You often act superior. You are doing it in every possible way. It’s expressed within all fields. Sometimes it’s about your strength. Sometimes it’s about knowledge. Sometimes it’s just about sex.
The architectural profession encourages us to think of architecture as something only architects do. (p.28)
Mostly I can see the injustice. Mostly I can see how wrong you are. Mostly I know better.
Doing architecture we follow certain rules (pp. 31, 32, 33)
But there’s times when you fool me. The conviction you have about what you do, think, say, write convinces me that what you do, think, say, write is just as right as you seem to think it is. You are convincing by your conviction. It makes me convinced without even question. You make me think you are superior.
But who was I to speak to them? (p. 34)
You had me doubt myself. I doubted the things I was doing, because it wasn’t the things you did. I doubted the things I was thinking, because it wasn’t the things you thought. I doubted the things I was saying, because it wasn’t the things you said. I doubted the things I was writing, because it wasn’t the things you wrote.
They undo architecture as architecture undoes them. (p. 29)
I stopped doing, thinking, saying, writing as myself. Your conviction in your superiority made me break down into pieces. Disappear. Your way became my way. It’s not my way.
How could these women speak, when my own words were silencing them? (p.34)
I must believe in myself. I must question myself. What is it that I’m doing, thinking, saying, writing? Is it right? Is it me? I must question others. I must question you. Is it right? Is it reasonable? Is it good? Is it true?
elsa jannborg
Source:
Jane Rendell. (2010). Site-Writing: The Architecture of Art Criticism. London: I.B. Tauris
archandphil 
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