December 21st
Dec. 21st, 2012 04:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lliiraWe're still here, of course. And nothing has changed.
The second part is what would confound the Mayans. The Mayans did not believe the world would end this day; they believed the world would change. It was the end of one cycle, the beginning of a new. I don't believe in any kind of astrology, but I wish I believed in this one.
We desperately need to change. In the past twenty years, the internet has sprung up, we have new technologies, we have a black president, there are a few new laws protecting women... and that's it. The songs on the radio could have been written twenty years ago. The cars look pretty much the same. The clothes look pretty much the same. The culture is worse regarding women, racial minorities, the poor, the disabled, and anyone with a non-standard body shape, where "standard" is defined by a deeply ill media. Well, of course it is -- either a society moves forward, or it moves backward. There is no other option.
The year I graduated high school, twenty years ago was 1974. Very nearly everything was different. From the small things to the big things, from music to equality, we'd moved. We'd changed. In the things that make us a society, we were better.
In a little over a year, it will have been twenty years since I graduated high school. I can wear the same clothes I did my graduating year, and not stand out. The popular music from my graduating year sounds, if anything, ahead of the popular music now: more daring, more complex lyrics, more care for the world outside. And I keep being stymied by the way misogyny and racism and lookism have grown. Popular media can now say that a woman MUST wear makeup and high heels, with no backlash. A pop psychiatrist can claim that a woman who wears a pantsuit has problems with her femininity. Politicians can say overtly nasty things about black people and poor people and not be dogpiled by their own side. Random people can say nasty things about fat people and not be yelled at. We have made an altar of vanity.
Gay rights have progressed; but, like women's rights, this is almost all in law, not in culture. Gender policing is far more severe. When someone is bullied over not fitting in, and normative ideas about gender and sexuality are used against them, the media -- from NBC to tiny individual blogs -- invariably acts as if the victim's sexuality is not-straight, even when it is. We are back to thinking a little girl who does not want to wear dresses must be a lesbian, a little boy who doesn't like playing with toy guns must be gay. Liberals have embraced this along with "and that's okay". It feels that the only people mainstream liberals defend these days are people with sexualities other than straight. (Well, so long as they're monosexual -- plenty of liberals are hugely uncomfortable with everyone but heterosexuals, homosexuals, and lesbians.) It's great that they're being defended; it's not great that we've allowed the right-wing to set the terms, which are bullshit.
And I think that's one part of the larger problem. We've allowed the right-wing to set the terms. "Poor people are lazy and should therefore die." "No, poor people aren't lazy!" So poor people who are "lazy" should die? Quick, prove you're not lazy! "Black men are dangerous and should be feared." "Black men aren't dangerous!" A whole lot of men of every race are, in fact, dangerous. Now what? "Gay men are girly." "No they're not!"
So it's bad to be girly? "Women are emotional!" "No we aren't!" So it's bad to be emotional? "Fetuses are alive!" "No they're not!" So if they were, a woman who did not want to give her body over to the life of something else would be morally obligated to? "Disabled people are useless!" "Disabled people are superheroes, look at the paralympics, and I know a woman in a wheelchair who works 60 hours a day!" So those of us who can't work out or work are useless? At least people have stopped using "differently abled". "Women who like sex are sluts!" "No we're not!" So being a so-called slut is bad? "Fat people are gross and subhuman and lazy and slutty and vile!" "You're right! Also they consume too many resources and are therefore environmentally impure!" Liberals like to say they love science, but they love to ignore it when it comes to weight. Not backward, sideways into something worse.
Which is inevitable. The Mayans knew it. Every culture I am aware of knew it, except two: that of the early Middle Ages, and the one we're stuck in now. You move forward or you degenerate. This is true of everything. Body and mind both fall apart when not exercised. Our cultural muscles have atrophied. There's mold on our societal mind.
I hope the Mayans were right.
The second part is what would confound the Mayans. The Mayans did not believe the world would end this day; they believed the world would change. It was the end of one cycle, the beginning of a new. I don't believe in any kind of astrology, but I wish I believed in this one.
We desperately need to change. In the past twenty years, the internet has sprung up, we have new technologies, we have a black president, there are a few new laws protecting women... and that's it. The songs on the radio could have been written twenty years ago. The cars look pretty much the same. The clothes look pretty much the same. The culture is worse regarding women, racial minorities, the poor, the disabled, and anyone with a non-standard body shape, where "standard" is defined by a deeply ill media. Well, of course it is -- either a society moves forward, or it moves backward. There is no other option.
The year I graduated high school, twenty years ago was 1974. Very nearly everything was different. From the small things to the big things, from music to equality, we'd moved. We'd changed. In the things that make us a society, we were better.
In a little over a year, it will have been twenty years since I graduated high school. I can wear the same clothes I did my graduating year, and not stand out. The popular music from my graduating year sounds, if anything, ahead of the popular music now: more daring, more complex lyrics, more care for the world outside. And I keep being stymied by the way misogyny and racism and lookism have grown. Popular media can now say that a woman MUST wear makeup and high heels, with no backlash. A pop psychiatrist can claim that a woman who wears a pantsuit has problems with her femininity. Politicians can say overtly nasty things about black people and poor people and not be dogpiled by their own side. Random people can say nasty things about fat people and not be yelled at. We have made an altar of vanity.
Gay rights have progressed; but, like women's rights, this is almost all in law, not in culture. Gender policing is far more severe. When someone is bullied over not fitting in, and normative ideas about gender and sexuality are used against them, the media -- from NBC to tiny individual blogs -- invariably acts as if the victim's sexuality is not-straight, even when it is. We are back to thinking a little girl who does not want to wear dresses must be a lesbian, a little boy who doesn't like playing with toy guns must be gay. Liberals have embraced this along with "and that's okay". It feels that the only people mainstream liberals defend these days are people with sexualities other than straight. (Well, so long as they're monosexual -- plenty of liberals are hugely uncomfortable with everyone but heterosexuals, homosexuals, and lesbians.) It's great that they're being defended; it's not great that we've allowed the right-wing to set the terms, which are bullshit.
And I think that's one part of the larger problem. We've allowed the right-wing to set the terms. "Poor people are lazy and should therefore die." "No, poor people aren't lazy!" So poor people who are "lazy" should die? Quick, prove you're not lazy! "Black men are dangerous and should be feared." "Black men aren't dangerous!" A whole lot of men of every race are, in fact, dangerous. Now what? "Gay men are girly." "No they're not!"
So it's bad to be girly? "Women are emotional!" "No we aren't!" So it's bad to be emotional? "Fetuses are alive!" "No they're not!" So if they were, a woman who did not want to give her body over to the life of something else would be morally obligated to? "Disabled people are useless!" "Disabled people are superheroes, look at the paralympics, and I know a woman in a wheelchair who works 60 hours a day!" So those of us who can't work out or work are useless? At least people have stopped using "differently abled". "Women who like sex are sluts!" "No we're not!" So being a so-called slut is bad? "Fat people are gross and subhuman and lazy and slutty and vile!" "You're right! Also they consume too many resources and are therefore environmentally impure!" Liberals like to say they love science, but they love to ignore it when it comes to weight. Not backward, sideways into something worse.
Which is inevitable. The Mayans knew it. Every culture I am aware of knew it, except two: that of the early Middle Ages, and the one we're stuck in now. You move forward or you degenerate. This is true of everything. Body and mind both fall apart when not exercised. Our cultural muscles have atrophied. There's mold on our societal mind.
I hope the Mayans were right.
