I really wish tumblr had a comment option, because I have so much to say in response to this. I think the whole “academics vs people” thing is a false and damaging dichotomy. As if academics weren’t also people. As if none of us have had our autonomy denied, have experienced disenfranchisement. As if we have no experience of being othered. As if we’re all rich, straight, handsome, white men. We’re not. Me and most of the academics I know have been drawn to academia because it (ideally) affords the opportunity to think and talk and act about these things. Because it’s a space which is explicitly about “discussing power structures and how they really fuck shit up for minority groups”.
That’s not to say there aren’t problems with academia, with the university system, with the increasing corporatisation and profit-grubbing that goes on. There are. And it’s not to say that there aren’t certain amounts of privilege that accrue to academics and academia. And it’s not to say that being born into a certain amount of privilege makes access to academia much easier. But not every academic comes from unmitigated privilege - in fact, some of us come from backgrounds that were welfare class, rural, full of poverty and alcoholism and neglect. Some of us are queer and fat and female and non-white. We know about oppression and disenfranchisement, and our academic work is one of the ways we talk about that.
Some of us are also activists, or bloggers, or artists, or writers, or any number of other things.
This ‘us vs them’, ‘people vs academics’, ‘experienced vs theorised’ thing is not helpful. It’s a false dichotomy, and it’s divisive.
I don’t mean any of this as an attack on Natalie - I love her work and her blogging and her thinking. I’m just sick of seeing the things I dedicate my efforts and energy and passion and commitment and thoughts and time and self to being devalued and dismissed.
I truly think feminism is changing and becoming broader and that we’re part of what social justice and discussions about it will look like. Most of the time I see feminism as being about more than gender, it’s about discussing power structures and how they really fuck shit up for minority groups….
You’re so right, and I did make that oversight. There are academics with lived marginalised experiences!! I know them! How did I overlook those people? (You included, Jackie, someone I admire so much!)
Here’s where my bias comes in - I’ve got a history of being disenchanted with education and academia, I suffered a mental breakdown during my undergraduate degree and was estranged from my family and then hospitalised because I was a suicide risk. I wasn’t supported by my university, and so by default I’m fairly upset about not being represented and I feel deep insecurity about not being “smart enough”.
Any generalisation I make about academia really ought to have this post hyperlinked to it. I’m sorry about that Jackie, you’re doing amazing work and I appreciate that I have access to you and your writings!