Indirect facets

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"Indirect facets" is a preliminary name for facets that targets allies of the main target: Indirect facets of homophobia targets (straight or supposedly straight) people who stand up for gay people, indirect facets of racism targets (white or supposedly white) people who stand up for people of color, and so on.

Equal rights and dignity for everyone is a simple principle which people tend to agree with at least in theory. Still, there is sometimes a high social cost attached to applying this principle to marginalized group. While those who openly belong to the group can get accused of being selfish and self-centered and so on, those who do not belong to the group can receive other kinds of accusations.

Note that the word "accusation" is here used in a wide sense: It includes not only explicit accusations, but also implicit accusations such as insinuations, narrative positioning, and so on.

  • Accusation of Sexual Motive: "you only stand up for them because you want to sleep with them".
  • Accusation of Treason: "You should stand up only for your own category".
  • Accusation of Mysterious Incompetence: "Ok, you are right... but I also suddenly realized that you are a bad person in many vague ways".
  • Accusation of Membership: "Maybe you are one of them after all".