A mahogany office IN-tray overflowed with 'corrected' forms: hospital admissions with 'Sikh' written over 'Baptist', job applications with '50-Y/O DIGITAL ADAPTIVE EXPERT' stamped over 'native'. A monocle lies broken beside a steaming mug of chai

The tyranny of tidy boxes: how master/slave binaries bodge human society

We humans adore a simple dichotomy. It’s frightfully efficient. White or non-white. Male or female. Disabled or abled. These binaries promise neatness in a messy world, a cognitive filing system for complex humanity. Yet as philosopher Val Plumwood observed, these “master/slave” frameworks operate through five dangerou…

June 1, 2025 · 6 min