Standpoint Theory of Sandra Harding and Julia T. Wood explains that “the best ways to discover how the world works is to start the inquiry from the standpoint of women and other groups on the margins of society” (447). A standpoint is defined as “a place from which to critically view the world around us” (447); it explains that people of different locations and times have separate viewpoints and outlooks on the world. According to standpoint theorists, gender, race, sexual orientation, and class inequalities create different world perspectives. When reading about standpoint theory, I thought of the documentary Half the Sky. Women in the United States experience many gender injustices. For example, they often experience prejudice in the workplace because the stereotypical women is “emotional” and cannot handle a stressful job. Women in the United States view this as an injustice and an example of oppression; however, women from other parts of the world have a completely different definition of the word oppression. In the documentary Half the Sky, the viewer learns the perspective of women in countries such as Sierra Leone, India, Cambodia, and Afghanistan. The movie shows rape and sexual violence towards women; the women in the documentary reveal that they are even afraid to leave their homes everyday. Women in these countries experience incredible hardships that are difficult for us to imagine. This idea is referred to as “politics of location”; we need to keep location, race, religion, and class in mind when defining feminism. Half the Sky wants to spread the definition of feminism in the United States to other countries in the world. Half the Sky successfully demonstrates Standpoint Theory because it shows that in order to discover and fully understand how the world works, we need to also be able to see the world from the perspective of a marginalized group.
Standpoint Theorists Sandra Harding and Julia Wood believe the standpoint (viewpoint, perspective, outlook, position) we choose to take influences our worldview completely. Harding and Wood assert that “one of the best ways to discover how the world works is to start the inquiry from the standpoint of women and other groups on the margins of society” (447). The reason behind this implies that social inequalities create different accounts of nature and social relationships. As a result, standpoint theorists urge us to use the inequalities of gender, race, sexual orientation, class to determine how diverse positions within the social hierarchy usually create these dissimilar perspectives. The movie “Slumdog Millionaire” reminded me of the Standpoint Theory as it centers around the life of a young boy named Jamal who grew up in the slums in India facing adversity such as poverty, lack of education, physical injury, and oppression from the local mafia. Jamal joins the TV show and competition “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and finds himself one question away from winning. The police wrongly accused him of cheating because they believed a “slum dog” would never be able to know all of the answers. This movie demonstrates the Standpoint Theory because it highlights and tells a story about the poverty and social inequality in India but from the relevant and important standpoint of Jamal. The story would have been totally different if told from a different perspective and this is what makes the movie so powerful and memorable.
The standpoint theory involves how we view and think about the world around us, essentially a place critically from which to see our world. Harding and Wood explain that the standpoint theory discovers how the world works by starting the inquiry from the standpoint of women and other groups on the margins of society. This theory focuses on women and minorities, primarily as a result of the belief that individuals at the front of societal hierarchy are the ones who essentially define the status. This theory reminds me of the film Hairspray. In this film, Tracy, a girl who dreams of being in a popular show, succeeds to do so and becomes a hit with the community. She has very liberal views during a time period of segregation. She stands alongside the African American community after they are banned from participating in the show. Tracy is aware of the struggles that her friends face, and several individuals in the film remain ignorant to their situation and circumstances. Hairspray
Harding and Wood’s Standpoint Theory illustrates the idea that people view’s on different social situations are influenced and impacted by their different viewpoints and perspectives on life. The Standpoint Theory has three principle claims: knowledge is socially situated, marginalized groups are socially situated in a manner that makes them more away than non-marginalized groups, and the need for us to examine and understand the lives of the marginalized. When groups are marginalized, this can be as a result of race, gender, religion, socioeconomic status etc. The movie Crash perfectly exemplifies the Standpoint Theory, as it deals with many instances of racism due to the character’s individual experiences and perspectives on the people around them. In one scene, Standpoint Theory is illustrated through an interaction between Anthony (Ludcris), a male African American character of a lower socioeconomic status, and Jean (Sandra Bullock), an upper class white woman from a wealthy Los Angeles suburb. In this scene, Anthony verbalizes to his friend the racism occurring when he sees Jean grabs her husband’s arm for security as she walks past the two black characters, a behavior that Anthony characterizes as “blind fear” due to the color of their skin. Jean’s standpoint causes her to react frightened and defensive when passing the two younger black men. She perceives the world from a very distinct standpoint based on her past experiences, and therefore dictates her actions in social situations in a different manner than another individual who has a different perspective, therefore demonstrating the key principles of Harding and Wood’s Standpoint Theory. Crash – Car Jacking Scene
In the film “Momento,” the audience is presented with the wold view, or standpoint, of the main character Leonard Shelby, who is suffering from some memory loss. Because the film is framed to be from Shelby’s standpoint, his critical worldview is passed onto the audience, affecting how they judge what is going on during the film. This creates a muddled effect, as neither the viewer or the main character realize that he is the murderer. This demonstrates the importance of perspective. If the film was done from the point of view of a different person, perhaps the facts would be straight forward, but from Shelby’s perspective, everything is broken up like a mosaic. This demonstrates how different groups of people, or specific people, each have different standpoints in addressing the world.
The Speech Code Theory suggests that codes of speech are dependent on the cultures they are used in. Speech codes are a constructed ideas that shape the way communication happens. Gerry Philipsen concludes that a speech code involves a distinct sociology, psychology, and rhetoric. In different setting things may be permissible where it would not be in others.This is shown inthe movie”Mean Girls”CadyHarris a girl originally from Africa meets the cruel trio, “The Plastics.” These girls have constructed their own speech codes such that would only be recognizable in that specific group. Cady has to adjust to this and learn the speech codes. Immediately, she as seen as an outsider and clearly not apart of the high school culture. Throughout the movies Cady adjusts to the specific speech code that are a clear sign of belonging in the culture of an American high school.
Harding and Wood discuss standpoint theory, standpoint is defined as “a place from which to critically view the world around us.” They state that our standpoint affects our worldview. Harding and Wood talk about the differences between men and women; they explained that women seek connectedness while men seek more autonomy. The way that men and women use speech differs as well, while men seem to use speech more to gain power and accomplish certain tasks, women use speech more in order to build stronger relationships with one another. What I found interesting was that they noted gender differences are due to “cultural expectations” and not because of biology or what many believe to be a mother’s instinct. This makes me think of how society’s expectations for women and men can be so vastly different, men are expected to be the powerful one who brings home the income, while women are expected to be mother’s and take care of the home.
the standpoint theory is the place from which we view the world around us, thus having knowledge or experience of different situations and cultures allows us to have a different standpoint. This can be the perspective of the more powerful to the less powerful. Standpoints of different gender, races, and class can shape social relationships and our perspective on certain things. An example of this would be The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. In this TV show Will Smith, a teen from westPhiladelphiais sent to live with is wealthy uncle in Bel-Air. His perspective on the new things he sees when he first gets to his uncles house is that it is extraordinary. To his uncle and everyone else that has grew up with that life style sees this as normal. The different cultures and different backgrounds are highlighted when perspectives are brought into play and this is seen throughout the TV show.
The concept I found most interesting of standpoint theory was local knowledge. It states that this local knowledge is rooted in time place and experience. One example of this would be gang affiliation. In some city’s gang affiliation can be shown by what color you wear. If you are an outsider without knowledge of this you could be making a statement without realizing it. This is something that you would have to know by being present in this community. An outsider coming in without prior knowledge is unaware of what they are doing.
Chapter 35 talks about the standpoint theory. A standpoint is the perspective that one use to view the world, which also demonstrate what one is focusing on and what one is obscured from. Thus, one’s standpoint usually shape what one knows, believes, and how he or she communicates. This theory also describes the social inequalities of gender and racial differences; discrimination often occurs due to the failure of looking from the perspective from the lives of the less powerful ones. According to Harding, one would acquire a more objective and just understanding of life if one is able to enlarge one’s mentality by viewing from different perspectives. I use a scene from the movie “Crash” as my example. In this scene, the house was crashed and the husband hired a black man to change the door lock for them. However, the wife, Jean, claims that she wants the door lock to be changed again in the morning because she doesn’t trust the black guy. Her reasoning is that the lock changer looks like a guy that would be in the gang because of his looks and he has tattoos, and she thinks he is going to give the keys to his friends and they will break in again. Nevertheless, at the end of the scene, the black guy, who heard everything she said with her husband, gave both keys back to the wife and left with disappointment. In this scene, Jean fails to look from the perspective of the black guy. The black guy is a professional lock changer, and yet Jean doubts him simply because of his appearance. Her past experience has led her to stereotype a certain group of people. She has failed to view in the perspective of the black man, which made her seem naïve and racist to the viewer.
