thuviaptarth: golden thuvia with six-legged lion (Default)
thuvia ptarth ([personal profile] thuviaptarth) wrote2007-10-11 08:18 am
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Here are my thoughts on /y/a/o/i/ "yuletide," fandom, and anti-Semitism

Some of you have seen some of this argument already, and some of you haven't, and my feelings about arguments made on both sides are mixed, so I'm going to start with a recap and continue with tons of exposition. Those of you who haven't skipped out already, please bear with me.

[livejournal.com profile] mamadeb posted a complaint about Yuletide signups going live on Sukkot, a Jewish holiday. I read her tone as intended to be humorous, in a passive-aggressive way, but other people--including several on her friends list--read it as accusatory. She's said in comments that she didn't intend to accuse the Yuletide mods of deliberate malice, just carelessness. In the comments, but not in the original post, she also expresses a wish that the ficathon had a "more neutral name." In addition to the arguments in her comments, her post got picked up by Fandom Wank.

I am disturbed by some of the objections to [livejournal.com profile] mamadeb, and particularly by the nature of some of the responses on Fandom Wank. I'd like to make it clear that I'm not bothered by people who disagree with [livejournal.com profile] mamadeb's initial complaint. I do not, in fact, agree with her complaint about the timing of the signups. The signups were pre-announced and there's a two-week signup period with no penalty for signing up late in the period or reward for signing up early. The signup period is two weeks long precisely to allow people who have conflicts during that a period a long enough opening that they can find time to sign up.

I also do not criticize people who read Mama Deb's tone as accusatory; as I said, I read it as intended to be humorous, but also, as I implied by "passive-aggressive," as not quite coming off that way. Several of her initial commenters suggested steps she could take to make sure Yuletide nominations didn't conflict with Jewish holidays in the future, and her dismissal of all of these did indeed rub me wrong.

Finally, I do not agree with her dismissive attitude towards paganism and Christian holidays in the comments. She's not the spokesperson I'd have picked, and I am probably not the one she would have picked, but nevertheless I am speaking out about the few items on which I do agree with her.

I am disturbed by the number of people who disclaim a connection between the term "Yuletide" and Christianity, or for that matter between "Christmas" and Christianity; by the initial Fandom Wank post's cavalier attitude towards the possibility of a Jewish complaint; and by the outright anti-Semitism from some of the Fandom Wank commenters. (Yes, I know, they're Fandom Wank. They're still part of fandom.)

To elaborate:


  1. Yuletide and Christianity
    I am aware that "Yule" was originally a pagan term and it has been reclaimed by many neo-pagans for the winter solstice holiday. However, for several centuries now, it has been associated with the Christmas holiday, and the name of the Yuletide challenge is taken from a Christmas carol. I realize that for many people in the West, especially but not exclusively Christians, Christmas has become a secular holiday because it is associated with their national culture (hi, guys, I've been in the UK in December, you cannot convince me I am being American-centric here) and because it is recognized as a holiday by their secular governments. I know Jews and members of other religious minorities in the West who are not bothered by the terms "Yuletide" or "Secret Santa" and who have Christmas trees (and who set up huge fandom-crossing obscure fandom ficathons!) and who distinguish the cultural practice of Christianity from the religious practice of Christianity. I am not one of them, partly because so few Christians seem to have an understanding of Christianity as a cultural practice, or the ways in which they receive the privilege of a cultural default, even when they themselves are not religious or choose atheism or a different religion. Why should they have this understanding? Privilege is the headache they don't know they don't have.

    I am going to be very explicit about this: I'm not just talking about this ficathon. I'm not asking for the name "Yuletide" to be changed. I think that would be a huge headache, to begin with, and at this point I even have positive associations with the name, because of my happy involvement with the challenge. But I am saying that "Yuletide"--whether in reference to this challenge or in general--is not nondenominational. It is not religiously neutral. It is not broadly inclusive.

    And really, the important part of that last paragraph for me is the "in general." This is not about an attitude specific to fandom. This is about an attitude in the cultures from which Western media fans come.

    And the amount of resistance to this concept--that Christianity is not everyone's default and it is not a neutral position--is what disturbs me in many responses.

  2. I get the sense in this thread that some people think it's not really anti-Semitism if it just affects some Jews, not all of them. To be quite honest, this seems to me about the same reasoning as saying that forbidding French schoolgirls to wear veils isn't anti-Muslim because it only affects the really devout ones, or that forbidding black women in public offices in Florida to wear braids or dreads isn't racist because some black women like straightening their hair.

    No, not all Jews turn off their computers on the Sabbath or on Sukkot. I don't. But that doesn't mean I am unaffected by the mockery of traditional Jewish customs.

  3. Several of the comments on Fandom Wank, including the original post, were not so much anti-Semitic as Christian-centric. This is still, frankly, a problem. An inclusive society depends on recognizing that others are not like us and that their communities, folkways, traditions, and identities are valuable to them and innately worth preserving. The failure to realize this, or to recognize specific instances of exclusion, is privilege in action; it is generally motivated by ignorance rather than malice, but the ignorance is still hurting other people.

    Comments I would place in this category include:



  4. ETA 9:17pm: I'm leaving this up because people responded to it, and it affected my mood, but [livejournal.com profile] mayatawi offered an explanation for the exchange here, so I retract the accusation of anti-Semitism. I still think the conversation was ill-advised, but I don't think there was any malice involved.END ETA

    Comments which passed right over Christian-centric to anti-Semitic came up in this thread:


    panthea: Uh, at a guess... because most non-Jews have never even heard of Sukkot, let alone know when it is?

    Mamadeb waved the same persecution flag when sign-ups for the Muskrat Jamboree (tiny tiny slash con in Boston this year) opened on... some other Jewish holiday. I wanna say Rosh Hashanah, but that's just because it's fun to say.

    mindset: My non-Jewish boyfriend's favorite Jewish holiday is Sukkot, just because he enjoys pronouncing it "suck it". He is a great big silly. :)


    Do I have to explain what's wrong with this? Do I really have to explain what's so insulting about someone not just saying that Jewish holidays aren't well-known in the West, but implying that they're not worth knowing? Do I have to explain why it's exoticizing and insulting and just generally not okay to make fun of the name of Jewish holidays, or to take a holiday name and turn it into a sexual slur/insult? Do I really, really, really have to explain why someone saying "Suck it" instead of "Sukkot" isn't being a great big silly, he's being an asshole, and so is the person quoting this with approval?

    Do I really?

    ETA 9:17pm: [livejournal.com profile] mayatawi offers an explanation for the exchange here, so I retract the accusation of anti-Semitism. I still think the conversation was ill-advised, but I don't think there was any malice involved.
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (existentialism)

tl;dr paganism tangent

[personal profile] alias_sqbr 2007-10-14 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
It's replacing a dominant religious/cultural paradigm with a minority one, it's not removing the religious connotations entirely.

Yes! Hi, sorry, I've been reading these and not commenting because I didn't have anything useful to add since there's enough "me too"s about the dodginess of people's reactions, and I didn't want to derail the discussion.

But given that you started the topic... :) (and it's far enougn down the chain that it's unlikely to start a paralell "OMG paganism sucks" thread)

I think the issue is that people conflate paganism the actual, modern, practised religion, with the ubiquitous traces of the old pre-christian religion which are embedded in european culture and christianity but tend not to be taken very seriously by not-actual-pagans. Paganism may not have been the dominant religion for a Very Long Time, but like christianity it's such a part of the furniture that it's easy to take it's acceptance (in it's diminished form as folklore and tradition) for granted.(*)

Non pagans have an attitude of "This is a fun tradition but noone actually believes in it" while pagans can tend to be smug about how their religion doesn't have all the offensive wars and oppression that are "the only reason" people object to religion ie christianity. Both attitudes (while somewhat contradictory, and I'm sure the former irritates the heck out of pagans) give paganism this vibe of friendly inclusive harmlessness.

In the name of full disclosure, in the last few days I have had an arguent with a somewhat judgementally anti atheist pagan friend and done a bunch of research about viking paganism, so am seeing it as less friendly and harmless than I might otherwise :D

(*)Further tangent: I wonder if paganism osmosed it's way into european judaism at all? The only european jew I know very well celebrates easter and christmas, so she's probably not representative :)



Re: tl;dr paganism tangent

[identity profile] alixtii.livejournal.com 2007-10-14 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
Non pagans have an attitude of "This is a fun tradition but noone actually believes in it" while pagans can tend to be smug about how their religion doesn't have all the offensive wars and oppression that are "the only reason" people object to religion ie christianity. Both attitudes (while somewhat contradictory, and I'm sure the former irritates the heck out of pagans) give paganism this vibe of friendly inclusive harmlessness.

Hmm. This is exactly why, as a Christian, I like secularization: it serves to divorce the rich rituals of tradition from any specific set of beliefs (and, from my perspective, make room for genuine faith and a chance for the Holy Spirit to work). If only secularization wasn't so Christocentric, but could draw upon various religions more equally....
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (existentialism)

Re: tl;dr paganism tangent

[personal profile] alias_sqbr 2007-10-14 03:23 am (UTC)(link)
Hmm. See I personally like secularisation, but I think this is largely a result of my own specific attitudes to religion, and am less sure that it would be such a positive thing for other people. I mean right now I'm an atheist, so obviously enjoy secularised stuff more, and as a christian I was a very iconoclastic protestant who felt all the traditions were meaningless crud getting between me and God. But I've met a number of religious who engage very strongly with traditions as an intrinsic part of their religious experience, and for whom a separation of tradition and religion would mean a diminishment of both.

Anyway, I think it would be great if multiple non-christian traditions and stuff became an accepted part of the cultural landscape as they seem to be in, say, India or Singapore. But it's very easy for non-majority religions/cultures to be seen as as quaint and exotic so that people "play" at engaging with them without taking them seriously, as a lot of people do with paganism. That is, it's not enough that people say "Happy hanukkah!", they have to have some understanding of what hanukkah means as a celebration of thankfulness and jewish freedom(*) in the same way that non-christians understand christmas's significance as the birthday of Jesus and a time of joy and giving (This last paragraph is me thinking out loud, it has no real point, sorry :))

(*)I think that's what hanukkah is about. I'm a pretty good example of the "before people have a good understanding of other religions" picture :)

Re: tl;dr paganism tangent

[identity profile] alixtii.livejournal.com 2007-10-14 11:16 am (UTC)(link)
But I've met a number of religious who engage very strongly with traditions as an intrinsic part of their religious experience, and for whom a separation of tradition and religion would mean a diminishment of both.

I'd probably agree with that, but I wouldn't see the separation of tradition and religion as the same as the separation of tradition and the specificity of belief. But then I'm an Episcopalian, and we're weird like that. We engage very strongly with traditions as an intrinsic part of our religious experience (we're a liturgical, sacramental church, with priests and masses and apostolic succession and all that) but we try to include a huge diversity of beliefs.

So my feeling is that just because something's secular doesn't mean it can't be spiritual. The difficulty is getting something which is both spiritual and inclusive in a world of Christian hegemony and, yeah, I think the best solution is pluralism. Your last ("thinking aloud") paragraph does address a concern with my position, but education would probably be better in a pluralistic world, plus its a premise of my metatheological approach that religion can never provide us with "one true meaning" and thus it is okay when they morph and adapt (from my Christian perspective, I'd call it the influence of the Holy Spirit).
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (I like pi!)

Definition of secular (reply 1)

[personal profile] alias_sqbr 2007-10-15 04:15 am (UTC)(link)
Ah, I think we're using different definitions of secular. To you it means "not belonging to any particular religion" (yes?) while to me it means "Not having anything to do with religion or the supernatural at all". So to me: Giving people presents on December 25th is secular, but *fails to think of good example* asking for a blessing from a nonspecific higher power(s) is not. One can do a secular act in a spiritual way (look at all the rituals involving eating) but to me that particular instance of that act is then no longer secular. *reinterprets your comments in this context*

I will finish my reply on your other comment, where I think it follows on better....

Re: Definition of secular (reply 1)

[identity profile] alixtii.livejournal.com 2007-10-15 10:18 am (UTC)(link)
I'd say secular is something more like knocking on wood. You can believe there are fairies who live in wood who will take away your misfortune, or you can do it because its a fun thing that everyone does.

Let me be clear: a religious pluralism which cannot embrace atheism is, in my mind, not truly a pluralism, or at least not a good one.
ext_334506: thuvia with banth (Default)

Re: tl;dr paganism tangent

[identity profile] thuviaptarth.livejournal.com 2007-10-14 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
I think you are failing to taken into account the place of Christianity and its traditions in the oppression of other people, colonization, cultural appropriation, and a long history of ethnic warfare, and projecting a desire for conformity upon people who do not share it. It doesn't matter to me if Christians see Santa Claus or a Christmas as "religious Christianity" or "secular Christianity"; it's part of Christianity, it's not mine, and I don't want it. And I don't need Christians to restore seders to their celebration of Easter to respect my culture; I need them to understand the importance of the seder to Judaism and that I'll need time off to set up Passover, and some special arrangements during it.

Re: tl;dr paganism tangent

[identity profile] alixtii.livejournal.com 2007-10-14 04:28 pm (UTC)(link)
I think you are failing to taken into account the place of Christianity and its traditions in the oppression of other people, colonization, cultural appropriation, and a long history of ethnic warfare, and projecting a desire for conformity upon people who do not share it.

Which is why I complained about secularism's Christocentrism. I don't like Christian hegemony any more than anybody else.

And I don't need Christians to restore seders to their celebration of Easter to respect my culture;

I don't want Christianity to do this; I want secular culture to do thus. I want the cultural forms of all religions to be available to anyone who finds them spiritually fulfilling (and yes, able to be avoided by those who do not) without being automatically linked to systematized systems of belief (which I feel often miss the point and discourage actual spirituality from developing).
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (Default)

Problems with pluralism (reply 2)

[personal profile] alias_sqbr 2007-10-15 04:15 am (UTC)(link)
...continuing on from my other reply...

Now I haven't been religious since I was a teenager, so my understanding of religious people's POV is all rather hypothetical. (My personal taste is for as little of the religious/spiritual in my life as possible, regardless of whether or not it belongs to any specific religion :))

But I think a lot of people want their cultural forms to be strongly linked to their systematized systems of belief, and would feel uncomfortable and incomplete using the forms of a different tradition, even if they don't have issues with that religion in particular (e.g. the way [livejournal.com profile] untrue_accounts does with christianity) This does depend on where the traditions on the continuum between Sacred Rite (like holy communion) and cultural habit loosely associated with religion (like a church fete) and differs strongly from person to person, but I don't think it's purely a function of intolerance. Some people just seem to engage best with religion via consistent, specific tradition, and do not engage with the forms of other beliefs at all, even if they respect them.

I mean, I could be wrong. The nature of religion in modern society has changed dramatically in the past, perhaps one day there will be more of a disconnect between the core beliefs of a religion and the forms that express it, and more fluidity between different faiths. Personally I'm holding out for the day everyone else becomes an atheist, but I think that's even more unlikely :D
ext_334506: thuvia with banth (Default)

Re: tl;dr paganism tangent

[identity profile] thuviaptarth.livejournal.com 2007-10-14 04:14 pm (UTC)(link)
You are very right, and I am sorry to have minimized the meaning of Yule for contemporary pagans in my post.
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (default icon)

Re: tl;dr paganism tangent

[personal profile] alias_sqbr 2007-10-15 02:22 am (UTC)(link)
Given that no actual pagans seem to have been offended (or even noticed) I don't think you did too badly :)