Hey Matt,
I do accept that as a white, heterosexual, able-bodied man I can view the world unthinkingly through that lens. It is easy in this position to make pretty sounding platitudes about how we're all the same under the skin and more unites than divides us. But the world is made for me; however rough it sometimes feels, I (we) should remember that. What's that old proverb? 'If you want to know what water is like, don't ask a fish'. What I post on these threads is instinctive and inevitably comes from my own biases, though that's true of all of us I suppose. But I'm constantly rethinking and questioning my own biases, and disagreeing with the self that I was 30 minutes earlier and that's why I get genuinely upset, with myself, that I've been misunderstood, or naive, or insensitive or what have you. And these are complex and nuanced issues, I don't think that can be denied. But people of good faith should keep talking to each other and fighting for some real version of equality. We seem to be in a very divisive moment where the internet, and political shifts to the right, are facilitating people's desire to retreat into tribes, where a new national sport seems to be the gleeful creation of a cartoon version of 'identity politics' and 'social justice warriors' set up to be viciously mocked by people immersed in their own hideous and dangerous form of identity politics. I see it in the kids I teach: they had to do spoken presentations recently for their GCSEs and two of the boys did 'The Snowflake Generation' and (honestly) 'Is 3rd wave feminism ruining the country?'. God, it was depressing and kind of frightening. They're 14. I thought back to similar projects from my schooldays; they'd be on 'fly fishing' and 'Dungeons and Dragons'. Anyway, I concede that no doubt there is bias in the publishing world. It's everywhere isn't it, it's the water we swim in. I probably do have a tendency to see it as cleaner than it is, but I am working on it and working on ways to clean it up rather than denying the dirt. I did like Dave's essay though.
Julie - time and energy, yes. Hopefully not entirely pointless. I'm definitely bowing out now. Going to think about Jim's thread instead.
Cheers.
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