This is a safe space.
How many times have you heard that before? I know I’ve heard it quite a bit. Well, let me lay down the law for this blog:
This will not always be a safe space. I say that because I can’t make any promises, not because I don’t want it to be. What I will do, though, is try my hardest to see that it is a safe space. If I say or do something that violates that, let me know and I’ll try to respond to it as best as I can.
Forbidden: misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, ablism, fat-hating, racism, classism, intersexphobia, or, in essence, ANY oppressive construction that relies on setting hierarchies of human value.
Victim-blaming is strictly forbidden. Murderes, rapists, batterers and the like are at blame here, not those that they attack.
Imperialism is a tricky subject. I am willing, for example, to say that female genital mutilation is a horrible practice, and by assuming my rightness in my assertion and the wrongness of cultures that practice it I am being imperialistic. And I’m okay with that. What isn’t okay, is constructing the people of those cultures as inferior people. Criticizing actions or the structural conditions that lead to said actions is okay although one has to walk a fine line. Making anybody sub-human? Not okay, at all.
As I said, I’ll try. I won’t always succeed and I think it’s necessary for me to admit to that before anything else. However, I’ll promise that not only will I try but (maybe more importantly) I’ll listen when I fail.
