Staring how we look sobre la mirada.pdf - artecolonial

Figure 7.8. Kevin Connolly, “Woman and Man; Tokyo, Japan.”
LOOKING AWAY, STARING BACK 93
ennui, pragmatism, or his own need to reknit himself into the human community
away from which stares push him. Starees may also elect to invite
empathy as a counter to pity, the diminishing, too frequent response to disability.
Pity is an emotional cul-de-sac that ultimately distances starer and
alienates staree. A block to mutuality, pity is repugnance refined into genteel
condescension. 4 Empathy, in contrast, bonds in a mutual recognition of
shared humanity. Anthropologist Robert Murphy (1987) explains transformative
staring encounters that brought him new knowledge and realigned
solidarities. After becoming a wheelchair user with a literally diminished
social status, Murphy, a white man, finds that women and Blacks look at
him differently and more openly than before. Blacks, he finds, recognize and