INSTITUTIONALISED BIGOTRY!
Art Harun
Besut boot camp for 66 sissies, screamed our premier English newspaper, the New Straits Times today.
I have a question NST. When are you going to change your name to something like the New Bigots Bugles?
So what’s next NST? The next time you are reporting on a cooking class for some mature women, why don’t you headline it, “Cooking Class for Old Pussies” huh? Or how about a headline saying “Two niggers arrested in Chow Kit” the nest time you report an arrest of two Nigerian students? Nice eh?
It is appalling to see the level of bigotry perpetuated by a section of our society nowadays. It is simply shocking to see that in the year 2011 – that’s year TWO THOUSAND AND ELEVEN, guys and gals – the editor of our premier English newspaper would allow such headline and word to be used to describe male schoolchildren who were born in a way which makes them a little bit different than others.
Let me spell it out, if you hadn’t known, Mr Macho Editor.
sis·sy
[sis-ee] Show IPA noun, plural -sies, adjective
–noun
1. an effeminate boy or man.
2. a timid or cowardly person.
3. a little girl.
–adjective
4. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a sissy.
Origin:
1840–50, Americanism in sense “sister”; 1885–90, Americanism for def. 1; sis + y 2
The word “sissy/sissies” not only means “effeminate”. It also brings with it an insidious, and often, chauvinistic connotation. To describe a man or a boy as a sissy is to demean him and his nature. It is a crude description of a person for having a “lesser sex.” The word sissy itself is derived from the word “sis” , which is short of “sister” with the letter “y” added to it. Now, how demeaning can that be?
We now live in an unforgiving society. That I have said many many times. Young and pregnant teenagers are subjected to much ridicule and humiliation. They are scolded, humiliated and ostracised. Is it any wonder why they dump their babies in some drains?
In this society of ours, we focus on externalities. We never delve into the internals. The spiritual aspect of anything. Not even the spiritual aspect of our faith.
When we talk of externalities, we talk about conformity. And when we talk about conformity, we quickly reject and even demean those who do not conform to our being; our values; our form.
We never ever try to emphatise, let alone understand and accept. The most we do is we would try to tolerate them.
How sad is it for somebody to learn that he or she is just tolerated by society? Why don’t we travel into the unknown. Allow me to take all of you on a trip.
On this trip, you were born different. You are a man. You are built like one. You sound like one. You look like one. You grow like one. You have all the external attributes of one.
Deep down inside however, you are not one. Something is wrong. Something is unclear. Some doubts linger. You are not comfortable being one. You don’t think you can behave as one. You look to the opposite side of your being and you think, that’s what I am. You look at yourself in the mirror everyday and you yearn to be the being which is trapped in this external suit of yours.
You look around and you wonder why you are different. After all, you never asked to be born, let alone born like that. You look around and you wonder who you could go to and talk. You wonder who you could befriend. You wonder who you could relate to.
