Adult+Literacy+Process+Friere

Okay I know I'm not doing this correctly, even though Dr. Tucker took the time after last class to show me, but I seem to be skipping a step when trying to save my link. Anyway, for the sake of academia, I need to get this down now. I struggled a little bit with Friere's piece, a little with terminology, but in a sense, theoretically as well. On page 49, he talks about the way in which the illiterate, (this term gets tossed around like a hacky-sack) folks are marginalized, "Admitting the existence of men, 'outside of' or 'marginal to' structural reality, it seems legitimate to ask: who is author of this movement from the center of the structure to its margin" I think this is a great question, because it helps to unravel the mystery of where the marginalization takes place. It forces the author to look at how and why this happens. However, what happens when we ask a feminist the same question? Is she aware of why and how //she// has taken a separate place among writers in this way? Well, as a feminist this is what I have to say to Friere, we are far beyond recognizing the landscape of where we are as professionals. We know what the margin looks like, because we //started// in that place. Friere implies that marginalized men //move// to the margins, indicating that at some point, they maintained the space held for men in some way, initially. As though being male attributes status, but being an illiterate male simple shifts the status around, making it fluid. Obviously, men can be as marginalized, academically, as women can. Yet, they will never comprehend the implicit assumption that women are essentially, lacking which is embedded in Patriarchal structures of academia.

If Friere's theory about marginality of the illiterate stood universal, it would mean that women are inherently able to take up the same space as men are, but this is not the case. Women are thought of, maybe not as much now as in the past, that we cannot //ever// compete with the space men have in the scholarly world, in that the space we find for ourselves is one that allows us to lack, or be in need of something. We are then, naturally incomplete, and no matter whether we are marginalized as writers, or at the head of our game, we will //always// combat with the notion that the female psyche is somewhat fragmented. Men have the choice to move freely around, even when taking up an illiterate status, they have access to mobility that only changes the quality of their text. On the contrary, feminist writers will always carry the weight of being partially invisible, or else J.K. Rowlings would be noted as "Joanne Rowlings" whether in the margins, or on the NY Times best seller's list. But alas, she is an astounding writer who totes, but a few initials.