Read on Twitter
is this.......satire
Frankly, this is why I struggle with twitter right now. “normalized”...I know that some women don’t want to/biologically can’t have children, that’s more than okay, they should NOT be expected to. And if that’s the point, I completely agree...
...but it needed to be made in a way that didn’t alienate an entirely natural and beautiful (albeit challenging) process that some people do long for. Birth is not “normalized”...it just IS a normal part of the living cycle. This just sounds silly.
To say something is “normalized” in this context is to imply that whatever it is is an innately harmful/unjust/abnormal thing that somehow became accepted into the social norm—became “normalized”
I understand that some women’s inability to or choice not to have children is looked down upon. That should not be the case. What women do with their bodies is their choice and their choice alone. If I give this tweet the benefit of the doubt, I can see this point within it
But it contradicts itself then, by shaming (in a way) those that do want it/have experienced it, by explaining it as if it’s only this horrific, tortuous, alien-like foreign thing..(i.e. “carry a monster inside you”...”split your body in half”)
If you want to talk about normalization, that’s not really the focus. It’s more that women are expected to do what others (men, other women as a result of men, etc) think they should. That’s what’s been unjustly normalized. Not the process of birth itself, that just sound silly.
People mouth off with these big words on twitter to get likes or create a rage-filled echo chambers, but they don’t even let the thought fully occur to themselves before they throw it out into the world, where it can hurt or potentially alienate others
And then when it DOES hurt others, and they don’t get the favorable response they thought they’d have, they delete because “wow you all got big mad lol” and push the blame off onto others instead of taking responsibility for putting that unrealized rage out in the first place
this very tweet was deleted for this same reason. The original tweeter said they “shouldn’t have used the word ‘normalized’ because that’s probably what set people off” and “people didn’t get what I meant”
this tweet seems like a thought that hadn’t been fully realized yet, was created in blind rage, fueled more rage (either in defense or in opposition) and then was ultimately deleted because “people didn’t get me”..and man..we need to stop letting it happen like this
All of this to say: rage just fuels more rage. What we put on this stupid website matters now more than ever because social media is one of the main modes of communicating with each other these days
What you say impacts others. What you believe in MATTERS, but your words have more weight than you give them credit for. Throwing anger out like this, without giving it the thought (on your own) that it deserves, is bound to be harmful.
Rage alone doesn’t inspire change. It doesn’t inspire people. It can shame people into quiet—into dark—but that’s not true change. Maybe it’s the fire that lights the lantern, but it does not keep it burning.
It’s cheap and easy, to quickly throw your rage away on Twitter so hastily. If you believe in something, fight for it furiously. Be relentless and speak out about it when and how you need to. But be thoughtful, do what you can to be truly HEARD by those that need to hear.
I’m tired of people acting like Twitter is the truest platform for social justice but then in reality treating it like the drive-thru version...like a tourist attraction. Log on, yell in all caps, log off, change nothing about your life, do nothing different.
It doesn’t always have to be a yelling contest, we can have real conversations, ones that actually ignite change. Ones that inspire eachother, even ones where we argue and debate and explain the anger these oppressions have caused us to feel.
It’s fine to vent, to be honest about your feelings, to argue and debate, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about thinking your own thoughts FIRST and giving them the space they need before you publicly speak, to avoid potentially hurting/shaming/alienating others.
Because not doing that only stands in the way of change and true compassion and we don’t have time for that.
