LAWS 3503 Lecture 3: LAWS 3503 Lecture 3
Document Summary
The concept of looking people in the eye is a cultural assumption. Notion of direct eye contact as objectifying. Eye of the colonizer, is an objectifying one, a depersonalizing one. Western culture paying attention to someone, sign of respect: discomfort, uninterested, lying. In the court room this has been seen to be a real problem: ex. Aboriginal peoples, they won"t look at the lawyers in the eye and it"s seen as they are uncomfortable or may be lying. Just knowing about cultural miscommunication is not enough: it"s a starting point, it assumes an inequality as opposed to recognition of a dominant group and a submissive group. Assumption that the subordinated group will adapt to the dominant group. Power imbalances as the source of inequality. Critique: multiculturalism acceptance of difference. White feminism critique: seeing themselves as the gender saviours from other oppressive and sexist cultural practices, essentialism notion that all women share the same essential core that is.
