swanpinions

Thank you, Tsu. I whole heartedly agree with this post of yours. This is a point that I get irritated about in the community, because you’re right, it breeds dismissal by one’s peers. It’s a point that needed to be made, I just hope people listen.

I hope so too. And, if not, I guess we just have to keep saying it.

There’s nothing healthy about a culture that dismisses and judges people’s experiences automatically. Critical thinking is good and healthy, but there are problematic ways to approach it (just shutting people down, for example, does not actually encourage “critical thinking”… it encourages a status quo where people don’t think), and there are things that it is just not safe to breed doubt about.

Rape and abuse are among those things. Creating a community where we deny that something like that could ever happen is dangerous. I shouldn’t have to explain why we’re supposed to listen to victims and assume their story is true by default - it’s feminism 101 - but as soon as these stories of otherkin being physically threatened, raped, etc. started appearing, I have heard people spreading doubt about them. And, no. You don’t spread doubt that someone’s rape story is true. You just don’t.