Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place

Abstract

Purpose

To explore the experience of a key member of the UK equalities policy‐making elite, interrogating her shift from activist to top‐ranking equalities professional. To focus attention on the under‐explored area of lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender equalities work.

Design/methodology/approach

The interview is prefaced with a critical commentary on current UK equalities policy, contextualising the interview discussion, which links personal and collective histories and provides a comparison of equalities work over time.

Findings

Angela Mason, while top‐ranking civil servant, continues to claim the label activist. Like a variety of other equalities workers she uses multiple tactics to appeal to different constituents at different times and in different contexts.

Originality/value

This is an interview with one of the key protagonists in the development of UK equalities policies over the last 30 years. It is unique in its focus on the current overhaul of UK equalities policy from an “insider” and in its timing at the interim point of this reorganisation (October 2006).

Citation

Leach, T.N. (2007), "Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place", Equal Opportunities International, Vol. 26 No. 5, pp. 507-514. https://doi.org/10.1108/02610150710756702

In Space Invaders, Nirmal Puwar's main question “what happens when women and racialized minorities come to occupy ‘privileged’ positions which have not ‘reserved’ for them?” is addressed by research in the UK's Parliament, an institution which despite granting access to women and non‐white bodies, still maintains itself as an institution structured with the white, male, upper‐class body as the somatic norm from which all difference is measured.

Puwar sets up a binary relationship between space and bodies, which negates women and non‐white bodies as negative and locates these different bodies in specific spaces. From here we can see how masculinity and whiteness are constructed as the norm and come to occupy privileged positions. This sets the stage for complexities encountered by the introduction of women and non‐white bodies in privileged positions not specifically reserved for them.

This book addresses several issues from the debates around the proposal of a statute dedicated to Nelson Mandela in Trafalgar Square, which highlighted how space plays a role in constructing an environment and how particular bodies are linked to specific kinds of spaces so that those that are not the “somatic norm” induce anxiety, and leads to a questioning of which kinds of bodies have the “undisputed right to pass as the universal figure of leadership” (p. 5) and which bodies do not. This builds on this idea of the relationship between bodies and space, provoking the reader to think about how certain types of bodies over time become the “naturalised” body within a space and, obversely, how other types of bodies come to be seen as “out of place” in privileged spaces – they are as the title suggests “space invaders”.

There are no major disappointments with this text. My only criticism – and this is a minor one – is that while Puwar speaks of gendered bodies and “racialized” bodies, she does not speak so much of bodies that are both gendered and racialized. This could, however, be a question of a dearth of representation or could point to something greater – the pigeon‐holing of bodies of difference, in that one might imagine to see a woman member of parliament (MP) or a non‐white MP, but the sighting of a non‐white woman as MP is still a rarity to the eyes – an indication that there are still many issues of equality, and further questions to be raised of whose bodies fit in which spaces.

Puwar importantly notes that life in parliament is not universally equal for women and racialised minorities. There is a recognition that strides have been made in thinning the “glass ceiling” (gender), while in many ways the “concrete ceiling” (“race”) is still very firmly cemented in place. This is a very important distinction when reading any text on bodies of difference – that the circumstances surrounding disadvantage are not equal. The reader is taken on a journey through the historical and theoretical construction of the political subject, seeing its roots that are deeply entrenched in the colonial project, the formation of public/private masculinities and femininities and their close relationship to “race” and colonialism as well as the making of national boundaries. The theme of boundaries is built upon when thinking of gendered and racialised bodies as the “unknown” who defy conventions – representing the monstrous, whose arrival “invades” and disrupts both the social and psychic.

A strength of this book is that it is not just a theoretical text. It not only discusses the anxieties caused by spatial disruption but also informs readers about some of the effects on the space invader when they are aware that their presence contradicts the “ideal” occupants of that space. Feelings of doubt, super‐surveillance and infantilisation are all part of embodying the position of the outsider‐within. One very important point that Puwar makes that should be of great interest to practitioners of equalities is the aspect of mimicking and understanding that different bodies can often exist in senior positions as long as they mimic the norm. As a result, the norm itself avoids being problematised.

We hear the voices of women and non‐white bodies. The reader is not just taken on a theoretical tour but through both theory and praxis we see how these practices are lived out in daily encounters and exchanges. This enables the reader to engage with how equalities legislation is lived out in the real world – beyond the text of the legislation itself. Here are very real accounts of what happens when women and racialised minorities enter elite positions. Her participants are not merely products of “equalities of opportunities” legislation for we are beyond that here – they are leaders in their own right, negotiating their senior positions in one of the oldest boys’ networks in the UK.

There is just the right mix of organisational understanding and theories of difference. Notably, Puwar establishes a history in the construction of space as a contract – both “racialised” and gendered (the “Racial” contract and the “Social” contract, respectively) – that precluded certain bodies, which were deemed “unsuitable”, from participation in the politic. As a practitioner in equalities, I found this quite useful in thinking through how spaces are imagined – and in this context, how the UK Parliament has been constructed as a space where an elite, white masculinity is the norm that is wary of outsiders – and the complexities enmeshed in any attempts to institute change. Puwar is also keen to point out that these issues and debates translate to other sectors.

Ultimately, this book is a valuable tool in understanding what happens to non‐privileged bodies once they not only enter organisations but also start to move up the ladder to more senior positions. It should be read by practitioners of equalities, particularly those interested in understanding on a very concrete level the impacts of equalities legislation within organisations. I also highly recommend it for organisational theorists as it challenges traditional means of looking at organisational structures and discourses.