Societies

Societal Mechanisms and Social Relations

Societies have predetermined mechanisms for interacting with the environment and its constituents. These mechanisms shape social relations, assign identities, and are substantially accountable for any society’s apparent inequities. These mechanisms may include, in particular, societal standards, prescribed gender roles, and a broader picture of cultural ideas and practices. Social geography attempts to comprehend this dynamic in society, as well as the significance of “location” in shaping how people cope with these societal mechanisms. This discussion offers a critical analysis of how the society is capable of creating social relations and assign identity to individual members, drawing from Gill Valentine’s explicit work “A Personal Geography of Harassment” (1998).

A Personal Geography of Harassment

In her work ”Stick And Stones May Break My Bones”: A Personal Geography of Harassment, Valentine offers a pitiful narration of how the society invaded her life and stereotyped her based her identity as a lesbian. What is even more eye-catching in her narration is the extent to which the society failed to draw a boundary between her sexual, research and academic identities, such that the stereotyping from the sexual identities transcended into her academic and research life. While this mutual constitution of her sexual, research and academic life was somehow positive, as she confesses later, it actually did much harm not only to her psychological wellbeing but also degenerated her productivity and ability to concentrate on her academic work/writings.

Ordeals and Threats

To stress on her ordeals, Valentine discusses how she received numerous anonymous letters and silent phone calls at the odd hours of the night. These letters profiled her negatively, and even detailed threats of exposure to the public and physical attack. To her imagination, these letters were aimed at ”excluding“ her from the field of social geography based on her sexual identity. The senders of these letters felt that she contaminated the field, and that she should quit to save bother her image and that of the discipline. As she notes ”by employing a range of stereotype and images that have important currency in western cultures in this way, the letters mobilize exclusionary discourse with the intent of driving me out of the discipline of geography“ (Valentine, 1998 Pg. 314). The exclusions were reinforced through intimidating messages and pervasive threats as is evident in the abstract of the 9 letter that she reveals were sent to her throughout the period.

Seeking Solace

Valentine adopts a more conservative approach to deal with these threats. She imagines that she would find comfort in finding her own home and settling down to avoid her harassers. Her motives were drawn from the understanding of the importance of ”space“ in creating identity and deriving individual fulfillment. She argues that home is the only space where one would get shelter, hearth, heart, privacy, roots, abode, and an effective paradise. What turns out is that her harassers were not willing even to leave her in her home space. The silent phone calls and the letters continued as normal even to the workplace.

Legal Redress

Having had enough consultation with her inner soul, and seeking advice from those whom she considered close friends; Valentine opted for the last remedy to her drama. She opted to seek legal redress to her problems by first reporting the matter to the police. While at first she seemed to be getting enough help in tracing the culprits of the persistent harassment, there turned out to be so much delay and incorporation on the part of the police department, confirming her earlier fears that the law is selectively applied in almost all societies.

The Wider Context

What Valentine went through is what exactly transpires in almost all communities. The society has preset norms under which anybody perceived to be deviating from these norms and rules is stereotyped, and measures are orchestrated to seclude such members from the society. The gay, lesbians and transgender, as well as agenda people have faced serious harassment and tribulation in the society. The more concerning part of the harassment and stereotyping is that it has penetrated to all spheres of their lives, from the workplace, to their homes and even to their social circles. A more elaborate case is the recent announcement by President Trump barring transgender people from serving in the U.S. military. Furthermore, gays and lesbians have been victims of hate crimes and stereotyping just as Valentine describes how many of the letters referred to her with animals’ names such as pig (Valentine, 1998 pg. 313).

The Role of the Legal System

Arguing on the role of the legal system in offering remedy to the victims of harassment, Valentine ascribes to the thought that justice is largely overemphasized, and that the demands and stress needed in pursuing justice for the victims immediately put off any effort directed at getting justice (Valentine, 1998 pg. 325). While this is largely true, there have been substantive developments towards finding justice for the LGBT people, especially with the recognition and entrenchment of their rights into different public organizations (Burns and Krehely, 2011). They have been further allowed to form their own groups that help in the fighting for their rights.

Conclusion

Generally, what Valentine went through was not a new development, and is still a problem that ails the society up to date. The society has created rigid norms and values that govern the way of life, and tend to exclude those who deviate from the set norms. While social geography tries to identify how the society creates identities, social relations, and inequalities, what is worth noting is how society is not willing to let go of the practice of creating these identities and inequalities. The only remedy to those who feel excluded is to seek self-acceptance and find their own means to happiness as Valentine describes in her story.

Works Cited

Crosby, Burns and Jeff Krehely. ”Gay and Transgender People Face High Rates of Workplace Discrimination and Harassment.” Center for American Progress, 2011. Available from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/lgbt/news/2011/06/02/9872/gay-and-transgender-people-face-high-rates-of-workplace-discrimination-and-harassment/

Gill, Valentine. ”Sticks And Stones May Break My Bones”: A Personal Geography Of Harassment”. Antipode, Vol. 30(4) pg. 305-332. 1998