An exploration of Standpoint Theory

Why were you drawn to this theory?  
What captivated you to want to write about it?
How do you relate to it? In the social setting? 

I was drawn to standpoint theory when I found myself in a social setting where I (an African-American male) was quite literally, the minority. In a group of eleven people, I was the only African American male, while the others of the group were African American female. I was invited to the gathering by a co-worker, and assumed that other men would attend, little did I realized other men did not. Apparently, I had missed the memo.

After settling down, we all watched a movie. It was a foreign film whose setting was in London, England. The protagonist was a black woman, and the story centered around her exploits to find companionship and love. The character found comical ways to deal with being marginalized because of her ethnicity, and socio-economic status. Predictably, once the move was over a discussion sparked among the group and the topic was further explored the group began to share their experiences with dating African-American men.

An idea quickly emerged that they had the clearest perspective when it came to the struggles of family and mating because they were the most marginalized group being that they were both African-American and women. They examined some of the ways in which they were objectified and vilified by the media, and how undesirable they were illustrated to be. One woman remarked, “We are at the bottom of the barrel! No one wants us!”. Some women recited paraphrased statements from Bell Hooks and Patricia Hill Collins, and still others brought out their smart phones and Googled statistics.

It was during this time that one of the women who had a degree in communications brought up the idea that as black women, standpoint theory allowed them a better vantage point to understand society more completely than other demographics, including black men. At the mention of that point, all eyes swung in my direction, as I had kept silent for the better part of the evening. I knew where was no point in arguing, the non-verbal communication and tone of the group characterized their voice and role as a victim. Anything I might have suggested to the contrary would simply cast me in the role of oppressor, which I didn’t feel like fighting against while attempting to make valid criticism. Several remarks had been made through the conversation which were hostile in tone towards black men, and were agreed on by the group. The idea however, of a marginalized group having a vantage point greater than those who are privileged stuck with me, perhaps of the hypocritical nature of the setting and discussion.

What also stuck with me was not only the term standpoint theory, but how the group arrived at the conclusion that they were the most marginalized group, how the came to understand who is and isn’t privileged, and what exactly made their perspective true. From my vantage point, in a company that had over one hundred and fifty employees, I was one of only two black men employed. While there were a large number of African-American women who were employed in various positions including management. I could have made the argument that standpoint theory positioned me as the most marginalized person in the group with the one of the most significant perspectives.

It was that experience however that really captured my interest in standpoint theory. In being silent and observing, I was able to see how the group shared common experiences that validated each other’s claims. Not just about being the most marginalized group in America, but being able to have a clearer picture of how society operates than any other group. Another of the claims put forth by the group was that African-American women is the demographic whose voice is missing from the political, academic, news and entertainment spheres.

After doing some initial reading, I began to see some problems with the theory and wondered how the theory resolved them, in particular as they related to the social construction of knowledge, heightened awareness of marginalized groups, and power relations (Buzzanell, 2015). I was also curious about other applications of the theory and how it developed.

What have you learned about the theory?

In an interview, Sandra Harding commented that the standpoint theory approach is like attempting to understand the geography of a city while traveling in different methods. Depending on the method of travel, the perspective of the city would shift considerably (Harding, 2016). Traveling in a plane at 30,000 feet as it cruises past the city would produce a different point of view than a helicopter hovering 10,000 feet. Similarly, driving through the city at 20 miles per hour would produce a different point of view than having to walk through the city. Standpoint theory suggests that while all perspectives are important, those who walk through the city have a better grasp of the city than other perspectives and should be accounted for. Those who walk on foot through the city are at the bottom of the power structure and are marginalized groups. As those groups or individuals come together and discuss their narratives, new knowledge about the city is created that can be more objective when used as a starting point.

 Standpoint theory itself began in the 1970’s (Harding, 2004), and gained recognition in the 1980’s and 1990’s as method for accumulating understanding about the conditions of particular groups of people and as a form of knowledge (Buzzanell, 2015). A variety of theorist working independently were looking into the idea that

…members of groups that are marginalized and oppressed in particular contexts can have significant and substantial insight into the way the world works. Their insight is honed through their need to know not only how members of their identity group would think, value, behave, and feel but also what those who are privileged might do and how these dominant societal members would likely react in different circumstances (Buzzanell, 2015).

To gain further insight into standpoint theory, it’s origins can be traced back to the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. As a critical figure in German idealism, it was his master and slave dialectic from his “Phenomenology of Spirit, that eventually came influence Marxists (of particular note György Lukács) and shaped standpoint theory (Siep, 2014).

In essence, Hegel theorized that a state of freedom of consciousness could be realized by an oppressed slave through resisting and struggling against the master. As the slave began to affect the world surrounding their position in various through physical labor, self-consciousness was awakened (Bowell, n.d.). Injustice and oppression then, was more concretely understood and analyzed from the experience of the slave as their struggle with the master gave them critical insights. Touching on the analogy of the city, the slave would be those on foot who not only walk through the city, but are the forced manual labor. The masters are those hovering above in the helicopter or passing over in the jet at a higher altitude. Hegel’s master and slave dialectic was further developed by Marxist perspectives using the framework of  class consciousness, and the slave as a producer of capital (proletariat) for the owners of the capital. It is from this position that the marginalized class can offer a critical insights closer to objective truth than those who are not part of the marginalized class (Bowell, n.d.).

Standpoint theory makes the assumption then that the abused not only see their abuser through a critical lens, but the systems in place that are used by their abuses to oppress. Women become the central figure that dominates the landscape of the abused and marginalized group in society. The dominate group, controlled by men, creates systemic patterns of not just abuse but inquiry into knowledge and methods of inquiry that neglect the perspectives of the subordinate groups, often women and minorities (Wood, 2009).  Standpoint theory then attempts to make a more complete narrative, accounting for “established social hierarchies and their consequences” which makes the theory political in nature. To put it another way, how can science claim to be objective if it ignores that it’s practitioners are “young White, male, slim, able-bodied, heterosexual and affluent” (Paradies, 2018)?

 Arising out of a perspective of simultaneously being part of a system but also rejected by it, the idea that an epistemic advantage granted to the oppressed/abused gave rise to the notion of the ‘double vision’ (Harnois, n.d.). While DuBois described the same perspective as a double-conscious in his text, “The Souls of Black Folk”, Bell Hooks described it as:

Living as we did—on the edge—we developed a particular way of seeing reality. We looked both from the outside in and from the inside out...we understood both (Hooks, 2015).

Is the theory still applicable today?  Does it still have meaning?  
How is it reflected in the workplace?

Standpoint theory has many applications as a tool for acquiring knowledge about system and it’s power structure. In the workplace, it can be used as a method for understanding how corporate culture could marginalize minority workers, or if a companies marketing could be contributing to the marginalization of a group of people through the use of language and symbols that aren’t initially seen as oppressive (Harnois, n.d.).

Another aspect of standpoint theory has to do with the research corporations conduct with regards to policy, services or products. Standpoint theory has been used to shed light on the needs consumers that may be invisible to the profit margins of corporations, but could provide access to untapped markets. Of particular note for example, are the lack of cosmetics created for those with very dark or pale skin tones. The lack of inclusion has had a very tangible effect on the self-esteem of people from those minority groups, especially black women (Fuller, 2015). Yet, black women are still considered the proletariat as a 2009 article by Jezebel wrote that African-American women spend $7.5 billion annually on beauty products, but spend 80 percent more on cosmetics and twice as much on skin care products than others in the same market (Stewart, 2009).

What have the critics said about the theory?

Some argue that standpoint theorists instead of seeking to equalize power relations, instead impose new ones by inverting the old systems. In this way, the views of women become privileged over men and creates undifferentiated dichotomies that put genders into opposition instead of seeking objectivity (Paradies, 2018).

An extension of that criticism is intersectionality, which asserts that there can often be a narrowed focus on “prejudice, discrimination, and exclusion occurring along a single axis of power and oppression” where the narrative of one marginalized group garners elevated attention over others (Paradies, 2018). Instead, a variety of identities and locations should be taken into consideration. To touch on the city analogy used earlier to explain standpoint theory, one class of workers do not represent all class of workers. Intersectionality seeks to account for the multi-dimensional nature of groups, such as disabled lesbian immigrant business owners.

Other critiques of standpoint theory include it’s assumption that all classes have access to the same truth, the effect of internalized oppression on the perspective of the oppressed (Paradies, 2018) , and that standpoint theorists can accurately mediate marginalized perspectives (Landau, 2008). Epistemic relativism is another charge leveled against standpoint theory where the claim that “all knowledge is social situated” so that knowledge is drawn from a well whose waters are touched by some social values, and so can not be truly objective. This ties into the charge of a bias paradox, where the very nature of knowledge itself has a slant towards marginalized standpoints (Bowell, n.d.).

References

Paradies, Y. (2018). Whither Standpoint Theory in a Post-Truth World? Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 10(2), 119–129. https://doi-org.ezproxy.umuc.edu/10.5130/ccs.v10i2.5980

Maksim Kokushkin. (2014). Standpoint theory is dead, long live standpoint theory! Why standpoint thinking should be embraced by scholars who do not identify as feminists? Journal of Arts and Humanities, Vol 3, Iss 7, Pp 8-20 (2014), (7), 8. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.umuc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsdoj&AN=edsdoj.70bed68be02c46a9aa27a9763a7fad02&site=eds-live&scope=site

 Glen McClish, & Jacqueline Bacon. (2002). “Telling the Story Her Own Way”: The Role of Feminist Standpoint Theory in Rhetorical Studies. Rhetoric Society Quarterly, (2), 27. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.umuc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.3885975&site=eds-live&scope=site

 Maheshvari Naidu. (2010). Wrestling with standpoint theory... some thoughts on standpoint and African feminism. Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, (83), 24. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.umuc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.27917332&site=eds-live&scope=site

 Susan Hekman. (1997). Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited. Signs, (2), 341. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.umuc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.3175275&site=eds-live&scope=site

 Landau, I. (2008). Problems with Feminist Standpoint Theory in Science Education. Science & Education, 17(10), 1081–1088. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.umuc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ816737&site=eds-live&scope=site

 Mosedale, S. (n.d.). Women’s empowerment as a development goal: Taking a feminist standpoint. Journal of International Development, 26(8), 1115–1125. https://doi-org.ezproxy.umuc.edu/10.1002/jid.3050

 Harnois, C. E. (n.d.). Race, gender, and the black women’s standpoint. Sociological Forum, 25(1), 68–85. https://doi-org.ezproxy.umuc.edu/10.1111/j.1573-7861.2009.01157.x

 Moore, W. L. (2012). Reflexivity, power, and systemic racism. Ethnic & Racial Studies, 35(4), 614–619. https://doi-org.ezproxy.umuc.edu/10.1080/01419870.2011.630097

 Patton, T. O. (2006). Hey Girl, Am I More than My Hair?: African American Women and Their Struggles with Beauty, Body Image, and Hair. NWSA Journal, 18(2), 24–51. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.umuc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=22056097&site=eds-live&scope=site

 Buzzanell, P. (2015). Standpoint theory. In J. Bennett (Ed.), The SAGE encyclopedia of intercultural competence (pp. 772-774). Thousand Oaks,, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781483346267.n258

 Wood, J. (2009). Feminist standpoint theory. In S. W. Littlejohn & K. A. Foss (Eds.), Encyclopedia of communication theory (Vol. 1, pp. 397-398). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781412959384.n147

 Best, A. (2008). Standpoint theory. In V. N. Parrillo (Ed.), Encyclopedia of social problems (Vol. 1, pp. 897-897). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781412963930.n545

 Harding, S. (2004). A Socially Relevant Philosophy of Science? Resources from Standpoint Theory’s Controversiality. Hypatia, 19(1), 25–47. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.umuc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=12506415&site=eds-live&scope=site

 Harding, S., & Villanovauniversity. (2016, May 04). Sandra Harding: On Standpoint Theory's History and Controversial Reception. Retrieved December 14, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOAMc12PqmI

 Bowell, T. (n.d.). Feminist Standpoint Theory. Retrieved December 14, 2018, from https://www.iep.utm.edu/fem-stan/

Siep, L. (2014, May 02). Hegel on the Master-Slave Relation. Retrieved December 14, 2018, from http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2014/05/hegel-on-the-master-slave-relation/

 Hooks, B. (2015). Feminist theory: From margin to center. New York ; London: Routledge.

 Fuller, G. (2017, December 07). 5 Women of Color Get Real About Diversity in the Beauty Industry. Retrieved December 14, 2018, from https://www.allure.com/story/women-of-color-skin-diversity-panel

Stewart, D. (2009, May 19). Black Women Love Makeup, But Does The Beauty Industry Love Them Back? Retrieved December 14, 2018, from https://jezebel.com/5261089/black-women-love-makeup-but-does-the-beauty-industry-love-them-back