(Episode 517): SGYA! If Calendars are Neutral…

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Because citations are political…

On today, the Killjoys spoke about something that Ilyse is very passionate about: calendars. The main idea that the killjoys want you to understand is that calendars are NOT neutral and that calendars do not all look the same. And finally, underlying this message is the idea that time is constructed and culturally contingent, but this does not mean that it does not matter. In fact, it matters so so so much.

“Calendars are not neutral. They can't be. They are about establishing one way of thinking about the world. And we focused on Christian imperialism, because hi, you've met me, but ordering things, whether it's time, or anything else is never neutral. Never know, in any scenario, it is also just Christian imperialism out loud.”

-IRMF

San Francisco Interfaith Council Calendar

An example of public “interfaith calendars”

The 101: Where we did the professor work…

So, what do the killjoys want you to know about calendars?

The idea of time itself and measuring time is constructed. BUT this does not make it any less REAL.
The movement towards the Gregorian calendar was a huge part in the standardization of time. This made Christian centric ideals of time the most popularized calendar. This forces people to lives in “the year of someone else’s lord”
There are real world effects to the ways that time is constructed and regulated. For example, if a workplace has a calendar where only Christian holidays are noted, that might mean that an important meeting could be scheduled on someone’s holiday. The fact that we do not make it easy to understand non-christian holidays, leaves people out of conversations that deeply impact their daily lives.

What’s the thesis here?

Calendars and time are perfect examples of constructed, popularized symbols of christianity in everyday life. The ways that we normalize time and dates without taking into account the diverse ways that time is understood across communities, does a direct injustice to non christian bodies.