Thanks for the chuckle, and yes, it would be fun to write something together. I'm open to suggestions about how that would work, but the writing collaborations I've done in the past have always been fun and interesting. And demonstrating what civil debate looks like would be a public service. 😸
Now back to the meat of things. What exactly is you basis for saying that you have issues with the Geena Davis center and it's studies? "I don't like what they conclude" is not a sufficient basis for dismissing what subject matter experts have determine based on the research they have commissioned. If you can demonstrate shoddy research methodology or gross bias, then you have standing to say that. Otherwise, no. Edit: I went back and looked at the NPR interview again. Here’s a quote, part of a statement aimed at Davis — “You commissioned a dozen studies on women in media, from the Annenberg School at USC.”
And my belief that a patriarchal dominance hierarchy is the root of all oppression comes from my exposure to the overwhelming evidence that this is so. I didn't decide that and then go looking for things to shore up my emotions. I gathered data, read research from a wide variety of subject areas, and synthesized a thesis based on what the information indicates. I also regularly invite other people (and penguins) to look for holes in my theory because I'm more interested in the truth than in being right. So far though, noone has really been able to come up with anything of any substance that indicates I'm off base. Edit: You on the other hand don’t have any actual evidence that racism or misogyny are overblown in any significant way. You are also not a subject matter expert, so your armchair opinion doesn’t really carry a lot of weight. You present no expertise on this topic and you have no standing to say that your unsupported opinion is that of an expert.
Equating children who are channeling their negative feelings into doing drugs is hardly the same thing as oppressed people speaking up about what they are dealing with and then saying that they don't like it and shouldn't have to endure it. In fact, it's the exact opposite. Defunding isn't working because of beurocracy in that one city. That doesn't mean it doesn't work as a concept. It worked wonders in Camden, NJ and is working well in many other municipalities. Carol's article isn't actually particularly relevant to this discussion.
The BLM protests were the direct catalyst for the conrete actions that followed. It took that level of discernable, concentrated outrage and grief to start the wheels moving. They could have (in theory) changed those laws and made those other specific introspective adjustments in branding, etc. before the protests - but the fact of the matter is that they didn't. It took that swell of "complaining" to move the ball.
And when someone goes to a therapist, they have asked for that feedback and ostensibly that person is neutral. They aren't a part of the power structure that has been causing the harm. When someone from the top of the dominance hierarchy tells someone who's been kicked by it for hundreds of years, "Stop acting like a victim, you're overreacting" they have done nothing but pour salt in the wound which that hierarchy perpetrates. The fact that you didn't ask to be a part of that hierarchy is irrelevant because you are and it's completely out of line to stand there in your privilege and tell others who don't have that whether or not their pain is real and what they should do about it.
"It is not that we have created the patriarchy around us. Or the working conditions, or even the dominant culture. What we have done is colluded with it. We cannot mature inside a culture without having internalized aspects of it. Our ability to change our political environment begins with the understanding of how we have helped create it. Our consciousness is where the revolution begins. Fifty percent of the work we need to do is on ourselves. The other 50 percent is to focus outward and use ideas like stewardship to redesign the practices, policies, and structures that institutionalize what we wish to become."
Block, Peter. Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest (p. 50). Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Kindle Edition.
