Low Bar For Heroism

When a feel-good story focuses on the heroism of an abled 'savior', it's considered "inspiporn". Same kind of concept as when a story focuses on a white person doing things for POC, and comes from the same psychology as the man who says "we gave women the vote". These things infantilize the marginalized group and normalize/enable the problematic environment. Even the stories of disadvantaged people creating things that make them equal to non-disadvantaged people are cringey for the same reason - the environment is seen as normal and "overcoming" is, although celebrated, still somehow taken for granted.

Do you constantly rely on the kindness of individuals to meet your needs, or spend time with people who constantly insult and bully you? In these kinds of stories, it's made clear that those are expected behaviors for marginalized folks. We are expected to go without if people don't provide; we are expected to willingly be abused for the sake of companionship and "mercy".

That's why these stories make me sick.

To sum up: my "blue flag" is this: why wasn't anyone else helping? The true villain here isn't the child, it's the environment - and any story that doesn't recognize that can easily fall into the inspiporn trap. Words do matter. Why are we calling someone a hero for meeting basic needs? Why are we okay with exploiting the whole story for clickbait?

Comments

the value of exploitation

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interdependence and apples

》　It really saddens me that it only takes one bad apple to ruin a bunch for most people. The reason the saying is, "one bad apple ruins the bushel/barrel" is that because of the way apples rot, they emit a gas that causes all the apples around them to rot as well. When talking about how people interact, a person did not develop their personality by accident or by chance; they were enabled by so many people that there's almost no way of picking out any particular influence. For instance, if you read the book about Trump by his niece, she points out that nearly every troubling behavior he has was initially caused by the extremely high desire he had to earn his own father's affection, and was subsequently reinforced by celebrity-dom and the trappings of wealth. Similarly MLK Jr., who was a reverend for some time before he became a celebrity, was strongly influenced by his own understanding of the Word of God and the unconditional support of his loved ones, ev...

Unintentional Abuse

Questioner: [what do you mean by] Unintentional grooming? Questioner: explain further pls cuz i’ve thought about that but never like- processed it fully >> I am doing my best to avoid getting really psychological here, but the basis of the concept is that the human mind avoids thinking about things that threaten your sense of self and reality. This is a well-documented and extremely strong instinct. So like, people don't automatically assume that they are doing something bad. Nearly every person will seek out and find justifications for everything they do. A 40 yo isn't going to suddenly get up and say, "I've never had an interest in younger people before, but I suddenly want to take advantage of someone's naivety." Becoming an asshole like that is a process shaped by exposure to the abuse of others (not usually direct abuse, surprisingly) and being enabled by social expectations and unfettered access. They do not believe that they are doing anythin...

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