• Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    It’s all semantics either way, just treat people with kindness and respect, and then you can be proud of who you are. That said, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being “proud” of ones features or traits. For instance, I have very blue eyes that have passed down through a ridiculous number of generations (n.b. not the exact same set), and I’m “proud” of them, in the sense that I’m glad I have them, that they remind me of my heritage and ancestry and family, and I hope that they will pass on to my offspring. I won’t cry myself to sleep if they don’t, but I think it’s “nice”.

    Is there something wrong with me feeling this way? I don’t think so. How could it be? It’s nobody’s business how I feel about my eyes. I go out of my way to treat people with kindness and respect, and I am proud of that. But also the eye thing.

    Maybe that’s the problem, perhaps we should just stop nagging and lecturing each other on our identities and preferences all the god damned time. Aren’t you all tired of it also?

    • Syrc@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I can relate, I also have a weird hair quirk my grandma had as well, I like it and I’m glad I have it, but I wouldn’t really say I’m “proud” of it.

      Yes, in the end it’s all semantics and there’s nothing really “wrong” with it, I just find it weird, like astrology or ultras, idk.

      • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        I just find it weird, like astrology or ultras, idk.

        I think you accidentally hit the nail on the head there. When you and I feel proud of our features, we are proud over the features themselves- not proud of identifying as part of the group of “all blue eyed people” or “all weird hair quirk people”.

        It’s the affiliation with, to a greater or lesser extent, some group, and that group’s interests:

        As a proud blue-eyed person, I couldn’t care less about what all other blue-eyed persons think, and unless there’d be fewer than a thousand left of us I couldn’t even conceive of any collective agenda such a group might have had.

        As a proud black person, I would be highly motivated to care about and affiliate with all other black persons, because they would share experiences with me, and to a great extent negative or hateful.

        As a proud homosexual, I would likewise affiliate with others of my kind or who have had similar experiences.

        Even as a proud Ultras member, I can see how you would affiliate like so, even if the reason for it would rest on an artificial division between some arbitrary group- belonging to Ultras is not a physical trait, it’s made up, but there at least is some rationale.

        As a proud white person? If white people were selectively persecuted, I sure as hell would affiliate with them, but they aren’t.