Page 154 - Šolsko polje, XXXI, 2020, 5-6: Teaching Feminism, ed. Valerija Vendramin
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šolsko polje, letnik xxxi, številka 5–6
second one, Willful Subjects (2014), focuses on wilfulness as a designation
of those who do not “will” in the right way – in the way that is expected
from them; of those who stray from the already-made, well-trodden social
paths. The conclusion of both works (2010; 2014) may be summarised as:
“Happiness follows for those who will right” (2014, p. 4). In the last part
of her trilogy, Sara Ahmed adds another crucial dimension to the analysis
of the quite complex socio-political dynamics of social exclusion and mar-
ginalisation, and the ways in which the world-as-it-is stays as-it-is, namely,
the use of use and its accompanying designations, especially the interplay
and the conditions of being designated as useful or useless.
In the first chapter “Using Things”, she focuses on the everyday life
of use: “how objects can be caught at different moments of use” (p. 65) –
of being in use, out of use, used, unused, overused, used up, usable/unusable,
concluding by highlighting the power of classification in terms of desig-
nating objects and agents by assigning them the above-mentioned use-re-
lated qualities. In What’s the Use?, S. Ahmed expands the repertoire of a
critical gaze – previously mostly focused on race (2012), gender and sexu-
ality (2010; 2014; 2017), while other dimensions were undoubtedly pres-
ent at least in-between the lines – to include disability and class. By dis-
cussing intended functionality or forness, approached as a description of
“what something is for” (2019, p. 21), she also deepens her previous discus-
sions of the relations between objects and orientations: “Orientation in-
volves direction toward objects that affect what we do, and how we inhab-
it space. We move toward and away from objects depending on how we
are moved by them” (2006, p. 28). Intended functionality also accounts
for how objects (spaces) – the social as instituted (Bourdieu, 2020, p. 26)
– also contain an orientation towards agents by being shaped in a way that
enables spaces to be used by some rather than all agents. By their shape,
spaces reach towards particular groups of agents and are being reached
for by them: it is this simultaneousness or, better, the lack of it, which re-
veals forness not only as a function of an object, but also for whom an ob-
ject is to be useful.
In order to reveal use as an inheritance, Ahmed follows the paths
of intellectual use of use by Darwin and Lamarck. She traces their steps
and tracks, left in the field of social sciences – as evident in the works of
Herbert Spencer – which were at the time attempting to constitute them-
selves as a legitimate scientific discipline of sociology by adopting and fol-
lowing the steps of natural sciences (Durkheim & Fauconnet, 1903/2014),
Ahmed discusses: 1) law of use and disuse: “what is used will be strength-
ened in proportion to time spent”; and 2) natural selection: “the effects of
repeated use will be inherited by future generation” (p. 85). According to
152
second one, Willful Subjects (2014), focuses on wilfulness as a designation
of those who do not “will” in the right way – in the way that is expected
from them; of those who stray from the already-made, well-trodden social
paths. The conclusion of both works (2010; 2014) may be summarised as:
“Happiness follows for those who will right” (2014, p. 4). In the last part
of her trilogy, Sara Ahmed adds another crucial dimension to the analysis
of the quite complex socio-political dynamics of social exclusion and mar-
ginalisation, and the ways in which the world-as-it-is stays as-it-is, namely,
the use of use and its accompanying designations, especially the interplay
and the conditions of being designated as useful or useless.
In the first chapter “Using Things”, she focuses on the everyday life
of use: “how objects can be caught at different moments of use” (p. 65) –
of being in use, out of use, used, unused, overused, used up, usable/unusable,
concluding by highlighting the power of classification in terms of desig-
nating objects and agents by assigning them the above-mentioned use-re-
lated qualities. In What’s the Use?, S. Ahmed expands the repertoire of a
critical gaze – previously mostly focused on race (2012), gender and sexu-
ality (2010; 2014; 2017), while other dimensions were undoubtedly pres-
ent at least in-between the lines – to include disability and class. By dis-
cussing intended functionality or forness, approached as a description of
“what something is for” (2019, p. 21), she also deepens her previous discus-
sions of the relations between objects and orientations: “Orientation in-
volves direction toward objects that affect what we do, and how we inhab-
it space. We move toward and away from objects depending on how we
are moved by them” (2006, p. 28). Intended functionality also accounts
for how objects (spaces) – the social as instituted (Bourdieu, 2020, p. 26)
– also contain an orientation towards agents by being shaped in a way that
enables spaces to be used by some rather than all agents. By their shape,
spaces reach towards particular groups of agents and are being reached
for by them: it is this simultaneousness or, better, the lack of it, which re-
veals forness not only as a function of an object, but also for whom an ob-
ject is to be useful.
In order to reveal use as an inheritance, Ahmed follows the paths
of intellectual use of use by Darwin and Lamarck. She traces their steps
and tracks, left in the field of social sciences – as evident in the works of
Herbert Spencer – which were at the time attempting to constitute them-
selves as a legitimate scientific discipline of sociology by adopting and fol-
lowing the steps of natural sciences (Durkheim & Fauconnet, 1903/2014),
Ahmed discusses: 1) law of use and disuse: “what is used will be strength-
ened in proportion to time spent”; and 2) natural selection: “the effects of
repeated use will be inherited by future generation” (p. 85). According to
152
