Writing about gender, power, and privilege

Game Development
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Doesn’t discrimination often occur when there is a prejudice?
But to differenciate for the purpose of information sharing,
Within social psychology prejudice refers to the negative emotions and feelings towards another social group; discrimination refers to the negative actions or behaviours towards another group.

Ultimatively I think the reason it happens is when somebody is unwilling/unable to see the viewpoint of another group or is unable to find acceptance of specified group.

And for the latest Hero Rise novel… The group was refered to as “Underrepresented” often, which made me simply think that it is what it says, underrepresented, ignored, that attention needs to be drawn to a topic that needs the attention for the betterment of culture and economy, but I have never really felt that the underrepresented are specifically discriminated against or that prejudice is carried against them. Only when I read steam reviews I actually got a clue to what it is implying and that some, surely from the states, felt that something about minorities is shoved down their throats?
Not to forget, I see no disadvantage to being an underrepresented in the novel, rather that it is a nuisance for some in less fortunate circumstances and an advantage for others… Just like the area and wealth one grows up in does the same effect.
And where the powers didnt form properly? It sounds more like a medical condition that needs to be brought attention towards to and I am suprised that it has not happened yet as so many of this condition seem to be found overall.
Also, in the final mission the MC is a Tardigrade, that is probably the most amazing animal that exists on the earth and will continue to exist long after roaches themself perished and even if the earth should explode and they were to be kicked into the vacuum of space.

Uhm… just a note. I personally cannot take this… modern feminism that is originating from the states mainly, as serious. There are some small issues still, yes, but modern feminism seems to me like it is trying to make women become men, ignoring the fundamental psychological differences… so… if the subject is mentioned towards me, I will completly ignore it. Just mentioning it as I have seen it being brought up above.

I will also mention that I have never experienced questionable behavior(aka sexism) outside of personal relationships, have never been denied to do something because of my gender or been restricted because of it and neither experienced special treatment that is uncommon or unexpected. Also never seen or experienced racism, you may find tracks of me joking about burning somebody to make them become a black burned person and somebody from the states hinting at me using the word “black” to describe/direct to somebody. I just asked confusedly “what is wrong with being black?”

I mentioned twice that it is people from the states that bring up sexism and racism specifically and I do mean that, in Europe homosexuality, transsexuality and racial differences are largely accepted. Anxiety of men loving men still occurs where I live though to a smaller degree.
This also means that I have no clue to what “racism” specifically is about, I mean, we are all humans, yes? When I look at a stranger, I do see a human first, not a “white/black”/“german/arabian/english/asian/whatever” person. It is not an issue unless it is made one.

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I am going to share something publicly that happened to me yesterday. Perhaps this will give you perspective.

I was shopping at a local store for summer dresses and was talking to my sister how the yellow color of one made my pale skin sickly looking… when a lady near us, turned and ranted at me for being WASPish. In her mind, I was being offensive towards her and other women of color.

As far as Euros being perfectly accepting of “homosexuality, transexuality” I’d point to recent Russian laws enacted that show that both the above are far from being accepted.

Even in such Western nations as Britain, I know there are struggles to get the medical community to treat and accept medical needs of both trans and non-straight communities … so no, Europe is far, far from accepting. Didn’t Italy just outlaw same-sex marriage recently as well?

I’m not sure what “modern femininity” your referencing above but I am interested in seeing if my perspective is different than yours with regards to specific passages.

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I’m in Europe, the UK specifically, and I find that this isn’t always the case. I’ve experienced a lot of first hand discrimination. I’ve also witnessed it second hand.

If you haven’t experienced, or even witnessed any, then you’re fortunate, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, and isn’t still a problem.

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“It is not an issue unless it is made one.” She created the issue, not you. She is thinking it is a problem that she has darker skin tones, I still don’t see the issue in itself. Yes, it is sad that she reacts that way for her own inacceptance of appearance differences. It is a mental issue that can be understood with something that is refered to as the missing tile syndrome, assuming she complains because she does not fit the ideal that she set out for herself.
But it does not bring perspective, merely confirms what I already mentioned “It is not an issue unless it is made one” and people would call somebody doing that crazy here, for a good reason.

Uh, I honestly do not view russia as being a part of Europe. The largest parts of it lie in Asia, while their agrar culture and their current capital are considered to lie in Europe. I will assume that you refer that they are politically stronger represented in Europe rather than Asia, which would be correct, but russia still seems like something totally different to Europe.

I used the word “largely” specifically which means “to a great extend; mostly” not that they are “perfectly” accepting. I also did not venture on the political aspect, merely on the social. I did not say “European Nations” but rather “europeans” which refers to a population living on that specific landscape. Politically there are still issues, yes, but you need to remember whom the current politicians largely are: Old people. What it implies, you can figure it out for yourself really.
Acceptance does not start politically, but socially.
There are social experiments where homosexuel couples went to a various number of countries, begun kissing to see how people would react. For Europe: Nobody really reacted, some looked, but nobody said a thing to them.

There are 2 cases where mtf where killed in a male prison in the UK. Things to consider: The victims could have prevented this; it is a very small ammount. 2 people. Literally 2.
the UK has a population of 64.1 million, 300.000 to 500.000 are guessed to be transgender. The study that suggested the number summed it down badly and did not consider the ones suffering under gender dysphoria but do not come out with it or have been lucky enough to come to acceptance and do not need to face the decision between death and transitioning. We also need to know age values to determ where and when discrimination occurs, this is important to figure out where the actual issues lie and how they could be most efficently be tackled and solved.
As of the start of this year, improvements were promised by UK officials.

I won’t venture into the subject of modern feminism publicly, there are too many people that do not want to see the point in it and what may had started small may turn to a big mess that I want nothing to do with it. I may had been more open to it on PM, but do not feel inclined after words were swapped out. (Largely → Perfectly) And really, those two do make a big difference.

@FairyGodfeather West Germany. Where most of the migration happens. My mother is racist, still does not mean I understand it, having grown up with so many different cultures throughout my entire life.
My boyfriend disagrees with the idea of transgender because he bears a different opinion, perspective on gender. He still accepts and respects them and refers to the individual as should be.
At a place where I worked for a short time, we had a transgender. Nobody really cared. Not even one customer and we easily had a few thousand different customer a week.
I also know of a single case of discrimination towards a black person here in germany. A single. It is not made an issue here. Would not even have heard of it if he did not mention it to me directly and put all the fault for his misery onto it.
My mother just puts all the faults in the system and her dissatisfaction about her financial situation onto black people, arabians, the migrants basically. I will not go into the consequences for her psyche on this or how it impedes her own satisfaction or happyness, just that it is rather sad to watch it.
For the issues in the UK… I mentioned it in this post, but to put it into perspective… there is not enough data available for me to form an opinion and while the study seems okay, it seems incomplete to me and article relating to it are very one sided and merely scream “issue” and take numbers out of the study without aligning it in proper or complete context.
Something similiar happened with the study about transgender attempted suicide risk study(in the US), such as that those that live without any mentioning of what would be an issue to others, have the lowest risk and that those that were sexually abused by the police actually stand at a 70% that attempted suicide. Instead, you are only given 40%, which again only screams issue.

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That doesn’t matchs with the findings of the last discrimination studies of the EU agency for fundamental rights though.

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As someone who lives in a “less developed” country in the EU (we don’t poke things with sticks, I’m talking about mentally developed, as in views on social things), I can confirm that it’s not true to say that everywhere in Europe. Here, it’s rare to not be judged for your sexuality. Sometimes, even for your skin colour, or gender. Even religion sometimes, but people feel ashamed to say that they are religious, and to mention which religion.

And while I’m in the smaller group that doesn’t judge anyone for their race/gender/sexuality, I find that sad. I don’t want to write pages about why, because comments before me pretty much sum it up. Though things are slowly changing regarding that, but it’s slow. It’s not going to be anytime soon.

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It’s not even that much better in the “development” countries in Europe. We have much hypocrisies and sentences started with “I’m not racist/homophobic/etc, but…” and people are careful to not be outright racist/homophobic/transphobic and all, but in the end many people see those that are even a little bit different because of sexuality/gender/race still as the others.

I also agree that it slowly gets better, but only slowly.

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I will take a look at it this weekend. If you can link it to me over PM, that would speed the search up.

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Just go on te side of the FRA (http://fra.europa.eu). …The press release for the study about discrimination of the lbgta community is here (in German) or here (in English) or in French.

For other research look under research and projects.

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That might be a cultural difference. In my country, if you don’t seek attention and don’t get recognized for being special, you might not get to marry the person you love. Attention-seeking special snowflakes are the reason we don’t have separate water fountains. (Or special schools just for white people. That was the real controversy.)

If you meet an attention-seeking special snowflake on an English-language forum, there is a decent chance that person is from the US. Over here, attention-seeking special snowflakes are celebrated as heroes. We name our buildings after them and study them in our schools. One of them has a national holiday in his honor.

A recent political cause in the United States involves state governments forbidding local governments from passing laws against discrimination. Non-discrimination laws require employers to take responsibility for their own behavior. That takes effort, time and money. Some business owners don’t like this.

This cause is justified by adding language to the law requiring transgender women to use the men’s room. If you live in the Jim Crow South and you are a woman, the men’s room can be a dangerous place to be.

It works because a lot of people believe that transgender women are perverts.They believe this because transgender women haven’t received enough attention, and that makes people ignorant about them. In a democracy, ignorance can lead to violence.

Attention seeking can be a survival skill. (We call it representation. Lack of representation is the reason the Americans rebelled against the British and founded our own nation.) If you don’t get representation, you can suffer for it.

(EDIT: Apologies if this post appears more times than it should. I think I had a problem with my browser. I hope I fixed it.)

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473

Sometimes the system will auto-flag posts.

Don’t assume it is just community members doing it. Just saying.

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As per the rules.

If you’ve a question about why a post is flagged please feel free to contact any/all of the moderators to discuss it with us. Or you can speak to @RETowers or @Mary_Duffy

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@Ponku Personally attacking someone based on something that person said is against the forum rules too. Please remember that.

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[quote=“JanThatsMe, post:478, topic:205”]
But if it’s so bad, maybe authors should just start making a text-box for people to type in whatever gender they want.[/quote]

Quite a few already do (or give them the option to choose their own preferred pronouns, at least).

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Although mostly not of the gender inequality variety (the physical strength disparity being rendered effectively meaningless when it comes to social role and standing due to functional magic that does not discriminate between the sexes). Being gay is apparently perfectly fine, if you’re at the top of the caste system and becomes more and more difficult (though still theoretically legal , if frowned upon in practice) the further you are towards the bottom.

On the flip side they also force big, burly bearded men into the women’s restrooms.
Yeah, real clever thinking there Republicans ! :unamused:

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These recent shenanigans have constantly reminded me of those pics.

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You know, that is something I have always felt that the Americans should cherish. It means that they are truly free. Granted it can be rather annoying to deal with in person and being in an entire country of attention seekers is a headache inducing proposition in many parts of the world. There is a reason why “special snowflake” is often used in a derogatory manner.

However in many countries in the Sino-sphere, getting attention is a bad thing. When we say someone is “special”, we mean that this person has a depressingly low level of survival instinct. Only a few short generations ago, no woman wanted to be known as beautiful lest she be spirited away by some government official as his personal toy. No one with academic talent would express it unless they were interested in a government position. Officials had views about smart people who refused to use their talents in government service after all.

In short, the ability to try and present yourself as special is a precious thing and hard won. It implies that the beholders are generally benevolent and accepting, that Big Brother is not watching you.

In more contemporary settings, the transgender toilet law was met locally with the question “why not just build additional toilet cubicles separate from everyone else like we did for handicapped people?”. Granted getting funding for that would be a job and a half in the US Congressional System. As for representation, political representation is a good thing overall. If memory serves, the founding fathers considered themselves Englishmen (and Women), subjects of the British Crown. The fact that they had no voice in Westminster coupled with a truly abrasive Governor General eventually lead to a rebellion. In the modern day, everyone should have a voice lest any one group be disenfranchised. If every citizen is equal before the law, every citizen should have equal rights regardless of how they might identify themselves.

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Different experiences do make people more or less inclined to take racism or sexism seriously as a current, major problem. If you haven’t seen it or it hasn’t happened to you, it can be difficult to believe it’s as bad as some people make it out to be. Street harassment, for example: some women have a hard time walking in public because they’re afraid of aggressively sexual, threatening cat-calling and stalking behavior from strangers. Some women (or other people) simply have not experienced this, and so might think they are exaggerating or overly anxious. When actually, the difference isn’t sensitivity or paranoia, the two main factors seem to be location (in the U.S. or the world) and whether a woman has a car. If she’s on public transit or walking every day, of course she has more opportunities to be harassed.

I was born in Chicago, in a Polish immigrant neighborhood. Once I started going to public school, the other kids were a mix of black, white, Latino, European immigrants (not treated quite the same as white) and a few Asians and Filipinos. We all played together and I assumed that racism was a thing that only old people believed in. Then I moved to a suburb less than an hour away, kids sat at their own racially-segregated lunch tables, skin color became a thing, and I was “so progressive” for being confused by racism still existing. Also, I started getting threats over being Jewish, when I would’ve sworn until then that anti-Semitism was an old-timey prejudice.

It can be very easy to live in a country where racism or sexism is active, and not realize it. Either because you’ve been lucky enough to live in the more accepting parts of your society, or you haven’t seen it because you haven’t been the target. Bullies and bigots realize on some level that what they’re doing isn’t generally accepted, so they make their most drastic moves when their targets are alone or unwatched by anyone who might care.

There’s a whole world of violent, dangerous and disgusting behavior beneath the surface of civility which the fortunate live in, and racism is one of the things that lives there. Unless, of course, we’re talking about a society where bigotry is celebrated and it’s right there on the table, like Russia and homosexuality.

How so? How does one prevent being murdered for being themselves, or is there some factor I’m missing?

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Separate but equal is not considered constitutional in America - in the short-run these separate facilities would survive but once the court cases wound their way through the system, most court systems would disallow them… as you say in your last sentence: [quote=“Gary, post:482, topic:205”]
If every citizen is equal before the law, every citizen should have equal rights regardless of how they might identify themselves.
[/quote]

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The information given on the links is a bit vague, out of the 93k, how many are which and where do they originate from?

(About Antisemsitism in the EU)
This one is more conclusive, it shows in which country the most discrimination occur and with it, the places that need improving.

http://fra.europa.eu/DVS/DVT/lgbt.php
This one is far more conclusive, it asks for an opinion on how spread questionable behavior is shown and how rare it is.
This shows specific issues for east europe, while germany and the west seem to be strongly in the “rare” range. Even the UK, which was mentioned previously doesnt seem as bad.

But there is also this:
http://fra.europa.eu/en/event/2016/fras-fundamental-rights-report-2016-out-soon
And I wouldn’t make a final conclusion without taking a look at that first. Still gonna be a while though.

The risks are known and it should not be that difficult to avoid going to prison. Yes I know of the “stealth”-relationship nonsense and some going to court for sexual assault charges.
You took that completly out of context.

My views on “transgenderism” is simple, we aren’t simply born male or female based off of sex, even the cells, tissue? out of which the genitials are formed are made out of the same for both sexes. Anatomically, there are not that many differences between men and women(otherwise male pregnancy would not become a possiblity in a decade), a study has proven that there is no such thing as a male or female brain.
The wiring still seems to be different as far as my knowledge goes(I am not a radiologist/neurologist).
Chromosomes have no indication of it either and we still have no idea how genes affect body growth and there are still cases of XY-females and XX-males. (People assume it is rare but we do not actually know for certain as many live on without ever having any issues, we would have to literally make many more chromosometests of a lot of people to find a conclusive rate, the ratios are the same mess as the assumed ratios for trans people)
(Conclusive opinion)In conclusion, to me, it simply means that a man or a woman is born with the opposite sex and therefore suffer through false physical developement and social constructs that the individual should not need to go through.
It also means I do not believe in the term “transgenderism” and view them as normal men and women with a severe physical affliction. I also believe that those terms support discrimination because people can’t work with them as well as with terms they are used to. I also disagree with the seperation into “bio-woman/man” and “trans-woman/man”. Those two specifically make no sense to me, once for my conclusion above and because I have met women more masculine in behavior than any man I have seen before just as much men sweeter than any woman I have ever met before.

To elabroate on the anatomy… Testosterone builds muscle, which also support bone growth(usual reason men are up to 15% larger overall). Estrogen tends to work against muscle growth. It also depends on what one does, if you work on a farm, you gotta expect that your hands will become huge, for both sexes. Physical differences exist, but they differ from genetic background to genetic background, german women tend to be taller compared to other “groups” etc. So if you mix things up, gender dimorphism tends to disappear somewhat. Internally there is not really much of a difference, which is why pregnancies will become a possiblity in the near future for both sexes. In fact, we already know that men could be, as is, become pregnant, just without a womb transplant(which is the research for the “near future”), it is very dangerous and as such no research was put into it.

Useful data(Please consider the dates):

Gendermorphism study(it opens/downloads a pdf)
http://scholar.google.de/scholar_url?url=http://itgl.lu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Blackless-How-Dimorphic-2000.pdf&hl=en&sa=X&scisig=AAGBfm2dN0JNXvdZCZ1W97jyZbSO0cZeRg&nossl=1&oi=scholarr&ved=0ahUKEwizzfCf9P7MAhUC7BQKHQeID5oQgAMIGygAMAA

If you happen to have more recent studies on those subject, it would be pointed/linked to them.