Abstract
Based on fieldwork among Palestinians in Denmark this paper examines how Palestinian women talk about all the things they do not want to talk about in the public realm.
My first impression of the different womens club in the basement of ghettoes in Denmark was an overwhelming sensory experience. Shrouded in smoke from cigarettes and argilas (water pibes), the women would sing along to the latest Lebanese pop songs, dance and try on different outfits while they commented on eachother bottoms, breasts and complexions and exchanged views on men, underwear and creams. These regular occasions of public women intimacy, however, never seemed intimate, but rather excessive: the sweets too sweet, the colours too bright, and the laughter too high-pitched. The stark contrast between the light chit-chat and the ongoing suffering of the individual women made these public come together not only pleasant but also exhausting.
In this paper I will try to understand the girls talk not as opposed to or different from the daily suffering, but as an intrinsic part of the suffering in which a lot of effort is put into trying to ignore the partly shared knowledge of eachother lives.
While the willed ignorance (cf. Dilley 2010) might be thought of as a way of keeping up appearances and thereby avoid the confrontation with the face of the other (Levinas 1969), I will contend, that it is also a way of caring for eachother and oneself.
My first impression of the different womens club in the basement of ghettoes in Denmark was an overwhelming sensory experience. Shrouded in smoke from cigarettes and argilas (water pibes), the women would sing along to the latest Lebanese pop songs, dance and try on different outfits while they commented on eachother bottoms, breasts and complexions and exchanged views on men, underwear and creams. These regular occasions of public women intimacy, however, never seemed intimate, but rather excessive: the sweets too sweet, the colours too bright, and the laughter too high-pitched. The stark contrast between the light chit-chat and the ongoing suffering of the individual women made these public come together not only pleasant but also exhausting.
In this paper I will try to understand the girls talk not as opposed to or different from the daily suffering, but as an intrinsic part of the suffering in which a lot of effort is put into trying to ignore the partly shared knowledge of eachother lives.
While the willed ignorance (cf. Dilley 2010) might be thought of as a way of keeping up appearances and thereby avoid the confrontation with the face of the other (Levinas 1969), I will contend, that it is also a way of caring for eachother and oneself.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 2012 |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 |
| Event | Imponderable Knowledge - Institut for Antropologi, Københavns Universitet, København, Denmark Duration: 8 May 2010 → 9 May 2012 |
Seminar
| Seminar | Imponderable Knowledge |
|---|---|
| Location | Institut for Antropologi, Københavns Universitet |
| Country/Territory | Denmark |
| City | København |
| Period | 08/05/2010 → 09/05/2012 |