tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19387347.post284777635345803548..comments2024-03-19T06:14:23.325-04:00Comments on Kleefeld on Comics: On -isms: LabelsSean Kleefeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10492399469370737192noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19387347.post-22675424942656218442014-05-28T21:43:18.531-04:002014-05-28T21:43:18.531-04:00Totally hear you on the atheist, introvert thing. ...Totally hear you on the atheist, introvert thing. I didn't bring those up for two reasons. With atheism/agnosticism, that's a thought process, not something you're born with. You might not have much choice in the religion you're indoctrinated with, but you have a choice on whether you continue to believe in that faith after reason tells you it's bunk.<br /><br />While introversion and left-handedness (to pull out another example) are something you're born with, and are generally biased against in society, I don't think the intolerance for those traits is nearly to the level of, say, being Black. Or gay. <br /><br />Regardless, it boils down to recognizing what priveledges you DO enjoy because of your "normalcy" and what roadblocks others face because of their difference(s).Sean Kleefeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10492399469370737192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19387347.post-39584224641391931092014-05-23T08:19:47.451-04:002014-05-23T08:19:47.451-04:00With regards to "I shouldn't have needed ...With regards to "I shouldn't have needed this," in recent years I really feel more and more that our sensitivity to disadvantage has some complete blind spots.<br /><br />In fact, thinking about it, you've probably summed it up admirably. If you're white, male, straight and not from appalling poverty, then "meh." Discrimination against any or all alternatives to the preceding is a serious issue; if by contrast you check all of those boxes and still don't fit in, well, that's life quit whining basically.<br /><br />I don't see why this is or should be okay. There's more to disadvantage than just sex, race or money. I can offer at least two examples, familiar to me. We live in a believer's nation--primarily a Christian believer's nation--and nonbelievers are expected to stay in the closet and keep quiet. We also live in an extrovert's world, and most people don't even think about this at all let alone give consideration to how this may produce systemic bias against introversion.<br /><br />These, again, are just things familiar to me personally. And while I'm sufficiently self-aware to realize that I have nonetheless also enjoyed various privileges in life, 1) I'm also sufficiently self-aware to realize that there are probably still more blind spots beyond those obvious to me, and meanwhile 2) evidence of individual success is by no means universally acknowledged as rendering other ideas of disadvantage as invalid.<br /><br />Obviously I would like to be a self-determined individual rather than a demographic breakdown… but, that said I think that labels are a two-edged sword. It's more difficult for bias against something to exist if people don't notice it… but where it does exist it's probably much better insulated from any kind of corrective measure.Matt Khttp://www.brilliantdeduction.infonoreply@blogger.com