(no subject)

[rm]

http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/who-are-you-calling-gay/

"To not be a man is to not be fully human and that’s terrifying."

Yeah, I've nabbed that somewhat out of context, but it's amazing both in and out of context.

The piece as a whole is riveting. No surprises, I don't think, but relevant to multiple recent discussions here, and really resonated with me from low-level parental paranoia about their kid being gay to the idea that masculinity is some awesome prize in the crackerjack box (that, by extension, should be maintained regardless of cost to self and/or cost to others).

Comments

[ladypeculiar.livejournal.com]

I love her in general (academic who writes about sexuality and gets migraines? Even ex-Topamax taker like myself? My kinda lady), but this was a great piece. My favorite comment so far:

"I went to a conference on bisexuality about 15 years ago. A woman there said to me, "I wish you gay men would stop putting your energy into fighting homophobia and instead put your energy into eradicating misogyny. Because the problem society has with gay men isn't that they're with other men - it's that they're men who are "acting like women." If it were ok to be a woman in this culture, homophobia would just disappear." I think she's right.”
— Jess Thompson-Adams
Dude, You've Got Problems

[sushis.livejournal.com]

hmmmm...I have to say, I don't like the "your oppression is just a sub-species of my oppression" idea I see there. I do suspect that misogyny is a factor in, or at least a close relative of, much homophobia against gay men, but I don't think it's right for a (straight?) woman to tell a gay man what his oppression is all about, as if his experiences might not provide him with additional information or a different point of view.

[ladypeculiar.livejournal.com]

I definitely see what you're saying, and certainly the tone of the quote is too "This is right, other things are wrong" for my tastes. What I appreciate about the idea though, is the notion that hatred of the "other" bleeds into both of these cultural groupings. It's an idea that Fouccault touched on a great deal in The History of Sexuality, and I always find it intriguing when I see it brought up.