We DID know better

Originally posted on Tumblr

I know that it’s possible that many of you reading this are not old enough to remember the late 90s and early 2000s with a vivid clarity that still plagues your nightmares. So let me just emphasize… As we are looking backwards at terrible things that were afoot then, like America’s next top model, or the Victoria’s Secret’s Angels you will hear

“We just didn’t know better then!!!!!!”

Yes “we” did. So many feminist and/or black and/or queer scholars and early bloggers and media critics and EVERYDAY GODDAMN PEOPLE were criticizing it all along.

LIKE THOROUGHLY AND LOUDLY. From opinion pieces to MySpace rants to pop science books to Harvard gender studies classrooms. From media analysis essays to magazine features to elaborate art installations to just waiting for the bus looking at a billboard conversations. From music and movies and fiction. From fiction reflecting life and life reflecting fiction.

When fucked up shit was occurring, people spoke out. We’re not talking…. 1899. You can’t fool us.

I remember what was happening. Many people were screaming from the highest pedestal they personally had “look at what is happening.” Studies and info about eating disorders and abuse impacts and trafficking rates were KNOWN. How media could be used to harm children. Rape culture. This was not the Stone Age.

Some of us listened. The powerful didn’t bc it was always about them.