During the past week Ann and Sylvia organized a couple of our morning trainings around the theme of sexual harassment, which brought up some interesting responses from a few people, myself included, about harassment in general, and teasing in particular. Then, this weekend, I read an interesting article in Scientific American Mind about the purpose of gossip, teasing included, called Is Gossip Always Bad.
The short of it is, no, gossip has a real evolutionary purpose and that’s why everyone does it. The idea that impressed me the most is that the threat of gossip and teasing can act as a negative incentive for acting outside of the implicitly aggreed upon group norms. It’s a strategy for keeping people from acting in ways that negatively impact the group, or that allow one person to dominate. In this way, small communities encourage altruistic behavior and prevent power hierarchies.
Do we do this in our group? Absolutely. As an explainer I am very clear on the fact that I will be ridiculed and humiliated until my ego is ground into the dirt if I do not behave myself. It’s actually a very effective system, and not a negative one if it promotes healthy values. So here’s the real question I have. Please help me answer it if you have some thoughts”:
What group values are we reinforcing through this system?
I want to preface all of my comments with the fact that I am new to the Explainer Tribe (ET) and that my observations at this point are more like those of an outsider than a veteran Explainer.
I feel that the ET is significantly more accepting and open than other small groups I have experienced. To me, the group wears a different mask each time it meets depending on who is assuming the lead. Different leaders engage different Explainers and it seems to me that the group values shift drastically from one situation to the next.
Obviously, some traits are reoccurring but as an outsider I feel little or no pressure to conform to any specific set of values beyond the most social basic obligations. Maybe as more time goes by I will experience the forces that Aiona feels.
Now I’m actually thinking of Michel Foucault and the Panopticon prison design which is a wall of prison cells overseen by one guard. The prison guard sits on a perch that allows him to see every prisoner at all times but prevents the prisoners from seeing him. The knowledge that they cannot escape the gaze of the guard keeps the prisoners behaving properly!
from Wikipedia:
“Foucault suggests that a “carceral continuum” runs through modern society, from the maximum security prison, through secure accommodation, probation, social workers, police, and teachers, to our everyday working and domestic lives. All are connected by the (witting or unwitting) supervision (surveillance, application of norms of acceptable behaviour) of some humans by others.”
I won’t dispute that at a certain time and place in the history of human development there would have been evolutionary benefits to what I will call the “gaze” (carceral continuum) but I also feel that the gaze is responsible for the hatred directed at many groups and individuals. Aiona’s description of her ego being ground down would fit in to this category.
Ultimately. I think Foucault suggests creating many discourses to combat the power of the gaze over the individual. Which is just what Aiona did by creating this post.
I don’t know if articulating our group values will help prevent anyone from being hurt by the gaze but just acknowledging that it is there some how changes everything.
Guess we just need to hear more voices!
hahaha.. ur so rite..
we all gossip..
especially teenagers :P like in school and all.. even once we r home, its either msn, messaging, facebook, myspace, or calling.. LoL