It’s a curiosity of life that, at some point in our lives, we go from asking questions to avoiding them. As we begin to use our gift of speech in early childhood, we point and ask, “What is that?” As we grow we start asking about deeper subjects such as why this is so and that is not so. Then, without warning, we become so set in what we feel we need to know that we stop asking anything. We also tend to shut ourselves off from answering other people’s questions.
Anybody who uses social media can tell you that asking questions can cause the equivalent of a virtual battle. The words online are worse than hearing insults in the junior high gym locker room, and even when somebody speaks the truth, the gaslighting is incredibly volatile.
As for displays of any support or pride in daily life, you may find yourself with hate speech spray painted on your house, or your pro-whatever flag ripped to pieces.
To celebrate Pride Month–which is supposed to be a 30-day period to employ the ethics of allowing people to be what they feel is best for them–our town provided merchandise last year at the weekly farm markets (and carried over to this year). Some unfortunate purchasers did not see their signs displayed for long, as passersby would dismantle or even steal them. As if not having a symbol displayed is going to make what it stands for disappear.
So my question is this: what difference does Pride Month make if you don’t celebrate it? You may celebrate Hanukkah and not Christmas or vice versa, and you may be of a religion that doesn’t celebrate birthdays while your neighbor does. Yet the world continues to turn 24 hours at a time without any issues. LGBTQ people have existed since time immemorial; we just call it LGBTQ these days.
Another example: a video I watched recently featured a woman who suffered from an infection after getting a body piercing. I dared to ask what, in general, is the reason a person decides to get metal put through some part of their bodies, and you would have thought I broke a societal taboo. Some of the responses that blasted into my inbox said, “because it’s my body and I can,” or “because I like to.” Some of the most notorious criminals committed their acts because they chose to or liked to as well, but it doesn’t answer the truth behind such a decision.
For example, I ordered a dozen sandal foot knee high pairs of hosiery. Even though many people who wear sandals choose not to put on any stockings or socks, I prefer the additional barrier of fabric between my now exposed toes and the outside world. The pavements and parking lots are full of leftover animal droppings, bugs, chemicals, human spittle and countless other pathogens that I want to keep off my flesh. That is the longer answer I was hoping to receive regarding piercings, since I have zero.
Instead of a logical explanation of the process by which a person decides to impale their skin with clunky bits of (supposed) decoration, I actually received a reply questioning my mental capabilities (and not from one licensed to make such accusations). I also received a few smatterings of “IYKYK” (if you know, you know) copout responses peppered in to make the entire adventure distasteful.
Years ago, after an item appeared about a particular doctor performing invasions of patients’ privacy (in short, think examining an arm when the problem is in the leg), I posed a question in a forum asking why we are not better informing our young adults about their bodies and what each part does, to inform them against acquiescing to such actions. The respondents seemed ready to burn me at the stake, though not one of them would openly come out and say they feel that human beings should remain ignorant of their own bodies, I was condemned for bringing up the notion of education.
Will I stop asking questions? Never. I cannot live in a world of ignorance or denial. If I learn something useful, I pass it on. If I learn something unusual about a person I’ve known for some time, I can let it be: it never mattered before I learned it, so what’s the difference now?
And if I’m a geek for wearing hosiery with my sandals, I’m letting the geek flag fly.
Along with my Pride Week flag. And the American flag.
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