The 'space between' or why does the gap between 'us' and 'them' look like an unbridgeable chasm?

This paper is a reflection on my experiences in teaching 'Gender in a Postc olonial World,' based on my book Reorienting Western Feminisms. In this art icle, I explore how difficult it is to discuss the differences between wome n without falling into a dualistic contrast between 'us' and 'them.' I disc uss several approaches, including Isabelle Gunning's notion of world travel ing and Gayatri Spivak's idea of strategic essentialism. The article conclu des that a major way of avoiding dualism is to address issues of difference in specific contexts and by participants being aware of the political impl ications of their learning and speech. Is difference good or bad, biological, social, or historical? Is it a weakn ess or a strength? Should we forfeit a notion of sexual difference on the g rounds that all people, men and women, are not essentially different from e ach other, but merely culturally constructed as different? Can these constr uctions of masculinity and femininity be undone? (Holub, 1994: 235) ... there is no question that the ability to deal with difference is at the centre of feminism's survival as a movement for social change (Gunew and Y eatman, 1993: xxiv). The opposite of equality is not difference, but, rather, inequality (Rita F elski, 1997: 15).