NO-CHAIR-DESIGN: Sara Ahmed on sitting

Sara Ahmed Feminist Killjoys (And Other Willful Subjects)

“Affect aliens are those who experience alien affects. You are unseated by the table of happiness. If you lose your seat what happens? Activism is often a matter of seats. The word "dissidence” for instance derives from the Latin dis—"apart" + sedere "to sit.“ The dissident is the one who sits apart. Or the dissident is the one would be unseated by taking up a place at the table: your seat is the site of disagreement. In Queer Phenomenology I was too obsessed with tables to notice the queerness of the chair. But I did suggest then that if we begin with the body that loses its chair, the world we describe might be quite different.[3] ”

“When you are unseated, you can even get in the way of those who are seated, those who want more than anything to keep their seats. To threaten the loss of the seat can be to kill the joy of the seated." 

These are direct quotes from the essay by Ahmed. Fits well with the NO-CHAIR-DESIGN Campaign do they not?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *