Exceptionalism

Exceptionalism is the condition of something or someone which does not fit a pattern or a norm.

It is considered here in a political context, as it applies in a sexist society, though this application also extends to other systems of discrimination, such as racism and classism.

The opposite of exceptionalism is exemplification, whereby the individual exemplifies or demonstrates the qualities of its class.

Exceptionalism of the Oppressed

Exceptionalism applied to the oppressed raises the individual above her sex/race/economic class without upsetting the position of her class as a whole. Exceptionally, a woman can gain importance if she is perceived as different from her gender, that is, if she is singled out from other women, while the rest of her gender are viewed without special consideration, and usually dismissed as a whole.

It's a variation on the "divide and conquer" theme, and its mirror image is scapegoating. Exceptionalism places every emphasis on the worth of the individual, divorcing her from her political context, and therefore discouraging her from joining others who share the same default political status in a revolutionary struggle, because her uniqueness exempts her from the consequences her gendered status.

Exceptions may gain access to privileged groups, but they never gain the basis for the power which keeps a particular class in a position of domination over another, because that very basis is what should have excluded those exceptions from participation in the first place.

This is phenomenon is linked to tokenism, but whereas tokenism is the behaviour of the group or the incumbent towards including an individual they would normally exclude, for instance as a political gesture of good will or mollification, exceptionalism relates to the individual's unique status in itself, to its justifications and to the nature of the individual's difference from her peers.

Typical statements about exceptionalism go:

• "You're not like other girls."
• "That's pretty good for a woman."
• "Rising above one's class."
• "Of course, I'm not talking about you."

Exceptionalism of the Oppressor

Whereas exceptionalism targeted at individuals from oppressed classes seeks to raise them "above" their oppression, exceptionalism targeted at individuals from oppressor classes can take a curiously apologetic form when the charge is that of being an oppressor.

As exceptionalism of the oppressed tries to exempt the oppressed from the burden of being oppressed, exceptionalism of the oppressor tries to exempt the oppressor from the responsability for oppression.

The typical response against the charge that men exploit women goes: "But not all men are like that!"

In this way, it's very similar to the process of scapegoating. The difference is that here, "don't hurt me! I'm not like them!" is a response from a member of a dominant class in the face of insurrection, rather than from a member of a subjected class in the face of oppression, and that it seeks to reject the blame onto the group, rather than away from it.

This is often followed by an attempt to invalidate the very notion of the responsability of an oppressive class by showing one or a few of its members as innocents, which marks it as a very hypocritical or very stupid refusal to systematise, to see the connections that dictate how a large number of elements function as a whole, or as outright mystification.

When a member of the oppressed claims exceptionalism for one of her oppressors, Rebecca West's definition of idiocy might explain it -- a focus on the personal, divorced from the political. But the lunacy of the politically-obsessed, which might prevent, for instance, a man from noticing that a woman is the victim of discrimination because she is a woman, is conspicuously absent from the line of thought required to arrive at the conclusion that the nature of the exceptional man should override his membership to his class.

Instead, this logic demonstrates a very keen awareness of that class status, and of its implications, because a lack of such awareness would mean that the individual, failing to see his connection to the oppressor, would not try to defend himself as one of them.

Exceptionalism in Fiction

Exceptionalism in fiction provides well-worn narrative tropes for female characters.

The one female character who escapes her destined gender role recurs again and again, since the conditions that require her exceptionalism to allow her to perform heroic deeds endure. That is: for as long as the rule is that women don't perform the actions that drive the story, then you must make exceptions to allow women's actions to drive the story.

Some examples of exceptionalism:

• Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword.

• The very concept of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which rests on the Slayer's exemption from the fate of helpless female characters in a horror story.

• etc.

The Other Alternative to Being an Exception

Conformity is not the only alternative to exceptionalism. The other alternative to exceptionalism is to change the rules. To destroy the norm, rather than to try to escape it.

It is revolution.

See, for instance:

• The Female Man, by Joanna Russ
• etc.

See also

Joanna Russ's essay, "What Can a Heroine Do? Or: Why Women Can't Write".