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I follow the comic Penny Arcade... mainly because it’s mildly amusing to me now and then. It used to be much more amusing to me - but I’m not as current on computer games as I was all those years ago so I think a lot of the humour is now going over my head.
Anyway, recently they posted this comic and the news posts explaining it
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/8/17/true-face-our-enemy/
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2009/08/17/true-face-our-enemy/
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2009/08/17/ladylikeraul/
And display a rather profound amount of ignorance.
Amazingly enough the http://www.thinkb4youspeak.com/TheCampaign/ is NOT actually aimed at anonymous internet trolls spewing bile. A cursory glance at their campaign would make that clear.
The campaign is about educating people who are ACCIDENTALLY causing offence without meaning to. This is about informing people that they are hurting people and that they’re contributing to homophobia.
The angry internet troll is TRYING to offend people. This campaign is not aimed at them. As is clear, they’re quite willing to use the most openly repellent and disgusting language ANYWAY. This is NOT about them.
See, this is the problem with privilege, you can be severely blind to prejudice and offence. Sometimes you only see the most blatant examples. Homophobia is NOT just the province of screaming hate monkey yelling “fag” at us, any more than racism is limited to guys using the n-word. In fact, I would say that these are a MINOR part of prejudice because anyone that virulently repellent is clearly revealed as an arsehole and is easily ignored or dismissed as a lunatic.
That is not what this campaign is aiming to fix. That is not the pain it is hoping to ease. It’s hoping to fix this:
http://sparkindarkness.livejournal.com/214746.html
Every day we will hear this. “That’s gay” meaning broken, damaged, diseased, wrong, lesser. We hear it when we’re kids at school - and the teachers ignore it. We hear it on the bus, in shops, we hear it at university, we hear it walking down the street, we hear it on the radio and on television - and yes, online.
We hear it several times a day, an unremitting message from everyone, from society itself telling us that we’re not good enough. That we’re synonymous with all things broken and damaged and diseased. And as heterosexuals, the creators of this comic do not see that, do not hear that, do not feel that. They haven’t grown up with it, haven’t internalised the crippling lack of self-worth it causes, the deep seated fear and inferiority it brings.
It’s an insidious poison that they - or any heterosexual - CANNOT understand. A lunatic screaming “faggot” can be dismissed as a crazed hate monger. But this endless barrage of contempt and dehumanisation from society at large? That’s damaging, that hurts, that wounds us. That’s part of the core why gay teens top the suicide rates. That’s the foundation why so many gay teens are homeless from running away from home. That’s the reason for the closet, for men and women spending decades living lies and empty, hollow existences. The core, the foundation is always society ceaselessly telling us we’re not good enough.
And that’s what this campaign is about. It’s not about the crazy bigots, the trolls, the hate mongers, the frothing homophobes. It’s asking all the every day people, all the nice, normal people to please stop sending this message. Stop attacking us. Stop hurting our children. Stop telling us we’re worthless. Give us a chance to grow and live without this barrage of dehumanisation.
It’s not about dictating language. It’s about educating people and opening eyes - because this is hurting us. And we genuinely believe most people don’t want to do that.
Anyway, recently they posted this comic and the news posts explaining it
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/8/17/true-face-our-enemy/
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2009/08/17/true-face-our-enemy/
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2009/08/17/ladylikeraul/
And display a rather profound amount of ignorance.
Amazingly enough the http://www.thinkb4youspeak.com/TheCampaign/ is NOT actually aimed at anonymous internet trolls spewing bile. A cursory glance at their campaign would make that clear.
The campaign is about educating people who are ACCIDENTALLY causing offence without meaning to. This is about informing people that they are hurting people and that they’re contributing to homophobia.
The angry internet troll is TRYING to offend people. This campaign is not aimed at them. As is clear, they’re quite willing to use the most openly repellent and disgusting language ANYWAY. This is NOT about them.
See, this is the problem with privilege, you can be severely blind to prejudice and offence. Sometimes you only see the most blatant examples. Homophobia is NOT just the province of screaming hate monkey yelling “fag” at us, any more than racism is limited to guys using the n-word. In fact, I would say that these are a MINOR part of prejudice because anyone that virulently repellent is clearly revealed as an arsehole and is easily ignored or dismissed as a lunatic.
That is not what this campaign is aiming to fix. That is not the pain it is hoping to ease. It’s hoping to fix this:
http://sparkindarkness.livejournal.com/214746.html
Every day we will hear this. “That’s gay” meaning broken, damaged, diseased, wrong, lesser. We hear it when we’re kids at school - and the teachers ignore it. We hear it on the bus, in shops, we hear it at university, we hear it walking down the street, we hear it on the radio and on television - and yes, online.
We hear it several times a day, an unremitting message from everyone, from society itself telling us that we’re not good enough. That we’re synonymous with all things broken and damaged and diseased. And as heterosexuals, the creators of this comic do not see that, do not hear that, do not feel that. They haven’t grown up with it, haven’t internalised the crippling lack of self-worth it causes, the deep seated fear and inferiority it brings.
It’s an insidious poison that they - or any heterosexual - CANNOT understand. A lunatic screaming “faggot” can be dismissed as a crazed hate monger. But this endless barrage of contempt and dehumanisation from society at large? That’s damaging, that hurts, that wounds us. That’s part of the core why gay teens top the suicide rates. That’s the foundation why so many gay teens are homeless from running away from home. That’s the reason for the closet, for men and women spending decades living lies and empty, hollow existences. The core, the foundation is always society ceaselessly telling us we’re not good enough.
And that’s what this campaign is about. It’s not about the crazy bigots, the trolls, the hate mongers, the frothing homophobes. It’s asking all the every day people, all the nice, normal people to please stop sending this message. Stop attacking us. Stop hurting our children. Stop telling us we’re worthless. Give us a chance to grow and live without this barrage of dehumanisation.
It’s not about dictating language. It’s about educating people and opening eyes - because this is hurting us. And we genuinely believe most people don’t want to do that.