Shawn L. Bird

Original poetry, commentary, and fiction. All copyrights reserved.

poem-Logophobia February 16, 2025

Filed under: poem,Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 1:22 pm
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LOGOPHOBIA

Fear of the word is fear of the thing itself.
Fear aggression, strike out when you’re terrified.
Ban the words to identify your opposition.
Scary, scary words:

activism, activists, advocacy, advocate, advocates, barrier, barriers, biased, biased toward, biases, biases towards, bipoc, black and latinx, community diversity, community equity, cultural differences, cultural heritage, culturally responsive, disabilities, disability, discriminated, discrimination, discriminatory, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, diversifying, diversity and inclusion, diversity equity, enhance the diversity, enhancing diversity, equal opportunity. equality, equitable, equity, ethnicity, excluded, female, females, fostering inclusivity, gender, gender diversity, genders, hate speech, hispanic minority, historically implicit bias, implicit biases, inclusion, inclusive, inclusiveness, inclusivity, increase diversity, increase the diversity, indigenous community, inequalities, inequality, inequitable, inequities, institutional, Igbt, marginalize, marginalized, minorities, minority, multicultural, polarization, political, prejudice, privileges, promoting diversity, race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially, racism, sense of belonging, sexual preferences, social justice, sociocultural, socioeconomic, status, stereotypes, systemic, trauma, under appreciated, under represented, under served, underrepresentation, underrepresented, underserved, undervalued, victim, women, women and underrepresented.

Ban the words. Believe you’re banning the people,
instead
of calling them to action.

 

Poor Kristen June 2, 2010

Filed under: Commentary — Shawn L. Bird @ 6:53 pm
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Pity Kristen Stewart, a victim of her own fame and the juggernaut that is the Twilight hype. Speaking in an interview with Elle magazine Kristen likened the media frenzy to the trauma of being raped. We’ve seen in interviews in the last year that Stewart doesn’t like talking about her personal life. She is really quite shy and introverted. These qualities may seem strange in an actress, since acting is the epitome of extroverted behavior, but up until Twilight Stewart’s success in art films had not garnered her the extremes of public interest that is fueled by Twilight fan frenzy.

She signed on to the Twilight franchise early. Was she ‘asking for it’ by her willingness to take on this film? Considering the hysteria generated by the books, what did she expect the response to the movies was going to be?

Everyone deserves to have his/her privacy treated with respect, and we know that paparazzi are not particularly known for that. What do you think? Now that Twilight has brought her fame and fortune, do you think Kristen has any right to complain?