Representing The Other

Description

This innovative collection addresses a challenging issue in contemporary feminist theory and practice: whether - and how - we should represent members of groups to which we do not ourselves belong. The discussions identify key concerns related to representation and difference. Contributors draw on personal experiences of speaking 'for' and 'about' Others in their research, professional practice, writing or political activism. Problems of representing Others with ethnic or cultural backgrounds different from one's own are highlighted, and the discussions extend to representations of children, prostitutes, infertile women, 'fat' women, gay men with HIV/AIDS and people with disabilities.

Reviews

'I am most impressed... by the range and timeliness of the topics covered, by the depth of the scholarship, by the scope and imagination of the collection. Nothing is more important than the frameworks we use when we undertake to represent the other. That feminists are taking the lead in this project is not surprising. The most significant discourse in the human disciplines in the last two decades has been inspired by the feminist position and its many variations as represented in this pathbreaking volume. The editors and their contributors are to be congratulated for a job very well done' - Norman K Denzin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 'In this volume, researchers and research participants pry open the fiercely political and problematic aspects of Othering. Through theory, speculation, outrage and "collective girl talk", the writers of this text force readers to confront - without retreat or resolution - the thorns of representation in the 1990s... Finally, psychology is no longer the "reluctant sister" among the social sciences to wrestle with questions of representation, Othering and authorial responsibilities... Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger take us up to the cliff, and at moments over the edge, forcing readers to confront what "they" have been saying about "us" for so long... The text is a gift for those of us working at the treacherous and desirous borders of gender, race/ethnicity, class, sexuality and disability. You won't be the same after reading it!' - Michelle Fine, City University of New York 'The dilemma of writing about that which one is not, without simultaneously colonizing the Other in ways never intended, has haunted all of psychology and the other social and behavioral sciences from the beginning... I applaud the editors for their groundbreaking efforts to address this complex issue and to provide a truly innovative work... this is a genuinely exciting work, long overdue, and clearly a major contribution to the field' - Edward Sampson, California State University

Table of contents

PART ONE: ARTICLES Theorizing Representing the Other - Celia Kitzinger and Sue Wilkinson Daring To Presume - Anna Livia PART TWO: SHORT CONTRIBUTIONS The Mother of Invention - Liz Stanley Necessity, Writing and Representation Bearing Witness - Barbara Katz Rothman Representing Women's Experiences of Prenatal Diagnosis Waking from a Dream of Chinese Shadows - Magdalene Ang-Lygate Voices in the Winds of Change - Amanda Kottler Able-Bodied Dilemmas in Teaching Disability Studies - Deborah Marks Infertility - Anne Woollett From 'Inside/Out' to 'Outside/In' Representing Gay Men with HIV/AIDS - Adrian Coyle The Seduction of Sameness - Tracey L Hurd and Alice McIntyre Similarity and Representing the Other White Woman Researcher - Black Women Subjects - Rosalind Edwards Between a Rock and a Hard Place - Diana E H Russell The Politics of White Feminists Conducting Research on Black Women in South Africa Politics and Women's Weight - Joan C Chrisler 'See Whose Face It Wears' - Christine Griffin Differences, Otherness and Power Representing Other Feminists - Diane Richardson 'White Women Can't Speak?' - Diane Bell Putting Pakeha into the Picture - Kate Paulin Analyzing Lesbian/Bisexual Politics in Aotearoa/New Zealand Representation and Difference in Cross-Cultural Research - Marion Martin and Beth Humphries The Impact of Institutional Structures Questions of Legitimacy - Manjit Bola The Fit between Researcher and Researched The Reproduction of Othering - Brown Representing the Prostitute - Sheila Jeffreys The Spec(tac)ular Economy of Difference - Erica Burman Giving Voice - Katie MacMillan The Participant Takes Issue Across Differences of Age - Marian Titley and Becky Chasey Young Women Speaking of and with Old Women Responsibility and Advocacy - Anita Harris Representing Young Women Beside the Standpoint - Mike Gane 'Some of This Seems to Me Straight Feminist Stuff' - Anna Madill Representing the Other in Discursive Psychotherapy Research Questioning Representing the Other - Jean Carabine Issues of Power and Conflict Resolution in Representing the Other - Gabriele Griffin PART THREE: THE SPOKEN WORD Speaking of Representing the Other - Celia Kitzinger in conversation with Manjit Bola et al