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Re: My Friends Have Good Taste
I reconsidered about Facebook. I think the reason I’ve become more tolerant of upsetting political opinions is because I’ve taken aggressive steps to be less exposed to them.
To give an example: Madonna apparently did something to her face.
I don’t care about celebrities to begin with, and I’ve gradually come to understand that having that much money isn’t healthy. Still, I think people can do whatever they like with their bodies, and posthumanism is kind of cool.
My view of body modification is informed by my strained relationship with gender, as well as my experience with illness and disability. Perhaps not everyone is trans or nonbinary, but we’re all going to get sick and disabled one day, so I think it’s reasonable to hold off on judging body modifications until you’re in a position to want (or need) one.
Still, I’ve seen intelligent adults I know on Instagram posting selfies and humble-bragging about their wrinkles and neck lines while trashing Madonna. Again, I don’t care and have never cared about Madonna, but I’m concerned about how this reflects the prevailing culture of social media. Namely, it’s not enough to post a picture of your face as a category of person who is underrepresented in media; you have to include an inflammatory caption to drive engagement.
I feel like it should go without saying that none of this has anything to do with feminism. Feminism is about becoming aware of and dismantling systems of discrimination and inequality, not about judging individual women to make yourself seem more virtuous in comparison. Like, it’s important to critique corporate campaigns that fetishize a certain type of youthful femininity - and obviously there need to be laws and enforcement preventing talent agencies from bullying young women (and men!) into undergoing elective surgeries - but one individual’s decision about what to do with her body is her business.
And generally, the individual behavior of any given female celebrity has nothing to do with feminism to begin with. Like, I’m not upset with JK Rowling because she’s “a bad feminist” or whatever; I’m upset because she’s a billionaire who is unfortunately well on her way to becoming a fascist.
Regardless, I feel like hating on the social media scapegoat of the hour isn’t meaningful political praxis, and I also feel like people with PhDs in Comp Lit and Cultural Studies should know better. Seeing colleagues and mentors whom I respect engage in that sort of social media clickbait discourse is... Idk, it’s just something I don’t want to see.
Anyway. I was thinking I could turn my own stupid opinion into an actual essay, but then I remembered that I hate this sort of thing. Like I said, the less exposure, the better.
To give an example: Madonna apparently did something to her face.
I don’t care about celebrities to begin with, and I’ve gradually come to understand that having that much money isn’t healthy. Still, I think people can do whatever they like with their bodies, and posthumanism is kind of cool.
My view of body modification is informed by my strained relationship with gender, as well as my experience with illness and disability. Perhaps not everyone is trans or nonbinary, but we’re all going to get sick and disabled one day, so I think it’s reasonable to hold off on judging body modifications until you’re in a position to want (or need) one.
Still, I’ve seen intelligent adults I know on Instagram posting selfies and humble-bragging about their wrinkles and neck lines while trashing Madonna. Again, I don’t care and have never cared about Madonna, but I’m concerned about how this reflects the prevailing culture of social media. Namely, it’s not enough to post a picture of your face as a category of person who is underrepresented in media; you have to include an inflammatory caption to drive engagement.
I feel like it should go without saying that none of this has anything to do with feminism. Feminism is about becoming aware of and dismantling systems of discrimination and inequality, not about judging individual women to make yourself seem more virtuous in comparison. Like, it’s important to critique corporate campaigns that fetishize a certain type of youthful femininity - and obviously there need to be laws and enforcement preventing talent agencies from bullying young women (and men!) into undergoing elective surgeries - but one individual’s decision about what to do with her body is her business.
And generally, the individual behavior of any given female celebrity has nothing to do with feminism to begin with. Like, I’m not upset with JK Rowling because she’s “a bad feminist” or whatever; I’m upset because she’s a billionaire who is unfortunately well on her way to becoming a fascist.
Regardless, I feel like hating on the social media scapegoat of the hour isn’t meaningful political praxis, and I also feel like people with PhDs in Comp Lit and Cultural Studies should know better. Seeing colleagues and mentors whom I respect engage in that sort of social media clickbait discourse is... Idk, it’s just something I don’t want to see.
Anyway. I was thinking I could turn my own stupid opinion into an actual essay, but then I remembered that I hate this sort of thing. Like I said, the less exposure, the better.
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It's a welcome relief to hear that the point stands, but still. My apologies for the vent post.
I did some radical self-care in the form of muting professional colleagues during the past year, and I like to think that I've become more chill since then. Refusing to respond to flavor-of-the-week outrage is its own kind of praxis, I think.
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Perhaps it's a bit naive, and I don't expect it to happen anytime soon, but I hope the culture of online spaces leans more towards this going forward. I don't think the internet will ever be a space where negative sentiments don't flourish, but I think there is more of an awareness that this constant anger is more draining and distracting and harmful than anything else.