Utopia

Since I can remember, I have loved science fiction. I love the idea of a world where all the fights that need to be fought now, have already been won. I love the idea of living in a world that already takes for granted, what we must still fight to achieve, where protests are no longer necessary, because the world has already become the way it should be. An equal rights utopia, where we grow up free of restraints and prejudice, where everyone is just accepted. 

But the truth is that we are not there. People still have acid thrown in their faces for wanting to be educated. People are still being tortured for their sexualtiy. Children, who were born into the wrong body still kill themselves because that is the only way out of that wrong body for them. 

Feminism and the fight for equality in general are still very much necessary. We haven’t finished the fight yet. We’re still in the middle of it. 

But I do hope that, before I reach the end of my life, we will have reached the science fiction place where feminism, and protest and these fights that we fight now, are a thing of the past. Something we learn about in history books, like suffrage or the fight for worker’s rights. 

I hope that one day we will look back on these troubled days and say “My god, how barbaric! Not every person had the same rights and not everyone was treated equally! How could they live like this!?”

I would like to see a world where it is no longer necessary to protest, to hold women’s marches or rallies for equal treatment of minorities - whether that be ethnic minorities or other minority groups - because it has become an accepted fact that equality should exist. Because it has become second nature to us, to accept this sentiment, that these ideas and ideals we hold so dear have manifested themselves into society as a whole and not just into the minds of the “the left” and “liberals” and whatever you want to call this movement. 

The opposition of course is that things are changing and change is scary. People are scared of losing their place in the world, their identity, their perspective, their worth. What will happen to THEIR world when the new world comes?

The answer is quite simple, of course. Nothing. 

Equality also means and demands that people who belong to the majority are treated equally. 

I would like to see a world where equality is not an afterthought or something that has to be forced. Something that has to have rules written about it. I wish we didn’t need to have policies that state the obvious - we don’t discriminate against race, gender, and sexual orientation. This mindset - that we don’t discriminate - should be innate. It should be taken for granted. It should be like the air we breathe. 

We should be past the phase where we need to chisel these things out, and discuss this over and over again. It should have already seeped into the very fabric of our society. 

Having to write out policies that we don’t disrespect and discriminate our fellow human beings for the colour of their skin feels like having to write on the wall: This office does not discriminate against people who drink water. 

Of course we don’t! It should be THIS clear to us. 

It should just be the most natural and normal thing in the world. 

And that sentiment shouldn’t even take up space. There should be no need for me to spell this out. Because it should be so normal, so natural, it shouldn’t have to be discussed over and over and over again. We should not need to be talking about whether it’s morally right to be gay, or whether transgender people are just loonies who want attention (this argument has actually been made to me once by a bigot. It was horrendous). We shouldn’t have to have these discussions over and over and over in this day and age. 

I have to reign myself in, this is turning into a rant. 

But my point is: I don’t think we should NEED this fight for equal rights anymore. We are in the middle of the third decade of the 21st century. These fights should be behind us. We should be living in our sci-fi utopia by now. 

The sad thing is, though, we do still need them. We still need these things, they are still SO necessary to further this society, to further the idea that every human being is equal and that neither status, nor wealth, nor gender, nor race, nor sexual orientation (or lack thereof), nor the culture you were born into, nor disability, determines who you are. 

Society does not have the right to tell you that you are any less able, capable, intelligent, needed, and valued than your neighbour who happens to be different. You are of no less value because you are different. Elevating others does not diminish your standing. 

I should not be defined by anything other than being me, and the merit I earned through my contribution in society. 

So I wish the fight for equal rights was a thing of the past. I wish the fight for human rights was a thing of the past. The FIGHT for this - not human rights in and of itself, of course. 

Equal human rights for everyone ought to be something we can take for granted, something we can rely on. Something that we own. Something that is an innate right, that cannot be taken away, diminished or in any way made smaller or weakened, by anyone. By anyone. 

So, yes. I wish this fight was over. I wish we lived in a utopia where all of this is a thing of the past. 

But that wish has not come true yet. We still need feminism, we still need Pride parades, we still need women’s marches, and scientists’ marches and solidarity marches for immigrants and refugees. We all still need that, because we have not reached our sci-fi future yet. 

And when we do reach that future, can we still keep the Pride parades, please? They are too awesome to let go even when the dream has been achieved.