Hi, everyone! I suppose I'll start the introductions by telling a little about
myself and part of the reason why I signed on this listserve. My name is
Joetta Heidorn. I'm a second year MA student in English/Creative Writing. I
hope to do my PhD in Composition & Rhetoric somewhere. (I'm just in the middle
of doing my applications now.) And I would say the prime reason I signed onto
this listserve is because I've sat in two graduate seminar classes where
something{s} the professors said have caused me to see a need for collective
positioning, or at least some collective understanding. In the first workshop,
I listened to a graduate level professor tell me that race, gender and sexual
orientation are categories for interrogation in literature, as well as
oppressive factors in society, although the same professor also claimed that
bi-sexual people were only "fooling themselves" because they were either {a}
gay or {b} not gay. I pointed out that I didn't feel the need to create a
designation or pass judgement on anyone's sexual choice, to which the professor
reluctantly agreed, but put me on that well known "disfavor list" we have all
undoubtedly experienced at varying points in our lives. I then pointed out that
class was also a category for interrogaction in literature, as well as an
oppressive factor in life, but found myself called to the mat for speaking my
mind about that subject. The other graduate workshop incident that caused me
to question our need for collectivity was when I listened to how whining, poor
women are *not* a stereotype, but a man sitting with a can of beer in his hand
*is* a stereotype, and I realized I was not and would not be praised for
portraying women, especially poor women, as strong. <sigh>
 
Now, perhaps this is not the purpose of this listserve to discuss these type of
items or incidents, but both incidents surely caused me to realize how many
people may not fit into these sterile categories of oppression the university
often pushes forward in seminars and workshops. Maybe we are bi-sexual, female
and poor. Maybe we are black and female. Maybe we are even gay, male, white
and poor. But there are many of us who cross lines and still feel a connection
with others who are crossing the same or even different lines, and I would like
to see us present a collective front against the academy "shutting us up"
or "shutting us out," so to speak, whenver we try to talk about this blurring
of their categorization for us.
 
 
Enough ranting. I hope this is what you have in mind, though.
 
Joetta Heidorn
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