Someone, or rather a wonderful group of people gave me the most important piece of advice when I began writing my newsletter last year. It was as simple as it was brilliant - be consistent in your writing! I was struggling this week as I have been down with a fever and a sore throat (feels like I have been gargling first with glass shards and then with razor blades) and I was very tempted to skip this week. When you feel feverish and have a lot of time to think, this is what comes out of it…
Since my early childhood, I have been a huge Star Trek fan and that hasn’t changed to this day (one of my cats is called Spock) and I have been watching quite a lot of it again these past days. Growing up in an international environment and I never much cared where people come from, what they look like, what God they believe in, what their sexual preferences are, or what they have.
Even if I am a very complicated person, - which quite obviously comes with being a woman - in one aspect I am surprisingly simple. For me there are only three types of people:
the ones I like
the ones I do not like
the ones I tolerate
I am not saying I am free of prejudice – I don’t believe anyone really is – but I don’t label people, or at least I try not to as far as I possibly can. So why am writing about this?
In my world – some call it naive, others downright stupid – we just don’t need to put labels on people. In Star Trek (thank you Gene Roddenberry) mankind has actually evolved and people (or aliens) are not judged by their appearance, beliefs, gender, etc. but by who they really are, by their unique abilities, personalities, and character.
So often I see people even label themselves, especially in situations where it is uncalled for. A friend of mine once mentioned at the end of his job interview that he is gay, hoping this would not pose a problem.
It surprised me and made me somewhat sad because he obviously felt the need to justify himself and justify who he is and reveal his sexual preferences in a job interview. His new employer thankfully did not care but it horrified me that even today a gay person has to fear a disadvantage for his sexuality (which certainly has nothing to do with his qualifications). To be honest, I have never considered mentioning in a job interview (or any kind of conversation): “Just so you know, I am hopelessly heterosexual and I hope that does not pose a problem.”
Don’t misunderstand me, I know these issues are absolutely real (I am not that naive). Just one of many examples: I once had the pleasure to meet the youngest Professor for ENT medicine in Europe, a brilliant man. He was of Iranian descent (which you could see) and every time he traveled, (especially to and from the US) he knew he had to be at the airport an hour or two earlier than other people as he was always pulled out and got the full monty at the security check (right up to the very intimate search). This man was invited by the leading medical institutions worldwide to speak and went through the same ordeal every time despite a German passport.
Gene Roddenberry did something absolutely revolutionary and unheard of when his series Star Trek aired in 1966. Of course, the captain was a white male (William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk), the science officer was an alien (unforgotten Leonard Nimoy as the Vulcan Mr. Spock), a Russian (Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov), a Japanese (George Takei as Hikaru Sulu) and a black woman (Nichelle Nicols as Uhura), all on the bridge together. It may not seem like much today (although considering how mankind struggles with learning…) but in 1966 it was brave, it was new, it was revolutionary! There is one episode in which the Captain kisses Luitenant Uhura and this episode was banned in the US for a long time (I guess that was a little too revolutionary).
Sadly I believe that as long as we keep putting labels on people for their colour of skin, beliefs, sexuality, etc., and as long as people put these labels on themselves, we will never be able to overcome prejudice or racism. Yes, I absolutely realise how simplified this is but it could be a great start to just stop or at least reduce the constant labeling.
Last year I was on an international conference call and I was asked to say a few words about myself, and one of the things I said was that I have a very black sense of humour (which I do). The looks of distaste on some people’s faces surprised me. I had not even realised that I had said something offensive. I suppose I should have said I have a dark sense of humour. So even the mentioning of the colour black is seen as offensive by some people and there are many more examples. Talking to people can sometimes feel as if you are walking through a mine field.
Just take the worldwide labeling of people as vaccinated and unvaccinated. It has driven a wedge through the world's population that will be difficult to remove.
What really made me shake my head though was an article I just read lately - it’s carnival season - that I would like to share with you. I took the liberty to translate it from the German original, which you can read here.
Hamburg school demands gender-neutral costumes for carnival
The northerners are not exactly known as the big carnival party animals, but nevertheless, especially in kindergartens, crèches, and also in schools, people like to celebrate carnival with the appropriate costumes. But what is actually a suitable costume? In the meantime, you can really set the clock by it, because even in 2022 there were and still are heated discussions between Hamburg parents, educators, and teachers about which costumes are appropriate and which are not.
A primary school in Altona with costume rules
The discussion about culturally appropriate costumes such as cowboys and Indians has been raging in classrooms across the country for some time. At the Theodor Haubach School in Altona, a letter was sent to parents explaining which costumes were not acceptable. According to the letter, no stereotypes should be served that could discriminate. "We want to avoid the exaggeration of numerous ethnicities and remove gender-specific role attributions," the letter said.
Man-woman costumes are problematic
Therefore, in addition to the "famous" Indian costume, princess costumes, for example, are now also banned at school because they serve the man-woman stereotype. The primary school has already suggested a solution and recommends that the children could dress up as carrots or fried eggs, for example. Costumes that are gender-neutral and culturally neutral.
Children are forbidden to dress up as princesses and knights, like cowboys and Indians because adults have an issue with political correctness. The next stage is that vegans will come and say it’s not ok to dress up as a fried egg and fruitarians will want to ban the carrot costume because vegetables have feelings. And the more we bully and confuse children, the worse it gets. Of course, no one should be offended, but if you can only walk around on eggshells, soon no one will dare to say or do anything at all anymore.
So it is basically assumed that when children dress up they want to insult, degrade or belittle someone. It doesn't occur to anyone that children might just love being a proud, strong Indian or a beautiful princess because they admire them or because it is fun to be someone else for a day. I just don't understand why such a thing should harm children or anyone else at all.
Even satire is no longer allowed on certain topics. But who decides that? There are more and more social rules that often do more harm than good in my eyes.
What is the difference to actors dressing up in costumes and playing a role to entertain or be entertained? Will a homosexual actor not be allowed to play a heterosexual person and vice versa? Where does it end? I have an understanding that society is changing and I am finding it more and more confusing and some of it even downright ridiculous.
I for my part have never seen children think about any of this. I always believed childhood should be fun and carefree time and things like carnivals should just be joyful and inspire the imagination. I don't think my children would have been thrilled to have to go to a children's carnival as a fried egg - but maybe…
In my ideal world that is free of labels (or at least where we have significantly fewer labels), people are people, and people love people, or not. I may dream… and I do want to believe that mankind can evolve (eventually).
If you want to know what I mean, perhaps just start to watch Star Trek and you will not only be entertained (the humour is truly brilliant), you might be surprised what you can learn from a very old television series…
“IN A VERY REAL SENSE, WE ARE ALL ALIENS ON A STRANGE PLANET. WE SPEND MOST OF OUR LIVES REACHING OUT AND TRYING TO COMMUNICATE. IF DURING OUR WHOLE LIFETIME, WE COULD REACH OUT AND REALLY COMMUNICATE WITH JUST TWO PEOPLE, WE ARE INDEED VERY FORTUNATE.” — GENE RODDENBERRY
LIVE LONG AND PROSPER!
🎶My Song of the Week
Is a song by The Pigott Brothers that I had almost forgotten but love very much.
For more good music, go to this Spotify playlist where you can find all the songs from the Change & Evolve Letters!
📚My Poem of the Week
Here you usually find a poem in writing but this one is truly worth watching (admittedly it helps if you know your Star Trek - especially Next Generation) as it is hideously funny! So watch the video of Data’s “Ode To Spot”!
👀Impressions
I usually run past this on my way down to the lake. This is our local forest kindergarten... here the kids can simply have fun, enjoy nature in all weathers, and be children.
Have an amazing weekend and as always I love to hear from you!
Yours
Tanja 🤗
Well, it IS Altona….