1.68
And yet, this equality (§1.65) isn’t straightforward.
As Derrida shows, binaries are set up, with one term cleansed of the other, valued over and at the expense of the other: male/female, white/racialized, cisgender/transgender, form/content, active/passive, human/animal, animal/plant, plant/inanimate, organic/inorganic, etc.
These binaries are the result of a continual, ongoing operation and disavowed violence. Purificatory rites maintain (a semblance and version of) order.
Things are controlled by being the same, with a vicious hierarchy imposed upon this background. (‘All women are the same.’)
And yet, our options shouldn’t be limited to either removing all difference or emphasizing/reinforcing such divisions.