Melissa, the very fact that you’re thinking about this now means that you have strong self-awareness and are much more in tune with power imbalance issues than the majority of people who work in social and healthcare.

But I am also incredibly worried that I’ll fuck up and hurt someone badly. I have a history of depression and anxiety, and fear that in a bad mood because of this and the stress of caretaking I will abuse a patient. I am doubly scared as I read your blog and others and learn of the many ways people can unintentionally inflict harm upon those they are supposed to help.

However, as I read and read, I also become more aware of potential blindspots. No one thinks of themselves as malicious or an abuser, after all… but I think that, thanks to this blog and others like it, in the future I will catch more of my mistakes, and hopefully be a better caregiver.

Thankyou.

That’s actually the main point of a post I’ve been writing about reactions to the shooting.

Maybe it’s because people know that if they really thought about it, they’d be forced to think about the fact that everyday humans are capable of willingly doing truly evil things, and that they themselves, if they don’t listen to their consciences, may also end up doing something very wrong. It’s not a reassuring thought, but it’s necessary that we be aware of it, so that when we see our own tendencies to be heartless and cruel, we can avoid going into denial and listen to our consciences instead.

http://abnormaldiversity.blogspot.ca/2012/07/too-young-to-be-boy.html

When I use it? I’m mostly referring to a bunch of people who are in the same boat because historically we’ve been grouped together and treated the same way for so long, that there’s an entire “flavor” to the way we are treated. Like “mental illness”, it’s not a thing in itself, it’s a group of people who have (more or less, with fluctuations in who qualifies and who doesn’t) been subject to the same treatment for over a hundred years now. It’s the only word available to me to name the system I’ve spent my entire adult life in (and parts of other parts of my life).

It’s me, Larry. By now you must have figured out that the fact that I use a word doesn’t mean that I believe in its literal definition the way most people would use it. But I do have to use words, and I’m not going to sit around torturing myself trying to make them fit, because words will never fit. You can postmodern yourself all over them however much you want (and you will, regardless of what I or anyone wants, just like I will always use words as approximations whether anyone likes that or not), just try not to assume that I’m using them because I believe whatever definition you’re deconstructing at the moment.