Sorry no post for a few days... i was busy with some friends.
I'd like to start off by saying something negative- some people really dont like homosexuals. i cant understand why. its one of those irrational fears- like world-devouring pandas (damn you ling-ling!). I challenge one phobic straight person to explain why gays merit fear- is it the scarves and skinny jeans? is it the generally non-violent approach to change? are you sure its not the goddamn scarves? is it cuz we dont conform to your understanding of gender roles?
how did we get from not conforming to hating? i want anyone who hates to provide me with a valid psychological explanation, cuz this has plagued me for years. with all the horrific happenings around the world, is something as infinitesimally small as homosexuality worth focusing on? will people remember that a guy who cured cancer was a flaming fruitcup, or that he cured cancer? think about it.
this brings me to a separate point. i was thinking about people, but without any labels. this is hard to do, but you eventually realize that were connected on the most primal level. what hurts one of us usually hurts all of us, we have the same range of emotion, we laugh, we cry, we sleep, we want to be happy. in a society that focuses on differences in individuals, perhaps we should focus on similarities. "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?" (if we see scarves or pandas, are we not scared?). if you really think about it, it will blow your mind and any preconceptions away.
sorry no crush stuff rn. i might write about some boys when i get back from dinner, but rn, i gotta go.
scarves and pandas will probably take me
out
Mikey lovebug mcloverton.
People beyond a certain age find it very difficult to change their way of thinking when presented with new information. Older people who were raised to believe that homosexuality is the worst possible "sin" (if you believe in sin, which I don't) often can't change their opinion. We saw that here in California with Proposition 8. Ignore what you heard about race being a factor in how people vote, age was the predominate factor. Prop 8 passed only because it was favored by about 2 to 1 by voters over age 65. Among everyone below 65 Prop 8 failed. So I am hopeful but cautious about the future.
ReplyDeleteHomosexuals are Gay.
ReplyDeleteIt's really hard to think without labels: pattern-matching is built into our brains (literally; read Jeff Hawkins sometime), and labels are just a way to identify matched patterns.
ReplyDeleteThe two options I see are: 1, eliminate all labels (which is impossible, see above) or 2, have so many different labels that everyone qualifies for dozens or hundreds and, therefore, the individual labelling becomes meaningless. I try to go for option 2.
I read an interesting article today on something completely unrelated to labels but also explains labels. It talked about how having a bad day is all in your mind. The reason it is in your mind is because the brain uses symbology to "code" various things to make complex ideas easier to track connect. Bad days happen when a bad event gets a symbol that ends up getting applied to all different kinds of things for tracking purposes.
ReplyDeleteI think labels are similar. We subconsciously apply labels to help track and classify complex concepts of what makes up a person. Unfortunately, sometimes those symbols get associated with negative concepts that are hard to break.
Here is the article. It is an interesting read:
http://lifehacker.com/5595104/the-science-behind-having-a-bad-day-and-how-to-solve-it
i understand the patterning system of the mind, but it doesn't explain the fear associated with patterning. i dont mind being called gay or bi or even faggot (occassionally i get pissed, but its just not worth arguing with the ignorant). where does the fear factor come into the equation- consider this, how many homosexuals are killed because theyre homosexuals vs. how many homosexuals kill others because of their homosexuality. while im no sociologist, id guess the first would outweigh the latter. theres rightful fear against some groups- powerful whites, poor people, blacks from urban centers, men in general- because they kill the same amount if not more than they are killed. it just doesnt add up- its like the jewish scape-goating(hyphen?) of the nazi regime or terrorism toward the united states (excluding financial/power-related fear). excuse my harsh comparisons, but we're headed in that direction.
ReplyDeleteI think most of what we call hate is just ignorance, which leads to fear. Not fear as in terror, but fear and rejection of something that is foreign and strange to us. We are all guilty of that on some level. Some people do take it to a level of hate, the evidence of that being hate crimes. But I think most "homophobes" are just ignorant, and rather than getting mad or upset, I try and talk to them. I had a co-worker who thought bisexuality was just greedy, so I tried my best to explain to him what it was, and even printed some information off the internet. He doesn't hate people who are gay (we have a gay co-worker), he just grew up in an environment that didn't accept homosexuality so it is strange to him.
ReplyDeleteLabels are our way of making sense of the world. Our world is too complex for our simple minds, so our labels aren't perfect and that's where we run into problems, but they help us deal with what is around us.
evil pandas indeed... watch out for clowns too..
ReplyDelete- cheers... david