Women? What women?
Someone who gets it.
Now if only he were as contagious as swine flu. ;)
Excerpt:
I have no doubt he didn't sit down, twirl a mustache, and think about how he could exclude women. He probably just didn't think to include any. But the effect is just the same, no matter what the intention.
(Underlined to point specifically to the crux of the problem, IMO.)
And you know what? People have as much right to complain about someone not thinking as they do about premeditated, intentional exclusion. Because the thinking isn't going to happen spontaneously. It's the twenty-first century and this is still happening, so clearly the issue has to continue to be hit on again and again and again, until the gears eventually click into place and we finally get the thinking.
Frankly, I don't care if exclusion isn't intentional or premeditated. The fact remains that you only have the luxury of forgetting about diversity if you're in a position of power; anyone who is not in that power position because of ethnicity and/or sexuality can never forget it but if you have the power you are very likely to take it for granted and forget about people who are not like you. I have no doubt that folks who have been involved in ethnic and sexual exclusion in many settings have nothing against the people they have excluded; they simply have not put any thought into their actions. The responses to these events, seen by some people as over-the-top, are necessary to get the gears unstuck, to get people thinking. Silence and/or shrugging isn't going to do it.
And the cries of, "You should try living in a country where women are really oppressed," are just increasing the fail exponentially. We don't get to progress to the point of not getting arrested for wearing slacks but then stop, not going beyond that. Just because there are women in the world actively being persecuted doesn't exonerate supposedly-enlightened men living in supposedly-enlightened places. Instead, a response of, "You're not a member of or a supporter of a system like the Taliban, so what's your freaking excuse?" would not be inappropriate. If a man isn't living in a society where women are routinely treated like second-class citizens then he shouldn't behave as if he is. There isn't a quota on how much progress women are allowed to make in one location because women are living in far more horrible conditions in a different location. THAT IS NOT HOW IT WORKS.
I've been thinking lately of the horrible empathy-deficit that seems to have led people in this country to call people supporting healthcare reform "Nazis", possibly the biggest misnomer EVER, and thoughtless-exclusion incidents are just another symptom of that empathy-deficit, I feel. The ability to imagine yourself in someone else's shoes, to really consider what life is like for them--this is a fairly essential requirement to both function in society AND to be a writer. It is when writers, of all people, display a staggering inability to empathize, a massive lack of imagination, that I have to wonder about their ability as writers. By failing to think about these issues, failing to empathize, with the result that thoughtless exclusion is routinely taking place, they are running the risk of giving people the impression that they have an imagination-deficit as well as an empathy-deficit, which I don't think any writer really wants to do.
Something to think about.
Now if only he were as contagious as swine flu. ;)
Excerpt:
I have no doubt he didn't sit down, twirl a mustache, and think about how he could exclude women. He probably just didn't think to include any. But the effect is just the same, no matter what the intention.
(Underlined to point specifically to the crux of the problem, IMO.)
And you know what? People have as much right to complain about someone not thinking as they do about premeditated, intentional exclusion. Because the thinking isn't going to happen spontaneously. It's the twenty-first century and this is still happening, so clearly the issue has to continue to be hit on again and again and again, until the gears eventually click into place and we finally get the thinking.
Frankly, I don't care if exclusion isn't intentional or premeditated. The fact remains that you only have the luxury of forgetting about diversity if you're in a position of power; anyone who is not in that power position because of ethnicity and/or sexuality can never forget it but if you have the power you are very likely to take it for granted and forget about people who are not like you. I have no doubt that folks who have been involved in ethnic and sexual exclusion in many settings have nothing against the people they have excluded; they simply have not put any thought into their actions. The responses to these events, seen by some people as over-the-top, are necessary to get the gears unstuck, to get people thinking. Silence and/or shrugging isn't going to do it.
And the cries of, "You should try living in a country where women are really oppressed," are just increasing the fail exponentially. We don't get to progress to the point of not getting arrested for wearing slacks but then stop, not going beyond that. Just because there are women in the world actively being persecuted doesn't exonerate supposedly-enlightened men living in supposedly-enlightened places. Instead, a response of, "You're not a member of or a supporter of a system like the Taliban, so what's your freaking excuse?" would not be inappropriate. If a man isn't living in a society where women are routinely treated like second-class citizens then he shouldn't behave as if he is. There isn't a quota on how much progress women are allowed to make in one location because women are living in far more horrible conditions in a different location. THAT IS NOT HOW IT WORKS.
I've been thinking lately of the horrible empathy-deficit that seems to have led people in this country to call people supporting healthcare reform "Nazis", possibly the biggest misnomer EVER, and thoughtless-exclusion incidents are just another symptom of that empathy-deficit, I feel. The ability to imagine yourself in someone else's shoes, to really consider what life is like for them--this is a fairly essential requirement to both function in society AND to be a writer. It is when writers, of all people, display a staggering inability to empathize, a massive lack of imagination, that I have to wonder about their ability as writers. By failing to think about these issues, failing to empathize, with the result that thoughtless exclusion is routinely taking place, they are running the risk of giving people the impression that they have an imagination-deficit as well as an empathy-deficit, which I don't think any writer really wants to do.
Something to think about.