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pktechgirlbackupFor years, doctors told women they did not have cramps while menstruating, it was all their heads. Or they were hysterical, which is hilarious if you know the history of the word. Now people use PMS to dismiss women.
Europeans held themselves to be smarter than Africans, so naturally they were in charge. Until the Asian colonists started scoring better on administrative exams than they did, when suddenly raw intelligence was not enough. Scoring too high was actually a sign that you lacked the necessary will and quick-thinkingness to lead. But not too much. Too much quick-thinkingness, such as that displayed by the Jews, was fine for basketball, but not for important positions.
During slavery, blacks were ridiculed as weak and puny. Once they had access to sufficient food, it turned out they were a few inches taller than the people who were defined as white at the time, and so the white people invented the ape stereotype (I know this is from Ta-Nehisi Coate's blog, but I can't find the link now).
Prejudice finds a way, regardless of facts. Almost regardless of actions- you can make almost anything discriminatory if you try hard enough.
This is what feminists and anti-racism activists mean when they won't tell you what the right thing to do is, you have to just believe what they do and it will work out. I think that approach betrays a certain lack of understanding of how the more left-brained among us learn, but I do at least get what they mean now.
Europeans held themselves to be smarter than Africans, so naturally they were in charge. Until the Asian colonists started scoring better on administrative exams than they did, when suddenly raw intelligence was not enough. Scoring too high was actually a sign that you lacked the necessary will and quick-thinkingness to lead. But not too much. Too much quick-thinkingness, such as that displayed by the Jews, was fine for basketball, but not for important positions.
During slavery, blacks were ridiculed as weak and puny. Once they had access to sufficient food, it turned out they were a few inches taller than the people who were defined as white at the time, and so the white people invented the ape stereotype (I know this is from Ta-Nehisi Coate's blog, but I can't find the link now).
Prejudice finds a way, regardless of facts. Almost regardless of actions- you can make almost anything discriminatory if you try hard enough.
This is what feminists and anti-racism activists mean when they won't tell you what the right thing to do is, you have to just believe what they do and it will work out. I think that approach betrays a certain lack of understanding of how the more left-brained among us learn, but I do at least get what they mean now.
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Date: 2011-02-19 03:19 pm (UTC)Stupid pms.
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Date: 2011-02-19 08:44 pm (UTC)So yes, it's partially a lack of understanding of the left brain, and partially that we're just really fucking tired that feminism 101 and anti-racism 101 isn't innately understood by people when it's been explained so often. I think the prevailing attitude today is why should I worry about bending around your brain?
*I am totally a feminist and have said this after being baited and yelled at. Often.
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Date: 2011-02-19 08:53 pm (UTC)And the left brained people need to understand that their behavior closely mimics that of assholes and either find a way to signal their differences or do some learning that doesn't fit their brain well.
I have no problem when feminists say "not on this blog, this is for people who are already on board." I do find it counterproductive when they take the "why should I have to explain it" attitude towards people whose behavior they want to change. It's not fair that you have to do all this extra work, but it's not realistic to expect change without it.
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Date: 2011-02-19 10:57 pm (UTC)theywe aren't recognizing that LBers are totally capable of getting feminism and how it makes us feel, we're just not speaking the same language. LBers tend to think logically and in a linear fashion, whereas we RBers are all over the place, making connections and hyperbole and exaggerations to express how we feel, rather than "this statistic + this statistic = this systemic trend. Period." We always have to tack on "and that's wrooooooooooooonnnnggggg, because of this anecedata!"Also, it's not that left-brained people mimic assholes; it's just that, from my experience, left-brained people don't tend to get the importance that right-brained people place on feelings. (Which is not to say that left-brained people don't feel, good heavens, no, just that left-brained people process hard data like "you can buy a curtain rod cheaper than DIYing it; why on earth are you pursuing this course?" rather than "DIYing a curtain rod would make me feel accomplished.) To a RBer, how one feels about the process is *everything*, whereas a LBer cares about the results as a whole.
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Date: 2011-02-19 11:11 pm (UTC)I'm sure Rachel could do a much better explaination than I could, here. I tend to put my foot in my mouth more often than not.