . All those "man" words -- said
many times a day by millions of people every day -- cumulatively
reinforce the message that men are the standard and that women
should be subsumed by the male category. We know from history
that making a group invisible makes it easier for the powerful to do
what they want with members of that group. And we know, from too many past
though it doesn't make me feel any better.
and current studies, that far too many men are doing "what they want" with women. Most of us can see a
We need
to recognize that making women linguistically a subset of man/men
through terms like "mankind" and "guys" also makes women into
objects. If we, as women, aren't worthy of such true generics as "first-year," "chair" or "you all," then
link between calling women "sluts" and "whores" and men's sexual violence against women.
how can we expect to be paid a "man's wage," be respected as people rather than objects (sexual or
otherwise) on the job and at home, be treated as equals rather than servers or caretakers of others, be
considered responsible enough to make our own decisions about reproduction, define who and what we
If we aren't even deserving of our place in humanity

in language, why should we expect to be treated as decent human
beings otherwise? Now and then someone tells me that I should work on more important issues
want as sexual beings?
-- like men's violence against women -- rather than on "trivial" issues like language. Well, I work on lots of
issues. But that's not the point. What I want to say (and do say, if I think they'll give me the time to
explain) is that working against sexist language is working against men's violence against women. It's one
step. If we cringe at "freshwhite" and "you whiteys" and would protest such terms with loud voices, then
why don't we work as hard at changing "freshman" and "you guys?" Don't women deserve it ?
If
women primarily exist in language as "girls" (children), "sluts" and
"guys," it does not surprise me that we still have a long list of
gendered inequalities to fix. We've got to work on every item on the list. Language is one
we can work on right now, if we're willing. It's easier to start saying "you all"
instead of "you guys" than to change the wage gap tomorrow.
Nonsexist English is a resource we have at the tip of our tongues.
Let's start tasting this freedom now.
65
This is particularly violent for trans and gender nonconforming people.

Nordmarken 14
Sonny Nordmarken is a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His
dissertation examines affect and power in trans peoples everyday interactions. He is author of Becoming
Ever More Monstrous: Feeling Transgender In-Betweenness (Qua- litative Inquiry, January 2014) and, with
Reese C. Kelly, Limiting Transgender Health: Administrative Violence and Microaggressions in Healthcare
Systems in Left Out: Health Care Issues Facing LGBT People (forthcoming)
Trans and gender-nonconforming people encounter

microaggressions in a number of realms in their everyday lives, such
as workplaces and public restrooms, and from family members,
friends, therapists, medical providers, security workers, and
strangers (Kidd and Witten 2008). Microaggressors express a perception of
otherness, which they may associate with one or more characteristics such as disability, race, gender, or class . Some microaggressions
are related to a perceived transness or gender nonconformity. For instance, microagressors
scrutinize, exoticize, sexualize, or fetishize trans people (Nadal, Skolnik,
and Wong 2012; Serano 2007), using such terms as tranny, she-male, heshe, or chicks with dicks; asking gender- and sex-related
questions about a persons body, genitalia, identity, or history;
expressing concern about a trans person interacting with children;
implying that gender-affirmation surgeries constitute mutilation
or that trans people are mentally ill or freakish; approaching
nonsex-worker trans women for paid sex; offering intended
compliments such as you turned out so cute or I never would
have known; evaluating a persons gender presentation; exposing
a persons trans identity (Nordmarken 2012). Many of these actions reflect erroneous,
dehumanizing stereotypes about trans people that are represented in news stories, films, and other media
Thus microaggressions maintain cis-sexism, or the idea

that trans people are inferior to and less authentic than cisgender
(non-trans) people (ibid.). Besides manifesting stereotypes, many microaggressions targeting
(Serano 2007).
trans and gender-nonconforming people are active manifestations of conventional ways of thinking about
gender. Due to the dearth of accurate information on transgender phenomena in public circulation,
microaggressors misunderstand or misinterpret trans and gendernonconforming peoples gender identities, inva- lidating their
experiences of reality and at times conflating sexual nonnormativity
with gender nonnormativity. Microaggressors address trans people with incorrect gender
pronouns, call them by former names, inquire about their real identity, ask them to explain their gender
identity, and deny or fail to acknowledge their pronouns, name, or identity (Nadal, Skolnik, and Wong
This misgendering takes

place because microaggressors assume that they have the ability to
know a trans persons true identity and that their perception of a
trans person is more valid than the trans persons own selfknowledge what Julia Serano calls gender entitlement (2007: 9). Gender entitlement and the
2012; Nordmarken 2012; Nordmarken and Kelly, forthcoming).
cultural conflation of sexed anatomy and gender identity result in a rhetoric of deception, where
microaggressors cast trans people as deceivers or pretenders who hide what microaggressors
66
Some microaggressors intend

to legitimate trans peoples identities but, problematically, assume
that all trans people are the same (Nadal, Skolnik, and Wong 2012). They might apply
imagine are trans peoples true selves (Bettcher 2007).
the wrong body narrative to those who do not experience their gender in such a way (Nordmarken and
Microaggressors may communicate disgust, dismissal,

apprehension, con- fusion, shock, surprise, skepticism, disbelief,
agitation, or other discomfort when noticing or being alerted to a
persons transness. They can become defensive when corrected or reminded about their misuse
Kelly, forthcoming).
of pronouns (Nadal, Rivera, and Corpus 2010). They may stare, do double takes, avoid eye contact or proximity, look away, laugh, or become silent (Nordmarken 2012, 2014; Nordmarken and Kelly, forthcoming).
They may make excuses for or apologize excessively for misgendering, drawing more attention to and
they may deny that

they have com- municated something cis-sexist or transphobic or
they may deny that cis-sexism and transphobia exist (Nadal, Skolnik, and
Wong 2012). Regardless of intention , microaggressive behaviors often
indicate that individuals perceive difference, communicating
othering messages.
drawing out the uncomfortable interaction (Nordmarken 2012); conversely,
67
Giroux
Giroux is unable to theorize effective modes of
resistance. Ivory tower conceptions of political
engagement fail to manifest themselves in a
way that creates actual material change
Richardson 12 (Chris, Doctorate in communication studies, Between Scarlem and the
Ivory Tower: An Autoethnographic examination of marginality in Canadian Communication and Media
Studies, pp. 17-18, JP)
Though Girouxs writings about intellectuals performing acts of liberating pedagogy and emancipatory
politics initially appealed to me, I became frustrated and dissatisfied as I read through his books. His titles
are powerful and provocative: Education Under Siege: The Conservative, Liberal, and Radical Debate over
Schooling (1985), Stealing Innocence: Corporate Cultures War on Children (2001), The University in
Who would not want to

defend something under siege? Who would argue that innocence
should be stolen or that the university should be enchained? After
reading these texts, however, I felt no closer to discovering the answers
or insights I had hoped to find. Instead, emancipation and liberation
started to lose their meaning as words so often do when repeated
so frequently . In his book Ideology, Culture, and the Process of Schooling (1981), for example,
Giroux argues that political issues must be discussed within
classroom social relationships that illuminate, concretize, and
demonstrate a more radical notion of liberation (108). I became eager to
pursue these noble goals. In Education Still Under Siege (1993), I read similar lines published
twelve years later: The discourse of the transformative intellectual
takes the issues of community and liberation seriously... creating
conditions for emancipatory forms of self and social empowerment
among both educators and students (Giroux and Aronowitz 1993, 53). Again, I could
not have agreed more. Ten years later, however, Giroux was producing two or
three books per year and arguing for similar liberating projects . As he
Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex (2007).
writes in The Abandoned Generation: Democracy Beyond the Culture of Fear (2003), if emancipatory
politics is to be equal to neoliberal capitalism, educators need to theorize politics not as a science or a set
of objective conditions, but as a point of departure in specific and concrete situations (Giroux 2003, 65). I
was struck by how the more recent quotation sounds quite similar to the passage from 1981. While it is not
my intention to downplay
Girouxs
contribution to critical pedagogy and the fields of Communication
and Media Studies, I have to wonder how so many
texts can sound so timely, so urgent,
and yet so repetitive. I do not dispute his premise that, at risk of oversimplifying his arguments,
the public needs to critically debate and participate in emancipatory politics without interference from
Giroux repeats this argument for three

decades leads me to believe that he is either not serious about achieving
this goal or he has simply had little effect by writing these
arguments in academic texts. This is , of course, a problem that all
scholars attempting to put theory into practice encounter as they
endeavour to affect change. It is ironic that, as a critic of the
corporatization of higher education, Giroux has been the Global
corporations or ruling elites. But the fact that
68
Television Network Chair in Communication Studies at McMaster

University since 2004. This problematic relationship with corporate
media points to an institutional situation in which funding, even for
anti-corporate scholars, often comes from corporations and where rhetoric is
rewarded while action is relegated to a second shift (Few, Piercy, and
Stremmel 2007). Most of us chose this career because of our commitment to a profession that is relevant
to peoples lives, write Few, Piercy, and Stremmel (2007), we did not leave our interest in social action at
The pressure to publish, secure

funding, teach, supervise, and attend conferences, however, limits
the time academics have to pursue practical community issues . To
survive professionally, they contend, professors inevitably lose or subsume
important parts of themselves (57). I realized, through reading scholars like
Giroux , that academics can gain significant cultural capital by speaking
about the marginseven if the actual activities that would take
individuals into marginalized communities are less frequently
pursued than the abstract and theoretical work that is likely more valued by
the doorstep when we entered academia (47).
tenure and hiring committees. It is interesting how Giroux evokes riskiness by speaking of fugitive
cultures (1996), living dangerously (1996), and abandoned generations (2003). These phrases seem
Giroux has placed himself in jeopardy by writing about disenfranchised groups; yet, in
doing so, he gains from what Foucault (1990) calls the speakers benefit (6). Foucault
to imply that
explains the speakers benefit by examining the way scholars have written about sexual oppression: 00
then the mere

fact that one is speaking about it has the appearance of deliberate
transgression. A person who holds forth in such language places
himself to a certain extent outside the reach of power... conscious of
defying established power, our tone of voice shows that we know we
are being subversive, and we ardently conjure away the present and
appeal to the future, whose day will be hastened by the contribution
we believe we are making (6-7).
Similarly, Giroux positions himself as taking a risk by speaking out
on these issues even though it is fairly commonplace in Canadian
communication studies to talk about uneven power relationships and
marginalized groups. It is important to note that Foucault does not argue society was never
If sex is repressed, that is, condemned to prohibition, nonexistence, and silence,
repressed or that repression itself is a ruse; he instead asks why do we say, with so much passion and so
much resentment against our most recent past, against our present, and against ourselves, that we are
if the topic of discussion is said to be

repressed then those who talk about it most are somehow fighting
against power itself. In other words, it does not matter whether the topic
is actually repressedI would argue that speaking about the margins holds
considerable rewards in the field of Communication and Media Studieswhat
matters is the way in which it is positioned as repressed and
therefore in need of liberation.
repressed? (8-9). He implies that
69
High Theory
High theorys discourses of liberation marginalize
members of underrepresented communities by prioritizing
the voices of scholars over any representation of
individual strugglesscholars should assist, not
dominate.
Richardson 12 (Chris Richardson has a doctorate in communication
studies. BETWEEN SCARLEM AND THE IVORY TOWER:AN
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC EXAMINATION OF MARGINALITY IN CANADIAN
COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA STUDIES published 2012, pp. 17-18. /\Burke/\)
When I first found critical theory and cultural studies and attempted
to bring these ideas back to Scarborough, I could not understand why
family and friends were not interested in hearing about them . I see
now that I was not necessarily liberating anyone by talking about
theories of emancipatory politics and false consciousness. If
anything, I was perpetuating the clich of the academic telling
marginalized groups how and why they are marginalized through
convoluted languageone of the reasons such groups tend not to
like academics. I realized that my neighbourhood was not condemned to
silence; it was condemned to speak about itself, to justify its
existence, to stay on the outside of the panopticon so to speak .
Baudrillard (1994) argues that such subject-resistance is today unilaterally valorized and viewed as
positivejust
as in the political sphere only the practices of freedom,

emancipation, expression, and the constitution of a political subject
are seen as valuable and subversive (85). Baudrillard asserts that it may actually be
more subversive notto speak: All the movements that only play on liberation,
emancipation, on the resurrection of a subject of history, of the
group, of the word based on consciousness raising...do not see that
they are going in the direction of the system (86). By not entering the
liberating discourses that have become institutionalized in certain
academic spheres, my friends, family, and neighbours may have
been acting more subversively than I was by forcing these calls for
liberation upon them. This is not to say that such groups should remain silent or ignore
theoretical work, but perhaps the best strategy is for these groups to enter this
fight on their own terms and for academe to assist in such work
rather than having well-meaning scholars, who likely understand the
theories of marginalization better than the daily experiences of
living on the margins, prescribe what should be done .
70
Islamophobia
The state justifies Islamophobic violence based on the premise that
surveillance and discrimination of Muslim people is for the greater
public good-the perceived injustices of Islam are used to justify
exclusions of Muslims from the public realm
Bhattacharyya in 08 (Gargi, Professor of Law and Social Sciences at the University of East
London. Dangerous Brown Men and the War on Terror. Published by the Centre for Ethinicity and Racism
Studies, 2008).
The various disavowals of racism that occur in the name of the War on Terror
and the related activity of reclaiming state racism as a legitimate response to
dangerous differences of belief and culture could be seen as embodying a
wider backlash against the analytic status of race and racism as structuring
forces in society. Instead, the rhetoric of us and them portrays this new battle of
ideas as rooted in differences of values, beliefs and ways of life. If the other is
hiding their adherence to a demonic, violent and destructive culture and set
of beliefs, it is not racist to use the surveillance and categorisation techniques
of a modern state to limit the threat that this poses. We are back to
deciphering bodies, but now in order to discern adherence to these
dangerous beliefs. Religious identity occupies a different status to ideas of
race, and there have been claims from different quarters that religion is the
new race and that ideas of social justice should be reconsidered in the light of
this shift (Modood, 1992; Gottschalk, 2007). For those wishing to defend and represent religious
minorities, this claim is framed to extend demands for social equality to include extended rights to
the same
claim is presented to argue that racism has been eliminated precisely
because it was recognised to be an unnecessary and irrational social evil but
that antagonism towards the practices and values of religious minorities is
not and cannot be racism because religion is an issue of belief and free-will.
Seeking to accommodate the beliefs and practices of minorities in the name
of equality is a bad thing for society, because some beliefs and practices
make bad things happen and are bad for society. The continual return to the
alleged status of women in Islam and/or in the conception of those professing
various strands of political Islam could be seen to represent one process of
counter-narrative. In implicit, and sometimes explicit, response to the
allegation that Muslim minorities are marginalised and face social exclusion in
western societies, a counter-claim is made that alleges that these groups
cannot expect equality when their own cultural practices deny equality to
women. This claim suggests that the social ills faced by Muslim communities
are not discrimination on the grounds of religion or race, but are an outcome
of other groups proper disapproval of Muslim accounts of the status of
women. As such beliefs are a cultural choice, unlike the naturalised and absolute difference
religious freedom and recognition and a linking of social and cultural rights. For others,
of physicalised conceptions of race, Muslims should change their unpleasant ways in order to gain social
There are similar implications in statements about

purported Muslim attitudes to sexuality, personal freedom and allegiance to
state and nation. Therefore counternarratives include the suggestions that
granting equal treatment to Muslims would entail condoning discrimination
against lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people and a general unleashing of
sexual repression against all; that Islam denies personal liberty and therefore
any accommodation with Muslim communities would lead to an erosion of
personal freedom for all; that Islam demands a transnational and mutual
acceptance and equality.
71
allegiance between Muslims that over-rides the claim of any national law or
allegiance and therefore Muslims must be scrutinised and persecuted if
national security is to be defended. At the heart of each narrative is the
assertion that unequal treatment is not only justifiable, it is
necessary for the greater good. In the process, racism is resurrected as a
respectable and also necessary practice, but now on the grounds of the
dangers of insurmountable cultural difference. The demonisation of Muslims
serves as a model through which to rework racial difference as a matter of
threatening cultural difference and the need to preserve social goods such as
womens rights, sexual freedom and personal liberty . Thus, while oldfashioned physicalised racism is derided, yet another new cultural racism emerges to
explain the misfortunes of minority communities in the labour market,
criminal justice and education systems and at the hands of
their neighbours as an outcome of their own illiberal, repressive and
discriminatory culture which makes it impossible for them to integrate with
the more progressive majority culture and leads to their self-segregation .
Muslims are the most identified focus of such narratives, but similar allegations transfer easily to other
the shift in popular racist mythologies

calls upon earlier tropes of the sexually predatory other, representations of
political/religious extremism imply a refusal of westernised sexual cultures,
an alternative set of myths about those who refuse the pleasurecentred commodified depravity of the West. This is portrayed as a much more
suspect perversion - one that leads to outbursts of
frustrated sexualised violence or, alternatively, that uses sexuality as a tool in
a larger ideological battle. The dangerous brown man of the war on terror is
a sexualised figure, but this is a different sexualisation from that of the
mythically phallic black man. The cultural narrative of terror also relies on an
idea of sex: as an explanation for inhuman behaviour; as an extension of the
fear of violence; as the narrative that can imaginatively embody the
otherwise faceless demons of War on Terror.
groups who face disadvantage. At the same time as
72
Legal Reform
The valorization of legal personhood sans surveillance
operates along a pendulum of inclusion and exclusion
the legal order only offers temporary escape from
surveillance, all the while maintaining a permanent war
against non-normative bodies and behaviors
Puar 7 (Jasbir Puar, Associate Professor of Women's & Gender Studies at Rutgers University, Terrorist
Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times Duke University Press, November 2007)
Reflecting upon contemporary debates about the United States as empire, Amy Kaplan notes, The
idea of empire has always paradoxically entailed a sense of spatial

and temporal limits, a narrative of rising and falling, which U.S.
exceptionalism has long kept at bay. Later, she states, The denial and
disavowal of empire has long served as the ideological cornerstone of
U.S. imperialism and a key component of American exceptionalism.
Thus, for Kaplan the distancing of exceptionalism from em pire achieves
somewhat contradictory twofold results: the superior United States is not
subject to empires shortcomings, as the apparatus of empire is
unstable and ultimately empires fall; and the United States creates
the impression that empire is beyond the pale of its own morally
upright behavior, such that all violences of the state are seen , in some
moral, cultural, or political fashion as anything but the violence of empire. U.S.
exceptionalism hangs on a narrative of transcendence , which places
the United States above empire in these two respects, a project that is aided
by what Do menico Losurdo names as the fundamental tendency to transform the
Judeo-Christian tradition into a sort of national religion that
consecrates the exceptionalism of American people and the sacred
mission with which they are entrusted (Manifest Destiny).19 Kaplan,
claiming that current narratives of empire take American exceptionalism to new heights, ar gues that a
concurrent paradoxical claim to uniqueness and universality are
coterminous in that they share a teleological narrative of
inevitability that posits America as the arbiter of appropriate
ethics, human rights, and democratic behavior while exempting
itself without hesitation from such universalizing mandates. 2
Whether one agrees that American exceptionalism has attained new heights, Kaplans analysis perfectly
illustrates the intractability of state of exception discourses from those of exceptionalism. Laying claim to
unique ness (exception = singularity) and universality (exceptional = bequeathing teleological narrative) is
the state of exception is deemed

necessary in order to restore, protect, and maintain the status quo ,
the normative ordering that then allows the United States to hail its
purported universality. The indispensability of the United States is
thus sutured through the naturalized conjunction of singularity and
telos, the paradox withered away.2 State of exception discourses
rationalize egregious violence in the name of the preservation of a
not quite as paradoxical as Kaplan insists, for
73
way of life and those privileged to live it. Giorgio Agamben, noting that biopolitics
continually seeks to redefine the boundaries between life and death, writes, The state of
exception is neither external nor internal to the juridical order, and
the problem of defining it concerns precisely a threshold, or a zone of
indifference, where inside and outside do not exclude each other but
rather blur with each other. 22 The temporality of exception is one
that seeks to conceal itself ; the frenzied mode of emergency is an
alibi for the quiet certitude of a slowly normativized working
paradigm of liberal democratic government, an alibi necessary to
disavow its linkages to totalitarian governments. The state of
exception thus works to hide or even deny itself in order to further its
expanse, its presence and efficacy, surfacing only momentarily and
with enough gumption to further legitimize the occupation of more
terrain. Agamben likens the externally internal space of the state of
exception to a Mbius strip: at the moment it is cast outside it
becomes the inside. In the state of exception, the exception insidiously
becomes the rule, and the exceptional is normalized as a regulatory
ideal or frame; the exceptional is the excellence that exceeds the
parameters of proper subjecthood and, by doing so, redefines these
parameters to then normativize and render invisible (yet transparent)
its own excellence or singularity.
Sexual exceptionalism also works by glossing over its own policing of
the boundaries of acceptable gender, racial, and class formations. That
is, homosexual sexual exceptionalism does not necessarily contradict
or un dermine heterosexual sexual exceptionalism; in actuality it may
support forms of heteronormativity and the class, racial, and
citizenship privileges they require. The historical and contemporaneous
production of an gent normativity, hornonormativity, ties the recognition of
homosexual subjects, both legally and representationally, to the
national and trans national political agendas of U.S. imperialism.
Homonormativity can be read as a formation complicit with and
invited into the biopolitical valorization of life in its inhabitation and
reproduction of heteronormative norms. One prime mechanism of
sexual exceptionalism is mobilized by discourses of sexual
repression a contemporary version of Foucaults re pressive hypothesisthat are
generative of a bio- and geopolitical global mapping of sexual
cultural norms. Unraveling discourses of U.S. sexual exceptionalism
is vital to critiques of U.S. practices of empire (most of which only intermittently
take up questions of gender and rarely sexuality) and to the expansion of queerness
beyond narrowly conceptualized frames that foreground sexual
identity and sexual acts.
Given that our contemporary political climate of U.S. nationalism relies so heavily on homophobic
demonization of sexual others, the argument that homosexuality is included within and contributes
74
positively to the optimi zation of life is perhaps a seemingly counterintuitive stance. Nonetheless, it is
imperative that we continue to read the racial, gender, class, and national dimensions of these vilifying
to avert that some or certain

homosexual bodies signify hornonorma tive nationalismhomonationalism is
in no way intended to deny, diminish, or disavow the daily violences
of discrimination , physical and sexual assault, familial ostracism,
economic disadvantage, and lack of social and legal legitimacy that
sexual others must regularly endure; in short, most queers, whether as subjects
or populations, still hover amid regimes of deferred or outright death.
What I am working through in this text are the manifold trajectories of
racialization and un-nationalization of sexual others that foster the
conditions of possibility for such violent relegation to death. The
spectral resistances to gay marriage, gay adoptive and parental
rights, Dont Ask, Dont Tell policies, and the privatization of
sexuality entail that the protection of life granted through national
belonging is a precarious invitation at best. Second, there is no organic
unity or cohesion among homonationalisms; these are partial,
fragmentary, uneven formations, implicated in the pendular
momentum of inclusion and exclusion , some dissipating as quickly
as they appear. Thus, the cost of being folded into life might be quite
steep, both for the subjects who are interpellated by or aspire to the
tight inclusiveness of homonormativity offered in this moment, and
for those who decline or are declined entry due to the undesirability
of their race, ethnicity, religion, class, national origin, age, or bodily
ability. It also may be the case, as Barry D. Adams argues. that the United States is
exceptional only to the degree to which, globally speaking, t is
unexceptional, another angle that stresses the contingency of any
welcome of queer life. In terms of legal recognition of gay and lesbian relationships, Adams
mechanisms. So I proceed with two caveats. First,
notes ironically that to some extent the United States lags behind most European countries, as well as
Canada, Brazil, Colombia, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africaa backwardness that the United
States often ascribes to others in comparison to itself.24 We can also say that the United States has
investments in being exceptionally beteronormative even as it claims to be exceptionally tolerant of
(homosexual) difference. But Adamss reliance on lag reinscribes a troubling teleology of modernity that,
despite situating exceptionalism as a narrative that masks or fuzzes over regional differences, impels like-
efforts to
determine whether the United States is indeed exceptional, efforts that have
dominated various debates in history, Ameri can studies, and political science, among other fields, have
focused on comparative empirical studies that do little to challenge
or even question this telos. 25 With the range of discussion on American exceptionalism n
mind, my intent is not to determine whether the United States is
indeed exceptionalexceptionally good or ahead, or exceptionally
behind or different but to illustrate the modes through which such
claims to exceptionalism are loaded with unexamined discourses
about race, sexuality, gender, and class. Furthermore, exceptionalisms
rely on the erasure of these very modalities in order to function;
these elisions are , in effect, the ammunition with which the exception,
minded countries in a unilateral itinerary rather than multidirec tional flows. Some
75
necessary to guard the properties of life, becomes the norm , and the
exceptional, the subjects upon whom this task is bestowed, becomes
the normal.
76
Omission
Failure to use an intersectional lens is what allows the
state to exploit the nature of surveillance to construct
identities
Smith et al 13 (Smith, G.J.D., M. San Roque, H. Westcott and P. Marks. 2013. Editorial:
Surveillance Texts and Textualism: Truthtelling and Trustmaking in an Uncertain World. Surveillance &
Society 11(3): 215-221. http://www.surveillance-and-society.org | ISSN: 1477-7487 The author(s), 2013 |
Licensed to the Surveillance Studies Network under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No
Derivatives license)
If there was a single unifying feature common to all surveillance

machineries it is their unique capacity to create (record) and screen
(visualise) para-testimonies, mediated signifiers of phenomena and
events that, as informatic mines, are readily exploited to inform and
titillate, to jolt and jog, to arbitrate and convict, and to provide a
given sequence or population with additional definition and tonality.
They extend insight, they tender corroboration and they facilitate connectivity. But what gives
surveillance systems such cogency and valorisation in todays
political and cultural economies is their intrinsic aptitude to
manufacture an enduring textual emblem, either in the form of a
meticulous remembrance or a prophetic anticipation of some future
eventuality that, from an embodied and individualised perspective,
can often seem like a dissolving or transitory actuality (Yurick 1985).
Surveillance helps people organise, arrange, understand, narrate and validate their existence, in both
formal and informal ways. That is to say, it enhances an agents wherewithal to tell and relay stories about
her or his lifeand to document, peruse and verify the claims of lateral others. As text-making resources
and visualisation technologies, surveillant measures can be applied to address and resolve any number of
socially induced problems: problems of population, problems of economy, problems of pestilence,
problems of poverty, problems of isolation, problems of corruption, problems of disorder, problems of
uncertainty, problems of expertise, problems of authority, problems of trust, problems of complexity,
problems of scarcity, and problems of inequality. It is for these reasons that we have focused this special
issue on the textual dimensions of surveillanceas a means of text-making and as a textualised end.
77
The State
Reformist logic enhances state power which justifies
its atrocities as well as legitimizes the creation of a
singular identity. The impact is dehumanization and
framework
(A grassroots organizer who identifies as genderqueer and transgender, Queering the Singularity, Here is to Dancing and
Derailing, https://queersingularity.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/heres-to-dancing-and-derailing///NMM)
the prison-industrial complex and war machine attest to

the utter failure of reformism in the United States. Despite all
the earnest progressives who have been working within the
system for decades, the state continues to kidnap ped, torture,
and incarcerate hundreds of thousands for growing or
possessing the wrong species of plant. This stands irreconcilably
at odds with empathy as well as the principles of freedom and
justice. To name but one more example, the U.S. government has forcibly
relocated over a million people since Barack Obama took
office, most simply because they happened to born outside of
an arbitrary line in the sand. Even if you accept authority in theory which I vehemently
do not exercising such organized and mechanical violence
against human bodies on such flimsy bases constitutes a
heartbreaking and infuriating outrage. If reformism cannot
even end these horrors, why bother ? Given the numbers
already involved in long-term campaigns to improve the state,
why should we expect that incorporating ourselves into the
process will meaningfully change anything? Liberalism has
failed over and over again to end even the worst sorts of
institutionalized violence despite considerable participation
from arguably well-meaning people . Dont let Dale convince you itll be
different after you jump on board. More ominously , Dales insistence on the
necessity of the state enhances its legitimacy and thus power .
To begin,
The anarchist critique identifies bureaucratic coercion and the mentality of obedience as a key
statist discourse risks furthering the

Saying we absolutely need the same institution that torments
me and my comrades on a daily basis as well as murders folks like
Abdul-Rahmanal-Awlaki leaves us with no way out . By funneling our
fierce passions into the void of electoral democracy and pathologizing autonomy, statist
source of oppression. Progressive
78
logic justifies these atrocities and all but assures their

indefinite reiteration . Dales statism contradicts eir profession of both nonviolence
and pluralism. As any political theorist will tell you, the state relies on a
monopoly on violence for its very existence. This feature of state power
likewise permits only limited pluralism. Under the logic of authority, any actor not subdued,
tamed, and domesticated presents a threat. While Dale asserts that [n]o one ideal will prevail
over the diversity of our peers,
the state demands submission to a
singular ideal. This project has yet to conclude the states monopoly on violence
remains incomplete but the goal is definitional. Anyone who materially defies the dominance of
the U.S. government faces a prompt
79
Surveillance Studies
Contemporary surveillance studies ignore issues of gender-the aff
continues this by not analyzing gender-this allows surveillance
practices to make people fit into a binary conception of gender and
reinforce heteronormativity.
Koskela in 12 (Hille, Professor at the University of Turku. You Shouldnt be Wearing that Body:
The problematic of surveillance and gender. Published in the Routledge Hankbook of Surveillance Studies,
edited by Kristie Ball, Kevin Haggerty, and David Lyon, pgs. 49-50. Published by Routledge, 2012)
Gender has not been the most popular research topic among
surveillance scholars. Considering how well established the field of gender studies is, and how
strongly surveillance studies has been embracing the study of concrete everyday issues, it is
surprising that these fields have not been better integrated . The
histories of (controlling) gender/sexualities and of surveillance are
very much connected, and there is much to understand and discover about this topic.
Gender is embedded in a complex range of relations where power
and repression are associated with the exercise of surveillance. Long
before the development of contemporary surveillance technologies,
gender and sexuality were intensely controlled by social and moral
norms, which entailed their own forms of interpersonal monitoring ,
and in many places of the world this is still the case. Historically, women and sexual
minorities have pioneers in challenging and refusing to submit to
such control. Today, surveillance helps to reinforce sexual norms by
creating pressures for self-regulation. The operation of surveillance
is also full of male assumptions and assorted gendered dynamics.
Focusing on gender relations negotiated under surveillance also
helps us come to terms with other forms of power and exclusion. Early
feminist scholars tended to label all sorts of things as masculine-technology, academic understanding,
and reason-which were counterpoised to the more feminine domains of emotion and culture. In such
accounts, gender was-as we now realize-confused with sex, the biological
essence of each individual being either a woman or a man. Women were claimed to be different just by
It was believed that womens softness

made a difference to how they understood the world and made
decisions. Technology, among other things, was generally viewed in a negative light, as if it was
something inherently masculine-a male conspiracy (Wajcman 1991). This position was also
part of a larger feminist reaction to the sense that the histories
produced by men reproduced the male/female dichotomy by only
telling one side of any story. Unfortunately, it also inhibited the
development of greater understandings of contemporary
surveillance dynamics. Feminist scholars later recognized that it is not the sexual
qualities of people themselves that matter but, rather, the gendered
nature of power relations. Notions of biological essence were abandoned and gender
became the focal point of academic inquiry (Wilson 1991). Scholars agreed that there is no
uniform category of women, nor a single trajectory of feminist academic thinking. Mere
virtue of being (biologically) women.
sex as a basis for social difference was questioned and replaced by a spectrum of multiple differently
This gender spectrum is significantly more complex

than the male-female binary system, as it accentuates that there are
sexual identities that do not fit into the normative conception of
gendered identities.
80
gender. Biological sex, gender, and the body are connected , but not in a
simple way. Rather, there is a complex range of female, male, lesbian, gay,
queer, transgendered, transsexual and androgyny identities. Additionally,
gender and sexuality are constantly negotiated. Gender is not a
stable quality, but is always also performed (McGrath, 2004). This performativity, however, does
not mean that gender can be escaped. Whether female, male, transgender, queer or other, the body
is what is visible to others and that makes a difference in how
people perceive and approach one another. This makes for a complex
gendered politics of looking and being looked at. At the same time,
formal surveillance systems still require people to fit into a twogendered world. Regardless of our identities, we are treated as
female or male . Thus far, only artists circulate forms asking people to tick male/female/other. This
accentuates the issue of information, as material bodies are increasingly accompanied by what has been
Visual surveillance is augmented by

dataveillance, with all sorts of information being attached to bodies,
creating digital shadows as bodies are turned into data (see van der Ploeg,
called a data double, or virtual body.
this volume). These digital shadows are connected in various ways to actual persons, but sometimes take
the information is created on the

basis of pre supposed categorizations, such as male/female, age,
nationality, employment, neighborhood, and so on. People have little
influence on how these categories are formed or into which
categories they are slotted (see Jenkins, this volume). Nevertheless, such
categorizations increasingly determine how people are treated , for
on surprisingly active roles of their own. Furthermore,
example as welfare or health care clients, paying customers or travelers (Monahan 2009). Occasionally,
such data doubles can take over ones material body, as in the case where a person ends up on a black
list of international travel restrictions without knowing the reason why. Data enables, but also restricts, and
surveillance data is very difficult, if not impossible, to correct or erase.

Gender intertwines with marginalization and practices of intense
information gathering. Disciplinary power and control are linked not
only with gender and sexual oppression but to the intersections of class, race,
ability, and the like. Surveillance data are used for social sorting, in which
less privileged populations are disproportionately stigmatized,
discriminated against, or excluded. This also tends to sustain moral
norms and cultural codes. While current academic thinking acknowledges the pluralistic
nature of gender and sexuality, disciplinary practices reinforce
heteronormativity: the moral and cultural pressure to fit into the male-female setting.
81
Satiable Demands
Government reform is never anything more than a
symbolic victory that is a guise for violence
Spade 13
Dean Spade, Associate Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law,
transgender, intersex and gender non-conforming people activist
Intersectional Resistance and Law Reform - http://www.deanspade.net/wpcontent/uploads/2014/05/signs-proofs.pdf - Published 2/23/23 - Accessed
7/9/15 - JDD
Social movements using critical intersectional tools are making demands that are often difficult for legal
scholars to comprehend because of the ways that they throw US law and the nation-state form into crisis.
legal equality contains and neutralizes

resistance and perpetuates intersectional violence and because they identify
Because they recognize the fact that
purportedly neutral administrative systems as key vectors of that violence, critical scholars and activists
are making demands that include ending immigration enforcement and abolishing policing and prisons.
These demands suggest that the technologies of gendered racialization that form the nation cannot be
reformed into fair and neutral systems. These systems are technologies of racialized-gendered population
control that cannot operate otherwisethey are built to extinguish perceived threats and drains in order to
protect and enhance the livelihood of the national population. These kinds of demands and the analysis
they represent produce a different relation to law reform strategies than the national narrative about law
reform suggests, and different than what is often assumed by legal scholars interested in the field of
legal equality victories are being exposed as

primarily symbolic declarations that stabilize the status quo of
violence, declarations from courts or legislatures become
undesirable goals. Instead, law reform, in this view, might be used as a tactic of transformation
equality law. Because
focused on interventions that materially reduce violence or maldistribution without inadvertently

expanding harmful systems in the name of reform. One recent example is the campaign against gang
injunctions in Oakland, California.
A broad coalitioncomprising organizations

focused on police violence, economic justice, imprisonment, youth development,
immigration, gentrification, and violence against queer and trans people
succeeded in recent years in bringing significant attention to the efforts of John Russo, Oaklands city
attorney, to introduce gang injunctions (Critical Resistance 2011). The organizations in this coalition are
prioritizing anticriminalization work that might usually be cast as irrelevant or marginal to organizations
focused on the single axis of womens or LGBT equality. The campaign has a law reform target in that it
seeks to prevent the enactment of certain law enforcement mechanisms that are harmful to vulnerable
communities. However, it is not a legal-equality campaign. Rather than aiming to change a law or policy
that explicitly excludes a category of people, it aims to expose the fact that a facially neutral policy is
administered in a racially targeted manner (Davis 2011; Stop the Injunctions 2011). Furthermore, the
coalition frames its campaign within a larger set of demands not limited to what can be won within the
current structure of American law but focused on population-level conditions of maldistribution. The
demands of the coalition include stopping all gang injunctions and police violence; putting resources
toward reentry support and services for people returning from prison, including fully funded and immediate
access to identity documents, housing, job training, drug and alcohol treatment, and education; banning
employers from asking about prior convictions on job applications; ending curfews for people on parole and
probation; repealing Californias three-strikes law; reallocating funds from prison construction to education;
ending all collaborations between Oaklands government and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE);
providing affordable and low-income housing; making Oaklands Planning Commission accountable
regarding environmental impacts of development; ending gentrification; and increasing the accountability
of Oaklands city government while augmenting decision-making power for Oakland residents (Stop the
These demands evince an analysis of conditions facing

vulnerable communities in Oakland (and beyond) that cannot be resolved
solely through legal reform since they include the significant harm
Injunctions 2011).
82
inflicted when administrative bodies like ICE and the Planning Commission
implement violent programs under the guise of neutral rationales.
These demands also demonstrate an intersectional analysis of harm
and refuse logics of deservingness that have pushed many social
movements to distance themselves from criminalized populations.
Instead, people caught up in criminal and immigration systems are portrayed as those in need of resources
and support, and the national fervor for law and order that has gripped the country for decades, emptying
public coffers and expanding imprisonment, is criticized.
Making a satiable demand on the state to curtail surveillance leaves

intact the use of surveillance to foster social control
Hier in 03 (Sean, Professor of Sociology at the University of Victoria. Probing the Surveillant
Assemblage: on the dialectics of surveillance practices as processes of social control. Surveillance and
Society, 2003)
With an exaggerated degree of importance assigned to the social and cultural effects of the technological
the surveillant assemblage rests

on the assumption that the impetus to surveillance comes
fundamentally from above, from elite, police or government. As
surveillance technologies increasingly made possible the monitoring
of a wider portion of the population, this has been interpreted as a
shift in the cultural character of surveillance hierarchies . Yet, the fallout of
capabilities of contemporary surveillance practices,
an acceleration in the expansion of surveillance infrastructures has not been the tearing away of
a polarization of hierarchies has

ensued in the form of a simultaneous leveling and solidification of
already existing fractures. One form in which the solidification of
surveillance hierarchies assumes is a dynamic set of practices
conceptualized in terms of social control processes. Admittedly, the
epistemology of social control, which has enjoyed a long history in sociological writings,
has tended to produce a kind of determinism implying that there
exists an acting society, social structure or remote governmental
body that acts upon an otherwise homogenous population in a
singular and uniform manner. It is for this reason that recent sociological
discourse on social control has sought to understand the workings of
governmental projects by drawing attention to the importance of the
intersection of state practices with processes and techniques of self
formation. Maintaining a conceptual emphasis on the role of human agency, as well as the
configurational character of state policy, the popular dimensions that presuppose
social control processes in their manifest form have been prioritized
(cf. Hunt 1999; Hier 2003). What has hitherto been ignored is the role that
surveillance practices in terms of the mutual conditioning of
synoptical forces and panoptical desires have to play in the
formation of processes of social control.
surveillance hierarchies sui generis, but rather
83
Settler Colonialism
We are speaking on stolen land-queer theorys fails to conceptualize
heteropatriarchy in relation to settler colonialism and foonotes Native demandsthat ensures the erasure of the Natives genocide and its assimilation under the
settler colonial nation state.
Driskill 10 (Qwo-Li, professor at college of liberal arts,Doubleweaving Two-Spirit Critiques:
Building Alliances between Native and Queer Studies, Duke University Press, accessed:
7/9/15)
However, the fact that Native people have largely been left out of these critiques points to major ruptures
in queer theories. Not only are Native people and Native resistance movements rarely a subject of
analysis, the specific political and historical realities of Native people seem outside queer studies
purview. This means that at best analyses of race, nation, diaspora, history, sexuality, and gender
are deeply lacking and that at worst these critiques risk colluding with master narratives both
inside and outside the academy that, as Powell describes, un-see Native people: Material Indian bodies
are simply not seen so that the mutilations, rapes, and murders that characterized . . . first-wave
genocide also simply are not seen.24 When Native people are mentioned in the new queer studies, it is
usually only in passing, and often within lists of other people of color.25 Even while Gopinath locates her notion
of the impossible in Jos Rabasas interpretations of Zapatista resistance, the connections between Zapatista decolonial
movements and similar movements in the United States and Canada remain un-said and un-seen.26
While it may be true that through the lens of queer diaspora, various writers and visual artist s such as Nice
Rodriguez, Ginu Kamani, Audre Lorde, R. Zamora Linmark, Richard Fung, and Achy Obejas . . . can now be deciphered and read
simultaneously into multiple queer and national genealogies, a
lens of queer diaspora as it is currently imagined

and formulated does little to elucidate the work of Native (and arguably diasporic) writers and artists such as
Clint Alberta, Louis Cruz, Thirza Cuthand, Daniel Heath Justice, Deborah Miranda, or Craig Womack.27 Though this may be contrary
to the intent of the authors, the
mere inclusion of Native people within lists of other groups of color

unwittingly contributes to the erasure of the specificity of Native claims to land and to the particular
relationships Native people and Native nations have with Euro-American colonial governments. People
who are Indigenous to the places now called the United States and Canada complicate notions of queer diasporic critique in important
ways. While
many of us are indeed diasporic, notions of diaspora must be deeply questioned and
revised in order to be inclusive of our experiences. Queer of color critique and queer diasporic critique
have rightly looked at the misogyny and queerphobia too often present in nationalist struggles and
have offered queerness as a tool that deconstructs and reformulates concepts of nation. Gopinath argues: A
consideration of queerness . . . becomes a way to challenge nationalist ideologies by restoring the impure, inauthentic,
nonreproductive potential of the notion of diaspora. Indeed, the
urgent need to trouble and denaturalize the close

relationship between nationalism and heterosexuality is precisely what makes the notion of a queer
diaspora so compelling.28 Such a critique is important for Two-Spirit people as well, but needs revision to include Native
nations. The current legal place of federally recognized Native nations within the United States as
domestic dependent nations and the many struggles for sovereignty both within and outside this
legal category trouble concepts of nation and nationalism that fall under these queer critiques. For
Native people in often tenuous relationships to colonial powers, nationalist struggles and politics are a
center of resistance against colonialism. Andrea Smith offers Native feminist critiques as a way to think of
nationalism and sovereignty beyond the nation-state: Whereas nation-states are governed through
domination and coercion, indigenous sovereignty and nationhood are predicated on interrelatedness
and responsibility. In opposition to nation-states, which are based on control over territory, these
visions of indigenous nationhood are based on care and responsibility for land that all can share. These
models of sovereignty are not based on a narrow definition of nation that would entail a closely
bounded community and ethnic cleansing. So, these articulations pose an alternative to theories that
assume that the endpoint to a national struggle is a nation state and that assume the givenness of the
nation-state system.29 Native Two-Spirit/queer people position ourselves and our identities as
84
productive, if not central, to nationalist, decolonial agendas. Within Native politics, being part of nationalist
struggles is not an assimilationist move but instead a move against the colonial powers that have
attempted to dissolve or restrain Native sovereignties. As I discuss below, Two-Spirit critiques can
simultaneously push queer studies to a more complex analysis of nation while also incorporating the
critiques of heteropatriarchal nationalisms that queer studies offers in order to fight against
heterosexism, homophobia, and rigid gender binaries in decolonial theories and activism.
85
Welfare
Welfare surveillance is a result, not a cause of
discrimination
Heir 03
A high-tech surveillance system capable of monitoring all legitimate forms of welfare recipients income
for risks of infraction or abuse, CRIS-E brings together state-wide databases to manage and evaluate,
surveil and administer welfare allowances. What is so alarming about the system is not the states
stronghold over poor single mothers, but the disciplinary effects of CRIS-E. As Gilliom relates through
interview data, although single mothers accessing welfare fully realize that the state does not provide
enough in allowances to meet basic necessities, many refrain from taking side jobs for fear of termination
from welfare or, equally as feared, the inspection. What the latter involves is state agents interrogating
recipients to ascertain their deservingness or worthiness under conditions of secrecy as to the purpose
of the inspection. Indeed, Gilliom is correct to observe that it is hard to image a more compelling example
of the politics of vision and how surveillance operates as a form of domination over the body, contributing
to the exasperation rather than leveling of hierarchies of surveillance. The implementation of CRIS-E draws
Gillioms
discussion fails to fully account for the desires motivating the
development of such a system. Going some distance to accommodate for this
attention to important panoptic developments in the regulation of poor single mothers, but
shortcoming, Margaret Little (2001) has sought to understand the consequences of New Right politics on
the surveillance of poor single mothers accessing welfare in Ontario since 1995. As she argues, by playing
on myths surrounding single mothers who access government allowance as lazy criminals who present a
the
government has been afforded popular legitimacy to significantly
reduce allowances for poor single mothers whilst at the same time
enhancing a variety of surveillance mechanisms which govern their
lives. When the conservative government under the leadership of former Premier Mike Harris ascended
significant risk to the welfare system, the state and ultimately the moral underpinnings of society,
to power in Ontario in 1995, it was on a New Right policy platform combining a neo-liberal emphasis on
reducing the size and role of government with a neo-conservative focus oriented towards getting tough
with moral deviants. One of the central discursive objects of contention in the Harris Tories campaign
strategy was the welfare recipient. Riding on a populist platform reflected in the nations mainstream
press, the conservatives agenda included a strong codified discourse focusing on welfare dependency,
responsibilization and levels of benefits that we cant afford (Knight 1998:109). At the start of their
campaign, the conservatives were significantly behind the liberals in the polls, as the liberals enjoyed over
50% support with the conservatives at 25%. Voicing a consistent and clear commitment to cutting
government spending, introducing mandatory workfare and cutting welfare costs, as well as taking a hard
line with juvenile offenders and rescinding useless employment equity/race relations policies, the
conservatives media strategies memorably involved Mike Harris standing in front of a mock road sign
reading Welfare, Ontario, to the point that by the fourth week of the campaign the liberals lead was
vanishing (ibid). Particularly noteworthy about the conservatives election platform was not simply that
they assigned a conflated sense of blame for high levels of government spending to moral deviants,
welfare recipients and criminals, but an additional level of failure was attributed to the structure of
government itself. This strategy effectively served to set up two discursive antagonisms: first it situated
honest citizens against those on the social and moral margins, individualizing blame and social
responsibility; and second, it problematized the role of the state in social welfare, identifying responsible
government as a problem in and of itself. As Mathiesen maintains, the visual domain of synopticon vis-a-vis
the press represents a totalizing message system tailored to the requirements of modernity, functioning
to constrain popular consciousness in the interests of power and control. Inside synopticon, he laments,
....the material is purged of everything but the criminal what was originally a small segment of a human
being becomes the whole human being whereupon the material is hurled back into the open society as
stereotypes and panic-like, terrifying stories about individual cases (op. cit:231). By articulating a
generalized sense of crisis along the dual axes of the political and the transgressive, the Harris campaign
86
served to tap into populist anxieties pertaining to middle-class discontentment with state spending, public
safety and welfare abuse. Understood in the context of the wider political landscape of the early 1990s,
the conservatives ascendancy to power was set against the backdrop of rising provincial debt, severe
recession, growing unemployment and an NDP government perceived as a failure in the eyes of business
Attributing responsibility to careless government spending,

able-bodied workers who refuse to participate in the labour force
and single mothers living in subsidized housing projects with male
partners akin to brothels (cf. Little 1999), the Harris Tories managed to muster enough momentum to
win 45% of the popular vote. Their first term in power brought a reduction in
welfare benefits by nearly 22%, the implementation of a workfare
programme and reduced allowances to those who seek retraining
and educational advancement. But nothing was so devastating as the mechanisms of
surveillance implemented under the Harris governments Designed to stamp out
fraud, several verification measures were enacted which involved
welfare workers demanding literally hundreds of pieces of
information from poor single mothers (Little 2001). With a wider concern to rationalize
and labour.
the administration of welfare, old paper documents were increasingly transferred to computer files. Over
the duration of these processes, it was discovered that several pieces of verifying documentation were
missing from welfare recipients files. Subsequently, everything from assets, documented employment
histories and relationships with ex-spouses/lovers to the sale of personal belongings some of which
transpired over a decade prior to the request for documentation were demanded. The stresses placed on
women who were faced with fewer financial resources to track down such information (to offset childcare,
travel fees and service charges), combined with barriers such as those faced by aboriginal women who
were forced to deal with The Department of Indian and Northern Development, women who had to contact
abusive ex-spouses or immigrant women forced to seek documentation in other countries.
Their questioning of welfare is one of privilege because it

ignores labor relations and how the queering of black
women results in justification for oppression replicates
their impacts
When Dan Quayle, then U.S. vice president, used the term family values near the end of a speech at a political fund-raiser
in 1992, he apparently touched a national nerve. Following Quayles speech, close to 300 articles with family values in
their titles appeared in the popular press. Despite the range of political perspectives expressed on family values, one
Family values, however defined, seemed important to

national well-being, and Quayle had tapped much deeper feelings
about the significance of ideas about family if not actual families
themselves in the United States. Dan Quayles and similar understandings
of family depend heavily on who controls the definitions . And the
definitions advanced by elite groups in the United States uniformly
work to the detriment of African-American women. Situated in the
center of family values debates is an imagined traditional family
ideal . Formed through a combination of marital and blood ties, normal families should
thing remained clear:
87
consist of heterosexual, racially homogeneous couples who produce

their own biological children. Such families should have a specific
authority structure, namely, a father-head earning an adequate
family wage, a stay-at-home wife and mother, and children . Idealizing the
traditional family as a private haven from a public world, family is seen as being held together through primary emotional
Assuming a relatively fixed sexual division of labor,

wherein womens roles are defined as primarily in the home with
mens in the public world of work, the traditional family ideal also
assumes the separation of work and family. Defined as a natural or biological
arrangement based on heterosexual attraction, instead this monolithic family type is actually
supported by government policy. It is organized not around a
biological core, but a statesanctioned, heterosexual marriage that
confers legitimacy not only on the family structure itself but on
children born in this family (Andersen 1991; Thorne 1992). In general, everything the imagined
bonds of love and caring.
traditional family ideal is thought to be, African-American families are not. Two elements of the traditional family ideal are
the assumed split between the

public sphere of paid employment and the private sphere of
unpaid family responsibilities has never worked for U.S. Black
women. Under slavery, U.S. Black women worked without pay in the allegedly public sphere of Southern agriculture
and had their family privacy routinely violated. Second, the public/private binary separating
the family households from the paid labor market is fundamental in
explaining U.S. gender ideology. If one assumes that real men work and real women take care of
families, then African-Americans suffer from deficient ideas concerning gender. In particular, Black women
become less feminine, because they work outside the home, work
for pay and thus compete with men, and their work takes them away
from their children. Framed through this prism of an imagined traditional family ideal, U.S. Black
womens experiences and those of other women of color are
typically deemed deficient (Higginbotham 1983; Glenn 1985; Mullings 1997). Rather than trying to
explain why Black womens work and family patterns deviate from the seeming normality of the traditional family ideal, a
more fruitful approach lies in challenging the very constructs of
work and family themselves (Collins 1998b). Understandings of work, like understandings of family,
especially problematic for African-American women. First,
vary greatly depending on who controls the definitions. In the following discussion of the distinction between work and
measures of self, May Madison, a participant in John Gwaltneys study of inner-city African-Americans, alludes to the
difference between work as an instrumental activity and work as something for self: One very important difference
between white people and black people is that white people think you are your work. . . . Now, a black person has more
sense than that because he knows that what I am doing doesnt have anything to do with what I want to do or what I do
when I am doing for myself. Now, black people think that my work is just what I have to do to get what I want. (Gwaltney
1980, 174) Ms. Madisons perspective criticizes definitions of work that grant White men more status and human worth
work is a contested
construct and that evaluating individual worth by the type of work
performed is a questionable practice in systems based on race and
gender inequality. Work might be better conceptualized by
examining the range of work that African-American women actually
perform.Work as alienated labor can be economically exploitative,
physically demanding, and intellectually deadening the type of work long
associated with Black womens status as mule. Alienated labor can be paidthe case of Black
because they are employed in better-paid occupations. She recognizes that
women in domestic service, those Black women working as dishwashers, dry-cleaning assistants, cooks, and health-care
or it can be
unpaid, as with the seemingly never-ending chores of many Black grandmothers and Black single mothers. But work
assistants, as well as some professional Black women engaged in corporate mammy work;
can also be empowering and creative, even if it is physically challenging and appears to be demeaning.
Exploitative wages that Black women were allowed to keep and use
88
for their own benefit or labor done out of love for the members of
ones family can represent such work. Again, this type of work can be either paid or unpaid.
What is the connection between U.S. Black womens work both in the labor market and in African-American family
networks? Addressing this question for four key historical periods in Black political economy uses this broader
understanding of Black womens work to further Black feminist analyses of U.S. Black womens oppression.
The affs advocacy assumes work relations and

domesticity are mutually exclusive this assumption
perpetuates capitalist class relations and reinforces their
impacts
Gender roles were similarly shaped under slavery. Black women
generally performed the same work as men. This enabled them to
recraft West African traditions whereby women were not limited to
devalued family labor (Jones 1985; D. White 1985). However, unlike African precolonial political
economies, where womens labor benefited their lineage group and their children, under slavery neither men nor women
got to keep what they produced. Under U.S. capitalism, slavery also established the racial division of labor whereby
African-Americans were relegated to dirty, manual, nonintellectual jobs. Despite slaverys burdens, African-Americans did
not perceive work as the problem but, rather, the exploitation inherent in the work they performed. A saying among
enslaved Africans, Its a poor dog that wont wag its own tail, alludes to popular perceptions among Blacks that Whites
Black womens work

affected the organization of child care. Perceptions of motherhood
as an unpaid occupation in the home comparable to paid male
occupations in the public sector advanced by the traditional family
ideal never became widespread among the majority of AfricanAmerican women (Mullings 1997). By denying enslaved African women marriage, citizenship, and even
were lazy and did not value work as much as African-Americans themselves.
humanity, slavery provided no social context for issues of privatized motherhood as a stay-at-home occupation. Instead,
communal child-care arrangements substituted for individualized maternal carea few women were responsible for caring
for all children too young to work, and women as a group felt accountable for one anothers children (D. White 1985).
African-American womens experiences as mothers have been

shaped by the dominant groups efforts to harness Black womens
sexuality and fertility to a system of capitalist exploitation. Efforts to
control U.S. Black womens reproduction were important to the
maintenance of the race, class, and gender inequality characterizing
the slave order in at least three ways. First, the biological notions of
race underpinning the racial subordination of the slave system
required socalled racial purity in order to be effective. Since children followed
the condition of their mothers, children born of enslaved Black women were slaves. Forbidding Black men to have sexual
relations with White women of any social class reduced the possibility that children of African descent would be born to
Motherhood
and racism were symbolically intertwined, with controlling the
sexuality and fertility of both African-American and White women
essential in reproducing racialized notions of American womanhood
White mothers. Any children born of such liaisons must be seen as being the product of rape.
(King 1973). Second, motherhood as an institution occupies a special place in transmitting values to children about their
On the one hand, a mother can foster her childrens

oppression if she teaches them to believe in their own inferiority .
proper place.
89
On the other hand, the relationship between mothers and children

can serve as a private sphere in which cultures of resistance and
everyday forms of resistance are learned (Scott 1985). When Black slave mothers taught
their children to trust their own self-definitions and value themselves, they offered a powerful tool for resisting oppression.
controlling Black womens reproduction was essential to the

creation and perpetuation of capitalist class relations. Slavery benefited certain
Finally,
segments of the U.S. population by economically exploiting others. As Black feminist intellectual Frances Ellen Watkins
Harper argued, How can we pamper our appetites upon luxuries drawn from reluctant fingers. Oh, could slavery exist
long if it did not sit on a commercial throne? (Sterling 1984, 160). Under such a system in which the control of property is
Slaveowners
controlled Black womens labor and commodified Black womens
bodies as units of capital. Moreover, as mothers, Black womens
fertility produced the children who increased their owners property
and labor force (Davis 1981; Burnham 1987).
fundamental, enslaved African women were valuable commodities (Williams 1991).
An integral part of the workforce, black women are

subjected to dependence on the state at guarantee of
mistreatment yet they are ignored
Black women who work yet remain poor form an important segment
of the Black working class. Labor market trends as well as changes in federal policies toward the poor
have left this group economically marginalized (Zinn 1989). Ironically, gender differences in the jobs held by working-poor
On average, approximately one-third

of Black women and men who find employment work in jobs
characterized by low wages, job instability, and poor working
conditions. These jobs are growing rapidly, spurred by the increasing
need for cooks, waitresses, waiters, laundry workers, health aides,
and domestic servants to service the needs of affluent middle- class
families. While plentiful, these jobs are mostly in neighborhoods far from
the inner-city communities where poor Black women live. Moreover, few
of these jobs offer the wages, stability, or advancement potential of
disappearing manufacturing jobs. The work performed by employed
poor Black women resembles duties long associated with domestic
service . During prior eras, domestic service was confined to private households. In contrast, contemporary cooking,
Black women and men are becoming less pronounced.
cleaning, nursing, and child care have been routinized and decentralized in an array of fastfood restaurants, cleaning
services, day-care centers, and service establishments. Black women perform similar work, but in different settings.
The location may have changed, but the work has not. Moreover, the
treatment of Black women resembles the interpersonal relations of
domination reminiscent of domestic work. Mabel Lincoln, an inner-city resident, describes
how the world looks to her as a working woman: If you are a woman slinging somebody
elses hash and busting somebody elses suds or doing whatsoever
you might do to keep yourself from being a tramp or a willing slave,
you will be called out of your name and asked out of your clothes. In
90
this world most people will take whatever they think you can give. It
dont matter whether they want it or not, whether they need it or
not, or how wrong it is for them to ask for it. (Gwaltney 1980, 68) Many Black
women turn to the informal labor market and to government
transfer payments to avoid being called out of their names and
asked out of their clothes. Many Black women over age 16 are not
employed, in many cases because they cannot find jobs, because
they are in school, have children to care for, are retired, or are in
poor health. A considerable proportion support themselves through
varying combinations of low-wage jobs and government transfer
payments. The employment vulnerability of working-class African-Americans in the postWorld War II political
economy, the relative employment equality of poor Black women and men, and the gender-specific patterns of
dependence on the informal economy all have substantial implications for U.S. Black women who find themselves among
the working poor. One effect has been the growth of families maintained by Black single mothers. As the testimonies of
the
alarming trend is the persistent poverty of African- American women
and children living in such households (Dickerson 1995a). The increase in
unmarried Black adolescent parents is only one indication of the
effects that changes in the broader political economy are having on
work and family patterns not just of poor Black women but of many
other segments of the U.S. population. Rates of adolescent pregnancy are actually
numerous African-Americans raised by their mothers suggest, such families are not inherently a problem. Rather,
decreasing among young Black women. The real change has been a parallel decrease in marital rates of Black
adolescents, a decision linked directly to how Black teens perceive opportunities to support and sustain independent
households. A sizable proportion of families maintained by Black single women are created by unmarried adolescent
mothers. This decline in marital rates, a postWorld War II trend that accelerated after 1960, is part of changes in AfricanAmerican community structures overall (Wilson 1987). The communal child-care networks of the slave era, the extended
family arrangements of the rural South, and the cooperative family networks of prior eras of Black urban migration have
eroded. These shifts portend major problems for African-American women and point to a continuation of Black womens
oppression, but structured through new institutional arrangements. The effects of these changes are convincingly
demonstrated in Ladner and Gourdines (1984) replication study of Tomorrows Tomorrow, Joyce Ladners (1972) study of
Black female adolescents. The earlier investigation examined poor Black teenage girls values toward motherhood and
Black womanhood. The girls in the original study encountered the common experiences of urban poverty they became
mothers quite young, lived in substandard housing, attended inferior schools, and generally had to grow up quickly in
order to survive. But despite the harshness of their environments, the girls in the earlier sample still had high hopes and
dreams that their futures would be positive and productive (Ladner and Gourdine 1984, 24). The findings from the
replication study are quite different. Ladner and Gourdine maintain that the
assessments the
teenagers and their mothers made of the socioeconomic conditions
and their futures are harsher and bleaker than a similar population a
generation ago (p. 24). In talking with young grandmothers, all of whom looked older than they were even
though the majority were in their 30s and the youngest was age 29, Ladner and Gourdine found that all became single
parents through divorce or had never married. The strong Black grandmothers of prior generations were not in evidence.
Instead, Ladner and Gourdine found that these young grandmothers complained about their own unmet emotional and
social needs. They appeared to feel powerless in coping with the demands made by their children. They comment
frequently that their children show them no respect, do not listen to their advice, and place little value on their role as
parents (p. 23). Sociologist Elaine Bell Kaplans important (1997) study of 32 teen mothers and adult women who were
once teen mothers reports similar findings. By the 1980s, reports Kaplan, so many young Black girls were pushing
strollers around inner-city neighborhoods that they became an integral part of both the reality and the myth concerning
Kaplan describes a threadbare,

overstretched Black extended family system where Black mothers
could not support the emotional needs of their daughters. In the
absence of support, teenagers got pregnant and decided to keep
their babies. Just at a point in life when young Black girls most needed affection, many felt unloved
by their mothers, ignored by their schools, and rejected by their
fathers and boyfriends. The girls mothers had their own needs. Often in poor health,
anxious, distracted, and generally worn down by the struggle to
raise their families in harsh urban neighborhoods, mothers routinely
the sexuality of Black underclass culture (p. xx).
91
saw their daughters pregnancies as one more responsibility for

them to bear.
92
War/Violence Inev
Subscribing to the myth of the inevitability of violence is a
discourse that robs individuals of their agency and
become complicit with the violence described
Ibish, 12
(Hussein, is a Senior Fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine.
journalist, Nothing is inevitable 22/05/2012,
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentary/nothing_is_inevitable2//NMM)
One of the most important political principles is that history is not

deterministic in any sense. It is, rather, a genealogy of human
choices. It is shaped by agency, intentionality and decisions that are
both individual and collective. Almost all of the most insidious
contemporary political mindsets reject this. Instead they invoke some
kind of determinism or historical teleologythe will of God, the hidden hand of
the market, biological determinism regarding human beings or their habitat, Malthusian
prognostications about population growth. These are all common variants of the theme. And all of them are
totally and dangerously mistaken. I had the pleasure of debating the Iranian-American author
Reza Aslan last week at the University of California, Los Angeles regarding the future for Israel and the Palestinians. It was
the importance of avoiding determinism and the

ethical and political imperative to reassert the primacy of human
agency in shaping history and, particularly, the future. We agreed on some key points regarding the
extremely useful in reminding me of
diagnosis of the Israeli-Palestinian syndrome but differed completely on the prognosis and the prescription. We agreed
that there was much blame to go around for the fact that peace has not yet been achieved. We both noted the historically
corrupt and frequently incompetent Palestinian leadership, the extremist mentality of Hamas and, above all, the ongoing
Israeli settlement project as key factors in the absence of peace. But that was more or less where agreement ended. In the
second part of his diagnosis, Aslan categorically asserted that Palestinian statehood was absolutely impossible because
of demographic and infrastructural changes enforced by the occupation. His prognosis was that a prolonged period of
bloodshed, "apartheid and ethnic cleansing" is totally unavoidable. Eventually, he said, international mediation would
enforce his prescription: a loose confederation" akin to the Bosnian arrangement. All
of this, he insisted,
was inevitable, with an absolute certainty worthy of Nostradamus himself. Aslan
readily agreed this was not a desirable outcome and frankly conceded the
extraordinary amount of violence that would be required to produce it. Perhaps unfairly, I thought I detected in him an
inexplicable nonchalance about the nightmarish picture of the future,

in the style of Hieronymus Bosch, that he was painting as inevitable. There is, as I
noted, nothing inevitable in the realm of the political. Outcomes are produced by
political, economic, military and social forces. But all of these are expressions of human will and agency, both collective
and individual. The word impossible is, potentially, a legitimate political category if one can convincingly demonstrate
that the forces that produce outcomes, based on their own interests, cannot plausibly yield a given result. But the
word "inevitable" is almost never a legitimate political category, most

importantly because human agency is always the most important
factor, and there are countless unforeseeable imponderables and
contingencies. In our debate, I continued to insist that a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians
is indeed still possible, mostly because a majority on both sides want it and because there is a huge body of international
opinion and law that requires it. I've always unhappily accepted that a continuation of the status quo is more likely for the
foreseeable future. In Aslan's dystopian vision of a future characterized by increasingly bloody conflicts, apartheid and
ethnic cleansing is indeed a possibility. But I see no reason to conclude that it will inevitably either occur or, less still,
yield the outcome he predicts with such astounding confidenceespecially not if ethnic cleansing is a factor. Apart from
asserting that while a limited number of outcomes can be reasonably defined as impossible for the foreseeable future, I
Human beings are, in fact, not only able to

decide their future, but that's exactly what they always have done and
will do, barring unforeseeable natural disasters that are rare and usually manageable. What I was defending was a
argued that almost nothing is "inevitable."
93
"secular" perspective on history and politics, in the way its most important contemporary champion, Edward Said, defined
it. It's
a position that emphasizes human agency, intentionality and

decisions, and rejects every possible form of determinism, not just religious
superstition. I told Aslan that even if I believed he were right about the likely prognosis of bloodshed, apartheid and
ethnic cleansing, to use his precise words, I would be proud with all the conviction and passion I could muster to fight
against this contingencythis set of choiceswith every fiber of my being. Precisely because Aslan's radical dystopian
vision is actually plausible, everyone
who does not work against it will be

complicit in the horrors he predicts. But because they will be the
consequences of human choices, they are by no means inevitable. We
have the ability and profound moral obligation to choose differently.
94
*** Impacts ***
95
War
Patriarchy culminates in war, genocide, environmental
degradation and extinction it is the root cause of all
other oppression we must resist every instance of it.
Kelly 1997 (Petra, Grassroots Activist and Green Party Member of the
German Parliament and Author of Several Books, in Ecofeminism: women,
culture, nature Edited by Karen J. Warren, p. 112-114)
Men's domination of women is deep and systemic, and it is accepted around the world by most men and many women as "natural," as something that somehow cannot be
changed. But norms of human behavior do change. Because the oppression of women is so deeply embedded in our societies and our psyches, it continues to be invisible,
even to those who are working to overcome other forms of injustice. Feminism is considered by many people to be one aspect of social justice, but to me it is a principle in
To rid the world of nuclear weapons and poverty, we must end racism
and sexism. As long as white males hold all of the social and economic power, women and people of color will continue to be discriminated against, and
and of itself.
We cannot just analyze structures of

domination and oppression. We must also practice disobedience in
our own lives, starting by disobeying all systems of male domination. The
poverty and the military mentality will continue unabated.
system in which men have more value and more social and economic power than women is found throughout the worldEast and West, North and South.
Women suffer both from structural oppression and from individual men. Too many
movements for social justice accept the assumptions of male dominance and ignore the
oppression of women, but patriarchy pervades both our political and
our personal lives. Feminism rejects all forms of male dominance and affirms the value of women's lives and experiences. It recognizes that no
pattern of domination is necessary and seeks to liberate women and men from the structures of dominance that characterize patriarchy. Many women are beginning to
reject the existing systems and styles of male politics. Whether at Greenham Common, Comiso, Australia, Belau, protecting the Himalayan forests, or working for peace in
Eastern Europe, women have been stirred to action. Motivated to act on our own, not only as mothers and nurturers but also as leaders in a changing world, we must stand
up as women and become elected to political and economic offices throughout the world, so we can change the policies and structures from those of death to those of life.
Every individual has

both feminine and masculine qualities. We should not relieve men of their responsibility to transform themselves,
We do not need to abrogate our positive, feminist principles of loving, caring, showing emotions, and nurturing.
to develop caring human qualities and become responsible for child care, housework, and all other essential support work. We will never be able to reclaim the earth if
men do not give up their privileges and share these basic tasks with women. Children are not just the responsibility of their mothers. The scientific revolution of the
seventeenth century contained in it the seeds of today's oppressive technologies. If we trace the myths and metaphors associated with the conquest of nature, we will
realize how much we are under the sway of masculine institutions and ideologies. Masculine technology and patriarchal values have prevailed in Auschwitz, Dresden,
The ultimate result of unchecked,

terminal patriarchy will be ecological catastrophe or nuclear holocaust.
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other parts of the world.
Feminism is about alleviating women's powerlessness. Women must share half the earth and half the sky, on our own terms and with our own self-determined values.
Feminism seeks to redefine our very modes of existence and to transform nonviolently the structures of male dominance. I am not saying that women are inherently better
Overturning patriarchy does not mean replacing men's dominance with

women's dominance. That would merely maintain the patriarchal pattern of
dominance. We need to transform the pattern itself. The work of feminist women and profeminist men is to liberate everyone from a system that is
than men.
oppressive to women and restrictive to men, and to restore balance and harmony between women and men and between masculine and feminine values in society and
within each of us. Feminists working in the peace and ecology movements are sometimes viewed as kind, nurturing earth mothers, but that is too comfortable a
stereotype. We are not meek and we are not weak. We are angryon our own behalf, for our sisters and children who suffer, and for the entire planetand we are
determined to protect life on Earth. Green women work together with men on issues like ecology and disarmament. But we must also assert women's oppression as a
There is a clear and

profound relationship between militarism, environmental degradation, and
sexism. Any commitment to social justice and nonviolence that does not
address the structures of male domination of women is incomplete. We will work with
central concern, for our experience is that men do not take women's oppression as seriously as other causes.
our Green brothers, but we will not be subservient to them. They must demonstrate their willingness to give up the privileges of membership in the male caste. There is
a saying: where power is, women are not. Women must be willing to be powerful. Because we bear scars from the ways men have used their power over us, women often
Patriarchal power has brought us acid rain,

global warming, military states, and countless cases of private suffering. We
have all seen men whose power has caused them to lose all sense of reality, decency, and imagination, and we are right to fear such power. But playing an
active part in society, on an equal footing with men, does not mean adopting the old thought patterns and strategies of the patriarchal world. It
means putting our own ideas of an emancipatory society into practice . Rather than
want no part of power. To a certain extent, this is good sense.
emulating Margaret Thatcher and others who loyally adapt themselves to male values of hierarchy, we must find our own definitions of power that reflect women's values
and women's experience. Jean Baker Miller points out how women, though closed out of male dominions of power, experience great power in the daily work of nurturing
others. 2 This is not power over others, but power with others, the kind of shared power that has to replace patriarchal power.
96
Structural Violence
Queer bodies that fall outside the heteronormative
relationships face structural violence through
institutionalized homophobia.
Price 12
(Joshua M. Associate professor of sociology at Binghamton University,

Structural Violence: Hidden Brutality in the Lives of Women Sep. 17, 2012,
pp, 96) Nikpreet.
As a lawyer," writes Sandra Lundy,"I know from experience that litigating
openly queer cases in civil court is never easy. You can be sure that
somehow, somewhere, when you least expect it, homophobia will rear its
ugly head in the courtroom, derailing your arguments, upsetting your client,
making it impossible to be heard" (1999, 43). "Given how difficult it is for our
queer people to be treated well in the civil justice system , particularly when
they seek relief from abusive partners, I understand why some in our
community urge queer people to bypass the court system entirely and
instead bring issues of abuse to friends, private mediators, and counselors"
(Lundy 1999, 44-45). Nevertheless, Lundy concludes that on balance the
court's protections and ability to enforce the law are important. She urges
lesbians who face abuse to take their cases to court. Another way of framing
her situation is in terms of a vicious either/or. Women who face forms of
violence that fall outside the conventions of domestic heterosexual
relationships often face the either/or of being considered essentially the same
or fundamentally different from other women. If they are the same, then they
fit the solutions that the courts come up with or that the shelters offer. They
fit the psychological models and the warning signs of abuse. However, if their
lives do not conform to the imagined model, then they are outside of the
ambit of shelters, the courts, or other places of refuge or redress for (some)
heterosexual women. Sometimes they can go to those places, but there they
face a set of presuppositions that simplify them and their identity, the spaces
they must traverse, the people to whom they matter or who matter to them,
and those spaces regard them as conforming to an abstract sameness with
any otherall otherbattered woman. They face the either/or when
structural or stare violence is taken out of the equation. When violence is
structural or institutional, then women either look the same as other battered
women, or they are unrecognizable as battered. Homophobia is a form of
structural violence. Stare violence is in evidence when that homophobia is
institutionalized in such a way that to identify as a lesbian is to run risks. In
this case, lesbians (and gay men) fit awkwardly in the traditional schema of
partner battering (see Lundy 1993). Inside the marriage contract, tools exist,
such as orders of protection, to reorganize the relationship. The lack of a
marriage contract has historically marked an absence of a technique for
thinking conceptually. Certain kinds of violence are harder to conceive for the
popular imagination. And this is a way in which structural violence works
indirectly: in the maintenance of silences, in the evasion of unthinkable
identities, in the suppression of unthinkable activities.
97
Settler Colonial Violence

Structures of settler colonialism perpetuate sexual
surveillance of native bodies which establishes a
masculine and patriarchal colonial order and justifies any
violence against those seen as other.
Morgensen in 10
(Scott, Professor of Gender Studies at Queens University. Settler Homonationalism: Theorizing Settler
Colonialism within Queer Modernities. Published by Duke University Press in 2010).
Scholars in Native and queer studies are familiar with accounts of

early colonists exacting a terrorizing right of death to educate
Native people in the new colonial moral order. While interpreting Peter Martyrs
account of Vasco Nuez de Balboas 1513 expedition in Panama, Jonathan Goldberg notes that
Balboas victorious arrival after battle at the house of the

indigenous king was framed by his condemnation and elimination of
what he perceived to be gender and sexual transgression. On reportedly
finding the kings brother and about forty other men dressed in womens apparel or living in sexual
relationships, Balboa threw them to be eaten alive by his dogs. Goldberg argues that this act
retrospectively justifies the conquerors earlier slaughters in battlein which accounts stated that
Spanish soldiers killed Indians as animalsor to quote Martyr, hewed . . . in pieces as the butchers doo
fleshe. For Goldberg, post-facto, the body of the sodomite takes on an originary status, as the cause for
Linking ascriptions of savagery to

transgressions of sexual nature defined European rule as sexual
colonization and justified its violences. This account of Balboas
expedition evokes qualities that also inflect other early Spanish,
French, and British encounters with Native peoples narrated by the
category berdache. This orientalist term arose to condemn Middle
Eastern and Muslim men as racial enemies of Christian civilization,
by linking them to the creation of berdache (in translation) as kept
boys or boy-slaves whose sex was said to have been altered by
immoral male desire. Like the category berdache, the transgressions Balboa
described did not just mark gender or sexual transgressions but the acts of powerful
men that turned them or others against nature, resulting in an
immoral and effeminized male leadership that invited and justified
conquest. Earlier generations of feminist scholars argued that a bias in colonial tales of berdache
erased female embodiment from accounts of Native gender and sexual diversity. But feminist
critiques in the wake of Stoler and Smith will note that the central
condemnation of Native male embodiment in colonial accounts of
berdache established the masculinist and heteropatriarchal terms of
colonial power.21 Colonial discourses of race and sexuality then came
to mark transgressive individuals and entire communities when they
meted out spectacular death to educate Native peoples in the moral
order of colonization. Yet subsequent histories of colonial control of indigenous male sexuality
support Foucaults claim that a sovereign right of death joined the rationalizing
management of populations to produce modern disciplinary power .
what was done to the Indians in the first place.20
Zeb Tortorici examined a 1604 case of sodomy accusations in Valladolid, Michoacn, Mexico, that
illuminates this shift. After the capture of two indigenous Purpecha men committing the pecado nefando
the nefarious sin of sodomy, a regional investigation resulted in sodomy charges against thirteen
indigenous and mestizo men, some of whom were relatives or in long-term relationships.22 For two
98
months, legal and religious authorities exacted confessions and implications that tried to determine the
degree of interest or culpability in the alleged acts for each accused while threatening torture or public
execution as punishments. Yet the investigation deferred its threatened outcomes to serve as a fact-finding
exercise, which newly mapped social networks along which the church and government began to chart
new routes for their authority in indigenous communities. Given that only six of the thirteen accused men
were tried for sodomy, with four of them executed, and others who evaded capture never pursued,
the intimation of sodomy among indigenous

men remained deadly but no longer drew an absolute response .23
Public execution now appeared as a threatened end to a broader
process of surveillance and population management that sought
more minute control over sexual transgressions and indigenous
communities. Tortorici historicizes this shift in managing sexuality within the secularization of
Tortorici suggests that in this era
colonial Mexican society, so that while in 1604 four of the Purpecha men accused of sodomy were
executed for their crimes, in the eighteenth century men found guilty of sodomy were never executed for
study of sodomitical subcultures (as Tortorici

was sustained as a method for colonial authorities to study
and control sexuality among Native peoples.
their crimes.24 Yet amid these changes,
calls them)
99
Gender Violence
Surveillance and questions of gender are inextricably
bound together-by not forefronting issues of violence
done on bodies seen as sexual and gendered others, the
affirmative excludes those bodies form the system and
does violence on them.
Conrad in 09
The legal regulation of sexual practices as well as the social stigma

attached to non-normative sexual identities and behaviours have
meant that those people practicing non-normative sex have had to
create strategies for functioning in so-called 'normal' society
whether those strategies include 'outing' oneself and working for
legal and social change, 'passing' as normative ('straight'), or, as is
the case for many, some combination of these and other strategies.
In this sense, surveillance contributes to the reinforcement of sexual
norms both by facilitating exposure for deviance, which is then often
punished, and by promoting self-regulation and concealment by
those who operate outside of the norms. Tied closely to the
surveillance and regulation of sexual behaviour and identitytied in
part because of the ways gender identity and sexual object choice
are linked in the Westis the surveillance and regulation of gender .
The genderqueer bodythe intersexed, the hermaphroditic, the transgender(ed), the
transexual, and even the 'effeminate male' or the 'masculine' female is one that does not
conform to the accepted biological binary of 'man' and 'woman'
and/or its attendant 'masculine' and 'feminine' behaviours and
physical markers.11 The history of lesbian and gay activism is closely tied to that of genderqueer
activism (perhaps first and most obviously with the Stonewall Riots in New York in 1969, which saw the
birth both of contemporary gay rights activism and transgender activism), and activism to challenge the
gender system is one strategy for confronting a system into which genderqueers have not fit. But even
those who are 'out' about their genderqueer status must often 'pass'
as one of two genders in order to survivequite literallyin a twogendered world. According to the group Gender Education and Advocacy, the between 1970 and
2004, 321 murders of trans people have been tallied; and 'more than
one new anti-transgender murder has been reported in the media
every month since 1989' (GEA 2004a, c2004b). Although gathering reliable statistics for the
number of people killed because they were genderqueer is impossible, these statistics along with more
being
readably genderqueer, at least in the West, still comes with significant
risk. Information technologies, as I have suggested above, have given some gender and queer theorists
publicised cases, such as that of the murder of Brandon Teena in 1993, suggest that
people hope for liberation from the sometimes oppressive gendered discourses that accompany biological
surveillance, whether driven by criminology or marketing, has, as I have

been the engine for the very informatisation of the body
in which these feminist and queer theorists have placed their hope.
Further, surveillance, particularly the surveillance tied to prediction, is
embodiment. But
suggested above,
100
the inspiration for

many of the new developments in information systems technology .
And the patterns that those information systems create, collect, and
circulate are, in turn, intricately and inextricably bound up with
surveillance technologies. This, I would suggest, should lead gender and queer theorists
away from information technologies as a tool for the transformation of the human subject. The
predictive models that are at the centre of current surveillance
technologies have been created with the goal of prediction and
therefore control of the future, but they must rely on the past to do
so. The past provides the patterns from which the models take their
shape. Given this, predictive models, and the surveillance systems that
feed them, are inherently conservative. By this I do not mean to suggest that they
not only a use to which information technologies have been put; it is also
are particularly politically conservative; indeed, many political conservatives are just as invested in the
predictive models fed

by surveillance data necessarily reproduce past patterns. They
cannot take into effective consideration randomness, 'noise',
mutation, parody, or disruption unless those effects coalesce into
another pattern. This inability to accommodate randomness may simply suggest that
predictive models are ineffective. But they are not ineffective; like other surveillance
techniques discussed above, they are normative. The potentially normative effect
of predictive surveillance might be clearest, and of most concern, in
the case of the transsexual body who has transitioned from one
gender to another. The virtual body created by data, in the case of a
transsexual person, appears contradictory, confusing; the data
history for a trans person comprises two bodies (male and female)
rather than one genderqueer body. A hopeful reading, inspired perhaps by an optimistic
ideology of privacy that surveillance constantly transgresses. Rather,
(and selective) reading of Butler, would be that this contradictory data would have the effect of
destabilising the gender system. But rather than abandoning the gender system that the transsexual /
predictive surveillance technology, relying

on past data as it does, can only reinforce it. The material body
would thus be pressured to conform or be excluded from the system .
genderqueer body clearly transgresses,
101
Patriarchy
Patriarchy has damaged society since childhood:
bell hooks writes
(bell hooks is an American author, Black feminist, and social
activist,Understanding Patriarchy Lousiville Anarchist Federation Fedeartion,
Lousivilles Radical Lending Library No Borders, 2013
imaginenoborders.org/pdf/zines/UnderstandingPatriarchy.pdf)
Patriarchy is the single most life-threatening social disease assaulting
the male body and spirit in our nation. Yet most men do not use the word
patriarchy in everyday life. Most men never think about patriarchywhat it means, how it is created
and sustained. Many men in our nation would not be able to spell the word or pronounce it correctly. The
word patriarchy just is not a part of their normal everyday thought or speech. Men who have heard
and know the word usually associate it with womens liberation, with feminism, and therefore dismiss it
as irrelevant to their own experiences. I have been standing at podiums talking about patriarchy for
more than thirty years. It is a word I use daily, and men who hear me use it often ask me what I mean
Nothing discounts the old antifeminist projection of men as allpowerful more than their basic ignorance of a major facet of the
political system that shapes and informs male identity and sense of
self from birth until death. I often use the phrase imperialist white-supremacist capitalist
by it.
patriarchy to describe the interlocking political systems that are the foundation of our nations politics.
Of these systems the one that we all learn the most about growing up is the system of patriarchy, even
patriarchal gender roles are assigned to us

as children and we are given continual guidance about the ways we
can best fulfill these roles. Patriarchy is a political-social system
that insists that males are inherently dominating, superior to
everything and everyone deemed weak, especially females, and
endowed with the right to dominate and rule over the weak and to
maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological
terrorism and violence. When my older brother and I were born with a year separating us in
if we never know the word, because
age, patriarchy determined how we would each be regarded by our parents. Both our parents believed
they had been taught patriarchal thinking through

religion. At church they had learned that God created man to rule the world and everything in it
in patriarchy;
and that it was the work of women to help men perform these tasks, to obey, and to always assume a
These
teachings were reinforced in every institution they encountered-schools, courthouses, clubs, sports arenas, as well as churches.
Embracing patriarchal thinking, like everyone else around them,
they taught it to their children because it seemed like a natural
way to organize life.
subordinate role in relation to a powerful man. They were taught that God was male.
She continues:
The dictionary defines patriarchy as a social
organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan or
family in both domestic and religious functions . Patriarchy is characterized
by male domination and power. He states further that patriarchal rules still
govern most of the worlds religious, school systems, and family
Love is a useful one:
102
systems. Describing the most damaging of these rules, Bradshaw lists blind obediencethe foundation upon which
patriarchy stands; the repression of all emotions except fear; the destruction
of individual willpower; and the repression of thinking whenever it
departs from the authority figures way of thinking. Patriarchal thinking shapes
the values of our culture. We are socialized into this system, females
as well as males. Most of us learned patriarchal attitudes in our family of origin, and they were usually taught to us by our
mothers. These attitudes were reinforced in schools and religious
institutions.
Patriarchy causes psychological problems.

hooks 4
(bell hooks is an American author, Black feminist, and social activist,
Lousiville Anarchist Federation Fedeartion, Lousivilles Radical Lending Library
No Borders, 2013
Until we can collectively acknowledge the damage patriarchy causes
and the suffering it creates, we cannot address male pain . We cannot
demand for men the right to be whole, to be givers and sustainers of life. Obviously some patriarchal
men are reliable and even benevolent caretakers and providers, but still they are
imprisoned by a system that undermines their mental health .
Patriarchy promotes insanity. It is at the root of the psychological ills
troubling men in our nation. Nevertheless there is no mass concern for the plight of men. In
Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man, Susan Faludi includes very little discussion of patriarchy: Ask
feminists to diagnose mens problems and you will often get a very clear explanation: men are in crisis
because women are properly challenging male dominance. Women are asking men to share the public
reins and men cant bear it. Ask antifeminists and you will get a diagnosis that is, in one respect, similar.
Men are troubled, many conservative pundits say, because women have gone far beyond their demands
for equal treatment and are now trying to take power and control away from menThe underlying
message: men cannot be men, only eunuchs, if they are not in control. Both the feminist and antifeminist
views are rooted in a peculiarly modern American perception that to be a man means to be at the controls
and at all times to feel yourself in control. Faludi never interrogates the notion of control. She never
men were somehow in control, in power, and

satisfied with their lives before contemporary feminist movement is
false. Patriarchy as a system has denied males access to full
emotional well-being, which is not the same as feeling rewarded,
successful, or powerful because of ones capacity to assert control
over others. To truly address male pain and male crisis we must as a
nation be willing to expose the harsh reality that patriarchy has
damaged men in the past and continues to damage them in the
present. If patriarchy were truly rewarding to men, the violence and addiction in family life that is so
considers that the notion that
all-pervasive would not exist. This violence was not created by feminism. If patriarchy were rewarding,
the overwhelming dissatisfaction most men feel in their work livesa dissatisfaction extensively
documented in the work of Studs Terkel and echoed in Faludis treatisewould not exist.
103
We need to name and challenge both psychological and

material patriarchy.
hooks 4 (bell hooks is an American author, Black feminist, and social
activist, Lousiville Anarchist Federation Fedeartion, Lousivilles Radical
Lending Library No Borders, 2013
So far in our nation visionary feminist movement is the only struggle for justice that emphasizes the
No mass body of women has challenged patriarchy

and neither has any group of men come together to lead the
struggle. The crisis facing men is not the crisis of masculinity, it is
the crisis of patriarchal masculinity. Until we make this distinction
clear, men will continue to fear that any critique of patriarchy
represents a threat. Distinguishing political patriarchy, which he sees as largely committed to
need to end patriarchy.
ending sexism, therapist Terrence Real makes clear that the patriarchy damaging us all is embedded in our
Psychological patriarchy is the dynamic between those

qualities deemed masculine and feminine in which half of our
human traits are exalted while the other half is devalued. Both men and
psyches:
women participate in this tortured value system. Psychological patriarchy is a dance of contempt, a
perverse form of connection that replaces true intimacy with complex, covert layers of dominance and
submission, collusion and manipulation. It is the unacknowledged paradigm of relationships that has
suffused Western civilization generation after generation, deforming both sexes, and destroying the
passionate bond between them.
By highlighting psychological patriarchy, we

see that everyone is implicated and we are freed from the
misperception that men are the enemy. To end patriarchy we must
challenge both its psychological and its concrete manifestations in
daily life. There are folks who are able to critique patriarchy but unable to act in an antipatriarchal
manner. To end male pain, to respond effectively to male crisis, we have to name the
problem. We have to both acknowledge that the problem is patriarchy and work to end patriarchy.
Terrence Real offers this valuable insight: The reclamation of wholeness is a process even more fraught
for men than it has been for women, more difficult and more profoundly threatening to the culture at
If men are to reclaim the essential goodness of male being, if

they are to regain the space of openheartedness and emotional
expressiveness that is the foundation of well-being, we must
envision alternatives to patriarchal masculinity. We must all change.
large.
104
Structural Violence Outweighs

Structural Violence is an ongoing form of extinction that
practices to erase individuals and cultures through dayto-day forms of violence. This outweighs nuclear war we
are the only ones with comparative evidence.
Mumia Abu-Jamal 1998
[A QUIET AND DEADLY VIOLENCE, 9/19/98,
http://www.mumia.nl/TCCDMAJ/quietdv.htm]
It has often been observed that America is a truly violent nation,
as
shown by the thousands of cases of social and communal violence that occurs daily in the nation.
Every year, some 20,000 people are killed by others, and additional
20,000 folks kill themselves. Add to this the non lethal violence that
Americans daily inflict on each other, and we begin to see the tracings of a nation
immersed in a fever of violence. But, as remarkable, and harrowing as this level and degree of violence is,
We live,
equally immersed, and to a deeper degree, in a nation that condones
and ignores wide-ranging "structural" violence, of a kind that
destroys human life with a breathtaking ruthlessness. Former Massachusetts
prison official and writer, Dr. James Gilligan observes;"By `structural violence' I
mean the increased rates of death and disability suffered by those
who occupy the bottom rungs of society, as contrasted by those who are above
it is, by far, not the most violent feature of living in the midst of the American empire.
them. Those excess deaths (or at least a demonstrably large proportion of them) are a function of the class
structure; and that structure is itself a product of society's collective human choices, concerning how to
distribute the collective wealth of the society. These are not acts of God. I am contrasting `structural' with
`behavioral violence' by which I mean the non-natural deaths and injuries that are caused by specific
behavioral actions of individuals against individuals, such as the deaths we attribute to homicide, suicide,
soldiers in warfare, capital punishment, and so on." -- (Gilligan, J., MD, Violence: Reflections On a National
This form of violence, not covered by any of the

is invisible to us and because of
its invisibility, all the more insidious. How dangerous is it -- really? Gilligan notes:
"[E]very fifteen years, on the average, as many people die because of
relative poverty as would be killed in a nuclear war that caused 232 million
deaths; and every single year, two to three times as many people die
from poverty throughout the world as were killed by the Nazi
genocide of the Jews over a six-year period. This is, in effect, the equivalent
of an ongoing, unending, in fact accelerating, thermonuclear war, or
genocide on the weak and poor every year of every decade,
throughout the world." [Gilligan, p. 196]
Epidemic (New York: Vintage, 1996), 192.)
majoritarian, corporate, ruling-class protected media,
105
***Alternativos***
106
Countervisuality
The alternative is to engage in a feminist countervisuality, where aestheticization challenges the Watchers
Monahan, 2015
Professor of Communication Studies at The University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill. His research focuses on institutional transformations with new
technologies, with a particular emphasis on surveillance and security
programs. He has published over forty articles or book chapters and five
books, director of the international Surveillance Studies Network and an
associate editor of the leading academic journal on surveillance, Surveillance
& Society. (Torin, The Right to Hide? Anti-surveillance Camouflage and the
Aestheticization of Resistance. PDF, 159-61.
http://publicsurveillance.com/papers/Right-to-hide.pdf 7.8.15)//ctb
Alongside increasing public
awareness of drone warfare, government spying programs, and big
data analytics, there has been a recent surge in anti-surveillance
tactics . While these tactics range from software for anonymous Internet browsing to detoxification supplements for
fooling drug tests, what is particularly fascinating is the panoply of artistic
projectsand productsto conceal oneself from ambient
surveillance in public places. These center on the masking of identity
to undermine technological efforts to fix someone as a unique entity
apart from the crowd. A veritable artistic industry mushrooms from the perceived death of the social
brought about by ubiquitous public surveillance: tribal or fractal face paint and hairstyles
to confound face-recognition software, hoodies and scarves made
with materials to block thermal emissions and evade tracking by
drones, and hats that emit infrared light to blind camera lenses and
prevent photographs or video tracking. Anti-surveillance camouflage
of this sort flaunts the system, ostensibly allowing wearers to hide
in plain sightneither acquiescing to surveillance mandates nor
becoming reclusive under their withering gaze. This is an
aestheticization of resistance, a performance that generates media
attention and scholarly interest without necessarily challenging the
violent and discriminatory logics of surveillance societies . These artistic
practices should be situated in the context of the state visuality projects that galvanize them. Visuality is
about the normalization of state control through techniques of
classification, separation, and aestheticization, which enforce a kind
of reductive, exclusionary legibility.1 As Nicholas Mirzoeff writes, Visuality
sutures authority to power and renders this association natural 2 ; it
manifests in a set of extractive and dehumanizing complexes (plantation,
imperialist, and military industrial) that are institutionalized through bureaucratic
and scientific apparatuses that render classifications true and
populations governable. Frequently, these complexes have explicitly
racist, neocolonial, and necropolitical aims, affording the prejudicial
allocation and distribution of death for populations deemed
A curious trend is emerging in this era of pervasive surveillance.
107
dangerous to the state, which could include terrorists, asylum seekers, or the
poor in todays capitalist economy. Thus, biopolitics and necropolitics
fuse in destructive ways, in the service of neoliberal capitalism, to create conditions
of bare life, or at least of abjection and human insecurity .3 Visuality,
therefore, denies from the Other the right to legitimate autonomy and
agency; it denies the right to look back and challenge the
identities ascribed by institutions.4 As Stephen Graham5 reminds us, following Michel
Foucault,6 there is also a boomerang effect to the deployment of biopolitical and necropolitical technologies in distant
territories, leading frequently to their application in the homeland on so-called civilian populations, as can be seen, for
Countervisuality
projects may be necessary to disarm the natural logics of state
visuality and confront their supposed order from nowhere .9 Rather
than merely opposing visuality or seeking to substitute it with
different totalizing regimes, countervisuality would instead
challenge forms of violence and oppression, acknowledging
differential exposures and effects. After all, despite popular claims about
universal subjection to surveillance, it must be recognized that a
host of surveillance functions are reserved for those who threaten
the status quo, principally those classified as poor or marked as
Other.10 Racialized identities of dangerousness are encoded back
upon the targets through surveillance encounters that are always
tied to the threat of state force (e.g., the stop-and-frisk search, the video-tracking of racial
minorities through commercial stores, the scrutiny of purchases made by welfare recipients). These are
mechanisms of marginalizing surveillance that produce conditions
and identities of marginality through their very application .11 This paper
example, with the domestication of drones7 and biometric identification systems.8
builds upon theoretical insights from the field of surveillance studies, particularly with regard to the differential treatment
of populations and ways that marginality inflects experiences of surveillance. The field has had a longstanding concern
with discriminatory surveillance practices predicated on categorical suspicion of marginalized groups12 and social
sorting of populations through increasingly abstract, invisible, and automated systems of control.13 Perhaps
because of the strong voyeuristic modalities of surveillance, scholars

have further interrogated the gendered dimensions of watching and
being watched, and have explored possibilities for gender-based
appropriation and resistance.14 Recently, there has also been a concerted
effort to foster engaged feminist and race studies critiques that
attend to intersectional forms of oppression, which are often
enforced by surveillance practices.15 For instance, Corinne Mason and Shoshana Magnet16
show how many policy initiatives and surveillance apps intended to combat violence against women tend to responsibilize
victims, fail to target perpetrators, and aggravate conditions of vulnerability, especially for poor women who may lack a
Feminist and
intersectional approaches to surveillance studies connect the
embodied, grounded nature of individual experience with larger
systems of structural inequality and violence. Such approaches
investigate the technological and organizational mediation of
situated practice, advancing a critique of contemporary surveillance
systems and power relations. The analysis presented here builds upon this orientation by
social safety net if fleeing from an abuser or risk assault or arrest if they do call the police.
questioning the values and implications of aestheticized forms of anti-surveillance.
108
Racial Healing Alt

Ginwright in 10


Additionally,
109

110



same time,
civic organizations
111
Wellness encompasses more than striving for the

well-being.
(Prilleltensky, 2008; Prilleltensky et al., 2001).
Alt Collective Healing
112
The alternative is a reexamination of the struggles of our

community and to engage in collectivized healing rooted
in care for safety. Even if these strategies arent enough
to break down all structural violence, they open space for
new visions devoid of it.
Haritaworn et al. 14
(2014 Jinthana Haritaworn is an assistant professor of transnational race,

gender, and sexuality studies at York University in Canada, Adi Kuntsman,
Silvia Posocco, Queer Necropolitics) Nikpreet.
In concluding, it is important to note that punitive social movement trends
are neither universal nor inevitable. A growing number of grassroots feminist,
queer, anti-racist and anti-prison community groups are developing
alternative models of violence prevention, community accountability and
collective healing that do not rely on police or prisons (see for example
Chen, Dulani and Piepzna-Samarasinha 2008; Critical Resistance 2008;
Generation Five 2007; Kim 2011; Law 2011; Smith 2009). Particularly in
racialized, migrant, indigenous and impoverished communities that are overpoliced, over-incarcerated and regularly subjected to state brutality , reliance
on police and prisons is increasingly seen as non-viable, dangerous, and
ineffective; alternatives are deemed a vital necessity. Such communities are
developing strategies that move away from punitive state practices and
instead build community-based safety protocols, which prioritize victim
safety, emphasize perpetrator accountability and attend to broader social
factors that contribute to violence. While none of these strategies on their
own is sufficient to tackle institutional and systemic forms of violence, they
do offer space for new possibilities that refuse to enact one form of violence
in the name of combating another. As such, these strategies warrant further
consideration as practices that move away from queer investments in
the carceral state and move towards a queer politics of punitive
disinvestment and decarceration.
113
Alt Interdependence
The alternative is to embrace interdependency as a
method for poltical and personal engagement within the
debate space
Arneil 9
(Barbara, professor of political science at the university of british columbia,
Disability, Self Image, and Modern Political Theory , April 2009, Sage Publications, accessed:
7/6/15)
The theoretical solution I would like to suggest is interdependency .A s

I hope to demonstrate in detail in this final section, interdependency allows us to
redefine disability, independence, and dependence in five important ways.
First, it breaks down the binary I have described between autonomy/
independence/justice versus disability/dependency/charity inm odern
politi cal thought. Second, it reconstructs disability not as an individual
deficit (as so much political theory does) but as an interdependent product of
disabled individuals' physical/mental limitations in relationship to
the physical, social, and political environment theym ust navigate on
a daily basis. Third, it forces ethical theory, most particularly the ethic
of care, to problematize the asymmetrical relationship between
caregivers and care-receivers, by reconceptualizing the disabled
care-receiver as a citizen rather than "child" or client and the
relationship, therefore,a s interdependent rather thanw holly dependent. Fourth, it redefines
dependency as a "constellation" of supports required by all of us (not just people with disabilities) to gain
it challenges the prevailing dominant image of

"tragedy" associated with disabled persons by reconstructing
disability as one dimension of human diversity,w hich like all aspects
of human culture has both positive and negative aspects. Let us consider
each of these points inm ore detail. The principle of interdependence begins by
breaking down the binary at the base of liberal/republican theory
between an autonomous rational agent who is to be part of human
dignity, the social contract or original position (governed by the
principle of justice) and his or her opposite, the "disabled" (who are
to be excluded or governed under the principle of "charity") and
replaces itw ith a gradient scale inw hich we are all in various ways
and to different degrees both dependent on others and independent,
depending on the particular stage we are at in the life cycle as well
as the degree tow hich the world is structured to respond to some
variations better than others.51 Thus, interdependency begins by
replacing the "individual deficit model" of most political theory with
the "social model" of disability,52 shifting them eaning and location
of disability fromw holly within the bod ies or minds of "disabled"
people to include as well the physical, social, and political
structures designed to largely meet the needs of able-bodied per
sons but which the disabled person must navigate every day. As Peter
independence. Finally,
114
Handley points out, "the
social model self-consciously moves away from the

individual deficit model and draws attention instead to them
arginaliz ing impact of social and economic structures upon disabled
people."53 Disability is no longer a "deficit" experienced by
individuals as political theory has long imagined but is constituted
by the degree to which the envi ronment accommodates the variety
of disabled persons' needs.
115
Two Spirit Critique

The alternative is to reject the aff and embrace a TwoSpirit critique-we should refuse the pedagogical move to
separate our scholarship from ongoing genocide and
centers queer and native perspectives on the violence of
the settler colonial state. The alternative articulates
healing and decolonial struggles for survival and is rooted
in theory and practice accountable to grassroots
indigenous struggles for sovereignty.
Driskill 10
(Qwo-Li, professor at college of liberal arts,Doubleweaving Two-Spirit Critiques: Building
Alliances between Native and Queer Studies, Duke University Press, accessed: 7/9/15)
As part of this doubleweaving, I would like to invite an alliance between queer studies and Native studies that
can interrupt the un-seeing of Native people that serves to bolster the colonial
project. Powell writes: We cannot separate scholarship in the United
States from the American tale. We cannot separate the material
exterminations of first-wave genocide in North America (beginning in
1492) from the intellectual and cultural exterminations of secondwave genocide, a process that has been ongoing since the Indian
Removal Act of 1830. But we can begin, by consciously and explicitly
positioning our work within this distasteful collection of narratives,
to open space for the existing stories that might run counter to the
imperial desires of traditional scholarship, stories that have been
silenced by its hegemonic drone.33 Part of the colonial experience for
Native people in the United States is that we are constantly
disappeared through the stories that non-Native people tell, or dont
tell, about us. Too often, other people of color are as complicit in acts of
un-seeing Native people as Euro-Americans. Native studies poses a
challenge to queer studies, including its most recent waves of
scholarship, because it problematizes many of the theories that
queer of color critique draws from.34 Native people often have an
uneasy relationship with other struggles for social justice because
the specificity of our struggles rooted in sovereignty and a claim to land is too often
ignored. This uneasiness pertains to many of the radical theories that queer of color critique draws from. For instance, women
of color feminisms which Gopinath, Muoz, and Ferguson have all articulated as central to queer of color critiques certainly
have an important place in the struggles of Native people.35 But, like postcolonial theory, they do not
necessarily include Native concerns in their formations. Native

feminist analyses often see patriarchy as a tool of colonization and
understand our current situation as colonial, not postcolonial. Chrystos
writes, What we experience is not patriarchy, but the process of
colonization, which immigrant women have profited from right along
with the greedy boys. Patriarchy is only one of many tools of
colonizer mentality & is often used by women against other
women.36 Similarly, Smith addresses how patriarchal violence is used in
genocidal projects launched against Native people: The extent to
which Native peoples are not seen as real people in the larger
colonial discourse indicates the success of sexual violence, among
116
other racist and colonialist forces, in destroying the perceived

humanity of Native peoples.37 Native feminisms, while allied with other women of color and radical
feminisms, have very clear decolonial agendas, see patriarchal violence as a tool of colonialism, and see themselves as part of
struggles for sovereignty, land redress, and cultural continuance. If queer of color critique claims
intellectual genealogies with traditions that un-see Native people,

what can it offer to Two-Spirit communities? I am not saying it has
nothing to offer us. On the contrary, it has immense potential for Two-Spirit scholars and activists. Queer of
color critique is an important means to disrupt discourses of empire,
hold nationalist agendas accountable, and build theories and
practices that understand racism, queerphobias, and gender
oppressions as always entwined. Two-Spirit critiques push queer of
color critique to pay attention to the unique situations and politics of
Native Two-Spirit/GLBTQ people living under U.S. and Canadian
colonialism. Two-Spirit critiques see Two-Spirit people and traditions
as both integral to and a challenge to nationalist and decolonial
struggles. While Two-Spirit critiques hold Native nations and peoples
accountable for misogyny and homophobia, they simultaneously see
Two-Spirit people and traditions as necessary if not central to national
and decolonial struggles. Or, in Womacks words in his discussion of Southeastern Native conceptions of
difference, Rather than disrupting society, anomalies actually reify the
existing social order. Anomalous beings can also be powerful;
Queerness has an important place.39 Two-Spirit critiques see TwoSpirits as valuable participants in struggles for sovereignty and
decolonization, even while they call into account the heterosexism
and gender oppressions taking place in Native communities . In addition to
seeing queerness as deconstructive of some nationalist agendas, Two-Spirit critiques see Native Two-Spirit/GLBTQ people as
necessary to nationalist struggles for decolonization and sovereignty. Two-Spirit critiques are rooted
in
artistic and activist work and remain accountable to overlapping

communities. Two-Spirit critiques are created and maintained
through the activist and artistic resistance of Two-Spirit people .
Contemporary Two-Spirit movements take place in spaces cleared by Two-Spirit activists and artists who work in numerous
communities including their nations, Native urban spaces, non-Native GLBTQ communities, feminist movements, and non-Native
communities of color. Many of our most important poets have been, and are, Two-Spirit- and/or GLBTQ-identified, including Beth
Brant, Chrystos, and Paula Gunn Allen. Through collections such as Brants Gathering of Spirit and Gay American Indians and Will
Roscoes Living the Spirit, Two-Spirit people have used arts as Two-Spirit
critiques.40 Two- Spirit critiques within academic writing, then,

should not only look to these artists as models but also remain
accountable and accessible to Two-Spirit people outside the
academy. Native studies insists on methodologies and theories that
are rooted in, responsible to, and in service of Native communities .
Like women of color feminisms, Native studies positions itself as activist
scholarship that centralizes the relationship between theory and
practice. Unfortunately, queer and feminist theories in the academy have a
history of theorizing themselves away from grassroots
communities. Many feminists of color have offered useful critiques of
academic appropriations of radical grassroots movements. For instance, bell
hooks has this to say about academic feminism: While academic legitimation was crucial to
the advancement of feminist thought, it created a new set of
difficulties. Suddenly the feminist thinking that had emerged directly from theory and practice received less attention than
theory that was metalinguistic, creating exclusive jargon; it was written solely for an academic audience. . . . As a consequence of
academization of feminist thought in this manner undermines feminist movement via depoliticization. Deradicalized,
it
is like every other academic discipline with the only difference being
117
the focus on gender.41 A similar critique is offered by Aurora Levins Morales: My intellectual
life and that of other organic intellectuals, many of them women of
color, is fully sophisticated enough for use. But in order to have
value in the marketplace, the entrepreneurs and multinational
developers must find a way to process it, to refine the rich
multiplicity of our lives and all we have come to understand about
them into high theory by the simple act of removing it, abstracting it
beyond recognition, taking out the fiber, boiling it down until the
vitality is oxidized away and then marketing it as their own and
selling it back to us for more than we can afford.42 Not only do Two-Spirit critiques
remain accountable to both academic and nonacademic audiences, they are informed by Two-Spirit artist and activist movements.
Being Two-Spirit is a tactic of resistance to white supremacist

colonialism. Two-Spirit critiques see theory practiced through poetry, memoir, fiction, story, song, dance, theater, visual art,
film, and other genres. Theory is not just about interpreting genres: these
genres are theory. Warrior argues that Native poets provide a model
of the practice of intellectual sovereignty and should be used as a
model for Native critical studies.43 Two-Spirit critiques remember
that the only difference between a history, a theory, a poem, an
essay, is the one that we have ourselves imposed.44 Two-Spirit
critiques engage in both intertribal and tribally specific concerns. The
growing number of Two-Spirit organizations and gatherings in the United
States and Canada focus on creating Two-Spirit communities across
tribal nations, using the common goal of (re)claiming Two-Spirit
identities as a way to bring Native people together.45 While
intertribal, Two-Spirit critiques also insist on tribally specific
approaches as a way to create intertribal alliances and coalition s. Just as
there is no such thing as a generalized Native person, there is no
such thing as a general Two-Spirit identity. Thus, while Two-Spirit
people come together across lines of region and nation, Two-Spirit
identities and tactics are rooted in a solid national center.46
Kathy Reynolds and Dawn McKinleys legal battle against the
Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (C.N.O.) to be legally married under
Cherokee law, for example, was specifically a Cherokee struggle not
only to validate a same-sex union under C.N.O. law but also
through the hearings that resulted in this attempt to reestablish
specific Cherokee cultural memory of same-sex relationships and
unions and challenge the notion that community recognition of
same-sex relationships is outside Cherokee cultural precedent.47
Non-Native radical queer movements might misunderstand TwoSpirit efforts to position ourselves within nations as assimilationist or,
as what Lisa Duggan calls homonormative, rather than acts of intellectual and rhetorical sovereignty.48 The stance that
we are and should be an integral part of our communities, that
our genders and sexualities are something that actually are
normal within traditional worldviews, marks Native Two-Spirit/
queer politics as very separate from non-Native movements. Being a
part of our nations and communities is actually an antiassimilation
stance against colonial projects such as boarding/residential
schools and forced Christianization that have attempted to
assimilate Native people into non-Native culture and tried to
eradicate Indigenous sexualities and gender systems. Two-Spirit
118
critiques call into question, then, how radical queer politics replicate
colonial taxonomies and realities even as they attempt to disrupt
them. Does this mean Two-Spirit critiques dont call into account
Native nationalisms that replicate colonialism? Of course not the legal challenge to the
definitions of marriage in the C.N.O. mentioned above did just that. But it does mean that the
challenges against homophobic and heterosexist Native nationalisms
are not seen as antinationalist but as part of larger nationalist and
decolonial struggles.
119
*** Alt Solvo ***
120
Alt comes first

Challenging the USs sexist hierarchy is a prerequisite to
solving for the impacts of colonialism
Smith 08 (Andrea Smith, an intellectual, feminist, and anti-violence activist
Dismantling Hierarchy, Queering Society
http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/dismantling-hierarchy-queering-society KA)
Queer politics calls us to go beyond a simple toleration for gay and
lesbian communities to address how heteropatriarchy structures
white supremacy, capitalism, and settler colonialism. By
heteropatriarchy, I mean the way our society is fundamentally based on male
dominancea dominance inherently built on a gender binary system that
presumes heterosexuality as a social norm. To examine how
heteropatriarchy is the building block of U.S. empire, we can turn to
the writings of the Christian Right. For example, Prison Fellowship
founder Charles Colson makes a connection between homosexuality and the
nation-state in his analysis of the war on terror, claiming that one of the
causes of terrorism is same-sex marriage: Marriage is the traditional
building block of human society, intended both to unite couples and
bring children into the world ... There is a natural moral order for the
family ... The family, led by a married mother and father, is the best available
structure for both child-rearing and cultural health. Marriage is not a private
institution designed solely for the individual gratification of its participants. If
we fail to enact a Federal Marriage Amendment, we can expect not just more
family breakdown, but also more criminals behind bars and more chaos in our
streets. It's like handing moral weapons of mass destruction to those who
would use America's depravity to recruit more snipers, more highjackers, and
more suicide bombers. When radical Islamists see American women abusing
Muslim men, as they did in the Abu Ghraib prison, and when they see news
coverage of same-sex couples being "married" in U.S. towns, we make our
kind of freedom abhorrentthe kind they see as a blot on Allah's creation.
[We must preserve traditional marriage in order to] protect the United States
from those who would use our depravity to destroy us. The implicit
assumption in this analysis is that the traditional heterosexual family
is the building block of empire. Colson is linking the well-being of
U.S. empire to the well-being of the heteropatriarchal family.
Heteropatriarchy is the logic that makes social hierarchy seem
natural. Just as the patriarchs rule the family, the elites of the
nation-state rule their citizens. For instance, prior to colonization
many Native communities were not only nonpatriarchal, they were
not socially hierarchical, generally speaking. Consequently, when
colonists first came to this land they saw the necessity of instilling
patriarchy in Native communities because they realized that
indigenous peoples would not accept colonial domination if their
own indigenous societies were not structured on the basis of social
hierarchy. Patriarchy in turn rests on a gender-binary system; hence it is
121
not a coincidence that colonizers also targeted indigenous peoples

who did not fit within this binary model. Many Native communities had
multiple genderssome Native scholars are now even arguing that their
communities may not have been gendered at all prior to colonization
although gender systems among Native communities varied. Gender
violence is a primary tool of colonialism and white supremacy.
Colonizers did not just kill off indigenous peoples in this landNative
massacres were also accompanied by sexual mutilation and rape. The goal
of colonialism is not just to kill colonized peoplesit's also to
destroy their sense of being people. It is through sexual violence
that a colonizing group attempts to render a colonized people as
inherently rapable, their lands inherently invadable, and their
resources inherently extractable. A queer analytic highlights the fact that
colonialism operates through patriarchy. Another reality that a queer
activist approach reveals is that even social justice groups often rely on a
politics of normalization. Queer politics has expanded our
understanding of identity politics by not presuming fixed categories
of people, but rather looking at how these identity categories can
normalize who is acceptable and who is unacceptable, even within
social justice movements. It has also demonstrated that many peoples
can become "queered" in our societythat is, regardless of
sexual/gender identity, they can become marked as inherently perverse
and hence unworthy of social concern (such as sex workers, prisoners,
"terrorists," etc.). We often organize around those peoples who seem
most "normal" or acceptable to the mainstream. Or we engage in an
identity politics that is based on a vision of racial, cultural, or
political purity that sidelines all those who deviate from the
revolutionary "norm." Because we have not challenged our society's
sexist hierarchy (which, as I have explained, fundamentally privileges
maleness and presumes heterosexuality), we have deeply internalized
the notion that social hierarchy is natural and inevitable, thus
undermining our ability to create movements for social change that
do not replicate the structures of domination that we seek to
eradicate. Whether it is the neocolonial middle managers of the nonprofit
industrial complex or the revolutionary vanguard elite, the assumption is that
patriarchs of any gender are required to manage and police the revolutionary
family. Any liberation struggle that does not challenge
heteronormativity cannot substantially challenge colonialism or
white supremacy. Rather, as political scientist Cathy Cohen contends, such
struggles will maintain colonialism based on a politics of secondary
marginalization in which the most elite members of these groups will further
their aspirations on the backs of those most marginalized within the
community. Fortunately, many indigenous and racial justice movements are
beginning to see that addressing heteropatriarchy is essential to dismantling
settler colonialism and white supremacy. The Native Youth Sexual Health
Network, led by Jessica Yee, integrates queer analysis, indigenous feminism,
and decolonization into its organizing praxis. Incite!, a national activist group
122
led by radical feminists of color, similarly addresses the linkages between

gender violence, heteropatriarchy, and state violence. And queer-of-color
organizations such as the Audre Lorde Project have rejected centrist political
approaches that demand accommodation from the state; rather, they seek to
"queer" the state itself.This queer interrogation of the "normal" is also
present in more conservative communities. I see one such thread in
evangelical circlesthe emergent movement (or perhaps more broadly, the
new evangelical movement). By describing the emergent movement as a
queering of evangelicalism, I don't necessarily mean that it offers an
open critique of homophobia (although some emergent church leaders
such as Brian McClaren have spoken out against homophobia). Rather, I see
this movement as challenging of normalizing logics within
evangelicalism. This movement has sought to challenge the meaning
of evangelicalism as being based on doctrinal correctness, and
instead to imagine it a more open-ended ongoing theological
conversation. Certainly the Obama presidential campaign has inspired
many evangelicalseven though they may hold conservative positions on
homosexuality or abortionto call for a politics that is more open-ended and
engaged with larger social justice struggles. Perhaps because of this trend,
evangelical leader John Stackhouse recently complained that the
biggest change in evangelicalism is "the collapse of the Christian
consensus against homosexual marriage." Unfortunately, many leftist
organizers tend to dismiss or ignore these openings within evangelicalism,
but at their own peril. Social transformation happens only through
sustained dialogue with people across social, cultural, and political
divides. As I have shown here, I believe queer politics offers both a
politics and a method for furthering social transformation. It is a
politics that addresses how heteropatriarchy serves to naturalize all
other social hierarchies, such as white supremacy and settler
colonialism. It is also a method that organizes around a critique of the
"normal" (in society as a whole or in social movements) and engages in openended, flexible, and ever-changing strategies for liberation.
123
Counter Surveillance
Alt solves Counter surveillance exists as a resistant
activism, criticizing and destabilizing the surveillance
state
Clavell, 2014 The University of Barcelona. Center for the Study of
Culture, Politics and Society. (Gemma, Surveillance by any other name?
Understanding counter surveillance as critical discourse and practice. pages
343-45. PDF. 7.6.15)//ctb
If we take Lyon's definition of surveillance as a starting point (any collection and processing of personal data, whether
identifiable or not, for the purpose of influencing or managing those whose data have been garnered - Lyon 2001, p. 9),
both Cybersyn and Situation Room, as well as social movement-developed medialabs, are instances of surveillance. The
while State-controlled
surveillance is usually accountable to some sort of democratic body
(the Judiciary, administrative procedures, etc.), one could argue that
most people have very little say or control over the use of personal
data when done by non-State bodies social movements among
them. What is, then, counter surveillance, and how does it relate to
co-option, recreation and exposure? For some authors, any action
aimed at exposing surveillance practices, even if through cooption
or recreation, constitutes counter surveillance: counter surveillance
can include disabling or destroying surveillance cameras, mapping
paths of least surveillance and disseminating that information over
the nternet, employing video cameras to monitor sanctioned
surveillance systems and their personnel, or staging public plays to
draw attention to the prevalence of surveillance in society (Monahan 2006,
p. 515). Others, however, establish differences between certain practices,
distinguishing between opposing surveillance and organizing
counter surveillance: avoiding images versus creating images. Opposing
surveillance includes hiding from it in one way or another,
demanding tighter regulation, as well as organizing 'surveillance
free zones' (...) Counter surveillance is another type of activism that
takes place to criticise surveillance (Koskela, 2004, p. 205). It is about
turning those same tools against the oppressors (Mann in Koskela, 2004, p. 157).
For others, still, counter surveillance is the act of turning the tables and
surveilling those who are doing the surveillance, a practice made
possible by the democratization of surveillance, but different from
refusal, masking, distorting and avoidance, among others
emphasis might be more on the managing than the influencing, but
(Marx, 2003). The boundaries between surveillance and practices of resistance, thus, are not clear. And the blurring gets
even more intense if we add to the mix Mann's concept of sousveillance (2002), which he defined as inversed
surveillance or watchful vigilance from underneath involving a peer to peer approach that decentralizes observation to
produce transparency in all directions and reverse the otherwise one-sided Panoptic gaze (Mann, Fung & Lo, 2006, p.
177).4 The same author differentiates between inband sousveillance/subveillance (arising from within the
organization) and out-of-band sousveillance (often unwelcome by the organization and/or necessary when inband
sousveillance fails). He is also responsible for coining the terms equiveillance, which aims to find equilibrium between
surveillance and sousveillance and introduce issues of power and respect in the discussion (Mann 2004, p. 627), and
coveillance, defined by some as participatory or multicultural surveillance (Kernerman, 2005).
124
Synopticism can create a counter-surveillance that allows

for the many to view the few
Hier, No date [Sean P., Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University
of Victoria where he teaches in the areas of race and social issues, Probing
the Surveillant Assemblage: on the dialectics of surveillance practices as
processes of social control. Surveillance and Society, www.surveillance-andsociety.org, 404-405]
One intriguing line of reasoning is found in Mathiesen's (1997)
discussion of the 'viewer society', where he calls into question
Foucault's (1977:216) invocation of Julius' proclamation that the
problem of the modern age is `...[t]o procure for a small number, or
even for a single individual, the instantaneous view of a great
multitude'. For Mathiesen, what is missing or more accurately, ignored
in Foucault's account of the panoptical- surveillance society is an
incorporation of the role of the mass media. He explains that
accompanying the shift observed by Foucault from the theatrical
expression of the sovereign to the disciplinary- surveillance society
has been the parallel rise of the modern mass media. What this implies
for Mathiesen is that, whereas the few are vested with the ability to see the
many under panoptical surveillance, the many have increasingly become
accustom to seeing, and thereby contemplating, the actions of the few with
the rise and expansion of mass mediated communication systems,
particularly television. Captured by the appellation of the synoptic,
Mathiesen postulates that synopticism may be used to represent
situations whereby large numbers of people are able to focus on
something in common. Conceptualized as an opposing situation to
panoptical supervision, he contends that synoptical observation
represents a concurrent force which accelerated through the modern
period in intimate interaction even fusion with the panoptic. For as
Mathiesen outlines, it was at precisely the same time that Foucault identified
the rise of the modern prison and panopticism that the media of mass
communications in the form of the press emerged. Presupposed by important
social conditions including the changing role of the citizen and the
development of a sizable middle class, the mass distribution of the
newspaper enabled those of similar social status to visualize on a much wider
scale not only others with whom they presumably identified but the actions
and intentions of those with whom they did not. The subsequent
communicative expansion of other media film, radio, television
significantly contributed to the advancement of this capability, but it was also
facilitated by the distributive capacities of technological flows in the form of
the train, steamship, telegraph and the harnessing of electricity. It is
important to note, too, that developments in the expansion of mass
communications were presupposed by a social structure which increasingly
desired mobility, speed and information, facilitating the distanciation of time
and space and the disembedding of social relations. Hence, in contrast to
125
Foucault's understanding of the modern subject as the culmination

of dispersed, non-visible panoptical processes oriented towards the
transformation of the soul, Mathiesen finds it more feasible to
explain these processes as fulfilled by the visibility of modern
synopticon. Far from Foucault's panoptical gaze, where surveillance and
punishment are removed from open view, the synoptic embraces the
visual in the most emphatic manner because the synopticon is
thoroughly visual and visualizing. Not only do synoptical processes
enable the many to focus on something of common stock but
Mathiesen argues that they constitute a more or less total pattern of
visualization, intimately tied to the impulse to panoptic visualization. In
recent memory, no event exemplifies the dialectical interaction of synoptical
forces and panoptical desires more cogently than the mediation of the
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre of 11 September 2001. Through
sustained graphic visual representation of the collapsing Twin Towers, the
fusion of the synoptic and the panoptic was revealed: repeated exposure to
the fantastic spectacle served to invite a global audience to consume the
hybrid image of fascination and repulsion whilst those same images served
as, and remain, the central discursive resource oriented towards
consolidating panoptical aspirations through the intensification of information
gathering, data sharing and risk management techniques. In its many forms,
surveillance stands as a cause as well as an effect of intensified practices of
social monitoring and information gathering.
126
Assemblages
Assemblages are necessary to rejecting binaries and
interrogating power
Monahan et al, 2010 Professor of Communication Studies at The
emphasis on surveillance and security programs. He has published over forty
articles or book chapters and five books, director of the international
Surveillance Studies Network and an associate editor of the leading academic
journal on surveillance, Surveillance & Society. Phillips is from Faculty of
Information, University of Toronto. Wood is from Surveillance Studies Centre,
Queens University. (Torin, David, and David. Surveillance and
Empowerment. pages 107-8. PDF. 7.7.15)//ctb
Surveillance is always about power. But following Michel Foucault
(1980), power is never simply possessed by one individual or group
and wielded over another. Power is better understood as a set of
forces that have productive capacities, that are in constant flux, and
that manifest in larger assemblages of material, social, and
symbolic relationships (Foucault 1978). Rather than simply being a map of connections of disparate
elements, such assemblages also include the literary, political, and
economic glue that holds those connections in place long enough to
yield social truths or scientific facts (Fortun and Bernstein 1998). Therefore, scholars
should follow the many disparate links that constitute surveillance
practices and posit explanations for how these connections hold the
assemblage together. This means attending to the relationships that are produced, which the field has
done quite well, and to the ways in which these relationships resist alteration, which is something that scholars are forced
to confront when investigating potentials for empowerment. In the Surveillance Studies literature, there have been
significant contributions on social sorting, digital discrimination, privacy invasion, racial profiling, and other mechanisms of
unequal treatment (e.g., Gandy 1993; Lyon 2003; Monahan 2008; Regan 1995). In contrast, questions concerning the
potential of surveillance for contributing to individual autonomy and dignity, fairness and due process, community
cooperation, social equality, and political and cultural visibility have been rare in the field. Does a set of practices count as
surveillance only if government agencies or agents are violating the rights of denizens? Only if corporations are
collecting data on consumers? Only if bosses are spying on workers? Only if conservative political ends are being met? In
other words, why should a set of practices count as surveillance if used by one group but not by another? There may be
an understandable predilection in Surveillance Studies of concentrating on institutional actors impinging on the rights and
Gilliom reminds us, the word surveillance

connotes domination: If we think of surveillance as just watching,
we err, because surveillance is never really just watching . Its not
just vision, but supervision. Its not just sight, but oversight .
Surveillance assumes, advances, and/or creates a relationship of
domination (Gilliom 2010: 205). The question for us is how can it be otherwise? Or, put differently, how might
activities of others. After all, as John
traditionally marginalized groups use surveillance to challenge their positions of marginality? Or, even broader, how can
surveillance be designed, employed, and regulated to contribute to democratic practices and/or the social good? Such
questions imply an epistemological position that explicitly rejects

simple binaries, such as beliefs that surveillance is inherently
negative and opposition to it is inherently positive . Instead, if
surveillance is always relational, then the question of whether it is
positive or negative depends upon ones position in the system. It
127
depends upon whether ones status and values are being affirmed or
undermined. This does not mean that surveillance ceases to be about power relationships. Instead,
empowering surveillance can be those surveillant practices that
favorably alter ones position in larger sociotechnical systems.
128
***2NC Answers***
129
2NC AT: Perm

Using an intersectional lens is key to accumulating
accurate data to explain actions of the subject
Ball 9
(Kirstie Ball, EXPOSURE, Exploring the subject of surveillance, Information, Communication &
Society Volume 12, Issue 5, 2009, August 13, 2009,
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/13691180802270386#.VZvt0xNViko)
we lose something analytically if we focus on

just, for example, a discursive notion of the subject. While others have
The second advantage is that
argued that surveillance systems reduces the body ontology to one of information (Van Der Ploeg 2002),
the reality of that lived body in relation to surveillance is a far more complex issue.
Conceptualizing surveillance subjects as (for example) positioned within

a discourse about exposure might tell us something about the
existence of an institutional discourse but tells us little about what
subjects invest in sustaining those positions (or otherwise) and why (Hollway
& Jefferson 2005). The intersubjectivity so overlooked by institutions is
central to uncovering these investments, and hence goes beyond
first, cognitively driven rational choice-based models of the
individual, and second, models which assume that the inner and outer worlds are mere reflections of
each other. Given the requirements of different surveillance dispositifs
for subjects to be ever more personal and emotionally revealing,
something more is required. In the only piece of published research to date which
documents and demonstrates this method, Hollway and Jefferson (2005) have managed to show that in
addition to social and discursive explanations of subjectivity,
exploring subject histories and biographical evidence revealed that
key subject identifications either with family members (such as
mother/father) or with moralities (e.g. honest/dishonest) explained why individuals
place themselves in potentially difficult situations. This is potentially of great
value to surveillance studies; where to be exposed, observed and judged under
surveillance is frequently a disconcerting and uncomfortable
experience, which may give rise to all manner of anxieties but
simultaneously be of benefit to the subject.
A singular view of a subject forces social norms and

makes resistance impossiblethe alternative is key to
self-determination
Ball 9 (Kirstie Ball, EXPOSURE, Exploring the subject of surveillance, Information, Communication &
Society Volume 12, Issue 5, 2009, August 13, 2009,
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/13691180802270386#.VZvt0xNViko)
The third advantage is that this view identifies new possibilities for
resistance. If the preceding analysis is correct, then it is true that surveillance dispositifs are
becoming more focused on the unmarked interiors of subjects as authenticators of all kinds of things.
the secret authentic interior of the

subject is by definition always beyond the reach of surveillance. In
effect, this politicizes the decision to comply with or perform a
surveillance request. Koskela (2004) makes similar arguments, suggesting that in a new
confessional society exhibitionism becomes empowering . The
However if Dean's (2002) commentary holds, then
130
complete exposure of oneself, leaving nothing hidden or secret

overwhelms the surveillance assemblage, and hence could be
construed as resistant . Further understanding of the perlocutionary
gap, moments of identification and reflections on exposure will
further articulate what those resistant possibilities might be. An added
complication is that sometimes the subject is not aware of being under surveillance but has been exposed
by it anyway. With the growth in ubiquitous computing this becomes an even more salient issue to be
addressed by theorists. Answers may lie in a number of areas: a consideration of the effects of chains of
intermediaries (Ball 2002) on the surveilled in terms of where exposure occurs and whether it is
coincidental with data capture; extending the temporalities and spatialities of exposure beyond that of
immediate data capture, suggesting that exposure is not always directly mediated by surveillance
technology. Awareness of surveillance may arise far away from the domain of data capture, yet that
awareness may be as profound is if one was staring into the empty black lens of a security camera, or
Spaces for reflection are still relevant,

even if these spaces do not emerge while the subject is under
surveillance.
submitting a urine sample for a drug test.
131
2NC AT: Framework

We shouldnt succumb to the institutional demands of our
professional lives it is our obligation as ethical actors to
break-out of the logic doubling, or the idea that we are
not responsible when higher powers, like the topic
committee, traditional debate, and literalist
interpretation of the resolution, tell us what to do. The
alternative is a form of political imagination that cant
conceive of difference and culminates in mass death.
Fasching and deChant 2001
(Darrell and Dell, Prof. of Religious Studies @ University of South Florida, Prof.
of Religious Studies @ USF, Comparative Religious Ethics: A Narrative
Approach, Pg. 42-43)
Interpreting our own historical situation is a risky business, for we are still too
close to the events. We do not have the distance needed to put everything
into proper perspective. Nevertheless, without such an interpretation it is
impossible to identify the ethical challenges that face us, so we must risk it.
In this chapter we argue that two major trends unfolded in the twentieth
century that are of significance for thinking about ethics: (1) the phenomenon
of mass killing encouraged by sacred narratives that authorize "killing in
order to heal," as symbolized by Auschwitz and Hiroshima, and (2) a crosscultural and interreligious ethic of non-violent resistance or civil disobedience
symbolized by figures like Gandhi and King one that functions as an ethic of
audacity on behalf of the stranger. The second, we suggest, offers an ethic of
the holy in response to the sacred morality of the first.
The modern period, which began with a utopian hope that science and
technology would create an age of peace, prosperity, and progress, ended in
an apocalyptic nightmare of mass death, symbolized by Auschwitz and
Hiroshima, leaving us with the task of creating a post/modern ethic that can
transcend the techno-bureaucratic tribalism that expressed itself in two world
wars. Technobureaucratic tribalism occurs when sacred narratives are combined with the technical
capacity to produce mass death. While we do not pretend to offer an exhaustive explanation of the modern
the use of sacred narratives

that define killing as a form of healing, and (2) the undermining of ethical
consciousness by techno-bureaucratic organization through a psychological
process of doubling (separating one's personal and professional identities),
which enables individuals to deny that they are responsible for some of their
actions. Through sacred stories, the stranger is defined as less than human and therefore beyond the
pale of ethical obligation, as well as a threat to sacred order. At the same time, bureaucracies
encourage one to engage in a total surrender of self in unquestioning
obedience to higher (sacred) authority (whether God, religious leaders, or political leaders),
so that when one acts as a professional self on behalf of an institution (the
propensity for mass death, we do suggest two key elements: (1)
132
state, the military, the church, etc.) one can say, "It is not I that acts: a higher
authority is acting through me, so I am not personally responsible."
Yet, despite the seemingly overwhelming dominance of techno- bureaucratic
tribalism and mass killing in the twentieth century, a modest but important
counter-trend also emerged a cross-cultural and interreligious ethic of
audacity on behalf of the stranger, linked to such names as Tolstoy, Gandhi,
and King. The purpose of this chapter is to grasp the ethical challenge of
modernity as symbolized by Auschwitz and Hiroshima. The purpose of the
remainder of this book is to examine the potential of the ethical response to
that challenge offered by the tradition of non-violent civil disobedience,
symbolized by Gandhi and King, for a cross-cultural and interreligious
post/modern ethic of human dignity, human rights, and human liberation.
This brings us to the SQ of debate

Bjork 92
(Rebecca, Past Coach and Debater, Symposium: Women in Debate: Reflections on the Ongoing Struggle,
1992 - Effluents and affluence: The Global Pollution Debate///NMM)
my identity as an individual has been shaped by these

debate. I am a person who strongly believes that debate empowers
people to be committed and involved individuals in the communities in which
they live. I am a person who thrives on the intellectual stimulation involved in teaching and
Not surprisingly, much of
experiences in
traveling with the brightest students on my campus. I am a person who looks forward to the opportunities
for active engagement of ideas with debaters and coaches from around the country .
I am also,
however , a college professor, a "feminist," and a peace activist who is increasingly frustrated and
disturbed by some of the practices I see being perpetuated
and rewarded in academic debate. I find that I can no longer separate my involvement in
debate from the rest of who I am as an individual. Northwestern I remember listening to a lecture a few
years ago given by Tom Goodnight at the University summer debate camp. Goodnight lamented what he
the debate community's participation in, and unthinking

perpetuation of what he termed the "death culture." He argued that the
embracing of "big impact" arguments--nuclear war, environmental destruction,
genocide, famine, and the like-by debaters and coaches signals a morbid and
detached fascination with such events, one that views these real human
tragedies as part of a "game" in which so-called "objective and
neutral" advocates actively seek to find in their research the
"impact to outweigh all other impacts"--the round-winning argument that will
carry them to their goal of winning tournament X, Y, or Z. He concluded that our "use" of such
events in this way is tantamount to a celebration of them; ou r detached , rational
discussions reinforce a detached, rational viewpoint, when emotional
and moral outrage may be a more appropriate response . In the last few years, my academic research has
led me to be persuaded by Goodnight's unspoken assumption; language is not merely
some transparent tool used to transmit information, but rather
is an incredibly powerful medium, the use of which inevitably
has real political and material consequences. Given this assumption,
I believe that it is important for us to examine the "discourse of debate practice:"
saw as
133
the language, discourses, and meanings that we, as a

community of debaters and coaches, unthinkingly employ in
academic debate. If it is the case that the language we use has real
implications for how we view the world, how we view others, and how we act in
the world, then it is imperative that we critically examine our own discourse
practices with an eye to how our language does violence to others. I am
that is,
shocked and surprised when I hear myself saying things like, "we killed them," or "take no prisoners," or
"let's blow them out of the water." I am tired of the "ideal" debater being defined as one who has mastered
the art of verbal assault to the point where accusing opponents of lying, cheating, or being deliberately
what I am most tired of is how women

debaters are marginalized and rendered voiceless in such a
discourse community. Women who verbally assault their
opponents are labeled "bitches" because it is not socially acceptable for women to
be verbally aggressive. Women who get angry and storm out of a room when a
disappointing decision is rendered are labeled "hysterical" because, as we all know,
misleading is a sign of strength. But
women are more emotional then men. I am tired of hearing comments like, "those 'girls' from school X
aren't really interested in debate; they just want to meet men." We can all point to examples (although
only a few) of women who have succeeded at the top levels of debate. But I find myself wondering how
many more women gave up because they were tired of negotiating the mine field of discrimination, sexual
As members of this
community, however, we have great freedom to define it in
whatever ways we see fit. After all, what is debate except a collection of shared
understandings and explicit or implicit rules for interaction? What I am calling for is a
critical examination of how we, as individual members of this
community, characterize our activity, ourselves, and our
interactions with others through language. We must become aware of
the ways in which our mostly hidden and unspoken
assumptions about what "good" debate is function to exclude
not only women, but ethnic minorities from the amazing intellectual
opportunities that training in debate provides. Our nation and indeed, our planet, faces incredibly
harassment, and isolation they found in the debate community.
difficult challenges in the years ahead. I believe that it is not acceptable anymore for us to go along as we
always have, assuming that things will straighten themselves out. If the rioting in Los Angeles taught us
We may not be able to

change the world, but we can change our own community, and if
we fail to do so, we give up the only real power that we have.
anything, it is that complacency breeds resentment and frustration.
134
2NC AT: Link Turn Foucault

A Foucauldian analysis fails to account for the
technologically changing nature of the surveillance
apparatusviewing surveillance through the lens of the
surveillant assemblage is best for understanding how
surveillance has evolved to use technology to further
oppression
Hier 3 (Sean P. Hier, Probing the Surveillant Assemblage: on the Dialectics of Surveillance practices
as processes of social control Published by Surveillance and Society 2003 pp. 401-2 /\Burke/\)
what emerges as problematic through this

protracted reliance on Foucault and, less commonly, Orwell is that such accounts
fail to embrace seriously contemporary developments in surveillance
techniques. Among other things, they contend that contemporary surveillance
practices stretch far beyond the state, their technological
capabilities problematize a reliance on 18th and 19th century total
institutions and, far from the negative connotations that tend to be attached to surveillance, many surveillance
In Haggerty and Ericsons assessment (2000),
practices today are not only supported but encouraged by those who serve as the primary targets of data gathering
rather than recasting Orwellian or

Foucauldian imagery to fit the technological particularities of
contemporary surveillance (i.e. electronic panopticon, super panopticon), it is more
beneficent to chart alternative theoretical and conceptual terrain. In
systems. What this intimates for Haggerty and Ericson is that,
doing so, they invoke Delueze and Guattari s concept of assemblages to denote the increasing convergence of once
Pronouncing surveillance as one of the

main institutional components of late modernity, the surveillant
assemblage is put forth to distance their conceptual endeavor from
the episteme of discretely structured objects of stability and
constancy. Incorporated to explicate the functional multiplicity of a heterogeneity of objects whose unity is located
in moments of interdependence, the notion of the assemblage is adopted to
capture the configurational character of the present in the words of Deleuze and
discrete information and data gathering systems.
Guattari (1987: 406), veritable inventions. For Haggerty and Ericson, what is notable about the emergent surveillant
driven by desires to bring component parts together into

functional systems variations on which take the form of control, governance, security and profit an
exponential increase in, and convergence of, surveillance
technologies has ensued. They explain that surveillance capabilities are
increasingly directed towards the human body as a distinctive
composition of life forms and webs of information. These processes involve
abstractions from, or data doubles on, organic hybrids, such that a protracted reliance develops
on machines not only to register but record otherwise discrete
observations. Maintaining that we are only beginning to appreciate how surveillance is driven by the desire to
integrate component parts into wider systems, they insist that data simulations are not simply
representational by nature, but involve a more advanced form of
pragmatics having to do with their instrumental efficacy in making
discriminations among divergent populations.
assemblage is that,
135
***AFF Answers***
136
Assemblage Permutation
The perm is to do the aff and construct an assemblage
more attuned to our surroundings a rejection of
intersectionalitys demands of stable identity, a
recognition of becoming
Puar, 2005 queer theorist, department of Womens and Gender Studies
at Rutgers University. Author of Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in
Queer Times. (Jasbir, Queer Times, Queer Assemblages. Book. 7.5.15)//ctb
As there is no entity, no identity to queer, rather queerness coming
forth at us from all directions, screaming its defiance, suggests to
me a move from intersectionality to assemblage. The Deleuzian assemblage, as a
series of dispersed but mutually implicated networks, draws together enunciation and dissolution, causality and effect.
As opposed to an intersectional model of identity, which presumes

components race, class, gender, sexuality, nation, age, religion
are separable analytics and can be thus disassembled, an
assemblage is more attuned to interwoven forces that merge and
dissipate time, space, and body against linearity, coherency, and
permanency . Intersectionality demands the knowing, naming, and
thus stabilizing of identity across space and time, generating
narratives of progress that deny the fictive and performative of
identification: you become an identity, yes, but also timelessness
works to consolidate the fiction of a seamless table identity in every
space. As a tool of diversity management, and a mantra of liberal multiculturalism, intersectionality
colludes with the disciplinary apparatus of the state census,
demography, racial profiling, surveillance in that difference is encased within a
structural container that simply wishes the messiness of identity into a formulaic grid. Displacing queerness as an identity
or modality that is visibly, audibly, legibly, or tangibly evident, assemblages allow us to attune to intensities, emotions,
energies, affectivities, textures as they inhabit events, spatiality, and corporealities. Intersectionality privileges naming,
visuality, epistemology, representation, and meaning, while assemblage underscores feeling, tactility, ontology, affect,
and information. Most important, given the heightened death-machine aspect of nationalism in our contemporary political
terrain a heightened sensorial and anatomical domination described by Achille Mbembe as necropolitics
assemblages work against narratives of U.S. exceptionalism that

secures empire, challenging the fixity of racial and sexual
taxonomies that inform practices of state surveillance and control,
ad befuddling the us versus them of the war on terror. For while
intersectionality and its underpinnings an unrelenting epistemological will to truth
presupposes identity and thus disavows futurity, assemblage, in its
debt to ontology and its espousal of what cannot be known, seen, or
heard, or has yet to be known, seen, or heard, allows for becoming/s
beyond being/s .14
137
The alternative fails to interrogate or destabilize power

its too static and only flattens power relations turns the
K
Ellis et al, 2013 Ellis is Senior Lecturer in Psychosocial Studies at the
University of East London. His research interests are broadly concerned with
the psychosocial construction, embodiment, expression, transmission, and
representation of emotion and affect, School of Law and Social Sciences,
University of East London. Harper is Reader in Clinical Psychology at the
University of East London. Tucker is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the
University of East London. (Darren, David, Ian. The Affective Atmospheres of
Surveillance. PDF,
http://roar.uel.ac.uk/3154/1/Ellis_Affetive_Atmosphers_of_Surveillance.pdf
7.6.15)//ctb
The surveillance assemblage concept is positioned as superseding
Foucaults conceptualisation of surveillance. Foucaults famous use of
Benthams model of the panoticon, fails, Haggerty and Ericson state, to
directly engage contemporary developments in surveillance
technology, focusing instead on transformations to eighteenth and
nineteenth century total institutions (2000, p. 607). They invoke Delueze
and Guattaris concept of assemblage to denote a convergence of
what were once discrete surveillance systems (p. 606) into what they
term the surveillance assemblage. The surveillance assemblage is
understood as a multiplicity of heterogeneous objects which work
functionally together; comprising of discrete flows of an essentially
limitless range of other phenomena such as people, signs,
chemicals, knowledge and institutions (p. 608). It is tasked with
producing records of particular times and spaces of human activity
and simultaneously forms links through networks to multiple other
times, spaces and bodies. However a number of critiques have been put
forward positioned against the conceptual term assemblage
generally (Brown & Stenner, 2009; Stenner, 2008; Wetherell, 2012) and the surveillance
assemblage particularly (Hier, 2003). Brown and Stenner (2009) question
the translation of Deleuze and Guattaris term assemblage,
suggesting that it does not quite capture the meaning of the original
French term: agencement. Adding voice to this argument, Wetherell claims that
the term assemblage is a bit too static, misses the agency implied
by the French term and incurs a flattening of power relations (2012, p. 15
and p. 126). For example, Stenners (2008) reading of A. N. Whitehead suggests there is a danger in
mis-reading process philosophies through which concepts such as
assemblage derive in that there is a tendency to flatten out
distinctions between human and non-human entities . Humans offer a kind of high
grade complexity as coordinated systems, or as sites combining what Whitehead described as societies of actual
each
form of life presents a distinctive kind of continuity and creativity .
occasions. Other forms of life (e.g. trees, frogs and cats) are also coordinated systems too, of course, but
(Wetherell, 2012, p. 126) A related criticism applies to one of the central conclusions that Haggerty and Ericson (2000)
138
the surveillance assemblage: it has ensued a

partial democratization of surveillance hierarchies . Following Deleuze and Guattari,
they use the metaphor of the rhizome plants root to illustrate the surveillance assemblage. The surveillance
assemblage, like the rhizome plant, grow in surface extensions
through interconnected vertical root systems (p. 614). The rhizome, like
the surveillance assemblage, does not have one centralised
structure (stem or trunk) which coordinates branches (of
surveillance), but rather operates and expands horizontally by
variation and disjunction. They suggest therefore that like the horizontal crisscrossing of the rhizomes root, the surveillance assemblage has
transformed pre-existing hierarchies and to some extent flattened
the power relations: no major population groups stand irrefutably
above or outside the surveillance assemblage (p. 618). The many are able to
scrutinise the few in ways that have never been possible before. Additionally, the surveillance
assemblage shifts the conceptualisation of people from individuals
to dividuals, known through codes, data, and passwords etc., rather
than organic singularities; arguably writing out, to some extent,
human subjectivity from the assemblage. Hier (2003) argues against this form of
flattening or what is termed a partial levelling of surveillance
hierarchies (p. 410), instead he suggests that the increased
sophistication of the surveillance apparatus have increased forms of
state surveillance. For example, after 9/11 in New York and Washington, [a] variety of surveillance
derive at through the concept of
mechanisms were put in place, including internet tracking devices, advances in airport security, CCTV monitoring,
biometric measurements, smartcards, and email and telephone surveillance systems, all of which served to augment the
control of those who are in positions to administer social life. (Hier, 2003, p. 410)
139
AT: Intersectionality
Intersectionality always posits some group as deviant
from the normal, and views gender as the starting point
from which all other intersectional identities are derived.
Gender always coming first ends up positioning the white
woman as the normal, and women of color as deviants
who must then act in certain ways in the face of
oppression. This is generalizing to the point where it is
self-defeating.
Puar 10 (Jasbir K Puar, I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess: intersectionality, assemblage,
and affective politics published Fall 2010, pp. 373-5 /\Burke/\)
that intersectionality emerged from

the struggles of second wave feminism as a crucial black feminist
intervention challenging the hegemonic rubrics of race, class, and
gender within predominantly white feminist frames. But, in precisely in
the act of performing this intervention, it also produces an ironic
reification of sexual difference as a/the foundational one that needs
to be disrupted that is to say, sexual and gender difference is
understood as the constant from which there are variants. As transnational,
postcolonial, and critical race theorists have pointed out, the centrality of the subject
positioning of white women has been re-secured through the way in
which intersectionality has been deployed. The theory of intersectionality argues that all
A brief survey of these and other key texts makes clear
identities are lived and experienced as intersectional in such a way that identity categories themselves are cut through
the
method of intersectionality is most predominantly used to qualify is
the specific difference of women of color, a category that has
now become, I would argue, simultaneously emptied of specific meaning on
the one hand and overdetermined in its deployment on the other. In
this usage, intersectionality always produces an Other, and that
Other is always a Woman Of Color (WOC), who must invariably be shown
to be resistant, subversive, or articulating a grievance. And more pointedly, it is
and unstable and that all subjects are intersectional whether or not they recognize themselves as such. But what
the difference of black women that dominates this genealogy of the term women of color (and indeed, Crenshaw is clear
that she centralizes black womens experience and posits black women as the starting point[4] of her analysis). Thus
the consolidation of intersectionality as a dominant heuristic may

well be driven by anxieties about maintaining the integrity of a
discrete black feminist genealogy, one that does not necessarily
resonate in terms of how intesectionality functions. For example, while Crenshaws
work is about reconciling what are perceived to be irreconcilable binary options of gender and race, Audre Lordes seminal
piece Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference[5] from 1984 reads as a much more dynamic, affectively
resonant postulation of lived intersectional subjectivities. This ironic othering of WOC through an approach that it meant to
intersectionality has become

cathected to the field of womens studies as a primary, if not
singular, feminist method, and the paradigmatic frame through
which womens lives are understood and theorized, a problem reified
by both WOC feminists and white feminists. This is despite the fact that there are wide
alleviate such othering is exacerbated by the fact that
locational differences in the interest in intersectionality. As someone who works with graduate students at Rutgers, I
encounter a variety of uneven and vexed responses to the importance of intersectionality, determined in part by
140
variations among womens and gender studies programs and geographical regions from students who have are wellschooled in the lexicon of intersectionality and presume a taken-for-grantedness of its effects, to those who have yet to
encounter it as a central concept.
Intersectionality defeats any possibility at transnational

movementsviewing women of color as deviant from the
white woman as the primary thing making them the Other
means these categories are set in stone and relied on too
muchthese categories cant take people from other
nations into account and their application in these
situations is a mask of colonialist epistemological
domination.
Puar 10 (Jasbir K Puar, I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess: intersectionality, assemblage,
and affective politics published Fall 2010, pp. 375-7 /\Burke/\)
This claim to intersectionality as the dominant feminist method can

be produced with such insistence that an interest in exploring other
frames, for example assemblage, gets rendered as problematic and
even produces WOC feminists invested in other genealogies as
race-traitors. This accusation of course reinforces the implicit
understanding that intersectionality is a tool to diagnose racial
difference. Despite decades of feminist theorizing on the question of
difference, difference continues to be difference from, that is, the
difference from white woman. This is also then an ironic reification
of racial difference as well for example, Malini Joshar Schueller argues that most
scholarship on WOC is produced by WOC, while many white
feminists, although hailing intersectionality as primary
methodological rubric continue to take gender difference as
foundational. Much like the language of diversity, the language of
intersectionality, its very invocation, it seems, largely substitutes for
intersectional analysis itself.Further questions arise when the
viability of intersectionality as a theoretical frame is re-situated
within a changed historical and economic landscape of neo-liberal
capitalism and identity. What does an intersectional critique look like or more to the point,
what does it do in an age of neo-liberal pluralism, absorption and accommodation of difference, of all
kinds of differences? If it is the case that intersectionality has been mainstreamed in the last two
decades a way to manage difference that colludes with dominant forms of liberal multiculturalism is the
qualitative force of the interpellation of difference itself altered or uncertain? Let me qualify that my
concern is not about the formative, generative, and necessary intervention of Crenshaws work, but of both
the changed geopolitics of reception as well as a tendency towards reification in the deployment of
intersectionality become, as Schueller argues[6], an alibi for

the re-centering of white liberal feminists? What is a poststructuralist theory of
intersectionality. Has
intersectionality that might address multicultural and post-racial discourses of inclusion that destabilizes
the WOC as a prosthetic capacity to white women?Such questions also bring to the fore the geopolitical
problems of intersectional analyses. If, as Avtar Brah and Ann Pheonix have argued, old debates about the
in the context of recent

historical events, such as September 11th, and the occupation of
Afghanistan and Iraq, transnational and postcolonial scholars
category woman have assumed new critical urgency[7]
141
continue to point out that the categories privileged by intersectional

analysis do not necessarily traverse national and regional
boundaries nor genealogical exigencies, presuming and producing
static epistemological renderings of categories themselves across
historical and geopolitical locations. Indeed, many of the cherished
categories of the intersectional mantra, originally starting with race,
class, gender, now including sexuality, nation, religion, age, and
disability, are the product of modernist colonial agendas and
regimes of epistemic violence, operative through a western/euroamerican epistemological formation through which the whole notion of discrete identity
has emerged, for example, in terms of sexuality and empire. Joseph Massad quite astutely points out, in his
refinement of Foucauldian framings of sexuality, that the colonial project deployed sexuality as a concept
that was largely internalized within intellectual and juridical realms but was not distilled as a widespread
hegemonic project. So part of Massads point is that while we might worry, for example, about the
globalization of the term queer, we deflect from the much graver problem of the generalization and
assumed transparency of the term sexuality itself a taken for granted category of the modernist imperial
project, not only an imposed epistemological frame, but also ontologically presumptuous or in fact, an
epistemological capture of an ontologically irreducible becoming.
Transnational practices are crucial to include perspectives

that can be applied through history and across the world.
Failure to include this type of praxis leads to rigid
critiques that are doomed to fail discursively.
Nagar and Swarr 10 (Richa Nagar and Amanda Lock Swarr, Theorizing Transnational
Feminist Praxis published 2010, p. 9 /\Burke/\)
Our argument for dismantling the three dichotomies, then, is not about a simple reversal of hierarchies and
transnational collaboration should

become a dynamic construct through which praxis can acquire its
meaning and form in a given place, time, and struggle . Like our collaborators
in this volume, we resist the incli- nation to position transnational
feminisms as some teleological end result of progress narratives.
Instead, we work within a crisis of representation that relies on
critical transnational feminism as inherently unstable praxis whose
survival and evolution hinge on a continuous commitment to
produce self- reflexive and dialogic critiques of its own practices
rather than a search for resolutions or closuresnot to reproduce
exercises in narrow navel-gazing but always in relation to
overlapping hegemonic power structures at multiple temporal and
geographic scales.
systems of valorization. Rather, we suggest that
142
Alt Offense
Counter surveillance fails to be intersectional lack of
accessibility means empowerment of one body
disempowers another
Monahan et al, 2010 Professor of Communication Studies at The
emphasis on surveillance and security programs. He has published over forty
articles or book chapters and five books, director of the international
Surveillance Studies Network and an associate editor of the leading academic
journal on surveillance, Surveillance & Society. Phillips is from Faculty of
Information, University of Toronto. Wood is from Surveillance Studies Centre,
Queens University. (Torin, David, and David. Surveillance and
Empowerment. pages 107-8. PDF. 7.7.15)//ctb
Surveillance Studies has been grappling with these
issues for a while, in part by focusing on counter-surveillance in
which actors with fewer institutional or symbolic resources seek to
vitiate the surveillance to which they and others are subjected (Monahan
2010b). Studies of countersurveillance have followed two paths. The
first addresses attempts to thwart, disrupt, or avoid surveillance . John
In an oblique way the field of
Gillioms Overseers of the Poor, for instance, shows how women welfare recipients evade bureaucratic surveillance by,
among other things, refusing to disclose secondary forms of income they receive in order to make ends meet (Gilliom
2001). The Institute for Applied Autonomys iSee project provides maps of paths of least surveillance routes through
At its best, this type of countersurveillance can be empowering, but usually in a reactive way, by
contesting and trying to reduce the forms of surveillance to which
people are exposed. This also describes the important legal work
done by civil-society organizations (Bennett 2008). Another strand of
counter-surveillance action seeks to embrace and use surveillance
practices to counter dominant power. Examples of this include
CopWatch programs (Huey, Walby, and Doyle 2006) or the Institute for Applied
Autonomys (2006) defensive surveillance tactics of monitoring police
at mass public protests in order to better avoid confrontation (see also
Fernandez 2008). As is clear from the articles in this issue, this embrace is problematic. At their worst, countersurveillance tactics can be willfully ignorant of and insensitive to
intersectional forms of oppression, as can be witnessed, for
instance, in videos of Steve Manns shooting back project1, where
he (a relatively affluent white man) confronts African American
women and others working low-income, service sector jobs and
questions them about store video surveillance systems, to which the
workers are more likely to be the targets than the customers (Monahan
2010b)2. At best, they require a subtle and nimble engagement with volatile
forms of power. For example, in this issue, Wilson and Serisier examine the ways that new techniques for
urban regions that avoid CCTV cameras (Monahan 2010b).
producing and disseminating video images alter the possibilities for successful activism in complex ways, providing safety
and visibility for street protesters, but also provoking greater police violence, and sometimes providing evidence for legal
143
action against the protesters themselves .
If surveillance is to be effectively used to

counter power, then the tools of surveillance data gathering,
analytics, and response mechanisms must be accessible . These
tools are embedded in infrastructure in interlocking and mutually
supportive networks of laws, machines, and cultural practices . One of the
aims of this special issue is to probe those relations and suggest pathways toward the ethical design of surveillance
infrastructures (see Phillips 2005). 3 This approach recognizes that because surveillance is socially constructed, the design
of surveillance infrastructures is a contingent and underdetermined process, which means that alternativeand more
power-equalizingdesigns are possible. The focus on infrastructures is intentional. Whereas technologies function as tools
infrastructures establish contexts for practice (Bowker

This brings us to the difficult task of identifying possible
criteria for evaluating ethical and/or empowering surveillance . In her
that enable certain practices,
and Star 1999).
article in this volume, Shilton suggests that the design criteria for ethical tools for participatory sensing pay attention to
values of local control, participation, transparency, and social justice. Of course, each of these foci provide plenty of
opportunity for debate. Where is local? Who is to participate? What is to be transparent to whom? What is justice?
Design
is but one locus of intervention. We must also evaluate use,
outcomes, and consequences . Perhaps, as a starting point, criteria for the
evaluation of empowering outcomes could be based on
demonstrable improvement in the economic, juridical, social or
symbolic status of an individual or group that has traditionally been
marginalized or oppressed. 4 But these outcomes are never simple;
they are always polyvalent. For example, as Mark Andrejevic (2007) argues in his discussion of
interactive media, people can eagerly involve themselves with surveillance
systems that meet some of their needs and desires but are
ultimately disempowering because they enable only ersatz freedom
to make consumer choices, not actualize any deep form of political
or social empowerment. Two articles in this issue address complex and nuanced notions of use and
Nevertheless, they helpfully structure the debate to attend to normative principles of equality and autonomy.
outcome. Regan and Steeves explore how four different models of empowerment protest/resistance, social capital,
identity/self-presentation, and performance suggest different normative values in youths interaction with social
networking sites (SNS). Ellerbrok reveals the dynamics of different kinds of visibility (peer-to-peer, marketing surveillance,
Each suggests that positive outcomes

along one axis, or in the light of one model, may be negative
outcomes on another.
regulatory surveillance, and data legacies) on SNS.
144
Alt Doesnt Solve

Counter surveillance methods fail to foster
accountability
Wilson and Serisier 10 (Dean is associate professor at Plymouth University and
has published widely on surveillance including biometrics and border technologies, Tonya is a lecturer at
the school of sociology, social policy, and social work at Queens University Belfast, Video Activism and the
Ambiguities of Counter-Surveillance, The Authors, JP)
However, there was a consensus amongst all participants that, at least in the current regulatory
complaints against police behaviour at protests were highly unlikely to

succeed irrespective of the presence of video footage . It was suggested that there
is a lack of accountability 'because the police investigate themselves , and the
system,
Ombudsman's Office endorse whatever the police do' (Mills interview). The possibility of seeking official
redress is limited in a number of ways. 'Masking moves' (Marx 2003) may foreclose the usefulness of
footage for official exposure of police misconduct. Complaints to the New South Wales Ombudsman, for
example, have been returned on the basis that without a name or number it is impossible to ascertain the
As police frequently refuse to give their name on request and just

as frequently fail to wear identifying badges in protest situations they are
capable of neutralizing the official visibility of the activist's camera .4 Moreover,
such images are inserted and recontextualized in official contexts
within which police interpretations occupy a privileged , though not
unassailable, position. Surveillance images are always subject to interpretation ,
police involved.
and in the domain of official inquiry and legal proceedings police are positioned to supply the 'official
definition of the situation' (Doyle 2006, 211). The structural space of those undertaking surveillance is
therefore of considerable consequence, as it is not inevitably coupled with the power of interpretation. This
perhaps explains the pervasive cynicism based on experience expressed by all participants regarding the
capacity of counter-surveillance to render police officially accountable. If the capacity of video footage to
bring about official accountability is constrained, images nevertheless constitute an important tactical
device in defending against accusations by police and in 'backstage' negotiations. Several participants
noted the value of video for defence, particularly if footage captured police misconduct. John Jacobs for
of video evidence
which exposed Jacobs himself had been 'put in a headlock and bashed in the
face' the case was dismissed, although no further action was taken against
police (Jacobs interview). Moreover, the mere existence of images can be deployed to
negotiate with police. One community lawyer with extensive involvement in logging protests noted
instance, was charged with 'assault police' at a protest. However on the basis
the utility of footage in negotiations and 'situations where we have kind of ruffled some feathers through
telling the sergeant of the relevant police station of the existence of our footage, that having the impact of
having that person at least informally reprimanded' (Bleyer interview).
Counter surveillance methods are

counterproductive, incriminating those it is
intended to empower
One of the key ironies is that in monitoring and documenting protest actions
video activists may inadvertently assemble a database that incriminates
those it is intended to protect. Andrew Lowenthal, a video activist at numerous protest
events, suggests 'the downside is that, yeah, you do the surveillance work of the police, and you can help
them do dossiers, or background or convict people' (Lowenthal interview). Another videographer noted,
'sometimes...your footage might be counter-productive, so you might actually catch somebody committing
There is
consequently the danger of footage being subpoenaed, or even police raids ,
an offence so that material could be used against your aims' (Puckett interview).
145
as occurred in 2001 at one community television station, Channel 31, which was raided by police searching
footage not directly

incriminating can prove ambiguous and counterproductive . For instance, following
for footage of protests outside a Nam store in Melbourne (Davi interview). Even
the protests at the Beverley Uranium mine, footage was subpoenaed in court of 'a greenie meeting where
the greenies are saying...` we're outnumbering the cops. Let's go anyway". The cops one of their
arguments is "we didn't use excessive force, we were outnumbered and we had to do this" so that video
comes to support their argument' (Davi interview). Some community groups have offered specific training
in video activism that includes advice to avoid filming protestors performing illegal activities
police may become visible under public

CCTV systems (Goold 2004, 178-186), so too might video activists become
subjects of their own surveillance. Potentially empowering images might
also be reinterpreted in different contexts, co-opted into official
archives where their meaning is perversely inverted.
(Davi interview). Nevertheless, just as
Counter surveillance fails the state

will inevitably find new counter-neutralization
tactics resulting in a surveillance gridlock that
fails to remedy violence
innovative tactics of resistance spur state

agents to implement new modes of control to neutralize challenges to state
power. This is evident in the ironic situation of video activists, whose efforts to secure
safety through imaging renders them exceptionally visible to police . The
monitoring of police in turn kindles counter-neutralization tactics , in particular 'strategic
incapacitation' (Gffiham & Noakes 2007) that aims to neutralize visual monitoring
either through direct physical force or through spatial strategies of
containment. Getting 'beaten up' was one of the foremost hazards of video activism, and those
interviewed reported that individuals armed with video and digital cameras were
commonly targeted by police at protest actions . One activist suggested 'police do target
Hardt and Negri (2004) have suggested that
people like that at protests, I've seen it. People with megaphones, people with cameras they get taken
down pretty quickly' (Jacobs interview), while another recollected that 'quite a few people have ended up
with a black eye and a bruised head' (Morris interview).
Yes we saw this during APEC in particular, it wasn't again just not Copwatchers but members of the
commercial media, there was that infamous video Paula Bronstein for example who was thrown to the
ground during APEC, but again other members of the commercial media who either had police officers
block their filming, or told to turn around and not to film, several of us were threatened with arrest, there
was one undercover police officer who tried to snatch a camera from my hand, and so it definitely brings
attention to yourself yeah (Mills interview).
Spatial strategies of isolation and containment are an additional counter-neutralization move engaged by
police. Fernandez, drawing upon Foucault's notion of disciplinary diagrams, argues that police deploy two
disciplinary diagrams: the leprosy model and the plague model (2009, 170). In the plague model, space is
In the leprosy model,

lepers are expelled from communal space so that sickness is
excluded (Elden 2003, 242). Video activists are clearly perceived as lepers, and are
subject to processes of containment and ejection from spaces of protest . Moths
divided into a grid and subjected to surveillance and regular inspection.
identifies a definite strategy of 'make sure you've identified who the camera people in the protest group
are, sideline them, don't give them any good footage and don't give them anything that will turn up in
court' (Moths interview). While another video activist suggested 'some police will act against you for being
the teller of the truth so you can get targeted, camera can get trashed and your tapes ripped out or
personally removed from a protest because you are documenting it' (Jacobs interview).
146
Becoming a target of police attention also meshes with a wider range of

police counter-moves at protests that seek to neutralize the impact of
counter-surveillance. In many aspects, the neutralization techniques mobilized against countersurveillance initiatives mirror the moves outlined by Marx (2003). The most common move, discussed
For police in
protest situations this involves simply mobilizing the significant asymmetry
power to neutralize monitoring either through physical force, the confiscation
of equipment or both. Several participants discussed having their cameras
and film confiscated and then damaged or reported difficulty
in reobtaining the equipment. Isabelle Brown, a frequent videographer of protests, described
above, is to engage a 'breaking move' that renders counter-surveillance inoperable.
her experience of equipment confiscation in the following way:

I've had all my tapes taken and not given back. I've had one camera smashed beyond repair, I'm still
seeking compensation. I had my computer and video camera taken in house raids and my hard drives. It
took me a year of calling them every second day for a year to get my gear back, plus when I got my
computer back it was broken (Brown interview).
Such counter-neturalization moves stimulate innovative tactics on the part of video activists that utilize
space and evasion to elude agents of control. The Sydney Copwatch website contains advice for video
activists on how to best avoid arrest and confrontation while undertaking video monitoring, advising video
activists to only take photos when there are others present, or others with cameras who could film any
potential assault, and during protests to remain in the middle of a group. It also cautions video activists
that they may be assaulted at the conclusion of a protest, and should consider handing footage on
to someone else so as to avoid it being destroyed by police3. These self-protective tactics were frequently
discussed by participants, particularly in the context of forest blockades where police violence can occur
unmonitored by the presence of commercial media.
It's mostly direct, the threat that the person will be roughed up, that their equipment will be destroyed and
so obviously you develop protocols around that, where you might have one person coming and film for a
while, they leave, they put the footage somewhere safe, another person comes, so in effect, the football
analogy, you have one person on the field at a time. (Cam Walkei. interview).
These tactics are therefore a form of rotation (Marx 2003) to avoid surveillance, but with the added twist
that such an avoidance move is calculated to facilitate the continuation of monitoring.
police also continue to participate in such a cat and mouse game,

and another frequently engaged tactic in protest situations has been the
'masking move' whereby police remove identification badges in order to
remain anonymous. Dale Mills, founder of Sydney Copwatch, suggests that police generally react
Nevertheless,
negatively to videoing and filming at protests as 'they don't want individual accountability, I think that's
why they don't wear their badges' (Mills interview).
The constant interplay of move and counter-move between police and video activists activates ascending
spirals of surveillance and counter-surveillance, what Marx has termed a 'surveillance arms race' (2007b,
299). Thus while the safety of protestors and the witnessing and documenting of misconduct remain
powerful drivers of video activism, an increasingly frequent rationale of video activism is to counter the
escalating visual surveillance of protest events undertaken by police. One video activist remarked: I think it
is [video] important as well to counter the incredible levels of surveillance that police put on protests. They
have really sophisticated surveillance on protests, like camera positioned in key strategic areas and
telephoto lenses with small digital cameras right on hot spots. So we need to have our cameras there as
well because you see in cases which have happened in the past evidence the police collect, somehow all of
the footage of events which incriminate the police go missing while all the evidence that might incriminate
protestors of certain things comes to light (McEwan interview).
This transformation also appears to accompany a diminishing of the power of the image in relation to
protests. As one video activist with fifteen years experience videoing protests remarked 'at one point it was
very powerful to have even just a portable camera there, that was the new thing...eventually
they realised it was better to just have their own cameras there, so I gradually saw the collaboration of
more and more police cameras' (Jacobs interview). Situations where police are armed with cameras facing
protestors armed with cameras can reach heights of absurdity, as the same videographer suggested 'so
you video them videoing you and it just gets sillier and sillier. We know you're looking at us and it's that
Such
counter moves on the part of police potentially lead to a Kafkaesque situation
where 'counter counter-surveillance' promotes a spiral of surveillance
enmeshed within layers of neutralization. The surveillance spiral ends in a
cancelling out, a form of surveillance gridlock, where the act of monitoring
has eclipsed both action and control.
sort of projection of power through the process of surveillance and sort of static' (Jacobs interview).
147
Alternative fails counter surveillance disintegrates

political spaces necessary for institutional change
surveillance will always be the dominant force
Monahan, 2006 Monahan is from the Department of Human & Organizational
Development, and Department of Medicine. (Torin, Counter-surveillance as Political
Intervention? PDF. http://publicsurveillance.com/papers/CounterSurveillance.pdf 7.7.15)//ctb
, surveillance and counter-surveillance appear

to be engaged in a complicated dance, with the larger,
cumbersome partner pushing and pulling while the smaller,
defter dancer negotiates herself or himself*/and others*/out of
harms way. The oafish leader is, of course, the state and
corporate apparatus surveilling the public, and the partner is
the collective of activist adversaries circumventing or
destabilizing surveillance systems. Drawing upon Michel Foucaults insights about the
When viewed from a distance
disciplinary potential of modern bureaucratic regimes, one could read this as a disciplinary or panoptic relationship
Foucault was also insistent upon the productive

capacity of power to generate and sustain social relations
apart from any property of control that might be possessed by
individuals. As Gilles Deleuze wonderfully explicates: Power has no essence; it is
simply operational. It is not an attribute but a relation: the
power-relation is the set of possible relations between forces,
which passes through the dominated forces no less than
through the dominating ... (Deleuze 1988, 27). Therefore, the metaphor of
the panopticon (or all-seeing prison) is not a static or transcendent
statement of disciplinary power, but is instead a contingent
and situated articulation of modernity in a fluid field of
production regimes (Foucault 1980; Deleuze 1992). In explicit response to Foucaults work, Michel
(Foucault 1977). But
de Certeaus book The Practice of Everyday Life provides a point of departure for thinking about the agency of individuals
the practices of the

dominant dancer clearly would be strategic ones of building
control structures to regulate the activities of those in the field
of power, whereas the practices of the defter dancer would be
much more tactical, poaching-off the existing structures to
create new meanings and possibilities. The two dancers may be in opposition, but that
does not change the fact that they are engaged in a reciprocal relationship
and collective activity but*/importantly*/without comparable
degrees of power. It is this tense connection that is worth probing, even if there is
never an embrace or a union, because after all the exchanges
of strategic structuring and tactical appropriation the dance
has moved somewhere across the floor and created a pattern,
or a logic, or a world that was not there before.7 Examples of this problematic,
if not dialectical, relationship between surveillance and counter-surveillance practitioners abound. After the
beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles was captured on
videotape in 1991, this did not necessarily catalyze correctives
to actions of police brutality, nor did it motivate greater police
engagement with urban communities. Instead, police have
and groups within disciplinary power structures. For de Certeau (1984),
148
seemingly used this event to distance themselves further from

and maintain antagonistic relationships with communities (Klein
1997; Monahan 2002) while learning from the blow-up that they must
exert greater control over the conditions where brutality
occurs. This enhanced and learned control can be seen in the torture case of Haitian worker Abner Louima by the
New York City Police in 1997. Louima was beaten in a vehicle on the way to the 70th Precinct station house and was then
Regardless
of the fact that the story did finally emerge, the police officers
obviously exercised extreme caution in regulating the places of
abuse (i.e. in a police vehicle and in a police restroom), and
one can speculate that this level of control was a response to
their fear of being under surveillance, and thus held
accountable, for their actions. Another example of the dance of surveillance and counter-surveillance can be
witnessed in the confrontations occurring at globalization protests throughout the world. Activists have
been quite savvy in videotaping and photographing police and
security forces as a technique not only for deterring abuse, but
also for documenting and disseminating any instances of
excessive force. According to accounts by World Trade Organization protesters, the police, in
turn, now zero-in on individuals with video recorders and
arrest them (or confiscate their equipment) as a first line of
defense in what has become a war over the control of media
representations (Fernandez 2005). Similarly, vibrant Independent Media Centers
are now routinely set up at protest locations, allowing activists
to produce and edit video, audio, photographic, and textual
news stories and then disseminate them over the Internet,
serving as an outlet for alternative interpretations of the
issues under protest (Breyman 2003). As was witnessed in the beating of independent media
sodomized with the stick from a toilet plunger in the police restrooms (Mazelis 1997; Jeffries 2002).
personnel and destruction of an Indymedia center by police during the 2001 G8 protests in Genoa, Italy (Independent
those with institutional interests and

power are learning to infiltrate subversive countersurveillance collectives and vitiate their potential for
destabilizing the dominant system. A final telling example of the learning potential of
Media Center Network 2001; Juris 2005),
institutions was the subsequent 2002 G8 meeting held in Kananaskis, which is a remote and difficult to access mountain
resort in Alberta, Canada. Rather than contend with widespread public protests and a potential repeat of the police
violence in Genoa (marked by the close-range shooting and death of a protester), the mountain meeting exerted the most
extreme control over the limited avenues available for public participation: both reporters and members of the public were
It could be that grassroots

publicizing of protests (through Indymedia, for example) are ultimately more
effective than individualized counter-surveillance because they
are collective activities geared toward institutional change. While
excluded, and a no-fly-zone was enforced around the resort.
the removal of the 2002 G8 meetings to a publicly inaccessible location was a response to previous experiences with
protestors and their publicity machines, this choice of location served a symbolic function of revealing the exclusionary
elitism of these organizations, thereby calling their legitimacy into question. So, whereas mainstream news outlets seldom
lend any sympathetic ink or air time to anti-globalization protests, many of them did comment on the overt mechanisms
of public exclusion displayed by the 2002 G8 meeting (CNN.com 2002; Rowland 2002; Sanger
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri (2000) would describe these

ongoing exchanges between dominant and subordinate groups
as a mutual and perhaps unwitting advancement of
Empire*/the larger system of global capitalism and its
colonization of lifeworlds. They note, for instance, how humanitarian
2002).
149
efforts by western countries first establish discursive universal

orders*/such as human rights*/as justification for
intervention, and then how these universals are capitalized
upon by military and economic institutions as rationales for
imperialistic invasions. Similarly, activist struggles appear to
teach the system of global capitalism, or those manning its
operations, how to increase strategic efficiency by controlling
spaces available for political opposition. From this perspective, the flexible
ideologies of the 1960s counterculture movements may have
disturbed the capitalist system, but in doing so also described
a new territory (the self) and a new mode of operation for the
growth of capitalism: Capital did not need to invent a new paradigm (even if it were capable of doing
so) because the truly creative moment had already taken place. Capitals problem was rather
to dominate a new composition that had already been
produced autonomously and defined within a new relationship
to nature and labor, a relationship of autonomous production .
(Hardt and Negri 2000, 276) The post-Fordist colonizations of public spaces and resources today are outgrowths of an
earlier colonization of flexibility as a viable and successful challenge to the rigidities of technocratic bureaucracies. I
conflicts between surveillance and

counter-surveillance practices today represent a larger
struggle over the control of spaces and bodies. It is doubtful that police
or security forces are intentionally manipulating spaces and bodies with surveillance and other strategies
because they explicitly wish to neutralize democratic opportunities; in fact, they most likely believe
that their actions of social control are preserving democracy
by safeguarding the status quo (Monahan 2006b). Be that as it may, such
activities advance neoliberal agendas by eliminating spaces for
political action and debate, spaces where effective alternatives
to economic globalization could emerge and gain legitimacy if
they were not disciplined by police and corporate actions.
Therefore, it should not be seen as a coincidence that the demise of
public spaces is occurring at the same time that spatial and
temporal boundaries are being erased to facilitate the
expansion of global capital. The two go hand in hand. Whereas one can
would build upon these observations to say that the
readily critique Hardt and Negri for their attribution of agency to capitalism or to the amorphous force of
their systemic viewpoint is worth preserving in what has

become a contemporary landscape of social fragmentation,
polarization, and privatization. Dominant and subordinate
groups serve as asymmetrical refractions of each other in
emerging global regimes. Surveillance and countersurveillance are two sets of overlapping practices selectively
mobilized by many parties in this conflict, but the overall effect is unknown.
Empire,
150
Narratives bad
Their Narrative of Suffering Leads to a Permanent
Identification of Suffering Turns The case
Brown 96 (Wendy is Professor of Women's Studies and Legal Studies, and
is Co-Director of the Center for Cultural Studies at the University of California,
Santa Cruz. The University of Chicago Law School Roundtable)
If, taken together, the two passages from Foucault we have been considering call feminists to account in our compulsion to put everything about women into discourse,
they do not yet exhaust the phenomenon of being ensnared 'in the folds of our own discourses.' For if the problem I have been discussing is easy enough to see--indeed,
largely familiar to those who track techniques of co-optation--at the level of legal and bureaucratic discourse, it is altogether more disquieting when it takes the
confessing injury becomes

that which attaches us to the injury, paralyzes us within it, and
prevents us from seeking or even desiring a status other than
injured. In an age of social identification through attributes marked as
culturally significant--gender, race, sexuality, and so forth--confessional
discourse, with its truth-bearing status in a post-epistemological
universe, not only regulates the confessor in the name of freeing her
as Foucault described that logic, but extends beyond the confessing
individual to constitute a regulatory truth about the identity group .
form of regulatory discourse in our own sub- and counter-cultures of resistance . . . when
Confessed truths are assembled and deployed as "knowledge" about the group. This phenomenon would seem to undergird a range of recurring troubles in
feminism, from the "real woman" rejoinder to post-structuralist deconstructions of her, to totalizing descriptions of women's experience that are the inadvertent effects of
various kinds of survivor stories. Thus, for example, the porn star who feels miserably exploited, violated and humiliated in her work invariably monopolizes the truth about
sex work; as the girl with math anxieties constitutes the truth about women and math; as eating disorders have become the truth about women and food; as sexual
abuse and violation occupy the knowledge terrain of women and sexuality. In other words, even as feminism aims to affirm diversity among women and women's experiences, confession as the site of production of truth and its convergence with feminist suspicion and deauthorization of truth from other sources tends to reinstate a
unified discourse in which the story of greatest suffering becomes the true story of woman. (I think this constitutes part of the rhetorical power of MacKinnon's work;
analytically, the epistemological superiority of confession substitutes for the older, largely discredited charge of false consciousness). Thus, the adult who does not suffer
from her or his childhood sexual experience, the lesbian who does not feel shame, the woman of color who does not primarily or "correctly" identify with her marking as
such--these figures are excluded as bonafide members of the categories which also claim them. Their status within these discourses is that of being "in denial," "passing"
or being a "race traitor." This is the norm-making process in feminist traditions of "breaking silence" which, ironically, silence and exclude the very women
these traditions mean to empower. (Is it surprising, when we think in this vein, that there is so little feminist writing on heterosexual pleasure?) But if these practices
tacitly silence those whose experiences do not parallel those whose suffering is most marked (or whom the discourse produces as suffering markedly),
they also condemn those whose sufferings they record to a

permanent identification with that suffering. Here, we experience a
temporal ensnaring in 'the folds of our own discourses' insofar as we
identify ourselves in speech in a manner that condemns us to live in
a present dominated by the past. But what if speech and silence aren't
really opposites? Indeed, what if to speak incessantly of one's suffering
is to silence the possibilities of overcoming it, of living beyond it, of identifying as something other
than it? What if this incessant speech not only overwhelms the experiences of others, but alternative (unutterable? traumatized? fragmentary? inassimilable?)
zones of one's own experience? Conversely, what if a certain modality of silence about one's suffering--and I am suggesting that we must consider modalities of silence
as varied as modalities of speech and discourse--is to articulate a variety of possibilities not otherwise available to the sufferer?
The affirmative fetishizes the narrative prevents true

change
But if the silences in discourses of domination are a site for insurrectionary noise , if
they are the corridors we must fill with explosive counter-tales, it is also
possible to make a fetish of breaking silence. Even more than a fetish, it
is possible that this ostensible tool of emancipation carries its own techniques of
subjugation--that it converges with non-emancipatory tendencies in contemporary culture (for example, the ubiquity of confessional discourse and
rampant personalization of political life), that it establishes regulatory norms,
151
coincides with the disciplinary power of confession,
in short, feeds the powers we meant to starve. While

attempting to avoid a simple reversal of feminist valorizations of breaking silence, it is this dimension of silence and its putative opposite with which this Article is
concerned. In the course of this work, I want to make the case for silence not simply as an aesthetic but a political value, a means of preserving certain practices and
dimensions of existence from regulatory power, from normative violence, as well as from the scorching rays of public exposure. I also want to suggest a link between, on
the one hand, a certain contemporary tendency concerning the lives of public figures--the confession or extraction of every detail of private and personal life (sexual,
familial, therapeutic, financial) and, on the other, a certain practice in feminist culture: the compulsive putting into public discourse of heretofore hidden or private
experiences--from catalogues of sexual pleasures to litanies of sexual abuses, from chronicles of eating disorders to diaries of homebirths, lesbian mothering, and Gloria
Steinam's inner revolution. In linking these two phenomena--the privatization of public life via the mechanism of public exposure of private life on the one hand, and the
compulsive/compulsory cataloguing of the details of women's lives on the other--I want to highlight a modality of regulation and depoliticization specific to our age that is
and thereby also usurps public space with the

relatively trivial, rendering the political personal in a fashion that leaves injurious
social, political and economic powers unremarked and untouched. In short,
not simply confessional but empties private life into the public domain,
while intended as a practice of freedom (premised on the modernist conceit

that the truth shall make us free), these productions of truth not only
bear the capacity to chain us to our injurious histories as well as the
stations of our small lives but also to instigate the further regulation
of those lives, all the while depoliti- cizing their conditions.
This turns the case- it writes oppression into the law

codifying a fragment of an insurrectionary
discourse as a timeless truth, interpellating women as unified in their victimization, and
casting the "free speech" of men as that which "silences" and thus
subordinates women, MacKinnon not only opposes bourgeois liberty to substantive equality, but
These questions suggest that in legally
potentially intensifies the regulation of gender and sexuality in the law, abetting rather than contesting
as a regulatory fiction of a particular

identity is deployed to displace the hegemonic fiction of universal
personhood, the discourse of rights converges insidiously with the discourse of disciplinarity to
produce a spectacularly potent mode of juridical-regulatory domination. Again, let me emphasize
that the problem I am seeking to delineate is not specific to MacKinnon or
even feminist legal reform. Rather, MacKinnon's and kindred efforts at
bringing subjugated discourses into the law merely constitute examples of
what Foucault identified as the risk of re-codification and re- colonisation of
the production of gender identity as sexual. In short,
"disinterred knowledges" by those "unitary discourses, which first disqualified and then ignored them
when they made their appearance." n23 They exemplify how the work of breaking silence can
metamorphose into new techniques of domination, how our truths can become our rulers rather than
our emancipators, how our confessions become the norms by which we are regulated.
Narratives fail to challenge the causes of oppression and

are co-opted by the mainstream culture
Darder and Torress, 04 [Antonia, Prof of education policy studies at U
of Illinois, and Rodolfo, Associate prof of latino studies at UC Irvine, After
Race: Racism after multiculturalism, p. 101-4] [SG]
However, despite an eagerness to include the participation of historically excluded popula-tions,
scholars who embrace the poetics of the narrative approach often

"fail to challenge the underlying socioeconomic, political and cultural
structures that have excluded these groups to begin with and have sus-tained
152
narrative and storytelling approach can

render the scholarship antidialectical by creat-ing a false dichotomy
between objectivity and subjectivity, "forgetting that one is implied in the other, [while
the illusion of choice" (Watts 1991, 652). Thus, the
ignoring] a basic dialectical prin-ciple: that men and women make history, but not under the conditions of
their own choosing" (Viotti da Costa 2001, 20). We agree that "cultural resources and funds of knowledge
such as myths, folk tales, dichos, consejos, kitchen talk, [and] autobiographical stories" (Delgado Bernal
2002, 120) employed by critical race theory can illuminate particular concrete manifestations of racism.
However, we contend that they can also prove problematic in

positing a broader un-derstanding of the fundamental macrosocial
dynamics which shape the conditions that give rise to the microaggressions (Solrzano 1998) of racism in the first place. In an incisive critique of narrative
approach, Emilia Viotti da Costa (2001) argues, The new paths it opened for an investigation of the
process of construc-tion and articulation of multiple and often contradictory identities (eth-nic, class,
gender, nationality and so on), often led to the total neglect of the concept of class as an interpretive
category.... What started as ... a critique of Marxism, has frequently led to a complete subjectivism, to the
denial of the possibility of knowledge and sometimes even to the questioning of the boundaries between
history and fiction, fact and fancy." (19) Robin Kelley, in his book Yo. Manta's DisFUNKtional (1997), offers
the following illuminating and sobering commentary regarding the limits of personal experience and
storytelling: I am not claiming absolute authority or authenticity for having lived there. On the contrary, it
is because I did not know what happened to our world, to my neighbors, my elders, my peers, our streets,
buildings, parks, our health, that I chose not to write a memoir. Indeed, if I relied on memory alone I would
invariably have more to say about devouring Good and Plentys or melting crayons on the radiator than
about eco-nomic rcstructuring, the disappearance of jobs, and the dismantling of the welfare state. (4-5)
use of critical race theory in education and the social

sciences in general, despite authors' intentions, can unwittingly serve purposes
that are fundamentally conservative or mainstream at best. Three
Hence, we believe the
additional but related concerns wit the storytelling narrative method are also at issue here. One is the
tendency to romanticize the ex-perience of marginalized groups,

privileging the narratives and dis-courses of "people of color," silly
based on their experience of oppres-sion, as if a people's entire
politics can be determined silly by their in-dividual location in
history. The second is the tendency to dichotomize and "overhomogenize" both
"white" people and "people of color" with respect to questions of
voice and political representation (Viotti da Costa 2001). And the third, anticipated by C. L.
R. James in 1943,5 is the in-evitable "exaggerations, excesses and ideological trends
for which the only possible name is chauvinism" (McLemee 1996, 86). Unfortunately, these
tendencies, whether academic or political, c. result in unintended essentialism and
superficiality in our theorizing of broader social in-equalities , as well as
the solutions derived from such theories. Yet, truth be told, prescribed views of humanity are seldom the
Human beings who share phenotypical traits

seldom respond to the world within the constraints of essentialized
ex-pectations and perceptions. Hence, any notion of "racial" solidarity "must
run up against the hard facts of political economy ... and enor-mous
class disparities" within racialized communities (Gates 1997, 36). This is why
reality, whatever be then source.
Gilroy (2000) warns against "short-cut solidarity" attitudes that assume that a person's political allegiance
can be determined by his or her "race" or that a "shared history" will guarantee an emancipatory
worldview. For this reason, we argue that such declarations, though they may sound reasonable,
commonsensical, or even promising as literary contributions, have link utility in explaining "how and why
power is constituted, reproduced and transformed" (Viotti da Costa 2001, 22).
153
Narratives are inevitably coopted by the dominant order,

internalizing repressions
Eagelton 90, [Terryy, Distinguished Professor of English Literature at
Lancaster University, The Ideology of the Aesthetic, Pages 27-8] [SG]
The aesthetic, then, is from the beginning a contradictory, double-edged concept, On the one hand, it
figures as a genuinely emancipatory force as a community of subjects now finked by sensuous impulse
and fellow-feeling rather than by heteronomous law, each safeguarded in its unique particularity while
bound at the same time into social harmony. The aesthetic offers the middle class a superbly versatile
model of their political aspirations, exemplifying new forms of autonomy and self-determination,
transforming the relations between law and desire, morality and knowledge, recasting the links between
individual and totality, and revising social relations on the basis of custom, affection and sympathy. On the
the aesthetic signifies what Max Horkheimer has called a kind of

repression', inserting social power more deeply into the
very bodies of those it subjugates, and so operating as a supremely
effective mode of political hegemony. To lend fresh significance to
bodily pleasures and drives, however, if only for the purpose of colonizing
them more efficiently, is always to risk foregrounding and
intensifying them beyond one's control. The aesthetic as custom, sentiment,
other hand,
`internalised
spontaneous impulse may consort well enough with political domination; but these phenomena border
embarrassingly on passion, imagination, sensuality, which are not always so easily incorporable. As Burke
put it in his Appeal from the NM to the Old Wags: 'There is a boundary to men's passions when they act
from feeling; none when they are under the influence of imagination.'" ` Deep'
subjectivity is
what the ruling social order desires, and exactly what it has most cause to fear. If
the aesthetic is a dangerous, ambiguous affair, it is because, as we shall see in this study, there is
something in the body which can revolt against the power which
inscribes it; and that impulse could only be eradicated by extirpating
along with it the capacity to authenticate power itself .
just
Rap music is commodified by the white-dominated music

industry in a form similar to slavery
Charles 07
[Monique, PhD student at Warwick University focussing on race, religion, class,
gender & music as it relates to #Grime. #HBTG?, Has black music souled out?:
Capitalism, commodification, colonialism,
https://www.academia.edu/694687/Has_Black_Music_Souled_Out_Capitalism_Commo
dification_Colonialism] [SG]
Hip hop and rap were not created as a means to make money (Fernando
1994), but as a way of announcing ones existence to the world (George
1999). Gramsci calls such people who use art-forms in this manner, organic intellectuals; people who have
close ties with their communities and express class identities and aspirations (Stapleton 1998). I believe
rap and hip hop are powerful art-forms. Organic intellectuals are powerful because they expose political
frustrations that many people can empathise with. If people unite and begin to tackle political issues,
this powerful art-form is

curtailed by elites. Today however, organic intellectuals are often found at
society will undergo great change. It is for this reason I believe
154
the margins of the music industry (Stoller 1998; Maher 2005). Commercially successful
rap music and other musical genres created primarily by Black artists, are a
huge source of profit for Americas recording industry (Yousman
2003:367) (Walker 1998; McLeod 1999; Farley 1999; Day 2000). Just like slaving institutions
in the Americas, these industries are predominantly white owned
(Beckford 1979). Urban music has had a worldwide impact in the 20th century (McClary 1994), receiving
artists who receive large

record deals receive a very small percentage of that money (Negus
1999b, BMC). Put simply, record deals are loans that artists have to repay (known as recoup). Like
enslaved blacks, artists become the property of the record label. It is
more exposure than ever before (Kitwana 2005; Blair 1993). Yet the
very possible that an artist who generates millions through record sales, tours, heavy promotion and even
endorsements has no personal capital of their own. Hip hops integrity is being prostituted in the pursuit of
financial gain (Salsa 1997:5), a sentiment I agree with. Welch (1994) believes that
hip hop has
become colonised . Kelley (1999) makes a strong case for this idea. The relationship is certainly
exploitative (McClary 1994; Kitwana 2005; Day 2000). The oligopololies collectively known today as the
Big Five (Warner, Universal, SonyBMG, EMI, Polygram) have global reach (Lovering 1998) and supply
retailers with 90% of the music.
Narratives are great for the debate space because they

force debaters to empathize with one another, and create
a focus on the emotional instead of the cold logic of
impact calculus while still providing adequate ground for
true impact comparison
Gregory & Alimahomed 1
(Josh and Kasim, Josh: Professor of Communication Studies at Cal State
Fullerton, Kasim: Professor of Communication Studies at Cal Poly Pomona,
Both are former debaters from Fullerton, Narrative Voice and the Urban
Debater: An investigation into empowerment, Western States
Communication Association, 2001, http://goo.gl/Tfb5Af)
the personal narrative or story can empower the

disenfranchised individual, the next claim that must be justified is that the introduction of
narratives will aid the entire debate community . The structure of the narrative is
Having justified that
vastly different than the structure of more traditional affirmative cases, disadvantages, and counterplans.
This difference creates a problem of how a narrative should be evaluated versus a disadvantage resulting
in worldwide destruction. The narrative structure does not refute this, nor does the disadvantage outweigh
the narrative. The intersection of the disadvantage and the narrative only happens at the impact level
the narrative is an example of how one person feels in the vast

number of individuals subjected to torture and death by case harms
or disadvantage impacts. The relationship of these structures guides
them to tangentially clash and this does not justify their exclusion
from debate. The narrative structure is a powerful persuasive device,
and should be introduced because it: 1) privileges the emotional
155
appeal of the story over the logical structure of links, brinks, and impacts, 2)
provides a snapshot of time in which a person can identify with true
suffering as opposed to the longitudinal aspects of death tallies , and
3) opens a rhetoric of possibility in which competitors and judges
alike can affirm or negate a resolution based off of the ability to
foresee a future effected by the narrative. The debate community has privileged
traditional logical appeals over nontraditional forms of argument. These logical appeals create easy
comparisons for critics since the arguments can be broken down into simple equations. To weigh a
disadvantage of ecological collapse versus a plan that saves fifty lives is basic mathsurvival of the planet
logical appeals are naturally preferred over

emotional appeals because there is no systematic way in which to
quantify the emotions evoked by a message. However, narrative debate could
create a different form of impact analysis at the pathos level : the
always outweighs fifty lives. These
emotional appeal of the narrative could be weighed against the emotional appeal of a disadvantage.
This new type of impact analysis provides clear ground , because the
traditional disadvantage can have emotional appeal (deaths of children, environmental destructionthese
all include basic pathos appeals) and the narrative can be weighed against this. The other advantage to
this form of impact analysis is that it becomes a forum in the debate community, judges and competitors
alike could begin to create rubrics and hierarchies that would help explain the more powerful versus less
powerful pathos appeals. The realm of the pathos appeal has been understudied for years, and with its
acceptance as a criterion in debate, the community could lend a helping hand to facilitate a mapping out
the persuasiveness of pathos appeals. The second advantage that the narrative provides in academic
debate is that the narrative is centered on a snapshot in time: the narrative is a glimpse into someone
elses life for just a moment. In debate rounds, competitors often prophesize the most severe impacts
In every debate round, billions

of human beings are killed by some proclaimed catastrophic event
that a singular policy measure evoked. By tallying deaths into the
billions, debaters and judges never really have a chance to
empathize with one case of human pain and suffering. Narratives produce
an insight into the human condition and illuminate the struggle our
possible in an attempt to get enough blood on the flow.
species endures. Compared to traditional policy arguments that concentrate on future action to remedy
current problems, the narrative forces competitors to empathize with a particular problem that a human is
experiencing now. This empathy is lost in contemporary debate , with debaters
claiming future destruction for the planet in almost every debate round. With more narrative debaters, we
may see a resurgence of probabilistic arguments against disadvantages, since the unlikely scenario of
nuclear war might be outweighed by the definite impact to the protagonist of the narrative (as well as the
The narrative helps to keep it

real, and centers the debate round back to the individuals that the
impacts are directly affecting, creating a strong link between debater and the change that
good possibility that others have similar narratives).
they are advocating in the status quo. The final reason why narratives would help the debate community is
that they do open up a rhetoric of possibility. The Gulf war may or may not have started (without the
narrative), but after the young Kuwaiti girl spoke, there was a call for war, and war seemed inevitable, a
conclusion that traditional forms of argument would never have established. This discourse is a prime
example of the power of the narrative, which opened a possibility that before was not an option. The
persuasive force of the narrative affects receiver and the individual immediately begins to ponder what
sort of situation would bring about such a travesty. This thought process create new possibilities that
The need to evoke

possibilities of the human condition is central to the rhetorical
enterprise, transcending any one school or strategy. However, narrative is perhaps the foremost
means by which such possibilities are disclosed. Through storytelling, rhetors can confront a
the states of awareness and intellectual beliefs of audiences;
through it they can show them previously unsuspected ways of
being and acting in the world (Kirkwood, 1992, p. 32). These new ways of acting and being are
individuals can begin conceived even though it was unconsidered before:
reflections of a different rhetorical style, new faculties that should be available to the young debater. The
156
rhetoric of possibility that is created by having competitors and judges alike engage the narrative calls for
The
rhetoric of possibility is different from the rhetoric of actualitythe
traditional debater creates claims from a realist framework the political
new creative actions that would have normally been dismissed in the contemporary debate society.
disadvantage based around the workings of government, the financial disadvantage from the workings of
the stock market, or the counterplan that tries to implement a plan through the same traditional policy
means. The narrative debater, working from a rhetoric of possibility works from a different ideology or
school of thought, though the narrative debater would recognize these same realist conceptions, the
narrative debater also tries to guide the audience to see additional perspectives and to create more
solutions than the realist platformthe narrative debater as asks the audience to try to work outside and
around the realist framework as well. By helping people examine possibilities, which they previously did
not imagine or think they could achieve, rhetors can free them to pursue more satisfying responses to both
personal and public needs. Hence a rhetoric of possibility can illuminate diverse kinds of communication
(Kirkwood, 1992, p.44). As of the writing of this paper, the signing of a debate ballot has gained
perlocutionary forcethe action of voting has some concrete impact in the community (debate and
Debaters have began to claim that the ballot can either

operate in the traditional debate sense (working from any of a multitude of debate
paradigms: stock issues, cost-benefit analysis, hypothesis-testing, etc.), or the ballot
becomes an endorsement of an ideology, with the action of signing becoming a
statement to a larger community. The narrative can operate at either level: it can be
otherwise).
weighed in a debate round on the probability and pathos appeal of the narration, or it can be endorsed by
a judge for its ideological power. However,
the narrative can be impacted at even
higher levels. A performance that touches debaters and critics alike should be endorsed for the
mere fact that more individuals should hear it. The intellectual landscape would support any effort or trust
The narrative could be a stronghold that keeps

the death that debaters often claim as inevitable closer to home.
to exchange and create ideas.
157
Performance Bad
The neg commodifies the suffering of marginalized people
in exchange for your ballot in the debate economy--playing a game where we move scenarios of suffering
around like chess pieces for our own personal enjoyment
is the most unethical form of intellectual imperialism
Baudrillard 94 [Jean, The Illusion of the End p. 66-71]
We
must today denounce the moral and sentimental exploitation of that
poverty - charity cannibalism being worse than oppressive
violence . The extraction and humanitarian reprocessing of a
destitution which has become the equivalent of oil deposits and gold
mines . The extortion of the spectacle of poverty and, at the same time, of our charitable condescension : a worldwide appreciated surplus of
We have long denounced the capitalistic, economic exploitation of the poverty of the 'other half of the world' [['autre monde].
fine sentiments and bad conscience. We should, in fact, see this not as the extraction of raw materials, but as a waste-reprocessing enterprise. Their destitution
and our bad conscience are, in effect, all part of the waste-products of history- the main thing is to recycle them to produce a new energy source. We have here an
escalation in the psychological balance of terror. World capitalist oppression is now merely the vehicle and alibi for this other, much more ferocious , form of
material exploitation is only there

to extract that spiritual raw material that is the misery of peoples ,
which serves as psychological nourishment for the rich countries
and media nourishment for our daily lives . The 'Fourth World' (we are no longer dealing with a 'developing' Third World) is once again
moral predation. One might almost say, contrary to the Marxist analysis, that
beleaguered, this time as a catastrophe-bearing stratum. The West is whitewashed in the reprocessing of the rest of the world as waste and residue. And
the white world repents and seeks absolution - it, too, the waste-product of its own history. The South is a natural producer of raw materials, the latest of which is
catastrophe. The North, for its part, specializes in the reprocessing of raw materials and hence also in the reprocessing of catastrophe . Bloodsucking
protection, humanitarian interference, Medecins sans frontieres, international solidarity, etc. The last phase of colonialism : the New Sentimental Order
Other people's destitution becomes our

adventure playground . Thus, the humanitarian offensive aimed at the Kurds - a show
of repentance on the part of the Western powers after allowing Saddam Hussein to crush them - is in reality merely the
second phase of the war , a phase in which charitable intervention
finishes off the work of extermination . We are the consumers of the ever
is merely the latest form of the New World Order.
delightful spectacle of poverty and catastrophe, and of the moving spectacle of our own
efforts to alleviate it
(which, in fact, merely function to secure the conditions of
reproduction of the catastrophe market ); there, at least, in the order of moral profits, the Marxist
poverty is reproduced as a
symbolic deposit, as a fuel essential to the moral and sentimental
equilibrium of the West. In our defence, it might be said that this extreme poverty was largely of our own making and it is therefore normal that
analysis is wholly applicable: we see to it that extreme
we should profit by it. There can be no finer proof that the distress of the rest of the world is at the root of Western power and that the spectacle of that distress is its
crowning glory than the inauguration, on the roof of the Arche de la Defense, with a sumptuous buffet laid on by the Fondation des Droits de l'homme, of an
exhibition of the finest photos of world poverty. Should we be surprised that spaces are set aside in the Arche d' Alliance. for universal suffering hallowed by caviar
and champagne? Just as the economic crisis of the West will not be complete so long as it can still exploit the resources of the rest of the world, so the symbolic
crisis will be complete only when it is no longer able to feed on the other half's human and natural catastrophes (Eastern Europe, the Gulf, the Kurds,
Bangladesh, etc.). We need this drug, which serves us as an aphrodisiac and hallucinogen. And the poor countries are the best suppliers - as, indeed,
they are of other drugs. We provide them, through our media, with the means to exploit this paradoxical resource, just as we give them the means to exhaust their
natural
resources
with
our
cannibalism,
technologies .
Our whole culture lives off this catastrophic
relayed in cynical mode by the news media, and carried forward in moral mode by our humanitarian aid, which is a way of
encouraging it and ensuring its continuity, just as economic aid is a strategy for perpetuating under-development. Up to now, the financial sacrifice has been
compensated a hundredfold by the moral gain. But when the catastrophe market itself reaches crisis point, in accordance with the implacable logic of the market,
when distress becomes scarce or the marginal returns on it fall from overexploitation, when we run out of disasters from elsewhere or when they can no longer be
traded like coffee or other commodities, the West will be forced to produce its own catastrophe for itself , in order to meet its need for spectacle and that voracious
appetite for symbols which characterizes it even more than its voracious appetite for food. It will reach the point where it devours itself. When we have finished
sucking out the destiny of others, we shall have to invent one for ourselves. The Great Crash, the symbolic crash, will come in the end from us Westerners, but only
when we are no longer able to feed on the hallucinogenic misery which comes to us from the other half of the world. Yet they do not seem keen to give up their
monopoly. The Middle East, Bangladesh, black Africa and Latin America are really going flat out in the distress and catastrophe stakes, and thus in providing symbolic
nourishment for the rich world. They might be said to be overdoing it: heaping earthquakes, floods, famines and ecological disasters one upon another, and finding
the means to massacre each other most of the time .
The 'disaster show' goes on without any let-
158
up and our sacrificial debt to them far exceeds their economic

debt. The misery with which they generously overwhelm us is something we shall never be able to repay. The
sacrifices we offer in return are laughable (a tornado or two, a few tiny
holocausts on the roads , the odd financial sacrifice) and, moreover, by some infernal logic, these work out as much greater gains
for us, whereas our kindnesses have merely added to the natural catastrophes another one immeasurably worse: the demographic
catastrophe, a veritable epidemic which we deplore each day in pictures.
Translating misery into capital is a perverse system of

neoimperial academia---vote affirmative to reject their
cherry-picking of misery and refuse to engage in the
trauma economy
Tomsky 11 (Terri, Ph.D in English from U-British Columbia, postdoctoral fellow in cultural memory at the
University of Alberta From Sarajevo to 9/11: Travelling Memory and the Trauma Economy, Parallax Volume 17, Issue 4,
2011)
In contrast to the cosmopolitization of a Holocaust cultural memory,1 there exist experiences of trauma that fail to evoke recognition and subsequently, compassion
and aid. What is it exactly that confers legitimacy onto some traumatic claims and anonymity onto others? This is not merely a question of competing
victimizations, what geographer Derek Gregory has criticized as the process of
cherry-picking among [ . . . ]
extremes of horror , but one that engages issues of the international travel, perception and valuation of traumatic memory.2
This seemingly arbitrary determination engrosses the emigre protagonist of Dubravka Ugresics 2004 novel, The Ministry of Pain, who from her new home in
Amsterdam contemplates an uneven response to the influx of claims by refugees fleeing the Yugoslav wars: The Dutch authorities were particularly generous
about granting asylum to those who claimed they had been discriminated against in their home countries for sexual differences , more generous
than to the wars rape victims . As soon as word got round, people climbed on the bandwagon in droves . The war [ . . . ] was something like the national
Traumatic
experiences are described here in terms analogous to social and economic
capital . What the protagonist finds troubling is that some genuine refugee claimants must
invent an alternative trauma to qualify for help: the problem was that
nobodys story was personal enough or shattering enough.
Because death itself had lost its power to shatter . There had been
too many deaths.4 In other words, the mass arrival of Yugoslav refugees into the European Union means that war
trauma risks becoming a surfeit commodity and so decreases in value. I bring up Ugresics
wry observations about traumas marketability because they enable us to
conceive of a trauma economy , a circuit of movement and exchange where traumatic memories travel and
lottery: while many tried their luck out of genuine misfortune, others did it simply because the opportunity presented itself.3
are valued and revalued along the way. Rather than focusing on the end-result, the winners and losers of a trauma lottery, this article argues that there is, in
a trauma economy, no end at all, no fixed value to any given traumatic experience. In what follows I will attempt to outline the system of a trauma economy,
including
its intersection with other capitalist power structures , in a way that shows how
representations of trauma continually circulate and, in that circulation enable or disable awareness of particular traumatic experience
across space and time. To do this, I draw extensively on the comic nonfiction of Maltese-American writer Joe Sacco and, especially, his
retrospective account of newsgathering during the 19921995 Bosnian war in his 2003 comic book, The Fixer: A Story From Sarajevo.5
Sacco is the author of a series of comics that represent social life in a number of the worlds conflict zones, including the Palestinian
territories and the former Yugoslavia. A comic artist, Sacco is also a journalist by profession who has first-hand experience of the way that
war and trauma are reported in the international media. As a result, his comics blend actual reportage with his ruminations on the media
industry. The Fixer explores the siege of Sarajevo (19921995) as part of a larger transnational network of disaster journalism, which also
critically, if briefly, references the September eleventh, 2001 attacks in New York City. Saccos emphasis on the transcultural coverage of
these traumas, with his comic avatar as the international journalist relaying information on the Bosnian war, emphasizes how
trauma must be understood in relation to international circuits of

mediation and commodification . My purpose therefore is not only to critique the
aesthetic of a travelling traumatic memory, but also to call attention to the material
conditions and networks that propel its travels. Travelling Trauma Theorists and scholars have already noted the emergence, circulation
and effects of traumatic memories, but little attention has been paid to the travelling itself. This is a concern since the movement of any
The movement of memories is enabled

by infrastructures of power , and consequently mediated and consecrated
through institutions . So, while some existing theories of traumatic memory have made those determining politics and policies
memory must always occur within a material framework.
visible, we still dont fully comprehend the travel of memory in a global age of media, information networks and communicative capitalism .6 As
postcolonial geographers frequently note, to travel today is to travel in a world striated by late capitalism. The same must hold for memory; its circulation in this
global media intensive age will always be reconfigured, transvalued and even commodified by the logic of late capital. While we have yet to understand
the relation between the travels of memory (traumatic or otherwise) and capitalism, there are nevertheless models for the circulation of other putatively immaterial
things that may prove instructive. One of the best, I think, is the critical insight of Edward W. Said on what he called travelling theory.7 In 1984 and again in 1994,
159
Said wrote essays that described the reception and reformulation of ideas as they are uprooted from an original historical and geographical context
and propelled across place and time. While Saids contribution focuses on theory rather than memory, his reflections on the travel and transformation of ideas
provide a comparison which helpfully illuminates the similar movements of what we might call travelling trauma. Ever attendant to the historical specificities that
prompt transcultural transformations, the Travelling Theory essays offers a Vichian humanist reading of cultural production; in them, Said argues that theory is not
given but made. In the first instance, it emanates out of and registers the sometimes urgent historical circumstances of its theorist. Subsequently, he maintains,
when other scholars take up the theory, they necessarily interpret it, additionally integrating their own social and historical experiences into it, so
changing the theory and, often, authorizing it in the process. I want to suggest that Saids birds eye view of the intellectual circuit through which theory travels, is
received and modified can help us appreciate the movement of cultural memory. As with theory, cultural memories of trauma are lifted and separated from
their individual source as they travel; they are mediated, transmitted and institutionalized in particular ways, depending on the structure of
communication and communities in which they travel. Said invites his readers to contemplate how the movement of theory transforms its meanings to such
an extent that its significance to sociohistorical critique can be drastically curtailed . Using Luka css writings on reification as an example, Said shows how
a theory can lose the power of its original formulation as later scholars take it up and adapt it to their own historical circumstances . In Saids estimation,
Luka css insurrectionary vision became subdued, even domesticated , the wider it circulated. Said is especially concerned to describe what happens when
such theories come into contact with academic institutions , which impose through their own mode of producing cultural capital , a new value upon
then. Said suggests that this authoritative status, which imbues the theory with prestige and the authority of age, further dulls the theorys originally
insurgent message .8 When Said returned to and revised his essay some ten years later, he changed the emphasis by highlighting the possibilities, rather than the
limits, of travelling theory. Travelling Theory Reconsidered, while brief and speculative, offers a look at the way Luka css theory, transplanted into yet a different
context, can flame [ . . . ] out in a radical way.9 In particular, Said is interested in exploring what happens when intellectuals like Theodor Adorno and Franz Fanon
take up Luka cs: they reignite the fiery core of his theory in their critiques of capitalist alienation and French colonialism. Said is interested here in the idea that
theory matters and that as it travels, it creates an intellectual [ . . . ] community of a remarkable [ . . . ] affiliative kind.10 In contrast to his first essay and its
emphasis on the degradation of theoretical ideas, Said emphasizes the way a travelling theory produces new understandings as well as new political tools to deal
with violent conditions and disenfranchized subjects. Travelling theory becomes an intransigent practice that goes beyond borrowing and adaption.11 As Said sees
it, both Adorno and Fanon refuse the emoluments offered by the Hegelian dialectic as stabilized into resolution by Luka cs.12 Instead they transform Luka cs into
their respective locales as the theorist of permanent dissonance as understood by Adorno, [and] the critic of reactive nationalism as partially adopted by Fanon in
colonial Algeria.13 Saids set of reflections on travelling theory, especially his later recuperative work, are important to any account of travelling trauma, since it is
not only the problems of institutional subjugation that matter; additionally, we need to affirm the occurrence of transgressive possibilities, whether in the form of
fleeting transcultural affinities or in the effort to locate the inherent tensions within a system where such travel occurs. What Said implicitly critiques in his 1984
essay is the negative effects of exchange, institutionalization and the increasing use-value of critical theory as it travels within the academic
knowledge economy; in its travels, the theory becomes practically autonomous, uncoupled from the theorist who created it and the historical
context from which it was produced. This seems to perfectly illustrate the international circuit of exchange and valuation that occurs in the trauma economy. In
as local traumas are

turned into mainstream news and then circulated for consumption .
By highlighting this mediation, The Fixer explicitly challenges the politics that make invisible the
maneuvers of capitalist and neoimperial practices. Like Said, Sacco displays a concern
Saccos The Fixer, for example, it is not theory, but memory, which travels from Bosnia to the West,
with the dissemination and reproduction of information and its consequent effects in relation to what Said described as the broader political world.14 Saids
anxiety relates to the academic normativization of theory (a tame academic substitution for the real thing15), a transformation which, he claimed, would
hamper its uses for society. A direct line can be drawn from Saids discussion of the circulation of discourse and its (non)political effects, and the international
representation of the 19921995 Bosnian war. The Bosnian war existed as a guerre du jour, the successor to the first Gulf War, receiving saturation
coverage and represented daily in the Western media. The sustained presence of the media had much to do with the proximity of the war to European cities
and also with the spectacular visibility of the conflict, particularly as it intensified. The bloodiest conflict to have taken place in Europe since the Second
World War, it displaced two million people and was responsible for over 150,000 civilian casualties.16 Yet despite global media coverage, no decisive
international military or political action took place to suspend fighting or prevent ethnic cleansing in East Bosnia, until after the massacre of Muslim
men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995. According to Gregory Kent, western perceptions about the war until then directed the lack of political will within the
international community, since the event was interpreted, codified and dismissed as an ethnic, civil war and humanitarian crisis, rather than
The rather bizarre presence of a large international

press corps, hungry for drama and yet comfortably ensconced in
Sarajevos Holiday Inn amid the catastrophic siege of that city ,
prompted Jean Baudrillard to formulate his theory of the hyperreal. In an article for the Paris
an act of (Serbian) aggression against (Bosnian) civilians.17
newspaper Liberation in 1993, Baudrillard writes of his anger at the international apathy towards the Bosnian crisis, denouncing it as a
spectral war.18 He describes it as a hyperreal hell not because the violence was in a not-so-distant space, but because of the way the
it is
important to evaluate the role of representative discourses in
relation to violence and its after effects. To begin with, we are still unsure of the consequences
Bosnians were harassed by the [international] media and humanitarian agencies.19 Given this extensive media coverage,
of this saturation coverage, though scholars have since elaborated on the racism framing much of the media discourses on the Yugoslav
wars.20 More especially, it is the celebrity of the Bosnian war that makes a critical evaluation of its current status in todays media cycle
all the more imperative. Bosnias current invisibility is fundamentally related to a point Baudrillard makes towards the end of his essay:
The demand
created by a market of a sympathetic, yet selfindulgent
spectators propels the global travel of trauma (or rather, the memory of that trauma)
precisely because Bosnian suffering has a resale value on the futures
markets .22 To treat traumatic memory as currency not only
acknowledges the fact that travelling memory is overdetermined by
capitalism ; more pertinently, it recognizes the global system through which traumatic memory travels and becomes subject to
distress, misery and suffering have become the raw goods circulating in a global age of commiseration.21
exchange and flux. To draw upon Marx: we can comprehend trauma in terms of its fungible properties, part of a social relation [that is] constantly
changing with time and place.23 This is what I call the trauma economy. By trauma economy, I am thinking of economic, cultural, discursive and political
structures that guide, enable and ultimately institutionalize the representation, travel and attention to certain traumas. The Trauma Economy in Joe
Saccos The Fixer Having introduced the idea of a trauma economy and how it might operate, I want to turn to Sacco because he is acutely conscious of the way
representations of trauma circulate in an international system. His work exposes the infrastructure and logic of a trauma economy in war-torn Bosnia and so echoes
some of the points made by Said about the movement of theory. As I examine Saccos critical assessment of the Bosnian war, I want to bear in mind Saids discussion
about the effects of travel on theory and, in particular, his two contrasting observations: first, that theory can become commodified and second, that theory enables
unexpected if transient solidarities across cultures. The Fixer takes up the notion of trauma as transcultural capital and commodity, something Sacco has confronted
in his earlier work on Bosnia.24 The Fixer focuses on the story of Neven, a Sarajevan local and the fixer of the comics title, who sells his services to international
journalists, including Saccos avatar. The comic is set in 2001, in postwar Sarajevo and an ethnically partitioned and economically devastated Bosnia, but its
narrative frequently flashes back to the conflict in the mid- 1990s, and to what has been described as the siege within the siege.25 This refers not just to Sarajevos
160
three and a half year siege by Serb forces but also to its backstage: the concurrent criminalization of Sarajevo through the rise of a wartime black market economy
from which Bosniak paramilitary groups profited and through which they consolidated their power over Sarajevan civilians. In these flashbacks, The Fixer addresses
Nevens experience of the war, first, as a sniper for one of the Bosniak paramilitary units and, subsequently, as a professional fixer for foreign visitors, setting them
up with anything they need, from war stories and tours of local battle sites to tape recorders and prostitutes. The contemporary, postwar scenes detail the
ambivalent friendship between Neven and Saccos comic avatar. In doing so, The Fixer spares little detail about the economic value of trauma:
career
Nevens
is reliant on what Sacco terms the flashy brutality of Sarajevos war.26

When massacres
happened, Neven once told me, those were the best times . Journalists from
all over the world were coming here .27 The Fixer never allows readers to forget that
Neven provides his services in exchange for hard cash . So while Neven provides
as a fixer after all
Even Neven admits as much to his interlocutor, without irony, let alone compassion:
vital indeed for Saccos avatar often the only access to the stories and traumas of the war, we can never be sure whether he is a
reliable witness or merely
an opportunistic salesman. His anecdotes have the whiff of bravura about them. He
expresses pride in his military exploits, especially his role in a sortie that destroyed several Serb tanks (the actual number varies increasingly each time the tale is
told). He tells Sacco that with more acquaintances like himself, he could have broken the siege of Sarajevo.28 Nevens heroic selfpresentation is consistently
undercut by other characters, including Saccos avatar, who ironically renames him a Master in the School of Front-line Truth and even calls upon the reader to
assess the situation. One Sarajevan local remembers Neven as having a big imagination29; others castigate him as unstable30; and those who have also fought in
the war reject his claims outright, telling Sacco, it didnt happen.31 For Saccos avatar though, Neven is a godsend.32 Unable to procure information from the
other denizens of Sarajevo, he is delighted to accept Nevens version of events: Finally someone is telling me how it was or how it almost was, or how it could have
been but finally someone in this town is telling me something.33 This discloses the true value of the Bosnian war to the Western media: getting the story right
factually is less important than getting it right affectively. The purpose is to extract a narrative that evokes an emotional (whether voyeuristic or
empathetic) response from its audience. Here we see a good example of the way a traumatic memory circulates in the trauma economy, as it travels from its site
of origin and into a fantasy of a reality. Nevens mythmaking whether motivated by economic opportunism, or as a symptom of his own traumatized psyche
reflects back to the international community a counter-version of mediated events and spectacular traumas that appear daily in the Western media.
It is worth adding that his mythmaking only has value so long as it occurs within preauthorized media circuits. When Neven attempts to bypass the international
journalists and sell his story instead directly to a British magazine, the account of his wartime action against the 43 tanks is rejected on the basis that they dont
revaluing and re-narrating the trauma is reserved for

people like Saccos avatar, who has no trouble adopting a mythic and
hyperbolic tone in his storytelling : it is he, Neven, who has walked through the valley of the shadow of
death and blown things up along the way.35 Yet Nevens urge to narrate , while indeed part of his job, is a
striking contrast to the silence of other locals . When Sacco arrives in Sarajevo in 2001 for his
print fiction.34 The privilege of
follow-up story, he finds widespread, deliberate resistance to his efforts to gather first-hand testimonies. Wishing to uncover the citys
terrible secrets, Sacco finds his research has stalled, as locals either refuse to meet with him or cancel their appointments.36 The
suspiciousness and hostility Sacco encounters in Sarajevo is a response precisely to the international demand for trauma of the 1990s.
The mass media presence during the war did little to help the citys besieged residents; furthermore, international
left once the drama of war subsided
journalists
to the last offensives grinding up the last of the last soldiers
and civilians who will die in this war .37 The media fascination with Sarajevos humanitarian crisis was as intense as it was fleeting and has since been
described as central to the ensuing compassion fatigue of Western viewers.38 In contrast to this coverage, which focused on the casualties and victims of the war,
The Fixer reveals a very different story: the rise of Bosniak paramilitary groups, their contribution (both heroic and criminal) to the war and their ethnic cleansing of
non- Muslim civilians from the city. Herein lies the appeal of Neven, a Bosnian-Serb, who has fought under Bosnian- Muslim warlords defending Sarajevo and who
considers himself a Bosnian citizen first before any other ethnic loyalty. For not only is Sacco ignorant about the muddled ethnic realities of the war, its moral
ambiguities and its key players but he also wants to hear Nevens shamelessly daring and dirty account of the war, however unreliable. As Sacco explains, hes a
little enthralled, a little infatuated, maybe a little in love and what is love but a transaction.39 Neven a hardened war veteran provides the goods, the first-hand
experience of war and, for Saccos avatar, that is worth every Deutschemark, coffee and cigarette. He explains in a parenthetical remark to his implied reader: I
would be remiss if I let you think that my relationship with Neven is simply a matter of his shaking me down. Because Neven was the first friend I made in Sarajevo . .
. [hes] travelled one of the wars dark roads and Im not going to drop him till he tells me all about it.40 Saccos assertion here suggests something more than a
mutual exploitation. The word friend describing Saccos relationship to Neven is quickly replaced by the word drop. Having sold his raw goods, Neven finds that
the trauma economy in the postwar period has already devalued his experience by disengaging with Bosnias local traumas. As Sacco suggests, the war moved on
and left him behind [ . . . ] The truth is, the war quit Neven.41 The Neven of 2001 is not the brash Neven of old, but a pasty-looking unemployed forty-year old and
recovering alcoholic, who takes pills to prevent his anxiety attacks.42 His wartime actions lay heavily on his conscience, despite his efforts to stash [ . . . ] deep his
bad memories.43 The Fixer leaves us with an ironic fact: Neven, who has capitalized on trauma during the war, is now left traumatized and without capital in the
postwar situation.
Juxtaposing Traumas in a Global Age Saccos depiction of the trauma economy certainly
highlights the question of power and exploitation, since so many of the interactions between locals and international visitors are shaped by the commodity
market of traumatic memories. And while The Fixer provides a new perspective of the Bosnian war, excoriating the profit-seeking objectives of both the media
and the Bosnian middle-men amid life-altering events, its general point about the capitalistic vicissitudes of the trauma economy is not significantly different from
that sustained in the narratives of Aleksandar Hemon, Rajiv Chandrasekaran or Art Spiegelman.44What distinguishes Saccos work is the way it also picks up the
possibility described in Edward Saids optimistic re-reading of travel: the potential for affiliation. As I see it, Saccos criticism isnt leveled merely at the moral grey
zone created during the Bosnian war: he is more interested in the framework of representations themselves that mediate, authorize, commemorate and circulate
trauma in different ways. been described as central to the ensuing compassion fatigue of Western viewers.38 In contrast to this coverage, which focused on the
casualties and victims of the war, The Fixer reveals a very different story: the rise of Bosniak paramilitary groups, their contribution (both heroic and criminal) to the
war and their ethnic cleansing of non- Muslim civilians from the city. Herein lies the appeal of Neven, a Bosnian-Serb, who has fought under Bosnian- Muslim warlords
defending Sarajevo and who considers himself a Bosnian citizen first before any other ethnic loyalty. For not only is Sacco ignorant about the muddled ethnic realities
of the war, its moral ambiguities and its key players but he also wants to hear Nevens shamelessly daring and dirty account of the war, however unreliable. As Sacco
explains, hes a little enthralled, a little infatuated, maybe a little in love and what is love but a transaction.39 Neven a hardened war veteran provides the
goods, the first-hand experience of war and, for Saccos avatar, that is worth every Deutschemark, coffee and cigarette. He explains in a parenthetical remark to his
implied reader: I would be remiss if I let you think that my relationship with Neven is simply a matter of his shaking me down. Because Neven was the first friend I
made in Sarajevo . . . [hes] travelled one of the wars dark roads and Im not going to drop him till he tells me all about it.40 Saccos assertion here suggests
something more than a mutual exploitation. The word friend describing Saccos relationship to Neven is quickly replaced by the word drop. Having sold his raw
goods, Neven finds that the trauma economy in the postwar period has already devalued his experience by disengaging with Bosnias local traumas. As Sacco
suggests, the war moved on and left him behind [ . . . ] The truth is, the war quit Neven.41 The Neven of 2001 is not the brash Neven of old, but a pasty-looking
unemployed forty-year old and recovering alcoholic, who takes pills to prevent his anxiety attacks.42 His wartime actions lay heavily on his conscience, despite his
efforts to stash [ . . . ] deep his bad memories.43 The Fixer leaves us with an ironic fact: Neven, who has capitalized on trauma during the war, is now left
traumatized and without capital in the postwar situation. Juxtaposing Traumas in a Global Age Saccos depiction of the trauma economy certainly highlights the
question of power and exploitation, since so many of the interactions between locals and international visitors are shaped by the commodity market of traumatic
memories. And while The Fixer provides a new perspective of the Bosnian war, excoriating the profit-seeking objectives of both the media and the Bosnian middlemen amid life-altering events, its general point about the capitalistic vicissitudes of the trauma economy is not significantly different from that sustained in the
narratives of Aleksandar Hemon, Rajiv Chandrasekaran or Art Spiegelman.44What distinguishes Saccos work is the way it also picks up the possibility described in
Edward Saids optimistic re-reading of travel: the potential for affiliation. As I see it, Saccos criticism isnt leveled merely at the moral grey zone created during the
Bosnian war: he is more interested in
the framework of representations themselves that mediate,
161
authorize, commemorate and circulate trauma
in different ways. suffering.48 Instead, the
panel places Saccos (Anglophone) audience within the familiar, emotional context of the September 11, 2001 attacks, with their attendant anxieties, shock and grief
and so contributes to a blurring of the hierarchical lines set up between different horrors across different spaces. Consequently, I do not see Saccos juxtaposition of
traumas as an instance of what Michael Rothberg calls, competitive memory, the victim wars that pit winners against losers.49 Sacco gestures towards a far more
complex idea that takes into account the highly mediated presentations of both traumas, which nonetheless evokes Rothbergs notion of multidirectional memory by
affirming the solidarities of trauma alongside their differences. In drawing together these two disparate events, Saccos drawings echo the critical consciousness in
Saids Travelling Theory essay. Rather than suggesting one trauma is, or should be, more morally legitimate than the other, Sacco is sharply attentive to the way
trauma is disseminated and recognized in the political world. The attacks on theWorld Trade Centre, like the siege of Sarajevo, transformed into discursive form
epitomize what might be called victim narratives. In this way, the United States utilized international sympathy (much of which was galvanized by the stunning
footage of the airliners crashing into the towers) to launch a retaliatory campaign against Afghanistan and, later, Iraq. In contrast, Bosnia in 1992 faced a precarious
future, having just proclaimed its independence. As we discover in The Fixer, prior to Yugoslavias break-up, Bosnia had been ordered to return its armaments to the
Yugoslav National Army (JNA), which were then placed into the hands of the rebel Serbs, leaving the Bosnian government to build an army almost from scratch.50
The analogy between 9/11 and 1992 Sarajevo is stark: Sarajevos empty landscape in the panel emphasizes its defencelessness and isolation. The Fixer constantly
reminds the reader about the difficulties of living under a prolonged siege in a city that is cut off and being starved into submission.51 In contrast, September 11,
2001 has attained immense cultural capital because of its status as a significant U.S. trauma. This fact is confirmed by its profound visuality, which
crystallized the spectacle and site of trauma. Complicit in this process, the international press consolidated and legitimated the events symbolic power, by
representing, mediating and dramatizing the trauma so that, as SlavojZ izek writes, the U.S. was elevated into the sublime victim of Absolute Evil.52 September
11 was constructed as an exceptional event, in terms of its irregular circumstances and the symbolic enormity both in the destruction of iconic buildings and in the
attack on U.S. soil. Such a construction seeks to overshadow perhaps all recent international traumas and certainly all other U.S. traumas and sites of shock.
Saccos portrayal, which locates September eleven in Sarajevo 1992, calls into question precisely this claim towards the singularity of any trauma. The implicit
doubling and prefiguring of the 9/11 undercuts the exceptionalist rhetoric associated with the event. Saccos strategy encourages us to think outside of
hegemonic epistemologies , where one trauma dominates and becomes more meaningful than others . Crucially, Sacco reminds his audience of the
cultural imperialism that frames the spectacle of news and the designation of traumatic narratives in particular . Postwar Bosnia and Beyond 2001
remains, then, both an accidental and a significant date in The Fixer. While the (Anglophone) world is preoccupied with a new narrative of trauma and a sense of
historical rupture in a post 9/11 world, Bosnia continues to linger in a postwar limbo. Six years have passed since the war ended, but much of Bosnias day-to-day
Bosnia is now a
thriving economy for international scholars of trauma and political
theory, purveyors of thanotourism,53 UN peacekeepers and post-conflict nation builders (the ensemble of NGOs,
economy remains coded by international perceptions of the war. No longer a haven for aspiring journalists,
charity and aid workers, entrepreneurs, contractors, development experts, and EU government advisors to the Office of the High Representative, the foreign overseer
of the protectorate state that is Bosnia). On the other hand, many of Bosnias locals face a grim future, with a massive and everincreasing unemployment
rate (ranging between 35 and 40%), brain-drain outmigration, and ethnic cantonments. I contrast these realities of 2001 because these circumstances a
flourishing economy at the expense of the traumatized population ought to be seen as part of a trauma economy. The trauma economy, in other
words, extends far beyond the purview of the Western media networks. In discussing the way traumatic memories travel along the circuits of the global media, I have
described only a few of the many processes that transform traumatic events into fungible traumatic memories; each stage of that process represents an exchange
outlets seek to frame the trauma of the

in ways that are consistent with the aims of pre-existing
political or economic agendas ; we see this in Sacco just as easily as in Ugresics assessment of how even
a putatively liberal state like the Netherlands will necessarily inflect the value of one trauma over another. The point is that in this
circulation, trauma is placed in a marketplace; the siege of Sarajevo, where an
that progressively reinterprets the memory, giving it a new value. Media
Bosnian wars
unscrupulous fixer can supply western reporters with the story they want to hear is only a concentrated example of a more general
being revalued in each transaction

according to the logic of supply and demand . Victim and witness;
witness and reporter; reporter and audience; producer and
consumer: all these parties bargain to suit their different interests. The sooner we acknowledge the influence of these interests,
phenomenon. Traumatic memories are always in circulation,
the closer we will come to an understanding of how trauma travels.
Speaking out and raising awareness is playing into the

hands of the system they criticize, because it is intended
to maximize speech without creating change. Instead, we
need to engage the system through passive resistance,
not active opposition.
Baudrillard in 81 [Jean, Simulacra and Simulation p. 84-86]
With one caution. We are face to face with this system in a double situation and insoluble double bind exactly like children faced with the demands of the adult world.
Children are simultaneously required to constitute themselves as autonomous subjects, responsible, free and conscious, and to constitute them selves as submissive, inert,
obedient, conforming objects. The child resists on all levels, and to a contradictory demand he responds with a double strategy; To the demand of being an object he
opposes all the practices of disobedience, of revolt, of emancipation; in short, a total claim to subjecthood. To the demand of being a subject he opposes, just as
obstinately, and efficaciously, an object's resistance, that is to say, exactly the opposite: childishness, hyperconformism, total dependence, passivity, idiocy: Neither
subject-resistance is today unilaterally valorized and

viewed as positive-just as in the political sphere only the practices of
freedom, emancipation, expression, and the constitution of a political subject
are seen as valuable and subversive. But this is to ignore the equal, and without a doubt superior, impact of all the object
strategy has more objective value than the other. The
practices, of the renunciation of the subject position and of meaning-precisely the practices of the masses-that we bury under the derisory terms of alienation and
The liberating practices respond to one of the aspects of the system, to

the constant ultimatum we are given to constitute ourselves as pure objects,
but they do not respond at all to the other demand, that of constituting
passivity.
162
ourselves as subjects, of liberating ourselves, expressing ourselves at

whatever cost, of voting, producing, deciding, speaking, participating, playing
the game-a form of blackmail and ultimatum just as serious as the other, even more serious today. To a system
whose argument is oppression and repression, the strategic resistance is the liberating claim of subjecthood. But this strategy is more reflective of the earlier phase of the
the current argument of the system is

to maximize speech, the maximum production of meaning. Thus the
strategic resistance is that of the refusal of meaning and of the spoken wordor of the hyperconformist simulation of the very mechanisms of the system,
system, and even if we are still confronted with it, it is no longer the strategic terrain:
which is a form of refusal and of non- reception. It is the strategy of the masses: it is equivalent to re-turning to the system its own logic by doubling it, to reflecting
meaning, like a mirror, without absorbing it. This strategy (if one can still speak of strategy) prevails today, because it was ushered in by that phase of the system which
All the movements that only play on liberation,

emancipation, on the resurrection of a subject of history, of the group, of the
word based on "consciousness raising," indeed a "raising of the unconscious"
of subjects and of the masses, do not see that they are going in the
direction of the system, whose imperative today is precisely the
overproduction and regeneration of meaning and of speech.
prevails. To choose the wrong strategy is a serious matter.
163
Discourse
Discourse doesnt shape reality- the alternatives antihegemonic discourse can never resolve material forms of
violence and oppressive power structures
Rodwell 05 (Jonathan, PhD student at Manchester Met. researching U.S. Foreign Policy, 49th
parallel, Spring, Trendy but empty: A Response to Richard Jackson,
www.49thparallel.bham.ac.uk/back/issue15/rodwell1.htm)//CA
without clear causal links between materially

identifiable events and factors any assessment within the argument
actually becomes nonsensical. Mirroring the early inability to criticise, if we have no
traditional causational discussion how can we know what is happening? For example, Jackson
details how the rhetoric of anti-terrorism and fear is obfuscating the
real problems. It is proposed that the real world killers are not
terrorism, but disease or illegal drugs or environmental issues. The
problem is how do we know this? It seems we know this because there is
evidence that illustrates as much Jackson himself quoting to Dr David King who argued
global warming is a greater that than terrorism. The only problem of course is that
discourse analysis has established (as argued by Jackson) that
Kings argument would just be self-contained discourse designed to
naturalise another arguments for his own reasons. Ultimately it would be
no more valid than the argument that excessive consumption of
Sugar Puffs is the real global threat. It is worth repeating that I dont personally
The larger problem is that
believe global terrorism is the worlds primary threat, nor do I believe that Sugar Puffs are a global killer.
without the ability to identify real facts about the world we can
simply say anything, or we can say nothing. This is clearly ridiculous and many
But
there are empirically more

persuasive explanations.[xi] The phrase empirically persuasive is
however the final undermining of post-structural discourse analysis .
post-structuralists can see this. Their argument is that
It is a seemingly fairly obvious reintroduction of traditional methodology and causal links. It implies things
that can be seen to be right regardless of perspective or discourse. It again goes without saying that
logically in this case if such an assessment is possible then undeniable material factors about the word are
real and are knowable outside of any cultural definition.
not wholy constitute reality.
Language or culture then does
How do we know in the end that the world not threatened by
the onslaught of an oppressive and dangerous breakfast cereal? Because empirically persuasive evidence
tells us this is the case. The question must then be asked, is our understanding of the world born of
evidential assessment, or born of discourse analysis? Or perhaps its actually born of utilisation of many
different possible explanations.
164
A2 RoB
Assigning political value to the ballot makes debate a site
for exclusion
Harris
Scott
, Director of Debate, Kansas University, 20
http://www.cedadebate.org/forum/index.php?topic=4762.0
13, This Ballot,
This ballot has concerns about the messages this debate sends about what it means to be welcomed into the home of
debate. Northwestern made an argument that spoke to this concern that could have been more developed in the debate
This debate seemed to suggest that the sign that debate can be
your home is entirely wrapped up in winning debates . The message
seems to be that the winner is accepted and the loser is rejected . I
itself.
believe that the arguments Northwestern advanced in the debate that being voted against is not a sign of personal
rejection and that voting against an argument should not be perceived as an act of psychic violence are important
To me one of the most important lessons that debate

teaches is that there is a difference between our arguments and our
personhood. One of the problems in out contemporary society is that people have trouble differentiating between
arguments and the identity of the person making the argument. If you hate the argument you
must hate the person making the argument because we have
trouble differentiating people from their arguments . The reason many arguments
arguments to reflect on.
end up in violent fights in society is the inability to separate people from their arguments. People outside of debate (or the
law) are often confused by how debaters (or lawyers) can argue passionately with one another and then be friends after
the argument. It is because we generally separate our disagreements over arguments from our opinions about each other
as people. There are two concerns this ballot has about the implications of where this debate has positioned us as a
the explosion of arguments centered in identity makes it

difficult to separate arguments from people. If I argue that a vote for
me is a vote for my ability to express my Quare identity it by
definition constructs a reality that a vote against me is a rejection of
my identity. The nature of arguments centered in identity puts the
other team in a fairly precarious position in debates and places the judges in
uncomfortable positions as well. While discomfort may not necessarily be a bad thing it has significant
implications for what debating and deciding debates means or is
perceived to mean in socially constructed realities . I hope we can get beyond a
community. First,
point where the only perceived route to victory for some minority debaters is to rail against exclusion in debate.
The reality is
that many debaters do not win the majority of their debates. The majority
of debaters will never win the NDT. The majority of debaters will never attend the
NDT. Every debate has a loser. Losing should not be a sign of
expulsion from the home. Years ago on van trips we used to play a game which we called the green weenie award.
The second concern is the emphasis on winning as the sign evidence of debate being a home.
We would take the results packet and have everyone in the van guess who was the team that was the bottom seed of the
tournament. The game may have had a certain amount of arrogant cruelty in it. I would sometimes wonder what it was
As a
community we get so caught up sometimes in defining our wins as
successes and our losses as failures that we have lost sight of what
it is that makes debate a special home in the first place . Debate
cannot only be a home for the winner or it would by definition have
become not a home for the majority of its participants. This ballot hopes that
we can learn to recognize that the experience of losing debates is part of being welcomed in debate as well. Getting
that made the teams who didnt win debates, who didnt ever clear, come back the next week.
165
the opportunity to debate itself has tremendous value . The value is

not contained in the win but is contained in the experience itself. As a
coach I have to remember sometimes that my failures are only failures if I view them as failures. I need to make sure that
I value all of my debaters equally whether they win their debates or lose them. When my teams lose I need to not view
them as losers or the judges who voted against them as villains. Debate is an educational process. We often learn more
when we lose than when we win. Debate tends to attract hyper-competitive people who hate to lose. I hate to lose. I do
Losing is an inevitable part of life. Debate needs to

feel like a home for both the winners and the losers because all of us
experience losing in debate. Learning how to win with class and lose with dignity is an important life
not want to lose at anything.
lesson that I need to constantly work on myself. Learning to value the losses as much as the wins is the hardest part for
me but I believe it is vital if debate is really going to be a home for all of its participants.
166
Framework
The negative should weigh the agency of the affirmative
vs a governmental actor of their own. We should win if
our actor offers the best political/ethical option. They
should win if they can prove either the squo solves or a
competitive option is better.
Resolved denotes a proposal to be enacted by law
Words and Phrases 1964 Permanent Edition
Definition of the word resolve, given by Webster is to express an opinion
or determination by resolution or vote; as it was resolved by the

legislature; It is of similar force to the word enact, which is defined
by Bouvier as meaning to establish by law.
2. USFG should means the debate is solely about a policy established by

governmental means
Ericson 03
(Jon M., Dean Emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts California Polytechnic U., et al.,
Third Edition, p. 4)
The Proposition of Policy: Urging Future Action In policy propositions,
The Debaters Guide,
each topic contains certain
key elements, although they have slightly different functions from comparable elements of value-oriented
propositions. 1. An agent doing the acting ---The United States in The
United States should adopt a policy of free trade. Like the object of evaluation in a proposition of
value, the agent is the subject of the sentence. 2. The verb should the first
part of a verb phrase that urges action. 3. An action verb to follow should in the should-verb combination.
For example, should adopt here means to put a program or policy into action
though governmental means. 4. A specification of directions or a limitation of the action desired.
The phrase free trade, for example, gives direction and limits to the topic, which would, for example, eliminate
consideration of increasing tariffs, discussing diplomatic recognition, or discussing interstate commerce. Propositions of
The entire debate is about whether

something ought to occur. What you agree to do, then, when you accept the affirmative side in such a
policy deal with future action. Nothing has yet occurred.
debate is to offer sufficient and compelling reasons for an audience to perform the future action that you propose.
167
They claim representation of a non-governmental actor

with no political influence. That undermines aff
preparation and clash. Leaving the aff unprepared means
we get one-sided, uneducational debate. Mandating
debate on a set of actors forces argumentative skill and
develops real, portable, persuasive aptitude.
Addressing anti-Black racism is a political question- we
need to counter anti-blackness at its source, policy, in
order to exact sociopolitical change
Bouie 13
Jamelle, Staff Writer at The American Prospect, 2013 (Making (and Dismantling) Racism, The American Prospect, March
th
11 , Available Online at http://prospect.org/article/making-and-dismantling-racism)

Over at The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates has been exploring the intersection of race and public policy, with a focus on white
supremacy as a driving force in political decisions at all levels of government. This has led him to two conclusions: First,
anti-black racism as we understand it is a creation of explicit

policy choices the decision to exclude, marginalize, and stigmatize
Africans and their descendants has as much to do with racial
prejudice as does any intrinsic tribalism. And second, that it's possible to
dismantle this prejudice using public policy . Here is Coates in his own words: Last night I
that
had the luxury of sitting and talking with the brilliant historian Barbara Fields. One point she makes that very few
Americans understand is that racism is a creation. You read Edmund Morgans work and actually see racism being
If we accept that racism is a

creation, then we must then accept that it can be destroyed. And if
we accept that it can be destroyed, we must then accept that it can
be destroyed by us and that it likely must be destroyed by methods
kin to creation. Racism was created by policy. It will likely only be
ultimately destroyed by policy. Over at his blog, Andrew Sullivan offers a reply: I dont believe the
inscribed in the law and the country changing as a result.
law created racism any more than it can create lust or greed or envy or hatred. It can encourage or mitigate these
profound aspects of human psychology it can create racist structures as in the Jim Crow South or Greater Israel. But it
can no more end these things that it can create them. A complementary strategy is finding ways for the targets of such
hatred to become inured to them, to let the slurs sting less until they sting not at all. Not easy. But a more manageable
goal than TNCs utopianism. I can appreciate the point Sullivan is making, but I'm not sure it's relevant to Coates'
argument. It is absolutely true that "Group loyalty is deep in our DNA," as Sullivan writes. And if you define racism as an
overly aggressive form of group loyaltybasically just prejudicethen Sullivan is right to throw water on the idea that the
law can "create racism any more than it can create lust or greed or envy or hatred." But Coates is making a more precise
there's nothing natural about the black/white divide that has

defined American history. White Europeans had contact with black
Africans well before the trans-Atlantic slave trade without the
emergence of an anti-black racism. It took particular choices made
by particular people in this case, plantation owners in colonial Virginiato make black skin
a stigma, to make the "one drop rule" a defining feature of American
life for more than a hundred years. By enslaving African indentured
servants and allowing their white counterparts a chance for upward
mobility, colonial landowners began the process that would make
white supremacy the ideology of America. The position of slavery
generated a stigma that then justified continued enslavement blacks are
lowly, therefore we must keep them as slaves. Slavery (and later, Jim Crow) wasn't built to reflect
claim: That
168
racism as much as it was built in tandem with it. And later policy, in
the late 19th and 20th centuries, further entrenched white
supremacist attitudes. Block black people from owning homes, and they're forced to reside in crowded
slums. Onlookers then use the reality of slums to deny homeownership to blacks, under the view that they're unfit for
suburbs. In other words, create a prohibition preventing a marginalized group from engaging in socially sanctioned
behaviorowning a home, getting marriedand then blame them for the adverse consequences. Indeed, in arguing for
gay marriage and responding to conservative critics, Sullivan has taken note of this exact dynamic. Here he is twelve
years ago, in a column for The New Republic that builds on earlier ideas: Gay mennot because they're gay but because
they are men in an all-male subcultureare almost certainly more sexually active with more partners than most straight
men. (Straight men would be far more promiscuous, I think, if they could get away with it the way gay guys can.) Many
gay men value this sexual freedom more than the stresses and strains of monogamous marriage (and I don't blame
them). But this is not true of all gay men. Many actually yearn for social stability, for anchors for their relationships, for the
family support and financial security that come with marriage. To deny this is surely to engage in the "soft bigotry of low
expectations." They may be a minority at the moment. But with legal marriage, their numbers would surely grow. And
they would function as emblems in gay culture of a sexual life linked to stability and love. [Emphasis added] What else is
this but a variation on Coates' core argument, that society can create stigmas by using law to force particular kinds of
behavior? Insofar as gay men were viewed as unusually promiscuous, it almost certainly had something to do with the
fact that society refused to recognize their humanity and sanction their relationships. The absence of any institution to
mediate love and desire encouraged behavior that led this same culture to say "these people are too degenerate to
If the prohibition against gay marriage helped

create an anti-gay stigma, then lifting itas we've seen over the last
decadehas helped destroy it. There's no reason racism can't work
the same way .
participate in this institution."
Debate over controversial courses of action is key to

argumentative stasis thats key to sustain the
decision-making benefits of the activity and prevent a
degradation of debate into competing abstract truth
claims
Steinberg and Freeley 13
David, Director of Debate at U Miami, Former President of CEDA, officer, American Forensic Association and National
Communication Association. Lecturer in Communication studies and rhetoric. Advisor to Miami Urban Debate League,
Masters in Communication, and Austin, JD, Suffolk University, attorney who focuses on criminal, personal injury and civil
rights law, Argumentation and Debate Critical Thinking for Reasoned Decision Making, Thirteen Edition
Debate is a means of settling differences, so there must be a

controversy, a difference of opinion or a conflict of interest before there can be a debate. If everyone is
in agreement on a feet or value or policy, there is no need or opportunity for debate; the matter can be settled by
unanimous consent. Thus, for example, it would be pointless to attempt to debate
"Resolved: That two plus two equals four, because there is simply no controversy about
this statement. Controversy is an essential prerequisite of debate. Where there is
no clash of ideas, proposals, interests, or expressed positions of issues, there is no debate. Controversy
invites decisive choice between competing positions. Debate cannot
produce effective decisions without clear identification of a question
or questions to be answered. For example, general argument may occur
about the broad topic of illegal immigration. How many illegal immigrants live in the United States? What is
the impact of illegal immigration and immigrants on our economy? What is their impact on our communities? Do they commit
crimes? Do they take jobs from American workers? Do they pay taxes? Do they require social services? Is it a problem that
some do not speak English? Is it the responsibility of employers to discourage illegal immigration by not hiring undocumented
workers? Should they have the opportunity to gain citizenship? Does illegal immigration pose a security threat to our
country? Do illegal immigrants do work that American workers are unwilling to do? Are their rights as workers and as
169
human beings at risk due to their status? Are they abused by employers, law enforcement, housing, and businesses? How
are their families impacted by their status? What is the moral and philosophical obligation of a nation state to maintain its
borders? Should we build a wall on the Mexican border, establish a national identification card, or enforce existing laws against
employers? Should we invite immigrants to become U.S. citizens? Surely you can think of many more concerns to be addressed
Participation in this debate is

likely to be emotional and intense. However, it is not likely to be
productive or useful without focus on a particular question and
identification of a line demarcating sides in the controversy. To be
discussed and resolved effectively, controversies are best understood when seated clearly
such that all parties to the debate share an understanding about the objective of
the debate. This enables focus on substantive and objectively
identifiable issues facilitating comparison of competing argumentation leading to effective
decisions. Vague understanding results in unfocused deliberation and
poor decisions, general feelings of tension without opportunity for
resolution, frustration, and emotional distress, as evidenced by the failure of the U.S. Congress
by a conversation about the topic area of illegal immigration.
to make substantial progress on the immigration debate. Of course, arguments may be presented without disagreement. For
example, claims are presented and supported within speeches, editorials, and advertisements even without opposing or
refutational response. Argumentation occurs in a range of settings from informal to formal, and may not call upon an audience
or judge to make a forced choice among competing claims. Informal discourse occurs as conversation or panel discussion
by definition, debate
requires "reasoned judgment on a proposition. The proposition is a
statement about which competing advocates will offer alternative (pro
or con) argumentation calling upon their audience or adjudicator to
decide. The proposition provides focus for the discourse and guides
the decision process. Even when a decision will be made through a
process of compromise, it is important to identify the beginning positions
of competing advocates to begin negotiation and movement toward
a center, or consensus position. It is frustrating and usually unproductive to attempt
to make a decision when deciders are unclear as to what the decision is
about. The proposition may be implicit in some applied debates (Vote for me!); however, when a vote or
without demanding a decision about a dichotomous or yes/no question. However,
consequential decision is called for (as in the courtroom or in applied parliamentary debate) it is essential that the
In academic debate, the proposition

provides essential guidance for the preparation of the debaters prior
to the debate, the case building and discourse presented during the
debate, and the decision to be made by the debate judge after the debate.
Someone disturbed by the problem of a growing underclass of poorly educated,
socially disenfranchised youths might observe , Public schools are doing
a terrible job! They' are overcrowded, and many teachers are poorly qualified in their subject areas. Even the best
teachers can do little more than struggle to maintain order in their classrooms." That same concerned
citizen, facing a complex range of issues, might arrive at an unhelpful decision,
such as "We ought to do something about this or, worse, Its too complicated a
proposition be explicitly expressed (the defendant is guilty!).
problem to deal with." Groups of concerned citizens worried about the state of public education could join together to express
their frustrations, anger, disillusionment, and emotions regarding the schools, but without a focus for their discussions,
A gripe
session would follow. But if a precise question is posedsuch as What can be
done to improve public education?then a more profitable area of discussion is
opened up simply by placing a focus on the search for a concrete
solution step. One or more judgments can be phrased in the form of debate propositions, motions for
parliamentary debate, or bills for legislative assemblies, The statements "Resolved: That the federal
government should implement a program of charter schools in atthey could easily agree about the sorry state of education without finding points of clarity or potential solutions.
170
risk communities and Resolved; That the state of Florida should adopt a school voucher program" more
clearly identify specific ways of dealing with educational problems in
a manageable form, suitable for debate. They provide specific policies to be investigated and
aid discussants in identifying points of difference. This focus contributes to better and more
informed decision making with the potential for better results. In academic debate, it provides better depth of argumentation and
enhanced opportunity for reaping the educational benefits of participation. In
the next section, we will consider the challenge of framing the proposition for debate, and its role in the debate. To
have a productive debate, which facilitates effective decision making
by directing and placing limits on the decision to be made , the basis
for argument should be clearly defined. If we merely talk about a
topic, such as "homelessness, or abortion, Or crime, or global warming, we
are likely to have an interesting discussion but not to establish a
profitable basis for argument. For example, the statement Resolved: That the pen is mightier than the
sword is debatable, yet by itself fails to provide much basis for dear argumentation. If we take this statement to mean Iliad the written
word is more effective than physical force for some purposes, we can identify a problem area: the comparative effectiveness of
writing or physical force for a specific purpose, perhaps promoting positive social change. (Note that loose propositions, such
as the example above, may be defined by their advocates in such a way as to facilitate a clear contrast of competing sides;
through definitions and debate they become clearly understood statements even though they may not begin as such. There are
formats for debate that often begin with this sort of proposition. However, in
any debate, at some point,

effective and meaningful discussion relies on identification of a
clearly stated or understood proposition.) Back to the example of the written word versus
physical force. Although we now have a general subject, we have not yet stated a problem. It is still too
broad , too loosely worded to promote weII-organized argument. What sort of writing are we concerned withpoems,
novels, government documents, website development, advertising, cyber-warfare, disinformation, or what? What does it mean
to be mightier" in this context? What kind of physical force is being comparedfists, dueling swords, bazookas, nuclear weapons, or what? A
more specific question might be, Would a mutual defense treaty or a visit by our fleet be more effective in assuring Laurania of our
support in a certain crisis? The basis for argument could be phrased in a debate proposition such as Resolved: That the
United States should enter into a mutual defense treaty with Laurania. Negative advocates might oppose this proposition by
This is not to say that debates should

completely avoid creative interpretation of the controversy by advocates, or
arguing that fleet maneuvers would be a better solution.
that good debates cannot occur over competing interpretations of the controversy; in fact, these sorts of debates may be very
engaging.
The point is that debate is best facilitated by the guidance

provided by focus on a particular point of difference , which will be outlined in the
following discussion.
Decisionmaking is key to all facets of life most

portable and applicable skill
Steinberg and Freeley 13
David Director of Debate at U Miami, Former President of CEDA, officer, American Forensic Association and National
Communication Association. Lecturer in Communication studies and rhetoric. Advisor to Miami Urban Debate League,
Masters in Communication, and Austin, JD, Suffolk University, attorney who focuses on criminal, personal injury and civil
rights law, Argumentation and Debate
Critical Thinking for Reasoned Decision Making, Thirteen Edition
In the spring of 2011, facing a legacy of problematic U.S, military involvement in Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and
criticism for what some saw as slow support of the United States for the people of Egypt and Tunisia as citizens of those nations ousted their
formerly American-backed dictators, the administration of President Barack Obama
considered its options in
171
providing support for rebels seeking to overthrow the government of Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya. Public
debate was
robust as the administration sought to determine its most
appropriate action. The president ultimately decided to engage in an
international coalition, enforcing United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 through a number of measures
including establishment of a no-fly zone through air and missile strikes to support rebels in Libya, but stopping short of direct U.S. intervention
with ground forces or any occupation of Libya. While the action seemed to achieve its immediate objectives, most notably the defeat of Qaddafi and
his regime, the American president received both criticism and praise for his measured yet assertive decision. In fact, the
past
decade has challenged American leaders to make many difficult
decisions in response to potentially catastrophic problems. Public debate has
raged in chaotic environment of political division and apparent animosity,
The process of public decision making may have never been so consequential or difficult. Beginning in the fall of 2008, Presidents Bush and Obama
faced a growing economic crisis and responded in part with 'bailouts'' of certain Wall Street financial entities, additional bailouts of Detroit automakers,
and a major economic stimulus package. All these actions generated substantial public discourse regarding the necessity, wisdom, and consequences of
acting (or not acting). In the summer of 2011, the president and the Congress participated in heated debates (and attempted negotiations) to raise
the nation's debt ceiling such that the U.S. Federal Government could pay its debts and continue government operations. This discussion was linked to
a debate about the size of the exponentially growing national debt, government spending, and taxation. Further, in the spring of 2012, U.S. leaders
sought to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapon capability while gas prices in the United States rose, The United States considered its
ongoing military involvement in Afghanistan in the face of nationwide protests and violence in that country1 sparked by the alleged burning of
Korans by American soldiers, and Americans observed the actions of President Bashir Al-Assad and Syrian forces as they killed Syrian citizens in
response to a rebel uprising in that nation and considered the role of the United States in that action. Meanwhile, public
discourse, in part generated and intensified by the campaigns of the GOP candidates for president and consequent media coverage,
addressed issues dividing Americans, including health care, women's
rights to reproductive health services, the freedom of churches and church-run organizations to remain true to their beliefs in providing (or
electing not to provide) health care services which they oppose, the growing gap between the
wealthiest 1 percent of Americans and the rest of the American
population, and continued high levels of unemployment. More division among the American public would be
hard to imagine. Yet through all the tension, conflict was almost entirely ver bal in nature, aimed at discovering or advocating solutions to growing problems. Individuals also faced
daunting decisions. A young couple, underwater with their mortgage and struggling to make their monthly
payments, considered walking away from their loan; elsewhere a college
sophomore reconsidered his major and a senior her choice of law school,
graduate school, or a job and a teenager decided between an iPhone and an iPad. Each of these situations
called for decisions to be made. Each decision maker worked hard to make well-reasoned decisions. Decision
making is a thoughtful process of choosing among a variety of options for acting or thinking. It requires that the decider make a choice. Life
demands decision making. We make countless individual decisions
every day. To make some of those decisions, we work hard to employ care and consideration: others scorn to just happen. Couples, families,
groups of friends, and coworkers come together to make choices, and decision-making bodies from committees to juries to the U.S. Congress and the
United Nations make decisions that impact us all. Every
profession requires effective and

ethical decision making, as do our school, community, and social
organizations. We all engage in discourse surrounding our necessary decisions every day. To refinance or sell ones home, to buy a
high-performance SUV or an economical hybrid car, what major to select, what to have for dinner, what candidate to vote for, paper or plastic, all
present us with choices. Should
the president deal with an international crisis

through military invasion or diplomacy? How should the U.S.
Congress act to address illegal immigration? Is the defendant guilty as accused? Should we watch The
Daily Show or the ball game? And upon what information should I rely to make my decision? Certainly some of these decisions are more
consequential than others. Which amendment to vote for, what television program to watch, what course to take, which phone plan to purchase, and
which diet to pursueall present unique challenges. At our best, we seek out research and data to inform our decisions. Yet even
the
choice of which information to attend to requires decision making. In
2006, Time magazine named YOU its "Person of the Year. Congratulations! Its selection was based on the participation not of great men in the
creation of history, but rather on the contributions of a community of anonymous participants in the evolution of information. Through blogs,
online networking, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, and many other wikis," and social networking sites, knowledge and truth are created
172
from the bottom up, bypassing the authoritarian control of newspeople, academics, and publishers. Through
a quick
keyword search, we have access to infinite quantities of information,
but how do we sort through it and select the best information for our needs? Much of what suffices as information
is not reliable, or even ethically motivated. The ability of every decision maker to make
good, reasoned, and ethical decisions' relies heavily upon their
ability to think critically. Critical thinking enables one to break
argumentation down to its component parts in order to evaluate its
relative validity and strength, And, critical thinking offers tools enabling the user to better understand the' nature and relative
quality of the message under consideration. Critical thinkers are better users of information
as well as better advocates. Colleges and universities expect their students to develop their critical thinking skills
and may require students to take designated courses to that end. The importance and value of such study is widely recognized. The executive order
establishing California's requirement states; Instruction in critical thinking is designed to achieve an understanding of the relationship of language to
logic, which would lead to the ability to analyze, criticize and advocate ideas, to reason inductively and deductively, and to
reach factual or judgmental conclusions based on sound inferences drawn from unambiguous statements of knowledge or
belief. The minimal competence to be expected at the successful conclusion of instruction in critical thinking should be the
ability to distinguish fact from judgment, belief from knowledge, and skills in elementary inductive arid deductive processes, including an understanding
of die formal and informal fallacies of language and thought. Competency
in critical thinking is a
prerequisite to participating effectively in human affairs, pursuing higher
education, and succeeding in the highly competitive world of business
and the professions. Michael Scriven and Richard Paul for the National Council for Excellence in Critical
Thinking Instruction argued that the effective critical thinker: raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly
and precisely; gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively; comes to wellreasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards; thinks open-mindedly within
alternative systems of thought, recognizing, and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and communicates effectively with others in figuring our solutions to complex problems. They also observed
critical thinking entails effective communication and problem

solving abilities and a commitment to overcome our native egocentrism
and sociocentrism,"1 Debate as a classroom exercise and as a mode of thinking and behaving
uniquely promotes development of each of these skill sets. Since classical
that
times, debate has been one of the best methods of learning and applying the principles of critical thinking.
Contemporary research confirms the value of debate . One study concluded:

The impact of public communication training on the critical thinking
ability of the participants is demonstrably positive . This summary of existing
research reaffirms what many ex-debaters and others in forensics, public speaking, mock trial, or argumentation would
In particular, debate education

improves the ability to think critically. In a comprehensive review of the relevant research, Kent
support: participation improves die thinking of those involved,2
Colbert concluded, "'The debate-critical thinking literature provides presumptive proof favoring a positive debate-critical thinking relationship.11'1
Much of the most significant communication of our lives is conducted in the form of debates, formal or informal, These take place in intrapersonal
communications, with which we weigh the pros and cons of an important decision in our own minds, and in interpersonal communications, in which
Our
success or failure in life is largely determined by our ability to make
wise decisions for ourselves and to influence the decisions of others
in ways that are beneficial to us. Much of our significant, purposeful activity is
concerned with making decisions. Whether to join a campus
organization, go to graduate school, accept a job offer, buy a car or
house, move to another city, invest in a certain stock, or vote for Garciathese are just a few
Of the thousands of decisions we may have to make. Often, intelligent self-interest or a
we listen to arguments intended to influence our decision or participate in exchanges to influence the decisions of others.
sense of responsibility will require us to win the support of others. We may want a scholarship or a particular job for ourselves, a customer for our
Some people make decision by flipping a

coin. Others act on a whim or respond unconsciously to hidden
persuaders. If the problem is trivialsuch as whether to go to a concert or a filmthe particular method used is unimportant. For
product, or a vote for our favored political candidate.
173
more crucial matters, however, mature
adults require a reasoned methods of
decision making. Decisions should be justified by good reasons based on accurate evidence and valid reasoning.
Next is dialogue. Debates controversial axis is a form of

dialogic communication within a defined area.
Unchecked affirmation outside the debate area makes
research impossible and destroys dialogue in debate- key
to counter dogma
Hanghoj 8
http://static.sdu.dk/mediafiles/Files/Information_til/Studerende_ved_SDU/Din_uddannelse/phd_hum/afhandlinger/2009/Thor
kilHanghoej.pdf Thorkild Hanghj, Copenhagen, 2008 Since this PhD project began in 2004, the present author has been
affiliated with DREAM (Danish Research Centre on Education and Advanced Media Materials), which is located at the
Institute of Literature, Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Southern Denmark. Research visits have taken place
at the Centre for Learning, Knowledge, and Interactive Technologies (L-KIT), the Institute of Education at the University of
Bristol and the institute formerly known as Learning Lab Denmark at the School of Education, University of Aarhus, where I
currently work as an assistant professor.
Debate games are often based on pre-designed scenarios that include descriptions
games
differ from textbooks and everyday classroom instruction as debate scenarios allow
teachers and students to actively imagine, interact and
communicate within a domain-specific game space. However, instead of mystifying
of issues to be debated, educational goals, game goals, roles, rules, time frames etc. In this way, debate
debate games as a magic circle (Huizinga, 1950), I will try to overcome the epistemological dichotomy between
educational
gaming is a form of teaching. As mentioned, education and games represent two different semiotic
gaming and teaching that tends to dominate discussions of educational games. In short,
domains that both embody the three faces of knowledge: assertions, modes of representation and social forms of
organisation (Gee, 2003; Barth, 2002; cf. chapter 2). In order to understand the interplay between these different domains
and their interrelated knowledge forms, I will draw attention to a central assumption in Bakhtins dialogical philosophy.
all forms of communication and culture are subject to

centripetal and centrifugal forces (Bakhtin, 1981). A centripetal force is the
According to Bakhtin,
drive to impose one version of the truth, while a centrifugal force

involves a range of possible truths and interpretations. This means that any
form of expression involves a duality of centripetal and centrifugal forces: Every concrete utterance of a speaking subject
serves as a point where centrifugal as well as centripetal forces are brought to bear (Bakhtin, 1981: 272). If we take
teaching as an example, it is always affected by centripetal and centrifugal forces in the on-going negotiation of truths
between teachers and students. In the words of Bakhtin: Truth is not born nor is it to be found inside the head of an
individual person, it is born between people collectively searching for truth, in the process of their dialogic interaction
the dialogical space of debate games also

embodies centrifugal and centripetal forces. Thus, the election
scenario of The Power Game involves centripetal elements that are
mainly determined by the rules and outcomes of the game , i.e. the election is
based on a limited time frame and a fixed voting procedure. Similarly, the open-ended goals, roles and
resources represent centrifugal elements and create virtually endless
possibilities for researching, preparing, presenting, debating and evaluating a variety of key political
(Bakhtin, 1984a: 110). Similarly,
issues. Consequently, the actual process of enacting a game scenario involves a complex negotiation between these
centrifugal/centripetal forces that are inextricably linked with the teachers and students game activities. In this way, the
enactment of The Power Game is a form of teaching that combines different pedagogical practices (i.e. group work, web
quests, student presentations) and learning resources (i.e. websites, handouts, spoken language) within the interpretive
frame of the election scenario. Obviously, tensions may arise if there is too much divergence between educational goals
game facilitation requires a balance between

focusing too narrowly on the rules or facts of a game (centripetal orientation) and a
and game goals. This means that
focusing too broadly on the contingent possibilities and interpretations of
174
the game scenario (centrifugal orientation). For Bakhtin, the duality of
often manifests itself as a dynamic between

monological and dialogical forms of discourse . Bakhtin illustrates this point
centripetal/centrifugal forces
with the monological discourse of the Socrates/Plato dialogues in which the

teacher never learns anything new from the students , despite Socrates
ideological claims to the contrary (Bakhtin, 1984a). Thus, discourse becomes
monologised when someone who knows and possesses the truth instructs
someone who is ignorant of it and in error, where a thought is either
affirmed or repudiated by the authority of the teacher (Bakhtin, 1984a: 81). In contrast
to this, dialogical pedagogy fosters inclusive learning environments that are able to expand upon students existing
knowledge and collaborative construction of truths (Dysthe, 1996). At this point, I should clarify that Bakhtins term
dialogic
is both a descriptive term (all utterances are per definition dialogic as they address other
and a normative term as dialogue is an ideal

to be worked for against the forces of monologism (Lillis, 2003: 197-8). In this project, I
utterances as parts of a chain of communication)
am mainly interested in describing the dialogical space of debate games. At the same time, I agree with Wegerif that
one of the goals of education, perhaps the most important goal, should be
dialogue as an end in itself (Wegerif, 2006: 61).
Dialogue is critical to affirming any valueshutting down

discussion devolves into totalitarianism and reinstates
oppression- turns the alt
Morson 4
http://www.flt.uae.ac.ma/elhirech/baktine/0521831059.pdf#page=331 Northwestern Professor, Prof. Morson's work ranges
over a variety of areas: literary theory (especially narrative); the history of ideas, both Russian and European; a variety of
literary genres (especially satire, utopia, and the novel); and his favorite writers -- Chekhov, Gogol, and, above all,
Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. He is especially interested in the relation of literature to philosophy.
Bakhtin viewed the whole process of ideological (in the sense of ideas and values, however unsystematic)
As teachers, we find it difficult to avoid a voice

may think of ours as the rebels voice, because our rebelliousness
against society at large speaks in the authoritative voice of our subculture. We
speak the language and thoughts of academic educators, even when we imagine we are
speaking in no jargon at all, and that jargon, inaudible to us, sounds with all the overtones of
authority to our students. We are so prone to think of ourselves as fighting
oppression that it takes some work to realize that we ourselves may be felt
as oppressive and overbearing, and that our own voice may provoke the same reactions that we feel
development as an endless dialogue.
of authority, however much we
when we hear an authoritative voice with which we disagree. So it is often helpful to think back on the great
authoritative oppressors and reconstruct their self-image: helpful, but often painful. I remember, many years ago, when,
as a recent student rebel and activist, I taught a course on The Theme of the Rebel and discovered, to my considerable
many of the great rebels of history were the very same

people as the great oppressors. There is a famous exchange between Erasmus and Luther,
chagrin, that
who
hoped to bring the great Dutch humanist over to the Reformation, but Erasmus kept asking Luther how he could be so
certain of so many doctrinal points. We must accept a few things to be Christians at all, Erasmus wrote, but surely
beyond that there must be room for us highly fallible beings to disagree. Luther would have none of such tentativeness.
He knew, he was sure. The Protestant rebels were, for a while, far more intolerant than their orthodox opponents. Often
enough, the oppressors are the ones who present themselves and really think of themselves as liberators. Certainty that
one knows the root cause of evil: isnt that itself often the root cause? We know from Tsar Ivan the Terribles letters
denouncing Prince Kurbsky, a general who escaped to Poland, that Ivan saw himself as someone who had been
oppressed by noblemen as a child and pictured himself as the great rebel against traditional authority when he killed
There is something in the nature of

maximal rebellion against authority that produces ever greater
masses of people or destroyed whole towns.
175
intolerance, unless one is very careful. For the skills of fighting or refuting an
oppressive power are not those of openness, self-skepticism, or real dialogue .
In preparing for my course, I remember my dismay at reading Hitlers Mein Kampf and discovering that his selfconsciousness was precisely that of the rebel speaking in the name of oppressed
Germans, and that much of his amazing appeal otherwise so inexplicable was to the German sense that they were
Milosevic exploited
the same appeal. Bakhtin surely knew that Communist
totalitarianism, the Gulag, and the unprecedented censorship were constructed by
rebels who had come to power. His favorite writer, Dostoevsky, used to emphasize that the worst
oppression comes from those who, with the rebellious psychology of
the insulted and humiliated, have seized power unless they have somehow
rebelling victims. In our time, the Serbian Communist and nationalist leader Slobodan
much
cultivated the value of dialogue, as Lenin
surely had not, but which Eva, in the essay by Knoeller

about teaching The Autobiography of Malcolm X, surely had. Rebels often make the worst tyrants because their word, the
voice they hear in their consciousness, has borrowed something crucial from the authoritative word it opposed, and
perhaps exaggerated it: the aura of righteous authority .
If ones ideological becoming is

understood as a struggle in which one has at last achieved the
truth, one is likely to want to impose that truth with maximal authority; and rebels of the next
generation may proceed in much the same way, in an ongoing spiral of
intolerance.
176

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UTNIF 2015 Embodiment Kritik - Paperless...........................1

2NC AT: Link Turn Foucault......................................................................6

the informatisation of the body has worrisome implications , as

the body is always already shaped by discourses, and so

that 'the possibilities of gender

Subscribing to the myth of the inevitability of violence is a

One of the most important political principles is that history is not

the importance of avoiding determinism and the

inexplicable nonchalance about the nightmarish picture of the future,

word "inevitable" is almost never a legitimate political category, most

Human beings are, in fact, not only able to

a position that emphasizes human agency, intentionality and

who does not work against it will be

Reformist logic enhances state power which justifies its

the prison-industrial complex and war machine attest to the

long-term campaigns to improve the state, why should we expect

Making a satiable demand on the state to curtail surveillance leaves

the surveillant assemblage rests

a polarization of hierarchies has

exists an acting society, social structure or remote governmental

acknowledge the constraints of urban poverty and structural

this approach provides us with an opportunity to

people to act upon their environment in ways that contribute to

imaginations are important prerequisites for activism and social

Long-term exposure to economic abuse, structural

this process fosters new forms of political and community

critical reflection and action. Often, community-based

Today, in our biometric age, existence

Critical science studies

Reformist logic enhances state power which justifies its

the prison-industrial complex and war machine attest to the

More ominously , Dales

acknowledge the constraints of urban poverty and structural

agency or the capacity for people to act and respond to sociocultural

this approach provides us with an opportunity to

intimate spaces where young people cultivate resistance against

Long-term exposure to economic abuse, structural

this process fosters new forms of political and community

critical consciousness necessary to resist domination and create a

The motivation toward body surveillance as a more effective

Hayles traces a shift in Western

subsequently allows, amounts to a change on the level of ontology,

'the new, intensive forms of

Giroux is unable to theorize effective modes of

Who would not want to

takes the issues of community and liberation seriously... creating

contribution to critical pedagogy and the fields of Communication

texts can sound so timely, so urgent,

Giroux repeats this argument for three

The pressure to publish, secure

then the mere

appeal to the future, whose day will be hastened by the contribution

if the topic of discussion is said to be

Reformist logic enhances state power which justifies its

the prison-industrial complex and war machine attest to the

More ominously , Dales

acknowledge the constraints of urban poverty and structural

agency or the capacity for people to act and respond to sociocultural

this approach provides us with an opportunity to

intimate spaces where young people cultivate resistance against

Long-term exposure to economic abuse, structural

this process fosters new forms of political and community

* Links *