Wymyn

[Laura Sjoberg]

BlankI am not essentializing men in debate.  What I am saying is that I feel like at most tournaments, men or women, no one listens to other people and any sincere advocacy that is off the norm is generally discarded.  All I am saying is that maybe some people would listen to other people in an atmosphere of heightened awareness like the wymyn's tournament.  And, for the record, Terence has typified my experience with debate; out to win rounds however possible, in my impression, insincere, and often just plain mean.  And I've gotten that reaction often when trying to stretch the limits of our 'sport.'  Sorry to sound jaded, but I think I am, just a little bit.



Laura Sjoberg
773-220-8273
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jason Regnier 
  To: Laura Sjoberg ; EDEBATE at LIST.UVM.EDU 
  Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2000 5:39 PM
  Subject: Re: Wymyn


  Yo, I'm cool with all this, but I think you're wrong that it can't happen in "normal" tournaments.  You seem to essentialize a "women's" tournament run by women and participated in by women as being the place to find your utopia of firm advocacy and heartfelt listening.  But if we extend on this essentialization, would there even be a tournament at all?  If everybody is non-sexist and the judges are feminists, who says you'll get your chance to run your feminism kritik?  It the world you describe, your kritik would most likely be their aff.  What do you do then?  One step further and we could essentialize on the nature of "competition" and how it is a masculine value.  Does firm advocacy mean you give up the game?  When the debate over the Women's Website was going down, I was of the opinion that it largely was not "anti-men," but after reading this post, how can I feel otherwise?  "Terence" is said with such venom, yet casualness, as to represent all of "men" in debate.  All men are the evil that marginalizes all women, and seemingly the only way to solve it is to have an all women tournament.

  Part Disgusted, Part Saddened, Part Wounded,

  Jason
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Laura Sjoberg 
    To: EDEBATE at LIST.UVM.EDU 
    Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2000 5:30 PM
    Subject: Wymyn



    You know, I would like to have a wymyn's round robin.  Not because of institutional sexism, but because I want to be in a round and run feminism (my favorite arg last year) and not have some insincere bastard who is so sexist that he doesn't even look me in the eye perm my kritik and tell me he wants to be a feminist too, even though he will walk out of the round with the ballot making fun of feminism.  I want to have a wymyn's round robin because maybe, just maybe, advocacies will be taken just a little more seriously than at regular tournaments because there will be people there with the sensitivities to realize that debate isn't about manipulating the rules and the norms so that you can win, regardless of whether it is ethical for you to take the ballot. Like Terence . . . who counterplanned my Aff plan-inclusively, because he sincerely wanted to be a postmodern evangelist who also was an evangelist for IMF reform.  Which, in theory, might have been better than just me and Lea being postmodernists, cept that he was full of crap, and had not onepostmodernist cell in his body; and trivilized both our kritik of fiat and our postmodernist advocacy.  Sure he's a better debater than me. He's had more training, and is in it for the trophies. But in all the rounds I've had with him, he's NEVER ONCE listened to me at all. And maybe I'm idealistic, but I think at a wymyn's round robin, maybe people would listen to each other, even if it was just a little bit.  But something different will keep me away: an elitism that sees debate records as what counts to debating. I know that will never go away; and that my choice to coach my team rather than to compete will never get me a bid to NDT, but . . . anyhow, I think, I cast my hat in in support of this project; because maybe marginalized voices marginalize people just a little less.

    Laura 

    U Chicago '01

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