The Almighty Aardvark said:
It is, but in recent years push back has become stronger than ever.
Stronger than ever is still a relative term.
Right wing views have been losing ground quite quickly in the last number of decades. Just to name a few, they've had to accept interracial marriage, gay marriage, evolution being taught in schools, forced sex in marriage being considered rape, sex with someone who's passed out drunk being considered rape, and most recently, the mere existence of transexuals.
I woke up this morning to news projecting Trump as the GOP nominee. But I'll get back to that in a moment, let's run that list for a moment:
-interracial/gay marriage. If you want to go there, keep in mind what the gay marriage debate signifies in this. There was a time where court rulings were made ahead of popular opinion, like only 40 years ago. Now we can't deal with issues until they're no longer minority opinions.
Anti-miscegnation laws were still being fought over the year I was born, by the way. Still, this is a slowing of progress, not an acceleration of one. And part of why gay rights is such an issue now is because in the 90s, when it looked like we were actually going to see this stuff happen, we took a massive step back. Even liberals were signing Defense of Marriage Acts and Billy J instituted Don't Ask, Don't Tell. We were firing Arabic intel translators after 9-11 because they were gay. Oh, and they'd ask even if you didn't tell.
That we've had victories undoing this sort of damage isn't really progress.
-Evolution being taught in schools. Great, a piece of science that's been validated for over a hundred years finally got recognition after over 150 years of controversy. Meanwhile, Texas is one of the largest school book purchasers in the US, and are using that position to dismantle evolution, take out our Founding Fathers (or the ones they don't like) and insert Jesus and Moses. Since the books other students in other states read are based on that....
-rape laws. Fair enough, though I'd point out that we're still not exactly enforcing these things. Do you remember Steubenville, where nobody did anything until shamed by anonymous, and the media lamented that these poor boys had their lives ruined? There seems to be more inertia on reporting rape than 20 or 30 years ago because the victim will be attacked, berated, accused of lying...and they're pushing for more criminal charges when a rape can't be proved. Because what other reason could there be that someone doesn't go to jail? The only outcomes are conviction for rape, or the person was innocent. After all, we live in a guilty until proven innocent society.
...well, if you're an actual rape victim, that is true.
-merely acknowledging that transsexuals exist.
Hooboy. This is another case where you're looking at something almost a hundred years old (the public awareness). This has been a slow sift over the last 50-60 years, not some sudden sea change. Recent victories have been the culmination of years or even decades of work.
Meanwhile, let's be realistic. I'm at a point in my life where I can now say there are trans individuals 20 years younger than me facing largely the same challenges. There's the occasional heartening news story and whatnot, but the numbers and the reality hasn't changed much in a practical sense. Hell, I know transwomen who have lost access to hormones under the new laws that have been passed specifically to keep women from not having babies. Speaking of, with abortion clinics being shut down and new gamed rulings, what used to be a certainty in bodily autonomy is now in question, as well. Progress.
But I digress. Murder, suicide, poverty, these things are pressing real-world issues for trans people. So are a bunch of other things. And the environment there hasn't changed much. A lot of us don't survive our teen years.
It's been a really rough period for the poor guys, and I'm getting the impression a lot of people are tired of "losing" and feeling in the wrong. Support for Trump, a guy who'll basically say everything that is offensive to the groups people have pushed for better rights and feel vindicated, is probably at least partially due to this.
I would imagine it's likely mostly due to the fact that they have these beliefs in the first place. Racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia are all pretty common in the US. The GOP has been dogwhistling these things for years. In fact, I suspect the only reason they don't like Trump is because he out-bigoted them.
Yeah, maybe they would also like to back a winner. But these people are pissed because their ass-backward, dated, hateful views are being called into question. And the thing is, they're still widely-held views. This isn't a loss, it's the fear of persecution. They feel infringed upon because they're no longer 100% of the people speaking.
Just think about it, being white is at least only explicitly associated with negative things (While totally different for implicit and passive associations). Being unable to dance and being racist are really the only two explicit stereotypes of white people.
The irony here being that the reason this is an issue is because white, like straight and cisgender, are treated as "default." Us white folk are like humans in the bulk of fantasy stories, defined as the averaged without many specific defining traits (if any at all). The entirety of American culture, and a good chunk of other Western nations, revolves around this. That we are the normal. That US culture is our culture. And we still own it. It is awesome to be white in America. And the worst "losses" we face are things like "no longer being able to deny black people jobs and housing." Oh, and some jokes are made about us.
No, the awful truth is that we're not the center of the world, and the reaction is to that very end. This is why there's so much hostility when we are even so much as asked to consider that other people exist.
But take it from someone who's on the short end of the stick in so many other areas, it is freaking awesome to be white in America. And if more of us acknowledged it, instead of scoffing at "privilege" and pretending that we're somehow put upon, there wouldn't be a stigma to "white." or "cis." Or "male."
Believe it or not, most trans folk don't hate cisfolk. Assuming any do, since I haven't met someone. Most women don't hate men. Most people of colour don't hate white people.
But these pervasive stereotypes lead to this sense of persecution against the straight or white or cisgender or whatever. Because these folks have been the center of the universe for so long they don't understand that not everything is about them.
I just want to live my life in peace, but it's usually the straight, white, cisgender guys who threaten that. Usually, because who I am is somehow threatening to THEM. It's about THEM. Not me.
And pre-emptively, if this doesn't describe you, then there's no need to think I'm talking about you specifically. But I see stuff like this:
9tailedflame said:
just saying that i don't think you should get a free pass simply for being trans, or for any aspect of sexuality/gender/race/sex/ect.
And I really just want to give up.
There's a saying, glib though it may be, that a man's greatest fear is that a woman will laugh at him, and a woman's greatest fear is that a man will murder her. You can pretty much change this to gender identity.
I really wish the worst thing I had to worry about was the thought that cisfolk might get a "free pass" on comments I didn't like on the internet. But it's been less than six months since someone last threatened me online alone, so I don't even have that luxury here.
