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NOTE TO USERS The original manuscript received by UMI contains pages with slanted print Pages were microfilmed as received. - This reproduction is the best copy available TROUBLING MAGES: REFLETIONS ON PHOTOGRAPHY, PEDAGOGY AND POLITLCAL PRACTICE Karyn Elizabeth Sandlos A thesis submitted in codormity wîth the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Educatîon Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto @Copyrightby Karyn Elizabeth Sandlos 1997 National Library Bibliothëque nationale WB ofmada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliogmphic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue ~ellingtcm Ottawa ON K1A 0154 Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada Caneda The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une Iicence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distri'bute or seU reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in rnicrofonn, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or othexwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. TROUBLING MAGES: REnECIlONS ON PBOTOGRAPHY, PEDAGOGY AND POLITICAL PRACTICE Karyn Sanàios OISENniveaity of Toronto Department of Sociology and Equity Studies Master of Arts, 1997 This thesis is a study in methodology. Avery Gordon has written, 'In order to write within a question conceming exclusions and invisibilities.. .requires a methodology that is attentive to what can't be seen, but what is powerfuily real; attentive to what appears dead, but is powerfully present; requires attending also to just what the subject of anaiysis is" ( 1990:493). Here, the 'subject of analysis' is a photogniph of a dead woman which takes on multiple theoretical, ethical and political dimensions. 1 'trouble' with this image in the attempt to lay out a framework for thinking about the relationship between reading practice, political practice - in the context of reproductive politics - and research. 1 am interested in how divergent readings of images cm be understood and theorized within the context of particular political movements which (presumably) require investment in the articulation of a shared political agenda. Images-as-symbo 1s of political stniggle O ften speak to 'who ' particular movements understand themselves to be. These images-as-symbols might ais0 afTord insight hto how the 'subject' of political struggle is constmcted - and might be continudy re-(imag)ined - through particular representational strategies and practices of looking. Because graduate work is such solitary labour, it feels important to acknowledge the contributions of those who have numired me and this work, either directly or indirectly, over the past two years. You have, in various ways, broken down that isolation and helped to sustain me in the production of this thesis. 1cm never thank Betty-Lou and Hank SandIos enough for their love and solid presence in my Me. You have expected nothing and everything From me, and you have supported me hIiy - even though we see things quite differently. Thanks go to: My sister Lisa for believing in me unconditionally, and for king my fnend and gentle safe haven. My brother John for his fiiendship and wondefil, calm advice in times of struggle and disillusionment My Grandmothers, Lily and Anna, for showing me how always to want everything. My Uncle David for king who he is. 1 thank Sara for many years of ferocious fnendship and for the places of understanding we continue to find together. 1 thank Cheryl, Kate, Michele, Sheila and Kiran for king beside me, especiaüy when that has been a dificult place to be. 1 am indebted to Kathleen Rockhill and Kari DeM for your invaluable contriions to this work; for the attention you have paid to its' (and my own) developmnt, and for the many ways in which you have each made academe feel productively un/comfortable. Many thanks go to Roger Simon for his encouragement and for the iü thoughtful conversations we have shared. Thanks to Ann Bradbury and Chris Mer for king so intensely present in my life for the past two years; and to Wendy Fischer, Doreen Furnia, Catherine Phillips, Margot Francis, and Moon Joyce for making graduate work feel, at tims, like a coiiective struggle. My gratitude and respect go to the women who participated in the focus group for helping me 'think through,' and for the risks you have each taken in the process. TABLE OF CONTElYTS Chapter 1. A PLACE TO BEGIN ...BE IN... ........................................................... 1 2. (Di)VISIBLE OPPOSITIONS: LOOKING FOR THE STATE WITHIN PRO-CHOICE POLITICS ..................................... 31 3. REMEMBERING GERRl SANTORO:UNSETTLING THE IMAGE OF ABORTION DEBATES ............................................... 63 5. TRANSITORY VISIONS AND PRODUCTIVE COLLISIONS .............. 130 CHAP'ER ONE A PLACE TO BEGIN... BE IN... Eagle cyes, my mother calls me. Looking, always looking, on- I don 't have enough -es. My sight is limited. (Anzaldua, 198750) The wav we see things is afected by what we how or what we believe. (Berger, 19728p In describing c hildhood photographs of herself, Valerie Wdkerdine wri tes, "Lurking behind the pretty, quiet and well behaved little girl is the terror of a monster who cm never be let out to public view" (1990:149). Like Walkerdine, I am interested in monsters. I think about how 'monsters' lurk below the surfaces of images, penodically and inevitably emerging to intempt the 'reflections' through which individuals and communities come to recognize themselves (or fail to recognize themselves). 1 am interested in what the conceaiment of 'monsters' secures for the ways in which cornmunities consmict thernselves against "what they canno t bear to know ,or w hai they must shut out to think as they don (Bntzman, 1995:156), and moreover, what 1 A note on the use of excerpts hm1iter;ity texts and other quotes..A is important to me that this text reflect mmy voices besides rny own, and many opportunities to 'read' ruid interpret in dit'ferent ways. Trinh T. Minh-ha speaks of the rhetoricai space which is opened up when poetic and theoretical writing intermingie within text. Trinh wrires, "Yes, perhaps not straight poetry, but let's say that poetical language is important to my crîticd work. People used to see theory and poetry as being miles -art, but 1 see the interaction of tkoreticd tanguage and poetical language as capable of creating a new ground in which clew-cut oppositions are again thwarted The mutuai challenge between the two Ianguages helps to aileviate the ptesumption and mystification existing on each siden(1992: 172). representationd de-authorizations might accompany the emergence of monsters? 1 would edit Berger's words to read. 'The way we see things is affected by what we think we know or what we think we believe.' Or perhaps, The way we see things is affected by what must remain invisible in order for us to see as we do.' This thesis is about images - images and motion and the 'loco-motions' of koking. It represents two years of intense self questioning and the unsettling of my own episternologicd foundations. It began with a walk down Bloor St., in Toronto, Ontario. Well, not really. It began well before that, but that is where this writing will begin. 1 moved to Toronto from a medium simd town in southwestern Ontario in September of 1995. 1 had always lived in 'medium sized' towns. This was my introduction to an urban existence. Prior to my move to Toronto, 1worked at the local shelter for assaulted women and children for five years, and as an advisor in the 'Sexual and Gender Harassrnent Office' at a University for one year. It was in these spaces that 1 began to 'see' the ways in which 'what the community cannot bear to know ' is concealed (Britzman, 1995: 1) Part of my work as activist/educator was to engage with 'the community" in the context of I am aware that use of the term 'community' on enact an homogenization of the spaces in which people gather to do the work of educatioa VM social change. 1 use the tem 'community' to refer to the 'moments' of community which can materialize when (possibly but not necessarily) otherwise disconnected individuals gather for a specific purpose, or in the name of a specific event. By way of exampie, f am thinking about a mai1 gathering of Catholic and non-Catholic, pro-choice and 'undecideds' (mostly white, mostiy women but not exclusively, and mostiy over the age of 35) individuals who gathered one evening several months ago in a Catholic churcb in Toronto's east end. The speaker for the evening was Frances Kissling, president of the American organization, workshops designed to promote awareness of assault, hasrnent and discrimination against women and children. I would conduct these workshops using flip charts, overheads of facts, sheets of statistics, and videotapes of personal testimony: the visual 'evidence' that the social problem of violence against women and children exists. 1 continually questioned the effectiveness of the work 1 was doing in contributing to the development of 'critical consciousness' by making 'social injustices' and the material effects of dominance visible. I imagined 'power' as being at the disposal of particular individuals, groups, and institutions at the expense of other individuais and groups, and 'social injustice' as the material effect(s) of this inequitable distribution of power and resources.