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serynI have a problem with how words are used in the generic but intended to mean a specific subset of it.
This was the main point behind women's dislike of phrases like, "All men are created equal...." Because demonstrably and historically the men writing it didn't mean it that way. They didn't even mean all men since all you had to be was non-white and you don't qualify.
But I'm also really extremely tired of bookstores using "religion" to mean their Christianity section and "faith" to mean church-going Christian. And generally the only people who talk about their "faith" are the ones who want to hurt non-men by clubbing them with said "faith".
It was so extremely shocking this morning when I saw someone (pj) posting about voting on the best faith blogs by moms and linked to a Pagan one. (It's an unlocked post, if you're interested, help yourself, but I'm not attempting a signal boost, my post is about me.) (Hers? Dunno. I kind of hope not since the blogger talks about disabling copy/paste which is not disabled at all if you use a real browser which is the kind of thing I really disrespect. Not that you'd be surprised I wasn't too keen on mothers in the first place.) I actually went and read the FAQ for the poll to see if it was going to be allowed. I assumed it wouldn't be because otherwise why would they use "faith"? Everyone knows "faith" is meant to be exclusionary.
Then my brain's clutch popped and I realized I'd gotten so inured to the hogging of generic words by groups intending it to mean just themselves that I hadn't noticed. When I read "faith" I assume it means that nasty kind of Christianity where they think Jesus wants them to lord it over anyone else. (It's really hard to understand why they named it after Christ given their behavior being so far from the exemplar.) My brain considers the generic word "faith" to be so synonymous with assholianism that I had mentally translated and only noticed because something "didn't qualify".
It happens a lot with Chinese people too. I've personally experienced it where several people have come right out and said people from India aren't "really Asian". The really racist of them will actually say that neighboring countries' people aren't Asian either. Because by "Asian" they mean "Chinese" but they don't want anyone daring to call them Chinese because that's "racist" for people to assume. Or something. I can't understand the motivation and I stopped listening after their argument violates facts. "Where exactly do you think India is?" That's not exactly going to help much since it directly associates their prejudice with ignorance.
Anyway. It's kind of like after reading a bunch of fanfic and someone uses "lose" correctly and I stop and stare because it looks wrong after all the erroneous uses I see more commonly. Or someone uses "toe the line" and not the incorrect "tow the line". Or "took a different tack." That one astonishes me when I see it, because more and more published (and supposedly professionally edited) books screw up tact, intact, and tack--- so someone who didn't have professional editing and who uses this esoteric reference correctly really grabs my attention.
It grabbed my attention today. Faith used as a word mean to include all religions. Almost like it's still a generic word with that meaning despite the best efforts of the majority to exclude anyone else.
This was the main point behind women's dislike of phrases like, "All men are created equal...." Because demonstrably and historically the men writing it didn't mean it that way. They didn't even mean all men since all you had to be was non-white and you don't qualify.
But I'm also really extremely tired of bookstores using "religion" to mean their Christianity section and "faith" to mean church-going Christian. And generally the only people who talk about their "faith" are the ones who want to hurt non-men by clubbing them with said "faith".
It was so extremely shocking this morning when I saw someone (
pj) posting about voting on the best faith blogs by moms and linked to a Pagan one. (It's an unlocked post, if you're interested, help yourself, but I'm not attempting a signal boost, my post is about me.) (Hers? Dunno. I kind of hope not since the blogger talks about disabling copy/paste which is not disabled at all if you use a real browser which is the kind of thing I really disrespect. Not that you'd be surprised I wasn't too keen on mothers in the first place.) I actually went and read the FAQ for the poll to see if it was going to be allowed. I assumed it wouldn't be because otherwise why would they use "faith"? Everyone knows "faith" is meant to be exclusionary.Then my brain's clutch popped and I realized I'd gotten so inured to the hogging of generic words by groups intending it to mean just themselves that I hadn't noticed. When I read "faith" I assume it means that nasty kind of Christianity where they think Jesus wants them to lord it over anyone else. (It's really hard to understand why they named it after Christ given their behavior being so far from the exemplar.) My brain considers the generic word "faith" to be so synonymous with assholianism that I had mentally translated and only noticed because something "didn't qualify".
It happens a lot with Chinese people too. I've personally experienced it where several people have come right out and said people from India aren't "really Asian". The really racist of them will actually say that neighboring countries' people aren't Asian either. Because by "Asian" they mean "Chinese" but they don't want anyone daring to call them Chinese because that's "racist" for people to assume. Or something. I can't understand the motivation and I stopped listening after their argument violates facts. "Where exactly do you think India is?" That's not exactly going to help much since it directly associates their prejudice with ignorance.
Anyway. It's kind of like after reading a bunch of fanfic and someone uses "lose" correctly and I stop and stare because it looks wrong after all the erroneous uses I see more commonly. Or someone uses "toe the line" and not the incorrect "tow the line". Or "took a different tack." That one astonishes me when I see it, because more and more published (and supposedly professionally edited) books screw up tact, intact, and tack--- so someone who didn't have professional editing and who uses this esoteric reference correctly really grabs my attention.
It grabbed my attention today. Faith used as a word mean to include all religions. Almost like it's still a generic word with that meaning despite the best efforts of the majority to exclude anyone else.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 05:54 pm (UTC)I am absolutely pimping her blog for the contest. I've been doing so daily on FB and decided to bring it up to DW, too. I was voting quietly until a Xian blogger (the one is second place) bitched on her journal and had some friends do the same about a Pagan blog being in second.
Pissing off the Witches is a rarely a good idea. So, Thorn picked it up, I and my FB friends picked it up, The Wild Hunt picked it up, and lo and behold the Pagan blog shot to first place and has remained there.
You can vote for more than one blog. I perused some of them. I vote for Pagan ones, a Jewish one, and one written by a Muslim mom. I get tired enough of not being heard, but to slam a blog with words like "have tears in my eyes".... because a Pagan is in second and "I pray for her children" rather put me over the edge.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 06:15 pm (UTC)I hope the bitchy Christian blogger loses just for that attitude, but I doubt it since it's endemic and iconic.
But I don't swim in that pond (mothers), so I'm not voting for my favorite fish.
I am shocked that they didn't try to disallow the non-Christian blogs on the grounds that they don't have "faith". I was going to avoid saying what I was thinking when I described what I thought they thought the token blog should be... it was so specific as to be offensive.... I'm pretty sure they want the token non-Christian blog to be written by a "good Christian woman" married to a Jewish man and trying to sneak in as much Christianity as possible--- the token "other" faith winner would be something like that... where it's only nominally and shallowly something else. Because people don't use the word "faith" unless they mean the kinds of fundamentalism that hurt other people and their own people. It's supposed to be a generic word, but no one uses it that way.
You'll have to excuse me a moment, I had a wardrobe malfunction and my cynicism was showing.
If they do disallow non-Christian blogs, I will speak out against that discrimination.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 09:16 pm (UTC)*laughs*
Your wardrobe malfunctions a lot.
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Date: 2011-05-31 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 06:25 pm (UTC)Considering it's either a useless term or incorrect, I'm surprised "Asian" isn't pejorative.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 08:44 pm (UTC)