Pride and Prejudice

Pride

It's 1984 in reality.

Undercurrents or turbulent waves, wave after wave of affirmative action and activism have been hidden behind the reputation of an iron-fisted leader. LGBT people marching proudly wearing pink triangle badges, miners roaring at the front of the cordon for their subsistence occupations, I see dissimilarity and sympathy, pride and prejudice, common enemies and The collapse of the barriers shows a story about equality, understanding, tolerance, fraternity and solidarity, a history of class struggle of mutual support and unremitting struggle under the iron curtain of the era.

(1) Aihong and resistance under neoliberal policies

The 1980s was at the end of the Cold War. After the Iron Lady Thatcher came to power, she began to fully implement neoliberal policies in the UK, vigorously promoted market opening and centralization of power, and tried to save the British economy from the "stagflation" situation caused by Keynesian policies. As a result, the political foundation of Britain has also undergone major changes.

To fully open up the market, the government has set its sights on the state-owned coal mining industry, which continues to suffer from sluggish economic benefits. The privatization of state-owned energy industries such as steel and coal mines through the forced closure of mining areas resulted in the unemployment of a large number of workers, and the coerced working class pervaded the strong insistence on Thatcher's political toughness and sacrifice of workers' vital interests. Indignation and sullenness led to a 12-month strike by 160,000 coal miners.

"You're here to be a good, firm leader." In the film, Mrs Thatcher defends her iron-fisted policy.

During the demonstrations, the police and workers continued to have violent clashes. The mainstream media, represented by the BBC, displayed a large number of pictures of miners throwing stones and stray bullets at the police. Mrs Thatcher in the TV camera took this opportunity to declare that the demonstrators were ignoring the rule of law. "Thugs," "enemies within," stress the need to destroy the entire operation. The direction of public opinion gradually stigmatizes miners who are actually in a disadvantageous position in front of the public. After constant repression and prolonged fighting, this massive strike ended in failure, and Thatcher's neoliberal reforms have been unimpeded since then.

Under the policy framework implemented by the neoliberal paradigm, the "restricted new freedom" has made some social problems more and more prominent. The labor market has become more flexible, social benefits have been gradually cut, and the situation of the underprivileged in the UK has worsened. Public services and public resources have been depleted, public relations networks have declined, the polarization of the rich and the poor and the solidification of classes have become increasingly serious, and the rift in social inequality has deepened. It is mainly reflected in two types of inequalities: inequality of income and wealth, and inequality of opportunity and social mobility. It can be said that the influence of neoliberal policies extends into explicit political and economic power inequality and implicit and intergenerational inequality. Between "breaking" and "standing", not only the economic income and social welfare of hundreds of thousands of miners' families are sacrificed, but it is also difficult for working-class children to truly obtain equal opportunities for competition and climbing, and it is difficult for poor families to produce noble children; At the same time, the mainstream media has become the trumpet of the political leader, a soft means for authority to control the public, and the political discourse power of some and the lower classes is gradually declining.

At the same time, LGBT protest ideology and activities have risen rapidly. In the confrontation with government authority and mainstream discourse, these marginalized groups in society are also campaigning for their equal rights.

(2) "Pride" of being discriminated against

The LGBT community in the film has been unfairly discriminated against and slandered——

1. Discrimination by name: LGBT are given insulting nicknames such as "queer", "gay", "girlspot", "pervert";

2. Neglect of rights: The basic group of sexual minorities is ignored and violated, their private property is maliciously destroyed, such as Gethin’s bookstore is often sprayed, smashed glass, and thrown into firecrackers; their right to personal dignity is ignored , TAs were spit, insulted, etc. by the passing crowd when they were collecting donations on the street;

3. Social blocking: After cutting off the relationship with the family, their social identity is deprived. The original social network maintained by relatives and blood is cut off, misunderstandings continue to deepen, and they lose their social group destination. In Joe's mother's words, gay life is "terrible, lonely, dark", "without family, without support, need to hide from colleagues and everyone", "only live a secret life"; Gethin and his mother have not lived for 16 years No news, dare not return to his hometown Welsh town;

4. Underestimation of power: LGSM has taken great pains to reach an alliance with miners. They were repeatedly hung up by the miners' union and the progress was delayed in every possible way, and their recruitment was not taken seriously and looked squarely. At the same time, the miners felt that it was very shameful to be with LGBT people, refused to drink with them, and even shared a room; when the news of gay support for the miners was reported, the miners were obviously shaken, felt ashamed and undignified, and were afraid of being punished. public cynicism;

5. Stereotypes: The mainstream media used derogatory terms and inflammatory headlines to create a negative image of the LGBT community, and the malicious and demonized descriptions of minorities made the public consider them “perverted,” “disrespectful,” and “disrespectful.” abnormal" label. Even non-homophobic people and some introverted sexual minorities find "gay" a difficult word to say. When Joe participated in the parade for the first time, he only dared to shout "support the miners" repeatedly, but he was unable to call out "gay & lesbian". This shows that the mainstream discourse excludes and discriminates against "homosexuality" and its related words; Its seriousness does not popularize its scientific principles, causing public panic, prejudice and stereotypes that LGBT groups may carry the HIV virus, which has also become an important reason for the division of understanding within the miners union.

For thousands of years, regardless of region, race, or country, "homosexuality" has been discriminated against in daily ethics or religious teachings, and is regarded as a symbol of "heresy" or "evil". The society discriminates against and prohibits "homosexuality", treats sexual minorities differently, and does not recognize and protect the validity of the "organizational" property rights of same-sex marriage. A minority are under customary and moral pressure to violate the prevailing contract in order to keep the family organization or marriage contract as effective as possible.

Since ancient times, the human marriage system has undergone tens of thousands of years of long evolution, from group marriage to promiscuous marriage, to blood marriage, group marriage, and even marriage, to the current monogamous or polygamous monogamous system. , which can be said to be a kind of "spontaneous institutional evolution" in Hayek's sense. The essence of this kind of exclusive contract is to avoid inbreeding and better realize the reproduction of the human population. Modern genetics has proven scientific evidence that inbreeding acquires more of the same genes from the same ancestors, thereby increasing the probability that the hidden harmful genetic traits that are unfavorable to survival will be expressed in offspring, and the incidence of genetic diseases in offspring will be increased. soaring.

An important part of reproduction is childcare. After the human marriage contract has evolved into monogamy, it can accurately define property rights along the blood relationship that has been inherited from the paternal line. Compared with other marriage contracts such as blood marriages, it can better achieve intergenerational inheritance. In order to reduce the cost of fulfilling the contract, the society has naturally developed an ethical norm to maintain the social contract of "heterosexual couples, raising children to prevent old age", that is, promoting "filial piety" and criticizing "unfilial piety". Homosexual love deviates from the "intergenerational pension" contract in which parents raise their children and are supported by their children in old age, and goes against the input and output expectations of the previous generation. If LGBT appears on a large scale, it will not only destroy this long-term stable contract, but also be detrimental to the healthy reproduction of the entire society. Even though the emergence of the social pension system has differentiated the reproduction and pension functions of family contracts, allowing same-sex couples to form a family in the legal sense and adopt children, but because there is no direct blood relationship, the effectiveness and implementation of "child care and pension" Strength will also be greatly reduced.

In short, the systematic discrimination against LGBT groups comes from the ethical criticism caused by this behavior violating the "family pension" contract in mainstream society.

(3) Alliances and divisions

"They're going through the hurt and pain we've been through," Mark said.

Under the curtain of the Cold War era, no matter the country crowd seems to be tit for tat, indifferent and isolated. LGBT groups and miners are both marginalized people at the bottom of society and have a common "enemy" - a tough and arrogant government and police, a prejudiced public and media; Or unite? In the film, sexual minorities are no longer vulnerable victims, but powerful heroes and defenders. For the sake of common interests and common "pride", LGBT chose to actively approach this group that has almost nothing to do with them, and continuously raised money and materials to support the miners' protests, and finally formed a coal mine alliance. A concerted effort has given a slim chance of a near-missing breakout.

Yet the tiny rift that has persisted in the union was completely torn open by a report in the mainstream media. Conservatives (such as single mother Maureen, etc.) who have always been prejudiced against LGBT in the trade union and the swaying wall-riders took the opportunity to fight back, voted in advance and refused to continue to accept the help of LGSM.

The reasons for the split within the union are as follows:

1. The tension between internal and external differences: Because the political authority is too powerful, the long-term prejudice of the external environment and the public is difficult to dissolve for a while. Even if the coal mine and the coalition are united, it is difficult to resist the coercion of public opinion and policies for a long time. The understanding and friendliness of LGBT in the small town cannot resist the hostility and misunderstanding of the whole British society towards them, and small-scale loosening and tolerance cannot shake everyone. Stereotypes and discrimination against sexual minorities. At this time, once the powers put forward easing conditions, coupled with the uproar of external public opinion and the maintenance of the so-called face, the miners and trade union leaders who are not firm enough will betray the alliance. The degree of trust and dependence between LGBT and trade unions is far less than imagined. For the livelihood of miners and their own black gauze hats, division within the trade union is almost inevitable.

2. The opacity of the motives of the two parties: The opposition Maureen believes that LGSM is on the surface to raise funds to support miners’ protests, but it is actually propagating same-sex equality, but this is indeed when two groups with different attributes and characteristics collide. doubts inevitably arise. For the torture of the motives of both parties and the test of loyalty to the alliance, the money and materials LGBT tried their best to raise could not dispel the doubts within the union and heal the rift.

3. The impact of the lack of popularization of science: The lack of popular science has led to irrational panic among the public about AIDS, and even some people who contact LGBT well-intentioned people are still grumpy.

4. The government's overall tough strategy: This discrimination is also based on maintaining a binary gender system.

The political goal of the LGBT community is nothing more than a right to have an equal voice and be "faced up." During the parade, the LGBT community cheered for their dignity and pride, constantly vowed to live proudly, and even if they were slandered by the media as "perverted support for miners", they would take this storm to publicize their existence and continue to raise supplies for the miners. They are all sexual minorities. Those who want to prevent LGBT from being completely expelled from the scope of discourse and discussion by the mainstream media and can no longer speak for themselves, hope to fight against the mainstream encirclement and suppression through the bottom-level alliance and find their own value. Therefore, "de-stigmatization" presupposes that LGBTs have enough impartial and stable channels to defend themselves and speak to the public. The requirement to be "faced up" is a manifestation of their desire to break down secular prejudice and pursue basic equal political and economic rights and social respect.

All in all, the process of LGBT and miners from the hostility and discord at the beginning, to letting go of their prejudices after getting to know each other, and finally accepting and helping each other, becoming firm partners and close friends, is deeply moving.

Even if the protest failed in the end, the miners returned to the mine to continue their once "calm and oppressed life", but they "held hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder", "you carry my banner, I wear your medal" that The great spirit of mutual understanding, mutual support, joy in hardship, and common pursuit of equal rights and group meaning in the darkest days will forever shine with the simplest and most precious brilliance of human nature in the long history and the future. — About love, equality and inclusion.

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