Your shock is a privilege - We Can't be Shocked by a Daily Occurrence

[sparkindarkness]

*deep breaths* my temper is frayed on this one. I’ve just come across a blog post by a straight person who is most displeased that the GBLT community is not more up in arms and outraged by the group beating of Brandon White in Atlanta. She wanted to see more outpouring of… I don’t even know what. Outrage, grief, anger, shock? She judges us for not

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[sparkindarkness]

Thankfully one of the people who prompted this post has read listened and learned and apologised. Yes, an ally learning, it can happen and it restores a little of my faith

of course, it's not a one time deal or a one person deal and, sadly, we do get a shed load of allies who overdo the shock to prove their allydom and no small number who think we're just not doing this activism thing right

[neo_prodigy]

Like for starters, how about lecturing the cis straight community on why THEY AREN'T outraged as opposed to the GLTBQ community. Or was there a memo I missed somewhere.

[sparkindarkness]

Now that? That would be helpful

Oer reminding the straight cis community that if they're going to be outraged, could they be outraged about all of it, not the isolated cases that are shoved under their noses - and after that could they STOP already?

[sparkindarkness]

I managed equal shock horror and outrage (and I am shocked by teh sheer amount of shock you are radiated) but I found you can't really maintain it for more than say, oh, 56 hours. At which point your facial muscles start cramping and you've ran out of corsets to have loosened. And you get thirsty, and it's really hard to maintain "shocked, horrified and outraged" when you're also gasping for a cup of tea. And while it is so terribly British to have a tea break in your shocked horror, it does rather lessen the effect

At least one of the people who prompted this post read and learned, which is something. But there's a lot more out there

[biteythevampire]

Why is she pestering the GLBT community?? Who but the HETERO community is ever behind violence against non-heteros?

And the long list of work for would-be allies begins with pestering THEIR OWN to start giving a shit.

[sparkindarkness]

While she read and learned for which I am thankful, the udnerlying idea is that we weren't reacting strongly enough to an attack.

When, in the grand scheme of homophobia, the attack was neither more shocking nor more horrific than happens multiple multiple times - it's just that this is one straight folks heardabout.

[immini]

I was gay-bashed on a crowded train once. Not one person did a damn thing during the attack to stop or stand against it. They waited until my attackers were gone to ask if I was ok and to say how terrible it was, how oh-so frightening it must have been for me.

Getting outraged about it is easy. Doing some of the hard work required to prevent it is another story.

[immini]

Incidentally, they only seem to get angry over attacks to young gay men. When it comes to the hundreds and thousands of transwomen (disproportionately so women of colour), I rarely see them make a peep. It makes me sick.

But hey, I bet they cried over 'Boys Don't Cry' once, so that's an adequate dose of ally-outrage for one lifetime.

[sparkindarkness]

I'm sorry to hear that and wish I wasn't used to this enough to be shocked.

Sympathy and outrage don't protect us, alas. But they make very very good gestures