New rule, non muslims can’t say the word jihad. Until you stop conflating a word that means personal struggle with faith and temptation with terrorism youre just not allowed to say it.
I’m not a Muslim but I just thought I would reblog this because I think it’s definitely worth listening to.
It’s totally okay for non muslims to reblog this, and i encourage it. Im just glad you’re listening.
Oh god, finally someone said it. Every time I see words like “jihadist” I want to scream, but I’m not Muslim, so I wasn’t sure I should say anything.
Jihad means struggle. It doesn’t mean holy war or anything like it. In fact, there is no word in Islam for holy war, because the nature of Islam does not leave room for holy war. Islam has a juridical system, not a Pope who can just say “Go wage holy war.” Conflating the personal nature of jihad with violence is so very gross and it needs to stop. Period.
Actually, there’s another word non-muslims in the media shouldn’t use:
Allahu Akbar. It’s not a statement of terrorism. It means “god is great”. It’s something we say to praise our lord. It’s what we say when we pray. It’s not a statement of terrorism. Allahu Akbar doesn’t mean terrorism stop using it as one
I would really appreciate it if non Muslims understood this
yall can make fun of slam poems all you want but I’ve never felt more powerful than listening to women yell about their trauma to strangers
a lot of the difference between people who like slam poetry and people who hate slam poetry is comprised of whether you’ve heard slam poetry used constructively as a platform for the voices of the oppressed and those who would otherwise not have ways to express their emotions, or, alternatively, just heard it used by boring untalented white dudes who want a license to complain about how Smartphones Are Literally The Devil
^An excellent fucking take right here
Chicago recently had a big-ass scandal in the Slam Poetry community over the (predictably, white, middle-aged) guy who basically ran the Slam in Chicago for decades, delivering a poem complaining about how often people were using slam poetry to talk about their trauma. Thus validating @spice-ghouls‘ excellent point.
It went down like a lead balloon but it led to some pretty great poetry about poetry from those objecting.
That happened at the college age national and it was beautiful because it was kids just being like NOPE. At the regular nationals there was also a lot to do with many people of marginalized identities, mainly women of color, who work those events not getting paid for their time and effort over the last several years and then that poem acted as a catalyst for those people and their supporters to basically say screw that. Because said entitled white poets wouldn’t HAVE a platform without other people devoting time and money so we can all share our experiences. And the difficulty is a mediocre slam poem by a white cis dude ABOUT an issue is going to reach infinitely more people than a poem by someone of that same lived experience talking about their lives. Like if any more of my non poet friends link me to Neil Hilborn’s “OCD” like HaVE U sEEn THiSSS I’m going to lose my whole mind.
There is a weird undercurrent young, newer slammers feeling like they have to retraumatize themselves because trauma scores well. They also don’t always know that writing about the trauma isn’t the same as dealing with it. But if you take it like a game and aren’t afraid to write about anything want to and are ready to speak about, it can be a stepping stone.
I love slam because you can learn a tremendous amount about different types of people and the art is transformative. But like anything else there’s cliques and politics and too many people who get involved think it’s the only way to have value as a poet. You have to really hold to your beliefs about your own art not to get caught up in how socially capitalist it can be.
I think a very revealing moment on Queer Eye was when Tan said to the man they were making over: “I look good for my husband, what are you doing to keep her?” And it like. Absolutely astounded, dumbfounded this man that he should possibly be doing anything for his wife other than merely Exist as her husband
Queer Eye is redefining masculinity one Georgian slacker at a time and I am HERE for it
And you know something worth noting is its not from the perspective of changing the mind of a guy whos too full of himself to see whats wrong. These are men who are already feeling unhappiness in their lives and they don’t know or have the resources to fix it because we don’t teach those things to men, we only teach and expect women to work and maintain emotional wellbeing. The Fab Five come in and point these things out and the guys aren’t resistent to them, like “what you talking about im the man blah blah” its either an epiphany that yes they do have control over their happiness and they can maintain the spark of their relationships or at the very least its an openness to learning that.
The only sad thing about Queer Eye is that while the men nominated in the show are open to the advice and changes, the audience that should be watching this show are not. It makes me really sad that the men I know in my life who could immensely benefit from these lessons are two uncomfortable with gay men or just the idea of a man wearing cover up to reduce the redness of his lupus flare ups to just sit and watch one episode.
Big Gay Dracula Does a Shitpost 