Saturday, February 27, 2010

Can't think of title, but something concerning gays and me arguing with an anti-gay guy.

It seems to be impossible for me to go for too long without having an argument.
Today I had a very irritating one with a friend, on gay rights and stuff. It took 30 whole minutes to achieve it, but in the end the guy aknowledged that, okay, he was wrong and I was right.
The conversation went something like this:

(C=the guy M=me)

C: That teacher's a gay bastard.
M: Don't use the word gay as an insult.
C: (rolls eyes) Again? Do you have to tell me that every single time I use gay as an insult?
M: Umm...YES.
C: But...why?
M:  (my turn to roll eyes) Because you using gay as an insult means that gayness is wrong and to be despised...and considering that gay people are actually despised-and despised is to say little-by many people, that's not very sensitive of you.
C: But being gay is wrong.
M: That's your close-minded hetero opinion.
C. I am not close minded!
M: (raise ayebrows) no?
C: God is against gays.
M: That's your close-mided, hetero, christian, right-winged opinion.
C: You make me seem like a monster. You know I'm not!
M: No?
C: (rolls eyes) Seriously, rantingteenager, imagine two men having sex. Imagine two women having sex. Now imagine a man and a woman having sex.
M: These images do not raise in me different reactions.
C:That't because you're weird!
M: That's because I'm not a bigot!
C: Are you gay?
M: I think not.
C: If gays weren't somehow wrong they wouldn't be discriminated, would they?
M: If blacks weren't somehow stupider they wouldn't have been enslaved, would they?
C: But gays can't have kids! Having sex is essentially for having kids...what's the point of having sex if you're gay?
M: So sterile people can't exist, can they? And what about people who just don't want to have children...you are saying that the only purpose of a person on Earth is to procreate.
C:Sterile women have been destined for other things.
M: There are sterile men too.
C: Whatever.
M: And besides, if god created gays himself, and god loves all his creatutures, god loves gays. It's basic logic.
C: But gayness can be cured.
M: Cures don't work. Find me evidence that they do.
C: They showed it on tv.
M: Of course. Tv never lies! And besides, if you are forced to hear people telling you constantly that your sexual orientation is so wrong, and telling you that curing it will make you right, at some point you'll get tired of it and say you're hetero.

It went along these lines, more or less.
It's frustating how this guy was completely drowning in his own privilege. He even tried to argue that if gays had equal rights they would take over the world. Seriously?
And that if children could see, say, gay superheroes, they would become gay too. Which doesn't explain why all homosexual people don't become heterosexual, since they see so many hetero superheroes.

Some people can be just so stupid.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Pro-Ana Websites

Have you ever visited a pro-ana website?

If you haven't, don't. It is simply horrifying. And it is just a taste of life as an anorexic...now try and imagine the real thing.
I had a friend who was anorexic. She used to study all day long in order to forget she was hungry, and she drunk litres and litres of water. She didn't even eat a little slice of pizza on her birthday.

And other people never tried to help her. They made fun of her. They told her: "You're crazy, girl!"
or: "Well just eat, my god, stop making so many stories!"
That didn't help.


It is understandable that in the real world anorexic people get little help, and the help they get they often reject, dismissing it as "trying to make me fat."

Is it better in the virtual world, then?
Can websites where fellow anorexics tell you that you have to get thin, GET THIN, and that your illness is actually a lifestyle, a religion, which you should proudly follow, be helpful?
Some say anorexics already think that way, and support groups decrease isolation and loneliness.

Others, like a commenter on this article, have different opinions:
 "Anyone who is pro ana deserves to die. YOU ALL RUIN LIVES. I am a twin who has lived with a sister who has a eating disorder that almost took her life and destroyed my family. How dare you make eating disorders a positive thing. Its a disease and you all are fucked in the head. I hate you selfish people. There is so many more important things in life besides being skinny. WAKE THE FUCK UP. Your wasting the life god gave you, and for that you will go to hell for. Your not striving to be thin your striving to die, and most of you will. I suggest you take control of your pathetic life and get your shit together. No man wants a fucking twig anyway its disgusting. Dont even bother talking back to me, I would snap your body with my fucking finger. If you all really want to lose weight then get of your lazy ass and eat healthy go work out, starving is the dumbest thing you can do. And who ever created this site you better wish we never meet in person for you are the fucking devil. F U C K Y O U."
Umm, not that I agree with such a comment, but my thoughts on pro-ana are really ambiguous.
I don't think ana creeds, like this one, help at all. Have a look:
 "Ana's creed: I believe in control, the only force mighty enough to bring onrder in the chaos that is my world.

I believe that I am the most vile, worthless an useless person ever have to existed on this planet, and that I am totally onworthy of anyone's time and attention.

I believe in oughts, musts and shoulds, as unbreakable laws to determine my daily behaviour.

I believe in perfection and strive to attain it.

I believe in salvation trough starvation.

I believe in calorie counters as the inspired word of god, and memorise then accordingly.

I believe in bathroom scales as an indicator of my daily succeses and failures.

I believe in hell, cause sometimes I think I live in it.

I believe in a wholly black an withe world, the losing of weight, recrimination for sins, the alonegation of the body and a life ever fasting. "
And from the same website, the ana commandments:

"Thin Commandments

1) If you aren't thin, you aren't attractive

2) Being thin is more important than being healthy

3) You must buy clothes, cut your hair, take laxatives, anything to make yourself look thinner

4) Thou shall not eat without feeling guilty

5) Thou shall not eat fattening food withoud punishing afterwards

6) Thou shall count calories and restrict intake accordingly

7) What the scale says is the most important thing

8) Losing weight is good, gaining weight is bad

9) You can never be too thin

10) Being thin and not eating are signs of true will power and succes."

And try to read this. Really touching.
But it sounds as helpful as "you're crazy" to me!


 Beautiful?

On the other hand, there are a lot of pro-ana websites out there which offer REAL support. No thinspiration photos or starvation tips...just help on what anorexia means and how to deal with it. Now THAT sounds helpful.