Publications
Malloy, Tamar "Reconceiving Recognition: Towards a Cumulative Politics of Recognition.” The Journal of Political Philosophy, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Dec. 2014) 416-437.
Book Manuscript
Disciplinary Respectability
Marginalized groups’ adoption of the politics of respectability has long been intended as an assertion of humanity, dignity, and self-determination. With disciplinary respectability, dominant groups have flipped that script, using non-compliance with respectability norms as a justification for misrecognition and exclusion. This manuscript defines disciplinary respectability and its mechanisms. Then, using case studies that chart the impacts of disciplinary respectability from birth to death, it illustrates the ways that disciplinary respectability is enshrined in U.S. laws, institutional policies, and social norms. First, an analysis of compulsory sterilization programs demonstrates how respectability norms have been used to delimit literal, and therefore cultural, reproduction. Second, schools’ use of disciplinary respectability normalizes the punishment and exclusion of students on the basis of their performance of respectability, with potentially chilling effects on democratic participation—and, an original dataset shows, a disproportionate affect on minoritized students. Third, U.S. anti-discrimination lawsuits use disciplinary respectability to circumvent identity-based legal protections, thereby maintaining control over employees’ performance and experience of their identities. Finally, HIV/AIDS activism gives an example of the feasibility and potential of an efficacious, respect-worthy, disrespectable politics. Through these cases, the project contends that disciplinary respectability masks and reproduces prejudice, harms marginalized groups and group members, facilitates ongoing discrimination and inequalities, and conceals systemic oppression.
Marginalized groups’ adoption of the politics of respectability has long been intended as an assertion of humanity, dignity, and self-determination. With disciplinary respectability, dominant groups have flipped that script, using non-compliance with respectability norms as a justification for misrecognition and exclusion. This manuscript defines disciplinary respectability and its mechanisms. Then, using case studies that chart the impacts of disciplinary respectability from birth to death, it illustrates the ways that disciplinary respectability is enshrined in U.S. laws, institutional policies, and social norms. First, an analysis of compulsory sterilization programs demonstrates how respectability norms have been used to delimit literal, and therefore cultural, reproduction. Second, schools’ use of disciplinary respectability normalizes the punishment and exclusion of students on the basis of their performance of respectability, with potentially chilling effects on democratic participation—and, an original dataset shows, a disproportionate affect on minoritized students. Third, U.S. anti-discrimination lawsuits use disciplinary respectability to circumvent identity-based legal protections, thereby maintaining control over employees’ performance and experience of their identities. Finally, HIV/AIDS activism gives an example of the feasibility and potential of an efficacious, respect-worthy, disrespectable politics. Through these cases, the project contends that disciplinary respectability masks and reproduces prejudice, harms marginalized groups and group members, facilitates ongoing discrimination and inequalities, and conceals systemic oppression.