INTRODUCTION:
Knowledge is validated through the accepted values and practices of the dominant group. The dominant group determines what is knowledge by establishing an epistemology that is practiced and enforced by other members of the same community. In Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Collins points out that elite white men control the knowledge validation process which leads to the oppression of minority epistemologies. If knowledge does not conform to the accepted standard it is ignored and deemed incorrect. As a result, other groups have had to create their own forms of knowledge and validation processes. It is important to understand the epistemologies of other groups in order to obtain a better picture of knowledge. Other groups created …show more content…
Since heterosexual white men have been in control of western institutions, black feminist thought has been subjugated and pushed aside. As a result, black women had to find alternative ways to construct and validate knowledge. Collins writes, “the suppression of Black women’s ideas within White-male-controlled social institutions led African-American women to use music, literature, daily conversations, and everyday behavior as important locations for constructing a Black feminist consciousness” (Collins 2000, p 251). Black feminist epistemology uses non-traditional methods in order to spread knowledge since the dominant framework did not allow African-American women to express themselves. The emergence of these alternative frameworks is important because it shows how knowledge was spread and how it was validated. Knowledge validation within a black feminist framework is personal and based on experience. Since the black feminist epistemology uses a different way to validate knowledge, the dominant group has used this to discredit it, but they can only discredit it by imposing their own framework which relies on their own ideas of …show more content…
While feminist studies break away from the traditional white male epistemology, many works inadvertently enforce a heteronormative framework. According to Landström, there is a danger of black-boxing gender by associating male with masculine and female with femininity. Landström states, “This ‘black-boxing’ of gender undermines the aim to under-stand the coproduction of gender and technology. If gender is already there, as a fixed element it can only function as a cause in relation to the socially constructed technology.” (Landström 2007, p 10). The problem with posing concrete genders is that it undermines the social construction of gender norms. It also does not explain the double constructivism of gender and technology. She goes on to say that while not all works enforce a heteronormative standpoint, very few actually problematize it. This has led to the absence of masculine women and feminine men from the study of gender and technology. Even those who accept the constructivism of gender tend to fall short by falling back on the heteronormative relationship between male and female. Emerging works in feminist and queer studies have finally started to address the problem that heteronormativity poses. It is important that it is addressed in order to avoid replacing one dominant exclusionary framework with another. Queer
Knowledge is validated through the accepted values and practices of the dominant group. The dominant group determines what is knowledge by establishing an epistemology that is practiced and enforced by other members of the same community. In Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Collins points out that elite white men control the knowledge validation process which leads to the oppression of minority epistemologies. If knowledge does not conform to the accepted standard it is ignored and deemed incorrect. As a result, other groups have had to create their own forms of knowledge and validation processes. It is important to understand the epistemologies of other groups in order to obtain a better picture of knowledge. Other groups created …show more content…
Since heterosexual white men have been in control of western institutions, black feminist thought has been subjugated and pushed aside. As a result, black women had to find alternative ways to construct and validate knowledge. Collins writes, “the suppression of Black women’s ideas within White-male-controlled social institutions led African-American women to use music, literature, daily conversations, and everyday behavior as important locations for constructing a Black feminist consciousness” (Collins 2000, p 251). Black feminist epistemology uses non-traditional methods in order to spread knowledge since the dominant framework did not allow African-American women to express themselves. The emergence of these alternative frameworks is important because it shows how knowledge was spread and how it was validated. Knowledge validation within a black feminist framework is personal and based on experience. Since the black feminist epistemology uses a different way to validate knowledge, the dominant group has used this to discredit it, but they can only discredit it by imposing their own framework which relies on their own ideas of …show more content…
While feminist studies break away from the traditional white male epistemology, many works inadvertently enforce a heteronormative framework. According to Landström, there is a danger of black-boxing gender by associating male with masculine and female with femininity. Landström states, “This ‘black-boxing’ of gender undermines the aim to under-stand the coproduction of gender and technology. If gender is already there, as a fixed element it can only function as a cause in relation to the socially constructed technology.” (Landström 2007, p 10). The problem with posing concrete genders is that it undermines the social construction of gender norms. It also does not explain the double constructivism of gender and technology. She goes on to say that while not all works enforce a heteronormative standpoint, very few actually problematize it. This has led to the absence of masculine women and feminine men from the study of gender and technology. Even those who accept the constructivism of gender tend to fall short by falling back on the heteronormative relationship between male and female. Emerging works in feminist and queer studies have finally started to address the problem that heteronormativity poses. It is important that it is addressed in order to avoid replacing one dominant exclusionary framework with another. Queer