seperis: (Default)
seperis ([personal profile] seperis) wrote2012-01-11 08:08 pm
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yeah, no, and fuck you

Really.

On behalf of those of us who were and are single women on welfare with children in the South and at some point in our lives lived in a--I need to check the wording--"rural south USA in a welfare slum trailer"--and who do not think our population should be fodder for your smug little war on the word shack:

Fuck. You.

Are you fucking serious?

Are you comparing lower income women's lives--and since you used the word 'welfare', we all know you're talking about women, who make up the majority of welfare clients; women, whose choices and lives are limited by poverty and the difficulties raising children alone, without spousal support; poor urban women, a population that is statistically more likely to be battered by their male partner--to a fucking challenge using the word shack?

I suppose [personal profile] indywind felt it was 'problematic' to use the term 'trailer trash'; should I be grateful? Thank you. Your buddies in that thread who were so excited to read it--and that super clever "Now them's fightin' words!!!" jab--also have my abject gratitude that parts of my life--and my family, friends, and clients from when I was a caseworker who decided benefits for those renters of "rural south USA in a welfare slum trailer"--are being held up in humourous example of how southern poverty is totally like using the word shack. I feel as if social justice is on my side.

So, my night is shit. How's everyone else doing?
ext_2353: amanda tapping, chris judge, end of an era (Default)

[identity profile] scrollgirl.livejournal.com 2012-01-12 04:21 am (UTC)(link)
Yes, actually, I mentioned over on DW that I didn't think the fic challenge was about First Nations poverty. Here, I was just answering why some people might have an issue with the word "shack" as it relates to people living in the rural north.

Okay, and now I'm really going to stop commenting like I promised!

[identity profile] harriet-spy.livejournal.com 2012-01-12 05:31 am (UTC)(link)
No, I get it; if people are living permanently in shack-like conditions, wherever in the world, that's a very legitimate thing to be concerned about. However, I don't think that means that any story set in a shack is a creepy fetishization of rural poverty. I mean, I haven't read all the stories, especially the new ones, but I don't remember any of them being set in what would probably be more accurately characterized as a shantytown.