Saturday, February 22, 2020
Week 7.1 and 7.2 - Labor, Neoliberalism, Gender
The readings (by Ong and Hoffman) this week focus on different types of labor in a neoliberal economy. In each of the readings, how does gender matter? What is its role in the respective economy? What are the characteristics of labor in the respective readings? How do spiritual beliefs emerge in the Malaysian factory and does this say about the pressures of neoliberal economy on women in the Global South? What shape does labor take in Mayengema's mining sites (Hoffman Reading)? How is masculinity and the body shaped by this type of labor?
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In the Ong reading, gender plays a role in that it is women who are the targets of spirit attacks. Traditionally, spirit possessions were mainly manifested by married women, but with urbanization and industrialization, spirit possessions became the affliction of young, unmarried women placed in modern organizations. In Ong’s words, “in modern organizations, spirit victims are young, unmarried women engaged in hitherto alien and male activities.”
ReplyDeleteIn Malaysia, with the introduction of multinational corporations, women were a new addition to the economy. Women were hired as factory workers with intensive schedules and expectations which contradict their religious or spiritual beliefs.
The characteristics of labor within the Ong reading are those relational to assembly work. Women were expected to be shy, obedient, and deferential. The work force was about 85-90 percent female with a harsh work discipline, under the supervision of male management. Young women were expected to conduct themselves with circumspection and to diffuse sexual tension. Labor characteristics also included good eyesight, manual dexterity, and patience. As Ong explains, “For multinational corporations, women are units of much cheap labor power repackaged under the ‘nimble fingers’ label.”
Spiritual beliefs emerge in Malaysian factories in manifestations of spirit possessions. “Spirits come to represent transgressions of moral boundaries, which are socially defined in concentric spaces of homestead, village, and jungle,” (Ong 30). The previous sentence provides the emergence of spirits in traditional views. With the introduction of multinational corporations, the emergence is a bit different. These corporations have no insight to the spiritual world of Malays, therefore, they have no understanding of spirits in relation to land. A factory could be built on a sacred sight with the leaders having no awareness of this. This would lead to spirits having access to the workers through the spatial realm. Within multinational corporations, Malay women are expected to stray from their traditional values and enter the workforce performing male tasks, thus going against their religious norms. This contradiction would thus lead to a spirit possession because of defiance of cultural and religious norms. This shows that the pressures of neoliberal economies can be dangerous for people in cultures which heavily differentiate roles between men and women. Women are forced to go against their cultural norm in order to make a living which leads them to be susceptible to spirit possessions. This shows a direct contradiction between neoliberal economies and religious or spiritual culture.
In the Hoffman reading, gender plays a role in that men are the miners. Mining sites are representations of the mobilization and militancy of young men’s labor in Sierra Leone and Liberia. This is a political economy which has reshaped the meanings of male sociality. This previous sentence shows the relation between men and the respective economy. The characteristics of labor within the Hoffman reading are defined by strenuous work. These men must be physically adept with a capacity for violence. They must be strong, work-oriented, resilient, and must have great stamina. In the Mayengema’s mining sites, labor takes a similar form to what has been previously stated. What comes and goes from Mayengema comes and goes by foot, so these workers must be able to sustain themselves through long, strenuous treks.
Masculinity and the body is shaped by these types of labor through the tasks that’s expected of men. Men are expected to undergo violence and maintain a good work ethic simultaneously. Men’s bodies are worked so harshly that they transgress to the bare minimum of a human body. They are toned and strong while looking slender and malnourished.
Both of the readings take apart a form of labor generated by the growth of the global economy. The Ong reading looks at the cases of woman in the labor force, products of flexible accumulation, these women are targeted for cheap labor in Malaysia. A common practice for international corporations is to prey upon woman in disadvantaged countries. They are seen to be low risk in that they believe woman pose less of a threat when it comes to revolt against working conditions and wages. In these specific cases used by Ong there is the extra added element of their spiritual beliefs contradicting the capitalist/ factory work environment forced upon them. In the visual essay by Hoffman he gives us a look into the use of men in the labor force in Sierra Leon and Liberia as they engage in the strenuous and usually low rewarding work of mining for diamonds.
ReplyDeleteAs stated above the woman exploited in Malaysia are preyed upon for multiple reasons. The lack of risk of violent up-rise, their small hands being advantageous for their factory work, and many of the woman in the factories are young and without a spouse. This last part in essential to the main piece of Ong’s paper. Spirit Possessions in Malaysian culture are most likely to attack young woman going through transitionary periods of their life. In the newly introduced factory life, these spirit possessions seem to be a result of the contrasting effects of the Malaysian culture and the work life introduced by the global reach of neoliberalism. Within these factories, the workforce of woman is overseen by male supervisors and are expected to adhere to the expectations of these men that call upon them to step outside what is the assumed role of woman in Malay culture. In doing so they open themselves up for the spirit attacks which is why they are so prevalent in the factories. Often in the attacks the spirits are visually represented by men and are there to serve as a punishment for betraying the culture and norms. Often these multi national corporations must adhere to the demands of the spirits to resume work as the spirit attacks halt workers causing chaos and hysteria. From this perspective, the spirit possessions seem to be a form of protest. Though they are unintentional they seem to speak against the unnatural injection of capitalist life into the Malay people’s culture.
While the woman in Malaysia are used for their adherence to violence and their small features, the young men in the Hoffman reading are exploited for their capacity for violence and their ability to carry out strenuous physical labor. Hoffman describes the bodies of the miners as stripped to their essence by hard repetitive work, showing a picture of a shirtless man lacking any real body fat. These young men often live in small, packed mining “towns”. Their work consisting of digging down into the jungle floor in a ‘needle in a hay stack’ situation as they attempt to find elusive diamonds that have been carried across by the swelling rivers. If one of these young men comes across something a value after all his hard labor, the value is distributed among multiple people above him in classic capitalist fashion. Hoffman describes the chain of command as involving the land owner, the local representative if the Ministry of Mines, the holder of the mining permit, and the crew boss of the site. The process of mining is destructive to the landscape as well and the young men doing the low paying hard labor are the ones stuck there, living in the mess created by the industry.