Bio-Power Presentation and Reflection

           Through this project I was able to delve deeper into my person and better understand my relations to power and how those relationships affect me or how I allow them to affect me. This project also presented me with challenges that I face because of power relationships as well as the obstacles that I have created myself and now realize that I have made challenges for myself. Also, through the peer review for this project, I was able to see the similarities and differences in the power relationships between different people. It was through experiencing other people’s bio-power relationships that I was able to gain a better understanding of what queer studies are.

            The creation of this project forced me to think about how I view myself, and what labels I want to be associated with, but then it also caused me to question those labels. I sought out why I chose those labels or why I had for so long been avoiding them. In my presentation, I start off with descriptors that I associate myself with, one of which is ‘bisexual’. This was the most difficult term for me to associate with as it has been a poorly defined term in my past. It has been a term of ridicule, disbelief, confusion, and disdain; therefore I have tried to never relate that word to my sexuality, as it has always been negative. I came out as a lesbian, but then realized that it didn’t fit, but neither did straight. When I first told people that I was bisexual they instantly assumed I was going through a phase, or that I slept around, so I decided that I was sexually fluid, without a label. It was through this project and conversations with other classmates that I was able to realize that being bisexual isn’t negative. I have been conditioned to think so through the terms that I have been associated with it due to the power other institutions have over the bisexual population. It was this project that helped me come to the realization that I can be proud to be bisexual and that it doesn’t have to come with a negative connotation, unless I allow it.

            This project also helped me realized that I take the power that I have for granted. I am educated, in this instance I am the dominate one in the power relationship, but I never really realized it before. I had taken my education for granted, not really investing in my education, knowing that I had this opportunity and that it wasn’t going anywhere. This project helped me realize that this is an area where I have the power to succeed but I have been my own obstacle by not allowing myself to reach my full potential and get everything out of my education, (my parents would be thrilled to hear me say that). This is an area that I need to work on, currently it is what I would view as a weakness but I know that it should be a strength and that is what I strive for.

            Through the peer review I was able to look at the power relationships of another person, who was very different than I. I will admit that I had difficulty critiquing the project. The project was well done and there was a clear and evident understanding of bio-power, so I did not feel that much critique was necessary. I found that by reviewing their work, it made me internally critique my own, but then I realized that our bio-maps would never be similar because we have different attributes that cause us to experience bio-power differently. I found this realization to be the most important, I knew that bio-power wasn’t the same for all people but it was interesting to have evidence of it.

            The experience of creating the project alongside completing the peer review has helped me have a better handle on the definition of queer studies, but at the same time I am still left unsure. When I first enrolled in the class I believed that ‘queer’ only applied to sexual orientations other than heterosexual, when in fact it expands further. I now believe that ‘queer’ relates to the idea of anyone or any experience that is not of the majority; a person, population, experience that was or still continues to be under the power of another institution. Queer studies seem to be the study of oppression, or at least that is what I believe thus far. 


http://prezi.com/tx4mp8ujelqn/bio-power/?kw=view-tx4mp8ujelqn&rc=ref-34077181