Blog Post 2

My sentence from chapter 6 is how the book defines the Standpoint Theory, which is that, "This theory contends that we stand in relation to one another within systems of power-that is, we are people who occupy relationships to one another, and those relations are mediated by social, political, and economic power (Hartsock, 1999).

On a daily basis I don't perceive how certain people have power over me in my life. We have bosses, professors, and landlords. But standpoints aren't just these things, they can also include your racial/ethnic background, gender, sexuality, age, ability, etc. An example of a standpoint is how gender is being questioned among the feminist movement, that men have an unfair advantage in society over women. Standpoint theory asks you to consider who you are in relation to others along certain lines of power. An important part of standpoint theory is resistance. The book explains that to analyze power, you can identify unfair advantages in power, which is how people use standpoint theory to resist against a power. The lower powers in the line of power are people that more often become stereotyped, as people point fingers at lower classes. You have a danger of stereotyping people when analyzing a standpoint because you go from saying that a higher power can influence your income to be worse, to saying that this higher power determines your income to be worse. For example, if you say that a boss is not paying you enough because they are racist, not that they just might be racist, you are making a strong accusation that the boss is racist.

Chapter 6 in total brought up concepts such as dialectic, identity, impression management, perception, social construction, stereotypes, and standpoint theory of course. I feel as if I've questioned lines of power using standpoint theory before. I feel as if my chances of making it through college were unlikely with the personality in high school, and I observed how my brother and other classmates would succeed more than I did. Power other students had over me was a higher GPA average, being a member of honor society, and being accepted to more universities than I was. I think it's good to identity these patterns of power, because it can make you more aware of how you are doing compared to other people. Using standpoint theory to argue can give you an advantage if you are correct about there being an unfair sharing of power.