Ugh, LJ fail. I wondered as I wrote the essay whether the whole thing is about me checking myself out of the genre more than anything else. I love the potential of fantasy and a lot of fantasy works, but I also feel like I've matured out of most of it. That makes it harder and harder to find good stuff to read in a genre that seems to cater to younger and less critical readers, especially with the huge popularity of YA.
There are absolutely many different kinds of heroism, and it's a great injustice when groups of people are locked out of aspects of it, e.g. women being seen to be bad mothers--including, too often, by themselves--when they're working to provide for the family, or men like your dad being seen as inadequate nurturers. (The Doofus Dad stereotype needs to die in a fire.) It's the work of both fiction and activism, I think, to recognize and celebrate the huge variety of heroism out there and the huge variety of people being awesome.
Ugh yeah, the stupid in that comment you quoted made me haz a sad. PTSD in situations of deprivation or conflict might possibly be less problematic than in first-world countries, since a deprived or dangerous environments may call for heightened alertness and aggressiveness. In that case PTSD could actually be beneficial to survival, if no less painful. I hope that's what the VA person was clumsily trying to say, because otherwise the level of ignorance is just staggering.
Victim-blaming is supposed to be a defense mechanism to the fear that bad things can happen to you for reasons outside your control. PTSD sufferers seem to up there with rape victims on the long list of "people to scapegoat in order to deny it could ever happen to me." If only she weren't so promiscuous and didn't wear such short skirts (because I'm not That Kind of Girl), if only he were tough enough to snap out of it (because I'm not a wimp), and so on and so on.
You know, outside of being in personally dangerous situations like war and crime, it seems the most likely way to get PTSD is by helping people. Caregiving, as in your mother's case and as with military spouses, is surprisingly hazardous, and reporters and humanitarian workers also suffer trauma from the things they've witnessed. It's another aspect of the service and sacrifice involved in heroism (of all kinds) that you put not only your life, body, time, and future but also your mind on the line when you care enough to extend yourself for other people.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2013-02-15 08:19 am (UTC)There are absolutely many different kinds of heroism, and it's a great injustice when groups of people are locked out of aspects of it, e.g. women being seen to be bad mothers--including, too often, by themselves--when they're working to provide for the family, or men like your dad being seen as inadequate nurturers. (The Doofus Dad stereotype needs to die in a fire.) It's the work of both fiction and activism, I think, to recognize and celebrate the huge variety of heroism out there and the huge variety of people being awesome.
Ugh yeah, the stupid in that comment you quoted made me haz a sad. PTSD in situations of deprivation or conflict might possibly be less problematic than in first-world countries, since a deprived or dangerous environments may call for heightened alertness and aggressiveness. In that case PTSD could actually be beneficial to survival, if no less painful. I hope that's what the VA person was clumsily trying to say, because otherwise the level of ignorance is just staggering.
Victim-blaming is supposed to be a defense mechanism to the fear that bad things can happen to you for reasons outside your control. PTSD sufferers seem to up there with rape victims on the long list of "people to scapegoat in order to deny it could ever happen to me." If only she weren't so promiscuous and didn't wear such short skirts (because I'm not That Kind of Girl), if only he were tough enough to snap out of it (because I'm not a wimp), and so on and so on.
You know, outside of being in personally dangerous situations like war and crime, it seems the most likely way to get PTSD is by helping people. Caregiving, as in your mother's case and as with military spouses, is surprisingly hazardous, and reporters and humanitarian workers also suffer trauma from the things they've witnessed. It's another aspect of the service and sacrifice involved in heroism (of all kinds) that you put not only your life, body, time, and future but also your mind on the line when you care enough to extend yourself for other people.