What do you think “politics” is about? What’s your definition? For me, its about the power relations and social hierarchies that underlie our social and political institutions, including, the family, civil society, the church, business, public organizations and political institutions.
What are your thoughts?
Jacqui
Yes, especially how markers of identity like race, religion, class, sexuality and, of course, gender shape those unequal power relations. And in turn how these hierachies influence the fundamental political question of ‘who gets what, when and how?’. In other words, who gets to be President of the US, who gets to be paid more in the labour market, who is more at risk of sexual violence.
Tania
I agree that power influences and shapes all our identities in some form or another. Over the break I was in Cambodia traveling and noted the very young girls and sexual tourism at its worst. But for me this highlighted the power of the West, particulary a certain type man that feels he needs to wield this type of ‘power’ in order to function as a man. Possibly this is because he feels powerless in some other way, however these notions and ‘excuses’ seem to be continually recycled and played out in developing nations over and over again as the West seeks to increase or hold onto its power.
I used to have a really narrow view of politics – thinking in terms of the state, government, voting, that sort of thing. Now I would say that politics are at work everywhere. It’s about not taking things at face value, I suppose, and looking at the context in which things occur, trying to peel back the layers to see what ideas (about gender, race, class etc) are at work in any given situation.
I grew up in an era (50s and 60s) where power was wielded unashamedly by males in such a normative fashion. My family existed within the paradigm of masculine heroism. As a young girl growing up in a large Maori family, my Dad and brothers were our heroes and life without them could not be comprehended. Politics was power and don’t anyone dare question it. The males held it all.
Politics is more then control and power. Politics is about who has the ‘pie’, not who has the most fingers in the pie. Although it may seem that men in general seem to be more ‘political’, sometimes we are surprised at the women who are political in other ways. Like what Melissa said above, the term ‘playing politics’ applies to everyone, everywhere.