Reaching and Teaching

Eve wrote a great post  for Feministe about leaving one's "bubble" and how to reach those for whom that bubble represents their core belief system, no matter how flawed. She asks:

How do we talk to the people who were educated incorrectly– who have Religion or Religious-based textbooks to support the wrong facts, who vote and behave accordingly– without putting them on the immediate defense? How do we encourage curiosity and welcome questions that may hurt/annoy/enrage us? How much intolerance are we willing to tolerate while we attempt to progress the conversation? How do we differentiate between hateful intolerance and ignorant intolerance, or does that differentiation matter? Is the element of religion too large to combat with information, exposure and conversation? Will this gap in our society eventually close on its own, as we are on the “right side of history,” or is it up to us to actively bring the conversation to the rest of the world’s population?

Earlier, she used Todd Akin's recent comments about rape and abortion as an example. As a fellow Missourian who's watched this become the center of everything that's wrong with Republican politic,  I don't think his is a case of sheer ignorance, but privilege combined with ignorance. Being a man, he benefits from a belief system that denies women agency, and I'm sure he's reluctant to give up that privilege, even if he's never questioned what that means.

I was taught, in a Missouri school no less, the same lie that pregnancy rarely occurs in rape -- that somehow a woman's reproductive system "shuts down." Why don't I believe that now? For one thing, I had parents that taught me to question the antediluvian "rules" I learned in school. (I was also naturally curious and fairly stubborn.) So how do we reach those who were (I'm kind of hesitant to use this choice of words because of its classist implications) "educated incorrectly?" who didn't have the benefit of parents or someone else to show them that what they're being taught is not only flawed but hurtful? I don't know. No, I really don't, because it's too easy put someone on the defensive, like, "Who are you to tell me I am wrong?." Using the vocabulary of the social justice world doesn't help much either when most people outside it aren't familiar with it. I still feel like I'm trying to write in a foreign language I'm only just beginning to learn. (Try explaining privilege to someone; the average person usually doesn't think it extends beyond economic privilege.)



Bill Nye (the science guy!) recently posted this video on why creationism is not appropriate for children. I wanted to post this even though it doesn't really fit with the dialogue surrounding the misinformation in Todd Akin's comments, but it's part of the same system that places religion above science.