Alcoff's "The Problem of Speaking for Others" is immensely necessary in understanding and interpreting theoretical perspectives in feminist and gender studies. This piece would have been a fantastic introductory piece to the Women's Studies program here at RIC because of the ways in which Alcoff explains the complexities of successful exploring all different areas within feminism appropriately.
Throughout the piece, Alcoff dismantles the sensitivity surrounding one's ability to speak for others and addresses the importance of agency. An important differentiation needs to be made between the concept of speaking for others and speaking with others.
For example, the first example given in the piece is concerning Anne Cameron and her book which was a compilation of first person accounts of Native Canadians. I believe that Cameron was unfortunately speaking for the population which in many ways probably deterred her purpose. Perhaps if she had included the Native Canadian community within her discussion, her purpose and intent may have been better received or would have been more responsible. Instead, she wrote accounts that involved little to none of her experience, from a place of privilege which is offensive and inappropriate.
As a young feminist theorist, I find myself constantly struggling to find a place my activism outside of myself. I think much of these thoughts comes from a socially constructed fear and assumption that one cannot speak about an issue without have a direct personal connection. But the reality is, sexism, agism, homophobia and other sites of fear and hate are entirely world problems that effect each person in some way indirectly or directly in a variety of ways.
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