Two things I love about the culture I live in: a) respect for older people b) respect for women. Is it perfect? No. Are people still going to be dicks just because they are dicks? Yes. Are people dicks about other things instead? Oh hell yes. But people have a lot of respect for older people. There's a lot of privileges extended to them--lawyers who offer free counsel, doctors who offer free care, basically all services allow older people to go to the head of the line, etc. There are specific people who have been nasty to my Mom for her age and gender, but these people were not from the culture, they were always outsiders. And whereas life in the mainland was an obstacle course of harassment, fear, and dick moves because I am female, a lot of those things are gone and I'm like "HOLY GOD YES."
I still shy away from people who seem to be outsiders, but that might also be that I'm kind of scared of younger white males in general. But anyways, it's nice to be treated like a human being and to earn a little bit of kindness for being a lady creature rather than a whole heap of shit.
There are still lots of bad things and I could write endlessly on stuff like our culturally shitty perspectives on romantic relationships, drinking and drug use, wariness of outsiders that borders on xenophobia, our lack of artistic identity, blah blah blah. But we have a culture that really super emphasizes respecting others and treating people the way you want to be treated.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
chiming
no subject
Date: 2010-07-31 11:47 pm (UTC)From:I still shy away from people who seem to be outsiders, but that might also be that I'm kind of scared of younger white males in general. But anyways, it's nice to be treated like a human being and to earn a little bit of kindness for being a lady creature rather than a whole heap of shit.
There are still lots of bad things and I could write endlessly on stuff like our culturally shitty perspectives on romantic relationships, drinking and drug use, wariness of outsiders that borders on xenophobia, our lack of artistic identity, blah blah blah. But we have a culture that really super emphasizes respecting others and treating people the way you want to be treated.