To footnote such people contributes to the โsystem of oppressionโ known as โheteromasculinism.โ
It is true that in the academic world it helps a scholarโs career the more often he or she is cited by other scholarship. ย These authors say that scholars should promote the work of women, gays, racial minorities, and trangendered individuals by quoting them and citing them in footnotes.
Here is my question: ย How are we supposed to know?
Scholarly articles donโt give the sexual preference of their authors. ย Or their race or preferred gender identity. ย The APA stylesheet, in an effort presumably to prevent discrimination against women, already forbids the use of first names. ย Instead, you give the personโs initials.
A field like geography, in which the authors of this article are working, involves objective research about objective places. ย Say a graduate student is writing a dissertation about glaciers in Antarctica. ย What if not enough transgendered geographers have been publishing on that topic?What if mostly white men have been spending time in that cold terrain and gathering the most relevant research?
Is the research topic now to be less important now than theย private lives of the researchers? ย Should style sheets now include identity markers? ย And what would those look like in a bibliography?
Jones-Smith, E. G. [black, female, lesbian, transgendered] (2016). ย Glacier formations of the South Pole. ย Journal of Geography, 9: 224-257.
Rosenberg, S. L. [Jewish, male, cisgendered] (2017). ย Glaciers today. ย NY: Columbia University Press.
Maybe there should be an asterisk with that second reference, or a notation: ย Do not use. ย Actually, the publishers shouldnโt even print or peer review a book or a study by a white male scholar, since no one should refer to it, lest they contribute to โheteromasculinism.โ
From Kristine Phillips,ย Why these professors are warning against promoting the work of straight, white men โ The Washington Post:
Academics and scholars must be mindfulย about using research done by only straight, whiteย men, according to two scientistsย who argued that itย oppresses diverse voices and bolsters the status of already privileged and establishedย white male scholars.
Geographers Carrie Mott and Daniel Cockayne argued in a recent paper that doing soย also perpetuates what they call โwhite heteromasculinism,โ which theyย defined as a โsystem of oppressionโ that benefits only those who are โwhite, male, able-bodied, economically privileged, heterosexual, and cisgendered.โ (Cisgendered describes people whose gender identity matches their birth sex.)
Mott, a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and Cockayne, who teaches at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, argued that scholars or researchersย disproportionately cite the work ofย white men, thereby unfairly adding credence to the body of knowledge they offer while ignoring the voices of other groups, like women and black male academics. Although citation seems like a mundane practice, theย feminist professors argue that citing someoneโs work has implications on his or her ability to be hired, get promoted and obtain tenured status, among others.
โThis important research has drawn direct attention to the continued underrepresentation and marginalization of women, people of color. โฆย Toย cite narrowly, to only cite white men โฆ or to only cite established scholars, does a disservice not only to researchers and writers who are othered by white heteromasculinism โฆ,โ they wrote in the paper published recently in theย journalย Gender, Place and Culture.
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