Fields and sites help us to frame our research in order to make a good proposal and research topic. I think I'm finally sticking to a subject and I want to put it all together so that I can work on my proposal this weekend.
The field is the study of gender, my topic is going to be the women specifically in Tonga. This amounts for an interesting research topic due to the family structure in Tonga. The father's oldest sister, called the "Fahu" is THE BOSS of the family. She gets whatever she wants and has the final say on everything. This is unique to their culture and it is something that many women in other countries do not enjoy. So, researching this topic in Tonga as it relates to feminism and "power" would be really interesting to look at, and then use it as a critique of how we see feminism in the US in terms of what power is. For example, in the US the biggest critique of feminism would be that feminist desire what men hold has power and what they consider to be power. I really want to argue against that, because regardless of whether men and women are socialized to be different or whether there are natural laws in place governing characteristics of males and females, you can't ignore the fact that there are differences. I guess the ontology behind that is that we have to work on the reality that we live in, not the one that exists in some other entity. Regardless of whether some other reality actually exists, doesn't change the fact that we live in one that may or may not be different.
Back to feminism, I have no problems with women getting equal pay for equal work, and I have no problems with women voting and all that other good stuff. However, I do have a problem with women trying to elevate their status HIGHER than men to make up for "lost time." Differences between men are more stratified than the differences between men and women. Regardless, there are characteristics that are different that each gender hold, and feminists look at it as a bad thing, in that they want the powers and characteristics that men enjoy.
Perhaps a better way of looking at gender relations is that each gender as its own sphere of "power" and influence and that doesn't necessarily equate to "inequality." In other words, it's not a bad thing that women and men are different. In fact, I love it!
So, women in Tonga probably have a really unique perspective on gender relations that I would like to look at. The women, especially the Fahu, hold a lot of power in the family, and I wonder if they would prefer the power that men usually hold, or if they are satisfied with their lives the way it is. I think it's largely a US ideal that's branded into our minds, that everyone is EQUAL. But, this leads us to the misunderstanding that everyone should be THE SAME, which is not only completely different but impossible to say the least.
So, given that, I'm going to lay down my question for now.
Given the higher elevated status of women in the family, especially for the Fahu in Tonga, what are the perspectives of what is considered "power" for women versus the power that men hold, and do these powers satisfy their needs to control their reality or do they feel that they are dominated by men?
Your question sounds good. My initial response was "what do you mean by power" but then I see you thesis is trying to evaluate that. In that case, what does "power" mean in our situation/society? Are you looking at this subject through the paradigm of our ideas of power, or are you really trying to get at the basics of the family structure and gender roles? I guess the term "power" sends a little chill up my back because I see that word as one that we in our culture use in relation to feminism in a way, but I'm not sure feminism is really what family hierarchies are about, or even "power". I just wonder if its really more about structure than power, as those things seem very different to me. Anyway, just my initial response. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I wonder if this "power" has anything to do with a "need to control" at all... as I said, my iniital thought is that maybe it isn't about power at all, maybe its just about culture and structure... what do you think? how would this affect your research if it were true? or how do you prevent yourself from defining your research by terms that mean one thing in our society and may not have any weight on another?
ReplyDeleteyRosalie, Your questions are exactly the question that I have going into my research. In my culture and paradigm I have my own view of what power is, which is owning property, making money, having money to buy things you want, having power to do what you want, and ability to make decisions and change things that you want. However, this way of looking at "power" is not the same as the people in Tonga would look at it. So, going into my research, I want to examine this sort of alternative to power or control that women hold there. However, I have no idea what their idea of "power" or "control" is in there society and that's precisely what I want to look at. I don't want to go in defining power for them, because my definition is certainly different than theirs, as I have mentioned in previous posts. So, with this alternative definition of "power", I want to critique the ideals of power that women desire here in the US. Thanks for your response!
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