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June 2, 2018June 2, 2018 Alex Heberling

seananmcguire:

“If a society puts half its children into short skirts and warns them not to move in ways that reveal their panties, while putting the other half into jeans and overalls and encouraging them to climb trees, play ball, and participate in other vigorous outdoor games; if later, during adolescence, the children who have been wearing trousers are urged to “eat like growing boys,” while the children in skirts are warned to watch their weight and not get fat; if the half in jeans runs around in sneakers or boots, while the half in skirts totters about on spike heels, then these two groups of people will be biologically as well as socially different. Their muscles will be different, as will their reflexes, posture, arms, legs and feet, hand-eye coordination, and so on. Similarly, people who spend eight hours a day in an office working at a typewriter or a visual display terminal will be biologically different from those who work on construction jobs. There is no way to sort the biological and social components that produce these differences. We cannot sort nature from nurture when we confront group differences in societies in which people from different races, classes, and sexes do not have equal access to resources and power, and therefore live in different environments. Sex-typed generalizations, such as that men are heavier, taller, or stronger than women, obscure the diversity among women and among men and the extensive overlaps between them… Most women and men fall within the same range of heights, weights, and strengths, three variables that depend a great deal on how we have grown up and live. We all know that first-generation Americans, on average, are taller than their immigrant parents and that men who do physical labor, on average, are stronger than male college professors. But we forget to look for the obvious reasons for differences when confronted with assertions like ‘Men are stronger than women.’ We should be asking: ‘Which men?’ and ‘What do they do?’ There may be biologically based average differences between women and men, but these are interwoven with a host of social differences from which we cannot disentangle them.”

—

Ruth Hubbard, “The Political Nature of ‘Human Nature’ “

(via gothhabiba )

Yes.

(via geardrops)

tl:dr summary: “We cannot sort nature from nurture when we confront group differences in societies in which people from different races, classes, and sexes do not have equal access to resources and power, and therefore live in different environments.”

Two Stories of Fat Hate [TW]

February 16, 2012February 16, 2012 Alex Heberling

Yesterday I was sitting in the break room at work eating my lunch when a commercial for “My 600 Pound Life” came on the TV. Two of my coworkers were also in the break room at the time and melodramatically recoiled and groaned as the man in the commercial, a very large man of color, did such things as use a walker to get around his house, show his chest and belly to the camera, and talk to the camera crew in interviews.

The commercial alluded to some sort of surgery he underwent, during which his heart temporarily stopped. As I sat there for about 20 seconds seething at my coworkers reactions, the commercial wrapped up, and they were still talking about it immediately after.

As they groaned and chuckled, I spoke up: “Can we talk about something else now? Instead of talking about how horrible fat people are?”

Coworker A responded: “No, that’s not fat, that’s something else.” With a shake of his head.

I said, “No, that’s fat, just like me, and I really don’t appreciate it." Coworker kind of shrugged and went back to doing something with his phone. Coworker B didn’t say anything.

I know I’m starting to be a Big Girl Activist now, because I’m actually starting to speak up! This is pretty damn huge for me, formerly known as Avoid Confrontation If At All Possible Girl. The silver lining to this story is that Coworker B later came to me and apologized for her comments. She and I are fairly close coworker-friends, and I had recently shut down a bit of body-shaming that occurred on her Facebook wall on the topic of one of those "Women’s Ideal Size/Men’s Ideal Size/National Average Size” images that’s been going around. So she thankfully was already aware of my feelings on the issue and likes me enough as a friend to step up and apologize.

This second story happened earlier just this evening, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to speak out.

I met a group of friends at a coffee shop, and while we were sitting there, I overheard a conversation between two women who were sitting behind me. The first woman was telling her friend about the company she worked for, which had recently interviewed a job candidate. Supposedly her managers or whoever were just gushing about his credentials, being overqualified for the job, but since he was “morbidly obese” (her words, not mine) they decided he would cost the company too much for healthcare because he probably had a lot of health conditions being so fat. She said they were also making jokes about his breathing.

Luckily, the woman telling the story seemed reproachful/surprised/shocked that her coworkers were gushing about his qualifications, yet also laughing about him in private. Her tone, at least, wasn’t that her employers were totally justified. The hiring people didn’t tell him that he wasn’t getting the job because he’d cost too much for healthcare, they just said something like, “We’re not looking for anyone right now, but we’ll keep your resume on file.”

Like I said, I didn’t have the opportunity to speak up here, since it was kind of bridge under the water at that point for the fat man. But it’s helpful to get it out into the aether so it doesn’t stew up in my brain.

[tw: ableism, rape culture] Common arguments on the “derpy hooves” thing, blah blah blah

January 25, 2012January 25, 2012 Alex Heberling

[tw: ableism, rape culture] Common arguments on the “derpy hooves” thing, blah blah blah

fromonesurvivortoanother:

“It’s ableist to say that people with different faces are disabled” — Um, no, no one ever said this was about ALL people with disabilities, or that people with different faces are somehow automatically disabled. What’s ableist is not acknowledging that some people with “derp faces” do exist.

“We should all just stop back off and stop fighting, give peace a chance, blah blah” — The majority of what I’ve seen has been people spouting off ableist shit. I’ve seen people who criticized Derpy threatened with rape and death, harassed multiple times, etc, but I have yet to see a person who thinks “derp” is okay call out their fellow Bronies on said behavior. I’ve gotten some shit myself but I haven’t posted it. So no. When someone is being a racist dick, and they refuse to acknowledge it, you don’t say, “hey let’s be friends!” This is not about moral relativism. It’s either ableist or it’s not.

“It’s just a cartoon! You’re taking this too seriously!” — Cartoon characters can send political and social messages to people as much as real people. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but MLP has a lesson about friendship in every episode. If it can do this, why couldn’t it also be ableist? And also, this is really funny given how some people have responded with threats, harassment, etc. I guess it’s only serious if the word is some pretty little meme that matters to you, right?

“The creators of the show didn’t mean for it to be ableist!” — Intent is not magic. The end. If a little kid says X expletive about People of Color, they are still being racist even if they didn’t mean to. It is very possible to say or do offensive things without meaning to.

“People will always find something to be offended by, blah blah” or “it’s just the internet, it won’t change!” — No. Actually, people get offended when they encounter something that demeans their existence or their identity. It is incredibly possible to be funny without hurting people through ableism, sexism, homophobia, etc. Go look up Mitch Hedberg, he’s a standup comedian who is incredibly funny without being offensive. This kind of response reeks of self-interested, self-convenient fatalism. Maybe if you actually took on some responsibility and acknowledged what’s going on, you could change something.

“Derp just means ‘awkward’ or ‘silly’” — Okay, then don’t use faces and images that make fun of people with disabilities. And there are plenty of other words that mean “awkward” or “silly”, without being ableist…such as…”awkward” or “silly”. Or potatoes. Or jujubes. It’s not hard.

“Someone who is disabled told me it doesn’t bother them” — Okay, and it bothers other people with disabilities. Your point? No one elected some grand representative of all of the disabled people to speak on our behalf. It’s not some popularity contest. It’s about actually figuring out if this is a problem or not.

“It’s not ableist, you’re wrong, you’re being too sensitive” — Cool story. I guess the people with disabilities who are telling you it’s a problem don’t matter as much, right? Oh wait, that’s ableist.

if anyone can refute these, I’d love to see it. I haven’t yet.

Read, y’all.

The latest MLP episode

January 22, 2012January 22, 2012 Alex Heberling

The latest MLP episode

kirailabs:

alexheberling:

yamino:

For those unaware, in the latest episode she was shown clumsily destroying the town, talking with slurred speech, and was officially referred to as “Derpy.” She’s officially the mentally handicapped joke character, just like fandom has always wanted her to be.

I’ve received countless asks about this, so I figure you’re all wanting a reaction. But really, if you’ve read any of my posts regarding the “Derpy Hooves” character, you know exactly how I feel about it.

Absolutely disgusted.

This is a low I had not expected. I really don’t even know what to say. I have lost so much respect for the creators after this.

Yeah, this pretty much sums it up. I got onto Facebook today and a friend of mine had posted the status: “Derpy is canon and is voiced.”

So I got on YouTube to find the episode… and yeah. That just happened.

“She’s officially the mentally handicapped joke character, just like fandom has always wanted her to be.”

I hope you guys are happy living in your disgusting, privileged worlds.

Yeah, I figured this would be Yamino’s reaction.

Personally, *as* a high-functioning autistic (Aspergers) I don’t see any problem with it. She means well, she’s just clumsy. We got less than a minute of her, and you’re calling that the extent of her personality? She’s just a “Mentally handicapped joke character”? Come on, you’re both writers and artists. Would *you* accept anybody saying your characters are *just* something? Would you not insist there’s other facets that just haven’t been seen yet?

There’s other interpretations of her too, you know. She’s deaf and/or has an inner ear thing (Explaining her way of speaking and her clumsiness), she’s just kinda dim and *really* unlucky, whatever. But nope, instantly to the most reactionary….reaction.

Stop being offended by things that have no relation to you, and stop being offended *for* people. You do not know better than others who these things actually relate to, and the constant ‘This offends me!’ reactions I see bug the ever-lovin’ crap out of me.

You know what? Not even most of the fanbase thinks Derpy is *just* a joke character! They consider her a loving, devoted parent, a hard worker, and a caring friend, who just HAPPENS to have something wrong in her head! And here you guys are, going ‘Oh, she’s just a retarded joke character now, this is so offensive’, based on LESS THAN A MINUTE AND A HALF between her name being spoken and the last frame she appeared on screen!

If you ask me? THAT is more offensive.

Come on, you’re both writers and artists. Would *you* accept anybody saying your characters are *just* something? Would you not insist there’s other facets that just haven’t been seen yet?

If someone is saying “Oh they’re just [whatever]” about some of my works, that means I haven’t done my job as a storyteller. If Derpy comes back in a future episode and somehow they don’t fuck up and actually portray her as a person, not a stereotype, then sure, I’ll eat my hat and take it back.

But when the character was created by the fandom, and the show is just pandering to them and making a mockery of mannerisms and behavior attributed to the mentally disabled, that’s disgusting, and I don’t think that there’s any way the creators of this show are going to be able to satisfactoril fix this one, short of cutting that cold open out completely.

Derpy’s appearance didn’t contain any hints whatsoever that the writers have any other plans for her character, other than a shoutout to the bronies. There was nothing subtle about it. And the only thing kids are going to take from it (and this show is WATCHED BY A LOT OF KIDS, let’s remember) is that it’s perfectly acceptable to laugh at, dismiss, and get frustrated with people (real, live, fleshy people) who resemble Derpy, since that’s what their hero Rainbow Dash did.

And one more thing?

Stop being offended by things that have no relation to you, and stop being offended *for* people. You do not know better than others who these things actually relate to, and the constant ‘This offends me!’ reactions I see bug the ever-lovin’ crap out of me.

I do not have any obligation to divulge the details of my mental health to strangers on the internet, but to assume I should not be compassionate or show basic empathy, even if I were completely able-bodied and able-minded, is deeply deeply problematic.