Guest Post: Where is the ever-exhausting amplification of intolerant cishet white male voices taking us?

A guest post by Courtenay:

People in my generation, the much-maligned millennials, live in a world which is ever so slowly inching its way to being a better place for all people to live. Soon, we will dominate the managerial landscape and with all hope it will no longer matter whether you have a cool sleeve tattoo or a septum piercing. What matters is your personal ideals, and how well you work within your chosen vocation. Furthermore, marriages between two loving adults will continue to be something we celebrate, and our parent’s generational legacy of high divorce rates and legalised marrital rape will be left in the past. (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/dec/09/in-it-for-the-long-haul-why-divorce-rates-are-falling-fast) 

I would like to look at some definitions. As most of us who have learned to process language know, a word often carries more weight than its simple definition. The word deviance, for example, in some dictionaries might be given the meaning “thing or person that deviates from normal behavior”, but in terms of sociology we would see it given a longer and more robust definition. In this case, it would be more correct to give the word a definition like “an object, action or behaviour which violates social norms”. Social norms differ around the world, of course. On most New Zealand beaches it would be considered deviant for a woman to be topless, however this is very common in Europe. Until recently it would be considered deviant for women to drive in Saudi Arabia. Another word, because apparently we’re not done with definitions, abnormal. Although it is not the most reputable source, Wikipedia states – “…behavior is considered abnormal when it is atypical or out of the ordinary, consists of undesirable behavior, and results in impairment in the individual’s functioning”. Being a layperson I will avoid wading into the quagmire which is abnormal psychology and leave that to the experts.

Now, only an idiot would argue that something as socially and legally acceptable in New Zealand as two adults expressing romantic love towards one another is akin to either of these words. Especially considering that homosexuals are about as common as colourblind, redheaded, or green eyed people.