Social Commentary Vs Social Dysentery

If you’re finding yourself talking more about how another equally privileged  ‘influencer’  is hurting your brand, reputation, safety, than you are talking about the actual people within the political situation that started the conversation then you are missing the point. Knock it off, pull your heads in, get over yourselves and leave space in the actual fight for the people who need it.

True god ‘ey. You are making me weak and I just don’t care how Bernice did you wrong, Juniper. If you live in Australia, are white, not a minority and earn anything above the poverty line you are not unsafe, you are precious petal.

EVER. Even if you personally think the creation is rubbish. Creating is hard and it takes guts to put a little piece of yourself out into the world.

For me, creation is multifaceted. It’s writing, making, singing, dancing, splashing, the way you wear your clothes and do your hair. The content you create. It’s not all my shot of tequila but I see it all as brave. Even if I don’t like a product, I still often find myself doing the quiet nod of appreciation that particular niches have popularity. Bravo you magical spin doctor for whatever success you’ve managed to create. Bravo indeed. 

If you don’t like someone’s new movie/book/hairstyle scroll past and here’s a really novel suggestion. Don’t buy or consume it!  Bloody brilliant way of voting with your feet. Like a toddler spitting their veggies at you! And perhaps don’t promote it with a stomping, fuming tantrum of negativity, so that people like me go and have a cheeky gander out of pure voyerism. Only to find I’ve now watched the whole series and loved the guts out of it, forgetting what drove me to it in the first place.

Informed opinion is different from active, baseless diatribe.

It’s not for me because…is a valid conversation that I’m interested in. I cannot tell you how many times this critiquing of offerings has saved me from time, money, expectations wasted because I  could make a more informed decision.

On the other hand, ‘oh my god, did you see the size of bags under her eyes, how can she say she’s a feminist’ has funnily enough been less useful overall.

Advocating against unethical practices, cultural appropriation, environmental issues that are important to you is cool with me. Calling out shoddy practice that can be validated in a real way and asking people to do better is a superpower in my books. If your evidence is sound I want to hear about these issues for sure. That’s how I make better choices and learn.

I’m not an expert in environmental practices, but I care about our land. If you are more informed than me I want to hear it. I’m keen to do better. If something is ethically wrong,  shout it out by all means. Just do so with the research to back yourself fully so that you’re not propagating more harm. Focus on the practice not the person. Two wrongs do not make a right.  Use the 'when you go low, I go high' rule of thumb.

If done with integrity, information from our most successful can bring another aspect to our cultural landscape and conversation. It’s a different perspective and lens from mine for sure, but I generally look at the content of what someone is saying, not how expensive their shoes are or which school their kids go to. After that I might feel a little jelly about those gold, glitter connies they’re wearing, but I’m only human.

I’m aware that people see me differently than I see myself. Employed, successful, ‘lucky’. I know my reality is much, much different. Don’t assume you know all the pieces in the puzzle that is someone ‘well known’ in the media. The backstory might just surprise you.

This is especially true if it is in no way your cultural issue, even if you feel you know a person intimately. I am in no way equipped to judge if someone is feminist enough, Jewish enough, black enough, outraged enough. Just a reminder that because you see someone’s insta on the reg, it does not mean you are intimately acquainted.

Believing someone is living a seemingly affluent life in Australia with no direct ties to the conflict at hand doesn’t necessarily mean their cultural connection and knowledge isn’t deeply embedded. Likewise, your uninformed view of their cultural cred does not automatically mean your opinion is equal to or more valid. That maths just doesn’t add up.

Your feet may not be on my own cultural country but your family’s may well be. Their heart likely still is. A person's cultural connection and heritage for their language group may be so strong it's blinding. The only opinions I will accept around a person's right to talk about the issues relevant to their people is from their own people. 

An audience may not always be privileged to witness the depths of someone’s cultural ties and that’s ok. It’s sacred and might not be something you’ll see on their day to day social media presence.

I’m particularly over conversations of woman being ‘not feminist enough’, ‘not female enough’, ‘not outspoken enough’, ‘not good enough’. Oh just shush it, you are neither clever nor funny, as my Gran would say. It’s ignorant not to accept the spectrum of human experience. It smacks of the experience of light skinned people of Aboriginal decent.

Too much, not enough. No place for you. In some respects, light skin gives a unique and rich perspective because of its origins in the stolen generation. In other ways, we are taught by our First Nation Elders that we may never truly understand what it’s like not to be able to pass easily, as though part of the majority population like so many in our Country.

It is all relevant though. All parts of the journey. Just because you are married, it doesn’t mean you’re not a feminist. Just because you’re not married, it doesn’t make you a man hater. It’s the actions of a person that speaks to me. Apparently a child is ‘not trans enough’ because they choose not to change pronouns. I can tell you, the agony of a mother's heart of having a nine year with impacted kidneys because of the anxiety gender assigned toilets at school creates is pretty bloody real to me.

Sometimes I’m quietest when I really, truly care about something. It’s not because I’m clueless, unaffected, or disinterested. It’s because of the importance an issue holds for me.

In our culture, we teach our children through the practice of watch, hear, say, do. Your children watch. Just watch, with no words. In this way, they start to form their own narrative. Then you tell your story as they watch. It’s another piece of the puzzle and they grow into a new task just a little bit more. As a teacher though,  it’s clear this is your lens on the activity, your perspective. They will grow their own perspective. Our little ones then tell you their story of the new skill as you do it. This is about safety. You are testing their little capacity for independence. Then they do and it becomes their story.

I find my interactions in the social media space or with social issues, work along the same lines. I watch and listen. I learn and create my own space within an issue and it may take time for me to feel safe enough to speak into an issue. It’s not apathy. It’s just my way.  Don’t assume I don’t feel something because I haven’t share it in a reel.