November 22, 2008 - Ballin' the Freekick!

In our story we have called ourselves Sano and Enfermada. Sano and Enfermada are, at the point the story begins, at a conference. It is a winter’s day in a strange city and they are looking for a chemist’s shop to try to buy some medicine for Enfermada. A subzero wind blows down the long street. Enfermada suggests they ask for directions rather than conducting a random search. Sano, as befits the one in good health, and accompanied by Enfermada, darts into shops to make enquiries. After some time it becomes clear that there is no such shop in the neighbourhood and they agree to call a halt to their search. Sano then says ‘I’m sorry to have dragged you all this way when you’re not well’. His choice ofwords surprises Enfermada who replies ‘You didn’t drag me, I chose to come’, occasioning some surprise in turn to Sano.

...

Sano protests that he feels responsible and Enfermada protests in return that she does not wish him to feel responsible since that places her in the position of one who is not responsible, and by implication, that she is one who is incapable of making decisions about her own well being. They then debate whether one taking responsibility deprives the other of responsibility. For Sano the network of obligations is paramount. He is at first unable to grasp the idea that anyone could suppose that the fulfilment of a taken-for-granted obligation on the healthy to take charge of the care ofthe ill could be construed as a threat to some freedom that he finds mythical. Enfermada is determined to refuse Sano’s claim of responsibility, since in her feminist framework it is both unacceptable for another to position her as merely an accessory to their actions, rather than someone who has agency in her own right, and for her to accept such a positioning. Her concern is only in part for the unintended subject position that his words have apparently invited her to step into. She believes that his capacity to formulate their activity in such a way may be indicative ofa general attitude towards her (and to women in general) as marginal, as other than central actors in their own life stories. She knows that he does not wish or intend to marginalise women and so she draws attention to the subject position made available in his talk and refuses to step into it. But her protest positions Sano as sexist, a positioning which he in turn finds offensive. His inclination is therefore to reject Enfermada’s gloss as an incorrect reading of his words. But this of course only makes sense in his moral order of interpersonal obligations, not in the feminist moral order. Both speakers are committed to a pre-existing idea of themselves that they had prior to the interchange, Enfermada as a feminist and Sano as one who wishes to fulfil socially mandatory obligations. They are also both committed to their hearing of the interchange. Their protests are each aimed at sustaining these definitions and as such have strong emotional loading."

- Bronwyn Davies, Rom Hard, (1999) Journal for the Theory Of Social Behaviour 20: 1, p. 55-56

I think I've been studying too hard... But, seriously folks check out the music last week on Freekick: EPMD, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Lee Dorsey, Acres of Grass, Bill Davis Trio, Myriam Makeba, Elis Regina, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Dr. Alimantado, DJ Rupture, Curumin, Chicha Libre, The Pinker Tones, Nihilist Spasm Band, Ennio Morricone, Tom Ze, Parts and Labor, Kathy Kennedy, Barnyard Drama, Robert Wyatt, some Thai orchestra, Kishore Kumar, R.D. Burman, Swift Years, Nutsak, Bauls du Bengale, Al Jolson & Eddie Cantor, David Peel & The Lower East Side, Legion of Green Men, Amon Amarth, Isaac Hayes, Jackie Mittoo.

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