Conversation

Aella
@Aella_Girl
1/I'm a woman who's experienced some very woman-defining things (patriarchal cult, sex work), and I find myself skeptical of cultural narratives around womanhood. The narratives feel like a collective illusion; we continually apply powerless narratives to women (e.g., your-
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Aella
@Aella_Girl
2/bodily insecurity is the fault of media) while assigning power narratives to men (e.g., your body insecurity means you should work out more). I think society actively encourages women to experience greater pain in response to things that aren't inherently painful.
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Aella
@Aella_Girl
3/I get to have these opinions because I'm female. I've gone through the same female things, and so society doesn't crucify me quite so fast as they would a man for questioning womanhood narratives. But having the sense that womanhood narratives have issues, really opens-
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Aella
@Aella_Girl
4/the door to other narratives having issues, even if I haven't shared that experience. I suspect many cultural narratives around probably every single identity-based experience (gender, sex, race, country) have serious issues, and I no longer consider collective agreement
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Eye of Ra
@EyeOfRa42
Replying to
@Aella_Girl
I think some of the narratives about groups I’m in are kinda true and some are mostly BS but I just feel weird talking about them because people have cried wolf on all of them
Kutark Validus
@KutarkV
Replying to
@Aella_Girl
Very glad to hear that you have become untrustworthy of that narrative. The idea that "consensus = objective truth/fact" (even in the sciences) is a particularly dangerous belief structure that far too many people hold.
Buttons McBoomboom
@Sandwich_Smith
Replying to
@Aella_Girl
Nothing is unquestionable. Nothing. "Health" isn't a helpful metric, being too subjective itself. But "trust" is misplaced here. The majority of people who advance a narrative which is factually incorrect genuinely believe it.
James David McGrayel
@JMcG____
Replying to
@Aella_Girl
I’ve been leaning that way a lot since I read
@robinhanson
‘s book The Elephant in the Brain. I think the core update for me has been “Do More Counterfactuals” In this case the question could be “what would a group that altered its own public narrative for group gain look like?”
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