I chose to call myself Mercury for a reason

[mercuryisme.livejournal.com]

Hey, everyone...

From the user info page I thought I'd announce my presence here as a psych student, but I'm not interested in you people as guinea pigs... I have a seriously unorthodox fetish for the "crazies"... schizofrenia, multiples, furries, gender dysphoria... the people who don't belong, who feel out of place in their own skin, who are too much for themselves.

I wish I could live a thousand different lives sometimes, be the virgin and the whore and the child and the adult, the man and the woman. Being bisexual definitely raised some questions in my mind about whether or not I really wanted this female body of mine.

Don't be offended when I say part of me is jealous. But I guess you'd understand about "parts"... wouldn't you?

EDIT: I don't fetishize any of you, I have a tendency to use words offhand, I don't think about any of you or your friends naked in the shower to get my rocks off, I'm young, I'm dumb, I talk a lot, I would never in a million years dare to compare any of you to furries, or try to pretend any of you are anything like me, because that would be damn insulting, etc.

There.

Comments

[effeteifrit.livejournal.com]

I think it's different, however, for those who did not choose their differences. People who are "just born" a certain way often try hard to fit in & be normal, whereas those who seek to go beyond the edges have the opposite point of view.

I should just shut up, but I don't really "try" to be normal, if the above was a reference to me. Actually, that's not entirely true. My system's been going through an upheaval after trying to blend in as a woman. I'm bizarre to the point that there's no going back; I'm lucky if I'm treated as human and not as [insert identity/epithet/social station here], though it got a lot better after I went urban again.

Persons who are "just born" a certain way, if you listen to ethnic studies and womens' studies classes, lack something called "privilege", which I'm not up to elucidating at the moment. It's a controversial subject, because the term gets thrown around a lot as a weapon: "well, I'm more oppressed than you (read: 'you have more privilege than I'), so you should do/be/say/not say/not do/not be _X_."

I should say that my relationship with ethnic and womens' studies classes is often tense.

My point is that (if we're going to adopt this model, this is not to say that we should, as it's quite angering), everyone on this community who is plural and *did not choose to be* has a lower power status than the OP, and I perceive the OP's stance as exploitative in light of this. You may not find the same issue to affect you if you are plural by choice--if you "seek to go beyond the edges" and wish recognition for it. This is an alternative to the thesis that I try to blend in/minimize my minority aspects because I'm a minority by birth.

I don't know that I should post this, and I don't want the OP to delete this thread because I said this (after all, I view this exchange as potentially constructive), but it clarifies my position. If you were commenting on me, this is my response. If you weren't, well, you got me thinking. :)

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

You may not find the same issue to affect you if you are plural by choice--if you "seek to go beyond the edges" and wish recognition for it. This is an alternative to the thesis that I try to blend in/minimize my minority aspects because I'm a minority by birth.

There are also those who believe those who are minorities by nature should try to emphasize their identity in a meaningful way, and show pride in it, rather than downplaying it-- to take back your identity after the dominant culture made you feel shame at being what you were. That's what the Autistic Pride movement is about, partly. There are or have been similar movements among a lot of religious/ethnic/sexual minorities.

(I do, for the record, believe there should also be such a thing as multiple pride-- regardless of origin-- although I believe it should take the form of things like saying "we" in places where you can and no one will put you in the loony bin for it, of not associating with friends who don't accept plurality, rather than of acting out in public to prove that you're different people and so on. Subtlety.)

[effrenata.livejournal.com]

I was commenting on all the people in general who reacted negatively to the OP's enthusiasm and interest. But, thank you for clarifying. This does make sense -- I've been thinking about the "privilege" issue recently, from viewing some discussions on other boards. I can see the point to both sides. It's a rather different situation for those who are by nature excluded from the "average" (whatever the "average" happens currently to be) and those who adopt an alternative way of life out of preference. Both are equally outside the mainstream, but they've reached that position from different routes.

Do you see yourself as having actually less power than the OP? If so, in what context? I would think that, on a board devoted to Multiplicity, multiples would have the position of power, insofar as that is the main focus and the basic paradigm of the community. It doesn't seem to me that a random newbie poster has more authority here than established members -- yet, "power" is a tricky thing, as it depends very much on the context and contexts are ever-shifting.

[mercuryisme.livejournal.com]

I think this is probably an important enough topic to take out into the open rather than keeping it in the comments of my stupid little post.

Besides, if you make it into a new thread, it won't email me EVERY SINGLE REPLY.

Lol. Help me out here. I am interested, but tired of getting email alerts.

[effeteifrit.livejournal.com]

In the physical world I wouldn't consider this person to have power over me, at least not currently, because of our age and experience/educational differential*; I'm still about a fifth older than her. However, in the long run, I feel it's likely that she would have more power, not in the least because she's going into the mental health industry. I'm not anti-psychiatry, but I wouldn't want this person treating me.

On this board, I feel that space for multiples has been maintained to an extent, and I feel it's been maintained through dialogue. I feel that if I (and others) didn't say anything, that space would be threatened. This is really one of the few spaces on the 'net where I can come and talk about things pertaining to multiplicity and not get some blank stare.

I don't think I would want the community to be closed, but it's not okay for someone to come into the community and say "hello, I fetishize you". For me, that is not respectful. That's not respectful of who I am as a person, it objectifies me, and if I'm watching, I'm not going to let it slide. (I shouldn't be so quick to pick up that mantle; my heat may be tempered in the near future.)

Power is always temporary, and it has to be maintained. I would not say that this person has more authority than myself, but then I would not say I had more authority than her. If I thought I had more authority than her, I would not have replied when she called me "pissy". However, I interpreted her response as an attempt to wield power over me in my own community ("well, if you don't do what I want [i.e. desire to be my 'friend'], you're a loser anyway"), and I interpreted that to show a lack of respect for who and what I am. Lack of respect can go hand in hand with fetishization. She even stated that a fetish often involved a sense of disgust.

I am *not* convinced that this person has a respect for multiples in general, because if she had it, then what generated her acerbic response? "I'm here, but I don't trust you yet" does not imply "I hate you, get out", but she responded as though that is what I had said.

And I think at this point, I'm done.

--Blaze

*I usually try not to be ageist, but in some cases I just can't ignore someone else's maturity level, and in some cases, that maturity level is pretty near someone's age. I know I'm still in the 'pretty young' phase of 'young adult' at 23; I'm young enough to know that high schoolers are (or try to be) cruel, and old enough to know that I don't know everything.