Well, Sherry, I didn't think my OP would need any translating. It seems clear enough to me. But if it does, how about this:Originally Posted by docrobbysherry
Sometimes I find people talking about "society" in a rather curious way--as if society were some mystical, all-powerful force placed above us and controlling our lives. People who think like that tend to be pessimistic about the possibility of change. If we transpeople look at "society" like that, then we may think our cause is lost from the beginning.
I think this view of society is wrong. I'm saying that society is just people. There's no such thing as society independent of the people who make it up. This is why I find certain statements rather odd. In my OP I used this example:
So then why do some females feel threatened by us cross dressers? Because society has conditioned them to think that way. Simple as.
This example led some people to think I was talking about GG's who don't like CDing. Not at all. This was simply an example I was using because I came across it on the forum today. I could have chosen another example. What I wanted to do with this example was to point out the near tautology of the statement, "Society conditions women to think in a given way."
Replace "society" with "people", and then you've got "People condition women to think in a given way." And then that raises some questions. What people? And a lot of people happen to be women. Are we talking about them, too? You see, when you stop thinking about "society" and start thinking about "people" (which is all society is), it puts the question in a different light and gets you thinking in a different way.
Take another example: "Society conditions men to enjoy football. That's why men put so much blasted money and time into it." But I think this is backwards. I've asserted that society doesn't make people what they are. It's people who make society what it is. Society hasn't turned men into football-lovers. Instead, it's football-loving men who (in a lot of places) have created societies that devote a lot of their energies to football (and lots of other sports). When we think in terms of "society" instead of "people", sometimes we get things backwards.
I'm further saying that this is something we need to consider when we're thinking about trying to change society. We're not up against some mystical, all-powerful force. We're up against people who can change their minds. In my OP I gave the example of women changing what they wear. You can look at other changes such as women taking up careers and racial minorities achieving equal civil rights.
So: because of the way some people think about society, they tend to be pessimistic about the possibility of change. I myself, as a transperson and a student of history, tend to be optimistic. Lots of things have changed throughout history. People's attitudes towards transpeople can also change. Society doesn't make people what they are. People make themselves what they are and they make society what it is. So we take our case to people--common, ordinary people you meet every day--and bit by bit you bring them round. And eventually you have people thinking differently and you have a different sort of society. It's happened before, it can happen again.
OK?
Annabelle
