Autumn Odone
ENG 110
Section B
18 September 2018
Changing the Old for the New
Social change is a force of empowerment that has been happening in our country at an exponential rate recently. Younger generations are seeing the importance of change in the world, more specifically changing our old policies and stigmas that no longer apply to our modern world to one’s that apply to everybody, not just the landowning, white male. For example, the legalization on equal marriage rights has kickstarted a movement of social change for equality of all kinds of sexuality.
All over the world people are now able to publicly identify themselves how they want to identify, not how society tells them they should identify. Hallward and Epstein make some important points that are crucial to discuss with older generations so that the younger generations are no longer suffering the shameful glares of elders. Hallward and Epstein’s ideas should be discussed between generations in order to create widespread social change.
The reason it is important to have social change is because it starts conversations among the younger generations which then spreads to the older generations. These older generations tend to be the ones making all of the decisions for the younger generations like we have seen so often in politics throughout history, for example, the environmental crisis we are in today. Generations before have been rapidly polluting the Earth and the consequences of this are falling on today’s generations.
In Hallward’s Ted Talk presentation, she brings up the topic of what the world has witnessed for the LGBTQ community and all of the changes in our laws for equal marriage rights; “What we know is that as gay and lesbian couples have been coming out of the closet for decades now, it becomes a larger political force.” As the world began accepting the community that was coming out as gay, lesbian, etc., it caught the attention of our politicians and began the
It can be argued that the most important thing for a politicians success is how compatible, or likeable, their campaign ideas are with those who are voting. With that in mind, if voters believe in equality, then, whether the politicians really do believe or not, the politicians suddenly believe in equality as well. This pattern has continued through time and has ultimately led to the legalization of equal marriage.
Think about this: when people come out as being gay to those around them, they’re not scared to tell their friends or their peers, they’re scared to tell their parents and grandparents. They feel more comfortable talking about it to people they don’t even know than to their own family members just because of the difference in the generations views. In Hallward’s piece she emphasizes throughout the negative effects shame has on the health of youths. The reason people do not want to tell their family is because they will cast shame on them.
Hallward makes the statement that shame is “the cause of our depression.” According to Webster Dictionary, shame is “a feeling of guilt, regret, or sadness that you have because you know you have done something wrong.” But what could be so wrong about being you? Expressing yourself the way you want to, within reason, should not cause you to think that what you are doing is wrong. The idea that shame is connected to depression is very realistic; if being yourself causes you to feel like you’re doing something wrong, then you will not feel happy with the life you are living. ”…in Massachusetts, where marriage equality has been the law for ten years, the rate of teen suicide among LGBTQ teens has been halved,” is a quote directly from Hallward on the statistics of teen suicide that show how our acceptance of the LGBTQ community over the last ten, now fourteen, years has contributed to a drastic change in teen suicide rates within this community. Seeing as shame really does lead to depression, then our families should not be causing us to be ashamed of who we want to be.
Another place where we have recently seen this split in effect was with president Donald Trump. During former president Barack Obama’s turn in office, he set up a path for the people of the LGBTQ+ community to finally escape the social stigma that being gay, transgender, etc. is not okay. Throughout the 2016 election it became apparent that Donald Trump was not an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and his campaign reflected this in the lack of concern for that community, specifically in terms of changing laws to include them.
These statements are not meant to critique either party’s political agendas/beliefs, but rather to show how Barack Obama, fifteen years younger than Donald Trump, was pushing for change while Donald Trump aims for conservation. If we begin having more of these discussions with older generations, social change can become even more widespread than it is today.
Through Epstein’s findings in Uganda and South Africa, it became very apparent that, not only is the division between generations affecting the United States directly, but other countries as well. In her article, Epstein talks about how large-scale foundations and programs are overlooking smaller, more useful AIDS prevention and treatment organizations and giving their money to organizations with unrealistic goals and carrying capacity sizes. “The problem with some large foreign-aid programs was that distributing the funds often involved negotiating with governments with a poor record of dealing with AIDS.” Epstein notes that these government organizations don’t know how to deal with the AIDS epidemic; they believe throwing money at these organizations is the way to solve the problem when in fact they should be sitting down and discussing things that can actually be done to help.
The government, law, and politics are all fields woven together in a complex web where these older generations have control and seem to be causing hesitation toward social change. Since it is so complex, it’s hard to find the root of resistance. Finding the root would be the easiest way to cause change, but since that has yet to happen, it is critical to continue to push for social change for those that will be here after. By beginning to have these conversations involving change, then we begin laying down a foundation for future generations to be heard and move forward.
Works Cited
“Dictionary by Merriam-Webster: America’s Most-Trusted Online Dictionary.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/.
Epstein, Helen. “AIDS, Inc.” Emerging: Contemporary Readings for Writers, Ed. Barclay Barrios, 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013. 109-121. Print.
Hallward, Anne. “How Telling Our Silenced Stories Can Change the World.” TedxDirigo. 8 December 2014. Web. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dMlsnrLN9U . Accessed 7 September 2017.
