TRUTH, EXCELLENCE, SERVICE

E29
LONGNO, Michelle P. May 3,2019

Social Justice, Minorities, and SJWs

What is Social justice? In the dictionary, social justice means “justice in terms of
the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society.” To some people,
they would think “Yeah, that sounds about right.” But in our society today, there are
always people who want to think otherwise. In other people’s eyes, social justice is the
practice of preaching for equality for people of all religions, races, genders, and sexual
orientations. Which is a definition that isn’t entirely wrong, but does seem to not include
some parts of the actual definition. When done right, social justice today can be a fantastic
thing. Unfortunately, social justice tends to be done wrong, giving things like the gender
equality movement and the gay rights movement a bad name. But why is that? What are
people doing that makes social justice, a seemingly good thing for a lot of people,
considered a bad thing?

To find the answer to this question, we have to start with where social justice is
being asked first. So lets start with the most often linked minority with social justice, the
LGBT+ community. Here in the Philippines, the LGBT community is very well accepted,
with a survey saying that 73% of Filipino adults saying that “homosexuality should be
accepted by society. “But what about the other 27%?” you might be wondering. Well, like
any other country, the Philippines also faces discrimination in the LGBT+ community.
Many students are bullied for their sexuality, being called bakla and shamed for their
sexuality.

Some people are also not only shamed for their sexuality, some are also shamed
for their gender. For many centuries, females have been considered the “inferior sex”,
and sexism isn’t a stranger to the Philippines. Our President Rodrigo Duterte is no stranger
to sexism, with his infamous quote saying to shoot female rebels in the vagina because
“they are nothing without it.” With our President being very offensive and showing clearly
no remorse for it, rally’s against sexism haven’t been a very uncommon thing lately.
However, although not quite a problem here in the Philippines, not everyone who fights
against sexism can be considered respectful, as some women can be very aggressive
themselves and they don’t exactly have the objective of getting women’s rights, but more
of just making men feel bad about their gender. There are also some men who “fight” for
women’s rights that can’t be considered any better, known as “white knights”, these
people attack people who show or say any little thing they see as “objectifying” women,
even if a woman or women clearly aren’t offended by it. This introduces us to the main
problem with many social justice groups, SJWs.

SJWs, also known as social justice warriors, are the people who are defined by
their constant attacking or addressing of anything they find inappropriate, offensive, or
triggering in their eyes, even if it is innocent and don’t seem to offend anyone else at all.
This leads to unnecessary fighting, often on social media platforms such as Twitter and
Tumblr, that normally waste people’s time because even though the person either did
nothing wrong or made an honest mistake, social justice warriors refuse to say that they
are wrong. These people are considered the reason why people think social justice is so
toxic, and as long as there is a minority, there is a social justice warrior attacking someone
for misrepresenting that minority, because these are the people who are offended by
anything and everything. And because these are still people who are “fighting” for rights,
they also make their own bizarre movements.

In December 2018, PETA, a group that “fights for social justice for animals”, began
asking people to change their “speciesist language”. Changing “Bring home the bacon” to
“Bring home the bagels” and changed similar phrases that expresses “animal cruelty”.
Although this movement is rather innocent and isn’t hurting anyone, this is far from the
worst movement that PETA had started, with 1,771 cats and dogs killed despite their
movement being against animal cruelty. Why would they do this? Because they don’t
believe in pet ownership, so their alternative to letting those cats and dogs getting
adopted into happy homes, was to kill them, and through their twisted eyes, they saw
this as a good decision to help them in their “fight for social justice”.

However, there are people that are leaving some decisions to others, babies
specifically. Somewhere in mid-2018, families began to raise their children “genderless”
and called them “theybies”. They did this because they want to have their children grow
up in a childhood free from stereotypes, and so the child could just choose their gender
rather than being “forced” to be one or the other. Whether or not people think this is a
bad movement is divided, because although the idea of a childhood free from stereotypes
seems nice, it does seem quite a big responsibility you are handing to your children by
letting them decide what gender they are, but there is one main problem to the “theyby”
movement, the parents. Parents of many theybies highly insist on having their children
called with the pronouns “they” and “their”, and if you call the child by the wrong pronoun,
you might be faced with some very angry parents.

But with all these minorities, movements, and talk about social justice, these
mistakes are bound to happen, and most of the time, they aren’t on purpose. Today’s
society has become far more complex than it was decades ago, especially with the ever
expanding LGBT+ community. Is this a bad thing? It doesn’t have to be. Social justice for
all who deserve it would be wonderful, the LGBT+, feminist, and maybe even animal
communities deserve social justice for they don’t deserve the cruelty they have gone
through. However, this is not an excuse for you to be rude and put other people down
when they make honest mistakes. If you truly wanted to fight for these causes then do it
civilly and respectfully, maybe then people will finally start properly listening to you.

Source:
Compton, Julie(2018,July 19). 'Boy or girl?' Parents raising 'theybies' let kids decide.. Retrieved from
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/boy-or-girl-parents-raising-theybies-let-kids-decide-n891836
PETA(2018, December 10). We Suggest Anti-Speciesist Language—Many Miss the Point. Retrieved from
https://prime.peta.org/2018/12/we-suggest-anti-speciesist-language-many-miss-the-point
Santos, Ana(2018, June 7). ‘The Price of ‘Machismo Populism’ in the Philippines’. Retrieved from
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/06/duterte-kiss-philippines/562265/
Tubeza, Philip(2013, June 08) ’PH ranks among most gay-friendly in the world’ Retrieved from
https://globalnation.inquirer.net/76977/ph-ranks-among-most-gay-friendly-in-the-world
 TRUTH, EXCELLENCE, SERVICE
LONGNO, Michelle P. May 3, 2019

Tentative Title: Social Justice, Minorities, and SJWs

Guide Question: What exactly is social justice and why are people asking for it?
Thesis Statement: Social Justice is an often demanded thing today for the right
reasons but often results in bizarre movements and unnecessary fighting.

I. What is the definition of social justice?

A. What is the actual dictionary definition of social justice?
B. What is today’s definition of social justice?

II. What topics are often associated with social justice today?
A. The oppression of the LGBT+ community is one of the most common topics
associated to social justice.
B. Social justice for women’s rights is a good thing, but the way it is asked for
is not.

III. How social justice is asked for today

A. Social Media, such as Twitter, Tumblr and Reddit, is an often used platform
for SJWs to demand social justice.
B. With the demand for Social Justice, many strange movements have been
created.
1. PETA has created many strange movements for social justice for
animals.
a. PETA has suggested an alternative to our “speciesist language”
b. PETA has killed 1,771 cats and dogs so that they wouldn’t get
adopted.
2. Many parents today are letting their children grow up genderless and
calling them “Theybies”.

Compton, Julie(2018,July 19). 'Boy or girl?' Parents raising 'theybies' let kids decide.. Retrieved from
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/boy-or-girl-parents-raising-theybies-let-kids-decide-n891836

n.a(n.d.) ‘Why PETA kills’ Retreived from https://www.petakillsanimals.com/proof-peta-kills/

PETA(2018, December 10). We Suggest Anti-Speciesist Language—Many Miss the Point. Retrieved from
https://prime.peta.org/2018/12/we-suggest-anti-speciesist-language-many-miss-the-point