Considering I got a question in my askhole as to the motives why I post about Tracie Egan’s racism and ableism, I expect they would be self evident. But, in case they are not, I’ll try to elaborate briefly (I have other things to do as well, so this post will be a bit rushed).
Media people have a responsibility. That responsibility goes beyond just informing or passing along data. It is also a responsibility of not making matters worse. Every time a popular media figure uses racist, ableist, transphobic, homophobic, whorephobic, etc language, they are, in fact, normalizing such words and attitudes. When said media figure, as is the case with Ms. Egan Morrisey is widely read by teenagers and young people, such responsibility is even increased. And if, again, as is the case with Tracie, the media figure in question is regarded as representative of a cause that is usually constructed as liberal or related to social justice (such is the case with Jezebel which is usually referred to as the biggest and most popular feminist site), then the scrutiny should be even more detailed. Because every time a person regarded as somehow representative of certain kind of politics misrepresents herself by contributing to oppression of minorities, we have the obligation to expose it.
You can pretend to be edgy and hip, but in fact, you are taking a dump on centuries of other people’s oppression by misusing words that do not belong to you or hurling them as insults because they are meaningless to you. And until you apologize and rectify the behavior, you deserve to be exposed on your disgraceful politics.
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