Dear society,
Over the last year or so, I have questioned a lot. Most of all I have questioned myself, thereby discovering a very new part of me which now forms large part of my identity - and also of this blog. And that makes me very proud. But I also realised how much I dislike this society. You might be wondering: Damian, how can you make such generalisations?" - and you are 100 % right in doing so! Not everyone thinks the same way - and luckily I am surrounded by lots of accepting people. And especially social media - Twitter and most of all Tumblr - has become an outlet for me where I haven't had any bad experiences. This letter is to the non-accepting, ignorant rest. So… Let's address the stuff that gets me mad about society.
This will be a two-part story:
1. Prejudice
2. Equality and acceptance
1. Prejudice
Dear society,
There are a lot of prejudices around. And that is normal. I get that. Everyone has prejudices against SOMEone. People might not show it directly, but they are immanent to everyone. We might not even be aware of it. Imagine two people:
- a male, quite the steel-kind of body type and
- a woman, quite the chubby kind.
If I made you guess who has a meal at a famous fast food restaurant chain with the golden M and who works out in the gym, your mind would probably be 100 % clear where to put which of the two. Prejudice.
And this works exactly the same way when only one person is involved. You, dear society, set standards. You tell us that a certain trait is "manly" or "feminine". Or that if your body is scattered with tattoos, you like "hard rock” music. Or that dyeing your hair bright red makes you "punk". And while males are more likely to play football and females are more likely to do their fingernails, that does not mean the other way around does not exist. And even more important, even IF you perceive playing football as a very "manly" thing, that does NOT make women and girls playing football any less "female". And males wearing nail polish don't turn female just because of that. Prejudice.
- P. S.: No one ever just "changes their gender". But that might be a topic for another #TMIishTuesday. -
Another thing I read a lot - way more often than football being a "male" thing or nail polish being "female": If you dye your hair a different colour than blonde as a male, that makes you "gay". Again: Yes, the percentage of males dyeing their hair might be higher among gays, but that does NOT mean that you are "gay", if you dye your hair! And you are the last person to tell me my sexuality. Prejudice.
What about clothing then? Well... Same: It is completely fine to dress however you want! Skinny jeans don't mean you are "gay". And baggy clothes don't improve your rapping skills - even if some might wish that was true. Wearing boxer shorts as a girl? No change to your gender. Just like a boy wearing a skirt doesn't turn him into a girl. Prejudice.
It is completely fine to dye your hair crazy colours. It is completely fine to cover your entire body in tattoos and piercings. It is completely fine to wear high heels as a boy. Does that make you "gay", "feminine" or "liking rock music"? Nope. Prejudice.
2. Acceptance and equality
Dear society,
If you are an active follower of my Tumblr or Twitter, there's a “small” chance that you already know that I HATE, HATE, HATE all the inequality that you, dear society, bring to us. You judge everyone for what they might be. Anything that you don't know scares you. And I don't mean that you will be insecure for a second and then move on. Anything that you don't know scares the s*** out of you! And you get SO insecure that you feel you have to hate whatever this anything might be. That's scary! And: Not fair.
Let's start with the thing that is probably most common and has been this way for centuries: Women. Yepp, females are still not treated the same as males. Don't believe me? Just look at wage rates. There are still large differences. For no obvious reasons. Yes, they CAN get pregnant and will take time off for a few months then. But:
1) It is CRUCIAL that they DO get pregnant. Otherwise we won't reproduce. So is it bad that they are getting pregnant? Nope. Then why are lower wage rates their reward??
2) Some DON'T WANT to get pregnant. They just don't want to have kids. Does that make them evil? Nope. Then why are they still getting less pay just because of their gender??
3) Some DO want kids. But they are unfortunate and CAN'T. Are they happy that way? Nope. Then why are they paid less simply for being female??
Not fair.
Talking about lower wage: Another demographic group that earns substantially less than others are foreigners and people of a different ethnicity. Why? Because they are different. Why? Because they were born this way. Can they do anything about it? Nope. Still, society feels they don't know them. Why? Because they are different. Oh, this is where we started, isn't it? Erm… Let's move on to the other reasons why they earn less then. Here's a full, extensive list of valid reasons why foreigners and people of a different ethnicity or those, who have a foreign name (like myself), should be treated differently from others:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
What do you mean there's nothing on this list? Of course there isn’t! You asked for a list of valid reasons to treat someone differently. And that's exactly what you got! And I get that you are sad. Now you don't have any valid reasons anymore to degrade people. I'M SO SORRY! But maybe this made you realise something? People being treated differently for no valid reason is not valid. Not fair.
Same-sex marriage. I talked about the situation in Germany and the Netherlands briefly in last week's post for #TMIishTuesday. And I might write an entire post about this, if you guys are interested in that. For now: I'm gay. And I am not allowed to marry in this country. I mean, they tell you it's "marriage", but it's called differently. Why? Because - quite frankly - there are some ignorant, religious a**holes dictating our lives! Calling politicians this way might sound very rude and I'm trying not to be the next Trump(et) - God bless! I hate this piece of s*** even more than most of the rude people in our society! But what politicians - even in Germany - do is just ridiculous. The whole Christian party people of CDU and - even more so - CSU are ABSOLUTELY opposing same-sex marriage. Yes, there is a minority in these parties who are in favor of same-sex marriage, but the vast majority is opposing same rights. And there are LGBTQ+ people in those parties as well. Even in the ultra-right AfD party. I mean… Do you cut the electricity cable leading up to your house and then complain about having to sit in the dark for two days because those stupid electricians can't fix the cable early? Exactly! Then why would you vote any of these parties, if you are part of the LGBTQ+ community? Let alone become a member! Aaanyway, what I'm trying to say is: Same-sex marriage is accepted by most of society. Just not by those elected in office. Sooo… we are stuck with horrible "equal rights" laws. Saddening, maddening, devastating! Not fair.
Last thing on my agenda: Binary concepts. This is very simple: You, dear society, make us think that there are only two genders. And only two sexes. But you are very, very wrong with this. There’s more than “male” and “female”. There’s more than “heterosexual” and “homosexual”. Genders include genderfluid, agender, and queer people, just to name three more. Obviously there are lots more. Sexuality knows even more. Bisexual, asexual, pansexual, demisexual, etc. Including only two genders or two sexes? Not fair.
See what treating people differently is? Not fair.
And see what judging people by appearance is? Prejudice.
Dear society,
Stop judging a person by minor, appearance-related aspects! Stop telling people who they are! They know very well themselves.
Stop cutting the electricity cables providing your house with power! Make equal rights a thing - finally! Let’s start by electing accepting people into office!
And never forget:
Do more of what makes you happy! Wear make-up and nail polish, pierce your ear, get a tattoo! And most of all:
BE YOU!
Don't give a f*** about what society thinks about you! You are you - and no one can ever change that!!
Yours,
Damian
P. S.: Technically this is a #TMIishTuesday. No. 32 to be precise. So for the sake of consistency and completeness, here's the poll on the topic (first comment after the ending of the poll determined the topic - thanks again Felix) and here's what I told you about the topics beforehand.
Thanks for taking the time to read all of this! If you enjoyed this letter to society, like it, reblog it, tweet it, print it, and send it to those in power - oh and to those, who could change things when combining forces (Hint: This is us. We are the people! Show them!). Seriously: It’s a very important topic and you can always do SOMEthing! Even spreading awareness helps.
Also: Follow my blog and my Twitter. Okay, this one post might not change anything, but please still do all of the rest. :D
Next post next Tuesday at 10.00 pm CET. In case of any questions before Tuesday, just ask away (or hit me up on Twitter). Whatever you’re curious about - I don’t bite. :)
Until then: Stay mighty!
Oh, and here’s some self-promo:
- More TMI-ish Tuesdays: mightbedamian.tumblr.com/tagged/tmi
- Blog: mightbedamian.tumblr.com
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/mightbedamian
