brin-bellway asked: Is “using handedness to introduce children to the concept of privilege” not a standard part of liberal upbringing? Was that just me? (I don’t think they used the word “privilege”, but that was clearly the idea. I think there was some social-model-of-disability stuff involved too.)

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random-thought-depository:

brin-bellway:

moral-autism:

moral-autism:

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I don’t remember it being used in my school.

It’s been long enough that I don’t remember the circumstances, but it was definitely not at school because I didn’t go to school. (I don’t *think* it was a schoolbook.)

It might have been from my parents: my dad’s left-handed, so *some* lesson on handedness would be bound to come up at some point†. Or media. Or maybe Girl Scouts (which is also kind of parents, since my mom led my troop). Or a combination of the above.

(When I dig through my brain, I get strongest associations with Girl Scouts, but that might just be from me *thinking* about previous right-handed-privilege stuff *during* Girl Scouts because of crafts using right-handed scissors.)

†And I suppose might not come up much in an all-right-handed family, so that alone would go a fair way towards making it not a Relatable Childhood Experience.

My mental model of a central SJ-enthusiast would not find the idea of handedness as a legitimate axis of privilege obvious, and would react to the idea with at best curiosity and at worst hostility. My mental model of a central generic liberal would also not find the idea obvious. I’m also very probably biased to underestimate the importance of “left hand = devil hand” type attitudes because I live in a liberal area where it doesn’t seem to be a thing. This is the context that informed the wording of my post.

It’s very possible my mental models of a central SJ-enthusiast and a central generic liberal are in error.

Tagging @ranma-official and @moral-autism because they also responded to my post.

I think the idea was, *because* handedness (in this part of space-time) is not a huge Thing to anywhere near the extent of gender or race or such, it’s a good way to ease people into the ideas without [putting them immediately on the defensive]/[making them focus on the trauma of their oppression] (depending on status).

So, I don’t think they’d go so far as to call it *legitimate* per se, but thinking it’s ridiculous to the point that “X implies that handedness is an axis of privilege” constitutes a significant mark against X also rings false to me.


Tags:

#reply via reblog #my childhood #our roads may be golden or broken or lost #mind you my dad also told me the ”I can’t operate on him! That’s my son!” riddle when I was a kid #and I felt *so* embarrassed and like *such* a failure not to have figured out the doctor was his mother #that I still remember it after all this time #(I don’t know what reaction Dad was aiming for or what reaction he thought I was having) #(but subjectively I felt like a disgrace to the name of feminism) #((I don’t recall the wording of my thoughts but that was pretty much the gist of it)) #(I doubt the *acute* pain lasted very long but the experience stuck with me) #tag rambles

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