The Silence of Our Friends

Other People Say Things I Missed

Many times these internet brawls have me thinking of many things at once and when I sit down to write I forget some of them. That is what happened with my last post, although I did say much of what I wanted to say too.

In the thread linked at Women of Color Blog, belledame222 said this:

"what it reminds me of, again: rigidly religious people who are trying to cling to their idea of themselves as brimming over with Christian charity, full of luv and compassion and not bigoted at all and “we’re all sinners,” of course, none of us worse than any other…and yet simultaneously defending homophobic prejudices, justifying it with something along the lines of,

“People can do what they want, I guess, but I just don’t agree with that lifestyle. And, just because think marriage is between a man and a woman doesn’t make me HOMOPHOBIC, and I resent being called that. [I Am Not A Bad Person].”

to which the answer is:

There’s nothing to -agree- with, and it isn’t a -lifestyle.- It’s my LIFE. You are putting your BELIEF against my LIFE, my BEING, as though they were equivalent. No one is arguing about whether -you- have the right to get married to the person you love. Or, in this case: no one is arguing about whether -you- have the right to go to the bathroom in public in peace. You have that privilege–yes, i said PRIVILEGE–regardless of who wins this fight; you do not have the same stakes invested in it. It is NOT equivalent.

Which, when you say this to such people, the response, as here, is usually:

1) Defensive anger/wounded martyrdom/make it about Me and how I’m being Misunderstood, again
2) -crickets crickets-, address something tangential instead."

And now you must go read this post by R.Mildred, There is no cannibalism in left blogistan. Further into the post R.Mildred explains how she felt about the burqa skirmish, and about empathy. Both belledame222 and R.Mildred are saying pretty much the same thing, that it isn't possible to agree to disagree when we are discussing whether someone deserves to be treated as a human being or not. It isn't possible for either of them to just let it pass when they see someone's basic humanity is being denied. It isn't a disagreement over a matter of opinion - do transgender people deserve dignity? how about muslim women or people of color in general? Arguing with these people over this is like arguing about whether the Earth is flat. Which is why this is so mind boggling, we are talking about supposed allies, supposed feminists, and supposed liberals not living-in-the-12th-century-conservatives. Over at IBTP they wanted to label transwomen as inhuman monsters, but check the part about whitemail in R.Mildred's post, she knows who the real inhuman monsters are.

And back to why WOC don't identify with what passes for feminism, who could say it better than BlackAmazon? No one! Here are two great posts on the subject -
AND ..................I QUIT!
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

posted by Donna at 2:08 AM |