The other

Sadly, I couldnt think of a better, more interesting title for this blog. But I can certainly relate it to today's lecture on feminism and the patriarchal structure. The "other" is a representation of women. To be the other is to be everything men are not: powerless, penis-less, nameless, etc. Or at least this is what I'm getting from today's lecture. I suppose the lowercase letters show how women lack identity and power. Maybe this was unnecessary because I think the word "other" alone is vague and unspecific enough to not have any significance in comparison to the word "Man." And if the "other" has no significance, it certainly doesn't belong in the center of a system such as a patriarchal system. Rather, the other belongs in the background, off to the side, in the margins, etc. As a woman, you can imagine, that this doesn't sit so well with me as I'm sure it doesn't sit well with many, if not ALL of my fellow lady classmates. And it shouldn't, because it's not right. But it comes so naturally that we hardly recognize it. We understand that its there, but we simply just accept it...sort of. Hm. I want to take a step back to talk more about the "other". So if the other has no stability or identity, it's kind of cloudy, or imaginary you would think. So does this mean that women are closer to the imaginary? Maybe this is why we always feel that we are lacking something, whether it is beauty or a particular shape, or something. We see these imaginary ideals or fantasies and this is why we always feel we are lacking something. Make sense? maybe.