I’m sure we have common ground in thinking that anyone who uses their labels/identities for attention or to evade criticism is a twat. And anyone who pretends to be part of a marginalised group is betraying people’s trust and doing a lot of damage to that community.
However, these ‘protected characteristics’ are more than just identifying with a subculture or something you try on like a fashion. They’re intrinsic to who you are. For example: I’m bisexual. I didn’t choose that label or seek out the identity – it’s simply the most accurate description of who I am already. The same would've been true had I been living in 1850. It’s really not a big deal!
For a lot of newly-diagnosed ADHD & autism folks, having these labels is hugely important because previously they’d never had the language to describe their experiences. These are people who’ve spent most of their lives, especially in school & work environments, being told that they are somehow ‘wrong’ and need to change to fit their surroundings. The growing body of medical/psychological knowledge adds to the overall understanding of these diagnoses, so that the environments can be adjusted to fit them for once. An accurate diagnosis should feel like a sigh of relief where you go ‘finally,
that’s what this is called!’ So this is why I don’t think the labels themselves are trivial.
What you might see as an increase in (over)sensitivity or political correctness could be viewed as an increase in understanding and respect. Political correctness is concerned with politeness and avoiding offense, but imo the important concept is justice. It would be a mistake to call justice or respect 'political correctness'.
Take the examples you gave about pronouns and allergies: you’re thinking about your personal comfort on a flight. But a woman with a peanut allergy was left permanently brain damaged after a flight where peanuts were eaten. With pronouns, your concern is that you need to walk on eggshells to avoid causing offense. Meanwhile, earlier this year, a trans teenager was murdered by her classmates and then misgendered deliberately in the newspapers. The point I’m making is that the stakes are very different here – slight inconvenience vs. serious harm.
Unfortunately, these ‘simpler times’ were only simpler if you had the advantage of being a straight, white able-bodied man or someone in a position of relative privilege. Anyone else had to put up with varying degrees of discrimination, lack of awareness, inferior or inappropriate medical care, being denied jobs, lack of social support, being the punchline of jokes, and worse. Now these groups have a louder voice and can say 'hey, we've always been harmed by this and now you need to change' but there's a lot of resistance by individuals who've never had to notice how their behaviours and attitudes affected others. Having your needs catered to because you're considered by society to be 'default' and 'the average' is a luxury. It's also a luxury when you can go through life unaffected by issues that hinder so many demographics.
It can feel as though all these people with labels in their Twitter bios are coming out of nowhere to harass you, but there are a few factors to consider here:
-Increased public awareness
-Improvements in diagnosis and identification
-Reduced stigma
All these things lead to an increase in the number of people with a specific label - trans, autistic, whatever else. It doesn't mean there's bandwagon-jumping happening on a large scale.
Finally, campaigns centered around specific identities serve some important purposes:
-A way of organising for positive change, be that in attitudes, stigma reduction, better services or policy.
-Mutual aid and support. Mental illness and disability can be extremely isolating, so flags and symbols are a means of finding and connecting with like-minded people. In the past, there would have been loads of poor individuals sitting at home wondering wtf was the matter with them. Now they can go online and find their people.
-Pride. The idea behind pride events (and wider movements like BLM) isn't to revel in victimhood or to let one characteristic define your whole being. The point is empowerment, to make people feel supported and valued even when society at large doesn't treat them well.
*None of my trans friends will be offended if it’s a genuine mistake! They’re a friendly bunch and will probably just correct you and move on.
@stunrw is marked safe from Big Linda.
I bet you need a drink after reading that, tendertrifles. Big apologies. Rant mode was activated. Won't happen again.
