Vision

A couple of classes ago, we discussed the complications with making research based in desire.  While we thought that desire-based was more beneficial/was the extra layer that damage-based research needed, using the diction choice of "desire" disturbed us a little bit.  In other words, what Eve Tuck was trying to advocate (a more holistic approach to research, and not concentrating on only what wrong has been imposed onto a group) may not be best encompassed by the word desire, since it associates persons as always "wanting" something or addicted to something.

Visions, then, seems to be the end product of what worried us so much.  By solely using the rhetoric of "desire" and "addictions" to address what problems the women may have, it seems to limit and test them in ways that could turn out to be more damaging than fruitful.  Admittedly, I haven't read through the book yet, so I can't make a stance on how Haney sees this plays out, but so far, Visions and its practice of trying to channel desires to other "healthy" avenues seems to be awful in its own way.  To have the women always in a space of complete transparency, allowing them to speak whatever they might to a peer in the hotseat--it's pretty brutal.  I may be making connections that might not make sense in those post, but I'm worried.

To always think about people in terms of desire is not good.

I light of our recent Silence (and Serendip) conversations about getting to know each other better, I was interested in the expectations that were put upon the Visions women to "share" during group therapy sessions. Haney notes that the aim of these therapy sessions was "to push one another to divulge and reflect [...] quite specific things". I was so troubled by the notion that these women were required by the rules of the facility to share specific parts of their life -- they even didn't get to choose the proper time or avenue. As I mentioned in my last Silence post, although I desperately want to know more about you all (and props to Chandrea's activity today!) stronger still is my desire for us as a class to feel comfortable or inspired to share. In my opinion, everyone should have the choice to pick silence, especially when it comes to revealing very personal experiences. Unfortunately, due to the structure of the program, women at Visions didn't have that choice. And, in regards to the core goal of the program, I feel like being forced into discovering your voice isn't nearly as "therapeutic" as being given a safe space to find it on your own. 

When finishing part two of Offending Women, where they talk about Vision's idea of therapy and addiction as solutions and causes for the women's incarceration, I was particularly struck by how good intentions can go bad. It seems like the women involved in the program had good intentions, but had much difficulty executing them in productive ways for the incarcerated women. I was horrified at the lack of privacy the women in Visions were given, not only in respect to the program but with the expectation that they should air out their problems and lives for everybody to see. This was especially evident when incoming women were asked to write "autos" in which they fully detailed traumatic experiences and just bad situations. Not only were they asked to revisit them but they were also asked to "perform" them. That just didn't sit well with me. I was horrified. As someone who deals better with trauma and difficult experiences alone, focusing on self-reflection, I can't imagine being asked to completely break down in front of an audience when I'm not ready. I don't understand how helping these women "unmask" themselves or open up about their struggles serves as anything else than feeling shame, guilt, anger, pain. I wonder where the opportunity for positive experiences went. This program seemed very much "damage-centered."

I found much of what I've read about Alliance and Visions in "Offending Women" to be problematic, but, in both cases, I think what has struck me the most is the idea that motherhood is a reward for good behavior, that the women who are part of these "communities" don't deserve to interact with or parent their children until an overseer tells them so. I think what hits me hardest here is the idea that, once you are marked as an "offender" you are then also branded to be an unfit parent, two labels which don't necessarily go hand in hand. Is it not keeping these women from a full recovery to keep them away from their children, or to tell them that they are not fully able to fulfill a responsibility that they have to their child(ren)? It killed me to read that the women went into the bathroom for hours at a time to calm their child down, to have precious few moments where they could be the mothers that they wanted to be, without the intrusion of administrators. They obviously were not perfect parents (but who is?), but to stop these women in a program with "Mothers" in the title from truly filling that role seems cruel to me. 

among HSBurke -- “Showing each other our cracks and admitting that we don’t have it all together is, in my opinion, something our group needed. Thank you for your honesty--

Michaela --I'm grateful that… you all don't "have it all together" in the way I feared--that everyone else had some intstruction manual for getting through life that I just never picked up on--

and Sara --I think most students at Bryn Mawr feel that everyone else around them is doing better then them… I realized last semester that everyone else felt exactly as I did- behind… like everyone else was flourishing but them. I began to wonder, in this environment that is supposed to be so empowering, why so many students felt so helpless and inadequate…maybe …we are constantly measuring ourselves up to impossible standards; grades that we have imagined for the people that seem to be flourishing --->

A number of possible venues for activism have been emerging from our conversations (giving feedback to the Mural Arts Program, and/or offering an alternative form of art-making in some of the neighborhoods we visited on our tour? working with YASP on a door-to-door campaign? advocating for the future of Perry House? what other activism is likely to emerge during the next 6 weeks, as we spend time inside The Cannery?).

We would like you to 1) structure your final work in this 360°around one of these actions and also 2) find some way to present those projects to the larger bi-co community (or beyond it). A number of these will need advance work (especially if we are to co-ordinate w/ others outside the bi-co), so we'd like to begin brainstorming together the directions in which we might go, both individually and collectively.

By 5 p.m.on  Sun, Oct. 21 (the day we return from break): please post AS A COMMENT TO THIS POST a short description of the sort of activism which interests you, and any ideas you have about what particular form this action might take.

We will then begin having shared conversations about when and how to move forward ….

Hi everyone- this is the link to the This American Life podcast I was talking about earlier in Voice class about the law passed in Alabama:  http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/456/reap-what-you-sow

I also found another one that looked interesting while looking through the archives: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/414/right-to-remain-silent

I haven't fully listened yet but sounds like it might be relevant to our silence class!

Below is a link to a youtube video where Marc Lamont Hill interviews Angela Davis on her work with prision abolition. Needless to say this is very relevant to our class. Both of them have come to speak on campus for Black History Month (Hill came my sophomore year).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AZ5waLhdV0&feature=relmfu

A friend of mine just sent me this video, which features Steven Powers, who is the artist behind the "Love Letters" murals that you can see  from the El.

http://www.psfk.com/2011/11/graffiti-artist-paints-a-love-letter-to-brooklyn-video.html

I thought you all might like it!

http://news.brynmawr.edu/2012/09/27/vartanian/

This is research done by a Bryn Mawr GSSWSR professor. It ties in well with the idea of dependence that we've been discussing in Barb's class!