We don’t live in a vacuum. Our ideas, our lexicon, and our beliefs are shaped by outside forces like society, culture, environment, and religion. Fields like sociology and anthropology prove that.
Words matter. You said something heterosexist because your parents / the media / your religion told you; you weren’t born a bigot. Forces like that reflect and shape your ideas. When people, especially celebrities, say transphobic things they fuel transphobia and other people think it is ok because their ideas aren’t challenged. Their bigotry is reinforced every day by outside forces like that. We are conditioned to say things that hurt other people, but we don’t change it because it seems like it doesn’t affect your reality.
That’s where privilege comes from. If the dominant culture constantly puts out …
I love Taylor Swift. According to iTunes, I have listened to her latest CD, Speak Now, 31 times. I have bought every magazine that featured her on the cover in the past two months and read each interview multiple times. I stalk her Twitter account. Basically, I have become a fangirl stereotype.
I know. You’re probably thinking, “Wow, another teenage girl who likes Taylor Swift. How out of the ordinary considering that she is ranked #12 on Forbes’ Powerful Celebrity List and seems to win something at every award show she attends, whether she was nominated or not.” But this has been an interesting experience for me because I have never really looked up to celebrities.
When virtually all of my friends went through a fanatic phase for a …
I’m sure a lot of you have seen at least one “It Gets Better” video. If you haven’t, it’s basically a project initiated to show LGBT youth that are struggling with their sexuality, and can’t imagine a future as an openly gay adult, especially in the face of bullying. A bunch of celebrities have pitched in speaking from the perspectives of allies and LGBT adults. It’s an awesome project, and Jezebel recently gathered what they think are the top 15 videos. Here are a few of my faves:
Tim Gunn (who opens up about his own past suicide attempt)
“What is Justin Bieber doing out of the Kitchen?”
“It is an offence that we need to share the same gender as Justin Bieber”
“If Justin Bieber was a woman…oh wait, never mind”
“Leave Justin Bieber alone, stop making fun of HER!”
There’s more like this. Whether or not you like Justin Bieber’s music, you have to agree that there’s something wrong with the above facebook groups. Every single group that I listed at the start of this article has over five hundred members. That’s five hundred people who, if they don’t actively believe that, say, Justin Bieber should ‘stay in the kitchen’, felt that it was at least funny enough to become a fan of it on facebook.
What does it say that these groups are so popular? More …
