Some very wise words here from ABC Australia writer Deirdre Fidge :
Some very wise words here from ABC Australia writer Deirdre Fidge :
"It is unclear at this point exactly how Megan Marx and Tiffany Scanlon identify and, ultimately, it's none of our business. It's beautiful seeing two people so happy together, regardless of circumstance."
The whole series of articles on sexuality and relationships that they have been running this year have been extraordinarily insightful and well-written as a bonus. The sad thing is how all of them refer to the problems that we (as a society) have with them. And by 'them', I mean relationships as a whole.
Humans as a whole have an urge to put things into neat, clean, orderly buckets. "Us" and "Them", "White" and "Black", to give some binary examples. But as just about any scientist (who you would think would be the worst offenders in this) will tell you, the real world is a lot messier.
Some years ago, I saw a photograph of a group of about 40 children from around the globe, roughly ordered by longitude of family origin. For any two that were next to each other, it was hard to spot any differences, but if you looked (say) five apart, there were clear phenotypic changes. What it did clearly show was that the concept of 'Race' is really a myth, and did so in a very graphic and striking manner. All of humanity exist as a messy mix of genes and confused family lines, and that is a good thing.
So why is it that we consider minds and emotions (which are even more complex) to be even simpler to put in buckets? And, if the consenting people involved are happy, what business is it of ours anyway?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-28/megan-and-tiffany-love-doesnt-need-labelling/7970142
"It is unclear at this point exactly how Megan Marx and Tiffany Scanlon identify and, ultimately, it's none of our business. It's beautiful seeing two people so happy together, regardless of circumstance."
The whole series of articles on sexuality and relationships that they have been running this year have been extraordinarily insightful and well-written as a bonus. The sad thing is how all of them refer to the problems that we (as a society) have with them. And by 'them', I mean relationships as a whole.
Humans as a whole have an urge to put things into neat, clean, orderly buckets. "Us" and "Them", "White" and "Black", to give some binary examples. But as just about any scientist (who you would think would be the worst offenders in this) will tell you, the real world is a lot messier.
Some years ago, I saw a photograph of a group of about 40 children from around the globe, roughly ordered by longitude of family origin. For any two that were next to each other, it was hard to spot any differences, but if you looked (say) five apart, there were clear phenotypic changes. What it did clearly show was that the concept of 'Race' is really a myth, and did so in a very graphic and striking manner. All of humanity exist as a messy mix of genes and confused family lines, and that is a good thing.
So why is it that we consider minds and emotions (which are even more complex) to be even simpler to put in buckets? And, if the consenting people involved are happy, what business is it of ours anyway?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-28/megan-and-tiffany-love-doesnt-need-labelling/7970142
Nice words of your own Rob Masters.
ReplyDeleteDiedre's post is a little TLDR; but I skimmed through it, and would offer that Megan and Tiffany found love on the dating show - just not the love they (and producers?) were probably anticipating. Good on them (and wasn't that ultimately what they were there for?).
Society tends to want things to be black or white, this or that, not somewhere in-between. More and more the in-between (race, gender, sexuality etc) is becoming prevalent and, given a bit more time, will be "accepted" as just how things are.
Thanks, Mark Graveson, and I certainly hope we get there. I fear, though, that there are going to be some very rough years first, and a very vocal and aggressive minority are going to be very unpleasant about things.
ReplyDelete