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Fatmeh Baidoun
Dr. Abigail Heiniger
GSW 5200
17 April 2014
Come out Come Whatever You Are: Theory Map Analysis
I created my theory map through my favorite form of art, spoken word in order to signify
and revive the oral arts and its ability to reach and provoke a mass audience globally. Spoken
word is powerful in the way it combines the flow of rap, but the intensity of poetry like writings
through the use of metaphors and experience to better express the issue at hand. Spoken word
creates an imaginative visual combination to the oral presentation, since listeners can envision
the words through their own perception of what the words mean to them. I chose spoken word
because it is not only my passion, but I felt as thought it could speak to all people, in every walk
of life on any point of this world. It is universal yet personal at the same time, which is why I
think it is both influential and effective.
I created a video of myself performing Come Out Come Out Whatever You Are in the
way I imaginatively envisioned it as I wrote it. I began with my back turned around to the
camera as a way to symbolically represent “other” women as not having a voice in mainstream
feminism. I turned around when I said, “I am theorist” as a way to validate my theory map into
the academic realm. I slipped the pages I read around me to signify my letting go of struggles the
“other” women face by not having a voice and thus in essence creating my own space for them
and I. The final part of the video when I put the scarf over my head as a way of deconstructing
the meaning of being covered as well as a way of me “coming out” of the shadows of
mainstream feminism and becoming my own theorist.
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Another major reason why I chose to do spoken word was because of my focus around
my target audience of women i.e. the “other” women that come from a variety of backgrounds. I
chose this target audience because of my struggle to empower my mother who is an immigrant
woman living in the U.S and has a language barrier and whom did not have the opportunity to
pursue a continuous education because of both patriarchy and colonialism. My target audience
also includes all the women who did not conform to learning English in its academic form, but
instead in its basic and informal form. My aim is to focus on the low literate women and make
them feel like they too have a voice and space for empowerment within the feminist movement.
The connections of theorists throughout my theory map is specifically focused on the
ways in which gender, identity and the definition of a feminist all intertwine to create a space for
non-western, women of color, immigrant and working class women. As well as what feminism
means to the theorists as academics and in some cases the “other” women. Throughout my poem
I took either sentences, key terms or overarching messages of each theorist’s essay and added it
in my poem where I felt like the theorists connected to the voice I am trying to bring. The main
voice I am bringing is that empowerment and liberation is not a western aspect it is a global
aspect that manifests differently.
There are several different symbolic messages in my theory map. This is manifested in
the way I have written my spoken word. I used both poems and academic essays in order to
diversify the poetic flow I needed. There are eight different symbolic presentations I used to
manifest my message. The first way is the repetition of “ I am” statements. I used these
statements to reinforce my presence in the spoken word. Since I was speaking on behalf of
myself and others I felt that using “I am” statements reinforced the personal connection I have
with the theorists.
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The second way I used symbolism is through the alteration of sentences from the
theorist’s essays or poem into my own, where I felt helped emphasize the point I was trying to
make. For example, the last two lines of my spoken word is from The Poem As Mask where I
took the lines from the poem that said “No More Masks” and “the fragments join in me with
their own music”, but altered it into “No more masks for I am coming out and let the fragments
join in me and out to all of you”. Throughout my spoken word I did this several times, where I
changed a sentence or phrase in an essay or poem into my own to highlight creating a space for
others and myself. As well as, how the perception of different theories combined is diverse yet
connected since the meaning is the same. Not only did I alter these sentences from the essays and
poems into my own words, but I also combined important terms from one theorist and connected
it to a sentence or phrase from another theorist. For example, “Hegemonic feminism I am not
your enemy” is from both Lorde and Thompson essays. The combination and alteration of terms,
phrases or sentences from theorists back to me and back to other theorists bridged all of our
connections and meanings into one.
The third way I used symbolism when writing my spoken word are the many instances
where I used a play on words, such that taking the theorists’ name and creating a homonym in
English or another language. Some of the theorists’ names mean a certain word in Arabic, and I
used that to create a bridge as well. For example, Abu- Lughod translates into Father of Lughod
and in my spoken word I wanted to emphasize her as her own woman and not a male
representation of her last name. Another example, is Leila Ahmed where I connected her first
name to a Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila, who are one of the most influential bands in Lebanon
and the Middle East because of their lyrics that speak explicitly about gender, sexuality, politics
and gender role expectations something that has never been done in the Middle East. Mashrou’
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Lelia translates into “overnight project”, which I included in my spoken word because of Leila
Ahmed’s attempt to breakdown the meaning of the hijab to the West by including perspectives of
Muslim Women in the West. I felt as though Leila Ahmed was creating her own overnight
project by including this in the academic realm. I wanted to bridge other arts and theory into one
especially Middle Eastern arts. Another example is Uma Narayan such that her first name in
Arabic translates into “stand” or “rise” in English. Her essay focuses on bringing perspectives of
non-western women into the world of academia. My perception of her essay is that she rose
above the mainstream academic theories and deconstructed them through a nonwestern feminist
lens, hence my repetition of her name since I was saying it in Arabic in addition to my overall
message of nonwestern women to rise or have risen above hegemonic feminism.
Other instances where I used language to emphasize my points were those of Latina
women. I included Spanish words when I was speaking about Martinez, Anzaldúa and the
Chicana movement. I felt that using their native tongue was necessary to highlight the
significance of their movement. I used the words “the warrior”, which translates in “los
guerreros” because their essays brought out the warrior aspects of a revolution and so I tied them
together. Other symbolic representations I included was the use of rhyming. For example, in the
line “Jaggar you pulled out the daggers”; I wanted to emphasize her impact of her theory in the
epistemology such that stating that emotions were the driving force of knowledge and not the
periphery as well as how emotions were driving my theory map.
Finally, since I was focusing on a low literate audience I wanted to explain key terms
different theorists stated in their essays or poems in my own explanation. For instance, in Lila
Abu- Lughod’s Orientalism and Middle East Feminist Studies her first section speaks about
“correctives” and so I took my spin on the section and created it as my own. It highlighted the
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major theme in my theory map such that hegemonic feminism’s perception of “other” women is
through their own lens and not in the “other” women’s lens. This is one of the major flaws to
hegemonic feminism, whereas they place meanings into context they truly do not know anything
about. I have also created a visual aspect to “Come out Come out Whatever You Are” by color
coding statements of the different theorists as well as theorists names throughout the spoken
word, so one can see the different integrations and connections I have made throughout this
theory map.
Furthermore, I thoroughly enjoyed this theory map and the simplicity I chose to combine,
alter and connect all the theorists of different cultures, languages, context and my own
experience to write this powerful spoken word that I hope will speak to everyone.