Truly a beautiful speech, I'm definitely gonna share this one...yet I wish he could take off the drag queen persona and speak as the "normal", unremarkable man he claims he is. While it's true that "gay=anal sex" is a very common misconception, there are many other stereotypes: for example, they assume we're good at "helping with the decorations" (among other things), and he said we are, even if it was just a joke. Some people can't even tell the difference between gay and transvestite, and it doesn't help that he was dressed up and acted like a middle aged woman. People will never think we're like them if we constantly remind them that we are so totally different.
I wish it was only breeders. At least where I live, and I don't live in some tiny village in the middle of nowhere, there's a lot of ignorance on the matter.
Marcus Wrote:I wish it was only breeders. At least where I live, and I don't live in some tiny village in the middle of nowhere, there's a lot of ignorance on the matter.
Okay, but it doesn't sound like you're accepting Happy Thong for who she is, and who she is is very special. Don't you ever forget it, honey.
[MENTION=22821]NativeSon[/MENTION] I don't have a problem with him being a drag queen, if that's what you mean. He's awesome, actually.
I just think calling yourself a gay man while dressed like Marilyn Monroe might give someone the wrong idea. You should prove stereotypes wrong, not embrace them, at least not when you're trying to explain that you're just a man like the others and you don't want to stand out.
I'm of the belief that if you are only accepted when you are able to blend in, and whatever it is that makes you different is masked, then you are not accepted. Acceptability politics is selling your own people out for personal gain.
Drag is not fundamental to being gay, but it is a part of gay culture. Not all gay men are flamboyant, fem, lisping hairstylists and interior decorators, but some are. Gay men who do not fit stereotypes of what gay men are perceived as being like, cannot throw those who do under the bus for the sake of gaining their own acceptance but still claim to be doing it for gay rights.
Rather than seeking to limit the representations of gay men in the larger culture, we should seek to broaden them.
Marcus Wrote:[MENTION=22821]NativeSon[/MENTION] I don't have a problem with him being a drag queen, if that's what you mean. He's awesome, actually.
Yes you do. It's not normal, you said. You're not like them, you said.
Apparently you do like discussing getting fucked up the ass. How wonderful. But how does someone as normal as you deal with this traditionally hetero taboo? I can't see it as being polite conversation at your smart dinner parties. Do you save all the down and dirty for us?
[MENTION=22821]NativeSon[/MENTION] If you watched the video, at one point he himself said he's just an ordinary, unremarkable man, something like that. "Normal" was a synonym to these words, I even used the quotation marks. Imo dressing up like the man he is would have made more sense in this context, I don't think a man dressed up like that is quite common or unremarkable, but it's ok if you don't agree.
And I didn't mean we're not like them. You're referring to this, right? "People will never think we're like them if we constantly remind them that we are so totally different." If they keep seeing "gay=women trapped in male bodies" there's no way they'll ever perceive us as "ordinary" men. I don't think I said anything wrong here.
[MENTION=21558]Emiliano[/MENTION] you're absolutely right, but Panti is a character, not his real personality. He's a man who dresses like that just for show (that's a drag queen afaik), not because he has a female heart or something. So I thought it was a bit unnecessary and counterproductive, at least during that particular speech. It's not like he had to pretend he was a different person or deny his true nature.
Panti says it like it is.
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