NYMA:
Mother Always Said
Sonia Johnson (1987) encouraged us to bear witness to our experiences, to own them, to claim them, to “tell the truth” about them (p. 263). But as women, as women who are academics, it is hard for us to tell the truth of our experiences. If we tell the truth about how long it takes for us to complete the scholarship, we feel guilty because we fear not being good enough, not smart enough. If we tell the truth about occasionally choosing family/friends over work, we feel guilty; further, we may be punished for those choices because we didn’t choose the scholarship or that we didn’t choose family enough. Johnson (1987) wrote,
“Hazel Henderson suggests that we talk about what work we consider essential, what work should entitle one to be paid and what work—which everyone would share—should not. A basic feminist value is that we participate in making the decisions and agree upon the basic structures of our lives, instead of having them thrust upon us without recourse for someone else’s benefit” (p. 281).
The guilt we experience as working academic women suggests that we have not sufficiently participated in that conversation.
“Guilt is not a useful emotion, as women know better than anyone, having been manipulated and incapacitated by it for so many centuries.” (Sonia Johnson, 1987, p. 262)
Sunday, June 12, 2011
“Telling the truth is not blaming. It is telling the truth.”
