Subjectivity
What even is subjectivity? Google says that it’s “the quality of being based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions,” and I guess I’d agree with that. Subjectivity is how opinions are shaped internally rather than externally (like why one person might love a song, and another person might hate it for the same reason).
Why does it matter?
Subjectivity matters because it’s what distinguishes personal preferences. Our individual subjectivity is what gives us (as humans) a unique voice and reason to speak. In regards to history, subjectivity is important for finding a connection to the past that they feel should be written about (but there has to be distance there, for it to be considered history and for the writing to remain truthful and historically accurate.
THROWBACK SONG OF THE WEEK
my subjectivity
It’s honestly pretty hard to understand your own subjectivity, as your own subjectivity is from your unique perspective, so you can’t really see outside of it. The only way to understand it is to figure out what about your roots (as in your past experiences, your identity, and your beliefs) influence your opinions. As a 19-year-old agnostic cishet white (european mutt) male from the suburbs, my identity feels fairly neutral. The perspective I bring is the one I have from my life experiences and from the things I’ve learned. I try my best to understand things on a broad level, including the implication of things (which has led me down many rabbit holes of learning and reading).
My perspective is open, and I’m driven and motivated by an eagerness to figure out new things for myself and understand complicated things that I find interesting, as well as to learn about things that are swept under the rug. This is what led me to change my topic to what it is now, which is Temple Town: the Educational Gentrification of North Philly. I was really drawn to the dichotomy in opinion regarding gentrification, as subjectivity causes some groups to regard it as a positive process (making the area better) and others regard it as a negative (pushing the community out). My perspective is very open, so being able to research the history of such a subjective topic is exciting, as there’s a lot of history here to unpack, and it’s more relevant than ever today as well. I’ll be writing an op-ed style article for my final project, so I think the fuller, more clear image of my subjectivity will be displayed through that once I finish writing, and I’ll definitely be showcasing certain ideas that the university has tried to keep in the shadows in their journey of “improving” the area.
That’s all for today, so thanks for reading my blog post, I hope you enjoyed it!