Wise Cat

why you don’t see a lot of “nice” SJ bloggers:

theroguefeminist:

1. people take advantage of your niceness to exploit you as a “source” of information - bombarding you with questions/requests with no respect for your boundaries/limitations
2. give you backhanded compliments on your niceness at the expense of less nice “unreasonable” feminists/activists/others in your group
3. use your nice statements as arguments against less nice activists/ people in your group or to excuse/justify oppressive behavior
4. take your niceness as an invitation to enter your space even if they have a bigoted mindset because they find your space comfortable/safe (making it less safe for you)
5. use your niceness as the basis for creating a false “middle ground” on issues of oppression and/or painting oppressive behaviors as mere mistakes or as a “gray area”
6. the things we are upset about or denounce are usually upheld and praised and we are working to counteract those messages and create spaces where those things are unacceptable/not upheld as ideal
7. lastly, niceness in the oppressed is usually defined by the privileged as being docile/acquiescent- basically being complicit in or enabling oppression and activists are by definition not these things. see [x]

(via moniquill)

• 7 June 2014
• 6612