the root of all evil etc etc etc
Apr. 13th, 2016 12:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberett... the whole "updated Horsemen of the Apocalypse" wherein Pestilence is an Anti-Vaxx Mom thing, right, as distinct from being e.g. Andrew Wakefield or A Failure To Teach The Scientific Method or whatever is just... yet another iteration of The Sin Of Eve, isn't it?
I mean I was already bored of it, but the pattern "keep a woman ignorant, lie to her, then blame her" is sort of... notable, I feel.
I mean I was already bored of it, but the pattern "keep a woman ignorant, lie to her, then blame her" is sort of... notable, I feel.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-13 01:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-13 03:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-13 04:33 pm (UTC)No, I definitely saw a graphic. What you link is not in comic format. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-15 02:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-15 03:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-16 02:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-15 02:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-15 03:48 pm (UTC)That is the one I saw, yes.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-13 02:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-13 03:33 pm (UTC)I can understand why the mom gets a more visceral reaction than the Morally Bankrupt Researcher or the System. She's the one you're more likely to come in contact with at your kid's daycare or doctor's office; she's the activist petitioning school boards and legislators. But yeah, she's not the apocalypse and there is something distinctly misogynist about blaming social ill after social ill on the women who perpetuate... it. Them. Lost control of my grammar there.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-15 02:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-13 07:19 pm (UTC)Andrew Wakefield did lie, and others have continued to tell the same lies. But those lies have also been thoroughly, repeatedly exposed, and anti-vaccine zealots refuse to listen.
If it's insulting to pick on "anti-vaxx moms," isn't it equally insulting to suggest that anti-vaxxers (or is it just the ones who are women?) should be excused for their willful and dangerous ignorance, as though they can't help it?
(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-15 02:35 pm (UTC)However: the US does notably poorly at healthcare, at vaccine coverage, and at herd immunity (the WHO on measles vaccinations, e.g.). I strongly suspect that what looks (from over here) like a US cultural attitude that all opinions are valid and deserve equal weight, combined with an aggressive campaign to discredit both experts and the scientific method, combined with actively anti-scientific teaching in schools (sex education!), is substantially to blame for the reason that anti-vaccine campaigners seem to have so much more traction on the US side of the pond than in Europe.
Like: I think the point-blank refusal to listen is a cultural artefact and culturally supported, because of a failing of cultural understanding of expertise and the scientific method.
I also think that you misunderstand what I'm suggesting. I am absolutely not saying that people should be excused for their, yes, dangerous ignorance. I just think that the thing that makes anti-vaxxer mothers, specifically, into the bogeyman, is (a) Interesting in its cultural context, and (b) unlikely to effective in actually increasing vaccine rates: further demonising people (who thrive, as a group, on the perception that they are "persecuted", and talked down to, and ignored) is much more likely to promote defensiveness and a closing of ranks (particularly when couched in religious and apocalyptic terms, these people being ones who... are operating on faith not evidence).
... is broadly my position. If that helps?