Tuesday, April 23, 2013
We Are What We Are
That's the way that I feel. During the class discussion I began to gain a better understanding WHY people debate the topic of homosexuality and disability so strongly. My issue with this matter has to deal with how society views people. As I said in class, we tend to label people because of habit. It's just how people are. Going off of this, I'd like to say that whether or not homo or hetero-sexuality is a choice or a result of nature is irrelevant. We are all people. We all have our life choices. The identity we form throughout our lives is a part of who we are. Our orientation in that aspect, is not chosen, but is a part of our overall being. With that being said, it is my personal belief that regardless or race, orientation, or religious belief we should be tolerant and accepting of other people's identities. We don't have to like them, but we're all human, and should treat each other as such. What do you think?
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I feel that the reason why people debate these issues so much is because of how we were raised as individuals. A family member may have had a hate prejudice against a group of people and therefore was passed on to their offspring, and spreading around to society. Personally I feel that it shouldn't make a difference what orientation you are to serve in a military role. It's like the integration of African Americans into the military. Political leaders fear integration because they feel that it will kill the reputation of a pure nation although other nations around the U.S. are already on to bigger and better things while we sit and debate hours on end for a topic that should mean nothing.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with your opinion. I don't care what another person likes or doesn't like; I have my own matters to deal with already. What another person likes doesn't effect me so I don't worry about it. However, I think it is human nature to try and categorize certain ideas and objects. The brain is naturally lazy and likes to think of different topics in easy to digest categories. A world where you have to analyze and understand everybody's different gender and sexual attraction is threatening just on a level of mental ease. I do think that this changing, slowly. Our generation seems to be more tolerant of different orientations and genders than previous ones.
ReplyDeleteAdding to what you said about how we tend to label people out of "habit" (which I agree with), it's interesting to look at the historical perspective of this and how that all rose out of the Enlightenment era, where science aimed to label and categorize all things. (Species in the animal kingdom, the periodic table, etc.) Since then, people have been categorized based on gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, ability, age, class, etc. Science, medicine, politics, schools, religion- all these institutions label and categorize people as a way to have "order." All this ends up doing is giving those in power the agency to decide what is normal and what isn't, and anything that falls outside of that norm is discriminated against, which then allows the dominant group to maintain their power and authority. We judge and label people on a day to day basis as well, because we like to know where others stand so we feel more comfortable. If we can put someone in a box and stick a label on them, we feel less threatened. If they are similar to us, we align with them. If not, we may fear, ignore, or discriminate against them, because fear breeds ignorance. Many people do not wish to educate themselves on what they don't know, which is why racism and homophobia are prevalent no matter where you go (unfortunately.) I fully agree that we should all be treated as human, without a doubt. But this starts with more education, and more representation of the minority groups in society (most likely through use of the media) otherwise the stereotypes will keep being perpetuated, and that is all people will base their opinions off of. It's also important to not fall into a "color blind" type of thing, where we say "I don't see color" or "I don't see gender." Many people will do this in an attempt to achieve equality, but what it has the harm of doing is ignoring the struggles and achievements that group of people has experienced through time. But yes, I agree that we should all be allowed to have our own, unique identity, and I hate when I see people being discriminated against just for being themselves.
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