Essay: The Unbearable Whiteness of Being
Mar. 1st, 2020 01:26 amThe Unbearable Whiteness of Being (PSYCH! I got it done in time after all!)
Word Count: 3000
Summary: "Like hysteria before it, multiple personality disorder remained primarily a white woman's affliction--and one particularly American." --Kevin Young
Notes: This essay won the poll this month—y’all love the third rail topics! I hope to cover the historical part of this essay in more detail someday. Money for this story came from the Patreon and LiberaPay crews. Mad thanks and props go to Em and Jack of Plures House, Hungry Ghosts, and Aya Rothwell for all the reality checks, sniff-testing, and smarts, and all of them plus Amorpha and Craig for letting us spitball what became this essay, plus![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
polyfrazzlemented for the Mann reference. Obviously, this is an essay about racism in the USA, so pull on your wading boots; it’s getting deep.
We’ve met plurals of all sorts of races and cultures… both externally and internally. Their vessels come from all over the map, and so do their headmates. Unsurprisingly, the bigger the rosters, the more likely variation will be.
The USA is the homeland of multiplicity in some folks’ eyes (though I suspect that’s an illusion) and here, medical multi is expected (if not stated) to be a “white (female) thing.” Plurals with non-white vessels have to deal with a lot of racist nonsense—they’re more likely to be discounted, swept under the rug, or forgotten. Double woe to them if their headmates don’t match their vessel.
It’s not just singlets that ask, “why aren’t your headmates X like you?” Other plurals do it too, and the answer is never kind: “because of racism, that’s why.” Even if not stated, the implication is, “you only exist as an internal symbol of oppression, bigotry, and hatred, and you shouldn’t exist.” What those unlucky headmates are supposed to do upon enlightenment—die, disappear, or magically transform into the proper race—is never discussed.
It’s bad enough to people to strip headmates of personhood. But it’s especially cruel to frame someone’s existence as inherently oppressive. Because in that case, it’s not about what the headmate does; it’s what they are, how they were created, and no amount of good behavior will ever change that. For as long as they exist, the headmate is trapped as a symbol of horror.
Our vessel is white, though not all of our headmates are. If our headmates don’t match the vessel, folks might think we’re symbols of cultural appropriation, but we generally aren’t considered a betrayal of our race. Let’s talk about it.
( *starts playing wildly on a kazoo* )
Word Count: 3000
Summary: "Like hysteria before it, multiple personality disorder remained primarily a white woman's affliction--and one particularly American." --Kevin Young
Notes: This essay won the poll this month—y’all love the third rail topics! I hope to cover the historical part of this essay in more detail someday. Money for this story came from the Patreon and LiberaPay crews. Mad thanks and props go to Em and Jack of Plures House, Hungry Ghosts, and Aya Rothwell for all the reality checks, sniff-testing, and smarts, and all of them plus Amorpha and Craig for letting us spitball what became this essay, plus
polyfrazzlemented for the Mann reference. Obviously, this is an essay about racism in the USA, so pull on your wading boots; it’s getting deep.We’ve met plurals of all sorts of races and cultures… both externally and internally. Their vessels come from all over the map, and so do their headmates. Unsurprisingly, the bigger the rosters, the more likely variation will be.
The USA is the homeland of multiplicity in some folks’ eyes (though I suspect that’s an illusion) and here, medical multi is expected (if not stated) to be a “white (female) thing.” Plurals with non-white vessels have to deal with a lot of racist nonsense—they’re more likely to be discounted, swept under the rug, or forgotten. Double woe to them if their headmates don’t match their vessel.
It’s not just singlets that ask, “why aren’t your headmates X like you?” Other plurals do it too, and the answer is never kind: “because of racism, that’s why.” Even if not stated, the implication is, “you only exist as an internal symbol of oppression, bigotry, and hatred, and you shouldn’t exist.” What those unlucky headmates are supposed to do upon enlightenment—die, disappear, or magically transform into the proper race—is never discussed.
It’s bad enough to people to strip headmates of personhood. But it’s especially cruel to frame someone’s existence as inherently oppressive. Because in that case, it’s not about what the headmate does; it’s what they are, how they were created, and no amount of good behavior will ever change that. For as long as they exist, the headmate is trapped as a symbol of horror.
Our vessel is white, though not all of our headmates are. If our headmates don’t match the vessel, folks might think we’re symbols of cultural appropriation, but we generally aren’t considered a betrayal of our race. Let’s talk about it.
( *starts playing wildly on a kazoo* )
