Thursday, December 3, 2009

Remiss

I would be remiss in only including political action stories on here. It's all well to talk about censorship of PG rated films, but usually adult films are the ones getting censored and this is also a problem.
Recently Xtra, Toronto's gay newspaper, ran the following cover:


People wrote in, and I quote:
  • "what message are you sending to the next generation of gays?"
  • "Putting porn stars on the cover... makes all homosexuals look one-dimensional"
  • "No wonder heterosexuals look at our community in disgust"
  • etc, etc.

So I hate this, and I wrote in too:

"I find it incredible that people write to you with comments like "No wonder heterosexuals look at our community with disgust" or "Putting porn stars on the cover [of Xtra]... makes all homosexuals one-dimensional."
Do these people actually read their comments before submitting? Can the cover of one issue of one newspaper make "ALL homosexuals" do anything? Which heterosexuals look at our community with disgust? I don't know any.
I would encourage these letter writers to be themselves, and to stop reverting back to 1960's tactics of "If we all act just like them, maybe they'll like us."
Speaking on behalf of myself, not "all homosexuals" as others proclaim to, I enjoyed the cover. Thanks."

Another issue that was raised is the old "won't anyone think of the children" excuse. Who are these children? I hate hypothetical children.

I remember my mom complaining about Sex and the City being on at noon on City-TV, a time when children could be watching. I asked how she knew the show was on and she said she watched it every day. So if a show meant for adults is being watched by adults at a time when kids are in school, which exact children are being harmed? Also this is a heavily censored version with nudity and swearing taken out.

If adults watching adult shows only problem is hypothetical "children" and hypothetical "bad parents", there needs to be a reality check. Give me names of these children, prove they exist, and we'll talk then.

1 comment:

Ozu said...

Amen! I've spent most of life apologizing for who I am and being grateful for being tolerated.

We should stop playing this game of being a credit to our sexual orientation. I really think all of this hand-wringing only adds to the expectation that gay men live to higher standard than straight men and I'm fucking sick of the double standard.