Are you a “Space Invader”?

I was impressed by a book by Nirmal Puwar entitled “Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place” (2004). This book debates the issue of current policies to promote diversity in terms of race and gender. She illustrates with clever anecdotes and researched examples that neither bodies nor the spaces they occupy can be neutral.

We have all experienced occasions where we were surprised to see someone very different to our expectations. Many Europeans, unfamiliar with Sikh names falsely assume that I am a man and address correspondence to me with “Dear Mr Jesvir” for example. Perhaps you have engaged in a telephone conversation with someone and formed a picture of them being white when in fact they are black? We all make assumptions about race and gender based on ignorance of the facts. However, what Nirmal Puwar argues, based on her research, is that places in society, organisations and any system in fact, are RESERVED for particular bodies. When we see a Black female CEO of a top British company, our reaction is much more than a mild degree of surprise. We see a “Space Invader”. Someone who is not meant to be there. We justify the disturbance to our internal rules by looking for evidence that proves us right (for feeling uncomfortable). How do you feel when you hear a non-native speaker of English in a call-centre based in India, answering to your customer care needs? The fact that they often fail to help us, proves us right, doesn’t it? They are not meant to be there!

Who decides on these rules about who is meant to occupy which space? Our world history and conditioning have helped us to formulate internal rules about where people “should” be and the spaces they “should” occupy. When these internal rules are shaken, we feel the stress of unfamiliarity. Nirmal Puwar goes as far as saying that “When women and ‘black’ bodies enter senior management positions, for example, this movement into a space not naturally reserved for them, causes a collision” (page 143)

In order to justify our occupancy of a space that we have ‘invaded’, we are naturally predisposed to metamorphose and minimise any signs of differences. Whilst skin colour is a permanent feature of our bodily appearance, we can change or slowly ‘whitewash’ our bodily gestures, social interests, value systems and speech patterns in an attempt to minimise cultural differences. As the call-centre employees based in India learn to speak with perfect English accents and only use their Anglo-Saxon names, they will become increasingly more acceptable as the voice (not the whole body) on the other end of the customer care line.

The concept of “space invaders” inspired me to think about global systems and the spaces of power occupied within these systems. When you think of the most powerful positions in the world, who comes to mind? Hold this image in your mind of the faces and bodies occupying the most powerful spaces in the global system. Now swop these powerful bodies with bodies occupying less powerful spaces; in other words, put the bodies of less powerful people into the spaces which they are not meant to occupy. What kind of reaction do these “space invader” bodies evoke in you?

The worst kind of slavery is when you think that in fact you are free.


© Jesvir Mahil, Director of University for Life www.universityforlife.com
Jesvir directs courses for students learning English for International Leadership

Dead Man Walking .... ?!

When you stroll down the bleak-mid winter streets of London, or the dark tunnels of the underground stations, you may sometimes feel witness to parades of "Dead Man Walking......"

Recently, I heard someone say that in olden times, when someone died, the Greeks used to ask "Did they live passionately?"

Living life passionately was considered to be a fundamental value and taking risks was an integral part of the hero's journey; the metaphor for a life worthy of being remembered.

A colleague of mine asked me about the risks involved in giving up a salaried post in order to set up a business. She complained about the lack of financial security in business and the fact that so much of our work is unpaid. My response to this was, "If the expectations of financial security and getting paid for all the work we do were guaranteed in business, I guess that almost EVERYONE would set up a business wouldn't they?"

When you meet talented artists, one of the distinguishing features you may notice about them is that they love their work so passionately that they would do it even if it were not paid. I believe that we are all artists in some form or another and for entrepreneurs, the creation of a business can be a form of artistic expression. When we find work that makes us more of who we are, the need for security and demands for compensation become irrelevant. The passion we generate and express through our business compensates for the lack of security with freedom instead.

Wendy Oak, a wise reader of my e-zine, Success Newsletter, recommended the book "Anam Cara" which means "soul friend" in Irish Gaelic, by John O'Donohue. John O'Donohue is a Celtic mystic and on page 160 of "Anam Cara" he says: "The shape of each soul is different. There is a secret destiny for each person. When you endeavour to repeat what others have done or force yourself into a preset mould, you betray your individuality. We need to return to the solitude within, to find again the dream that lies at the hearth of the soul"

When we love our own life without comparing it with the lives of others; when we love our own business, our own work, I guess that we are living the life of the hero/heroine, which will serve as an example rather than a warning for others.

What is it that makes us NOT a "Dead Man Walking"?