Hidden animosity meaning5/30/2023 Otherness is due less to the difference of the Other than to the point of view and the discourse of the person who perceives the Other as such. Jean-François Staszak, in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Second Edition), 2020 Abstract But this ability does not depend solely upon the logical power of the discourse, and also upon the (political, social, and economic) power of those who speak it. The power at stake is discursive: it depends on the ability of a discourse to impose its categories. Out-groups cease to be Others when they manage to escape the oppression forced upon them by in-groups, in other words, when they succeed in conferring upon themselves a positive, autonomous identity (‘black is beautiful’), and in calling for discursive legitimacy and a policy to establish norms, eventually constructing and devaluing their own out-groups. Dominated out-groups are Others precisely because they are subject to the categories and practices of the dominant in-group and because they are unable to prescribe their own norms. Therefore, if the Other of Man is Woman, and if the Other of the White Man is the Black Man, the opposite is not true. Only the dominant group is in a position to impose the value of its particularity (its identity) and to devalue the particularity of others (their otherness) while imposing corresponding discriminatory measures. The asymmetry in power relationships is central to the construction of otherness. The Other only exists relative to the Self, and vice versa. Otherness and identity are two inseparable sides of the same coin. The in-group constructs one or more others, setting itself apart and giving itself an identity. ![]() This lack is based upon stereotypes that are largely stigmatizing and obviously simplistic. The out-group is only coherent as a group as a result of its opposition to the in-group and its lack of identity. The creation of otherness (also called ‘othering’) consists of applying a principle that allows individuals to be classified into two hierarchical groups: them and us. ![]() ![]() Thus, biological sex is difference, whereas gender is otherness. To state it naïvely, difference belongs to the realm of fact and otherness belongs to the realm of discourse. Otherness is the result of a discursive process by which a dominant in-group (‘Us’, the Self) constructs one or many dominated out-groups (‘Them’, Other) by stigmatizing a difference – real or imagined – presented as a negation of identity and thus a motive for potential discrimination. Staszak, in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2009 Definitions
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