Or, things that make your Head Trucker go, Ugh. A lot of straight people think we gays are all like the goofy ones seen in these clips, which is repugnant to me, and I think to some of my readers, for reasons that are obvious to a mature mind. None of them are in the least representative of me or my friends or at least half the gay male population.
I'll say no more, since it's a free country and people can certainly do as they please - my approval or disapproval counts for nothing in this world. But that doesn't mean I have to like everything they do.
And I'll say one thing more: being gay - or black, or female, or Latin, or Asian, or anything else - doesn't mean you can't do anything wrong or stupid or silly. To think otherwise is just mindless.
If you have no problem with what's depicted, well just move on then.
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6 comments:
Go on Russ, please say some more because it needs to be said. This gets back to some of the concerns I raised in the Gay Imagery piece. The Gay Community needs to own it's image a whole lot better than it currently does in order to educate heterosexuals and fight homophobia. We're not all caricatures!
I actually rewrote and toned down my comments - but I agree, these mindless, stupid behaviors are entirely unhelpful to our cause.
It's so irritating when other people are so darned human, isn't it? And more so when they refuse to follow the script you've written for them.
Oh honey, you didn't read the last line of my post did you? Better go use that oh-so-smug attitude somewhere else, it ain't working here.
It did come off as smug, but that wasn't what I was going for really. I was more encouraging you to think out of a bigger box.
My thoughts used to be absolutely consonant with yours. Until I started to meet some of these other people in my 20's, 30's and 40's, and I began to really realize that it *was* the drag queens who stood up to the police in the Stonewall Riots, and it has *always* been the flamboyant people who have challenged peoples thoughts and who, ultimately, have enabled the easy openly gay lifestyle that I myself have in my fifties, with my very legal husband.
Things have changed drastically in my lifetime simply because these kinds of people have said, simply, "I'm going to be me".
Imposing my template onto others of how they should behave is building closets.
And I don't want to do that anymore.
No, I'm not comfortable with all of these people. Nor do I truly understand my two co-workers who now live as the opposite sex, although I support their desire to be as authentic as they can. But that's what Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness is all about here, and I have no right to decide that for anyone else.
Friend, I'm glad to hear that you are living a happy life and your intentions may be good, but I have come by my opinons honestly in nearly sixty years of living and closely observing the folly and stupidity that goes on in the world, among gay and straight people alike. Having once been a victim of prejudice or discrimination does not mean anyone is thereafter exempt from all criticism as long as they live, or however they behave. Cf. Larry Kramer and his biting critiques of gay life.
I invite you to read my post again, which says nothing about controlling what other people do. But understand that I said exactly what I meant, and meant all that I said. It’s my privilege to think and speak as I please, especially here in my own personal blog, and it is not your job to school me like an ignorant child, or to attempt to control me in any way.
In that regard, you appear just like one of the religious folks who periodically knock on my door, thinking they know all the divine, universal truth of what is right and wrong, and I know nothing at all about it. They are quite wrong to be so arrogant with their let-me-tell-you-what-to-think view of the world, as if their viewpoint is the only possible right one, and mine does not count at all – and so are you, but I dare say you don’t see the resemblance to yourself at all, which is a pity.
But I have had long experience with do-gooders of all stripes, on both the Right as well as the Left, and I know for a certainty that that “ooh don’t judge” attitude is always false and hypocritical, and dropped in a flash when your particular feelings or sensibilities are offended, and how quickly intolerance and scathing condemnation replace all the sweet, warm, fuzzy words.
Bottom line: I’m driving this truck, not you. You can ride along and be happy, or get out and walk where you please. But you’re not the boss of me, and your politically correct opinions, changeable with every whim of the crowd, do not override mine and are certainly in no way superior to my own.
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