This is a thread to discuss a unique form of oppression which has been practised since the ancient times. It’s an extremely potent form of oppression which makes sure that people are willfully enslaved within oppressive ideological confines for centuries without realising what afflicts them. This oppression creates a unique mechanism which has the potential to alter human behaviour sometimes perhaps permanently --- behaviour that harms people in several ways. Escape from this mechanism is almost impossible. This is the politics of social identities. It creates a mechanism whereby artificial ideologies developed by those in power are institutionalised into social identities. The objective is to consolidate power that these groups are enjoying for whatever reason. These identities are then propagated as basic, even natural human identities. This makes sure that people are then divided on the basis of these identities and groups belonging to different identities become sworn enemies. It also severely limits human choices as people are confined by their identities. The mechanism favours and gives unreasonable power to the preferred social group over the rest --- leading to further exploitation of the disempowered group by the powerful group. This thread is meant to discuss such social identities and how they have harmed or benefitted (if any!) humankind. We’ll also look at emerging trends and find out ways to deal with them --- nip them in the bud. We’ll try to see who is benefitted by these mechanisms and who stands to loose. I can think of three prominent instances of politicising social identities. These are: - The Indian caste system: incorporation of human professions into social identities started in ancient India. - Religion: incorporation of human spiritual needs into social identities called religion by Christianity and Islam in the medieval times. - Sexual orientation: incorporation of claimed/ (often indirectly) enforced sexual preferences into social identities of straight, gay and bisexual by the modern heterosexual west. Let’s discuss them in detail. Do also post more examples of politics of social identity.
Heterosexuality and Homosexuality Heterosexuality: Heterosexuality is the institutionalisation of the tremendous social power that has traditionally been accorded to male-female sex --- because of its procreative value --- into a social identity, in order to consolidate that power and ensure its perpetuity for all times to come. Heterosexuality seeks to remove the burden of procreation from male-female sex, through social measures (e.g. breaking it from marriage!) and through artificial technologies (like condoms!) in order to make itself biologically possible. It also seeks to remove the other major hurdles in it's way --- male-male sexual bonds and the tendency of the men and women to stick to their own sexes and live in separate social spaces. Homosexuality Homosexuality is the institutionalisation of the tremendous disempowerment of male-male sexual bonds (a disempowerment which was initiated in the ancient civilisations in order to make the artificial institution of male-female marriage possible) by the modern west into a disempowered, denigrated, demasculinised and marginalised social identity --- in order to further solidify its disempowerment and to ensure the perpetuation of this disempowerment for all times to come. Homosexuality seeks to effectively discourage male-male sexual bonds amongst the masculine (straight) male population by artificially binding such bonds and desires into a social identity which belongs to the feminine gendered male. What compounds the disempowerment of male-male bonds is that femininity in males has been persecuted, denigrated and misrepresented for a long time, and this in all probability also has its roots in the social mechanisms to make marriages possible (a topic for further discussion). The marriage institution, by bringing the male and female together into a family unit, made the feminine gendered male redundant, as their most important social (and also perhaps biological) function was as the link between the men and women --- who are naturally meant to live separate lives.
Simliarities between Heterosexaulity and Homosexuality: Both Heterosexuality and homosexuality suit a minor section of the society --- (chiefly meterosexuals on both the sides of the heterosexual/ homosexual divide and a small proportion of women) who are the most ardent supporters of forced heterosexualisation of a society (like Islamisation, heterosexualisation is also always forced initially -- being a process against nature). Both heterosexuality and homosexuality together are especially harsh on straight men with a predominant need to bond with other men, and transgendered males with a predominant need to bond with women --- who are seen almost as contradictions of nature (in a society that has turned nature upside down by playing havoc with it) Both heterosexaulity and homosexuality depend on forced merger of the two human sexes --- men and women (while forcibly demarcating clearly, the borders between the 'homosexual' and the heterosexual). Unless the society is heterosexualised (made mixed gender + traditional masculinity social roles), the whole notion of sexual orientation or those of heterosexuality and homosexuality has no validity.
Bisexuality The bisexual identity, for all practical purposes, is used by some straight men with a predominant desire to bond with men, in order to avoid the severity of isolation that the homosexual identity brings and to avoid forced social femininity. The bulk of straight men who have a sexual need for men --- including those with a strong need, however prefers to stay well within the safety of the 'heterosexual' identity, even if it is a farce for them. Many play the role of the 'heterosexual' to the hilt.
Why is this thread of mine ignored? What have you people got against it? :bugeye: Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Thought of the day: Just like religion had fixated the 'permanent' and extreme persecution of same-sex bonds for the future, by making them a sin, Science has fixated their 'permanent' persecution for all times to come (in the face of religion losing power) by making them into 'sexual identity'.
Budda1, I'll simply say this just prior to placing you on my ignore list. You've got a severe sexual fixation - to the point of being a chronic obsession. Though you can sometimes (rarely) bend yourself to other topics, it pretty much eventually reverts to your very warped view of sexuality. I still say you're a fraud (and a sick one, at that!) because you never once saw fit to even provide us with any quotes from your "many publication." You could have easily done at least that without revealing your identity to anyone. So it is my contention that you are a liar, a fraud and a sexual pervert. I will not bid you farewell because I honestly do not wish you well. End.
The summary of my answer to your blabber is that I have always given justifications, reasoning, and evidences for whatever I have said. I want my statements to be evaluated for their own validity, not because of what I have published. My publications are not 'research papers'. They are information materials, anyone can publish. It's easier to lie in the things that you publish, but you cannot escape lying if you do it on this forum, where people are ready to mow you down for even the slightest mistake that you make. That I have stayed so far --- and it has been a long time --- without anyone being able to prove me wrong even once (maybe once or twice on a side statement), proves you nothing more than a frustrated 'vested interest person And thank you, you are a pervert yourself!. End!
Are you scared of the reply, that you must play hide and seek. Like in, come out from your hiding place, 'shoot', 'shoot'! and then immediately go back into hiding? A hint: You ignore the truth and ..... SURPRISE, Surprise!!! The truth doesn't go away!
i dont see the problem with social indentity.... whats the problem? -MT liberate us from what?? for what??? to follow you? and your secular Atheism??? that will help alot.
I don't belong to any 'isms'! Liberate men from their enormous pressures that don't let them be who they are. Pressures that have bound them, and taken away their freedom eversince the inception of the marriage institution, but exacerbated by the modern/ western/ heterosexual society who have driven men to a corner.
And what is my fault? That I am talking about things that are not supposed to be acknowledged? That I am divulging the 'secrets' of the straight world, that has been a 'secret' only because of the strict 'censure' on its discussion? A 'censure' that I have dared to break. That I am disrobing the biggest kept social lie --- and exposing the naked truth? And why shouldn't I do that? Isn't it time that men looked at the whole thing and asked WHY?
Please people! Let's at least be serious for a moment! And Buddha1, maybe you should take your own advice and talk about sexual preference only when it is needed. I believe you told me the same thing in the gender thread! Yes, it is important as far as social identity is concerned. You did seem to focus on it a bit excessively when starting this thread, though. Just a comment/suggestion, is all.
Racial identity People often define themselves by race and/or skin color. Black power? Black racism? Yes, it does exist! I've seen some outlandish pro-African racial propaganda before, akin to Aryanism only this was more Africanism, with the black race being somehow superior. Would you believe it involved some rather outlandish theories about how the melanin (skin pigment) concentration in Africans somehow increases intelligence. The theory was, needless to say, a bit pseudo-scientific. Better yet, New Age is a label that would suit it just fine. I am prepared to write more on this, a little later. Since black people are probably the most visible minority (in the US that is), even more visible than Hispanics simply because of their history in the United States and the stark contrast in physical appearance, I notice them more. So I will probably focus on that, since it's easier! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! After all, they have at least one television network, called Black Entertainment Television. I have read commentary on the rather elitist attitude of having a television channel for a specific skin color, and that White Entertainment Television would be obliterated before it got off the ground. It seems to imply that if you're black, you're entertained by what they have to offer! Seems to, that is. Any persons of color out there? Specifically of African ancestry who would care to comment on the popular black culture and what African identity means to the common black man? I will just say that over the years I have increasingly noticed how minorities conform to their own stereotypes. If you're like us, you talk this way, these issues concern you, this is the music that WE like, please be like your brothers and sisters. It gives them a sense of community, of belonging, and possibly a feeling of being somehow better than outsiders, other races. The gay community in general, though not a specific race, also tend to corner themselves into their own niche. Gay power, rights, agenda (though that term is generally used by anti-gay conservatives), lifestyle tend to dictate how people with "alternative" sexual preferences should think and act. Mentality of the minorities. How bout some examples of this very real, and sometimes harmful, phenomenon!
Buddha, You started a thread that showed tremendous promise but you've been unable to build upon it. I think that social groupings as a whole sharing ideologies, some identity, and a contrast provide a relatively easy avenue for the power hungry. Said constructs are further susceptible to oppression and manipulation when wholly accepted by society at large and integrated into the social mechanism. Thus, someone born into a society accepts the ideologies/values of the social grouping he is 'belongs'. Injustice/Oppression, etc therefore become meaningless as the member is disallowed a proper frame of reference. Hoepfully after the football game is over I shall have time to further expound on one of the categories.
in the meantime.... i want to but cant look if you do not post pic hope you are cute age and location? this "naked truth"....is it big and stuff? /pant Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!