Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2016 23:58:02 GMT 8
Here's an article I came across today. It doesn't have a thing to do with transgenderism. It's about Syria.
www.msn.com/en-ie/news/world/the-surprising-ways-fear-has-shaped-syria%E2%80%99s-war/ar-BBqU0c9?li=AAaxjhv
And there's one bit here that really hit me--people describing what it felt like when they began demonstrating against the tyranny of the Assad regime:
But still, this incredible oppression made us go out … When you chant, everything you imagined just comes out. Tears come down. Tears of joy, because I broke the barrier. I am not afraid; I am a free being.”
It is easy for rationalist-minded political scientists to underestimate the importance of this emancipatory, emotional moment. When I asked Syrians about their first demonstration, many insisted that the exhilaration of coming together with others to demand change was simply “indescribable.” A writer recounted her entry into protest as the transformative discovery of a sense of self that had been subjugated: “I felt the barrier of fear inside. The first time I broke through it, I was in a demonstration. Others were shouting and I joined them. I started to whisper, freedom. And after that I started to hear myself repeating, freedom, freedom, freedom. And then I started shouting freedom! My voice mingled with other voices. I thought: this is the first time I have ever heard my own voice … I wanted to feel this freedom forever. And I told myself that I would never let anyone steal my voice again.”
I'll never forget the first time I was out in the world as myself. The above is so close to my own experience that night and the way I later described it, it's uncanny. It's called freedom. There are many ways your freedom can be taken away from you and trying to reclaim it is very hard. Freedom is freedom, whatever form it takes. And it is a beautiful thing. People who've never lost their freedom have no idea what it's like to be without it. We transpeople are claiming our right to be free. We must keep claiming it until we finally have it.
www.msn.com/en-ie/news/world/the-surprising-ways-fear-has-shaped-syria%E2%80%99s-war/ar-BBqU0c9?li=AAaxjhv
And there's one bit here that really hit me--people describing what it felt like when they began demonstrating against the tyranny of the Assad regime:
But still, this incredible oppression made us go out … When you chant, everything you imagined just comes out. Tears come down. Tears of joy, because I broke the barrier. I am not afraid; I am a free being.”
It is easy for rationalist-minded political scientists to underestimate the importance of this emancipatory, emotional moment. When I asked Syrians about their first demonstration, many insisted that the exhilaration of coming together with others to demand change was simply “indescribable.” A writer recounted her entry into protest as the transformative discovery of a sense of self that had been subjugated: “I felt the barrier of fear inside. The first time I broke through it, I was in a demonstration. Others were shouting and I joined them. I started to whisper, freedom. And after that I started to hear myself repeating, freedom, freedom, freedom. And then I started shouting freedom! My voice mingled with other voices. I thought: this is the first time I have ever heard my own voice … I wanted to feel this freedom forever. And I told myself that I would never let anyone steal my voice again.”
I'll never forget the first time I was out in the world as myself. The above is so close to my own experience that night and the way I later described it, it's uncanny. It's called freedom. There are many ways your freedom can be taken away from you and trying to reclaim it is very hard. Freedom is freedom, whatever form it takes. And it is a beautiful thing. People who've never lost their freedom have no idea what it's like to be without it. We transpeople are claiming our right to be free. We must keep claiming it until we finally have it.