George Orwell wrote an essay entitled "Politics and the English Language", pointing out that, " As soon as certain topics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of terms of speech that are not hackneyed: prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated henhouse."
One of the things I hope to incoporate into my undergrad thesis is the assimilation of any marginalized group under Queer, at least in a theoretical sense. This includes handicapped people and overweight individuals, as well as the elderly and drug users (legal or not). However, a large hurdle in getting past the intellectual posturing is attacking the internal problems with the marginalized community. The people that call the shots in lobbyist groups are those most like the ones in power. Rather than address individual needs and differences, pre-fabricated personality traits are given to those who are unfairly represented by Queer, or whatever other term applies, in order to grease the wheels of justice. This seems at the expense of reality, however.
There is a difficulty in achieving thought if nothing is ever wrong. If discrimination does not personally affect you day to day, and even if it does, if you don't notice it, it takes a gargantuan effort to internalize a cry for help as truth. This is why we yell for joy whenever a queer character in the media provides non-queercentric insight, and then laugh uneasily when they indulge in a pound of doughnuts, make a hilarious joke at their expense, or proceed to fully contradict themselves, therein negating the meaningful personal statement. Granted, contradiction is a universal spot-check, but when a marginalized character does it, it's a flaw and not a fact of life.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-12-16 09:17 pm (UTC)One of the things I hope to incoporate into my undergrad thesis is the assimilation of any marginalized group under Queer, at least in a theoretical sense. This includes handicapped people and overweight individuals, as well as the elderly and drug users (legal or not). However, a large hurdle in getting past the intellectual posturing is attacking the internal problems with the marginalized community. The people that call the shots in lobbyist groups are those most like the ones in power. Rather than address individual needs and differences, pre-fabricated personality traits are given to those who are unfairly represented by Queer, or whatever other term applies, in order to grease the wheels of justice. This seems at the expense of reality, however.
There is a difficulty in achieving thought if nothing is ever wrong. If discrimination does not personally affect you day to day, and even if it does, if you don't notice it, it takes a gargantuan effort to internalize a cry for help as truth. This is why we yell for joy whenever a queer character in the media provides non-queercentric insight, and then laugh uneasily when they indulge in a pound of doughnuts, make a hilarious joke at their expense, or proceed to fully contradict themselves, therein negating the meaningful personal statement. Granted, contradiction is a universal spot-check, but when a marginalized character does it, it's a flaw and not a fact of life.