[ SECRET POST #092 ]

[grayout.livejournal.com]

⌈ Secret Post #092 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 61 secrets from Secret Submission Post #014.
Secrets Not Posted: 0 broken links, 0 not!secrets, 0 not!fandom.
Next Secret Post: Tomorrow, Sunday, April 8th, 2007.
Current Secret Submission Post: Here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[annwyd.livejournal.com]

"If you can't take the heat of being a gay which includes society and its own views, then don't be one."

The problem with this statement is twofold: logical and moral.

Let's tackle the logical problem with it first. By stating that it is the minority's responsibility to avoid prejudice, rather than the bigot's responsibility to avoid taking prejudiced actions, you are shifting the blame for the results of prejudice away from where it logically belongs: square on the shoulders of the people who do prejudiced things.

By your logic, if a gay teenager grows up hating himself because his parents tell him that he's worthless and going to hell, it's his fault for putting himself in a position to be abused and not being tough enough to take it. His parents are absolved of blame, even though they were the ones who said the things that triggered the boy's self-loathing.

This is akin to saying that if a person is standing by a window and someone throws a rock through the window, hitting them in the head, it's their fault if they get a concussion. They should have been wearing a hardhat.

This brings me to the moral aspect of your argument. The analogy I just used was a relatively neutral one, not designed to bring up issues of oppression and bigotry.

But I could also point out that your argument is simply another version of the time-old claim: "It's her fault she got raped--she was dressed like a slut/alone at night/in a bad neighborhood/drunk at a party."

I think most people can recognize how wrong that statement is. And therein is the moral flaw of your argument: it shifts the blame for pain and suffering from the oppressor, who is the one who needs to learn to change and stop hurting people, to the oppressed, who is the one suffering.

Someone being hurt by other people or by society should not be forced to take responsibility for the actions that hurt them. Why? Because if we pawn off responsibility for bigotry on its victims, it will never change. Society will never improve for any minority.

The mindset that leads to this kind of accusation is fairly understandable, at least. On the side of members of the majority, it's much easier to blame the minority on some nebulous charge of not being strong enough to hack it in this tough world. Because that means that nobody has to do anything to improve the situation; the world is tough, that's just the way it is. Dealing with it isn't the majority's problem.

On the side of other members of the minority, it's comforting to say, "If you can't take the pressure of being a member of such-and-such a minority, don't be one," because it makes them feel that they're special for being able to tough it out, instead of just lucky to have a supportive family/emotional resilience/an accepting environment/whatever it is that helped them get through it.

Either way, though, it's harmful to the progress of society as a whole and unjustifiable as a belief.

[ew-younerd.livejournal.com]

♥__♥ Thanks for undoing the damage I did to the lesbian community.

[annwyd.livejournal.com]

Shhh...I never said I'm a lesbian.

I don't know if I can take it. ;_;