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A bunch of people are popping up with impassioned please on gatorgrrrl's behalf, due to her being called nasty things by anonymous persons like so:
( cut for misogynist slur )
I think we can all agree that meeting one kind of oppressive language with another is not a good thing.
What's aggravating is seeing so many iterations -- yet again! -- of the tone argument coming up, where people whine that if those hurt by the story were just *nicer* about telling gatorgrrrl where she went wrong (since all of us are a monolith and got the same marching orders and are able to police each other, of course), everything would have been resolved in a lovely Teaching Moment for those hurt and a valuable Learning Experience for those not.
onelittlesleep posted about this aspect of the whole thing, and I made a comment in there referencing something that was bothering me a lot about how much emphasis has been placed on using the "c**t" comment to inscribe victimhood on gatorgrrrl, as opposed to the COMPLETE LACK of any discussion or attention paid to this comment on the same anonymeme (the second bit, not the first):
( cut for ... I can't even begin )
Perfectly calm. No explicit gendered insult or wish of violence. Offhand, cool, innocuous even. I wince a bit when I read the angry first example, but it's this second polite one that hits me deep inside.
"How can anyone dismiss that anger without at the same time undermining the reasons for this anger? Is stemming the tide of anger, is attempting to reduce the force of the backlash, in any way just?"
Please think of this next time somebody says something harmful and people respond in pain and anger. Please think of it before you feel a pang in sympathy for the person who started inflicting hurt in the first place, because you know how *you'd* feel if people were so angry at you. Please don't then focus your response and dialogue on how the "lynching/dogpiling/mob mentality" makes the world "unsafe" for that person. Please remember what the fuck people are angry about to begin with, and that anger can be productive where impassive and utterly civil inhumanity cannot.
( cut for misogynist slur )
I think we can all agree that meeting one kind of oppressive language with another is not a good thing.
What's aggravating is seeing so many iterations -- yet again! -- of the tone argument coming up, where people whine that if those hurt by the story were just *nicer* about telling gatorgrrrl where she went wrong (since all of us are a monolith and got the same marching orders and are able to police each other, of course), everything would have been resolved in a lovely Teaching Moment for those hurt and a valuable Learning Experience for those not.
onelittlesleep posted about this aspect of the whole thing, and I made a comment in there referencing something that was bothering me a lot about how much emphasis has been placed on using the "c**t" comment to inscribe victimhood on gatorgrrrl, as opposed to the COMPLETE LACK of any discussion or attention paid to this comment on the same anonymeme (the second bit, not the first):
( cut for ... I can't even begin )
Perfectly calm. No explicit gendered insult or wish of violence. Offhand, cool, innocuous even. I wince a bit when I read the angry first example, but it's this second polite one that hits me deep inside.
"How can anyone dismiss that anger without at the same time undermining the reasons for this anger? Is stemming the tide of anger, is attempting to reduce the force of the backlash, in any way just?"
Please think of this next time somebody says something harmful and people respond in pain and anger. Please think of it before you feel a pang in sympathy for the person who started inflicting hurt in the first place, because you know how *you'd* feel if people were so angry at you. Please don't then focus your response and dialogue on how the "lynching/dogpiling/mob mentality" makes the world "unsafe" for that person. Please remember what the fuck people are angry about to begin with, and that anger can be productive where impassive and utterly civil inhumanity cannot.
