Nancy Duncan's "Renegotiating Gender and Sexuality in Public and Private Spaces."
This was my first reading throughout the semester that really struck a cord with me. Although it was 29 pages, I really felt like I could have read more. I enjoyed it a great deal. It taught me a lot too, and opened my eyes to situations that surround us everyday. It also made me realize that just because I am an open person, and a very public person, others might be more private. I consider my apartment to be fairly public. If you need anything just ask, and come on in. However, others might consider their domains to be private and are hesitant about allowing people in.
This was my first reading throughout the semester that really struck a cord with me. Although it was 29 pages, I really felt like I could have read more. I enjoyed it a great deal. It taught me a lot too, and opened my eyes to situations that surround us everyday. It also made me realize that just because I am an open person, and a very public person, others might be more private. I consider my apartment to be fairly public. If you need anything just ask, and come on in. However, others might consider their domains to be private and are hesitant about allowing people in.
In this post, I want to talk about how we define things as public space, and private space. What is the difference? And how do we distinguish the difference? What makes certain spaces private? What makes certain spaces public?
The definitions for public space and private space that I searched for on the Internet are as follows:
A public space refers to an area or place that is open and accessible to all citizens, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age or socio-economic level.
A public space refers to an area or place that is open and accessible to all citizens, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age or socio-economic level.
A private space is an area where accessibility is determined by one person or a small group of people.
Although these definitions seem fairly accurate, the notion that I never realized until discussing in class was that there is a "grey area" to consider when dealing with public and private spaces. For example: an open area, room or space may be conceived either as a more or less private place or as a public area, depending on the degree of accessibility, the form of supervision, who uses it, who takes care of it and many other factors. There are many factors to take into consideration before deeming things public and private. Some of the above are just some simple ideas to keep in mind.
PS: How does an 8 year old claim his space? This picture is a picture of my cousin Jackson's door. He used lip balm to put them up.... He made his space private... you need a "ticket" to get into his room :)
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