I’m late on this but had to post. My friend Cullen [Red Emma’s stalwart and ex-TaxLo maestro] was on Countdown with Keith Olbermann to talk about Occupy Baltimore. Well done.
Had ish with things I’d been hearing about #OB and had major ish with #OB’s first version of their whole “what to do if you’re sexually assaulted” memo, but (a) they revised it, so that’s really good and (b) I don’t want them to get evicted. Hope they’re able to stay.
i spend hundreds of hours trying to write for hoax & it’s almost always unsuccessful.
i feel unsafe writing in the feminist zine sphere because there is a very specific, regimented way in which you are supposed to address certain issues. i feel like i have to qualify every single point i make and preemptively critique myself before i am attacked.
honest mistakes become excuses to bully somebody in this “call out” culture.
it feels impossible for somebody such as myself who is extremely learning disabled. every sentence is already an agonizing process. constantly feeling as though i’m about to be put on trial makes everything exponentially worse.
i have to continue to remind myself that it’s okay for myself to have a voice, even if i am part of the privileged majority. that sharing my opinions via a zine does not prevent other people from sharing their opinions. that my own writing is not another silencing mechanism.
i wonder why i am still doing this to myself.
I hear this. I don’t think it’s even a “call out” culture thing so much as a “human nature” thing — or rather, that what’s been labeled as “call out” culture is a human nature thing. That isn’t to say that privilege should go forever unchecked or that no one should critique anything or that no one should ever vent anger, because anger is important. But it’s easier for us to pick at each other than to go after, idk, /b/. And I think, as humans, there’s always this seductive urge to simplify — “if I just say X, i’m Righteous And Good, and if you say Y, you’re Beyond Help and Bad.” I think, especially for allies of whatever -ism, it’s especially seductive — I know it was for me — to think, “Ooh, with this easy set of rules, I Am A Good Person/Ally.” And going after people in a group hits some kind of fucked-up self-righteous-pleasure-button in our chimp-brains.
I think this is always gonna be a component of the Left’s problems with getting shit done. Making it more complicated is, again, that sometimes anger is important, that intersectionality is obvs important, and that the Left is really heterogeneous, unlike the Right. It’s easy for the Right to close ranks and hush up dissent and push for stuff because it represents the needs of the white-cis-male-hetero-Christian-able-bodied-1%. Whereas on the Left… not so much. So many more conflicting needs.
ughhhh
I’ve been so excited and filled with hope by the #Occupy protests, but the fact that some #Occupies want to deal with problems of sexual assault “internally” makes me rage. Leftist accountability processes are bullshit. I don’t trust a bunch of my peers to successfully rehabilitate a rapist. And shunning the rapist just means they move onto prey on another group somewhere else. Bringing cops in is of course going to fuck things up and make other occupiers feel unsafe. But I honestly don’t see another way of successfully dealing with sexual predators. I want professionals taking on that shit. Not my buddies at the drum circle.
Are You the Crime Show Killer?
Start with one of the four questions in the middle.
So, so true.
Goddamn internet, having all this fun without me.
Self, do not watch Game of Thrones. You do not like grimdark things, and you will just be angry at it for being grimdark. You don’t like bleak, classy shows, which is why you didn’t watch The Sopranos or Mad Men and you have no idea how you got through, much less enjoyed Battlestar Galactica and Six Feet Under (and SFU had comic relief, at least).
Also, you hate rape scenes written and directed by dudes. They send you into a militant rage-coma.
Don’t watch it. Don’t read the books.
Don’t do it, self. Go back to Deep Space Nine. Motherfucking Firefly was a little too dark for you, self. DO NOT DO THIS.
.jnf.: Oh hey speaking of ridiculous things to get mad about →
Animal ethicists are calling for a new vocabulary about animals, shunning words such as “pets,” “wildlife,” and “vermin” as derogatory and even suggesting “animal” is a “term of abuse.”
Common language on fauna betrays an “anthropocentric bias” and impedes an understanding of our interaction…
I do think language matters, and I’m down with dropping “owner” in favor of “caretaker,” (or “housemate,” as Maru refers to his human counterpart).
But I think it’s a shame these ethicists are humansplaining on behalf of other animals, instead of respecting how they self-identify.
For example the Feline community has long been on record with their position that humans should be referred to as “Where Food Comes From,” and the proper and respectful terminology for cats is “The One You Give The Food To, And By The Way Where’s My Food”.
I love this man.
there's our catastrophe: to clarify: →
“Old” (January 2011), but I just discovered this conversation. Reblogging for truth:
every time this language issue comes up (see Tiara’s original post for context), a bunch of people say that there’s a false dichotomy being drawn between reforming language and “real action”. In theory I agree — it should be possible to pay attention to language and also be part of a broader social movement. but in practice… the dichotomy exists, in people, in our actions. there are a bunch of people who appear to be paying more attention to problematic language than anything else— some who are using it as a tool to gain status, and some who are genuinely doing their best to end various oppressions. my issue is not with paying attention to the social consequences of language at all — it is to do with the immense amount of time and energy that’s put into the (in my view) unending task of making language oppression-free, without consideration for what this might be substituting for, or who is being excluded by the very attempt at inclusion. this is not a theoretical concern.
FOR EXAMPLE. in my experience, trade unionists often use words like “chick”, “bitch”, “cunt”, “girl”, “love” (as in, “can you get that for me, love/babe/darling?” in a way they wouldn’t speak to a dude) etc. while this can get a bit wearing, I generally ignore it unless it’s tied to a more explicitly sexist comment. because if I constantly pull them up on this stuff, they will get awkward, angry, and eventually dismiss me as an out-of-touch university wanker. and they would be right. it would severely limit my ability to work with trade unionists — who, despite the flaws of the union movement, are pretty amazing people to have on your side. I’m not willing to sacrifice that.
Fuck. Yes.
there's our catastrophe: I find that opposition to overly academic language in the name of... →
I find that opposition to overly academic language in the name of accessibility can easily cross the line into rote anti-intellectualism. which is…maybe not in itself the worst thing ever. like, many big ol’ nerds really need to get over the high school persecution complex thing. having been an…
LOL time to get dogpiled, but… if you were bullied, it doesn’t matter if you’re at the top of the heap, privilege-wise (not that you are, I’m just saying). It doesn’t matter. Bullying is wrong, it’s fucked up, and it’s perfectly natural to be angry and sad and fucked up over it. The urge to dominate other humans, to exert our power over them, is one of the worst fucking things about our species, and it’s at the heart of what’s wrong with so much of our culture. Bullying is a part of that.
Epic missing the point maybe, but I read your post almost as if… almost as if you’re apologizing for being upset over being bullied (in part) for being a nerd, as if you have to explain that being nerdy isn’t always a function of privilege. If that’s a misread, I apologize. But even if being nerdy is the most privileged fucking thing in the world (and I’m not saying it is), no one has the right to bully you over it, and no one should be douchey enough to act like you’re the asshole for being fucked up by it, no matter your intersecting privileges or lack thereof.
If that sounds like some kumbaya, “let’s all hold hands,” “wahhh I don’t believe in feminism, I believe in EQUALISM” “b-b-but I’m colorblind” bullshit, I’m sorry, because I truly hate that shit. But… yeah. Also, I’m low on sleep and should not be tumbling right now.
but I also don’t agree that bullying transcends oppression/privilege or is somehow outside it. like, looking back, in a lot of ways the real problem I was having as a kid was misogyny. and I was also shielded from much nastier shit by my other privileges. (also I don’t think I agree that the urge to dominate is inherent to us, at least not the way people normally mean by “inherent”.)
I didn’t mean to suggest that it transcends or is outside of oppression (I don’t think such a thing is possible) but more that it’s not somehow… only “allowable” to be upset about it if the bullying is specifically and overtly aimed at an axis you’re disprivileged on. (Holy jargon, Batman!)
this is why it’s important for me to be nuanced here, which to me is not the same as being apologetic.
I apologize for misreading you — in that case, my whole reblog/comment/whatever is basically moot.
I just wish we could get some more give and take. if some people are saying “My whole life people have mocked and harassed me for daring to have some complicated thoughts and express them, fuck you” and others are saying “My whole life pseudo-intellectual wankers have tried to shut me down and shut me out and go over my head, fuck you”, and everybody is just focused on feeling our legitimate hurt and rage, where is the room for anyone to move? and where is the space for people who’ve had both experiences at different times, who get it from both angles?
Total agreement, 100%.
