I don't think it's ignored, certainly not by the gay community. Just overshadowed.
I have to disagree mon ami...if it weren't ignored, we should see a major outcry
against it. But even if it wasn't ignored, just overshadowed as you say, can you explain WHY??? There's no shortage of media attention on a religious person who states they believe homosexuality is wrong, yet it's practically a media blackout when holllywood does it. For example, tonight I watched Family Guy and American Dad..two popular shows especially with young males. Well, on BOTH shows, the effeminate gay stereotypes were perpetuated, and the jokes
in Family Guy were basically because Peter was 'gay'...he talked differently,
he was much more effeminate etc. Also, he becomes gay because of medical experiments where certain genes are implanted into him...one caused him to become a squirrel, and he was totally fine with that...but he initially balked and had reservations about becoming gay. Now, don't get me wrong...I'm not some tight-a$$ who can't take a joke, but you have to understand the underlying message that is being perpetuated...it's STILL okay to laugh at someone just because they're gay. WHy is it wrong for the alleged 'religious right' to do it, but it's not only okay, but condoned when hollywood does it???
I HATE hypocrisy...and hollywood appears to be the biggest hypocritical community I know.
Was Song of the South racially insensitive towards black people, in the same way you're describing? Probably; certainly most people today would say so. Was it in the same category as what Charles Coughlin and Gerald L. K. Smith were saying during that same time period? Not even close.
You're missing the point. I'm not comparing gay jokes from 50 years ago to today...I'm saying the hollywood community is the worst offender of promoting gay stereotypes and jokes about homosexuals...yet they are the first to condemn a religious person for stating their beliefs. Look what happened to Miss California and all she did was give her opinion...something she SHOULD Be entitled to and to which apparently over 50% of the U.S population share.
Yet "South Park' makes fun of gays and people call it 'artistic' Hypocritical.
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RParmly-3
15 years ago
Sorry for the late response.
"But even if it wasn't ignored, just overshadowed as you say, can you explain WHY??? There's no shortage of media attention on a religious person who states they believe homosexuality is wrong, yet it's practically a media blackout when holllywood does it"
Because it's a JOKE. In bad taste? Sometimes, yes. But the religious right isn't making jokes, they're making actual policy recommendations. See Huckabee's "Let's take AIDS patients and isolate them from the public" and accusing homosexuals of "posing a dangerous public health risk" - and he said this in 1992, after a decade of AIDS research after which he damn well should have known better. Other policy recommendations for today include DOMA, Don't Ask Don't Tell, and forbidding gays from adopting.
None of that makes Hollywood right, but the gay rights movement had to pick their battles. I can't imagine they're happy with the Family Guy jokes, but it's considerably less important than being prevented from marrying the person you love, prevented from adopting any children, prevented from exercising your freedom even while you fight for it, or, if Mike Huckabee had had his way, being totally segregated from the general public.
I imagine that if and when the gay rights movement gets the rights it wants, it will in fact shift its focus to "soft" homophobia, the same way that after the Civil Rights Act, the civil rights movements shifted their focus from changing the law to exiling demeaning images of blacks from the public square.
Denny Crane.
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Anakin_McFly
15 years ago
imagine that if and when the gay rights movement gets the rights it wants, it will in fact shift its focus to "soft" homophobia
But I would argue that the 'soft' homophobia is a large contributor to the overall homophobia of society. The media is pervasive and very, very powerful. It's everywhere, and in a culture where such jokes are accepted and thought of as the norm, people will be ingrained with this mindset, and it will lead to or at least reinforce the decisions they make.
If the media is always driving home the ideas of gay people as targets of derision and jokes, as inferior humans, I would think it would make it much harder for the population to accept gays as regular people, and this would contribute to their unwillingness to allow things such as gay marriage. It's therefore not some sort of superficial level of homophobia, and might even be a major driving force for the more major aspects of it. The media reinforces their current homophobia and convinces them that everyone else thinks the same way and are therefore probably right. It supports the image of gays as disgusting and perverse, even in a joking way, and makes it seem more reasonable and acceptable to want to rid them from society or strip them of their rights.
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