DeConick A.D

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THE PI OF POLITICS
Transgression first requires some sort of standard or custom by which
a powerful group in society asserts, defines, and qualifies its identity and
borders (Wolfreys 2008, 4). The tagging of the transgression is evidence
that an assumed “normal,” although this is not yet necessarily orthodoxy,
or the prescribed “right way.” Instead, the act of breaching the norm creates
the orthodoxy, the prescription of the right way. The transgressive
act creates the opportunity for those in power to clarify the previously
commonplace categories and to produce official categories with official
boundaries and official sanctions (Cresswell 1996, 20).
How does this work? Reactions to certain behaviors as transgressive
reveal what was previously considered natural or was taken for granted.
Often, people are not even aware of this existing geography of the normal.
The act of transgression raises awareness and suddenly orients people to
the normative landscape. It is the moment when the lines are drawn, when
what was taken for granted becomes the right way, orthodox, and the
transgression becomes “the wrong way,” or heretical. When the different
values of groups clash, the normal is defined by those who have the power
to do so. This constant process of reaction to transgression and redefinition
creates the official orthodoxy in societies, the judgment about the
rightness or wrongness of certain behaviors (Cresswell, 1996, 10).
It is important to keep in mind that the marking and maintenance of
the official orthodoxy is not something that a dominant group simply
imposes. Others must be convinced that the ideas of the dominant group
are beneficial. So domination largely occurs by appealing to what is taken
for granted, to what is considered natural or reasonable, to common sense
(Bourdieu 1977, 164; 1984, 468). The dominant group must take what
was previously unquestioned and defend it as the order of things against
those who would say otherwise (Cresswell 1996, 21). The group must
naturalize its own arbitrariness to be successful in this endeavor (Bourdieu
1977, 164). For these reasons, transgressions appear to be against nature,
disrupting the patterns we associate with normalcy and offending the invisible
myths of consensus in any given society (Cresswell 1996, 26).
Although transgressions can be confusing and disorienting, they also
reveal the way things are. We need transgression before we can see the
center or even realize that a boundary exists. By studying people on the
margins, we learn where the center is, how the core of what a society
considers proper and right is aligned (Cresswell 1996, 9–27).