Glitterama.
(Or how silly crafts can suddenly antagonize a whole community and messily explode into politicalness, perplexing racial comments and homophobic stances, the darker side of perfect-on-the-surface lifestyle blogs, Mormons, and the simultaneous fascination/uneasiness they inspire (me, anyway)).
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
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3 comment(s):
OMG the whole thing is SO FASCINATING to me.
upon learning that my midwife (who i LOVE) is mormom, i have been trying to be more open minded.
but this whole issue (mostly on the pages of the good article) REALLY illustrate my unease- talking about how much the church pushed people to vote donate to prop 8 no matter what they believe. and then, according to jordon's words herself, people DO listen and are influenced. sad.
You know this whole thing was super fucked up right? That Jordan is a personal (super liberal) friend who both voted for Obama and AGAINST Prop 8, but was pressured by her church to give to something she didn't believe in, in a whole morass of awfulness.
I grew up in a very Mormon town, have tons of friends who are Mormon (liberal and conservative), and am horrified at the way anti-Mormon bigotry is still tolerated. And don't get me started on the Good article. I thought it was flat out bigoted, in a way that would never be accepted about another minority group. Can you imagine an article about "Jews! The new wedding bloggers!" where they interviewed me? No. Of course you can't. And while Jordan both mis-spoke and was quoted in a horrible way, she was making a valid point about US politics. Black churches are wonderful on most issues, but bad on gay marriage. But they were not targeted in the same way after the Prop 8 debacle, for a ton of reasons (mostly because they are democratic power players). Mormons were attacked personally, when really only the church should have been attacked. We don't attack Catholics personally for the church's political stance on abortion, and it's likewise not appropriate to attack Mormon's personally for their churches stance.
This was one of the ugliest things I've ever seen on the internet, and the worst part is that it happened to someone so effing kind.
I hope I didn't come across as anti-Mormon on a personal level... I really didn't want to put it that way, I mean, I also want to be open-minded, but the fact is yes the church itself does make me uneasy.
Thanks for this right-on perspective Meg. Ugly is the right word. I'm still dumbfounded.
I really like that you stand up for your friend! Your very genuine loyalty is one of the things I love most about you. :-) If you're telling me she's super kind, I totally believe *you*, not the random commenters who tried to portray her as a crazy beeatch.
I have nothing against Jordan personally, obviously. I actually really admire her for following her dreams.
With that being said:
-ESB's tweet really wasn't mean or personal or even remotely offensive. J's reaction seemed a leetle overblown.
-While the article was yes, partial, it did made me reflect about the "perfect on the surface", but ultimately "illusory in a sometimes grating way" aspect of these kinds of blogs. I know it's all "p*rn", I don't expect her to post about the boring, non-visually-interesting aspects of her life, but while reading about the adventure that led them to Paris, something in particular -which illustrates this point- surprised me a lot. She gives a lot of details about the practical side of what they had to do -find a temporary apartment, find a permanent one, get a bank account, get visas, obtain transit passes, etc. She always mentions that she and her husband work, for instance at night from 5 to 1 AM, and that they "help put the kids to bed". And during all of this the single most important issue that would have been constantly on my mind -childcare- is never discussed. It's clear she has some form of help, but while she talks about helpers of other kind (like the translator or the agent that found their apartement) regularly, she is mute about the helper that is undoubtedly the most important in their life.
-She could have been misquoted, and your perspective on black churches might me right, but there's still just no way this comment could be spinned in any positive way. I mean, it's one of these things that she plainly shouldn't have said, especially during an interview?
-Politics matter, especially when religion is involved and when it comes to things like Prop 8. I know she's Liberal and I know that she shouldn't be attacked personally on her religion. It's true what you say: I'm technically a Catholic but I endorse like 0.1 percent of the Catholic stance on basically everything and I wouldn't accept to be attacked like that. But. If the Catholic church asked me to donate to a cause I was totally against, I would plainly tell them to f off. Regardless of how she voted, she still donated to Prop 8. I understand that she was pressured and cornered and it was awful, but she still has to take responsibility for an action like that. That's what making me uneasy, ultimately. You have a right to belong to a religion and be respected. But then, when your religion's stance is so clearly morally wrong, and goes against your own personal values, something isn't OK at all.
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