‘The otherness that implicates the self’: towards an understanding of gendering from a theory of proximity

Abstract

In this article, I consider ways in which the concept of “proximity” can be put to work to understand how gendering occurs in the conduct of gender research – the theme of this special issue. If we accept that researchers are always already inside and implicated in the issues into which they inquire, and that they simultaneously establish an outside position which enables them to notice patterns, make inferences, and develop understandings, then we can say that researchers are always in proximity to something, and that this proximity, inherited or otherwise, places objects, capacities, and understandings within their reach, while also permitting them to extend their reach. In this article, I consider what happens in gender research contexts when researchers register certain proximities, fail to see others, or deny those that make them uncomfortable. Framed by my ongoing research into place cultures in boys’ schools, I argue that thinking gender research practices with the concept of “proximity” pushes researchers to think beyond essentializing accounts of how they gender and are gendered in doing gender research.

Keywords:

• gender
• masculinities
• space and place
• proximity
• implicatedness

Acknowledgements

My thanks to the reviewers for their extremely helpful suggestions, and for their encouragement to pursue this project further. I wish to acknowledge and thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for funding this research program.

Notes

1. On inheritance, Sara Ahmed (2006) says that it has two meanings. One is to receive and the other is to possess (p. 126). It is this understanding of inheritance that is used here. To possess implies an active engagement that may result in changes, significant or otherwise, to form.