Elena Perez is using the language of ‘privelege’ to explain and challenge child-hatred bigotry, more successfully than pretty much everyone else who has attempted it… but still, what will intersectional feminists make of it?
I can speak my native language with fluency and always be understood by other native speakers. I will almost never be laughed at by another speaker of my native language for my language choices, or inability to express myself. If I am routinely yelled at, criticized, and belittled in my own home, almost everyone will recognize that as abusive behavior. I cannot legally be physically disciplined in my place of education. If I am hit, even once, by a loved one, that can be legally considered abuse. I have legal standing to protect myself. My physical and emotional needs are treated as reasonable and important. I am not dependent on others for my economic support.
(By the way, the title refers not to Perez’s piece but to some others before her who have attempted such a comparison and instead managed racism, classism, homophobia and a host of other wrongs).
Yes, excellent post wasn’t it? I have tried many times to do this, and not sure I succeeded, closest I came was at the end of this post (the bit in italics):
http://leftofthepleiades.blogspot.com/2009/10/people-who-dance-between-tables.html
[…] reasonable but see how highlighting your ‘tolerance’ for certain people (in this case children) always seems to send the exact opposite message to the world. The nastiness that has come out in […]