Case Study Of Janet Mock

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Janet Mock: A Case Study from the Lens of Privilege There is a marked silence and an invisibility surrounding the discourse of privilege, which few seek to dispel (Walls, 2010). However, dispelling these protective forces around privilege is vital for combatting oppression and pursuing a socially just reality; as such, the pedagogy of privilege is a requirement in this endeavour. A close study of Janet Mock’s (2014) autobiography and current literature reveals three key areas as being vital for an informed discourse on the topic of privilege: the complexity of defining privilege, the necessity for breaking the silence and invisibility surrounding privilege, as well as the need to examine the intersection of both oppressed and privileged identities in order to understand how …show more content…

An intersectional view of Mock’s (2014) multiple identities and social locations, for instance, reveals the presence of both oppressed and privileged identities: she is a biracial (Hawaiian and Black), trans, able-bodied, woman who grew up in a lower-working class family, although has since achieved a higher socioeconomic status. Many of her identities are marginalized, as they are oppressed by the white-dominant, heteronormative, cisnormative, middle-class patriarchal privileged society that surrounded her throughout her life. Although Mock’s (2014) life provides a plethora of examples of the ways in which her oppressed identities intersect with one another to exacerbate the barriers and marginalization she faced, applying a lens of privilege still holds value, despite the limited examples, because it sheds light on the larger existence of privilege in society and brings awareness to the topic as a

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