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Citations (this article cites 8 articles hosted on the
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http://fap.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/16/3/345
COMMENTARY
Feminism & Psychology 2006 SAGE (London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi)
http://fap.sagepub.com, Vol. 16(3): 345349; 0959-3535
DOI: 10.1177/0959353506067852
346
DUALISMS OF IDENTITY
I will outline two key aspects of feminist psychological research in Canada, both
of which reflect the rejection of binary divisions inherent in traditional representations of identity. My observation of this rejection is based on close collaboration with feminist psychologists doing research and advocacy work in academic
settings, community agencies, and hospital environments in Canada and elsewhere. I also draw upon my experience researching psychosocial factors in
immigration and in the lives of immigrant women. I have found the study of
immigration to be a useful area in informing my understanding of cross-national
differences in the construal of identity.
The first relevant division is a self/other distinction wherein the self implies
a belongingness that does not extend to the foreign other. Those who are
subjugated into the category of otherness are marginalized away from certain
privileges by virtue of their visible or invisible foreign-ness. Being deemed
foreign appears to be based on such qualities as ones spoken accent, ones
physical appearance (such as through skin color or manner of dress) and more
subtly ones lack of familiarity with a host countrys customs and habits. I have
found that women of color who have immigrated to Canada report that their sense
of feeling foreign is less than they had expected. Many such women were also
surprised to find large non-white populations in major cities in Canada. In contrast, my interviews with women of color who have immigrated to the US more
often report perceiving a primacy placed on an envisioned American self such
that a foreign other (e.g. an immigrant woman) encounters daily life through a
lens of indirect experience.
This form of indirect experience is aptly captured by Jacks (1991) notion of
externalized self-perception, which represents the gradual loss of self that can
occur through viewing oneself not through ones own eyes but through the eyes
of a judgmental dominant group. Externalized self-perception has been documented to correlate with symptoms of depression (Jack and Dill, 1992) and is
posited to foster the internalization of a disempowering gaze (Jack, 1991). Such
disempowerment can function to neutralize the agentic self and thereby immobilize efforts directed at social action on the part of women who do not conform to
dominant norms. This immobilization can affect feminist psychologists as well as
the women we work with in grassroots and community-based settings by diminishing attempts to create transformative and emancipatory change at systemic and
individual levels.
The other division related to notions of identity is a distinction of individual/
collective. This dualism represents identity formation as an individual process
347
EPISTEMOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
348
this multiplicity that we can find implications for an emancipatory stance toward
an understanding of identity. By embracing the notion of multiplicity, we can
meet some of the challenges faced by feminist psychology in scholarly work on
identity. The Canadian vantage allows for numerous ways of being and a proliferation of intersecting identities, thereby providing a liberatory direction for
construing identity. For instance, the model of co-existing cultures renders the
category of foreigner uninformative and irrelevant. Feminist psychologists can
adopt a model of the proliferation of numerous co-existing identities as a viable
alternative to the prevailing uni-dimensional model.
One useful avenue of inquiry for such work is the exploration of identity
among women who have lived in a range of different cultures and environments
(Macklin, 1995; Mojab, 1999). Immigrant women are one such group. In Canada,
feminist psychologists have the opportunity to engage in research exploring the
psychological sequelae of immigration among a broad range of groups and
ethnicities. Examining the lived experience of women who are newcomers to
Canada can expose some of the assumptions we hold about Canadian society and
about the meaning of identity during times of transition. Such research can also
reveal gaps in service provision to at-risk groups and can therefore demonstrate
the need for social action around issues of fundamental human rights. Advocacy
for increased access to the services necessary for basic human needs should be a
central component of the feminist agenda. As feminist psychologists, we should
engage in such advocacy through our work with government agencies and
through collaboration with community-based activists.
While the Canadian context supports a vision of an emancipatory model of
identity, the Canadian example is less than ideal in its enactment of this vision.
For instance, despite the espousal of equality, racism still exists in Canada and
has been documented in such areas as the legal system (Razack, 1998), the
workplace (Henry, 1994), and the mental health system (Javed, 1995). Moreover,
feminist psychologists in Canada face challenges in equalizing power relations in
workplace and domestic settings as well as in advocating for women who experience violence in its many manifestations. Canadian feminists can strengthen
liberatory efforts by strategizing and mobilizing collaboratively to create positive
change in womens lives locally and globally.
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