Blog 11

Dorothy Smith was one of the first sociologists to really bring about the idea of standpoint theory. To her, this meant observing a specific culture or group of people by actually interacting with them. She cautioned to not get too involved with the people that you are observing, however, because this could lead to your observations being biased, as you become one of them. Smith said that this was the best way to observe people because it allowed the sociologist to get a better picture of what these people do, but more importantly why they do it, as the observer is able to talk to his/her subject.

To go along with her standpoint theory, Smith also talked about a bifurcation of consciousness. (Smith’s bifurcation of consciousness is closely relations to W.E.B. DuBois’ idea of double consciousness.) This was brought about because at the time that she was doing her work, most of the theories that existed were created by men. To her that meant that the theories were only 100% true through a man’s eyes. Smith used an example of this bifurcated consciousness. Her identity as a woman versus her identity as a sociologist is two different consciousnesses that she experienced. The reason is that sociology, at that time, was dominated by males, so she knew that in order for herself to understand sociological perspectives; she would have to look at everything through a man’s lens.

I picked a picture that is a tree made up of words that have to do what a double consciousness is. I thought that this was an interesting picture, and even though it more closely relates to DuBois, I believe that these words all also describe Smith’s ideas of a bifurcation of consciousness. The reason for that is because, as stated earlier in the blog, she mentioned that she looked at society through a man’s lens, and in this picture there are words such as, “fragmented,” “dual,” and “covering,” which all help to describe what a bifurcation and a double consciousness is.