[If you haven't read the other posts in this ongoing conversation-with-myself, you'll probably find it helpful to do so, to get some of the context before reading this post.]
The first, and maybe most important, thing to keep in mind (even if it did take me awhile to figure this out) is that absence of a thing does not automatically indicate presence of something else. I know, that's basic logic, but still. It's easy to forget.
The second is that if what you're about to read strikes you at any point as wrong, or wrong-headed, or simply not-okay to think... I get that. Chances are, I agree with you. But I also think that sometimes, you have to say the stupid thing out loud to fully grasp the depth of stupidity. Yes, there's that whole thing about needing to pull up your pants, but I think sometimes that reminder/colloquialism is misinterpreted (willfully or no) as a message to simply not speak of this. To cram the reaction or statements down somewhere, hide that ignorance away lest everyone see clearly that we retain some ingrained ignorance.
But this is something I can tell I need to work out, to understand what's going on in my brain, before I can understand what it means, let alone what to do about it. If saying it aloud (typing it aloud?) here gets me farther along to see any wrongness, then I'm willing to take the chance of looking like an idiot. If the alternative is denying a possible flaw, I'd rather look like an idiot. At least the second can be fixed, but the first never would be.
( The reversal of recognition, single ethnicity-markers, what it means to lose them, and the problem with faces in dramas. )
The first, and maybe most important, thing to keep in mind (even if it did take me awhile to figure this out) is that absence of a thing does not automatically indicate presence of something else. I know, that's basic logic, but still. It's easy to forget.
The second is that if what you're about to read strikes you at any point as wrong, or wrong-headed, or simply not-okay to think... I get that. Chances are, I agree with you. But I also think that sometimes, you have to say the stupid thing out loud to fully grasp the depth of stupidity. Yes, there's that whole thing about needing to pull up your pants, but I think sometimes that reminder/colloquialism is misinterpreted (willfully or no) as a message to simply not speak of this. To cram the reaction or statements down somewhere, hide that ignorance away lest everyone see clearly that we retain some ingrained ignorance.
But this is something I can tell I need to work out, to understand what's going on in my brain, before I can understand what it means, let alone what to do about it. If saying it aloud (typing it aloud?) here gets me farther along to see any wrongness, then I'm willing to take the chance of looking like an idiot. If the alternative is denying a possible flaw, I'd rather look like an idiot. At least the second can be fixed, but the first never would be.
( The reversal of recognition, single ethnicity-markers, what it means to lose them, and the problem with faces in dramas. )