In this final series episode, Dan tries to understand why well-meaning liberals and progressives so often experience identity politics as a threat, and why they fail to take hold of the opportunities it provides. He outlines how defensiveness and a presumption of insight into the experiences of marginalized communities leads to paternalism and condescension that undermines a progressive politics that could meaningfully change our political and social reality.
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Axis Mundy Axis Mundy What are the connections between purity culture and race?
Why does purity culture work so hard to disembody people, make them feel as if they're not living in their own skin?
And what do these things have to do with each other?
Well, we're incredibly excited to announce our next Straight White American Jesus Seminar, Purity Culture, Race, and Disembodiment.
In this class, the instructor, Dr. Sarah Mosliner, who is a leading researcher on purity culture and the leader of the After Purity Project, We'll take participants through various histories and ideologies as they relate to the racist origins of purity culture and how disembodiment is a tactic used by white evangelical leaders and others in order to achieve cultural, political, and religious dominance.
Sarah Mosliner is the author of Virgin Nation.
A leading scholar on purity culture and someone who's been studying this topic for over 15 years.
Our seminar is going to run in May, every Thursday, and you can find all the information at StraightWhiteAmericanJesus.com under the Seminars tab.
Sign up quick.
There are limited spots and we expect them to fill up fast.
We hope you're having a great day.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you soon.
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Hello and welcome to Straight White American Jesus.
My name is Dan Miller, Associate Professor of Religion and Social Thought at Landmark College and also a Trauma Resolution Practitioner with the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery.
This is our series, You're Not Welcome Here, that looks at identity and identity politics.
I want to thank you all for joining me.
As always, you can reach me at danielmillerswaj, danielmillerswaj, at gmail.com.
I appreciate everybody who reaches out.
I read your emails, I value your emails, and I apologize that I fall further behind, it seems, every week in responding.
Best wishes to all of you who've reached out over the loss of my brother-in-law this past week, which has been weighing on me heavily, and this has also contributed to me falling behind.
But I really appreciate the kind words that I've gotten from everybody.
As always, we appreciate all of those of you who support us, whether it's financially or just by listening.
We could not do this without you.
As always, we're hosted in partnership with the CAP Center at UCSB.
And finally, before diving in, I want to just remind people that Sarah Mosliner will be leading a new Straight White American Jesus Seminar starting here just in the next few weeks.
There are still a few spots, but it is closing up fast.
She's focusing on purity culture and race and has just been so informative on my thinking.
And I noted this in the regular podcast series that my understanding of the racial connections to purity culture have really largely owed to Sarah and her work.
So just really encourage everybody to take a look at Straight White American Jesus.
Online and and you can follow the links there to the seminar if that's something you'd be interested in Want now to to move on to what is going to be the final?
The final episode in this series you are not welcome here On identity and identity politics, and I want to start with a story this happened in 2018 Rose McGowan was was doing a sort of book reading maybe book signing kind of thing at a Barnes & Noble and
And she's, you know, this is in the midst of sort of in the context of the Me Too movement, and she's detailing the ways that she has been harassed and oppressed and exploited in her role as a woman in Hollywood.
And she was confronted, you know, during that time by a trans woman who stood up and challenged her for comments that she had made on the RuPaul show, which were widely seen as transphobic.
And so this woman says, I have a suggestion.
Talk about what you said on RuPaul.
Trans women are dying and you said that we as trans women are not like regular women.
We get raped more often.
We go through domestic violence more often.
There was a trans woman killed here a few blocks away.
I've been followed home and then she's cut off.
Rose McGowan cuts her off.
And she says this, she says, hold on.
So am I. We're the same.
My point was, we are the same.
There's an entire show called ID Channel, a network dedicated to women getting abused, murdered, sexualized, violated.
And you're a part of that too, sister.
It's the same.
And the woman responds, you do nothing for them.
Trans women are in men's prisons and what have you done for them?
And to which McGowan responded, what have you done for women?
And then it sort of devolves into a shouting match and Rose McGowan gets angry and says, don't label me, sister.
Don't put your labels on me.
Don't you effing do that.
Do not put your labels on me.
I don't come to your planet.
Leave me alone.
I do not subscribe to your rules.
I do not subscribe to your language.
You will not put labels on me or anybody.
And she just goes on from there.
What am I highlighting about this?
The reason I start with this is it gets to an issue that I think we really need to understand for today in this final episode.
Last time I talked about the fact that we have this assumption oftentimes that everybody who's experienced marginalization or oppression is somehow going to just kind of organically side together against their oppressors and suggested that that's just not the case.
What I want to do in this final episode is take a look and just think for a few minutes about what in particular liberals and progressives can learn about identity politics or need to understand about identity politics to be a little bit more effective at making it work for us.
And the reason I highlight this, the reason that I thought that this is so such an interesting exchange is that McGowan gets so angry At the suggestion that she as a cis white woman is not quote-unquote the same as a trans woman.
That her experiences are not the same as the experiences of trans women.
The anger that she feels at this, and I find it notable because this isn't some misogynist who's standing up and challenging her for challenging male privilege or for highlighting all the things that the Me Too movement brought into such clear relief.
No, this is her being angry at a trans woman who's asserting that there's something different about being a trans woman, something different about the experience of trans women, Then cis women and the way that when she's challenged on this, she just sort of explodes.
And I realize this is an anecdote.
This is one example.
This is not everybody, but I think it actually indicates or illustrates what it is that I want to highlight in this final episode.
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