Blog Post 5 Henke

     This weeks content was very interesting to me because I'm writing my research paper about gender ethics dealing with healthcare workers. I found speaking for others to be the concept I took most interest in this week. One specific example from a reading I thought was important was "Speaking for others has come under increasing criticism."  (Alcoff 6) I found this interesting because how are we supposed to help advocate for people when some criticize us for doing so. In terms of communication ethics it's an extremely hard topic to talk about. I asked myself when is it okay to try and put myself in someone else's shoes? I thought for some time because in some situations it's hard to stand with someone when you don't know what they've been through. It's hard for that person to know if you actually care or if you're just doing things for because it's popular.

    My concrete example for this week is advocating for feminism as well as a couple of other examples. I identify as a male but I stand for feminists and what they have been fighting for. It's not new, women have been fighting for gender equality for a long time. I can support them as much as possible but it doesn't mean as much and even though I stand up for it I get criticized by many females because I have "no say" or that "I don't understand, and never will." In response to comments like such I understand, I really don't get it. I've been able to live the same life they have. I can support, but I can't truly understand. My other examples that I won't go in depth about buyt relate to the topic are the Black Lives Matter movement. As a caucasian we can fight for people of color but in reality we've never gone through what they have. They have fears that we cannot even begin to imagine, rightfully so they might look upon our support in different ways. Another example is support for the LGBTQ+ community, these all have a lot in common. It's hard to communicate ethically with all people when we all go through different things. We can't always relate to other people but in order to improve society we must respect all. 

Alcoff, Linda. “The Problem of Speaking for Others.” Cultural Critique, no. 20, 1991, p. 5., https://doi.org/10.2307/1354221