From Twitter 05-03-2011

( Tweets. Scintillating, innit. )

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Being a white guy is totally awesome.

Yesterday I made a trip to Jefferson City to participate in a pro-choice lobby day event. This was kind of hard on me for a handful of reasons, not the least of which is that I live in the third most restrictive state in the US on abortion. The Missouri House and Senate are incredibly conservative. The current political climate is so polarized that the work of trying to discuss why a particular bill is dangerous and dehumanizing can feel futile.

The other is that the misogyny is... Well, it's very heavy.

Being a guy who was raised as and lived as female until his twenties, is interesting in that I've experienced firsthand the differences in how men and women are treated. It's infuriating when it becomes clear that a woman who speaks isn't taken seriously but I am, especially when we are saying the exact same thing.

I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, but last I checked there is no set of chromosomes, no secondary sex characteristic, no gender expression, no timbre of voice, no manner of dress, and no designation on a birth certificate or state-issued ID card that makes somebody more authoritative or trustworthy. For that matter, no accent, belief system, quantity or lack of pigmentation, birthplace, disability status, or sexual orientation does either.

The privilege that comes of being a man -- especially a white one -- can open a lot of doors. I got a whole five minutes out of somebody who genuinely seemed to want to shake my hand and win me over (as opposed to how he'd been treating a woman who was speaking to him a moment before). But wow, does it underscore how wrong it all is when an articulate, passionate human being standing beside me is effectively being silenced by society's willingness to listen to me and not her.

Oh, and it totally happens when I'm with someone browner than I am, too. Bonus points if it's a woman who's browner than I am, or a disabled person, or really anyone who isn't a white guy because at that point a chorus of angels descends from the heavens with a sign that reads "World's Greatest Orator" in beautiful, light-up letters.

This is some bullshit, people.

Curiously, that sign takes a hike the minute I start to talk to people who look like me about it. It's all crickets and "Oh golly, look at the time." Surely this isn't their problem, and we all treat women and people of color and so on equally now (unless they're queers and/or hate Jesus), and it's not like anyone ever sees institutionalized sexism/racism/ableism in the wild what with all those women in college now, boys, amirite?

(This is about the time I start humming "Avenger" under my breath, by the way.)

~*~

- Okay, so I read canning blogs because I am laboring under the wild assumption that I will Preserve Things. Often, though, these blogs talk about other food things, or jar things, and that's why I'm probably going to do some kind of crazy jar-based breakfast bake thing at some point.

- It has not escaped me that many people have...opinions...about how the current season of Doctor Who is going so far. Personally, I'm not ready to make a blanket judgment. Instead, I'm going to link to this really fantastic Eleven/River fanvid.

- Anyone who was watching Glee when it aired last night got to see this commercial for Google Chrome that choked me up (and nearly every other LGBTQ person I know who was watching). People, it is remarkable to me that such a thing exists and aired on prime time television. Leaving aside whatever reservations one might have about the It Gets Better Project or Dan Savage? Thank fuck for this breath of air that makes me feel like I'm allowed -- even encouraged -- to exist.

- Meanwhile, David Cameron apparently supports the idea that gay kisses shouldn't be shown pre-watershed in the UK. For those of you unfamiliar, television in the UK has a set of standards for pre-9 PM (when children may reasonably be watching) versus after 9 PM (when adults may safely be catered to). John Barrowman, everybody's favorite badass celebrity spokesgay, has opinions.

- In case you weren't aware, China Mieville can't be a real geek on account of the fact that he's too damn hot. This is, incidentally, a fine reason to admire Teresa Jusino's brain. Also, the rest of her.

- Oh hey. Astroturfing works on Twitter, and you don't even need to be human to do it. Great.

- Texas may bar transgender persons from marrying. Thanks, Texas. It's not like I actually thought I had access to that whole "equal protection under the law" thing in the first place, but it's good of you to make that increasingly clear.

- Also, Texas, while we're on the topic? What the hell is this story about a teacher who told a kid that she must be mourning Bin Laden because she's a Muslim? In fairness to the school district this asshat is now on administrative leave, but wow. So many flavors of not okay.

- Neo_Prodigy has been posting this week about how toxic the social justice community can be, especially re: white hegemony and people who use the language of social justice to bully and harm. Here's the first, and here's the second, which links to lots of other really useful stuff. As a white guy who grew up being trained into a hell of a lot of racism, I'm pretty sure I screw up a lot more than I'd like. That guy I don't want to be? Sometimes I'm him. It's possible I'm even him up at the beginning of this post. I hope not. This stuff is hard. I hate that it is and wish it wasn't.

- A really fantastic editorial on why the question of whether Judge Walker was fit to rule on Prop 8 is ridiculous.

- Oh look. Republicans want to gut consumer protections against predatory lending. Unsurprised me is unsurprised.

This post has been mirrored from Christian A. Young's Dimlight Archive. To see it in its original format, visit dimlightarchive.com