Where's The Beef?

missdevice:

Look, I really want to like you guys. I really do. But a lot of you say and do some things that make me want to distance myself from you as much as humanly possible.

1. Just because someone is some combination of cisgender, heterosexual, white, neurotypical and/or male does not make what they have to say worthless. (I probably forgot some other things, but you get the gist) These people are our brothers and fathers, our straight allies, etc. Many of them are on your side. If you don’t like something someone says, I know it’s really easy to just dismiss it by saying, “Oh well whatever you’re male/white/straight/cis/have no disabilities so idec” but everyone’s voice is important. You don’t like it when people dismiss your opinion because of a thing like race/sex/gender/disability/etc, so why do you do that to others? If you don’t like someone’s opinion or what they have to say, let it be for a better reason than that.

2. Maybe we should stop yelling about privilege so much. As someone who is queer, straight privilege seems pretty cool to me and I wish I had it, so I get your frustration. But when you put someone on the spot and accuse them of _____ privilege, they probably aren’t going to stop and say, “Oh, you know what, you’re right! I do have privilege and you don’t!” They’re probably going to get defensive because it’s kind of putting them on the spot. You guys do a lot of angry arguments with people.

Most of the time that I see people talking about privilege, it’s “Well, of course a person with ______ privilege would say that” to dismiss someone’s argument without really listening to them. If you REALLY have to throw around the concept of privilege, I think discussions about privilege would be better dealt with in broader terms. As a woman, while I am many ways at a disadvantage compared to men, sometimes I have privilege in situations they don’t. If I introduced the concept as, say, “gender privilege,” instead, people are a lot more likely to listen to me.

3. Speaking of putting people on the defensive, don’t blame people for the sins of their forefathers. Or I guess the perceived sins. This only applies to some of you. What do I mean by this? My family only recently immigrated from the US, but that hasn’t stopped people from saying that my ancestors were directly responsible for the slave trade of Africans in the United States or the genocide of Native Americans. Nope, I’m pretty sure they were busy making wine and practicing Judaism in Austria while all that was happening, but thank you for noticing that I’m white.

I see a lot of people saying similar things. You guys, calm down. In the same way that you don’t want people to make ridiculous assumptions about you, you shouldn’t accuse others of ridiculous things because of their race etc. This makes it hard to be sympathetic to you. And actually, had my direct ancestors owned slaves, I don’t think it would say anything about me, anyway, as long as I didn’t think it was awesome that they had.

4. Choose your battles. Look, if someone says something ableist or sexist or something on tumblr, writing a bunch of really long, angry essays probably isn’t going to change their mind if they didn’t listen to you the first time. Pick your arguments and decide what’s worth getting mad about and pursuing. Send someone a message saying, “Hey, I didn’t think that was cool! Did you know that your post was kind of ableist?” If they say, “Fuck you, cripple” or something, drop it, because you aren’t going to convince them.

And maybe sometimes it’s so inflammatory that you think it would be worth pursuing anyway, but what people think of when they think of you is being bombarded with rage for slipping up and using the word “lame.”

I like you guys. I really do. But you all kind of need to calm down a little.As a feminist and a secular humanist, right now I want to do everything I can to distance myself from you guys because you give yourselves such a bad rep. It’s kind of unfortunate, because we agree on a lot of the same things.

this post brought to you by MissDevice’s white privilege blah blah

(via itsxandy)

gyzym:

So, this is a piece of meta I’ve been wanting to write for SOME TIME. Because of this, I’d like to state before I start that, while I may say things like “This is this” and “That is that,” these are, as ever, just my opinions about stuff; if I talk about them like they are strongly held truths, that is because they are things that I personally believe, quite strongly, to be true! But it is okay if you do not agree with me, or agree with me on some things or not on others, or agree with me but would have phrased it differently, or what have you! These are not edicts of behavior and they are not intended to be treated as such, or to shame anyone, or to really do anything but talk about this in the hopes of aiding and abetting the production of awesome words. Okay? Okay. 

Now, LET’S TALK ABOUT SELF-INSERT: what it means, how it works, and why it is not actually a crime. 

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itswallie:

thwipquip:

iconsf:

DC Comics recently announced that the “iconic” Alan Scott, created in 1940 as the original Green Lantern, would be gay in the New 52, their publishing initiative to simplify their multiverse to make it more accessible to new readers.

They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means.

i•con (n)

a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol of something

New Oxford American Dictionary

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In which I have Wally West feelings and get angry about misused and empty rhetoric.

The truest, most concise, eloquent words I have read in a long while.

(He also uses my husband as a reference like he’s important and that’s hilarious and darling and thanks)