Categorizing people
It all starts with this link:
6 Outdated Myths Everyone Still Believes About Homosexuality
Far be it from me to recommend a website like Cracked to influence your system of beliefs. But out of that entire article, I will quote one sentence that truly strikes a chord with me:
It's situations like these that bring credibility to the concept of "pansexuality" -- being attracted to people, not genders.
So why is it that we feel the need to categorize people based on who they prefer to be sleeping with? How would you like to be categorized for preferring blondes over brunettes (or the other way around)? How is that in any way relevant to the person you are, the way you are thinking, your brain? Is that what defines you as a person? Truly?
Why is it that we make such a big fuss whenever an actor comes out as gay or bisexual? Why should that actor feel the need to do so at all? I could of course start a separate debate on why on Earth we would feel to know that about him, but let's leave the debate of respecting a famous person's privacy for another post. Let's discuss on why there must be such a public statement and then thousands of articles on how he's so brave to discuss it. That's where discrimination issues: we make a big deal because we perceive "them" as being different. We would never make a big issue if an actor decided to hold a press conference and then said something like "Jolly good, folks, I've decided I like sleeping with women". Oh, the shock!
I've posted this opinion of mine in bits and pieces on Facebook a couple of times but let me try to summarize it a little:
I don't mind people supporting gay rights, what I do mind is that there are gay rights to be supported. Why must we fight for people who are gay? Why is there a differentiation made in the first place between people who are gay and people who aren't?
I had this post last year about positive discrimination and what I think it really is. Applying that to gay rights, female rights (since there's this whole hype nowadays about Emma Watson's speech), Jewish rights, African American rights... [insert any other minority here] rights... I will reiterate with the following belief of mine:
Making a big deal of how you support a minority does not mean you don't discriminate. Lack of discrimination means not perceiving the people belonging to that minority as different in any way from you.
In other words: we are all humans. Black, white, Asian, female, male, gay, straight, bisexual, blue-eyed, brown-eyed, black or blonde-haired, short, tall, etc etc.
All of the above are characteristics we have but cannot control. As such they are not characteristics we should be judged or differentiated upon.
The day discrimination ends is the day when we stop talking about a person as "black", "gay", "straight" and it is the day when we stop feeling the need to fight about their rights. Their rights are as much as any other human's because they are as humans as we are.
6 Outdated Myths Everyone Still Believes About Homosexuality
Far be it from me to recommend a website like Cracked to influence your system of beliefs. But out of that entire article, I will quote one sentence that truly strikes a chord with me:
It's situations like these that bring credibility to the concept of "pansexuality" -- being attracted to people, not genders.
So why is it that we feel the need to categorize people based on who they prefer to be sleeping with? How would you like to be categorized for preferring blondes over brunettes (or the other way around)? How is that in any way relevant to the person you are, the way you are thinking, your brain? Is that what defines you as a person? Truly?
Why is it that we make such a big fuss whenever an actor comes out as gay or bisexual? Why should that actor feel the need to do so at all? I could of course start a separate debate on why on Earth we would feel to know that about him, but let's leave the debate of respecting a famous person's privacy for another post. Let's discuss on why there must be such a public statement and then thousands of articles on how he's so brave to discuss it. That's where discrimination issues: we make a big deal because we perceive "them" as being different. We would never make a big issue if an actor decided to hold a press conference and then said something like "Jolly good, folks, I've decided I like sleeping with women". Oh, the shock!
I've posted this opinion of mine in bits and pieces on Facebook a couple of times but let me try to summarize it a little:
I don't mind people supporting gay rights, what I do mind is that there are gay rights to be supported. Why must we fight for people who are gay? Why is there a differentiation made in the first place between people who are gay and people who aren't?
I had this post last year about positive discrimination and what I think it really is. Applying that to gay rights, female rights (since there's this whole hype nowadays about Emma Watson's speech), Jewish rights, African American rights... [insert any other minority here] rights... I will reiterate with the following belief of mine:
Making a big deal of how you support a minority does not mean you don't discriminate. Lack of discrimination means not perceiving the people belonging to that minority as different in any way from you.
In other words: we are all humans. Black, white, Asian, female, male, gay, straight, bisexual, blue-eyed, brown-eyed, black or blonde-haired, short, tall, etc etc.
All of the above are characteristics we have but cannot control. As such they are not characteristics we should be judged or differentiated upon.
The day discrimination ends is the day when we stop talking about a person as "black", "gay", "straight" and it is the day when we stop feeling the need to fight about their rights. Their rights are as much as any other human's because they are as humans as we are.
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