They see a time skip of any length and go

“What you write or read does not necessarily reflect your real-world morals”

“Fiction can reveal an author’s prejudices”

“Fiction can in some cases cause real-world harm”

“Censorship is wrong”

“I am free to criticize and refuse to engage with pieces of media that cause me or other real people harm due to negative stereotypes or sexualization, etc.”

There are all compatible statements. They do not contradict each other.

And to be even more clear, here's two examples you can google for yourself:

False:

"Violent video games cause people to shoot up schools"

Not a real thing. Disproven multiple times via many different studies.

True:

"Repeated exposure to negative racial stereotypes about black people in media can perpetuate racism"

Extremely true, and proven through decades of research.

---

Like. You cannot claim media never harms real-world people. Research proves it does. Does it affect all people the same? Nope. Does every form of media affect people in ways we expect? Also nope!

So what this means is that the media you create and consume does not necessarily reflect your morals, but, sometimes, the media a person creates and consumes can reflect their prejudices and preferences.

So. Imagine dozens of other teenage girls, being held against their will and brainwashed in Utah, seeing these billboards and going, "huh. I'm having a complicated emotional reaction to all of this. It's possible that I might unpack that in two to three decades."

Both of these situations arise from the same societal attitudes. This guy wanted a teenage girl to be trapped with him and unable to leave, regardless of her feelings on the matter, and for her to act a certain way and comply with his desires. He took her from her home and forced her to be somewhere she did not want to be and would not let her go, and he tried to turn her into a different thing. The difference in societal reactions to when one specific, unauthorized guy does this, compared to when someone's parents pay a fancy sounding institution to do it for them, tells you a lot about how we think about the autonomy of teenage girls.

In Utah, the reason these types of institutions are allowed is because their youth rights laws are abysmal even compared to the rest of the US. Children aren't people, they're the property of their parents. Elizabeth Smart's parents didn't want her to be kidnapped, so it was bad. Our parents did want us to be kidnapped, so it was fine.

Being a member of the LGBT+ community, I’ve had to come out many times to many people. When coming out to someone you don’t know well you end up trying to gauge “Is this person safe?”. Maybe you ask leading questions or dance around it a bit. Poke one foot out of the closet, far enough to see a reaction but still able to duck back inside if things go south. Sometimes people will just come out and ask you, and you need to make a split second judgment of their character, because stalling is also an answer.

Then there’s the Jewish closet. And it’s exactly the same.

Story time. I live in a place with almost no Jews. And I don’t mean no visible Jews I mean, according to census data, single digits. And ironically because of this, we feel safe having our mezuzah outside. No one knows what it is. In fact we only know of one time it’s been recognized, and we know because we could hear slurs being spoken outside our door.

Anyway, I was bringing in a grocery delivery, and as I was unloading the food the delivery driver looks at the mezuzah and asks:

“What’s that thing there?” “Oh uh… it’s a mezuzah” “What’s that?” “Oh um… it’s a like, a charm?” “What kind of charm?” “It’s a prayer scroll” “Oh, like a religious thing? What religion is from?”

I had been trying to be vague but he kept asking questions. And now I was faced with coming out of the Jewish closet to a man I'd known for two minutes who knew where I lived.

“Yeah… it’s a Jewish thing” [Pause] “Huh. Well that’s different.”

And then I finished unloading my groceries feeling like I’d just failed a quick time event. But in the end “Well that’s different”, while a bit weird, wasn’t aggressive or angry, and so I was probably safe.

Some people don’t have the luxury of the closet though, they can’t pass as straight or cis or gentile. If you can’t pass, you’re always out in the open. And if you can:

You don’t look gay. You don’t look trans. You don’t look Jewish

no wait that- no that's not- no.

Unles you've like, poured out ALL OF YOUR BLOOD, used it for a spell, and then somehow SIPHONED THE WHOLE THING BACK IN, that doesn't mean the blood on the inside of you is also used. And even then, if you'd had your sacrifical blood IV'd back into your body-

actually nevermind, I need to draw a graph to illustrate:

"transmasculine nonbinary people" and "transfeminine nonbinary people" with no mention of transneutral nonbinary people is creating a binary, actually.

"Hey, Gen Z, we're gonna relabel vacations into something else now and tell you how you really should be wary of taking vacation because it might impact your financial future."

the idea that failure is an individual failing and not the oppressions of a broken system.

RATING: JEWISH