Barry Jahid
Ayse Agis
GWS 14 Tu/Thurs 9:30-11:00
Suppression is the Seed of Aggression
Structural violence is the silent and invisible designer of one’s struggle. This structural violence does not involve the typical physical distress or visual destruction, but is the prolonged, intense, and discreet force constantly at work undermining all genders, races, classes, and religions respectively. It is similar to the unintended environmental effects of radiation plaguing the land and destroying hundreds to thousands of organisms and species after an atomic bomb. These more passive effects from structural violence are often overlooked and invisible to the public eye. It manifests itself in every major and minor group of people and acts differently
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Nyasha refuses to eat due to socioeconomic factors surrounding her life. Contrasting the lifestyles and intersectionalities of Nyasha and Tambu amplify the issue that defines her structural violence. Tambu comes from struggle. Her family, “harvested enough maize to keep us from starving, there was nothing left over to sell” Dangarembja (12) resulting in the basic need of food not being guaranteed for her family. When Tambu is presented with the lifestyle of her uncle’s family influenced by “Eurocentrism” (Ashcroft 107), she proclaims “no one who eats from such a table could fail to grow fat and healthy” (Dangarembja 84). Tambu associates healthiness with being plump because of the poor living conditions she is used to. She is aware the she is no longer a victim of poverty when, “absence of dirt was proof of the other-worldly nature of my new home” (Dangarembja 70). However, because Tambu is affected by sociocultural factors different than Nyasha, the structural violence dictated by her intersectionalities puts her at less risk for issues like food disorders. However, Nyasha is appalled at the idea of gaining too much weight due to factors surrounding her femininity and expected role at the time. Nyasha has not been raised in the Shona culture; she is limited to her knowledge of the English ways. Nyasha developed severe anorexia, “Really, I’m full” (Dangarembja 85) she says whenever her family insists she continues eating. To destress the pressure her family puts upon her she smokes cigarettes; this formula of smoking cigarettes for pleasure and avoiding food perpetuates her anorexia. It is not a coincidence that the title of this book is Nervous Conditions and anorexia has an alternate name anorexia nervosa. Nyasha’s relationship with food that is anorexia nervosa stems