Homophobia

[Tabouli]

Amy Z:

> The very fact that "moony-moony"* slash garners this kind of attention and shock, while 
more explicit hetero fiction doesn't, would probably prove their 
point: slash fiction hurts the franchise.  It's hypocritical for 
people to faint dead away when m/m couples walk by holding hands while 
not blinking at the sight of m/f couples sucking face, but as long as 
there is a double standard in the public, I would think that WB could 
exert a double standard in its lawsuit, public perception being the entire point.

Sighhhh.  Hypocritical is the least of it.  I get so irritated by the sort of people who prance about saying things like "I don't care if people are gay, as long as they don't flaunt it in public" about gay couples holding hands, and then dive onto the lawns with their heterosexual partner and roll about with their hands inside each other's clothing and their tongues down each other's throats.

I'm pretty strident in my equal rights stance here... I think it's abominable that gay couples risk being physically attacked for doing things in public that heterosexual couples exceed all the time.  I was in Amsterdam for the 1998 Gay Games and I was so heartened to see gay couples wandering about hand in hand as if it were the most natural things in the world (not as a nervous but defiant gesture of solidarity).

I also have a gay friend who was beaten up by a bunch of swaggering teenagers a couple of years ago because he refuses to toe the double standard line and kisses his boyfriend good-bye in public, etc., which evoked a curious mixed reaction in me.  Part of me applauds his stand on the issue, part of me thought that he was foolish to put himself at risk.  Perhaps I could reconcile the two parts by advising him to take up martial arts and give himself a fighting chance at defending himself if he plans to continue his stand... I myself did enough karate to get to brown belt and then fled because I was getting high enough in the ranks to risk serious injury every time we did combat practice (I've heard of people in hospital with ruptured spleens after black belt gradings... uurrrk, no thanks).

Tabouli.


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