Making things better
Oct. 22nd, 2010 06:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urocyonThe last post is actually a pretty good illustration of why I am much more inclined to support the Make It Better Project, than It Gets Better. (Problems with Dan Savage aside.)
The major reason things have gotten better for me is that I am no longer legally required to spend many hours a day around people who behave that way. Seriously. As an adult who is unable to work ATM, I can mostly just avoid the adult jerks who aren't even bothering to be more subtle in harassing other people. Not to mention having worked hard to claw back some self-respect and dignity over the years, so more of what I do encounter can roll off my back.
Making our society easier to live in? I can get right behind that idea, daunting as the prospect may seem. Small steps can help people regain some dignity, if nothing else. Waiting for things to magically improve for yourself, never mind everyone else who's getting treated like crap? Not so much.
ETA: I also get tired of people getting blamed when they end up undereducated (and do I keep blaming myself for it), thanks to PTSD and no reasonable expectation that the kind of treatment they get will improve. When people have managed to survive, but would rather gouge their eyeballs out with a rusty potato peeler than voluntarily deal with the same systemic problems again--whether the harassment is based on sexuality, gender, race, disability, whatever else, or whatever combinations--that kinda puts a crimp in the whole "magically getting better" thing.
Yeah, the "unable to work" bit reminded me of this; undereducation has not been helpful. Things may be a bit different at the university level, but they're still | not | good (and Virginia Tech is not somehow anomalous, though I was getting stalked on campus at around the same time the shameful Brzonkala mess was happening). See also Hate Crimes on Campus and Stop The Hate.
And that's just one problem I have with propping up the status quo.
The major reason things have gotten better for me is that I am no longer legally required to spend many hours a day around people who behave that way. Seriously. As an adult who is unable to work ATM, I can mostly just avoid the adult jerks who aren't even bothering to be more subtle in harassing other people. Not to mention having worked hard to claw back some self-respect and dignity over the years, so more of what I do encounter can roll off my back.
Making our society easier to live in? I can get right behind that idea, daunting as the prospect may seem. Small steps can help people regain some dignity, if nothing else. Waiting for things to magically improve for yourself, never mind everyone else who's getting treated like crap? Not so much.
ETA: I also get tired of people getting blamed when they end up undereducated (and do I keep blaming myself for it), thanks to PTSD and no reasonable expectation that the kind of treatment they get will improve. When people have managed to survive, but would rather gouge their eyeballs out with a rusty potato peeler than voluntarily deal with the same systemic problems again--whether the harassment is based on sexuality, gender, race, disability, whatever else, or whatever combinations--that kinda puts a crimp in the whole "magically getting better" thing.
Yeah, the "unable to work" bit reminded me of this; undereducation has not been helpful. Things may be a bit different at the university level, but they're still | not | good (and Virginia Tech is not somehow anomalous, though I was getting stalked on campus at around the same time the shameful Brzonkala mess was happening). See also Hate Crimes on Campus and Stop The Hate.
And that's just one problem I have with propping up the status quo.