I didn’t quite dare to jump in on that one… it brings up so many complicated issues that have been haunting the, uh, gay community for years. While I mostly behave as Tess does, I actually agree with Annette – it’s like young women who think feminists are distasteful, when in fact they not only owe a lot of their opportunities to feminists who’ve been fighting for equal rights for decades, but these young women in fact are feminists themselves if they believe that women should have equal opportunities and equal pay.
Anyway, I liked your comment about being inside and outside a culture, Mig. One of the things that has changed quite a bit in the past ten years is that as a gay person, one can at last see oneself reflected in general popular culture, something that was completely absent when I was growing up and well into my twenties.
It is amazing how hungry one can be to see oneself reflected in movies and television, for instance. I’m a total suck for stupid coming out-type movies that are just not very good cinematically, in terms of acting, plot, etc. that I would never put up with in any other kind of movie. It doesn’t make me angry that I never had these things when I was a kid, but it makes me a bit sad for my younger self.
I wasn’t willing to jump into that fray either, since it seemed to boil down to an argument between Annette and Tess.
While I see value in both their arguments, I believe strongly that the best thing gay people can do, both for themselves and society as a whole, is to come out. That simple (and incredibly complicated and difficult) act, multiplied hundreds and thousands of times, would have immeasurably more impact than any march or parade.
I didn’t quite dare to jump in on that one… it brings up so many complicated issues that have been haunting the, uh, gay community for years. While I mostly behave as Tess does, I actually agree with Annette – it’s like young women who think feminists are distasteful, when in fact they not only owe a lot of their opportunities to feminists who’ve been fighting for equal rights for decades, but these young women in fact are feminists themselves if they believe that women should have equal opportunities and equal pay.
Anyway, I liked your comment about being inside and outside a culture, Mig. One of the things that has changed quite a bit in the past ten years is that as a gay person, one can at last see oneself reflected in general popular culture, something that was completely absent when I was growing up and well into my twenties.
It is amazing how hungry one can be to see oneself reflected in movies and television, for instance. I’m a total suck for stupid coming out-type movies that are just not very good cinematically, in terms of acting, plot, etc. that I would never put up with in any other kind of movie. It doesn’t make me angry that I never had these things when I was a kid, but it makes me a bit sad for my younger self.
I wasn’t willing to jump into that fray either, since it seemed to boil down to an argument between Annette and Tess.
While I see value in both their arguments, I believe strongly that the best thing gay people can do, both for themselves and society as a whole, is to come out. That simple (and incredibly complicated and difficult) act, multiplied hundreds and thousands of times, would have immeasurably more impact than any march or parade.