So, as the poll doesn't seem to give me an answer any time soon, I decided to start with this one.
For those who don't know, ableist means prejudice against those with disabilities. As most people in society are able-bodied, disabled people, as a minority, have to cope with toxic words and expressions that hurt them. By saying this words in a negative way, you are basically saying that disabled people are inferior. It's the same as using 'gay' as an insult. As those expressions are by no means necessary, we all can police ourselves in order to avoid them.
Also, when I say 'ableist expressions', I'm not saying those who use them are ableist. Most people aren't even aware of the ableist connotations, so they aren't the ones to fault, society is.
Here are some of the expressions and why they are ableist:
1. Blinded by ignorance, fear, etc. (offends blind people)
2. Crazy (offends people with mental diseases)
3. Cripple (a very offensive word for people with physical disabilities)
4. Dumb (refers to deaf people, or individuals with communication disorders)
5. Idiot (intellectual disabilities)
6. Imbecile (same as 5)
7. Lame (offends people who have mobility disabilities)
8. Stupid (same as 5)
9. Moron (same as 5)
10. Nuts (same as 5)
11. Psycho (same as 5)
12. Retarded (same as 5)
13. Special needs (an euphemism that is actually offensive. It's better to use the word "disabled")
There are, of course, many other offensive expressions, unfortunately. But this list is just to give you an idea in hope to convince you be more careful with your words from now on.
My last post about privilege was removed due to being labeled as offensive by the mods. However, this time, as I'll be addressing a specific kind of privilege, I believe there won't be any problems of that sort. I'm still waiting for more people to vote at the poll, as it's currently at a draw. If you haven't yet, please do.
All our lives, we're flooded with this notion that love can only exist towards one person at a time. And that is not true. The jail that are closed relationships usually lead to sorrow and regret. Just because people aren't allowed to have a bigger heart. While very few people nowadays are openly polyamorous, I believe there are much more closeted ones hiding out there. Seriously, just think about it. How many people would be much happier today if "monogamy" weren't considered the norm?
As pointed out by @Chronopolis, some assumptions are preferred or necessary. I, however, don't believe this is the case when it comes to someone's relationship orientation. A relationship orientation doesn't involve pronouns or sex preferences. It's something that may or may not come up in a conversation. That's why we can all easily avoid making assumptions about it. But still, the vast majority of society is still very conservative on that sense, thus, monogamous people are privileged in the sense that the whole notion society has of love and sex is a part of their life. The following is a list of examples of monogamy privilege you've probably never realized they were: (Note that I'm not saying monogamous people do not exist or that they are all polyphobic. Yes, there are lots of people who genuinely prefer only one partner, but there are also lots who don't)
1. Your family is legally recognized and you can enjoy all the benefits that come with it.
2. The validity of my love is never questioned.
3. Full representation of my relationship orientation in media.
4. In daily conversations, people don't use monophobic concepts of certain words (like family is always two partners and kids)
5. I can walk with my partner without having people staring at us with weird looks
6. I am not identified by my relationship orientation.
Now, the second thing about this issue: eroge. Honestly, among all the media, eroge deserves praise for this. And that's kind of sad, considering eroge doesn't portray those relationships realistically and it's usually confined to a single model: one man and women. But as this post is focusing on the positive aspects, I'll leave the negative ones for a later occasion. Western media almost never features polyamorous relationships (except porn). When it comes anime, manga and LNs, even the harem ones who could really use a nice harem ending, mostly choose not to. But hey, at least the harem genre itself is some kind of progress, isn't it? VNs, on the other hand, present much more cases of polyamory. Usually, it comes in two ways: harem endings and shimaidon routes. I think this is great because, even if just by a little, it shows people that polyamory isn't this monster society says it is, and that people can love more than one person at the same time.
I'm not sure what to post next, but I do have some ideas, so I wanted a little help. Vote on the option you think is the most important or that you'd like to be discussed next.
All your life you've probably heard that fat is ugly. Most SJWs say no, fat is beautiful. Beauty is subjective, it depends on the viewer. Which means people will have different opinions on what it's beautiful or ugly. I don't have a problem with that. What I have a problem with is the notion that every fat person is unattractive. This does not mean people who think like that are the ones to blame. Society is at fault here. Because of this toxic notion, many people try desperately to lose weight, end up having eating disorders, and sometimes are even driven to suicide. This is not fine.
So, how can we end that toxic notion? I say the easiest way is through media. Media can alter the way we think and perceive the world. It has done that for both good and bad causes, including the perpetuation of the present beauty standard. And that takes us to the second point: lack of fat characters on VNs. (doesn't include characters whose fat is almost entirely concentrated on their chest)
Take a look at the eroge releases of this month. And at the otomege. I bet not a single game features a fat person as a heroine or as the protagonist. "But", you might argue, "Japanese do not find fat females or fat males attractive."
Yeah, one of the reasons they do not find fat people attractive is because they ALMOST NEVER APPEAR IN ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA. Yes, I'm aware they had this notion before entertainment media was even a thing. But if media stopped fully supporting that notion, probably people would change their mindset.
Also, I don't mean they should put a 100% fat cast, as such VN would probably be a failure in sales, but at least including one fat heroine would be nice. This way, if players didn't like that fat character at all, they could just skip her route. (but I'm sure some would eventually, by knowing said character better in the common route, come to like her). So, as more players started accepting more fat heroines, they could slowly become a very common thing. This would be a great way to change people's mindset about beauty.
"But", you might argue again, "there are almost no fat people in Japan."
Yes, you are correct. There are very few fat people on Japan. But you know what else almost does not exist in Japan? Blonde people. Does this prevent Japanese eroge players from liking blonde heroines? In no way! Also, most people in Japan probably don't even believe nekomimi exist. And this doesn't prevent them from liking them as well. Fat people should be the same way.
So, that's it for today. Hope you enjoyed the post!
Hello, I'm Sana and I'm starting a blog about social justice. Social justice, you might ask, what is that? Social justice is mostly about left-wing people trying to make the world a better place. We want equality for all kinds of people, no matter what their gender, race, body, sexuality and any other thing is. However, such equality can only be achieved through differences in treatment.
It might seem a bit weird requesting different treatments for equality, but that's actually the way it works. I'm gonna delve into this later, but the majority of people are already born privileged. This means that, if we were to treat everyone the exact same way, we would be only perpetuating privileges and discrimination of the minorities. If you read any constitutional law book, you will see this. This is not my mere opinion, it's actually a fact. For example, if there were no special parking lots for disabled people, those people would suffer. You cannot simply deny that because "equality". Extreme liberalism is an outdated concept, that never really worked, as it only emphasized the status of the privileged people. Equality in rights is in no way enough, there must also be social equality. And that, my friend, is our ultimate goal.
As this is a very broad topic, there will be lots of issues to cover. By learning about those things, you will learn to treat people better and try to make the world a better place for all humans (and non-humans) to live. As I'm very open-minded, feel free to drop your comment whenever you feel like it, whether you agree with me or not.
One common misconception most people have is that gender = sex. There are only two sexes, but genders? Probably thousands. This is the way most people think of gender:
And this is how gender actually is:
Gender does not come from one's genitals. Doctors, unfortunately, assign genders to children at birth based solely on their genitals. In fact, gender comes from one's mind. How said person identify themselves: either male, female, agender, 75% male and 25% female, bigender, third gender (also called third sex, but it's actually a gender, not a sex), genderfluid, genderflux.
Each person has their own pronouns, which make them feel more comfortable. Calling an agender person a "she" feels as bad as calling a cis male a "she". To further understand the pain of misgendering someone, imagine you, a cis male, being taken to a female dorm, with female clothes and called by a female name. Although VNs are famous for idealizing this kind of situation, in real life it would actually feel terrible.
^No, this would not be funny in real life.
If you want to know more about the different kinds of genders, see this link: http://genderfluidsupport.tumblr.com/gender
Of course, it does not include all genders, but there's a lot there.
