See How Their Agonies Catch The Light
I’m an artist first. But I decided long ago that my art would be in the service of fighting oppression.
Oh dear. I think you can probably guess where this is going. The creative juggernaut in question is Hari Ziyad, “a black non-binary artist and writer whose work centres on creating through the arts alternative ways of living outside of systems of oppression.” And hence being published in Everyday Feminism, where readers and contributors are so varied and diverse, so daringly different.
Since then, I’ve waded more deeply into social justice spaces, and I find myself surrounded more and more by people professing these same aspirations… It’s comforting not to have to constantly explain yourself and your work. It’s beautiful to learn from and be around folks who understand ideas like microaggressions, gaslighting, white fragility, and all the other odd terms that describe the myriad, important, and insidious ways oppression operates.
And being around other, eerily similar people with similar educations, all begging eerily similar questions, saves so much time and potential aggravation. Instead, the group can bask in its mutual gloriousness as it hovers high above the herd and any unsophisticated objections.
But wait, even paradise has its vipers:
Being in these spaces for a while now, I’ve noticed that I’ve been increasingly receiving feedback that my writing is inaccessible. I dismissed a lot of this critique on the basis that I am, at my core, a big idea and theory girl. My way of communicating isn’t supposed to be meant for everyone.
Well, obviously. After all, “social justice spaces” are for beings who are lofty and deluxe, and who, like our Everyday Feminist author, a theory girl with a beard, find “academic jargon comforting.” Which is to say, people who are enlightened, piously fretful, ostentatiously egalitarian, and therefore superior. The kinds of people who, unironically, write things like this:
I’d been frustrated by the workings of neoliberalism for the longest,
And,
When I wrote one of my first pieces on my gender journey, I naturally used a quote from Judith Butler about gender realities. Regarded as one of the foremost queer theorists, it made sense to use her words to explore my queer complexities.
Rise up, ye proletariat! Judith Butler will set you free!
There is, however, some flickering of awareness:
Using newly learned language immediately to demonize others may indicate a desire to use knowledge to prove superiority, rather than to grow in your work.
Cynical readers may wonder if that’s actually the unspoken goal of almost everyone huddled in those “social justice spaces.” Piety is status, and as we’ve seen many times, “social justice” signalling is a competitive business. Such that gatherings of the pious often call to mind crab buckets more than kumbaya.
But we mustn’t linger on such details, there’s fretting to be done. Not least regarding the hierarchies of victimhood that inevitably emerge when victimhood is both currency and a short-cut to righteousness. And so our non-binary narrator notes that “race and gender conversations dominate so many activist spaces” at the expense of those even more exquisitely oppressed,
like gender non-conforming Indigenous people with disabilities, for example.
And then of course there’s fretting about how even the pious must soil their hands, their very souls, with that dirty neoliberal commerce:
Writing and other activist pursuits takes time, skill, and is emotionally expensive…
Sometimes for the reader too.
We should all be compensated for labour,
Rather depends on its value to others, no? Or is blathering about “microaggressions” and “white fragility” inherently deserving of some other bugger’s earnings?
but if we’re serious about addressing the ills of capitalism, we need to also look at less capitalistic forms of assessing compensation. It might be worth it to parse out those who deserve to give us financial compensation (capitalist institutions) from those who may not (everyday economically disenfranchised people), and see what else, if anything, might be more appropriate payment… Compensation doesn’t have to look like money.
Hoover my stair carpet and I’ll tell you all about Judith Butler.
There’s more to poke at, but this life is finite and the clock is ticking. We should, though, give thanks that The Enlightened Ones are showing us the way, steering us towards “alternative ways of living,” and away from stereotypes, clichés and in-group conformity:
Hari Ziyad is a Contributing Writer for Everyday Feminism and a Brooklyn-based storyteller. They are the Editor in Chief of RaceBaitR, a space dedicated to imagining and working toward a world outside of the white supremacist cisheteropatriarchal capitalistic gaze… You can find them (mostly) ignoring racists on Twitter and Facebook.
But of course.
my queer complexities
Band name.
Using newly learned language immediately to demonize others may indicate a desire to use knowledge to prove superiority […] They are the Editor in Chief of RaceBaitR, a space dedicated to imagining and working toward a world outside of the white supremacist cisheteropatriarchal capitalistic gaze
I don’t think ‘they’ is connecting the dots.
dedicated to imagining… a world outside of the white supremacist cisheteropatriarchal capitalistic gaze
I’m imagining a world in which identitarian narcissists learn to get over themselves. But hey.
I think I do agree with this bit though:
And, of course, Butler is nearly universally incomprehensible. Reading a quote of hers is like being smacked upside the brain with Encyclopedia Britannica. It’s an act of violence.
Of course, Ziyad causally informs us that “it” gets Butler, as opposed to the rest of the great unwashed who cannot appreciate Bulter’s “brilliance.”
Just got back from a visit to the CEO of a company which makes electro-erosion machine tools to sell to aeronautical engineering companies, so you can imagine David that this stuff really helps to bring me down to earth and to chill out!
Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Butler is nearly universally incomprehensible.
And deliberately so. She claims that clarity impedes radicalism. (It would also, of course, make her errors and begged questions much harder to miss. A coincidence, I’m sure.)
And this is the same Judith Butler who tells students that Hamas and Hizballah – totalitarian terrorist groups that set booby traps in schools and boast of using children as human shields – are “social movements that are progressive, that are on the Left, that are part of a global Left,” and which therefore deserve the support of her young and credulous admirers. The same Judith Butler who, when challenged on this point, lied about her statements, claiming that the video of her speaking (and being applauded by those credulous admirers) had somehow been edited in “an effort to distort” her views. Despite her speech being filmed and uploaded in one clearly continuous take.
Such that gatherings of the pious often call to mind crab buckets more than kumbaya.
That’s still f**king hysterical. I swear this time I’m going to make it through the whole video.
I swear this time I’m going to make it through the whole video.
Both parts, no cheating. Though it does rather test the patience. And sanity.
I’m imagining a world in which identitarian narcissists learn to get over themselves. But hey.
We can dream…
Imagine the wonderful feeling it must give you – if you’re like this – to be told your writing is “inaccessible.” It must make you so proud.
Is there an address to send a copy of Orwell?
Hoover my stair carpet and I’ll tell you all about Judith Butler.
Oh god, that’s funny. Now people in the office are looking at me.
. . .like gender non-conforming Indigenous people with disabilities, for example.
What? No reference to Wicca? Someone’s off his game.
Hoover my stair carpet and I’ll tell you all about Judith Butler.
In certain circles, if you add the word “baby” to the end of that sentence, it can be used as foreplay.
Now people in the office are looking at me.
Watch out, it could be the “white supremacist cisheteropatriarchal capitalistic gaze.”
I’m still pondering the conceit that, whatever the actual market for such things, “social justice” warriors “should all be compensated” for sharing their wisdom with lesser beings. On account of the “emotional expense” of being so relentlessly dogmatic and self-absorbed.
…we need to also look at less capitalistic forms of assessing compensation. It might be worth it to parse out those who deserve to give us financial compensation (capitalist institutions) from those who may not (everyday economically disenfranchised people), and see what else, if anything, might be more appropriate payment… Compensation doesn’t have to look like money.
So, basically, we need slavery.
And there we go again. It never ceases to amaze that the left finds the most illiberal of human institutions strangely congenial.
They are evil.
…a black non-binary artist and writer whose work centres on creating through the arts alternative ways of living outside of systems of oppression.
Or ‘single’, as it’s rendered more succinctly.
…like gender non-conforming Indigenous people with disabilities, for example.
Yes, I’d heard that one of Elizabeth Warren’s cousins was a boss-eyed lesbian.
‘[Working] toward a world outside of the white supremacist cisheteropatriarchal capitalistic gaze’.
Get the fuck out.
Now.
I’m still trying to come to terms with “their” notion that I might be one “who deserve to give us [shite-spewing morons] financial compensation.”
How joyful to know that I “deserve” this honour. I imagine they will be equally honoured by my determination that they deserve to fuck off and leave my wallet alone.
How joyful to know that I “deserve” this honour.
I’m willing to bet “they” meant “deserve” in the sense that Mencken used it.
I am curious about this “white fragility” thing. If People of Pallor are so fragile, how come the hordes of SJW Colossi haven’t kicked the lot of us to the curb (or kerb depending on where your palenesses might be) yet ?
I wonder, how is it that I have “privilege,” yet am “fragile.”
What utter drivel.
There is nothing I hate more than people who think they are cute using plural pronouns to identify an individual.
gender non-conforming (10 points if trans, 9 if gay) Indigenous (13) people with disabilities (6), for example.
So this would be worth 28 or 29 points in Victimhood Poker. Not bad, but there are better hands to be assembled. Looking at the author’s own description, Black trumps Indigenous by 1 point. The “gender non-conforming” bit is apparently a wash between the two. Tranny beats Gay by 1 point, but “non-conforming” could be either or both, or something else, and we don’t know as which each example operates. The writer doesn’t say whether it’s crippled or not (opinions of the peanut gallery don’t count towards the point total).
On the whole, the writer appears to have gotten an even worse hand than its hypothetical Indigene. Oh well, maybe it’ll be hit by a truck and thereby earn Handicapped status to improve its ranking.
Per Mr. Saturn’s comment, do royals still use the Royal “we”? It’s a speech often used for amusement here in the (former) colonies but i don’t think I have ever heard a royal, U.K. Or otherwise actually do so. Though we rarely get whatever royals say directly. For some reason our news just gives us a summary. “The Queen was here, was there, said such, was gracious, …”
The best hand in victimhood poker is the prosthetic one.
“like gender non-conforming Indigenous people with disabilities, for example”
Strewth. The ‘one legged black lesbian’ line was the sort of thing we shitlords were meant to trot out to mock the Diversatrons. This ‘woman’ is taking all the fun out of it.
As for Judith Butler and her ilk, it’s worth noting that it’s been 20 years since the Sokal hoax, and none of these people has had the decency to curl up in shame and embarrassment and keep quiet.
Don’t forget to factor in your privilege cards when assessing your hand in victimhood poker. Many people have played their hand only to be stung by the “thin privilege,” “sight privilege,” and “ambulatory privilege,” hands.
‘[Working] toward a world outside of the white supremacist cisheteropatriarchal capitalistic gaze’.
Get the fuck out.
Now
No, help them find it, herd them in, then lock the door and throw the key in the sea
I’m not going to read any more Everyday Feminism. My wife gets angry when I erupt in anger and try to tell her what I just read. Very cisheteronormative of her, of course, but I quite like her anyway.
So those Titans among you who have trod those majestic pages more than me, tell me this — are there any articles from workers offering to pay the artists more in an attempt to destroy capitalism? Or is it what it appears to be from David’s partisan selections — merely a series of begging letters, dressed up on fancy prose?
Because there’s laws against vagrancy in many parts of the world.
And speaking of the all-seeing cisheteropatriarchy:
Victimhood Poker:
I’ll see your Transgender Activist and Writer and raise you a Gender Non-Conforming Indigenous Person with Disabilities.
…dedicated to imagining and working toward a world outside of the white supremacist cisheteropatriarchal capitalistic gaze…
In what other World would they have the leisure to indulge themselves as the victims of imaginary oppressions?
I don’t think a sense of proportion is foremost in his – sorry, their – mind.
This is someone who describes himself, sorry themselves, as a “writer and storyteller,” who “tells stories about race, gender, sexuality,” and who unironically uses the term “white supremacist cisheteropatriarchal capitalistic gaze.” A writer who talks of “educating” others in the ways of “social justice” and who mentions himself – sorry, themselves – endlessly, as if he – sorry, they – and their “blackness” were infinitely fascinating, and who tells us that he – sorry, they – has every right to change gender back and forth at will, apparently depending on mood, and then to complain about people who fail to keep track of this eccentricity. A writer whose every other public utterance seems to be a train wreck of begged questions and empty, meandering sentences, all encrusted with buzzwords dutifully regurgitated from “social justice” lecture notes.
It’s selfie culture with political pretensions.
‘Diversatrons’ magic!
and who tells us that he – sorry, they – has every right to change gender back and forth at will, apparently depending on mood, and then to complain about people who fail to keep track of this eccentricity.
That’s the most ‘I’s, ‘me’s and ‘my’s I’ve ever read in one article.
Narcissism: something in others to be encouraged, developed, cultivated and exploited for political or personal gain at the expense of others. In the internet age, this seems to be quite easy to do.
We need some kind of pop culture disorder directory with causes, symptoms and effects. As well as a study on strategies and tactics used by the manipulators.
I volunteer to make spiffy diagrams and you lot can do all the clever writing.
That’s the most ‘I’s, ‘me’s and ‘my’s I’ve ever read in one article.
It’s all a bit much, really. Our “non-binary” creative person bemoans the “emotional and physical exhaustion” of dealing with people who, not unreasonably, assume that he’s male. Apparently, seeing what is physically a man and thinking “that’s a man” is merely the result of some heinous but unspecified social “conditioning,” for which we must atone. And so if you see a stranger who looks male, is physically male, dresses as a male and has a beard, then assuming that this person is male, at least until told otherwise, is somehow a form of “oppression.”
And to complicate things further, said person may also “grow into different genders and sexualities,” all of which can “change drastically… in a short period of time.” Which is to say, said person can apparently decide to be male or female, or neither, or both, depending on mood, and still expect this subtlety to be instantly detected – and then affirmed – by anyone who speaks to him. Sorry, speaks to them. Imagine you’re a casual acquaintance of this person and running into them, say, every few months or so, and having no idea whether they now think of themselves as male or female, or neither, or both, and not knowing which pronouns are going to cause offence and lead to a lengthy scolding.
It’s all a bit, “Which of your personalities am I talking to today?”
Which of your personalities am I talking to today?
Didn’t we used to have a word (and medication) for people who found themselves in this condition?
If my gender and sexuality were simple and unchanging, sure it would be easier for others to digest, but it also wouldn’t be what it is. Digestibility does not trump reality.
Aside from apparently not knowing the meaning of that word, I believe the author’s grasp of it is tenuous at best.
My Blackness informs my queerness and gender. My queerness informs my gender and Blackness. My gender informs them both.
All this time I thought circles of confusion were strictly optical phenomena.
I will not let cisgender heterosexual men claim my Blackness.
If they even knew what that meant, why would they ? Trying to sort this out, a “cisgender heterosexual” male would have zero desire to “claim” his “Blackness” on any given day he thinks he is a male, or on any given day he pretends to be a female, as a sexual partner, so unless the “cisgender heterosexual” male is a 17th century slave trader, this is a totally idiotic statement (amongst many).
Racist, queerantagonistic, sexist people and spaces harm me. That harm is real.
This is the nub, there is not a single one of these bozos who has ever explained, other to imply that their delicate feelings might have been hurt, what “harm” has even actually been suffered.
@Farnsworth
I denounce your comment.
Dear God. There isn’t a paragraph in that, what 2000, words of drivel that couldn’t be singled out as deranged, incomprehensible wibble.
I googled the author, just to check what they is (isn’t that racist?). He’s a bloke. Not even a bloke attempting to look (sigh) gender-neutral or whatever. One of the articles that came up from googling he wrote 2 years ago, when he still considered himself male. Maybe he changed in order to to write for Everyday Mentalism?
Incidentally David, I only discovered this blog fairly recently (via Worstall I think). I both thank and hate you for introducing me to this world of madness.
Posted by: R. Sherman, known for purposes of this comment only as “Farrah Fawcett.”
I thought something was different. Have you had your hair done?
I denounce your comment.
Thank you; clearly I should have denounced myself, I will report for regrooving.
Have you had your hair done?
Thanks for noticing. The Patriarchy usually is oblivious to these subtle cues.
This is the nub, there is not a single one of these bozos who has ever explained, other to imply that their delicate feelings might have been hurt, what “harm” has even actually been suffered.
Does anyone else remember when the Left was quite adamant that just saying things neither picked one’s pocket nor broke one’s leg?
Speaking of people struggling with reality:
And then, quite quickly, it veers towards the insane. Still, it’s useful as a reminder of just how much damage a so-called education can do.
And then, quite quickly, it veers towards the insane.
i got worried much earlier on, when ‘rationalize’ was used pejoratively.
David, you will no doubt be surprised to find that the writer, one Miss Emily Pothst, of the white supremacist tome is a Seattle based “visual artist, musician, writer and curator…” about whom you can learn more here, though I am puzzled what, exactly, she purports to “curate”, though I guess “curator” sounds like an actual job. Her MFA thesis is a wonder to behold and highly original and talented by which I mean tediously predictable and hackneyed.
The lovely Miss Pothast can be seen here with her “band” partner, speaking of tediously predictable.
Liz,
That’s the most ‘I’s, ‘me’s and ‘my’s I’ve ever read in one article.
Almost as self-referential as a Barack Obama speech?
“I believe that it’s my job to engage in uncomfortable conversations with other white people about racism”
Oh Lord. She must be an absolute riot at parties. Imagine getting trapped in a corner with someone determined to engage you in an ‘uncomfortable conversation about racism’. It used to be the pub bore was the exclusive domain of middle-aged white blokes. Now thanks to ‘diversity’, everyone can be a monomaniacal wanker.
I like the fact that she knows that people who watch Fox News are obviously white supremacists. And that if you’re looking for “real racists,” they’re probably in Idaho.
This.
https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/730761923659075585
And speaking of things that are “emotionally exhausting.”
I for one am amazed that a Jesuit institution emphasizes Jesuit teaching. I am trying to unpack that, as the kids say.
Even so, the student petitioners maintain that the current curricular balance “does not reflect the kind of education we expected nor [sic] want,”…
I would suggest that perhaps the students chose their college unwisely, but I would have to denounce myself again and report for more regrooving.
And speaking of things that are “emotionally exhausting.”
The dangers of allowing unintelligent people to go to University.
The dangers of allowing unintelligent people to go to University.
It’s interesting that whenever we see these demands for flattery and ever greater indulgence, with their rote denunciations of “whiteness” and “heteronormativity,” the spelling and grammar are reliably inept.
I will not let cisgender heterosexual men claim my Blackness.
Rachel Dolezal, on the other hand, can go as hard as she likes on it
“I believe that it’s my job to engage in uncomfortable conversations with other white people about racism” said Bernard Manning in 1979.
As a middle aged, cis/hetero white male of Northern European origin (can one imagine any more strikes against me?!?), I am completely beyond having this explained to me, so don’t bother
I am certain that our host and many of his esteemed guests have encountered the amusements offered by Neel Kolhatkar, but in case the weighty thoughts above have displaced him from thought, please enjoy the evolution “victimhood poker”:
https://youtu.be/AOMpxsiUg2Q
Farnsworth: FYI: Your oversight has been reported to the Secretary of Failure himself.
Here’s a new seam for you to mine David.
*Drum rolls*
I give you Vonny Moyes
“Vonny Moyes is an arts journalist and social activist. She is comedy editor for The Skinny Magazine and columnist for National Collective and Bella Caledonia”
I’M white. I write for a paper largely written by white people, for a predominantly white audience in a country that is systematically white. Whichever way you come at it, this is privilege. Being born white in a white society is an asset that makes every area of my life easier by default. I know that as a white person I can write under this title, publish my work without struggle, and not be seen as angry or as that reflecting negatively on my race. Today, I’m using this position to start talking about that
http://www.thenational.scot/comment/vonny-moyes-beyoncs-lemonade-has-inspired-me-to-examine-my-privilege.16983
That’s right:
Beyoncé’s Lemonade has inspired me to examine my privilege
FFS
With all this talk to gender fluidity and how hard it is to guess at any given moment what gender they is I’ve had an idea.
Lets buy up all the mood rings and t-shirts etc that people don’t want and re-market them as gender tracking/advertising items.
Then everyone can see at a glance what gender they is at any given time. Perhaps they can even use the ring to tell what gender they is.
I realise the last sentence of the above comment cannot be parsed, but that is what you get in today’s world of self-selected pronouns. Sorry, get used to it.