hi fandom, we need to talk.

[antumbral]

I don't often mention my real-life friends on this journal (with the prominent exception of S, who has given me permission to talk about her

Comments

[nyx_nox]

Yes, this. There was an argument about this last night that involved so much bigotry and hatefulness that I actually felt ill. People can be very cruel to one another :/

[antumbral]

Between RL stupid things and internet stupid things, I sort of reached a breaking point. Is it really so very hard just to be decent to other people? I just... pronouns. They are not difficult. Especially online, where who the hell knows what gender anyone really is anyway? Ugh.

[nyx_nox]

Right? How does it negatively impact anybody to exercise common decency (misnomer if there ever was one)? I promise, manners don't hurt! It's pretty bad when meeting someone who is genuinely polite/pleasant is a remarkable event.

I hate when people think that their "political" views are an excuse to be ignorant and rude. Or that an individual's private life is a political statement :/

[antumbral]

I know, right? I've just seen a lot of concentrated idiocy both IRL and online recently, and felt the need to post to remind people that sometimes it's really not hard to do the right thing.

[antumbral]

Right now, I have a part-time job in a restaurant, working the closing shift after I get off work at my other job. Our particular restaurant is becoming an increasing night hang-out for the queer community in my city, and our manager is delighted because it's increased the nightly sales averages beyond his wildest dreams. Why? Because I've made an effort to educate the other night waitresses about how to be polite to queer people, and as a result, our customers feel welcome. They come in, they laugh, their waitresses joke around with them and listen to them and sometimes commiserate when life sucks, and all of this translates directly to both a safe place for the customers and dollars for our restaurant. I can't help but think that if more people would realize that being nice helps everyone, a lot of stupidity would disappear from the social landscape.

[soupypictures]

Thank you for this! I have never met a trans-person before (.... that I know of ....) but I've always assumed this was the way to go. Kind of disappointing to find out this apparently isn't common sense. :|

[antumbral]

Yeah, one would think that this would be common sense. One would definitely be wrong. It's a constant source of surprise to me how low some people can sink when it comes to discriminating against trans-people. Conversely, there are others who I respect a lot more now, simply because they are fair and apply the same standards to everyone, regardless of how they identify based on gender or sexuality or whatthefuck. Sometimes the internet (and RL) sucks, but sometimes people will surprise you pleasantly and when that happens, it may be a teeny inconsequential thing but it still makes my day.