Concluding Remarks
This blog has been my attempt to document my development as a researcher and has encouraged me to be much more self reflexive than I have previously been taught to be. As a women’s studies researcher, I have been encouraged to reflect on how my research ideas are influenced by my identity and experiences with the world.
As a deaf woman and a deaf researcher, I find that my viewpoint differs on how effective face to face interviewing is, for example. I considered using this research method for my Masters dissertation but felt that deaf women may prefer to communicate their personal experiences by electronic method rather than having to arrange an interpreter or note-taker for both people, depending on their communication preference.
This may prove awkward in an interview situation, so I have opted to explore electronic and written methods of interviewing, such as Instant Messaging conversations or letter writing. My skills as a feminist researcher have developed as I find myself thinking about the possibilities that different research could open up for documenting deaf women’s voices and their experiences.
I have found that this module has offered me a chance to think about texts and media that I had not thought of investigating in my research project. It has encouraged me to think about how, among other things, I read texts and what I bring to a text; and whether this is helpful in regards to my research. The module has inspired me to think about different ways that I can research, and as a result I feel more confident about the methods I will be using for my dissertation.
The module has also taught me the merits of textual analysis – not just with texts (books) – but also with interview transcripts, interview accounts and other media such as film; and the different ways that you can analyse them. My writing style has also developed and my confidence in my ‘writer’s voice’ has grown.
Reflecting on my experiences and undertaking autobiographical reflection exercises have also had an influence on the type of research I will be doing for my dissertation. I have chosen to focus on the autobiographical experiences of deaf women and how their experiences differ from hearing women’s experiences. I will be looking for the experiences that bring to light the access issues and barriers deaf women face within the UK.
The module also piqued my interest in how many texts are authored by men and whether they are addressing men exclusively. It has made me think about how I read texts and whether I am aware of this gendering of the reader. Is my interest in women authored science fiction and fantasy writing because the author has experience of being a woman? Do I find it easier to accept films about women if they are directed by women? Many of my favourite television series are directed by men, but does this mean their representation of women is suspect? Who or what determines the meaning of a text? Who defines whether a text is feminist? I find these questions interesting and the session on textual analysis and film analysis encouraged me to think about these questions.
This module has taught me the merits of autobiographical reflexivity, how to think about methodological questions and how to implement this knowledge to plan and design a research project. The knowledge gained will be particularly useful for my Masters dissertation.
Constructions of the Self and Reflexivity. Week 9.
For this session, we read three pieces of researcher’s writing about their experiences in research and how their identity interacts with the research that they do or have done.
Hennegan, A (1988 ) On Becoming a Lesbian Reader. In Radstone, S (ed) (1988 ) Sweet Dreams: Sexuality and Popular Fiction. London: Lawrence and Wishart.
Taylor, Verta and Rupp, L (2005) When the Girls are Men: Negotiating Gender and Sexual Dynamics in a Study of Drag Queens. Signs 30 (4): 2115-2140.
Ward Jouve, N (1991) Criticism as Autobiography. In Ward Jouve, N (1991) White Woman Speaks with Forked Tongue: Criticism as Autobiography. London, New York: Routledge.
My Research Autobiography: A Deaf Feminist Perspective.
As a deaf feminist researcher, I am aware of how aspects of my identity and events in my life impact upon the research I choose to do and the research I have already done (for example, my sociology BA research project/dissertation was on deafness, access, and inclusivity).
As Nicole Ward Jouve (1991) mentions, I do not think it is enough to just ‘state’ your identity – it is important to reflect on how our complex interactions with the world shape what we bring to research and how we interpret the ‘findings’. My statement of identity would locate me as being in my early 20’s, white, deaf (oral with knowledge of BSL), heterosexual, English, a self-identified woman, and a feminist, erring on the side of radical feminism and second wave feminism (although this has some of my own ‘modifications’). However, I feel that my deafness and my identification as a feminist and self identified woman have predominantly affected the course of my life and my choice of research.
I was diagnosed deaf at the age of six, and up until then either managed to cover this up or was not obviously deaf until then. Since then, my identity has always been centred around ‘fighting’ for equal access to such things as education, entertainment and social situations, trying to change ignorance of deaf awareness and also trying to change preconceptions of what it means to be a deaf person. I grew up as a member of Chickenshed theatre company in London, since seven years old until I began my A Levels (age 17-18), participating in many productions. The inclusive atmosphere and appreciation of everyone’s skills and talents (regardless of race, gender, background, ‘ability’, sexuality or age) gave me the privilege of seeing what an inclusive society that appreciates difference and diversity could look like and be like.
My secondary education at Hendon School in London also fostered my tolerance and ideas of inclusion as it was an international atmosphere with people of all backgrounds. I suppose I took this diversity for granted, but I still had difficulties getting the support I needed from the hearing impaired unit as there was not enough staff to support all of the deaf students in every lesson. I sometimes feel mystified about how I somehow caught up on things I missed by reading or other means, in comparison with the full time support I received at University. I realised that deaf people often share the same experiences being ‘mainstreamed’ because there is a lack of understanding about what a deaf person needs in way of individual support; deaf people are not all the same and support needs to reflect their own individuality. Being deaf has become an assimilated part of my interaction with the world and I have always felt that it was a positive part of my identity, despite finding life quite trying at times.
I have revised my idea about what “inclusion” means to the government and as an ideal concept. For me, inclusion means everyone is different and everyone needs their own individual support in order to have equal access. However, I feel that the idea that deaf people need to ‘talk’ (become ‘oral’) in order to ‘assimilate’ into society is wrong on many levels; I believe instead that society needs to adapt to deaf people’s needs instead.
I did sociology at GCSE level and A Level and it seemed to be a good choice for doing a degree. I did my sociology BA also at York, which was my first real introduction to feminism. In my last year at University, I took a module entitled ‘Gender and Society’ taught by Celia Kitzinger, which introduced me to radical feminist thought, which sparked my interest in learning about feminism in general. My Sociology BA research project/final dissertation was about deafness and inclusion and the social and educational/work barriers that need to be addressed in order that deaf people can gain equal access on a par with hearing people. Although much headway has been made in recent years, there is still much that needs to be done and campaigned for. If I were not deaf, I doubt I would have considered this as a research subject. I feel that my research has been, and is, grounded in the idea of initiating social change and changing social perceptions.
I took a year out after my sociology BA degree and began blogging as a feminist, fostering connections with other feminist bloggers. I went to my first ‘reclaim the night’ march in November 2006, and since then I have felt it important to undertake research grounded in the reality of the ‘outside’ world – to ensure that theory and analysis have relevancy to the everyday experiences of women. Undertaking this Women’s Studies MA has also taught me the importance of listening to marginalised voices. The dissertation I am going to be doing will be about the autobiographical experiences of deaf women and whether they find their lives – both professional and personal – fulfilling and whether they feel that certain things in society need to change in order for other deaf women to lead the lives they want. As a deaf feminist, I feel that there should be respect and celebration of difference but also that there needs to be a push towards change in those negative aspects of society that create barriers and foster inequality and, therefore, need to be challenged.
It is my particular interest to combine disability studies and feminism as I feel they can complement and add to one another – this is something that I seek to address in my forthcoming, and perhaps, future research.
Questions – Reflection
Which different kinds of researcher-self did you wish to write into your own text?
I found it difficult to start this task because I could not seem to put into words how I have come to the present, studying women’s studies and being interested in my dissertation topic beyond my personal interests. However, I began thinking about where my life has taken me and what has influenced my thinking and ideas as a whole. So therefore I wrote about my past, both my academic self and my deaf self. My deaf self is an inextricable part of my identity and has shaped most everything in my life, and I had not realised to what extent it had until I embarked upon this autobiographical task. I wished to link my experiences with my ideas now, and was surprised to see how much my past has apparently influenced my present.
What were the specific challenges you faced when reading and writing these subjective texts?
Like Amy (http://nearlytheory.blogspot.com) I found that my previous reading of Hennegan (1988 ) meant that going back to her writing, I had a different understanding of her compared to the other two writers. For this reason, I felt that I had more of a preference for her piece of writing as her style and the way she intersects her past and present had an influence on my piece of writing. I found it interesting to step back and see her writing in a different context. However, perhaps I did not learn as much from the other two pieces of writing for this reason, as I did not feel as inspired by them as I did by Hennegan’s (1988 ) piece. This raises questions of how much our first reading and understanding of something influences our second and third readings.
Reflections on Session
I found this session useful as it made me realise how much my subjective ‘researcher self’ influences my research and ideas. My experiences and knowledge are very much in evidence in my research and it will be interesting to see how this affects or enhances my dissertation about deaf women. I am wary of using my deaf self in my research because although I have many experiences in common with other deaf women, there are many differences because I was ‘mainstreamed’ and am oral, as opposed to going to a school for deaf people and using BSL (British Sign Language) or Total Communication (both methods combined).
My own ideas about inclusion/exclusion, mainstreaming and education may be useful or a hindrance, according to the views of the participants, and the way that I interpret or analyse their ideas/texts. However, I am determined to ensure that I stay true to the participants texts and ideas and analyse them without forcing any kind of ‘meaning’ on them that is not there (which can sometimes be a problem within sociology and other research subjects).
Despite doing my stage 1 BSL exam, I am not as fluent in sign language as I would like to be. This may be more of a hindrance in my research, especially where the participants may be using BSL, although I may be using text based methods anyway (internet research such as email and instant message services, or written).
Reading Women. Week 3.
Provisional Abstract for Pearce Article (As a Practice on Writing Abstracts)
This chapter examines whether it is possible to find a position for oneself in the complicated navigation of author/text/reader that literary critics and feminist readers/writers undertake. Who or what is responsible for the meaning of a text? The writer attempts to explain these difficulties and how it may be possible, as feminist readers and critics, to both be aware of the positioning of the reader within the text and also finding our own meanings located in the text. To illustrate these difficulties, the writer provides a detailed example of her own forages into reading: both as an academic seemingly unaware of her positioning as woman within classical male authored texts and therefore not the intended reader, and also as a feminist reader and critic criticising texts authored by men that exclude women readers. The author argues that we may be empowered and yet disempowered by a text, because it may have many interpretations. We must try to reconcile the personal demands of reading a text with the professional demands of literary criticism. The author concludes that, for her, the text has renewed authority; whilst we, as readers, have a dialogic relationship with the text, we are still positioned by it. As feminist readers, we must therefore be more reflexive in our methodological leanings: we should admit our lack of control in the reading process when writing.
My Own Reading Autobiography
My reading autobiography has been a long and interesting journey. It started when I was young and my parents used to read Winnie the Pooh to me at bedtimes. My most recent recreational book was ‘Eclipse’ by Stephenie Meyer, a book about vampires and werewolves. My reading tastes have changed and expanded considerably; although these have tended more towards specific authors rather than a particular genre. I have read books from both less ‘well known’ authors (Joanna Russ, Trudi Canavan etc) and ‘well known’ authors (such as George Orwell, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, The Brontes, and Anne Rice et al).
Up until two years ago I read a large selection of writing from male authors. However, with my changing ideas about how I wanted to escape and how I felt I needed to relate to characters, whether this is by some personality characteristic or whether they were a woman, my reading became much more selective and defined. I began to read much more writing by women authors, in particular, Marge Piercy, Margaret Atwood, Ursula Le Guin, Trudi Canavan, Anne Rice and Kelley Armstrong.
‘My’ genre tended to skirt along the edges of science fiction and fantasy, and many of these women authors fed my addiction for women positive science fiction and fantasy. It is not the only genre I read from, but it is the one that I find myself most drawn to. Most of the books have a strong emphasis on independent, strong and interesting women characters. Some of these books did not concentrate particularly on women characters, but I felt more at ease because the writer was creating a perspective that smashed those stereotypes of male ‘macho’ mentality or female ‘femininity’.
One such book was ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ by Ursula Le Guin. This particular book imagined a world where the inhabitants could change their gender according to particular points in their lifespan or culture even, and the political and social limits are pushed when a missionary arrives from another world in order to learn about their culture and ways of living (and to ask if they are interested in trading with this other planet). I had a hunger for books that intellectually stimulated and interested me. It seems that both the text and the reader give something to the experience of reading: the text ‘speaks’ to us but nobody can have exactly the same experience of one text.
The problem with the genre of science fiction and fantasy is that, obviously, it has been a genre closed to women in the past. The realms of science fiction have been associated with the supposed ‘masculine’ traits of adventure and exploration, but I am quite sure that women also find exploration and adventure interesting! Feminist writers found that science fiction and fantasy can be a fulfilling and useful genre for writing as it allows the writer to imagine worlds where anything could be possible, which is evidenced in feminist dystopian and utopian writing. The most famous of these are ‘Woman on the Edge of Time’ by Marge Piercy and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood. Reading from this genre of feminist science fiction and fantasy has shaped the way I feel as a reader, and how I approach other texts. I am less interested in books that do not seem to speak to me as a feminist and as a woman.
Books that I have previously read I now recognise as not ‘addressed’ to a woman reader, therefore being exclusive, and have stereotypical and narrow ideas of what it means to be a woman; and although I recognise that the historical context of a novel is important, as a recreational reader I feel that we are allowed to be selective. In academic areas however, if you need to read a book that does not address you as a reader, it may be that reading feminist texts and being critical will allow us to recognise (as Pearce has) that we are both positioned by a text and we have a dialogue with it.
Reflections on Session
Thinking about the ways in which our readings of texts is subjective and influenced by our identities is something that I previously had not thought about so much. Where we are in our lives and what our experiences have been have influenced how we read texts, what we choose to read, why we read them and what we hope to find within a text.
My own experiences with reading and the type of texts I am familiar with influence unfamiliar and new texts that I read, or will be reading. For example, it is a popular pre-conception that science fiction and fantasy writing do not have much to offer a feminist reader, due to the mostly male presence and patronage of these genres. However, the genre can be said to have offered exciting possibilities for the portrayal of feminist issues and women – as can be seen with Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series and Charmed.
My searches for new and interesting science fiction and fantasy books have meant that I have found many books that may be considered feminist in some ways: central women characters, feminist themes and so on. I have also thought about how science fiction and fantasy genres could be a useful tool for feminist utopian writing or feminist issues; indeed, it already has been, with such books as Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy, and Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
However, I am wary of stating that science fiction and fantasy (and horror) can be a catalyst for exploring feminist issues. It has been the case that the majority of science fiction and fantasy has excluded women and addressed a ‘male’ reader, as Pearce (1995) says about her own reading experiences. It has been my experience that women writers of science fiction and fantasy often seek to address this silence and exclusion – as can be witnessed by Kelley Armstrong, Trudi Canavan, Ursula Le Guin and Marge Piercy.
Bibliography:
Hennegan, A (1988 ) ‘On Becoming a Lesbian Reader‘ In Radstone, S (ed) (1988 ) Sweet Dreams: Sexuality and Popular Fiction. London: Lawrence and Wishart.
Pearce, L (1995) ‘Finding a Place From Which to Write: The Methodology of Feminist Textual Practice.’ In Skeggs, B (ed) (1995) Feminist Cultural Theory: Process and Production. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press.
Debates In Feminist Research Weblog 