AUTHOR.CALHO: If I didn't write it, I would be hitch hiking cross country to Maine and then Alaska in that order. While taking frequent breaks to spread leaflets. And sit in diners. And write on things because I wasn't at a computer. I may still do that in a few years. Writing this also helps me forget about and better understand the limitations of being human, and keeps me busy enough to allow me no free time to burn the world down.

THEMATIC.ABOUT : Collapse often. The things that hold people together and hold them apart and scatter brains. The things that make thoughts go boom. The things that ooh and aah and [expletive deleted]. Sometimes poking around the margins where responsibility ends and the only one to look to is the Original Equipment Manufacturer and say "but, I already pressed 9 for more options and the menus are exactly the same. Can you just replace it?" The answer will be: "please hold." Sometimes hanging out in dark corners. Sometimes following the train tracks. Looking for ways out and ways in and all the while sharing the things seen and heard and done and drawn and written and scorched and healed and teased and caged and dreamed along the way.

5/28/13

Sex Sells, and Tolerance Versus Promotion

Sex sells.  Everybody know's that.  America is becoming a more tolerant place, probably more tolerant than ever before when it comes to homosexuality.  It's becoming a little more tolerant when it comes to smoking weed, but that's something for another time.  Still, though, a soused conversation I had, a quick back and forth really if not for doing it through twitter drawing it out over a couple hours (if we were speaking face to face it would have been maybe a two minute conversation), brought back to mind that actual tolerance is a long way off and it's kind of annoying.

Sex does sell.  Everyday, everywhere you go, everything you watch on television, every fourth commercial on the radio, hetero sex is promoted.  It's fired into you constantly.  It can't be avoided and as a gay person I don't really have a problem with it.  Sure sometimes it gets particularly awkward or annoying when I'm hanging out with straight friends and they want me to comment and I'm completely blank faced because it has nothing to do with me or what actually tips my scales or fires me up.  For the most part though, I'll make something up or laugh or do whatever to move on and just like that, it's done and I'm fine and they're fine and the world turns on and everyone is okay.  Sex sells.  It is promotion of the hetero relationship and it's not the end of the world.  I'm tolerant.  I don't go grab pitch forks and torches and raise a mob every time some couple gets married or a guy and girl get all kissy touchy feely in front of me.  I'm okay with it and it doesn't hurt me, but I also don't go out of my way to express the fact that I could care less.

Back handed tolerance is different.  The back handed tolerance is the kind where people do go out of their way to express that "hey, whatever, I don't care, that's your business" sentiment to the point where it becomes obvious that they do care, and it does irritate them, but they are saying what they're supposed to say because they're supposed to say it because it would be a million times worse for their image and relationships with others around them if they did express whatever hate or revulsion they felt.  It's better than nothing, but when it happens it makes me want to roll my eyes, yawn, and just walk away from the crap coming out of the person's mouth.

Back handed tolerance comes in other flavors too.  It also comes in the "I'm okay with gay people, but you don't have to promote it, come on" flavor.  Which is simply silly.  If the world is to become a more tolerant place you can't say tolerance and "shut the hell up about it" in the same sentence.  That's just asinine.  Obviously there is going to be some degree of promotion.  There has to be.  Sex sells.  If sex sells you can't just say you refuse to sell to an entire segment of the population.  If you did simply black out promotion that would be pretty intolerant.  That sort of behavior would also reduce people's exposure to homosexuality as a normal thing or at least damage their ability to observe and understand it as a normal thing.  It's aggravating.  It's annoying.  And it's pretty back handed.  

What does that even mean?  To be okay with gay people, but intolerant of them talking about their lives the same way other people do because it's promoting a gay lifestyle?  Didn't America finally more or less get beyond the "is it a choice or not debate"?  What are these people even worried about?  Promoting homosexuality is not going to turn people away from heterosexuality.  It's not going to magically revolutionize someone's long held beliefs or belief system.  What are they possibly afraid of?  If anything it would make life more comfortable or normal for homosexuals.  Could you imagine seeing commercials with gay couples selling things like lawn mowers, dinners, dating websites, concerts, and credit cards.  Are these promotion haters afraid they'll see a commercial for something they like and refer to it to their straight friends and be made fun of because it was a gay commercial?  If they are, I could understand.  How hilarious would it be if the major hang up was feeling that tiny pang of discomfort I feel throughout a day, that I'm so used to it barely raises a blip in my mind most of the time.

I don't understand what the big deal is, but I do understand back handed tolerance and I do understand that sex sells.  Maybe it's not a bad thing.  It's a step in the right direction for people and I'm happy for that.  I just wish people walked a little faster.  It makes life a little more comfortable for me and people like me to at least know if someone were to openly persecute us, there would be massive support for us, not them.  It's tiring and annoying knowing that the newer intolerance is this whole anti-promo sentiment, but at least no ones telling me I'm going to straight to hell and should be killed for my sexual orientation.  Don't be scared 'merica, sometimes a little discomfort is part of life.


///Grimes - "Genesis" gots to start somewhere
at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)