Fat Witless Homophobia
Dear readers, I warn you now, I am angry and this is about to get political. I was enjoying a pleasant evening in front of my exquisite high definition television with the lovely husband, he wanted to watch Ricky Gervaises “The Extras” on BBC 2, not liking said comedians work myself I decided to indulge my deer man and put up no resistance to viewing what turned out to be publicly sanctioned homophobia. Even more staggering was Sir Ian “I like a young boy” McKellen’s Participation in this work of ill conception. No more than twenty minutes in my dear readers I was forced to leave the room because the bloated cunt Gervais had offended me, the gentile creature that I am, so deeply.
What enraged me thus involved Gervaises, useless actor character, Andy Milman, landing a role in a “gay” play, directed by Sir Ian “I’m here to pull in the pink audience” McKellen. Standing by the stage door on the opening night, some of his butch, city type, uber hetro, rugby type friends from school come to watch the show, he can’t bring himself to divulge the nurture of the play when a flock of egregiously & disgustingly stereotyped gay men parade past our line of stereotyped hetro rugger buggers flaunting all their panto dame credentials in the most appalling display of stereotyping I have seen since “The Black and White Minstrel Show”. Gervais simply cringes and to cut a long story short learns and gains nothing from the experience.
My grudge here is not with the nature of Gervaises comedy or the love him hate him side of his work, in fact I have enjoyed some of the episodes of Extras and have a great respect for the talent of his cohort in the series, the rather lovely Ashley Jensen. What has vexed me thus is I can find no reason for anyone in the public eye to present homosexual behavior in such a two dimensional light other than for cheap gags at a social demographic it is still ok to openly abuse. Clashing two extreme stereotypes on national television can achieve nothing because at the end of the day neither group can learn anything from the exercise and to say you are making a point about using stereotypes in comedy by, gasp, using them in comedy is misguided. To use stereotypes that truly belong in Jim Davidson or Roy Chubby Browns territory is cheap and unnecessary. If Gervaise were doing the same thing with women, ethnic minorities, religions or disabled people he would never have got the script past its first reading. Thankfully in the UK, since 2003, it has been illegal to discriminate in the work place against someone on the basis of his or her sexuality, and name calling and teasing is regarded as harassment. However it should be noted these laws do not affect religious organizations, and the last time I checked the BBC has no religious affiliation.
However the point here is not a legal or spiritual one, it is cultural. As a gay man, I don’t necessarily want to live in London’s gay ghettos of Soho or Stoke-Newington. I want to live where I chose and go places that aren’t just the domain of the homosexual. I wish to live in as much of a heterosexual as homosexual society, and until seeing the extras last night I had never thought this an issue. I have friends who have darling little country cottages where the rural community has welcomed us queer homemakers with cups of tea and open arms; on this evidence I had hoped as a culture we had made it past open season on queers for cheap laughs and easy gags. I was even believing on the evidence of play’s like Angels in America & Bent, films like Happiness or Hedwig and the Angry Inch, books like The Long Firm or Running with Scissors and music like Anthony and the Johnston’s we could move beyond “the gay play/film/book/song” and have arts that presented the full spectrum of gay life with real people and real situations, not flouncing stereotypes stuck in a vicious circle of coming of age story’s, coming out sags and badly dressed drag drams.
How are young gay men and women going to feel safe if blatant homophobia is presented on national television on a Sunday night when they walk into school the following Monday for all their nasty small minded fellow pupils to have such a fixed idea of how the boy or girl who is a bit odd, maybe a bit gay will finally end up? And how is the young gay man or woman to find any reasonable role models when all they are presented is a dumbed down panto dame for a gay man and a bull dyke for a gay woman?
This is an issue that needs to be addressed by the media at large, not just the BBC. The Media’s power to influence public oppinon has never been more powerful and check and balances must be put upon their work. It is worth noting, of all the British terrestrial channels the BBC is the worst of all broad casters in its treatment of Gays in the media. A recent Stonewall survey of the Media found the BBC was five times more likely to present a negative portrayal of a gay man or woman than any other channel and when ever a gay character appears on the BBC he or she is most likely to be both the butt of a joke and a deeply clichéd stereotype. Our only response to this is when ever we see such offence being committed be it in print, on the screen or radio we must make our feelings known by addressing complaint to the relevant bodies and flag it up to Stonewalls Media Monitoring unit.
For us, as gay housewifes to reach our true potentials, we need to live in a society in which we are seen as complete human beings, not two dimensional beings wheeled out when ever a script writer is too lazy to write a real joke. That is my tirade against the media over for today dear readers. It should not be forgotten that the gay housewife is not only a bastion of domestic perfection but a political figure too. We have huge spending power, a large political and media influence and a increasing acceptance, all of which have taken many years of campaigning to change hearts and minds by many men and women who go largely ignored today. We have come so far it would be foolish to stop fighting for a better, fairer life in which we can live happily with our heterosexual counter parts. Normal service shall resume shortly my dear, when we move back to the happier aspects of gay housewifery, but to make this a truly valuable guide sometime we have to step off the marked path a look a little deeper at everything a gay housewife can be.
Love to you all,
(m)Arthur
Say hello at MySpace or email me.
Dear readers, I warn you now, I am angry and this is about to get political. I was enjoying a pleasant evening in front of my exquisite high definition television with the lovely husband, he wanted to watch Ricky Gervaises “The Extras” on BBC 2, not liking said comedians work myself I decided to indulge my deer man and put up no resistance to viewing what turned out to be publicly sanctioned homophobia. Even more staggering was Sir Ian “I like a young boy” McKellen’s Participation in this work of ill conception. No more than twenty minutes in my dear readers I was forced to leave the room because the bloated cunt Gervais had offended me, the gentile creature that I am, so deeply.
What enraged me thus involved Gervaises, useless actor character, Andy Milman, landing a role in a “gay” play, directed by Sir Ian “I’m here to pull in the pink audience” McKellen. Standing by the stage door on the opening night, some of his butch, city type, uber hetro, rugby type friends from school come to watch the show, he can’t bring himself to divulge the nurture of the play when a flock of egregiously & disgustingly stereotyped gay men parade past our line of stereotyped hetro rugger buggers flaunting all their panto dame credentials in the most appalling display of stereotyping I have seen since “The Black and White Minstrel Show”. Gervais simply cringes and to cut a long story short learns and gains nothing from the experience.
My grudge here is not with the nature of Gervaises comedy or the love him hate him side of his work, in fact I have enjoyed some of the episodes of Extras and have a great respect for the talent of his cohort in the series, the rather lovely Ashley Jensen. What has vexed me thus is I can find no reason for anyone in the public eye to present homosexual behavior in such a two dimensional light other than for cheap gags at a social demographic it is still ok to openly abuse. Clashing two extreme stereotypes on national television can achieve nothing because at the end of the day neither group can learn anything from the exercise and to say you are making a point about using stereotypes in comedy by, gasp, using them in comedy is misguided. To use stereotypes that truly belong in Jim Davidson or Roy Chubby Browns territory is cheap and unnecessary. If Gervaise were doing the same thing with women, ethnic minorities, religions or disabled people he would never have got the script past its first reading. Thankfully in the UK, since 2003, it has been illegal to discriminate in the work place against someone on the basis of his or her sexuality, and name calling and teasing is regarded as harassment. However it should be noted these laws do not affect religious organizations, and the last time I checked the BBC has no religious affiliation.
However the point here is not a legal or spiritual one, it is cultural. As a gay man, I don’t necessarily want to live in London’s gay ghettos of Soho or Stoke-Newington. I want to live where I chose and go places that aren’t just the domain of the homosexual. I wish to live in as much of a heterosexual as homosexual society, and until seeing the extras last night I had never thought this an issue. I have friends who have darling little country cottages where the rural community has welcomed us queer homemakers with cups of tea and open arms; on this evidence I had hoped as a culture we had made it past open season on queers for cheap laughs and easy gags. I was even believing on the evidence of play’s like Angels in America & Bent, films like Happiness or Hedwig and the Angry Inch, books like The Long Firm or Running with Scissors and music like Anthony and the Johnston’s we could move beyond “the gay play/film/book/song” and have arts that presented the full spectrum of gay life with real people and real situations, not flouncing stereotypes stuck in a vicious circle of coming of age story’s, coming out sags and badly dressed drag drams.
How are young gay men and women going to feel safe if blatant homophobia is presented on national television on a Sunday night when they walk into school the following Monday for all their nasty small minded fellow pupils to have such a fixed idea of how the boy or girl who is a bit odd, maybe a bit gay will finally end up? And how is the young gay man or woman to find any reasonable role models when all they are presented is a dumbed down panto dame for a gay man and a bull dyke for a gay woman?
This is an issue that needs to be addressed by the media at large, not just the BBC. The Media’s power to influence public oppinon has never been more powerful and check and balances must be put upon their work. It is worth noting, of all the British terrestrial channels the BBC is the worst of all broad casters in its treatment of Gays in the media. A recent Stonewall survey of the Media found the BBC was five times more likely to present a negative portrayal of a gay man or woman than any other channel and when ever a gay character appears on the BBC he or she is most likely to be both the butt of a joke and a deeply clichéd stereotype. Our only response to this is when ever we see such offence being committed be it in print, on the screen or radio we must make our feelings known by addressing complaint to the relevant bodies and flag it up to Stonewalls Media Monitoring unit.
For us, as gay housewifes to reach our true potentials, we need to live in a society in which we are seen as complete human beings, not two dimensional beings wheeled out when ever a script writer is too lazy to write a real joke. That is my tirade against the media over for today dear readers. It should not be forgotten that the gay housewife is not only a bastion of domestic perfection but a political figure too. We have huge spending power, a large political and media influence and a increasing acceptance, all of which have taken many years of campaigning to change hearts and minds by many men and women who go largely ignored today. We have come so far it would be foolish to stop fighting for a better, fairer life in which we can live happily with our heterosexual counter parts. Normal service shall resume shortly my dear, when we move back to the happier aspects of gay housewifery, but to make this a truly valuable guide sometime we have to step off the marked path a look a little deeper at everything a gay housewife can be.
Love to you all,
(m)Arthur
Say hello at MySpace or email me.
posted by Arthur Stewart at 2:58 PM
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