A timely anthology that explores power, privilege, and oppression and their relationship to marginalized bodies Asserting that the body is the main site of oppression in Western society, the contributors to this pioneering volume explore the complex issue of embodiment and how it relates to social inclusion and marginalization. In a culture where bodies of people who are brown, black, female, transgender, disabled, fat, or queer are often shamed, sexualized, ignored, and oppressed, what does it mean to live in a marginalized body? Through theory, personal narrative, and artistic expression, this anthology explores how power, privilege, oppression, and attempted disembodiment play out on the bodies of disparaged individuals and what happens when the body’s expression is stereotyped and stunted. Bringing together a range of voices, this book offers strategies and practices for embodiment and activism and considers what it means to be an embodied ally to anyone experiencing bodily oppression.
Acknowledgments -- Introduction: the power of algorithms -- A society, searching -- Searching for Black girls -- Searching for people and communities -- Searching for protections from search engines -- The future of knowledge in the public -- The future of information culture -- Conclusion: algorithms of oppression -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the author
The Body Is Not an Apology The Power of Radical Self-Love Against a global backdrop of war, social upheaval, and personal despair, there is a growing sense of urgency to challenge the systems of oppression that dehumanize bodies and strip us of our shared humanity. Rather than feel helpless in the face of oppression, world-renowned activist, performance poet, and author Sonya Renee Taylor teaches us how to turn to the power of radical self-love in her new book, The Body Is Not an Apology. Radical self-love is the guiding framework that transforms the learned self-hatred of our bodies and the prejudices we have about other people's bodies into a vision of compassion, equity, and justice. In a revolutionary departure from the corporate self-help and body-positivity movement, Taylor forges the inextricable bond between radical self-love and social justice. The first step is recognizing that we have all been indoctrinated into a system of body shame that profits off of our self-hatred. When we ask ourselves, "Who benefits from our collective shame?" we can begin to make the distinction between the messages we are receiving about our bodies or other bodies and the truth. This book moves us beyond our all-too-often hidden lives, where we are easily encouraged to forget that we are whole humans having whole human experiences in our bodies alongside others. Radical self-love encourages us to embark on a personal journey of transformation with thoughtful reflection on the origins of our minds and bodies as a source of strength. In doing this, we not only learn to reject negative messages about ourselves but begin to thwart the very power structures that uphold them. Systems of oppression thrive off of our inability to make peace with bodies and difference. Radical self-love not only dismantles shame and self-loathing in us but has the power to dismantle global systems of injustice-because when we make peace with our bodies, only then do we have the capacity to truly make peace with the bodies of others
Analyzing Oppression presents a new, integrated theory of social oppression, which tackles the fundamental question that no theory of oppression has satisfactorily answered: if there is no natural hierarchy among humans, why are some cases of oppression so persistent? Cudd argues that the explanation lies in the coercive co-opting of the oppressed to join in their own oppression. This answer sets the stage for analysis throughout the book, as it explores the questions of how and why the oppressed join in their oppression. Cudd argues that oppression is an institutionally structured harm perpetrated on social groups by other groups using direct and indirect material, economic, and psychological force. Among the most important and insidious of the indirect forces is an economic force that operates through oppressed persons' own rational choices. This force constitutes the central feature of analysis, and the book argues that this force is especially insidious because it conceals the fact of oppression from the oppressed and from others who would be sympathetic to their plight. The oppressed come to believe that they suffer personal failings and this belief appears to absolve society from responsibility. While on Cudd's view oppression is grounded in material exploitation and physical deprivation, it cannot be long sustained without corresponding psychological forces. Cudd examines the direct and indirect psychological forces that generate and sustain oppression. She discusses strategies that groups have used to resist oppression and argues that all persons have a moral responsibility to resist in some way. In the concluding chapter Cudd proposes a concept of freedom that would be possible for humans in a world that is actively opposing oppression, arguing that freedom for each individual is only possible when we achieve freedom for all others.
A new articulation of pastoral theology, care, and counseling. Too often we think and teach in ways that reinforce a mind-body split. This can lead people to self-alienation, impeding holistic, healthy relationships between people, God, and each other. Body Connections takes a different approach, teaching us to see the connections between our embodied experience and faithful spiritual care. Author Michael Koppel focuses on the human body and its relationship to faith and spiritual care. He engages religious texts and traditions as well as scientific insights, offering accessible theology and spiritual practices for healing and care of the body. Our bodies are amazing resources, but we are too often unaware of their power, or unable to harness it in helpful ways for our own good. This remarkable book empowers pastors, counselors, chaplains, seminarians, and caregivers to understand and provide the ministry of care in an entirely new, life-giving way. This book is highly useful for individuals and groups. It is for clergy, chaplains, spiritual directors, seminarians, clinical educators, lay people in churches, and those who are institutionally unaffiliated but care deeply about fostering a holistic spiritual path. Praise for Body Connections Everything we think, feel, and do comes through the body. But practices of spiritual care tend to downplay the body as a source of knowledge and a tool for responding to others and to God. Koppel’s book reclaims that wisdom, coaching us to strengthen our abilities to read, listen, and think with the body. I can’t wait to teach this practical, wise, and convicting book, which addresses embodied emotion, grief, silence, trauma, and more. Koppel’s seasoned, pastoral voice offers a rich synthesis of sources and insights that demonstrate the body’s place at the center of ministry. --Duane Bidwell, professor of practical theology, spiritual care, and counseling, Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, CA Body Connections provides new insights into the voice and language of the body. Koppel crafts a "body theology" that encourages spiritual care practitioners to be proactive in their spiritual practices of listening, adapting and responding to our bodies and to the bodies of those to whom we offer care. Using the image of "body as storyteller" and other metaphors, Koppel captures and defines the healing power of the body in clear and profound ways. --Bishop Teresa Jefferson-Snorton, D.Min., Presiding Bishop, Fifth Episcopal District, The CME Church Michael Koppel returns the body to its rightful place at the center of each person’s story and the center of the Christian story. He calls readers home to their bodies and gently challenges escapes from the body into hasty fixing, detached rationalizing, anxious dithering, or addictive numbing. At a time when the COVID pandemic has underscored the vulnerability of bodies, Koppel’s focused, healing, deep body consciousness paints a portrait of health far beyond mere absence of disease. Don’t just read this book: absorb it, practice it, and let it heal you. --Douglas M. Thorpe, PhD, is Executive Director of the Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care and a past president of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors It is surprisingly difficult, even confusing: to have a body; to be a body; to touch, talk and listen to, even read a sensing body; to honor and restore the body’s wounds, traumas, and shame while celebrating its healing and resilience... Koppel is a wise guide and caregiver for those seeking to embrace the sacredness of a human body and its unique story. Body Connections empowers a reader to discover body knowledge anew. It deepens trust in the most intimate relationship one has, the relationship with one’s body. --Jaco J. Hamman, professor of religion, psychology, and culture, and director of the Program iin Theology and Practice, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Winner of the 2016 NYASA Book Award presented by the New York African Studies Association When students are introduced to the study of diversity and social justice, it is usually from sociological and psychological perspectives. The scholars and activists featured in this anthology reject this approach as too limiting, insisting that we adopt a view that is both transdisciplinary and multiperspectival. Their essays focus on the components of diversity, social justice, and inclusive excellence, not just within the United States but in other parts of the world. They examine diversity in the contexts of culture, race, class, gender, learned ability and dis/ability, religion, sexual orientation, and citizenship, and explore how these concepts and identities interrelate. The result is a book that will provide readers with a better theoretical understanding of diversity studies and will enable them to see and think critically about oppression and how systems of oppression may be challenged.
This book explores the epistemic side of racial and sexual oppression. It elucidates how social insensitivities and imposed silences prevent members of different groups from listening to each other.
ìIt is a great honorÖto write the foreword to such an important book edited by E.J.R. David, filled with contributions from leading and emerging psychological scholars on internalized oppression. One of the best features of the book, in my opinion, is that the chapter authorsÖare allowed to share their own personal experiences and that such experiences are regarded to be just as valid and legitimate as the ëtheoriesí and ëempirical studiesí that they review.î -Eduardo Duran, PhD 7th Direction Therapy, Assessment, and Consulting Author of Healing the Soul Wound and Co-Author of Native American Postcolonial Psychology The oppression of various groups has taken place throughout human history. People are stereotyped, discriminated against, and treated unjustly simply because of their social group membership. But what does it look like when the oppression that people face from the outside gets under their skin? Long overdue, this is the first book to highlight the universality of internalized oppression across marginalized groups in the United States from a mental health perspective. It focuses on the psychological manifestations and mental health implications of internalized oppression for a variety of groups. The book provides insight into the ways in which internalized oppression influences the thoughts, attitudes, feelings, and behaviors of the oppressed toward themselves, other members of their group, and members of the dominant group. It also considers promising clinical and community programs that are currently addressing internalized oppression among specific groups. The book describes the implications and unique manifestations of internalized oppression among African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, American Indians and Alaska natives, women, people with disabilities, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. For each group, the text considers its demographic profile, history of oppression, contemporary oppression, common manifestations and mental and behavioral health implications, clinical and community programs, and future directions. Chapters are written by leading and emerging scholars, who share their personal experiences to provide a real-world point of view. Additionally, each chapter is coauthored by a member of a particular community group, who helps to bring academic concepts to life. Key Features: Addresses the universality of internalized oppression across marginalized groups in the U.S. and its corresponding mental health and psychological manifestations Considers how specific groups exhibit internalized oppression in their own unique ways Provides insight into how internalized oppression influences the thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors of the oppressed Highlights promising clinical and community programs
