Among The Little People

We are in fairly constant contact with furniture.

Yes, it’s time to sup from the deep, sorrowful well of feminist scholarship and thereby discover previously hidden knowledge. Specifically, regarding the “problematic” nature of preschool seating, on which Dr Jane Bone, a senior lecturer at Monash University, Melbourne, focuses her keen mental cutting beam:

Then there is the ordinary chair, with a seat, back and four legs, usually arranged around a circular table… This chair is ubiquitous. I rarely go into an early childhood environment where there is not some version of this chair. Designed for children, it is sometimes metal, sometimes wooden, either painted or plain, but always – and this is my point – small.

Do try to keep up. This “child-sized furniture, suited to [a child’s] height and weight,” is of course the aforementioned problematic furniture, for reasons that will now become all too clear:

In my first intra-active encounter with the small chair,

Which I’m assuming entails bending one’s knees and lowering one’s buttocks.

I felt that it talked back to me

And what did the tiny chair say?

I felt that it talked back to me about the preschool as a workplace that is gendered, feminised, child-focused and ultimately disempowering.

And in particular,

The small chair passes on a very important commandment to teachers: “Thou shalt not sit down” – you are here to work.

This traumatic and “haunting” experience – being a grown-up among lots of small chairs – apparently reveals “the undervalued nature of teaching young children.” A point Dr Bone underlines with an anecdote involving a teacher who, during a meeting, perched on a chair intended for children, rather than searching out a more suitably proportioned one. Damning and conclusive, I think you’ll agree. And Dr Bone’s mental reach extends beyond mere anecdote:

In order to recapture this [experience]… I went to IKEA to sit on some small chairs.

Selfless, fearless dedication. Behold: 

Dr Bone tells us that her “methodological approach is intra-active and diffractive,” which seems to necessitate disdaining that most unfashionable demographic, i.e., “dead white males,” and namedropping Jacques Derrida’s Spectres of Marx, the profundity of which was touched on here. She also informs us that her work is “not necessarily logical.”

Via Real Peer Review.

Comments

[rjmadden]

On behalf of Australian taxpayers I'd like to thank Dr Bone for her important work.

[Sam]

Designed for children, it is sometimes metal, sometimes wooden, either painted or plain, but always – and this is my point – small.

Mind... blown.

[David]

It’s hard to keep up with all the revelations.

[Robert of Ottawa]

And what did the tiny chair say?

You're too fat?

[Robert of Ottawa]

Pre-school is child-focused? Wow. Send in the clowns!

[Jacob]

It’s hard to keep up with all the revelations.

"A way of thinking about the past is that it infects the present."

[Richard Powell]

Casting my mind back over fifty years, I recall that the chairs in my infants school had round backs, perhaps to prevent us falling off at the side and to enable us the better to focus on becoming systematically disempowered. I remember well my gendered, feminised, child-centred oppressors - kindly Miss Dennis and bossy Miss Lewis. The chairs seemed the right size at the time though I suspect, like Dr Bone, I would find them rather small now. But I'm typing this in a grown-up version, another chair with a round back - a Wishbone chair, a Danish design classic which I chose without considering its similarity to the chairs in which I first learnt to toil. Until now I'd never considered the significance of this. If only I were a scholar and could produce a piece of autoethnography about it... though if I did I wouldn't be pictured wearing anything quite as naff as a leopard-skin print. Whatever happened to academic tweed?

[David]

The chairs seemed the right size at the time

Ah, but you’re missing the staggering subtlety and complexities of Dr Bone’s “research,” which is based on “memory work” and “embodied knowing,” and departs from mere evidence and logic as and when convenient, i.e., quite often.

[Custard Cream]

Gosh, I never knew Maria Montessori invented child-sized furniture!

Anyway, does anyone know what 'intra-active' and 'diffractive' mean? Obviously they're supposed to be a barrier to prevent us ordinary little people laughing at the emperor's new clothes, but are they real words?

[David]

“Intra-active” refers to the “mutual constitution of entangled agencies.” Obviously.

See figure 2.

[Burnsie]

I felt that it talked back to me about the preschool as a workplace that is gendered, feminised, child-focused and ultimately disempowering.

But was she wearing biometric underpants? I want to hear their side of the story. Because frankly, I think Dr. Bone is putting words in the chair's mouth here.

If you hear furniture yammering on like this, you may be projecting. Yes, of course, projection is a virtue in liberal academic research these days, but please: we all know furniture has a very limited vocabulary.

[Lancastrian Oik]

*Ahem*

"Well she came into IKEA on one cold December day
As she sat upon the tiny chair you could hear all the people say:
'She's from the university, she's long and she's tall
She came here from Melbourne, she's the Monash Cannonball'".

Neighbourhood of B, fellas.

[Wh00ps]

I'd love to comment on the linked work with authority but I must confess I only got as far as the word 'hauntology' before I involuntarily rolled my eyes and hit the 'back' button...

[Y. Knott]

But was she wearing biometric underpants?

- Which brings me to my comment - "Please, PLEASE don't wear a skirt, Ma'am!"

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Ah, but you’re missing the staggering subtlety and complexities of Dr Bone’s “research,”...

Much deeper than you have let on, as I read from the abstract:

This philosophically driven work is intended to trouble the position of the small chair in early childhood settings. It is theoretically driven by an aspect of sociological and cultural theory called hauntology...

Yes, hauntology.

“The phrase is coined by Derrida [of course] (not Delueze) in his "Specters of Marx" during which he reflects on the persistance of the concept of (utopian) revolution despite its apparent eradication from the scene of politics and history… As such the concept of social and political revolution takes on a ghostly aspect – present and not present…”

OK, ghostly kindergarten chairs, if you say so. Casper could not be reached for comment.

There is no comment about whether the small kids chairs are oppressing fat kids, as they do "adult" students. This, I think, is a serious gap in the otherwise scholarly* paper.

*recycled bafflegab

[R. Sherman]

I see from the abstract that, "[a]n assemblage of personal narratives, memories, works of fiction, history, conversations and media reports, along with the documentation of a performative act, is produced." From this "scholarship," we learn that, "Now and to come, the chair is a trace, a symbol, an instrument of torture and object of desire."

To which, I would respond, "and sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

I don't suppose Professor Bone considered that putting 4-6 year old children in adult sized furniture would tend to reinforce both the children's "smallness" and the dictatorial nature of the adult teacher. It would seem that would be more problematic than constructing a classroom conducive to their learning.

[R. Sherman]

@Farnsworth

I see we were entertaining similar thoughts.

[David]

We are in fairly constant contact with furniture.

Also carpeting. And walls.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

...putting 4-6 year old children in adult sized furniture would tend to reinforce both the children's "smallness" and the dictatorial nature of the adult teacher.

Throw in some nonsense from Derrida and Foucalt (the weird one, not Leon with his pendulum) and I think you have yourself a paper or two and at least an assistant professorship in the offing.

...along with the documentation of a performative act...

From David above, "Subject students bent their knees and lowered their buttocks."

If that isn't worth a grant, I don't know what is.

[David]

frankly, I think Dr. Bone is putting words in the chair’s mouth here.

Are you questioning our senior lecturer’s scholarship? That’s exactly what a patriarchal oppressor would do, you know.

[Rafi]

Jacques Derrida’s Spectres of Marx, the profundity of which was touched on here.

God help me, I clicked on the link.

Damn you, Thompson.

[David]

God help me, I clicked on the link.

No refunds. Credit note only.

[juliaeryn]

I felt it talked back to me...

I have a client who believes furniture talks to him. He lives in a canvas smock in a room with no ligature points. Until now, I had no idea he was a postmodern genius. Possibly due to his tendency to be super stabby.

[R. Sherman]

"[D]oes anyone know what 'intra-active' mean[s]?

I assume it involves only Professor Bone and her own mind. In other words, "Applied Solipsism."

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

I assume it involves only Professor Bone and her own mind.

It may not be her mind...Passive, active and intra-active (self) touch.

We define this active/passive activity as "intra-active touch" and the results show that the perceptual size of the balls is dependent upon the body part passively being activated.

The jokes, they write themselves.

[David]

I assume it involves only Professor Bone and her own mind. In other words, “Applied Solipsism.”

In this case at least, it does seem to be a pretext for wildly subjective license and indulging in so-called “memory work,” “embodied knowing” and dogmatically-convenient claims without any obligation to substantiate those claims, or even to present them in a manner that’s not laughable.

See also critical race theory.

[R. Sherman]

N.B. the use of the word "diffractive," mentioned above. Once again, we see the postmodern "scholar's" tendency to toss words about--in this case one used in physics to refer to the property of bending waves--in a manner designed to flummox those of us who are uninitiated into the club. It's pure gibberish, but that's the point. It's not meant to convey any information. It's designed to bludgeon the reader into submission, because we fear admitting that we're not smart enough to understand the deep, deep thoughts of the worthy writing same. < Spit > It reminds of the time Judith Butler used the term "Möbius strip" in some paper which was completely nonsensical, solely for the purpose of eliciting knowing nods from grad students like the now-professor Jones desperately seeking tenure.

(Now that I think about it, David may have discussed this previously on these pages years ago, and I may have inadvertently swiped his observations. My bad.)

[prm]

Physics envy, and logic fail:

"Physicists use complex nomenclature to describe things. Physicists are clever and respected thinkers talking about difficult things. Therefore if I use complex nomenclature to describe things, that's because they are difficult, and I am clever and will be respected."

See also Feynman's cargo cult science.

[David]

Now that I think about it, David may have discussed this previously on these pages years ago,

The subject has cropped up once or twice over the years. Though I think the most vivid example is still the Dadaist blathering of self-styled cyber-feminist Dr Carolyn Guertin, from one of my earliest posts, and whose seemingly random pilfering of terms from physics and astronomy is, even now, a thing to behold.

[ Added: ]

A brief but typical taste, from Guertin’s essay, Wanderlust: The Kinesthetic Browser in Cyberfeminist Space:

The shuffling and unfolding of the information of her body in sensory space is enacted across a gap or trajectory of subjecthood that is multiple and present. Subjectivity is the lens and connector through which the spatio-temporal dislocation gets focused and bridged. The gap is outside vision — felt not seen — and always existing on the threshold in between nodes. Like the monster’s subjectivities, all knots in the matrix are linked.

Ten years on, I still haven’t figured out what, exactly, a “gap or trajectory of subjecthood” is - and why it’s both “multiple” and “present.” Or why this should be preferable to, or different from, one that’s multiple while absent, or singular while absent. Or singular while present. Alas, nowhere in Guertin’s essay are any clues forthcoming. One is supposed to just know, or at least pretend to.

[Tim Newman]

Well she came into IKEA on one cold December day

Awesome! That's a staple of my bluegrass group!

[R. Sherman]

Yes. That's the post I remember--back when I was too sober to leave a comment.

[Trevor]

God help me, I clicked on the link.

Wise to exercise one's judgement in these matters. I happily click on any provided by our host, certain other ones (you know, that lead to that Great Repository of Ultimate Arbitrations) not so much.

[David]

back when I was too sober to leave a comment.

Ah, personal growth.

[jabrwok]

Reading those passages from Derrida, I can only think of Mark Twain's direct translation back into English of a French translation of his own "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". The final result made about as much sense.

[Sam Duncan]

Does anyone else get the feeling that if the protein man were starting out today, he'd get a professorship somewhere?

[PiperPaul]

"We are in fairly constant contact with furniture"

Reality... not so much.

"If they fall for it, I get a grant."

"If it gets called out as absurd, I can claim it was just a joke, and say the haters have no sense of humor."

Poe's Law strikes again.

[aelfheld]

"[...] her work is “not necessarily logical.”

It's definitely not rational.

[Eric]

I think Cathy Newman should do an interview with her, posthaste. You can't let such cutting-edge thinking slip through the net.

[MC]

I am always surprised how much haters of ‘white patriarchy’ and ‘dead white males’ seem to be influenced by pasty cadavers like Derrida and Marx.

[champ]

Also carpeting. And walls.

Carpeting and walls can be so oppressive. Also air...

[WTP]

Does anyone else get the feeling that if the protein man were starting out today...

Protein Wisdom. I had no idea.

[David]

Protein Wisdom. I had no idea.

Ditto.

[Alice]

And what did the tiny chair say?

I bet you didn't think you'd be typing those words when you woke up this morning.

[David]

I bet you didn’t think you’d be typing those words when you woke up this morning.

Heh. No. But then this happens quite a lot. You’d think I’d learn.

[Joe Ego]

Also carpeting. And walls.

Don't give Dr. Bone any ideas.

[Triumphant Ape]

I wonder what ideas would enter her head, if the classroom had adult sized chairs.
Allow me to imagine: "The size clearly patriarchal, emphasizing a lack of power" etc.

[David]

I wonder what ideas would enter her head, if the classroom had adult sized chairs.

That’s the thing with this sort of, um, scholarship. You can be pretty sure that the conclusions were arrived at long before any thinking took place. If indeed any did.

[I sneeze in threes]

OT,

"Air stewardess turned glamour model with 32S breasts who decided to 'become black' with extreme tanning injections claims her once blonde hair is now 'naturally African"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5297433/Martina-Big-claims-hair-naturally-African.html

[Spiny Norman]

A brief but typical taste, from Guertin’s essay

(O_O)

That's another Alan Sokal prank, surely?

[NielsR]

"We are in fairly constant contact with furniture.

Also carpeting. And walls."

And glue vapours, or some other brain-rotting chemical.

[Spiny Norman]

who decided to 'become black'

Ohferfuckssake. There must be some form of official sanction against doctors who mindlessly cater to the whims of the mentally ill, especially if doing so endangers the health of the patient.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Stolen from Ace - We will crush you with empathy...

...or maybe not.

[R. Sherman]

@Farnsworth,

C'mon. It works. That's how the Soviets won the Battle of Stalingrad . . . with overpowering empathy.

[pst314]

We will crush you with empathy...

Feminism: The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World.

(Harlan Ellison may find this recycling of his words more than a little annoying.)

[Adam]

Hey, Lady! Get off the furniture! You'll break it. It's for kids, not adults.

[ACTOldFart]

"I talk to the chairs, but they don't listen to me ... "

Do you think that, by aiming at the chairs, she is aiming for a Chair?

[Hal]

It reminds of the time Judith Butler used the term "Möbius strip" in some paper . . .

Mobius strippers never show their back side.

[Hal]

"Air stewardess turned glamour model . . .

Ah yes, her again . . .

[R.T. O'Dactyl]

(Harlan Ellison may find this recycling of his words more than a little annoying.)

Long ago, Ellison wrote a short story with the title "I See a Man Sitting on a Chair, and the Chair Is Biting His Leg."

[Ed Snack]

Or to quote Eccles “I talk to the chairs, that’s why they put me away....”

And I’m sure I have that Harlan Ellison story in a collection somewhere in my bookshelves, the Beast One, don’t recall the Chair one. Also Harlan Ellison that seems appropriate for this topic “I have no mouth and I must scream”

[Sam Duncan]

“Or to quote Eccles 'I talk to the chairs, that’s why they put me away....'”

:) It's never the wrong time for a Goon Show quote.

OT: I've seen it all now.

Here's a quick blog post to tell the world I'm now doing a French gender-neutral translation for Roundcube.

A while ago, someone wrote on the Riseup translation list to complain against the current fr_FR translation. French is indeed a very gendered language and it is common place in radical spaces to use gender-neutral terminologies.

Gender neutral French! Sacre bleu!

By the way, RiseUp is an invitation-only email services provider (Roundcube is webmail software) which claims to be “politically neutral”, yet only far-Left organizations and individuals ever seem to be invited. Such as those nice Antifa folks. It might interest you to know that Mozilla (makers of Firefox) recently bunged $100,000 its way and don't seem terribly keen on explaining themselves.

[Fred the Fourth]

IIRC, the Beast story did not end well, for pretty much anybody. I remember bits about an ice pick, poison, and an image of a mentality being decanted into a jar.
Sorta reminds me of contemporary feminism.

[Pst314]

The Beast
From Wikipedia:
“A man, William Sterog, goes on a killing spree. He poisons two hundred people with an insecticide stolen from a pest control man, kills a hundred people on a jet flight by means of a time bomb planted in his mother's suitcase, and shoots 44 people on the stadium with machine gun, before he is arrested...”

The Left seems just about as loving as that murderous madman.

[Pst314]

"I See a Man Sitting on a Chair, and the Chair Is Biting His Leg."
I recall the title but nothing about the story.

[Tell Sackett]

For reasons that seemed clearer to me then than they do now, I took a teaching degree in Australia a few years ago and spent 2 years listening to deranged half-wits like this. When we take academic tenth-raters, comfortably insulate them from reality, and reassure them that the paychecks will just keep rolling in no matter what, we shouldn't be too surprised if madness ensues.

[Trevor]

.. reassure them that the paychecks will just keep rolling in no matter what, we shouldn't be too surprised if madness ensues.

'Subsidise something and you get more of it' would have been obvious to my father whose education finished at 14, but is no doubt dismissed as 'simplistic' by today's professoriate.

[Hopp Singg]

"And Goldilocks sat in the first chair, but its intra-inactive disempowerment was too small ... so she sat in the second chair but its refractive post-qualitative oppression was too big ... and finally she sat in the third chair and its gender dystopian privilege was j-u-s-t right."

"Please don't ever read to me again, Daddy."

[WTP]

“Subsidise something and you raise its aggregate cost” is something even more difficult to get people to understand.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

All the things are offensive.

Now I am just a caveman physician and your new ways frighten and confuse me, but as no one yet has survived completely without a spine, I think this is really speciest as it implies someone is an invertebrate.

[Daniel Ream]

Well she came into IKEA on one cold December day

I don't know if you intended that to scan to Pinball Wizard, but it does.

[Hal]

I don't know if you intended that to scan to Pinball Wizard, . . .

. . . but it does.

[Squires]

IIRC, the Beast story did not end well, for pretty much anybody.

I mostly read Ellison from around the age of nine into my early teens, so my memory is hazy. How many of his stories did end well for anyone involved? The dog of A Boy and His Dog is the only character I can think of that came out of a plot both mentally and physically intact.

[W Krebs]

Feminism: The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World.

Hmmmmm. Think it works better as Feminism: The Beast That Loved to Shout at the Heart of the World.

[R.T. O'Dactyl]

>> "I See a Man Sitting on a Chair, and the Chair Is Biting His Leg."

>I recall the title but nothing about the story.

I read it in an anthology called Partners in Wonder a collection of stories that Ellison had co-authored with other people. IIRC, the co-author of that one was Robert Sheckley. Aha! It's on the Web, very likely pirated: http://www.rulit.me/books/i-see-a-man-sitting-on-a-chair-and-the-chair-is-biting-his-leg-read-244343-1.html

[Rob]

Tiny chairs, tiny minds

[Lancastrian Oik]

I don't know if you intended that to scan to Pinball Wizard, but it does.

It's meant to be a parody of "The Wabash Cannonball", but you're absolutely right about that.

[jabrwok]

if you intended that to scan to Pinball Wizard, but it does.

It's amusing just how many pop songs overlap.

[WTP]

but as no one yet has survived completely without a spine,

Loopner’s Disease? Anyone? Anyone?

[PiperPaul]

Brain and spine in search of original owner, or perhaps next victim.

[David Taylor]

On behalf of Australian taxpayers I'd like to thank Dr Bone for her important work.

On behalf of Australian taxpayers I'd like to ask for our money to be spent in more useful ways. It should be simple given I can't think of a less useful one.

Pre-school is child-focused? Wow. Send in the clowns!

We did. She wrote the paper.

I like childcare places being feminised and so on. There is plenty of time later in life for my sons to enjoy the privilege of testosterone.

[DrTorch]

Watched this a few weeks ago

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0742611/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

If you can find this episode, watch the part where the radio guest talks about children.

You just can't parody today's SJWs

[Wayne]

(With apologies to Cathy Newman) So what you're really saying is you're a fat parasitic tax thief?

[David Taylor]

‘Fat’ is a bit unfair. But I guess the rest of what you said was actually true so in the Cathy Newman style you had to project, embellish, and put stuff in that had nothing to do with what was said.

I feel sorry for that prof. It doesn’t seem like any of his positions are outrageous yet from now on he’ll be demonised and lumped in with the alt.right. I’m guessing his ‘fans’ are going to be a bigger problem than his detractors.

I was reading the comments on his blog post where he said his employer didn’t want him to give a speech (or something) because they would be legally responsible for his words. A whole bunch of commenters were urging him to leave his job, go YouTube full time, etc. As if he’d leave what I assume is a tenured position (or equivalent) in a fit a pique.

[Anto]

I, for one, welcome our new, tiny overlords.

[parker]

she wears fake dead leopord skin, leopard killing disempowers leopards

[Fess]

Either a comedian has infiltrated Monash Uni and has produced an hilarious parody... Or this proves that some ideas are so stupid that only highly educated people can think of them.

[Quibbler]

reminds me of this...

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ7RpQQSkc_ho89seRh6gOpQ6fFwAglUFEIrM-LxiRVQqIe3rbN

[Joe]

... Which I’m assuming entails bending one’s knees and lowering one’s buttocks.

I felt that it talked back to me...

I, one of the less educated in the audience, usually use more vulgar terms like - 'I passed wind', or 'I cut cheese' or the very vulgar - 'I farted' but from here on I can use the PHD term that the chair 'talked back' ... love it. Thankyou, my vocabulary is now complete.

[Lord Stockton]

Well the science is settled. 97% of all scienctists known to mankind agree with the Professor.

Little chairs talk to rather large backsides with words that are not used in mixed company

[Nate Whilk]

Fess posted "Either a comedian has infiltrated Monash Uni and has produced an hilarious parody... Or this proves that some ideas are so stupid that only highly educated people can think of them."

I know I've posted this before, but it works so well.

Saturday Night Fry, "Cutlery Exhibition" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V22NdMydqbg#t=4m37s

Hugh Laurie: I'm using a bread knife at the moment and I must say it appears to be working perfectly.

Medusa Stoppit: Thank you. You'll notice that one edge is sharper than the other.

Hugh Laurie: Yes! Yes, I have noticed that, yes.

Medusa Stoppit: This is quite deliberate. Although all knives are essentially double-edged, it seemed important to me to ensure that one edge was keener. This reflects a sense in which the choices in life, though endlessly varied, relentlessly ambiguous, must ultimately resolve. One view of the world is in the end truer, one action juster, one decision wiser, one edge must be sharper.