If it sounds like a one way street, that's because it is. That's really just how race in this country works. I suspect it would be different (maybe close to opposite) if we were all in Mali, but the racial history of this country is based around protecting the notion of whiteness, and that stuff just carries over. It's kind of why visibly mixed-race people are sometimes id-ed as black and sometimes id-ed as mixed but nobody ever just calls them white. Like that black baby could totally identify as white his whole life, but people would constantly be telling him that he's not white, so it would be a different situation. If for whatever reason nobody ever called the baby black, then that self-id would make more sense.
Just because there is a biological marker for sex that's easy to test for doesn't mean that's the full story - unless you'd like to suggest that brain chemistry and function has no basis in science. Now, if you, personally, believe that the final determination of gender is XX vs XY chromosomes, you're welcome to that opinion, but don't dismiss everything else as un-scientific. The fact is, we're only starting to understand the deep relationship between the brain and the body, and it's just really fucking hard to understand how much of what people think is a conscious choice (e.g. "hey, I'd like to cause social outrage! I'm now going to claim I'm a woman.") and fundamental biology (e.g. "from a very young age my body has felt wrong to me. I now have a label for it."). The amount we don't know about our genetic and physical makeup is astonishing. Over the last 50 years, science has dramatically shifted the view of mental diseases from attributing them to things like "hysterical women" to being a fundamental biological condition that is not chosen. Dismissing the idea that gender has a strong mental component and is likely affected by many of the same biological mechanisms is pretty short sighted.
I was going to write a big long post, but I don't want to venture to far into things and get too political. Nom, thanks for the clarification. I personally think Dolezal is a white woman who uses whatever identify will benefit her in whatever situation. And for the last decade, she's been getting more benefits (career, speaking engagements, community support, what have you) from being black. I wish the media would talk to her more about her plagiarized art and ask her direct questions about that. Second - I have a feeling that the phrase "From a very young age, my (whatever) has felt wrong to me" is going to become a lot more common, especially if Dolezal gets a reality show. We're gonna see some crazy shit.
I really would like to know how it "feels" to be black. As if it's some entirely different DNA make-up. "Ever since a young age, I had no urge to join the sailing team, start an acapella group to get laid or commit corporate crime. I never tucked my shirt in or listened to Hall & Oates."
I am a buffalo who practices bestiality (But only with female humans.) My Fargo buffalo show will soon be as famous as a Tijuana Donkey Show.
I'll say this, the forced acceptance/tolerance or PC shaming, for lack of better phrases, are going to fold back on themselves sooner rather than later. You already see this in things like that college that halted a showing of the Vagina Monologues because it wasn't gender inclusive enough for them. The Dolezal case is just the start but won't gain much traction from the usual corners since she used it to gain financially as well as socially (despite the fact she was actually savvy at her job at the NAACP). It'll become a thing, it's inevitable. Don't get me wrong Im not advocating that people should be allowed to discriminate and I think there is some good to shaming people that hold those beliefs. Im just saying by it's very nature the argument or line of reasoning will be used increasing on their own ilk with ever increasing comical results. There was a very interesting Loveline the other night where they had a figurehead of the transvestite community on. He was saying that the community was co-opted by groups like glaad as gay right's activism winds down, with impending supreme court legal victories and such. They were moving on to transgender rights and needed their numbers up to be taken more seriously as a community. He claimed there is only about 30k surgically reassigned trans gendered folk and maybe 80k or so that are in transition but haven't had the surgery, nation wide. So groups like glaad started incorporating transvestite numbers into their talking points (numbering in the 500k-600k range according to the guy). To him this was a point of contention since transvestite sexual identity and preference by in large have very little in common with transgendered people. There is a large portion of the transvestite community that are just men into wearing women's clothes as a fetish/paraphilia. They identify as male and are heterosexual, and when you get down to it they exude the same misogynist hyper sexualization of females that most of these groups are fighting against. Since he has trumpeted this argument he's been ostracized from these same organizations.
Nom, here's a question: to what extent do you think Dolezal's positive works in the black community were influenced by a need to gain power and elevated status within said community? From what I've read, it honestly seemed to me like she "got it" and was genuinely trying to do good works and help the cause because she believed wholeheartedly in her own race "conversion" and saw all the work that needed to be done. I mean, she certainly stepped up. That's why, I think, she's not getting bashed from all sides on this and people are scrambling to defend her. No one wants to be a dick to someone who helps others. However, if turned out she just wanted prestige and this was the most accessible avenue...that might change the dialogue a bit, yes?
Today I had to explain to my coworker what a donkey show was. I feel that it is my duty to help everyone around me broaden their horizons. Just doin' my part.
Now I'm picturing a coke snorting country music star who gets off on being choked and makes extra money in bum fights.
. . . masturbating? You know, abneretta posted a picture of her grabbing a stripper's can, then posted a picture of her can, supposedly headed to a bar late Saturday night. She hasn't been heard from since. Should somebody contact MO police?
Knowing Rush's prediliction for tit pics on the internet, I'm betting he's seen a ton of action... just hasn't participated in it.