Question for you out there

[adrienmundi]

Does the positionality of power enable malaise? More specifically, is it only the priveleged who have the capacity for malaise?

Contextually, this came up in conversation with She Who is Resistant, who maintains that the above is absolutely, undeniably true. Me, I'm not so sure.

Comments

[fairyhead.livejournal.com]

At the time, when I was feeling distinctly not-priveleged, was probably when I had the strongest and most recurring feelings of malaise. I think She Who is Resistant is making the assumption that people who aren't or don't feel priveleged are in too much pain/to oppressed to be able to feel malaise.

Then again, knowing that I fall into her dubious definition of unpriveleged, I feel kind of offended that she would presume to know what I may or may not feel. Damn! I've had a tough enough time learning that I'm not and don't have to be a victim, to have these supposed feminists trying to push me right back into being victimized. Bah, I think I'll go scrub off my evil patriarchal make up, take off my objectifying skirt and go bash men for being the cause of all things bad ...

[martinhesselius.livejournal.com]

I'd say no.
I was often the least able to act when I did not feel that I could.

Main Entry: mal·aise
Pronunciation: m&-'lAz, ma-, -'lez
Function: noun
Etymology: French malaise, from Old French, from mal- + aise comfort -- more at EASE
Date: circa 1768
1 : an indefinite feeling of debility or lack of health often indicative of or accompanying the onset of an illness
2 : a vague sense of mental or moral ill-being

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Main Entry: an·o·mie
Variant(s): also an·o·my /'a-n&-mE/
Function: noun
Etymology: French anomie, from Middle French, from Greek anomia lawlessness, from anomos lawless, from a- + nomos law, from nemein to distribute -- more at NIMBLE
Date: 1933
: social instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values; also : personal unrest, alienation, and uncertainty that comes from a lack of purpose or ideals

[scottopic.livejournal.com]

If you mean "existential despair" or similar Deep Things That Only Seem to Bother Certain People - I think the inclination to dwell upon it is a "privelege" (while I don't totally subscribe to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it seems to fit in this case: people wanting for food don't worry upon post-modern theory)-
But inclination is one of my favourite words in post-structuralist-me life, just as being of XY chromosome inclines one to behave a certain way, follow certain patterns, it differs from "making it so."

Yay. No sleep.