“To harm themselves is to defy the system that locks them away.”
I thought this quote was ironic because it sounds like them harming themselves is hurting themselves even more than its harming those that are oppressing them. The system will just make space for another detainee that will stay where you stayed. I think this may have been a metaphor for creating the thrill of escape. They may stop at the point where they know that the harm is irreversible because that’s when it hits what they would be leaving behind, their family. The idea of escaping the oppression is an adventurous high that fells good in the moment because the pain would be gone, but the pain would have an everlasting impact on your family with the mourning.
Sharielly,
I think this is a good point about searching for bodily autonomy in a place where it is hard to come by. But also, it is a form of rebellion that feeds into the hands of the oppressor too. Sort of a false consciousness where they are unaware of how their oppressors benefit from them thinking that self-harm is a form of autonomy.
Hi Sharielly,
I disagree with the idea that the detainees harming themselves is a sort of excitement for them under these circumstances. I think that it’s instead a desperate act to actually be seen as a person in the eyes of the center’s guards, personnel, and others in the center enforcing their dehumanizing procedures, because if they were being seen in another, less dramatic (for lack of a better word) way, the self-harm wouldn’t be called for. Therefore, I don’t think there is pleasure in this act as excitement can sometimes be correlated with.