This thread is required reading. Just adding and emphasizing that a favorite target of MRAzns is Asian American feminism precisely because of the line of flawed thinking outlined here by @NoTotally.
(Sorry, I dropped this retweet and planned to at least add a couple more tweets but then ran off to dinner with some friends.)
Not only does @NoTotally accurately point out how Asian American women are targeted by MRAzns, it’s worth further pulling back the veil: MRAzns reserve particular ire for AsAm feminists.
As @NoTotally points out, a core aspect of MRAzn logic is that AsAm liberation is defined solely by the degree to which AsAm cishet manhood —
defined by them as toxic masculinist tropes such as physical dominance over men and sexual dominance over women — is popularly recognized.
This, for MRAzns, is the battleground upon which they believe they are fighting white supremacy; they do not consider how this framework reinforces homophobia, transphobia, and heteronormative toxic masculinity, nor that it doesn’t actually do much to dismantle white supremacy.
This is because at its core, this isn’t actually about the radical overthrow of white supremacy or patriarchy. Instead it’s about improving access to (conventionally white-coded) cishet male privilege for a specific group of non-white men — everyone else be damned.
And because that goal requires the persistence of patriarchy, toxic masculinity and male privilege, feminists become a primary target for rage. We oppose patriarchy and seek to end gender injustice; therefore, for MRAzns, we represent an existential threat to their stated goals.
Even though they say they are focused on ending white supremacy, MRAzns spend an inordinate amount of time focused inward, attacking and harassing AsAm women and feminists.
That’s because their vision of AsAm liberation doesn’t actually include us in it. For them, AsAm liberation doesn’t mean liberation for all AsAms; for them, it merely means greater inclusion of AsAm men within the upper echelons of a white supremacist, toxic masculinist system.
I support the ending of racist stereotypes that undergird the trope of AsAm male unattractiveness — a trope with profound and negative consequences on AsAm male self-image. These stereotypes are unjust and should end.
However, like @NoTotally, I support the notion that efforts to end these stereotypes should go hand-in-hand with greater challenging of MRAzn logic and overt support for the feminist movement.
We can no longer afford to ignore how some in our community cloak anti-feminism, anti-blackness, and hatred in the misappropriated language of racial justice, while the rest of us look away and pretend it isn’t happening.
That’s all I wanted to say earlier. Sorry it’s several hours later than my original retweet.
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This essay was infuriating. It universalizes author’s audio processing and English language fluency, and dismisses everyone else’s needs as “unnecessary”. There are many reasons of accessibility why people might want to have subtitles on for their shows.
Even if the audio is loud enough. Even if they are English language speakers.
Subtitles are an accessibility tool, and can help a wide range of viewers with a wide range of needs. We need to stop gatekeeping why someone might feel like more access is helpful to them.
I prefer shows with subtitles because I am a bit better at visual processing than audio processing; because I don’t like having the sound turned all the way up to hear dialogue; because accents can really throw my ability to understand dialogue.
The phrase “Asian American” literally comes from Asian students who wanted to organize in solidarity with fellow Black/Brown for civil rights and ethnic studies.
Black-Asian solidarity is at the very core of our politics, identity and history.
We have historically always understood that we collectively want, need, and must fight for an end to racism, racial violence, white supremacy, and exploitation of the poor. Anyone who has studied our communities’ histories would know this.
But it’s also the height of model minority pick me-ism and anti-blackness to assert - wrongly - that only Asian Americans want better education and higher education access.
Seeing this screenshot going around and — folks, please stop using Asian Americans as a model minority wedge to bolster classism, ableism and anti-blackness.
Policies that target poor people, unhoused people, mentally ill people, and Black people don’t protect Asian Americans; it hurts us, too. In part because some in our community are also poor, unhoused, struggling with mental illness, or Black.
But even for those who are not any of those things, efforts to justify racial violence in the name of protecting the safety of public spaces also broadly hurts us. Racial violence in general - including against AsAms - remains high, and always excused by “threat to public safety”
Nobody should be murdered for being in mental health crisis.
Furthermore, even if subway riders believed Neely posed a threat - a belief for which there is no compelling evidence - it takes a conscious effort to kill someone the way Neely was killed.
Sorry, stopped because my hubs arrived for our meal and then I had to work. I’m back now.
Flying is miserable for everyone, esp for babies who don’t understand why they have to be strapped to a seat for hours in a metal tube while their ears pop. Babies hate flying as much as you do — they just have less emotional regulation and so express what we’re all thinking.
Adults who actually have had time to learn to emotionally regulate should exercise those skills, and give babies and their parents grace and space.
Most parents are just doing our fucking best.
Cue the memory of my last cross-country flight, which involved two flights in which my toddler was just DONE with flying. Both times, he and I ended up spending twenty minutes in the airplane labatory so he could just scream it out enough to calm back down.