Ken Dobson's Queer Ruminations from Thailand
Search this site
  • Life in Thailand
  • Queer Issues in Thailand
  • Queer Christian Issues
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Stories

Gays as Today's Witches

2/25/2013

0 Comments

 
How did we get to be accused of society’s most dangerous evil?

To be perfectly honest, the scapegoats of history have always been small minorities in relatively vast societies.  Take the witch hysteria of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 and 1693 for example.  What was it that ignited that famous fire?  Apparently it was when two pre-pubescent girls began to have “fits” that exceeded what the people thought could be accounted for as epilepsy, and they accused three non-conformist women of having bewitched the girls.  

Witch hunts are not extinct.  One was reported just last week.

Hysteria is a wild fire that breaks out and spreads immediately on winds of rumor.  Small evidence, irrelevant circumstances, irrational conclusions, invalid verification and convenient prejudice all can fuel a conflagration that leads to people being hurt.  There is always a smoldering ember in human society with regard to those with unwelcome exotic characters.  Sometimes societies allocate special status to those persons, but more often they are excoriated and persecuted.

Witches were originally “wise women”; that is the etiology of the word.  All it takes is for society to wish those women were otherwise (other than wiser than the ones (such as learned men) who covet the uncontested honor of wisdom and its entitlements), and some insignificant incident, probably not apparently related to such challenges, will set a mob into motion.  

Another group that threatens male dominance is us, of course.  We are persistent proof that the majority masculinity is not the only one, nor is it necessarily the only valid one, or even the best hub for society.  Social conservators hate it when their centrality is challenged.  They tend to scream that because they are being undermined all society is liable to collapse.

This is the situation today.

Certain key male figures, one of whom is resigning/retiring in Rome this week, would really like to retain control over the definition of legitimate masculinity.  Since an aspect of masculinity is sexual, they try to insist on controlling sex.  Since that authority is becoming unviable they look for scapegoats to deflect the suspicion that they, in their conservatism now outside society’s definition of reality, are the reason for the sounds of falling objects all around them.    

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Rev. Dr. Kenneth Dobson posts his weekly reflections on this blog. 

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Copyright © 2023 Rev. Dr. Kenneth Dobson