#48. Ontology and Oppression ft. Katherine Jenkins

Alex and Tinka are joined by Katharine Jenkins as they delve deep into the captivating world of gender, identity, and the various social constructs that shape our lives.

The way society is organised means that we all get made into members of various types of people, such as judges, wives, or women. These 'human social kinds' may be brought into being by oppressive social arrangements, and people may suffer oppression in virtue of being made into a member of a certain human social kind; this much is obvious. In her new book, Ontology and Oppression, Katharine Jenkins goes further, arguing that we should pay attention to the ways in which the very fact of being made into a member of a certain human social kind can be oppressive. She supplies three conceptual tools needed to understand this phenomenon – which together form the Constraint and Enablements Framework.

Katharine’s book recommendations:

In the wake, by Christina Sharpe.

https://www.dukeupress.edu/in-the-wake

Histories of the Transgender Child, by Jules Gill-Peterson.

https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/histories-of-the-transgender-child

Black on Both Sides, by C. Riley Snorton.

https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/black-on-both-sides