In which I ramble about privilege and AA

[emily_goddess]

The big problem I have with AA is that most of our literature was written in the 40's and 50's. It's a bit...dated. The basic assumption, especially in the Big Book (our main text), is that the alcoholic is a hetero male with a high-paying job. The chaper "To Wives" assumes that women will be married to alcoholics, but not be alcoholics themselves

Comments

[poeticalpanther]

Good analysis. I was in Alateen for several years as a teen, which was a fun social org, but I didn't find it did a whole lot to help me deal with my mother's husband. And even then, it bugged me that people treated it as a Given Text.

[aarligbyrd]

Given that it is in the section about dating, the phrase is quite heteronormative.

[emily_goddess]

Not necessarily offensive, but certainly heterocentric. The exact line in question is, "Nearly every sound human being experiences, at some time in life, a compelling desire to find a mate of the opposite sex with whom the fullest possible union can be made..." [emphasis mine]. At best, it's inaccurate, given the proven existence of queer people; at worst, it implies that queer people aren't sound human beings.

Basically, there's no need to specify certain types of pairings when a broader statement is just as effective and far more accurate. And the fact that someone (D, in this case) even noticed that that wording could be hurtful to some people and chose not to use it was a huge relief. It's kind of hard to explain, but hearing someone acknowledge that we exist and are acceptable is pretty exciting for us queer folks.