Anthropology Times

Letters to My Tutor…

My dearest Simone,

Before moving to California I had never had the experience of anyone assuming that I lived somewhere along the spectrum of either being in agreement with or in strident opposition to the traditional housewife paradigm and that my position along that spectrum dictated all my interactions with women and men. These novel experiences have left me with an even greater appreciation of my first anthropology professor. She seemed to have an understanding that when she spoke of her experience as a middle class white woman, she was not speaking on behalf of the experience of all women. More specifically she said that as a middle class white woman, she had great difficulty conceiving of a woman who grew up outside the housewife paradigm. In the next couple of weeks, I will speak some of my experiences with people, social scientists included, who appear to have the same difficulty as my first anthropology professor, but don’t show any awareness of that fact.

I had written quite a bit more, but it became clear that I would not finish tonight.

Until next week then,
S.