Final Assignment Part II

There’s a really important thing I want you to do, and I am in the early stages of mourning, unable to accept the fact that I can’t assign this important thing as your final assignment for this class.

Now what I WISH I could do is assign you this:  Steep yourself in Western Humanism, then Deconstruct it, with particular attention to the liberal arts tradition as practiced at Hendrix.  Then transform Hendrix. 

Alas.

The overall point is this:  Hendrix’s ideals place it squarely in a tradition (Western humanism) that feminists of most stripes have fought against at one time or another. 

I think those ideals are hard to find articulated in any concrete form—even most students and professors lack a clear picture of them. 

But one touchstone is the college motto:  unto the whole person.

Now you might think that there’s already a feminist victory here. 

Because the original text says:  "Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ ..."

So we cut out the male-dominated religion stuff, and changed “man” to “person.”  We have thus cleansed the ideal of its gender leaning, so now it can be a wholesome (see what I did there?) aspiration for everyone.  Right?

Maybe not.  We will perform only a micro-deconstruction, using what you already know.   

Your job is review what Haraway says about “women of color.”  And then explain why “women of color” couldn’t be “whole persons” (in the Hendrix sense), on Haraway’s understanding.

(Clearly, she doesn’t talk about Hendrix or “whole persons” directly.  Your job is to apply her ideas to our ideals.)

You can use her essay in our text.  And you can review other essays in our text, if you wish. And your own class notes.  But don’t use anything else, online or offline.  No one else’s notes, no conversations with classmates.  Do not communicate with Haraway.  This is just you.  Seriously.

(You may, of course, ask me if there’s anything about the prompt that is unclear to you.)

And it is just 2.5 pages.  Max.  You may single-space if you wish. 

Email this to me by 5pm on Monday.  Hard deadline.