Den of the Cyphered Wolf

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

I Have No Answers (Post-Structural Activism)

You know I don't really talk about national stuff because most of the time a lot of other people are saying what I'm thinking. But I've only seen maybe one headline that touched it and even then only tangentially. And I don't even know my own thoughts on it.

I just want to throw this out there.

The discussion on transracialism surrounding Rachel Dolezal sounds a lot like the discussion on transgenderism in feminist circles. 

I don't know how I feel.  But I read a lot of think pieces about feminists angered and wary that the ability to redefine an identity in that way diminishes the real inequalites that are pervasive in society. And while I disagree strongly with some of the most venomous stuff I see spewed forth on that front I can't ignore the argument out of hand.

They've attacked the concept of binary gender coding and all of a sudden here comes a group of people who say. No we do code one way just not in the way you expect.

We are at a point where even the concepts, the underlying linguistics we use to discuss ideas of gender and racial identity are in flux. Even before Rachel Dolezal I would hear things in the wind about how those of mixed race ancestry viewed themselves and wanted to be treated.  Hell I still get pissed off about some of the stupider stuff said about President Obama's ancestry, and the experience of being descended from slaves every now and again.

I just want people to talk but the only conversation I've mostly seen regarding the connection between the Dolezal and Jenner  so far has been reactionary internet memes from the traditionalist set that are weirded out by unconventional identity politics regardless.

That said here is much better think piece on this rebutting that traditionalist internet meme stuff.

But that article is a more complicated than usual argument for change on the right, than a self -examination of the left. One that goes beyond the "young people are moving away from us" thing and actually hits upon an issue that even the left is divided up on, that is clearly in the progressive wheelhouse but is being ignored because nobody knows what to say or think yet.

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