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Last week discussion question -Shannon

 In the Mercer piece for this week, I was intrigued by the question of normative hybridization and how it relates to difference. From what I gathered, Mercer is proposing that we've reached a point where difference is no longer "subversive" in itself, and "sameness" has begun to "disrupt[] social perceptions of symbolic categories and classificatory systems." (241)


This semi-linear framework seems to perpetuate a cycle where eventually we'll get back to a place where difference is again emphasized, after "sameness" becomes the norm. If we agree with Mercer about this cycle, then what period are we in right now? Or is there any going back to "sameness" as the norm once difference has been asserted?

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