Seven Sisters on pinterest - racist or just weird?

[theologygeek]

I thinik they're a lot less extreme than many of the fundies we see here, and I just can't give them a hall pass.

They haven't shown the superiority necessary for it to be called racism. People throw the term around for more than what it really means.

[fundiefan]

That just bothers me. Do love Chinese children in China or are they dreaming of bringing them all here and/or saving them all? Same with the African kids.

Kids are cute. I don't disagree with that. To have a category on Pintrest for children of a specific race, when you are a group of seven sheltered siblings in your own little fundie world is just plain fucking wrong to me. Naive or not, it's not right in so many ways.

[theologygeek]

I don't think the racism was intentional but it's still racism.

How are they exhibiting racism? racist: a person who believes in racism, the doctrine that a certain human race is superior to any or all others.

racism: the belief that races have distinctive cultural characteristics determined by hereditary factors and that this endows some races with an intrinsic superiority over others

2. abusive or aggressive behaviour towards members of another race on the basis of such a belief

I don't see how any of these definitions matches putting "Chinese" as a Pinterest heading for children who may not all be Chinese. Maybe some people would call #1 under racism a match for this, but that is cultural, not physical.

[terranova]

How are they exhibiting racism? racist: a person who believes in racism, the doctrine that a certain human race is superior to any or all others.

racism: the belief that races have distinctive cultural characteristics determined by hereditary factors and that this endows some races with an intrinsic superiority over others

2. abusive or aggressive behaviour towards members of another race on the basis of such a belief

I don't see how any of these definitions matches putting "Chinese" as a Pinterest heading for children who may not all be Chinese. Maybe some people would call #1 under racism a match for this, but that is cultural, not physical.

I believe, that by pinning photos of cute "African" and "Chinese" kids, they are saying (probably unintentionally) they are superior to these children because they are white and American.

How would it look if they had a board of "cute white kids". Wouldn't that smack of white supremacy?

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Call it fetishism if you want, or exoticism. It's still creepy, and it's still looking at people as other than individuals.

[theologygeek]

I believe, that by pinning photos of cute "African" and "Chinese" kids, they are saying (probably unintentionally) they are superior to these children because they are white and American.

How did you get all that from those pictures? That's a very big assumption.

"How would it look if they had a board of "cute white kids". Wouldn't that smack of white supremacy?"

They didn't do that, so it's a non issue.

[terranova]

How did you get all that from those pictures? That's a very big assumption.

"How would it look if they had a board of "cute white kids". Wouldn't that smack of white supremacy?"

They didn't do that, so it's a non issue.

Yeah it might be a big assumption but it's also the strong creepy vibe I'm getting off them. Doesn't feel good.

[theologygeek]

The page seems to have been removed from pinterest, I get a 404 error message.

I get the 404 too. It's just because they changed the name of that board to "I heart Chinese children." Before, it just said Chinese. I don't see a problem with thinking that Chinese children are adorable. They are. Although those children are not all Chinese, but the 7 Sisters think they are. They're just not that bright, or as my grown kids say in a kinder manner than I do "They just don't get out much."

[theologygeek]

Yeah it might be a big assumption but it's also the strong creepy vibe I'm getting off them. Doesn't feel good.

Well, I was never one to debate a gut feeling. I am the first to say that if you have a gut feeling about something, then go with it.

[FloraDoraDolly]

Call it fetishism if you want, or exoticism. It's still creepy, and it's still looking at people as other than individuals.

Generally speaking, the fundie movement does not look at people as individuals. Consider all the large families where everybody wears matching clothes, everybody plays bluegrass music, everybody supports Santorum, everybody decides not to go to college, everybody agrees to sleep in one big room with their same-gender siblings, and so on.

[ladypuglover]

I get the 404 too. It's just because they changed the name of that board to "I heart Chinese children." Before, it just said Chinese. I don't see a problem with thinking that Chinese children are adorable. They are. Although those children are not all Chinese, but the 7 Sisters think they are. They're just not that bright, or as my grown kids say in a kinder manner than I do "They just don't get out much."

Could you post the new link? I'm not on pinterest and haven't the first clue to find it myself.

[terranova]

http://pinterest.com/7farmgirls/i-chinese-children/

http://pinterest.com/7farmgirls/africans/

Dont get hooked on pinterest, its worse than heroin.

[terranova]

http://pinterest.com/7farmgirls/

they keep changing the board names. Go here and scroll down

[emmiedahl]

I cannot see the page, but I think it is "othering" in a way. I kind of want to give them a pass because they are so immature. This is something a 9 year old would do. My daughter went through a phase in which she loved everything Japanese because a school friend is from Japan. We visited the Japanese section of Seattle a few times and took up origami, now she (and her friend) is into France and all things French. It's a little weird that the SS are doing it with people though, and not a culture. There is a subtle difference, but it nonetheless is something a child would do innocently. When we discover a new culture, it is very interesting and different, but most of us have matured since grade school.

This is one of the problems with infantilizing women. They don't have the awareness necessary to realize that many people would be offended or see this as objectification.

[browngrl]

It is kind of creepy and weird but I don't think that these girls mean it in a racist or mean way. Those girls are just frighteningly naive and out of touch with the mainstream so I bet they wouldn't even understand why some might find it offensive.

[Beeks]

Not sure why this one isn't on their "Chinese" board but WTF? http://pinterest.com/pin/189080884325035902/

They are truly weird as hell.

[angelsonyourbody]

eh, it's not as weird as an entry they had on their blog from their Florida trip where one of them made the comment that "people in the south are so nice! especially the african americans!"

[theologygeek]

http://pinterest.com/7farmgirls/i-chinese-children/

http://pinterest.com/7farmgirls/africans/

Dont get hooked on pinterest, its worse than heroin.

I love Pinterest but you have to be careful. I clicked on a food pic and it took me to a website. Spyware was uncontrollable and I got a virus that none of my virus programs found. I got rid of it by downloading another virus program but it was a chore to get rid of.

[flojo]

Miseducated is the word that comes to mind for me. Exposure to the outside world is not enough. In a way, they're similar to illiterate Americans. Half the adult population of Detroit is not functionally literate, yet nearly all of these folks have attended school. Their schools were-- and still are-- of a poor quality, but the students still would have been exposed to books. These illiterate adults live in a city where there are street signs everywhere. They encounter other forms of printed material in their daily lives-- advertisements, labels on groceries, magazines in the waiting room at the

doctor's office, etc. Despite these repeated exposures, they still can't read. It just doesn't click with them. If they're ever going to read, they need someone to sit down with them and teach them what they didn't learn in school.

On a social level, we're seeing a similar phenomenon with the fundies. As children and adolescents, they recived an inadequate education. No, they are not illiterate in the same sense as the aforementioned residents of Detroit. But the fundies have missed other crucial aspects of a good education. They know *how* to read, but their reading material was heavily censored. They learned history and geography via a "Christian worldview" curriculum. At the school of the dining room table, multicultural education does not exist, or else it's presented in the form of missionary stories. If you were to point out to the Seven Sisters that their "Chinese" page could be construed as racist, I doubt they would "get it" unless you really took the time to sit down and teach them.

This is an excellent summary.

[Sola]

Looks Pinterest is down, but I saw the Chinese pics yesterday. My way of looking at it is that there is nothing wrong with finding Chinese kids cute, but be aware that posting a whole page like they did comes across as wrong. If I were to post a page of white kids and title it Cute White Babies or whatever it would scream wrongness. I doubt the 7S intended it to be racist; they are naive.

[darareaksmey]

Whatever. The intent to single out people based on race is there, and the pernicious refusal to correctly identify ethnicity is there. Are they so unschooled that they can't look where they're assembling the pictures from and say, e.g., oh, look at that, that child is from Japan, not China? I submit you can't be on the internet as much as these women are and pick up no information in the process. Do they mean to start a race war? Of course not. Should it not be apparent to them that their labeling is wrong? Of course. That's all.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

For what it's worth the kid doing origami isn't in Japan. It's a picture from China (it doesn't look like Japan, not the clothes or the room, and then clicking through to find the pic, it's from a school in China).

[Deleted03]

I think it's creepy, you like Chinese children... what is the opposite of that statement? You don't like African children? You don't like Korean children? You don't like Native American children? WTH?

[InkyGirl]

Does anyone else find it sad that the girls can't or won't have individual pinintert accounts? Do the ever even have individual thoughts or do they have some weird hivemind going on?

[Spider Burps]

The Seven Sisters' obsession with Asian babies reminds me of some girls I hung out with in elementary/middle school. They were downright OBSESSED with Japanese things/people/language and were always talking about how Japanese babies are the only cute ones, Japanese girls/boys are the only cute ones, Japanese musicians/cartoons/actors are the only good ones, etc. They would have probably done (or maybe did do? I didn't really participate in this part of their lives; I was just in it for the video games!) something really similar and would've flipped their shit if anyone mentioned that it is, in fact, quite racist to say "All people from X are Y", even if Y is something the commenter sees to be complimentary. They somehow just didn't see how insanely racist they were being! Drove me bonkers then and still does now--which probably explains why I haven't spoken to any of them since halfway through high school...