Right Story, Wrong Story: How to Have Fearless Conversations in Hell

by Tyson Yunkaporta

In all settler states observed (except Canada, where nobody seemed to take the fights particularly seriously unless hockey was involved) minority cultures were more likely to exhibit rule-governed behaviours in street fights. That is not to say that whiteness was the common variable here, as the mainstream conflict protocols observed in Taiwan’s dominant culture were the same as those we observed in the other settler states. The dominant culture in every settler state showed the same patterns, including an enforced division in gendered roles, but this was most prevalent in Israel and Australia. In Israel, women were mostly absent, even as onlookers. In Australia women were present in most fights, but their roles as cheerleaders or non-combatant peacemakers were strictly enforced. Australian settler women did on multiple occasions attempt to engage in combat, but in every case the male combatants would immediately stop fighting and work together to prevent female participation. Formerly passionate rivals, even in the midst of extreme rage, would unite as brothers and move together, in ways we observed as almost a collective organism, to separate female rivals either physically or through ridicule and sexualisation, or both. The ridicule usually took the form of violent, sexualised insults or catcalls, which universally seemed to have a depressive effect on the women, who became slouched, tearful and enervated, when moments before they had been highly motivated, energetic an...