Defeating Bigotry Frankenstein

Okay, that’s a weird title. I’ll admit that. (But it got your attention, right?)

There’s a lot that’s going into this allegory I’ll get rolling in a second here, but before I can, I want to make sure you’re familiar with the story of Frankenstein and his monster.

Frankenstein Abridged

Frankenstein (the doctor) spends a year straight putting together what is, in his eyes, the perfect man. Except, as we all know, upon actually awakening his creature, he freaks out as the realization of what exactly he’s done finally hits him, and promptly abandons the creature on the spot. The rest of his life is spent having run-ins with the creature, whereupon each time Frankenstein tells the poor thing how much of a monster it is, how no one will ever love it, and how it is a danger to society.

Unsurprisingly, the creature sets about killing all of the people Frankenstein loves, plus some others for good measure. This confirms Frankenstein’s fears of what the monster would become, but almost entirely because Frankenstein told it that it would be one. The book raises the question that, if Frankenstein had managed to be a good “father” to the creature, to love it and give it support, would it have become a monster? The book will not answer this, but instead opts to drown the creature in the arctic, upon learning of Frankenstein’s death after a lifetime of the two chasing and running from each other.

Got the picture? Good.

So, let’s talk about bigotry, equality, and the way Frankenstein fits into all of this.

Understanding Where I’m Coming From

I’m what you would call, for lack of a better word, a “Fake Minority”. That is to say, I’m a woman, I’m queer, and I’ve got traces of what seems to be some mild OCD. None of these, though, really affect my day-to-life in significantly harmful or significant ways.

If, while reading that, you thought “well that doesn’t count!” then, yeah. You’re kind of right. (That’s the point. You’ll see.) I’ve been afforded by my position the rather comedic perspective of being fairly disliked by any side of this argument.

That is to say, I’m not queer enough for queer people (most of the time), I’m certainly not straight enough for straight people. They don’t know what to do with me when I’m not “proving” my queerness, but simply and mildly existing. That seems to upset both sides, weirdly enough. This hasn’t stopped me from being called slurs quite a few times, but that’s not really the point.

I’m not neurodivergent by the fun internet-ized version of the word, but instead make people uncomfortable by saying that I don’t like having OCD and I do see it as a problem and not a superpower. But then, by acknowledging the disorder, I’m not quite neurotypical enough either. (Though, let the record show, I find both neurodivergent and neurotypical to be pretty overused buzzwords that don’t really help anyone anymore.)

So, I already come from a weird middle ground. Not really liked, but not really marginalized either.

Anyway, I want to come back to the issue at hand:

The Frankensteining of Equality

There is something I’ve noticed that I think it causing some serious problems with the current battle for equality in the world today.

I don’t think that anyone is doing it on purpose, really, especially not understanding the consequences of it.

What I’m talking about is how when, in an effort to bring themselves up and (rightfully) feel empowered and welcome, a marginalized group will make space for themselves by trying to push the currently “on top” group out entirely.

If you’d like to see a shining example of how this backfires spectacularly, let’s use the wild pendulum-swinging of feminism in the past little while as an example.

1. Feminism is a valid and necessary response to sexism, especially reflecting violence towards women, being taken seriously, and avoiding stereotypes such as being stupid, emotional, or weak.
2. Women go all-in on proving themselves to be all of these things, but a sudden new culture is emerging: a complete and total hatred of men.
3. Resentment builds from men who benefit from the patriarchy, and the new stereotype is that all men are violent brutes who are unwanted, unneeded, and should be avoided at all costs.
4. (Look no further than jokes such as “I can prove that being gay isn’t a choice, because do you think I would choose to like men?”)
5. The pendulum is swinging in the other direction now, so a sudden and violent push catches it in the act and swings the pendulum way further than it was in the other direction.
6. This leads to the rise of “male rights activists” such as Andrew Tate, which double down on those claims and teach impressionable young boys that women are objects, masculinity involves money and violence, and that only men should have power, and that power is all that matters.

Did you catch the frankenstein moment?

The people fighting for equality chose an enemy narrative for the people who were doing the oppressing. They didn’t make them into unknowing accomplices, they made them into deliberate villains. Then, faced with this complete rejection from the conversation, these (select!) men instead formed a new group shaped around the very traits that they were rejected for.

We see this happening a lot.

I mean, pick your poison! Here are a few that I’ve noticed:

Calling white people “uncultured” or “boring” or whatever else you want to add on there leads to white people being offended and unwilling to listen. The rift on what actually needs to happen to be truly equal grows wider, as both sides attempt to stereotype the other into the ground.

Calling cishet people bigoted, “a product of Society”, what have you, leads to cishet people feeling threatened and far less likely to support queer causes such as “stop murdering us”.

Calling conservatives stupid, brainwashed, inherently racist and bad, etc. leads to them feeling unheard and like their values are no longer important to rising generations, causing stricter legislations and policies in an attempt to find the source of this hidden uprising.

Calling religious people frivolous, prudish, and repressed leads to them feeling as though their beliefs are being infantilized and reduced in importance, leading to them being less willing to see other lifestyles than their own as valid or safe.

Do you see it now?

If you point the finger at something you want to fix, call it a monster and shun it from all future love and understanding, it becomes a monster.

Avoiding My Own Pointing

I should say right now that this isn’t born from malice. The people who are hoping to bring about change and equality are wonderful for wanting to do so! And, for the record, the VAST VAST VAST majority of those who are not being oppressed are not trying to do anything to continue oppression. There are old systems in place that I’d wager 99% of the population doesn’t know about, not to mention lots of abstract problems that can’t be solved with a simple law change or better-written movie characters.

The act of frankensteining your opponent is an old one, a childish instinct that all of us—myself included—need to work to overcome.

So What Do We Do?

It’s going to boil down to two steps:

1. Don’t make enemies out of potential allies
2. Don’t view those who are currently on the other side of your position as your enemies in the first place.

We don’t win anything by tearing down the “old” system and putting up an identical one in its place.

The only way to stop this weird pendulum from swinging is to take down the pendulum entirely.

Further Thoughts

Knowing me, I’d love to take this a step further and make the argument that a lot of this comes from the unnecessary labeling of every possible aspect of a human being in an attempt to find the four acronyms and groups you can belong to perfectly.

Human beings don’t work that way. We aren’t supposed to.

I’ll save the label rant for another day, but just know this: you don’t gain anything by reducing yourself to your three most marketable traits. That goes for EVERYONE.

I hope this made sense! If not, I can’t really help you further. Thanks for reading this far.