[Linkspam] my letter in the Spring 2009 issue of UU World

[edenfalling]

There was an article about 'rankism' in the last issue of UU World, which had a sentence that made no gramatical sense and could only be interpreted properly by relying on a learned, sexist idea of how the world is organized. I found that very interesting, especially in the context of an article about trying to combat prejudice.

So I wrote to UU World, and they printed a version of my letter!

...

Granted, their printed version publicly displays the thinko that I noticed a day after I sent the email -- "innate" instead of "ingrained" -- which makes me look a bit of an idiot before the world, but still. They printed my letter!

(My original version also contained a rather snide grammar lesson on ways to rewrite the sentence in a gender-neutral fashion, but it's probably for the best that those bits were cut.)

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ETA: Given that there is a privacy discussion going around livejournal (yet another iteration of RaceFail09; you can find some good starting links on metafandom), I should make a few points clear. The letter is written under the outer two of my legal names. I actually have two internet presences, each with their own email address: one for fanfiction and livejournal, and the other for family, business, church, and school. I am okay with linking from my fannish life to my everyday life, but not vice versa. Also, while I am okay with people knowing my outer two names, I ask that you not use them here, because I would like to make it at least minimally tricky for potential future employers to trace that identity back to me-as-Liz and realize what I do with my free time.

Thank you in advance!

Comments

[edenfalling]

Yeah. I mean, I get that it is important and useful to point out places and ways in which we are in error... but there needs to be a balance! Religion cannot survive on moralism alone; we need connection and uplift as well.

I didn't even read the 'buy organic' thing, because I know from long experience that anything centered around 'buy local,' 'yay organics!' or 'vegetarianism is the only ecologically responsible choice, as well as much nicer to animals!' is going to drive me up the wall, even if it has some rational points. There is all too often a sense of smugness that radiates from those essays. (Which is not to say that they cannot make good points, and I do try to read them now and then, the same way I try to read conservative political essays, just to keep myself from living in too much of an echo chamber, but still.)

I actually have a very good experience in church (except for those job-related conversations, and even there I have gotten a little better about sort of powering over the 'Oh, um, well...' moment) but sometimes the discussion after a sermon can get to me a little. And I just cringe every time I hear our church advertising on the radio, because the text is so... 'smug' is not quite the right word. Naively self-righteous, perhaps? In a very Ithacan fashion, but ye gods, it rubs me the wrong way.