Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Me Vs. The Media, Parts 5028 and 5029
Within the gay community, you will occasionally hear some panicked individual complain about the "freaks"-- the drag queens, the leather men, the flaming femmes. In their mind, we need to produce an organized, respectable face to win over the straights.
These men are somewhat misguided. While any minority getting their shit together is a cause for celebration, we've been presenting an organized face for decades. It's just that the heteronormative media loves to blow past the dedicated couple raising their kid, the heroic gay cop, and the religious leader who helps at-risk youth and land right on the stereotype. "Look at those gays!" they say. "Aren't they a riot?"
Case in point: 60 Minutes dedicates a solid piece to all the things that make someone gay and straight. And, of course, their research relies on presexual males exhibiting feminine traits and the research of a noted, discredited eugenicist quack* who claims that you can tell someone's gay because of how they talk. Funny; I seem to speak just like my straight brother, and I liked Transformers growing up. I guess I must be lying to myself about craving cock!
Second case in point: The New York Times has a piece on gay men and women serving openly in the military. Which, of course, means they have to put a photo of a drag queen in there somewhere. Not that this is anything new; if there's a piece of the gay community, there's a 50% chance it will be prefaced with a drag queen. Hell, when CNN did a piece on the (relatively plainclothed) gay pride marchers in Russia being attacked by nationalists and zealots, they opened with shots of drag queens in American gay pride parades. It's a nice photo, but can we please reach the assumption that not all gay folk dig the taffeta?
This has been your update on gay portrayals in the media. Join us next week for, "Why John Stossel Is Still A Massive Douche."
*By the way, ever since Stossel's original POS, I've seen J. Michael Bailey held up in a New York Times article and in this 60 Minutes piece. You'd think someone in the media might actually bother to do research on a man's qualifications before they talk to him. Oh, well.
These men are somewhat misguided. While any minority getting their shit together is a cause for celebration, we've been presenting an organized face for decades. It's just that the heteronormative media loves to blow past the dedicated couple raising their kid, the heroic gay cop, and the religious leader who helps at-risk youth and land right on the stereotype. "Look at those gays!" they say. "Aren't they a riot?"
Case in point: 60 Minutes dedicates a solid piece to all the things that make someone gay and straight. And, of course, their research relies on presexual males exhibiting feminine traits and the research of a noted, discredited eugenicist quack* who claims that you can tell someone's gay because of how they talk. Funny; I seem to speak just like my straight brother, and I liked Transformers growing up. I guess I must be lying to myself about craving cock!
Second case in point: The New York Times has a piece on gay men and women serving openly in the military. Which, of course, means they have to put a photo of a drag queen in there somewhere. Not that this is anything new; if there's a piece of the gay community, there's a 50% chance it will be prefaced with a drag queen. Hell, when CNN did a piece on the (relatively plainclothed) gay pride marchers in Russia being attacked by nationalists and zealots, they opened with shots of drag queens in American gay pride parades. It's a nice photo, but can we please reach the assumption that not all gay folk dig the taffeta?
This has been your update on gay portrayals in the media. Join us next week for, "Why John Stossel Is Still A Massive Douche."
*By the way, ever since Stossel's original POS, I've seen J. Michael Bailey held up in a New York Times article and in this 60 Minutes piece. You'd think someone in the media might actually bother to do research on a man's qualifications before they talk to him. Oh, well.
