Originally published at: New York City bill would outlaw discrimination against tattooed people | Boing Boing
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'Bout time, damn it.
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Overall good, as long as you can refuse to hire due to the specific content of said tattoos.
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We need to amend the Constimitutium with this!
It’s an ancient Native American symbol, bro. /s
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One of these days, we’ll add overweight to the list of protected classes. Fat is the last acceptable prejudice, it seems to me.
I’ve got a tattoo that’s only visible when I wear a bathing suit or low-cut top.
I’ve been fat and I’ve been thin and am now somewhere in between.
No one ever treated me poorly for my bitty tattoo, but, when I was at my heaviest? Yeah, I was treated like total crap.
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“Now I can get that cool front-office gig!”
If the tattoo is voluntary (and not, say, a gang tattoo, compelled in one’s youth), isn’t the wearing of an in/appropriate tattoo the same as wearing in/appropriate clothing?
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Not really, because it’s usually possible to comply with an office dress code without having to change the way you present yourself to the world when you aren’t at work.
That said there are plenty of examples of discrimination enforced through dress codes too. For example, if a workplace sets different expectations for office attire based on biological sex or allows certain forms of cultural expression through clothing, jewelry and hairstyles but not others (“those earrings are too ‘ethnic,’ we’re trying to maintain a professional office environment here!”).
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No, I promise you it is not. I understand the experience you describe, but please don’t go down that path.
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Why not go down the path of my own experience?
I think I might get where you’re coming from, if you mean that folks who are non-cis-het - especially trans folks - are having a really difficult time just now. If that isn’t your meaning, please clarify.
I’d just like to say that my experience of being fat is that it is torture in a society that worships thin. I was bullied as a kid, even though I was zaftig - not fat!
I went anorexic after a college boyfriend I thought would marry me dumped me because I wasn’t Catholic. I weighed about 30lbs less than I should have for my height and build.
I gained 90lbs when working in a toxic job in 1991 and am just now down 55lbs from then.
It’s been a tough road.
So, yeah, I’m tired of fat shamers. Including Bill Maher. Who, incidentally, is also trans-phobic.
Sorry, should have added a rant warning at the beginning.
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Because your experience, while absolutely valid, does not reflect all possible forms of prejudice. So the statement
negates the experience of other groups who still experience prejudice.
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I thought I explained where I was coming from?
Also, maybe the mainstream media is to blame for my opinion? /s However, it does not explain my experience. Pardon me if I’m still really pissed about how I was treated by fat shamers.
Doesn’t banning discrimination against tattoos go against the entire premise of getting a tattoo?
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I love tattoos, but this goes against how protected classes are defined. Protected classes are based on what people are - immutable characteristics like race, sexual orientation, gender, and age. Non-protected classes are based on what people do - like criminal history, political party, and what they say. I feel that since this is a voluntary choice, it comes with consequences of those decisions. And again, I love tattoos, but there is an important difference here in the design of protected classes.
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Another idea is that if nothing is offensive or challenging to society, we will have nothing to define ourselves as people who challenge authority. We should stop advocating for acceptance of all ideas and appearances. A tattoo one might get at Disneyland destroys the entire premise of it once being a defiant and character building gesture that properly ISOLATED you from the damn world.
I know there are examples of previous gang affiliation where a tattoo no longer represents someone (I’m sympathetic to that) but I’d prefer a law that helps underfunded people have their ink removed.
But hell yes, if you have a tattoo and it offends others or makes others uncomfortable, GOOD!
We’re running out of ways to make people uncomfortable. It’s diluting us into becoming a weaker assembly of people as a result.
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I think “fat-shaming is the last acceptable prejudice” is more of a meme popularized by the media than an objectively true statement.
It’s absolutely critical to recognize and address the harm of fat-shaming. The problem is real. The discrimination is real. But that doesn’t mean we should pretend that fat people are literally the only people who still suffer from social discrimination.
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Totally agree.
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I agree with this. The last prejudice, which we will never get over, is age prejudice.
I hope that’s a joke since we just established that there actually is no such thing as “the last” prejudice. There are many forms of widespread social prejudice and they often overlap. If we ever do get over all the hangups that currently plague humanity someone will inevitably invent a new one (genoism a-la Gattaca, mocking people who have outdated cybernetic implants, etc).
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Ha, no it is an honest truth. Ask anyone who grows old. I agree that all discrimination overlaps but would also maintain half of the people concerned right now with diversity and representation do not want to work with older people. That’s an easy example.
It is absolutely the last prejudice. No matter what you survive, it’s the last one you will encounter. One will find this out once they are old, particularly if they don’t have someone to be old with them.
Being old is the most attacked and unprotected class in the world. And it’s tough as hell to get there, particularly because you are right: All other social prejudice overlaps and aim to kill you before you achieve becoming old.
I’ve found a lot of people focused on diversity and representation really do so for young reasons. They want to amplify and elevate their current generation, including them. It’s fine to accept this. Many people are very prejudiced against older minds. It should be reversed but there you have it.
