(no subject)

[mamadeb]

What do you do when everyone is squeeing over something that offends you in ways that are distinctly not politically correct? (The political incorrectness is on my part, not the "somethings" part.)

I know. Just don't say anything.

But it's annoying that I don't feel free to express that opinion openly.

Comments

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

I've actually often been annoyed that I can't express opinions openly, on trivial and non-trivial stuff. I'm kind of curious what's bothering you, or at least why you're describing your feelings as "not politically correct."

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Major squeeage over something that's basically an ode to intermarriage.

Please understand - I'm not putting down political correctness. I think it's actually an important thing to be considerate of the feelings of others both as groups and as individuals.

[sen-ichi-rei.livejournal.com]

Intermarriage is always a tricky subject. I was actually mashgiaching during a conference on intermarriage that was held in the Hillel building, so I overheard a lot of the conversations.

I guess others find it hard to respect a position that they see as discriminating against others. And a lot of people would see being against intermarriage as being discriminatory against non-Jews. Usually I don't say anything, unless I know the people I'm talking to really well and know that they know my general beliefs.

Now I'm curious as to what this "ode to intermarriage" is...

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

It's a very cute songvid for Stargate: Atlantis (songvid: a series of clips from a tv series or movie set to a song.) The song is a Jewish man declaring his love for Irish girls, the vid makes it about one of the two male leads for the other. Now, my reaction was for the song itself, not the actual songvid - the first man is, in fact, Canadian of Scottish descent and the second, while not a girl, is, in fact, Irish-American.

It's just the song itself - I know it was meant to be funny, but the guy used words like "shiksa" and the one Jewish woman who appeared slept with his brother and the whole thing hit a big button with me.

(And my reaction gets more and more silly as I write this.)

[vass]

Well, shiksa is a hot-button word all on its own, isn't it?

Without having heard the song, I can't say, but I'm guessing it's pro-intermarriage in a way that's actually more like being disrespectful of the singer's own ethnic/religious group?

I think "I think the fanvid is very cute, but I found the song problematic, and here's why" would be a reasonable thing to say.

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

Well, that was why I wondered, because I know you're not the type of person to call basic respect "political correctness" in a bad way.

And now I understand better. But... meh, I usually don't comment on anyone's squee if it's not my thing.

Once, once someone posted a picture of a character who had been changed in canon in a way I loathed (he became a sexed-up Nazi, actually) and said "Anyone who doesn't think is sexy is crazy." and I just had to comment that I did NOT think it was sexy at all. Then I deleted my comment in shame. And the person edited it to say "Except rosehiptea who loves a different version of him."

And I had been doing so well keeping my complete hatred of this plot change to myself, because people were requesting I write about it, and writing it for me, because they apparently didn't know.

That's pretty different from something you don't like for a true ideological reason, but still... it annoyed me to hear all the squee. Though in the end, yeah, I should have kept my mouth shut in my case.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I usually don't comment on squees like that, either. It's more that I wanted to like this so much and it's so everywhere.

On the other hand - a Nazi? You were fully justified in saying something. That should be offensive to most people.

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

It sounds worse than it is, I think... there were always Nazi characters in the fandom, and I thought of them as "interesting characters" and "totally evil" and I didn't have a problem with them existing. There was no actual mention of Jews in canon, either, which is part of why I found it not so so hard to take.

Then one of the good guys, who was pretty much my favorite fictional character, went over to their side, (at first, we thought, unwillingly, but now apparently not entirely) and practially the whole fandom said "What an interesting development! And he looks so cool as a young vampire!" and I said "The hell."

So it's not a case of Nazi sympathies, which yeah, would of course be offensive.

Fortunately there's another version of canon which everyone hates where that didn't happen.

Gosh that got long. Sorry about that.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

To some of us, it NEVER occurs that this is a problem.

I just finished writing one that's very interfaith. I came up in a place where it wasn't a big deal. There were usually a couple squabbles about how to spend the holidays, but after that, the couples went about their lives.

Then again, the folks I know have "been Jewish" in the same way the folks I know have "been Christian." Culturally, with a few nods to the religious side of it. For them, learning Hebrew was the same as my Catholic friends taking Catechism classes: expected and promptly forgotten after the ritual at the end.

Thanks for the heads-up. It never even occured to me.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

It's one of those things that have fallen away.

I think part of it is media influence. Most of the Jewish characters on television are involved with non-Jews. I'd almost support Wilson/Cuddy because it would be that rarest of beasts - two Jews together. Except they'd be very bad for each other. Sharing the religion they don't practice isn't enough. :)

It would just be *nice* to see.

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

This is why I joined the protests over "Bridget loves Bernie". Alas, but at least we tried.