Yesterday, I was alerted to something on Twitter which, on the plus side, demonstrated to me something of the supportive strength of the queer community but, overall, continues to make me extremely upset. Katy Perry, not that I would expect any better of her, posted a picture of a transman to her feed and encouraged her followers to insult and dehumanise him (if I have anything resembling a reader and you want to see, it's http://twitpic.com/sdf45). Since previous comments appear to be made inaccessible by new ones most of what's there is defence; when I commented it yesterday afternoon it was about half and half with ignorant kneejerk wank. This whole thing makes me feel really vulnerable: I spend practically all my time in Leeds (which is where I spend practically all my time) socialising with queers - in fact, I only ever see other people when I am in seminars or lectures - and I think I forget what the outside world is like. I won't refer to it as the 'real world' because it isn't more valid just because it's bigger; it's just more people's reality than mine, I suppose. The notion that I should be more pragmatic by sticking my neck out of my comfort zone more often is worth considering but I don't think it's any kind of 'solution': whoever I associate with these problems will still exist, and I think it's their existence in the wider world that is more the problem than my direct awareness that not everybody is willing to refrain from participating in gender oppression. Besides, the very fact of the queer community is, as demonstrated in this case, pretty much essential to effectively present outside parties with the sorts of ideas that, for us, are second nature.
But, even though that's obviously positive, I'm still really fucked off. I know I have the privilege of education about these issues, but is it really that difficult to treat people like human beings? Maybe it's pack mentality. Maybe they think they're defending something worth hurting people over.
